That absolutely makes sense! How many of us have absolute experience with magic and dragons! ;-)

Thanks for the advice - as it happens the American Football is fairly peripheral, and a good friend helped me out with some useful details back in the day, so that bit won't be getting edited out! ;-) The sequel doesn't rely on the sports thing at all, thankfully (esp. since I have very little interest!). And you're so right about the emotional aspect - I often get caught up in my characters' emotions, so that definitely helps.

I can totally relate on the not wanting to do setting descriptions, but some of course are necessary, especially when your universe is not the world we actually reside in. Sneaking in details where you can is absolutely the better way to do it. I feel like all the best books do it that way; I just wish I was better at it myself!

Your one-off was very well done, and definitely atmospheric. Great stuff! ;-)