PROLOGUE

Author's Note

Apologies, My Lady. This Pun's For Chat.

I was happy being a lurker. Reading without the pressure of joining, liking, or disliking. Society could keep its thumbs. I was free. I was entertained. I was content. Until, that is, I discovered a writer that I - just - had - to - follow. The only writer I follow. An author of imagination, wit, and talent, locked in a self-confessed battle with the tyranny of punctuation. Finally! I had found a cause. Here was a way I could contribute. A way I could become a productive member of society. I could be become... a Beta. I could answer the call to assist in the slaying of semi-colons, the conquest of curly commas, and the punching of pesky periods. Or so I thought. Imagine my horror to discover that one cannot be a Beta person, cannot make the world a Beta place, unless one has written 6,000 words for oneself. For crying out loud, people - my skill is editing, not edifying. But, there was nothing to be done. No choice. None. I joined to become a Beta, and a Beta I must become. That is the only (rational) explanation for what follows. I need 6,000 words, people. You have been warned.

One can only hope that it all turns out for the Beta.