Whispers

Apparently, yesterday was Thank a Critique Partner Day. Due to the huge load of computer-related (and other stuff I'm not talking about) things I had to do, I didn't stop and thank my critique partners, aka my betas.

First, I'm going to thank my beta. There's only one person I mean when I say it like that: in_the_blue. I met her on her drabble community before it closed because we both loved 100 word stories. I fell in love with her original stuff probably at the same time that I liked what fannish stuff overlapped. She also runs the wonderful ineedmyfics exchange, which was my first ever exchange and it was a great experience to teach me how those things worked.

She'll read almost anything, love me through even the stuff she goes, "back to the drawing board" on. She has a marvelous touch with language and grammar and story and character, and she usually manages to find every place I thought I wrote something and actually didn't. I love her. I love what she does to my fiction, how she pushes me to be the best I can be, and I adore that she lets me read her work even though I don't do line editing on long work the way I used to because her work is amazing. She's been professionally published, so I'm not the only one who thinks so either.

So thank you, in_the_blue, for all you do for me, for my fiction, and for my sanity. You're a very precious lifeline of writerly friendship that I treasure.

Second, I'm going to thank lithiumlaughter, who I have no one word for. She's the queen of poetry and literary analysis, she loves my home stomping grounds of X-Men related 'verses and got me hooked on MCU when I was trying pretty hard to hold out against it. She writes beautiful original fiction that I'm privileged to be allowed to read, and she has been my friend, my shoulder to cry on, my confab partner to discuss and meta with, and my fellow lover of all things Divergent series.

Honestly, I really don't know what I would do without you, m'dear. You don't just get my writings, you get me, and that has always meant so much. Thank you!

On a fannish note, thank you to all the members of the be_compromised community who not only welcomed my forays into MCU with open arms but have blessed me with beta help when I do not want to pester my beta. I have 32 items on my finished ficlist for January, a single month. It's logistics why most of my work does not have a first reader.

alphaflyer and inkvoices, you dig deep and for that I'm so grateful. I know if I want the nitpickiest, most in character, on point assessment of MCU, I've got it in you. Plus, I cannot tell you how much I learn from reading your fiction and posts. So much love. shenshen77, you have been a lifesaver and a sounding board so many times, I cannot thank you even close to enough. I can think of several fics that wouldn't exist if you hadn't saved me at the right moment from my own self doubts. And findthesea, you also saved me at a moment of truth, on short notice, for which I'm deeply grateful.

There have been others, but you all have been there and are still there and are part of my community. I cannot tell you how much I thank you.