I'm what you'd call a "very active" reader. I have asked to BR for some authors whose works I admire. I've also inadvertently BR'd by asking for advance copy when I've headed out on the road (sneaky...but they take pity on me when I sit in airports
) I feel that I've 'discovered' some authors (I can't believe how great Jon Wolff's stories were.) And sometimes I've found that being very different from the author (age, background, whatever) is of use. (I once had to threaten a writer to remove a reference to a "grassy knoll". She said 'but I liked that phrase'. I insisted that she not use it...EVER.)
I'd love to take on new BR duties, but I'll hasten to add that "you get what you ask for". I'll do grammar, punctuation, context, and simple sensory feedback (how did that paragraph make you feel Ms. Murphy?). But it's much easier to BR when an author is looking for something specific and asks that a particular pass be for a particular purpose. I'm always worried about insulting someone if I get too picky or not specific enough. In other words, if you want writing help, that's one thing; if you want to know 'if the story works for me', that's another. I confess to being unsure of my role sometimes, so I like clarity of purpose. Then again, I've BR'd a couple of times when I really felt like saying--send this back when you've spell checked it--so I'd say the only thing that is really BR abuse is expecting them to correct the simple stuff that you should have already checked out.
If you are a writer looking for a BR, I'm open for duty again. Feel free to email me. (You can go through the MK site below...it's easiest.)
Sherry
