Yucky book: The theme is someone is “forced” to do something that eventually makes her very happy, but she doesn't want to be doing it at the time. It upset me so much that, even though I knew the ending was happy, I had to quit reading about chapter three and skip to the last two chapters in order to offset the tension. — I hate it when people “make” you do things. Even if it's for your own good. Even if it turns out well.

My book: I'm upstairs working out with my weights and I realize that my story is very much that sort of thing. Dielli is perfectly happy being a normal nine year old girl with a fanatic grandmother who loves her. She likes helping out with her little sister, even though sis is faster than she is. She likes learning things. In fact, she's just loving all the learning she's having to do. She's looking forward to learning to be a caravan merchant, when she's old enough to be apprenticed.

Then, she gets a true dream. She has to act on it to save her uncle and friends. She does. They're safe. Then her grama says “the priests might take you away” and scares the bejeezers out of the poor girl. She has another dream. This time she's sure she's going to get found out, but she acts on the dream anyway. Saves the local wheat crop. (Also a major religious symbol.)

Originally I wanted everyone to think she was a demon or something. You know, she's causing all this by dreaming it. I still think there will be a bit of that, but my husband hated it. “You fantasy people always want to throw in how people think the character's a demon.” (Now I've never read a fantasy novel like that, but maybe he did before he gave them up. But I fixed it anyway.)

Now one person and his family believe she's causing it. Some of the other city folk avoid her because she might know stuff about them. Others come up and ask her opinion on stuff she doesn't know anything about. They take her suggestions and when they don't turn out, then they turn against her.

She eventually has to “hide” by going into the temple as an apprentice priest. So, she starts out perfectly happy and ends up terrified and exactly where she was afraid the dreams would send her.

Things do get better, after someone almost gets killed, several people do get killed, the city thinks they're being invaded, and various small disasters like that.

Last line of this section: Dielli went home a prophet, determined to be a caravan merchant.