I'm a long time writer who has written for several fandoms in the past and only recently (within the last four months, even!) discovered the wonders of Buffy.  It didn't take me long to jump on the Buffy/Spike bandwagon.  I've spent the better portion of the last couple of months perusing this site, along with several other Spuffy oriented sites, to see what the fanfic landscape looks like.  I have to say, the ratio of quality fics to non-quality fics seems to be quite a bit higher among the Spuffy fans than for many other fandoms.  So, bravo for that.  This wonderful discovery has prompted me to try my hand at writing Buffy fiction.  So, here I am, hat in hand looking for a new Beta.  My old Beta is not of this particular fandom (and currently AWOL in any event) so I need someone.  Or, more likely knowing me, several someone’s.

I'm pretty good with spelling and grammar (though I'll admit to having comma happy weeks) but generally reserve the right to massacre the English language for the sake of dialog that sounds like actual speech rather than prose.  I completely miss my own typos.  I know what it's supposed to say right there so I read right over them.  Sometimes I get stuck in writer's block hell and need someone to point me in a direction (and then not get completely mad when I head in the opposite direction entirely). I have severe issues staying in the correct tense so require someone willing to beat me about the neck and shoulders with heavy objects when necessary.

I seem to vacillate between writing stories heavy on dialog and character studies.  I'm getting better about mixing the two, but it's a struggle.  I'm completely guilty of writing songfics but I'm totally okay with it.  Some of my stuff ends up long.  Sometimes I stop writing long angsty stuff and ask my Betas to completely switch directions and proof a piece of pure fluff just because I had to get out of the scary headspace for a while.

Some of my stuff is quite dark. A lot of it is very NC-17 and most of that is not of the purely vanilla variety. Things can sometimes get a little strange in Amara-land so I’d hope that my potential Betas would be up for that.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll say this: If you volunteer to give me a shot and you're a writer, I'm going to want to read some of your stuff first, so just let me know what your pen name is.  I learned long ago that it's best if your Betas have a similar or better grasp of the English language than you do and that their tastes are similar to yours in both subjects for reading and writing.

I'd love a male Beta added in to the mix.  Sometimes my men sound like women simply because I just can't get the words in the right order (or I can't resist the impulse to add the words in). 

All in all, that's probably it.  There's no guarantee that I'm going to work for you or you're going to work for me, but I'm willing to give it a shot if you are.  The best way to find a good working writer/Beta relationship is to just try and agree not to be mad if it doesn't work out.

If you think you might be interested, please let me know.  If you want to read some of my stuff before you contemplate it too much, I completely understand and encourage it (just keep in mind we're talking original fiction and fiction from other fandoms) and it can be found at www.freewebs.com/amaradangeli.  Thanks for reading this far - I know it's long as far as requests go.  Hope to hear from you soon.

Slaymesoftly - I've noticed a couple kinks with the submissions, but thank you guys so much for letting us know what the problem is and that you're trying to get it fixed.  I'm sure you're aware of the extremely large amount of sites that are not that considerate.   As far as laying out what I need, learned a long time ago full disclosure is really the only way for both parties to end up happy.

Spikez_tart - lol, not broken links, just empty ones.  Wishful thinking for the future.  And, I suppose, it keeps me motivated to get things inside those links.  If they're there I don't just abandon the idea of them.  If they aren't, well, RL happens and then nothing fun gets done!  And wait, something crazy just happened in my head...are there broken links on my site?  *Gasp*  Which ones didn't work for you?  I've got several short stories available...were you looking for something Buffy related ('cause if so, the only thing I've got is a chapter and a half on something that feels like it's going to be pretty long) or were you looking for something just to see what sort of writer I am?

So far this site seems to have very friendly people on.  How fun!

Slaymesoftly - I'm a compulsive planner, I just can't help it!  You know, I've always found dysfunction to be pretty fun - I think it's a personality flaw.  ;-)

Spikez_tart - thanks so much for being willing to take a look.  I've sent you an email with a few things attached.