I’m only going to link to one this time: Compelling Women Who Kick Ass: Child of Fire by Harry Connolly written by Casey Lybrand.

I really enjoyed reading that review (and not just because it’s positive). It hits on a number of things I tried to do in the book, and also on ways that I know the book falls short. It’s also interesting in the way that a reader’s completely reasonable perception of a character can be so different from what I intended. There are still a lot of lessons to learn.

I’m also unsure if I should respond, and if so, how. I don’t want to be defensive, because the book has to stand for itself. I don’t want to talk about “Dumbledores” because if the author is the only one who knows a particular character is gay then does that even count[1]?

I don’t even know.

But this review touches on something that I’ve been trying to focus on: it’s easy to populate books with tv/movie types–good-looking folks who are pleasant to look at. I know why they cast roles that way, and I don’t blame them. I like looking at pretty people the same as anyone else.

There’s no reason to do that in a book, though. In books, you can “cast” a fat person in that dignified role as easily as a model, and you can include older folks, or whatever. You can show a truer representation of the world, because you’re working with words instead of faces.

But I’m not really sure how to talk about that.

[1] Toward a more accurate representation of the world, I mean.