Well, I'm not embarrassed of the characters, just the story. I love Anne and her friends to death. They're the first characters who ever spoke to me, they'll always hold a special place in my heart, and I do have big plans for them. But the novel itself was my first attempt to write anything longer than a short story, and it shows. The plotline is weak and muddled; the story meanders from one direction to the other; elements disappear halfway through because I realized that they weren't what I wanted; the rules of the world are unclear and uncertain.

Finally, the overarching plot just felt wrong to me, and it kept right on feeling wrong the longer I worked on it. This may not be readily apparent, because I never quite got to said flaws in the completed chapters. But trust me, they were there, and they would have shown up, big time.

By contrast, I believe that Belle is a stronger story, even if its characters are not quite as complex. The plot is simpler, I know where I'm going, and I'm not trying to tell a huge, multi-volume epic. And I'm not trying to adapt an American voice to a British style. Seriously, sometimes, I felt like I was writing on eggshells.

But I'll go ahead and post them, anyway. Like I said, I love Anne and company very much. Maybe I'm being to harsh on their story as it stands. *Shrug*