Are the tablets flakey, soft, mottled, smelly, or discoloured?

No, no, no, no, and no.

Please say yes, as I took one half an hour ago and don't wish to induce emesis.

Why people don't ask before they ingest shit I'll never know.

Because I was OUT OF MY MIND with pain today.

It won't hurt you. Might not work, but it won't hurt you.

Then at best the pain gets dulled, and at worst I'm exactly where I am now. My kind of odds.

Bev, you're quite right. Off to fix. Which is why I am BEGGING for a beta reader or two, once it's done? From top to tail? I know it's long (it'already at 9000 words and it isn't done), but please? Someone?

mmmmmmm.....wooooooorms.....

Bev, it starts here Elena "Bitchy Fic: It Could Be Plot Bunnies" Feb 26, 2003 12:25:16 am EST

By the way, does anyone have any title suggestions? I was thinking 'Unceremonious' or 'Unceremoniously' because it's remixed from a story called 'Ceremony'.

Thanks, Elena. Bookmarked.

Now. I have a question. This is me in the front row with my hand waving wildly to be Deb's beta...but.

Exactly what does a beta reader do? I'm a kickass editor, and a good line-editor. But I've never really grokked "beta reading." Someone please 'splain.

Elena, maybe "lack of Ceremony"?

Bev, basically what you did for me on Famous Flower and are now doing for Matty Groves, but with a bit more indepth immediacy. basically, it's the pre-release readover.

Some betas are good with the grammar and the spotting of tense switches and typos and awkward sentences and stuff. And some concentrate on characters, the right voice, the right action, consistency and stuff. And some just like to see the good fic before anyone else...

And, sometimes, it's all of the above and more.

What Elena said.

Bev's been a beta-editor for the integrity of the humanity and scare factors for the last two books. juliana has been beta reading both novels. Betsy did costume advice and other beta stuff on "Weaver". All are thanked on the acknowlegements page of the books.

This might should go to email, but your stuff is always so close to finished there doesn't seem to be much I can tell you, Deb. The nitpicky word choice, typo, punctuation.

I tend not to mention content, especially reading in sections. Unless it veers wildly into the no-way-Jose territory, I figure content is the writer's bailiwick, and I really reserve opinion till I read the whole thing.

Is that adequate? Or do you want someone more upfront about content? Anyone?

Well, in the novels, it's exactly as you called it: the content is there, and I don't do first drafts, essentially my stuff is complete, but I need it for flow and pacing and to get touchstones for what works and what doesn't.

But these are my maiden forays into fanfic, so I'd love a closer eye by person or persons more familiar with how they meld into the existing canon.

Sure, okay, I can understand that. But keep posting it here, okay? I have to know what happens/ed next!