Hard and fast rules are extremely restrictive. I enjoy reading women writers, but have constantly chafed with She Wrote What? because the nature of the project locks me into a certain number of female writers. I am the last one who is ever going to argue for quotas after 2012.

It's my FedEx arrow analogy I love so much; once you put a rule to just think about it, it really opens your eyes. That happened to me in 2007 when my ratio was pretty dismal and mortifying. I may adopt something like your guideline post-project.

Or I may fail out of books and read nothing but Avengers fanfic where Steve and Tony make out a lot. You know me.