Yesterday my granddaughter called midday pick her up and take her home, since she was not feeling well. And of course, I stopped what I was doing (reading a client manuscript) and dashed to get her.

It’s a whole process these days, of course. You push a button to state who you are before being buzzed in and then sign your child out in the office.

Which is where Liv sat with her nose buried in a book. I had to nudge her to get to notice I was there.

She said hi and then continued reading as we walked to the car. As we buckled up, I noticed she had an armful of books in her arms. I was struck by how much the covers of her YA books looked like the covers of the women’s fiction books I love.

As Liv was showing them to me, she read the back cover of the next in the series. And was almost giddy with delight that some of the secondary characters in her current read were the stars of the next book.

Her reaction tickled me no end. Authors—isn’t this how we all want our readers to feel about our characters? Even secondary characters so rich that they get immediate recognition and excitement.