Hullo! :)

Let me start off by telling you a wee bit about moi ...

I'm an self-professed major bookworm, lover of anything and everything vintage, and a hard-core Balehead--if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up ;)

I've been on FictionPress for years, but only as an "anonymous" reader. I finally got fed up with the fact that I couldn't review any of the stories that really caught my attention, and finally became a member. Plus I felt that maybe it would be nice to help encourage (or give advice to) fellow aspiring writers like myself. :)

Which brings me onto another note--I'm an English language grammar/spelling/syntax/etc. absolutist. (I'm not a tyrant! I promise! )

Poor spelling bothers me.

Poor grammar bothers me.

Poor plot construction bothers me.

Poor character development bothers me.

And so on and so forth ...

So if I find a few mistakes in your story, or if I have some advice regarding your plot, characters, etc.--I will correct you and/or give you my opinion.

I don't mean to come off as the omnipotent and omniscient God of the English language, or as some righteous person, but I feel it's only fair that we all help each other out--in writing, that is :)

I suppose what I'm trying to say, is that I WILL GIVE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. I will be nice and I will be polite.

I try not to flame--and yes, "constructive criticism" and "flaming" are two vastly different things.

Now that that's all over, I'd like to mention that YES--I do write and YES--I do have some work that I am considering posting up. But, alas and alack, like they say; you are your greatest critic. And I am extremely critical of my own work (note the use of boldface, italics, AND underline!).

UPDATE: This whole plagiarism pandemic has really discouraged me to post anything up. I think I'll wait and see what happens ...

As for the whole plagiarism situation plaguing this site, I have to say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed to see such a disgusting act affecting this site. I won't go into too much detail--that would entail much swearing, things being broken, and people getting hurt--but I have to say that I really have no respect for people who do that. It is one of the most vulgar, trashy, ridiculous, idiotic, atrocious, and horrendous things you could ever do, and I hold it on the same level as stealing a car or kidnapping a child. I've been writing for years now, and my work is my baby--I've never been plagiarized, but I wouldn't know what to do if such a thing happened to me.

What with the internet and technological advancements in our day and age, I do hope that intellectual property rights will be enforced much more and that sites like this will become more strict about protecting the work of writers.

That is all.