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yeh... I have been slacking a bit

I do that all the time... when listing a series of descriptions. Not often with so few - in that case I'd probably join with "and".

Note, this technically implies the shoes are silk too... or that the dress is made of shoes.

Unfortunately, this could go either way depending on the story's political structure... but I'm leaning towards lowercase personally

You can get away with it using this little trick IMHO

A temporary work-around for this problem is

a) disable scripting
b) remove the offending quickee
c) re-enable scripting

a) You could have it that all weapons in your universe injure and don't kill. (kinda ew)

b) Pull a Lucas and have the gunmen have terrible aim. (Actually when you look at it. GI Joe had this problem too. So did the transformers cartoon - it wasn't until the movie that any of them actually struck a target).

c) There is killing but the camera isn't really centered on it. Kind of like Firestarter's r*pe scene. We know it occurred, but the camera never quite settles on it (admittedly, reviewers are asking me to show that moment explicitly, but I can't fathom why)

Interestingly, I've never held back on violence with intent to get to a specific rating. in Firestarter's case, the idea of suppressing it is to ensure the scene doesn't overwhelm the story. Lord of the Flies was up there for violence, but we were reading it by like age 12. Actually, I was reading Green Arrow & Black Canary kill people by grade six and look how I turned out .

Anyway, on a more serous note, it sounds like you're appplying movie ratings to literature. By that approach, watching Julius Caesar getting stabbed thirteen times by his trusted friends would never be allowed into a grade 10 reading list, and don't get me started about Romeo and Juliet's underage sex scene and subsequent double suicide.

I vote... just write the story and let readers decide the rating as pertains to their own perceptions.

-K

...and off she goes

Not me. Mostly caught up in the marketing engine. And this current series is so very hard to write

Yeah, good luck with that

I guess I'll chime in since I'm one of the perpetrators...

I don't have a fit with a POV character's eyes widen... but I will notice it every time, and if I'm noticing things it means I've been kicked out of the story.

Ah, but why did I notice it? I can't explain that easily, so let me give you a parallel example from another story here (slightly paraphrased for brevity)

Yes, you know when your nostrils flare - and sure you can even perceive it, should the nostrils in question be of sufficient diameter. However, I must ask if you've ever seen a beautiful member of the opposite gender and thought "Boy are my nostrils flaring!". If the POV character points out his reaction (be it nostrils or eyes, a tapping boot, or a ruptured spleen) I'll tend to zero in on that, which might not be the writer's intent.

But fear not... plenty of writers use this device. Remember Pippi Longstockings? IIRC her hair adjusts position depending on her level of excitement. Doesn't seem to have dented her book sales.

this summary... it's marketing text eventually destinedfor mass market? Or only for use during the search for a publisher?