Chapter 2 of The Heart's Landscape

[tocryabout]

Chapter 2, The Seat Is Empty, His Place Does Not Know Him, is up. [Read from the beginning]

Note that there's a glossary, if the French snippets give you any difficulty. (I often read books by Americans that are plumped full of Spanish phrases that I am apparently supposed to understand, and it bugs me, so I am trying to Help the Reader.)

Reminder to my secret undercover non-LJ readers that anonymous comments are allowed on this journal now, so even if you don't have an account you can leave feedback or ask a question.

Comments

[brownbetty]

I tend to save yours, rather than read them right away. I love the centrality of religion in Joel's life, the way he loves the Church even though she's got a lot of warts, and the way everyone in his life thinks he's sort of odd about that.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that's working for you. Just to defend myself ahead of time from any charges of "authorial insert", Joel's issues with the Church aren't the same as mine; I have problems with authority and the sexual teachings, and that's not really what's concerning him. But that'll come up in future chapters.

I'm in one of those moods where I'm constantly defending myself against the academic critic in my head. "I am not Othering my non-white characters! Shut up!"

[brownbetty]

I didn't mean to sound like I was accusing you of anything. I don't think it's possible to write a Mary Sue in this story.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

Oh no, it's just one of the things I worry about, so I thought I would throw it out there. Me = insecure. I think I'm safe from writing silver-eyed lovechildren of Magneto, but I do try to keep from writing thinly disguised versions of myself.