Hallo. Hope you are well and still enjoy writing as much as I enjoy reading your works. Some time ago now you were kind enough to recommend an agent that may be interested in medieval militaria novels (Anita Molly) and I sent off my own great work to her. While rejecting the book, she did make the effort to point out the major flaw in it being a lack of sympathy evoked for the hero. Obviously I resolved to work at this and study ways to improve the book but somehow I got married and had a couple of kids instead and time passed etc etc. Anyway to get to the point: I recently have returned to writing and posted my work to one of those internet sites for writers as I saw it as a good way to gather feedback to refine the books. I was wondering how far you regard others opinions of your work when creating a book? Do you show it to as many people as possible or keep it hidden til finished? And should you take all (constructive) criticism into account or try to use judgement? e.g: This probably sounds really generic (and probably sexist), but Ive noticed that a lot of women seem to be more interested in sympathy, empathy and the emotions of the central character, but then the primary market for a medieval military adventure story (I imagine) is probably blokes, who seem more interested in the action. Also (if you are still reading) have you any tips/rules of thumb on the whole Show dont tell side of writing? Given that any historical novel is bound to have a lot of obscure detail that if not explained could leave the reader scratching their head, where is it safe to draw the line? Sorry for going on a bit and thanks for any advice you can give. Regards Tim