Are you a first-name user from the get-go? Or do you still use an honorific with a person you don't know well?
I adore a good honorific; when I write, for my work, about someone specific, I tend to first use their full name in a post and then call them Ms. Smith or Mr. Green for the remainder of the piece.
And a woman I love and have known for most of my life is still a Mrs. to me; she has never asked me to use her first name and I respect that. She's a person I can talk to about a lot, so the honorific isn't always distancing or formal, in my mind.
If you've read "Redwoodian," this probably won't come as a surprise to you, that I lean this way; Ms. and Miss both come into play throughout the book.
What's your take? Is it too fusty and old-fashioned or is it simply a polite courtesy? Or, in Gomery's case, a bit of a flirtation?
Oh, and a quick PS: I've received some wonderful emails addressed to Ms. Painter via this site. That makes my honorific-happy heart flutter, but I am well and truly just Alysia. :)
