Meet Our Betas

1. Name or Screen Name ?
   Orange852, aka Christi

2. A brief bio ? Male/Female ? Age ? Career ? Where is home ? Married?
   Female, 35 for the second time, cellular technical support, South Florida, single with two cats.

3. Are you a writer as well as beta?
   No! I'm a WIP witch, tantalizing and torturing readers in some other fandom not related to TV.

4. Do you have a web page ? If so what is the URL ?
   No webpage.

5. Why do you like to beta ?
   So many mistakes, so little time...

6. Do you have a preference? Jim or Blair angst, any ?
   Jim, pure snark. I like stories that appreciate and develop the absurdities of life without losing sight of what really warrants seriousness. Clear as mud?

7. What kind of background do you feel is necessary to beta, or is a natural type ability ?
   Natural grasp of the language doesn't hurt. Past experience writing for a grade or money seems to help, as these betas also have a grasp of consequences. :footstomp: YES there are consequences to grammatical errors :mumble:mumble:mumble:

8. How do you feel your contributions improve the process ?
   It's one of those things that's hard to explain to anyone who has to ask.

9. Any other fandoms you beta/write/play in ?
   Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, by Laurell K. Hamilton, where I am the WIP witch. I search out and read Highlander slash, but don't really participate in the fandom. I'd wear a red shirt to a con to keep my buds happy, tho. ;)

10. Funniest part of being a beta and the hardest part of doing it ?
    Funniest: watching a writer's reaction to something they normally catch, but let slip to me. :D Hardest: the apostrophe abuse. Watching it day after day; it's really depressing.

11. A brief bibliography... please [if you write] ?
    I don't really write.

12. Do you have a favorite quote ? If so what and why ?
    No current favorite.

13. Any thing else you would like to share with your readers ?
    it's = a contraction of "it" and "is" as in "It's a beautiful day."
    its = the possessive of the neutral pronoun, as in "Its day was beautiful."
    You've been told now. Don't screw it up again.

14. Email address ?
    Write to Orange852 at Orange852@yahoo.com

1. Name or Screen Name ?
   Poledra aka Bluewolf

2. A brief bio ? Male/Female ? Age ? Career ? Where is home ? Married ?

3. Are you a writer as well as beta?
   Mostly a writer

4. Do you have a web page ? If so what is the URL ?
   See Authors Questionnaire

5. Why do you like to beta ?
   Not so much 'like' as 'fell into it' because I was a zined for many years and a good (or conscientious, anyway) zined betas her submissions. I always wanted what we printed to be at least competent.

6. Do you have a preference? Jim or Blair angst, any ?

7. What kind of background do you feel is necessary to beta, or is it a natural type ability ?
   I think you have to have a natural gift of understanding the flow of language, but you also need to have a reasonable grounding in basic grammar and punctuation. The ability to spell reasonably well doesn't hurt either.

8. How do you feel your contributions improve the process ?
   A writer can be too close to her story and leave things that she understands perfectly well underdeveloped. Sometimes things she puts in as a throwaway could do with further expansion too, but it needs a fresh eye to see that.

9. Any other fandoms you beta/write/play in ?
   See Authors Questionnaire

10. Funniest part of being a beta and the hardest part of doing it ?
    Seeing some of the mistakes that have slipped past the writer. Especially typos... As a zined, saying tactfully to a writer that her deathless prose ought to be decently buried. Seriously, writers who look for a beta are often (not always) better writers anyway than ones who don't, and I've found are always more willing to accept constructive criticism. With really poor writers though it's sometimes hard to be constructive without doing a personal rewrite.

11. A brief bibliography... please [if you write] ?
    See Authors Questionnaire

12. Do you have a favorite quote ? If so what and why ?
    See Authors Questionnaire

13. Any thing else you would like to share with your readers ?
    See Authors Questionnaire

14. Email address ?
    Write to Poledra at bluewolf@lineone.net

1. Name or Screen Name ?
   poyznelf aka Jo Ann Thompson but prefers poyznelf

2. A brief bio ? Male/Female ? Age ? Career ? Where is home ? Married ?
   I am a single 36 year old female, who lives in SE Pennsylvania, just Northeast of Philly.

3. Are you a writer as well as beta?
   Yes I do both, but I have only really written one slash snippet

4. Do you have a web page ? If so what is the URL ?
   http://members.spree.com/funngames/parpoyznelf/

5. Why do you like to beta ?
   Simply... I love getting a sneak preview. And I like to see a story progress from a rough draft to a final copy.

6. Do you have a preference? Jim or Blair angst, any ?
   Blair angst and owies are a fave.

7. What kind of background do you feel is necessary to beta, or is it a natural type ability?
   I think someone who reads A LOT will have a better idea of what is readable.

8. How do you feel your contributions improve the process ?
   Besides making sure everything looks pretty and makes sense, I feel a good beta can also offer ideas and boost confidence.

9. Any other fandoms you beta/write/play in ?
   Well I used to enjoy SW (original trilogy) slash a lot, and while I still have my zines, I have totally immersed myself in TS.

10. Funniest part of being a beta and the hardest part of doing it ?
    Catching really weird mistakes in all the stories I have read, which can also be the most frustrating because sometimes I can't believe it got by. And the hardest part is trying to beta a story for a nice person, who really has a lot of problems, without totally tearing them to shreds.

11. A brief bibliography... please [if you write] ?
    The Madness Series (gen TS) which includes the following stories in order: Descent Into Madness, Search Patterns, The Ascension, Cresting the Wave, and Left Behind. Also a numerous amount of snippets and such for Sentinelangst.

12. Do you have a favorite quote ? If so what and why ?
    A. You wouldn't like it, I just lay there. (this is the best comeback to someone who says fuck you. Totally disarms the situation, because you are putting yourself down)

    B. Non-conformity is like sex, the more you do it the better it gets. (I made this up in 11th grade. And it is still true today)

13. Any thing else you would like to share with your readers ?
    I just want you to know how much I enjoy what you write. I am a lazy LoC'er but the hours of entertainment are very much appreciated. Thank you.

14. Email address ?
    Write to Poyznelf at poyznelf@enter.net

1. Name or Screen Name ?
   Winds-of-Dawn

2. A brief bio ? Male/Female ? Age ? Career ? Where is home ? Married ?
   ----------

3. Are you a writer as well as beta?
   yup

4. Do you have a web page ? If so what is the URL ?
   See the writer survey. :)

5. Why do you like to beta ?
   Do I *like* to beta? I'm not sure. It's almost a compulsion. I just do it.

6. Do you have a preference? Jim or Blair angst, any ?
   Somebody said if you hurt Blair you hurt Jim. And actually, the reverse is true, too. So most angst stories are both Jim and Blair angst, unless it's one of those stories where they aren't talking to each other -- or they are being told from exclusively one point of view. Hmmmm, the more I think about it, the more I don't care whose angst it is, as long as it's done well. But I also like everyday type stories, and happy happy joy joy type stories.

7. What kind of background do you feel is necessary to beta, or is it a natural type ability ?
   Can't speak for anybody else, but I've been raised since an early age to analyze everything. I suppose to a certain extent it's a natural ability, like for instance some people are more athletic than others.

8. How do you feel your contributions improve the process ?
   Well, I really enjoy it when my suggestions actually help make the writer I'm working with better, if the writer takes the suggestions and comments I made on one story and apply it to the next story she writes.

9. Any other fandoms you beta/write/play in ?
   Do not beta in any other fandom, mentioned some other fandoms I read in the writer's survey.

10. Funniest part of being a beta and the hardest part of doing it ?
    Well, I've ended up joking with my authors about ideas for their stories, funny goofs that they made, that kind of stuff. Hardest part is getting a story for beta that doesn't spark my interest -- it's almost impossible to work with a story as a beta unless I'm excited about it in some way.

11. A brief bibliography... please [if you write] ?
    See writer survey.

12. Do you have a favorite quote ? If so what and why ?
    Same as above.

13. Any thing else you would like to share with your readers ?

14. Email address ?
    Write to Winds-of-Dawn at wod@squidge.org

1. Name or Screen Name ?
   Zerena Rae

2. A brief bio ? Male/Female ? Age ? Career ? Where is home ? Married ?
   40-something divorced office manager living in NC

3. Are you a writer as well as beta?
   No way. You writer, me beta.

4. Do you have a web page ? If so what is the URL ?
   No need. I have nothing to say.

5. Why do you like to beta ?
   I want to help improve the best stories. I want to free up the writers to write and leave the correcting to me. I love it when stories come to me full of little misspellings, missing words, and silly little errors because the writer's mind was going faster than her fingers could keep up.

6. Do you have a preference? Jim or Blair angst, any ?
   No

7. What kind of background do you feel is necessary to beta, or is a natural type ability ?
   Mine must be natural ability. I have trouble explaining *why* something is wrong, it just is.

8. How do you feel your contributions improve the process?
   Errors can knock the reader out of the moment. I try to eliminate errors.

9. Any other fandoms you beta/write/play in ?
   Most of my writers write mostly TS but when they venture out I go with them. There has been some Highlander, some Due South, and some OC. One writes for Nifty and ASSGM. I had to explain slash to him.

10. Funniest part of being a beta and the hardest part of doing it ?
    Some of the accidents are hilarious. It was hard to send back a story once unbetaed because I couldn't make any sense of it.

11. A brief bibliography... please [if you write] ?
    I do NOT write. Nope, not me.

12. Do you have a favorite quote ? If so what and why ?
    Let me think about that one for a while.

13. Any thing else you would like to share with your readers ?
    I agree with what Christi said about grammar in several questions.

14. Email address ?
    Write to Zerena at zerena@mindspring.com