I do believe that favorite characters are rare, and every book doesn't necessarily contain one. I can think of many books I've read which I greatly enjoyed, but none of the characters really stuck with me. - Not that I want my stories to read as such, but it is somewhat encouraging to recall!

This is a good point--certainly not every book I read or TV show or movie I watch has inspired me to go join a fandom, and that doesn't mean those things didn't have good characters; just not ones that particularly resonated with me, and you're right, it's a lot like friends vs. acquaintances in that way, really. You can't go around expecting everyone you meet to be a bosom friend, but that person is probably someone else's bosom friend; I may not care much for a character, but chances are someone else has written fanfic about them.

I do my creative works close to the chest, never letting anyone see them until they're finished. I guess I do need to start biting the bullet and putting myself at least a little more out there in that regard. I love concrit, so I'm not sure why I'm so shy like that.

I almost can't function without having a friend read my stuff as I'm working on it. That's why these fandom connections are so valuable to me.

I do think about one of your characters after the fact, btw. John was his name, right? I should confess that not too long ago, I tried to track down that partial novel you put up a couple years ago, not really expecting it to still be up but crossing my fingers nonetheless. ;)

OMG, really? That is so sweet. I pulled it off Authonomy because I decided the site was kind of worthless, and I'm not sure if I'll ever do the revisions necessary to make it a publishable book. But that's really really lovely to know. You just made my life. :D

Maybe since I'm not really thinking of doing anything with it in the future, I'll think about sharing the rest of it on LJ...We shall see!