Hi, everyone! Our interviews for November are ready! Enjoy! 

First up, we have our Author of the Month: jewelram

Tell us how you got into Buffy the show and Buffy fanfic.

A friend convinced me to give it a shot when I was in high school, and I watched the whole show over the next few months. Fast forward to last year, I was deciding what vampire media I was going to watch over the summer, because for some reason it always ends up happening, so why not do it on purpose? I went with BtVS after I jokingly threatened to bleach my hair before my sister's wedding, and my other sister said I had better not go "full Spike."

I knew going in that I was going to end up reading (and probably writing) fanfiction, and lo and behold, partway through season 6, I said to myself, "fuck this, I just want to read about Spike and Dawn being best friends," so I popped over to AO3, which eventually led me to Sunnydale After Dark <3

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

A lot of my ideas come from conversations I have with my oldest sister—the one who tried to steer me away from peroxide. She also writes fanfic, and we bounce ideas off one another. An outside perspective is invaluable when working out the kinks of a plot.

Other than that, I find inspiration all over. Music, movies, funny things my niece says. I once got an idea for a story from a bottle of sparkling water. (Not a joke.)

Who is your favorite character to write and why?

I haven't used her as much as I would like, but I think my favorite is Anya. I love how frank she is, and there's something to be said for someone whose canon characterization allows you to skip exposition and just say what's going on.

Which story of yours are you most proud of, and which was the hardest to write?

The answer to both questions is probably soup. I really enjoyed building a story around as silly a concept as prophetic alphabet soup, but some of the later chapters were definitely a pain.

As a writer, what would you have changed on the show and why?

I would have done more (read: anything) with Dawn outside of Glory. They rewrote the universe to put her in the show, and then did approximately nothing with her after that. Let's talk about how she must have felt about everyone saying over and over that Spike doesn't have real feelings, yet they know for an absolute fact that everything Dawn feels—everything everyone feels about her—is explicitly made up. Or the fact that the Scoobies brought Buffy back, but Dawn wasn't allowed to have her mom.

Season 7 at least touched on her feelings of inadequacy, having the Slayer for a sister, but it's "resolved" in the same episode and doesn't come up again, not even when Buffy tries to sideline her in the penultimate episode. I would have taken a Summers sisters heart-to-heart over more Angel nonsense in a second.

We think Dawn should have been fleshed out more, too. Michelle T was super talented and could have handled more. :) And we're so happy to have you at SAD! Thanks for being here!

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Next up is our Commenter of the Month: HappyWhenItRains 
(who is on a cross country road trip, so their answers are short. And we hope it inspires a road trip fanfic!)

Tell us how you got into Buffy the show and Buffy fanfic.

I resisted watching the show for a long time because sometimes I like to hate popular things, but so many of my cool friends love the show and have written academic papers on it and I kept seeing Buffy trending on Twitter, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Spring 2022, I started out reading on Ao3, but there were too many non-Spuffy stories that jump scared me with other ships to sort through, and in my search to find the best Spuffy stories, I came across dedicated Spuffy archive, and I've been here ever since. 

What motivates you to leave comments?

I love getting comments on my stories, and I am sometimes terrible at replying, so I try to get a little karma by commenting. 

Do you also write or are you strictly a reader?

Oh I definitely also write. And draw. 

Were you a lurker before you started leaving comments or did you comment right away?

I lurked for a bit, but the stories are just so good I had to comment. 

How important is it to receive a reply from the writer when you leave a comment?

Seeing as how I have trouble responding to comments on my own stories, it's not a priority for me. It's so nice when authors reply, but I don't ever expect it. 

Thank you, HappyWhenItRains! Be safe on your trip and find a heck of a lot of inspiration so you can bless us with more content! We can never have enough from you.

And that's a big ol' wrap on November! Have a great one, everyone!
Chelle, Dusty, GetItDone, and GriefCounseling