Courtesy of my new favorite quotation, from Dorothy Sayers’ Gaudy Night:
“[H]owever realistic the background, the novelist’s only native country is Cloud-Cuckooland, where they do but jest, poison in jest: no offense in the world.”
Indeed!
The comment is made in the context of apologizing for having arranged various bits of the historical record to suit the author’s [...]

… Do you notice titles?
The was my Big Personal Revelation for the week. As my editor and I were wracking our brains over this latest title, it occured to me that I seldom notice titles on other peoples’ books. Oh, I remember the titles– most of the time– so that’s not the issue. [...]