Question: I found your comment about how you are attracted to writing young women who have accomplished something great but at immeasurable cost very interesting. Do you have examples of this archetype outside of your writing? Is there characters in novels or films you've experienced that you might say, "Like this, here" with? Or historical figures or people in your own life, if that's not too personal. Your description made me think of Barbara Newhall Follett.
Also, do you write and publish poetry outside of Miz now? I'm always a bit embarrassed at what will happen when a grader has to read my little snatches of verse, knowing that you're trained to do so has me a bit more nervous now .
Finally, I was very interested in hearing about the Akvatari keeping a good section on history in the library. Aside from the existentialist relationship with divinity, what do you feel the uncomfortable emptiness of the Akvatari past does to them as a culture? Usually a rich and well recorded history (either in writing or orally) is such a precursor to a rich and vibrant artistic life in a culture (at least I think so, I'd be interested in counterexamples), and the Akvatari do not have that. That tension is really fascinating to me.