Thank you for your many and varied responses. Yesterday my mailbox was replete with emails, Facebook notes and comments ranging from "what the *&#% does 'pithy' mean?" to "the word 'replete' is stuffy" to "a love story, worthy of the ages," to "a tender and beckoning tale." Tender~ ooooooohhhhh, I like that word.
Wow! What a range.
Some suggested that the preceding paragraphs of the back cover made it clear that this was a story of human emotions and behavior, so no need to reference our common humanity with the ancients (a reader-suggested word).
One comment about "mysterious" almost inspired me to go back and write another chapter, centering on the village reaction to... let's see... the simultaneous events of an eclipse of the sun, fertility rites, and the discovery of a jawbone from a moose. The coincidental collision of forces, or was it intentional? -- but I stopped myself from writing... mysteriously.
Others of you suggested eliminating the phrase "human nature" and substituting things like "human experience," "humanity," "full of ...". Most were in agreement to drop the word "replete" which was the thing probably stymieing me, although "fraught" was a tempting substitution from a Dear Reader.
A few urged simpler language and more sparse wording, adhering to Mark Twain's grammatical advice when writing to shoot most adjectives and adverbs on sight, reserving them for an impactful moment. Although, the "complexity" suggestion made me want to use that word some place in the final line.
So, putting all of your wonderful advice together, I chose straightforward, unmodified brevity:
"Great Heats" – a novel of historic fiction, rich in detail and human experience.
THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!
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