title: Proper way to write and read an xml string
body: <p>I've been beating my head against this wall for quite some time now, so I thought I'd ask some experts.</p>
  
  <p>I need to send an xml string from one computer to the next.  I would like to format the xml something like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;xml&gt;
    &lt;author&gt;Joe the Magnificent&lt;/author&gt;
    &lt;title&gt;Joe Goes Home&lt;/title&gt;
  &lt;/xml&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can anyone provide some assistance?</p>
  
  <p>Edit: More detail</p>
  
  <p>I control both the send and receive, and have successfully transfered a hard coded string one-way.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the receive side:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    Dim author As String
      Dim title As String
  
      Dim xDoc As New XmlDocument
      Dim xAuthor As XmlElement
      Dim xTitle As XmlElement
  
      xDoc.LoadXml(xml)
      xAuthor = xDoc.FirstChild.Item("author")
      xTitle = xDoc.FirstChild.Item("title")
  
      author = xAuthor.FirstChild.Value
      title = xTitle.FirstChild.Value
  
      ShowMessage(author, title)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Mostly this is an exercise in learning how to do XML for me, so there's no real purpose to it other than my own knowledge.  I was kind of looking for some opinions on the best way to do such things.</p>