Thank you, that exactly explains what I like and don't like about Lackey's books. I'll have to get Alta out from the library at some point.

Have you ever read The Interior Life? You might like it--it's half about a somewhat bored housewife dealing with various daily life issues, and half about the fantasy kingdom she invents to think about while doing housework. When I reread, I mostly skip the fantasy segments because I like the real world parts better. The one annoying bit is that there's one scene where a minor character makes an offensive remark about homosexuality, and I've never figured out why that came up, because it's pretty much unrelated to the rest of that scene or the book.