General: Well, my name's Mallory Grier - my pen name/alias, anyway. I'm going into my third year of University in September and I'm working on a B.A. in history. This means I'm a Humanities student, which, in turn, means I can essay the hell out of everything. I also take anthropology courses, but they're pretty close to history - it's a wonder they're not in the same department. Anyway, I live in Mississauga, Ontario, and no one's heard of the place, but it's the 6th biggest city in Canada (bigger than the capital of the country). It's next to the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).

My Policy on Criticism: To be perfectly honest, most people suck at giving criticism. I don't want to hear in a mess of grammar and randomly capitalised letters that you can't wait for the next chapter. I want to hear something that'll help me (a compliment is helping too - not that I'm fishing for any :P). I know I'm not perfect, and I'm also not stupid, so help if you can. When reading anything on this site you should be able to pick out things that need to be worked on (though ANYONE can get a book published these days). I'd like it to be noted that engaging someone's work is different from reading it. I'm also not saying everyone should feel the obligation to review, because it does take time and there's other stuff in people's lives.

Either way, people are supposed to (or rather, should) be interested in helping one another in exchange for getting help themselves. And even if you don't like reviewing, too damn bad. Life sucks. Get over it. Do what's proper. (As long as you're not neglecting university or college work to do it)

I also don't believe in sugar coating or tact. I mean, I'm not going to be obnoxious, but I'm not going to question whether or not I should tell you that I know your main character is based on yourself and your writing is suffering because you're too busy selfishly controlling the character to fulfill some unthoughtful fantasy you have that has no place in the writing world. (Dang that's one long sentence) Hey, I did it too, and I completely understand the attractiveness of being able to have control like that - to be able to physically manifest some desire. And even if you don't plan on being a professional writer someday, don't make other people suffer needlessly by posting your crap so you can show yourself off. This is, like, the #1 rule in writing. And, yeah, you're supposed to draw on your own experiences and feelings because that makes stories less problem-ridden, but it's a long way from using characters as an extension of yourself.

So, I promise I will give proper reviews. And I have done so. I take a lot of time writing good reviews and although it's not my favorite thing to do (although I like helping), I still hope someone would do the same for me because it's the right thing to do. People should help one another be better, so that's what I do. ;)