Let's give 'em something to blog about....how about love? Love? Love!

Happy Monday to YOU! Missing that hour yet? I am! I didn't believe my alarm when it went off this morning - since it was still so dark outside and all. I worked in the yard this weekend. I picked up something and it had little pricklies in in...one of those plants where the pricklies are unseen until you touch them. Now my left hand is ouchy, and I can't see the shards of prickly to pull them out because they are microscopic. I won't talk about the splotches on my arm from trimming back the Sago Palms, or the huge welt on the back of my leg from whatever has bitten me. I also won't talk about the baby snakes that made me scream like a little boy either...


What I do want to talk about is love. In your stories. I let someone read something I had written for my WIP and it brought up a good topic for discussion. I had written an "a-ha" moment and my friend said something that implied that maybe it was too soon to use the word "love", or "in love with". She's totally right here, which is why she's my beta reader / crit buddy -- she's truly the voice of reason. Would my MC be able to say that they loved this person so soon? The one point we agree on is how "love" is tossed around very genorously in most YA novels. Not that I have a problem with that...

So this brings me to the question of the day. Do you think a character can say that she/he "loves" another character before they've really are together? Get your mind out of the gutters...I just mean together as in they've finally gotten together. Seriously - when is it ok to use "love"? Your thoughts?