Birthday greetings and a meme about my stories

[speaker_to_customers]

Belated Happy Birthday to buffydub. Happy birthday to strange_f.

and Happy Birthday to the fantastic manoah

Thanks for all your feedback and encouragement!

Revealing fanfic meme - gakked from liz_marcs

Most of these stories would probably rate around PG-13, maybe up to R; I've marked the ones that would require a higher rating.

My favorite story (of my own):

The Cloak of Mist.


Story most tragically under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

The Cloak of Mist. I’m not saying that it hasn’t been appreciated; the feedback that I’ve had for it has been more enthusiastic than that for anything else that I’ve ever written, and it has been recced in buffyversetop5. Those who have read it appear to share, in the main, my belief that it’s far and away the best thing that I have ever done. However I know that many of you haven’t read it because it is pre-season by almost a thousand years and is completely devoid of Spike.

What really upset me was when it was nominated (by me, alas, but self-nomination is legitimate at that site so I don’t feel too guilty about it) for an Original Character fic award and it was beaten by one of the most ghastly Mary-Sue fics, of the “I want a character who is pretty much me to be a better Slayer than Buffy and to copulate with a canon character” school, that I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t have minded had I lost out to, for instance, quinara’s gorgeous Ancient Roman Slayer story, to “Not Even Jimmy Olsen”, to rahirah’s wonderful Evie or Tanner, to nihilistbear’s “Cold and Broken Hallelujah”, or to one of enigmaticblue’s delightfully well-drawn OCs. But the story that did beat me was, frankly, just crap and I was not only upset but also really annoyed about it.


Most fun story:

Sunnydale Passions.


Story with the single sexiest moment:

Merry Sport (NC-17), probably. Although some of the Spike/Willow scenes in Angel of the Morning (R) are quite sexy too, but in a less overt way, and there is one Riley/Harmony scene in Pandora’s Boxer (varies from chapter to chapter but NC-17 in places) that I think is pretty damn hot too. I’m not really a smut writer.


Most unintentionally telling story:

I don’t know. Maybe Smells Like Teen Spirit. My suppressed hatred for late-series Buffy suddenly boiled out in that one and it burned onto the page like vitriol. Warning; extremely NC-17.

"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for me" story:

Smells Like Teen Spirit. Warning; NC-17. Very, very, NC-17.

Hardest story to write:

You’ll probably be surprised by this, but it’s Savage Beauty. The hard part isn’t so much making the characters stay true to their canon Buffyverse versions, or coming up with the weird plot; it’s making it stay funny as the plot develops. In fact I’ve been bogged down with it for a while now because the conclusion is in danger of being too serious.

I’ve had problems with Life in Shadow too, and Pandora’s Boxer is hard for a different reason. It’s just so damn big, and I’m so short of time.

I’m also struggling with the Holiday story for enigmaticblue’s current ficathon. Odd, because last year’s And Glory Shone Around was one of the easiest stories to write, but this year it’s just not happening. Probably because of the pressure of work.


Worst story:

A couple of the Roxyverse stories don’t really work, especially “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, but nobody reads them anyway so it doesn’t matter.

Apart from that, I’d have to say I Am The Walrus. It’s probably the story that really brought me to public notice, and I wouldn’t say that it’s bad, but it’s riddled with errors and awkward writing. The Holiday ficathon story is looking ominously as if it won’t be very good either, I’m afraid.


Easiest story to write:

The Lonely Goatherd. It took shape the moment I read the comment about Lithuanian goat-herder Spike fic on rahirah’s journal and just flowed onto the page.


Story I'd like to revise (but probably won't):

I Am The Walrus. See above.


Story I wish I'd finished:

I Was Made For Loving You Baby. I do intend to finish it, eventually, but I have to admit that if any of my WIPs does end up getting abandoned this will be the one to suffer that sad fate. I’m no longer convinced that I was going in the right direction.

And “Alone”. I’ll never write that one now. It’s a shame, as I think that it would have been good. I posted a snippet as a teaser and someone was so impressed that they nominated it for an award (I can’t link to it; I didn’t put it into Memories and I can’t even find it myself now, although I’ve still got the Word file). However it’s an answer to one of kantayra’s challenges, and she’s just announced that she’s left the fandom, and so there doesn’t seem to be much point as she wouldn’t even read it.

Story I didn't write but swear I will, someday:

“In Bloom”: Giles/Ilona Costa Bianchi, in the Nirvana-verse. The sequel to “The Cloak of Mist”, in which Bahey Dhone travels to Sung Dynasty China. And a Spike/Maggie Walsh fic that is intended to be extremely disturbing.

Comments

[itmustbetuesday.livejournal.com]

I haven't read "The Cloak of Mist", yet, even though I've been meaning to for some time. I've heard only good things, though. And I love your silly stories (Sunnydale Passions and Savage Beauty).

And I agree, a Spike/Maggie Walsh fic would definitely be disturbing. But I'd probably read it, anyway.

[itmustbetuesday.livejournal.com]

Huh. I didn't ask for that icon. I asked for this icon and LJ gave me Dick instead.

And because it's three am and I'm incredibly immature, I did giggle at that.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I haven't read "The Cloak of Mist", yet, even though I've been meaning to for some time.

Which I guess kind of proves his point! In the nicest possible way of course!

[itmustbetuesday.livejournal.com]

Hee, well I try to do things nicely.