Random bits...

Thanks for the kind comments - little mystery man is back on his feet, so to speak. I'm not getting the uber pout all day and he only cries when I try to put him down or give him to someone else which is par for the course.

In other news... I've decided that my work in progress works better as a young adult novel, so I've been throwing myself into young adult literature.

Here are somethings I've learned:

There are a LOT of books told from the first person POV of a young girl in high school. I do enjoy these, even though I didn't really enjoy being a young girl in high school. Go figure! Also, each one of these builds it's world a bit, just like a fantasy novel might. Typically we see the girl deal with boys, alcohol, her parents, and school, and each book sets a "danger zone" differently. For instance, I read one where the girls were deeply traumatized by doing more with the opposite sex than they felt good about. Then, I pick up the next one and the girl gets a date with the basketball star and she's making out with him and I get nervous for her, but nope, in this book, she's totally fine. It's her stepmom that's the problem. I just think it's interesting how the walls shift based on the author's perspective and the character in question. And it's a good reason to talk to your girls about this stuff early, because if they try to figure it out from books, they're going to get really confused!

I also find that YA is a really broad field. I've read some historical fiction, some fantasy (both urban and traditional) and I like the straightforward way the story is told. Anyway, here's hoping that it's the right medium for the story I'm trying to tell. I think it is. I just don't have the stomach for the gritty noir that I was trying to write. I kept finding that I didn't want to let my mind go there, and it really does need to be able to live in the story world for a while.

Also - I just saw the opening for Top Chef season four. Ah, I've missed Tom and Padma!

My favorite guy right now is probably Andrew for sheer entertainment value. He's no Sam, but he'll be fun to watch for entirely different reasons!