And of course, some women, including the lovely Brigitta Svendsen, would be prepared to argue for his humanity *always* having been vestigial. I don't agree, naturally. But it is the human part of him that interests me...that he is not thinking sire/childe even as he thinks of sucking on Kay...he is mostly picturing her dressed like in Dopplegangland, which I'm sorry more Homicide fans will not be able to picture.

Hmm.

You know, I've got this lovely, generous line edit beta in my inbox, which I greatly appreciate because I wanted someone to pick at my prose and the other folks I had look at the story really didn't.

The problem is, I almost universally disagree with her advice. Thoughtfully disagree, I don't think I'm being kneejerk. So, you know, my story, my rules, but. I feel a little guilty. Oh well.

BTDT. It sucks. I did a stupid thing...I let myself get offended. Is there anything at all you can use? Even if not, telling them thanks but "You're going in a different direction..." should ease the guilt. "You've given me a lot to think about," is good too. Even if it's that she blows goats.

Heh. Katie, always A Moment when that happens, and you find yourself 180 degrees from the person doing the readthrough. Hasn't happened to me in years, luckily.

edit:

"You've given me a lot to think about," is good too. Even if it's that she blows goats.

(beaming at snarky internet wife)

Oh, I'm not offended - I mean, I can see what she's trying to do. (And it's not an *overwhelming* number of suggestions.) I'm not even saying she's coming up with things that are wrong. I just... disagree, which leaves me feeling a little ungrateful.

She's a big girl and can cope, though. I'm just kind of entertained by the extent to which I keep looking at word choice/sentence structure/etc. suggestions, trying them, and then saying "nope. Not me."

Very last of the crossover open on Sunday challenges. Jossiverse and West Wing.

Haunted Ground

There have been noises coming from the Lincoln Bedroom for a long time. They're legendary, in fact; Jed Bartlett reminds himself of this as he stands on the plush carpet, willing his hand to throw the door open. His hand isn't cooperating.

The Lincoln Bedroom is haunted. Guests have seen ghosts. Bartlett's predecessors - FDR, wasn't it? - have seen ghosts.

He wants to see a ghost. But he's standing there, shivering like a puppy, afraid to touch the brass hardware.

Behind the door, Spike grins sourly, and turns to Dru. "Leader of the Free World," he mutters, "my arse."

And because someone in the lj readership wanted it, I wrote a prequel, with West Wing's Lord John Marbury (Roger Rees).

Invitation to the Lincoln Bedroom

The girl in the old-fashioned dress and the preposterous shoes caught his eye before she was halfway through the door of the bar.

The odd thing, Lord John thought, was that no one else seemed to notice her. Black cloudy hair, long oval face that hinted at all sorts of sin, Victorian pallor - Eliza Doolittle in Manolo Blahniks. Her name, she said, was Drusilla.

He bought her a bloody Mary. After ten minutes of mounting arousal, he did something unusual for him.

"Tell me," he asked, "would you like to see the White House? I'm resident there right now."

Well, THAT took months.

But, 6000+ more words of Sunrise are up.

From Her Sunrise to Clockwise (the story from the beginning)
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I almost universally disagree with her advice. Thoughtfully disagree, I don't think I'm being kneejerk. So, you know, my story, my rules, but. I feel a little guilty. Oh well.

"Oh well" is the right response. When I've beta'ed, I've done it with the understanding that any and all of my edits might be ignored. I do it because I like seeing stories in progress and helping to shape them, not because I know the One True Way to write. If they're substantial edits, you might want to explain to the beta why you aren't adopting them, but it's by no means a must.

I've always figured mine are suggestions. It startled me the first time someone wrote and explained why they weren't using it. Because you don't want to is a good enough reason for me.