it took gwen all of twenty micro seconds to process what laleh had said , and roger wasnt far behind her , and they looked at each other and smiled , and then smiled at shim , who unfortunately wasnt as swift at processing the situation , him being a writer , and also somewhat distracted by what laleh had said about all novels needing to have conflict in them , that being a new concept to him , which maybe explained the lukewarm sales of his previous books .