My "heroine" in "Catching On Fire" (by Sue Knott) has, ahem, large breasts. I am afflicted by the same overabundance. (They say "write what you know.") I have experienced a life of self-conscious discomfort, physical discomfort and unwanted attention of the worst kind. (Trust me, ogglers of large breasts are never gentelmen.)

While I don't want to minimize the trauma of people with deformities, to me, having oversized breasts has seemed as close to being deformed as you can get without having an actual deformity. People with big noses may feel the same way. And while I don't see a problem with their big noses, I can appreciate that they may feel traumatized by it and their feelings are real to them even if they seem unneccessary to me.

Anyway, the point I wanted to make before I wandered off (as I so often do) is that I am rather surprised by the readers who hate the element of the breast issue in my novel. While they are a minority (perhaps 20% or less), they are definitely of the same mind.

I didn't think I even made that much of a deal of the issue in the novel. I established it as a way to understand the character's wariness of men and to help the reader get into her skin and feel her self-consciousness, then I pretty much let it slide. Yet, there is this vocal minority that feels no sympathy for the character's cleavage problem and can't stand the fact that it's part of the book.

As a woman, I'm rather shocked that there are women who are so insensitive to this most female of issues. I know you can't please everyone, but I'm surprised how easy it is to rile this group.