The Banana republic link is not resolving and leads to a page not found message.

Thanks, guys. I fixed the link in the post. Looks like he reported the original piece with a new URL instead of editing it in place.

Yikes, the questions you ask!

So, without realizing it, for a long time my perceptions of coast were simply that water should be east of one.

Then I moved to California, and the water was all on the wrong side.

And then I moved to Texas -- Clear Lake region of Houston, to be exact -- and water somehow became life-threatening at worst, house-damaging at best.

For better or worse, my life now seems defined by the Gulf Coast. I now live in a world where not just hurricanes, but simple rainstorms seem to be life-changing or life-threatening. It takes some getting used to.

If life and careers had no bearing, I now think Colorago might be a good choice. In some ways, I don't want to be land-locked. In other ways, I really, really want to be.

Heh - I grew up in California, so upon visiting the East Coast for the first time was fascinated seeing the ocean on the wrong side. Then I started college at UC Santa Cruz, where you could look out window and see the Pacific due SOUTH (Monterey Bay). Very confusticating!

The "Writeprint" one is interesting. My husband has used something similar to prove that trolls/gits/etc on Wikipedia are often the same person and their socks.

"I don't necessarily agree with everything in this article, but it's interesting reading."

I'd be curious to know what you disagree with! I don't claim those are iron-clad rules, merely good guidelines for starting writers, but if you think I'm off somewhere I'd like to know so I can at least consider.

More to be said another time, but basically it's not so much that I thought you were wrong on specific points so much as the points you made are elastic with respect to a writer's career arc and market recognition. Barry Longyear's "Silent Her" is my favorite example of this.

Pacific or Mediterranean.