title: Writing the Other (Conversation Pieces Volume 8)
author:  Cynthia Ward 
description: The exercises, developed from workshops the authors have conducted, reward writers with learning more about developing characters including those who are ''just like'' themselves and understanding past and present stereotypes. --Paula Guran, Writers.com Newsletter<br /><br />This book can help interested writers develop characters to exhibit the complexity of the human experience (and, since we're talking genre here, multifaceted non-human experiences as well)[...] What I like best about this book is that Shawl and Ward encourage people to acknowledge their fears and concerns, but also to try anyway. --Broad Universe, November 2007<br /><br />Just raising awareness about this writing challenge is a literary service[...]Such exercises clearly help flex writerly muscles. --Seattle Times, February 3, 2006
zlib_text: THE STORY OF
  
  SON
  
  by
  
  J.R. Ward
  
  For my family,
  
  both those of blood and choice,
  
  with all my love.
  
  1
  
  Claire Stroughton palmed her travel mug without looking up from the will she'd
  drafted and was reviewing. "I hate when you do that."
  
  Claire glanced across her office at her executive assistant. "Do what?"
  
  "That heat-seeking missile routine with your coffee."
  
  "My mug and I have a very close relationship."
  
  Martha pushed her sleek glasses up on her nose. "Then good thing it's got a
  lid. You're going to be late for your five o'clock if you don't leave now."
  
  Claire stood and pulled on her suit jacket. "How bad's the time?"
  
  "Two twenty-nine. Drive to Caldwell is a minimum of two hours plus in this
  traffic and your car is waiting for you down in front. Your conference call
  with London is scheduled for sixteen. . . fifteen minutes from now. What kind
  of cleanup do you need me to do before the long weekend?"
  
  "I've reviewed the revised merger documents for Technitron and I'm not
  impres