Lynn, How is our author of the month? Hope that doesn't go to your head. LOL. Actually, let it go to your head for a few weeks at least!

Seriously, I was so sorry to hear about your cousin. How tragic. But it does sound to me that your spirituality affects both the material that you choose to read and the way in which you choose to write. After all, you said that you altered her vocabulary and that you think Sting is more spiritual because he doesn't swear (I inferred that from what you said.)

I don't know. Swearing is a funny thing. I often wonder who deemed all those words to be "bad" in the first place. They're just words. I grew up in New Jersey and everyone I knew swore except for the parents. I've been living in Ontario for 15 years and most of the people that I know don't swear with the exception of certain groups. But I swear all the time -- I'm just very conscious of what I say and where I say it.

There are certain words that I use with friends but I would never use in public. But when it gets down to writing, I'm looking for realistic dialogue and concise, accurate terms. Sometimes a four letter word is the ONLY word that works in order to convey anger or emphasis. But I have ambivalence about using them because I also don't want to offend people. However, I have decided to go with my gut feeling, which is that I want to create characters that feel like real people to me.

Always nice talking to you, Sigrid