I was reading your review and thinking about what you said regarding sexuality after rape. It also squicks me but from Angel I can buy it as a character trait. For all his ensouled glory Angel is a vampire and for the Buffyverse vampires violence and depravity are turn-ons. He should be repulsed by his own attractions though because of the whole I have a soul angst. It is the same reason I can buy Spike falling for Buffy this season, he has always been fascinated by slayers and she beats him up and verbally abuses him - standard vampire courtship as far as I can tell.

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I do, however, disagree that writing original fiction is more fun or somehow more creative. I've done both orginial and fan. I don't see much difference. As an example, my other hobby is mules. I spend just as much time, money and effort, riding and training my mules, as people do their show horses. I will never win the Kentucky Derby or the American Invitational. I won't go the Shetland Nationals or AQHA Congress. I won't make money on breeding or sales. What I will do is ride to the best of mine and my mule's ability. I'll experience other riders pleasant company, the beautiful countryside, the knowledge that I'm doing the best I can and the fun of doing something I enjoy.

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...wouldn't any serious writer take a look at the best in the field? In this case, essays about fanfic? You don't want to reinvent the wheel. You certainly don't want to try to reinvent the wheel and end up inventing the boulder.

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You know, I really can't stand to eat liver, so I don't go get me some, cook it up, eat it, then complain about how bad it was. Know what I mean?

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If you want to critique any of my fanfiction, please feel free to do so. In fact I would welcome your critique; as I said earlier, I have been begging for good constructive criticism for forever it seems. My stories can be found at my webpages: xxx and xxx. Public critique? Private? Either or. I've been raked over the coals by professional editors, so I'm used to being torn to shreds ;-).

Exactly - Jane

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I visited your CABS website, and would like to point out a minor error to you in your general writing tips section:

"Punctuation goes inside the quotations. Always. It really doesn't get any simpler than that."

Sorry, but as a typesetter, I know that's incorrect. It sure looks nicer that way, but, to quote the Chicago Manual of Style (an accepted authority on such matters)...

"Periods should be placed within the quotations marks except when single quotation marks are used to set off special terms. ..." (page 134, section 5.10)

Examples:

Emerson replied nervously, "There is no reason to inform the president."

He had not defined the term 'categorical imperative'.

So, it's not a case of "always." (that was a double quotation mark)

I like to use Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, which is also an accepted authority on such matters, because style books vary from country to country and region to region - Chicago, Canadian Press, etc. I forgot about when a quotation is preceded by an attributive phrase, like in your example. My knowledge of the English language still shows that your second-to-last sentence should be "He had not defined the term 'categorical imperative.'" The first example aside, I have also heard that when to include single quotations inside or outside of the punctuation can vary. The American method is putting the single quotations inside of the punctuation. The method used by the rest of the world is to put the single quotations outside of the punctuation. Ah, English. - Jane

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