] I am not yet a published author but I am, of course, a person obsessed with Jane Austen - why else would I spend 5 years writing a retelling of Emma? Again, I have made a number of posts here over several months and this was the first question I asked. I would also like to point out that I could have asked my question without identifying myself as a writer or specifying that I was seeking information for my book, but felt it would be unethical to do so. If the question is itself of interest to Pemberleians, (as it apparently was to Lisette) I really don't understand the objection.

I'm not a member of the Committe, just a citizen who has been here since 1997 (that is more than 5 years) so I will try to explain why the objection (and perhaps Caroline and Myretta would consider this is really a topic for the Help board, if so, please tell me and I repost again there).

In all those years here I've seen how expensive is for our Committe to sustain this haven, in those years there was an increase with many questions not directly related to L&T or RoP, and the decision was not to accept things beyong our scope (not only Committe but we citizens agreed on that).

I'm sure your story is interesting, perhaps many of the members will read it when published and you have invested a lot of time, love and devotion to it, but since it was agreed that the only exception for help on L&T topics was to RoP people who wrote stories for RoP people (that means only fanfic stories for BoI).

It's an strict rule but fair one IMO which admits not many exceptions.