Lest anyone think I was being sexist in my last post, I should clarify that my relief at the idea that watching Mary Poppins was the "girls' idea" was not gender-based whatsoever. The girls in question are not related to me. So I was just relieved that my own offspring had not chosen that particular movie. (And I'm still glad about that.)

One unfortunate side effect of the Odyssey experience is that I still can't read fiction for enjoyment. I get about two paragraphs into a story before I'm reaching for a pen. "Beginning doesn't hook me. The main character – is this the main character even? – is wooden and has no motivation at all. You should kill the main character off. In fact, you should kill all of your characters. Try macrame." Critiquing … takes a bit out of a person.

Honestly, I found the critique sessions exhilarating, both when I was in the spotlight and when I was just part of the circle. There is a power in a group like that, all sixteen of us earnestly trying to give one another our best work and our best feedback. Telling one another hard truths. Quietly listening to the hard truths. Not only did it improve our writing, it bound us together.

For now I'll stick to nonfiction, though. I'm reading "Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War" and perfectly happy with the main character so far.