"We're looking for a few good men…"

-US Army

                As of now I am putting out an open invitation to any and all persons with editorial skills. Now this may seem that this is coming out of left field but I will be unable to finish this mess of a story until I can get some professional (or psudoprofesional) aid. This is not to say that Telos and I have had a falling out- rather we have lost touch and though I have been trying to contact her, she seems to busy to look over my shoulder all the time. That is perfectly okay; she has been a wonderful editor and I wish her the best of luck with her life and family and to thank her for all the help she gave me. Divided We Fall would never have turned out as well as it did if she hadn't helped me out.

                It's going to be tough to find a person to match her- SO I am asking for the voluntary services of two people. I will go into the details of the two positions in a minute. First I want to give you an idea of what's required.

                - Payment: There is no monetary reimbursement for your services! You do this of your own free will. The only payment you would receive would be my undying gratitude and your name posted as editor in the story. Other than the knowledge that you participated in a (debatably) great story to make it as best as possible, that's about it. Sorry- I'm a poor college student and have no money.

                -Personality: Personally speaking, I am a pessimistic person and can get frustrated easily. I am an Aries and am bull headed at times, not to mention bull dozing. (Damn- I think I was born in the wrong month. Sounds like I should be a Taurus!) I am demanding (rarely but it does happen) and easily irritable. Most of my personality is reflected by Kagome in the story so that gives you a more readily available example of the person you are dealing with.

                I'm looking for someone to counteract all that (not to discourage people). I always like to know what I'm getting into before I sign on a project so I try and show all sides to newcomers. (I don't think it's fair otherwise.) Anyway, I am looking for someone who will look over my shoulder and point out that I've done something wrong. I WILL NOT ACCEPT YES MEN. If there's one thing that gets me mad, it's people who always agree with someone. I find it humiliating and down right irritating- you can never get an idea out of them and that's what I'm looking for. I need creative people but people who will also put a hand up and say, "You can't do that because…." Or "You've written yourself into a corner that way. Try it this way." The latter is what usually happens and I have a hell of a time writing myself out of my self created trap.

                - Language: Not to be nasty but I am looking for two English speakers. Now before anyone throws a fit, notice that I didn't say English native speakers.  I really don't care what your native tongue is (or isn't for that matter) but I am an English speaker. It's the only language I speak (I tried Spanish but… let's just say it didn't o well. ::sighs in defeat::) and it's the only language I write in. As a result, both editors need to speak and write fluent English. Why speak and write? Well, different languages have different sentence structures; i.e. the Spanish sentence structure places a descriptive word after the noun (Like the blue car in English is the car blue in Spanish.); The Japanese language places emotions at the end of a sentence and also convey thoughts and concepts through the very alphabet the writer is using (Did you know they have five different alphabets that each express a different thing and that each area in Japan has its own alphabet?! O.O). Those are the two I know but you get the point; I need someone who is a fluent speaker of English. If anyone is interested in taking the time to translate DWF into another language, then by all means be my guest. Go right ahead but please notify me before starting.

                -Resumé: (I think I spelled that right) Um, not to be picky, but I would prefer that applicants do have some prior experience. Authors who are kicking around between stories or are simply suffering from writers block are extremely welcome but people who are majoring in English or have some writing experience are also invited to apply.

                - Credentials: Now, if you believe that you've met all the qualifications I've put up here (please make sure that you finish reading the page please. Remember, I haven't told you what the positions are) and that you think you'd be the person for the job, send me a sample of your work. It may seem that I'm being picky (again) but please understand that anyone can say they have editing skills- I'm looking for someone who can prove it. Even if it's an essay for a class (Please don't send me any term paper!!!!) or a story that you wrote, fanficton or not, send me a few chapters or the full thing. If you are an author and already post on a site, please send me the address of the site and I'll go have a look.

                -Age/Sex/Ethnicity: You can be any age but the older you are, the better the amount of experience you have in writing. If you are a kid genius or something then go ahead and submit but I am looking for someone around my age (21) or older. As far sex goes, doesn't matter. Boy, Girl- don't matter. Sex doesn't influence talent. You can be any ethnicity, doesn't matter if you are American or from Zimbabwe, as long as you are a fluent English speaker and writer, I have no qualms.

                -Communication: Just about everyone has email but depending on your service provider, you may not have Instant Message capability. ICQ can solve that, by the way. I have all three so method doesn't matter, really, just that it's better if you have a real time method of conversation. I don't want your phone numbers and no, I will not give you mine, so please have some sort of Instant Message method.

                Right! Now just what are the positions? (God I feel like a recruiting officer!) Well, I said above that I was looking for two people for editing positions. Though both are editing, they differ slightly in what someone would actually be doing.

                One position is for simple grammar editing (Traditional Editor). Punctuation, sentence structure, making sure the story flows, etc. Pretty straight forward stuff. (Stuff that I unfortunately am bad at.)

                The second position is where it gets a bit hard. (Conceptual Editor) The second editor is more like a creativity checker. This is more conceptual but all authors do this when reading over there stories to make sure that all the placements of the characters match up, that all the plot devices make sense in the overall story, etc. This is why I am appealing to authors and am asking for work samples- this is the harder of the two editing positions and requires someone who can suspend their disbelief, but not get rid of it all together.  In the last chapter I goofed and had Sango, Miroku and Shippo in the scene. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except that I had already sent them off to hunt down Kikyo! Like I said, I goofed and that was basically because I wrote the study scene separate from the main story- another of Telos' ideas (she wrote an outline and I just filled in the body). Keeping character personalities in check in a main point and thus knowledge of the original Inu Yasha manga is required here; i.e. I need someone who will point out if some one is out of character.

                If you are interested, please send me an email at KildareAngel@aol.com or IM me (KildareAngel) if you have Instant Messaging or contact me through ICQ. I think my name is the same for this and IMing but if all else fails, my ICQ number is 154636433.

                If you just want to send me your samples, please make sure you put the following:

1) If you are an author

2) If you are an author, do you post already?

3) Your age (don't fudge please. If you are a month away from your birthday, please put down your current age. You can make a note if you like, though, that you are a month away from your birthday.)

4) Please put down your handle (Whatever name you wish to go by, be it your true name or your screen name- nothing profane please)

5) Please put down what position you are applying for- I will not guess!

6) If you have the skills to fulfill both positions, please send me two stories (or two addresses) of two different stories that reflect the editorial skills necessary and label which is which. 

That's about it I guess. If you try to contact me but aren't on when I am (which is randomly at best), please keep trying. I will be on longer and more frequently in November (next month) because then I'll have unlimited access- I'm being charged by the hour now and it really hurts. There is no time limit but if I'm narrowing down the choice I'll post a warning in my author's notes at the end of the DWF chapters or will simply take down this message and replace it with a 'positions have been filled' message. Once the two (or one if someone is really talented) editors have been selected, I'll contact them to notify them and to go over stuff with them.

Thanks everyone (and anyone) who paused to read this message and good luck to all applicants. Any questions please ask me directly. Have a wonderful day and best wishes to all!

Sincerely,

Pennath