Glad you found your way to this post. And sorry for this late reply. I’ve been totally bulldozed by my deadline.

Meredith Duran has been saving the world in a cape made from pages of the Oxford English Dictionary, that’s where she has been all your life.

Lol, the novella. Let’s worry about when it will be published when it’s been finished for shopping around.

And I’m excited to discover this excerpt from your SF novella; when will it be published?

Thanks. Glad the post was of some use to you.

I’m actually not a very analytical reader myself. I much prefer to just get sucked in and pulled along and emerge at last with a “Phew” of happiness. When I write, I also don’t think very hard along technical lines. And as I noted in the post, this particular insight actually came from Janine.

I think Janine might say I did pretty well in setting up this conflict.

Yes, I do think you did a great job.

I was watching Charlie Rose last night and he was interviewing the French actress Juliette Binoche, and asking about the different men she had been involved with. Binoche made a very astute comments that relates to this discussion, and since I’ve found the transcript online,here I’ll quote from the relevant part.

JULIETTE BINOCHE: No, no, but what I wanted to say, actually, is it`s about, in a couple, is that you actually — why do we go back to it is that it reaches an intimacy that it doesn`t reach in an another relationship where there`s not, let`s say a physical relationship or intimate relationship.

And I think that each time we go back to it, because there`s a sort of interaction inside ourselves that we can only reach because of the other. That`s what I believe.

And it`s actually more about being in touch with the depth of
ourselves or the hidden place of ourselves that we want so much to be with the other, because I don`t think it`s about the other. Do you see what I’m saying?

CHARLIE ROSE: It`s your own what?

JULIETTE BINOCHE: It`s because you get in touch with places that you`ve never been in touch with before you met the person. So that`s why it`s unbearable sometimes, that`s why it`s so wonderful sometimes, that why it`s — because you`re reaching different spaces inside you.

The whole interview was great BTW, but this particular comment really resonated with me because I think it’s so true, and part of what makes the best romances so good.

I’m not a creative or romance writer but I learned something from your Chemistry 101 post, thanks. I’m very selective about what I read and when I read historical romances, I really don’t analyze them — I just enjoy the story and the characters and I love it when romances make me teary-eyed. But I’ll probably be more mindful about certain elements next time.

By the way, thanks for answering my question on Romantic Crush Junkies! Chinese Moms are the best! And I’m glad you’re not writing about the Cultural Revolution!