Happy October! For this month, Dusty and Getitdone are our Scoobies of the Month, and here are their interviews! Hope you enjoy them...

October 2022 Commenter of the Month, Getitdone:

How did you come to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

A good friend of mine in high school was Buffy-obsessed. (This was late 90's, when the show first aired.) She talked about the characters and plot points incessantly, and it always seemed like a show I could get into, but I never committed. (For all of you folks running around wrinkle-free right now, TV watching required much more discipline before the days of DVR and streaming!) 

I noticed it was available on Hulu a few years ago (2018, maybe?) and decided it would make a good summer binge show. I mostly watched it in the background while I was doing other things, but somewhere around mid-S4 (think, like, 'Something Blue' era) it caught my attention and wouldn't let go of me. By the start of S6 I was a total Spuffy goner!

The unfortunate part about this is many of the major plot points were spoiled for me. I knew about Dawn when she showed up. I knew she was gonna kill Angel. I knew Buffy was gonna die in The Gift. I don't remember my friend mentioning much about Spuffy, and to this day I'm terrified to bring it up to her because what if I find out she's actually a Bangel fan? Then we can't be friends!! 

When and why did you decide to read fanfiction for the show?

I've always been one to poke around in fandoms after I consume any piece of media I really enjoy, and that usually involves some casual fanfic exploration. After a couple of obsessive rewatches, I started perusing AO3 and fanfiction.net for Spuffy stories. The 2020 COVID lockdown combined with grieving the loss of my dad sent me deep down this particular rabbit hole, though, and I stumbled upon Dusty's first fic, Safe. 

Holy. Crap.  That fic grabbed me and has never let go! 

That discovery led me to a treasure trove of Spuffy fanfiction. I've never experienced such high quality and quantity in any other fandom before! Being part of a community like this one that encourages me to embrace my obsessive shippy-thoughts has been an amazing experience for me... I'm pretty sure you'll never be rid of me. (More than two years later, and I'm still here telling Dusty all my thoughts about all the things!)

Why do you love Spike and Buffy?

I think what I love most is the wide spectrum of dynamics their relationship covers. I think this is why people are still writing about them to this day - whatever mood you're in, you can find a Spuffy-era to match. And of course, I think we all love the idea of someone like Spike who is just wholly dedicated to loving Buffy for exactly who or what she is (and the chiseled cheekbones, British accent, and bad-boy persona are just icing on the cake!) I also love Buffy for all her strength and all her flaws, and I think she's just so deserving of Spike's worship. 

What words of advice would you give other fans who comment or are considering maybe commenting on fanfiction?

This first piece of advice is one I'm still working on... I've always felt like if I'm going to comment I have to say something meaningful. So I've read a lot of things without commenting - not because I didn't enjoy them, but just because I didn't feel like I had anything worthwhile to say about what I read. As I've become more entrenched in this community, though, I'm slowly learning that not every comment has to be a complex literary analysis. I'm trying to do a better job of just thanking and appreciating those of you who are pouring these stories out for me to read through my comments. (And for those of you who are subjected to my dissertation-style comments, well... sorry about that. Sometimes I have things to say.) 

Secondly... the best comments are the ones that roll in around 3 am.  

(I also want to suggest you try swearing in all caps when you're very excited about something, but I'm not sure all authors actually appreciate that, so take that wisdom with a grain of salt.)

October 2022 Author of the Month, Dusty:

How did you come to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

In 2015, I was really into an Outlander story analysis podcast and I loved the thoughtful discussion and emphasis on story craft so much that I had to check out the hosts' other podcast show which was about Buffy. It's no longer available to listen to or else I'd recommend it, but that's the reason I decided to give Buffy a shot. I had judged it by its title for many years and never tried it. Then to my surprise, my husband noticed me watching it and was excited to join in, so it became a thing to do together! Soon enough we were naming our daughter Willow! 

When and why did you decide to write fanfiction for the show?

After finishing the show I found out about the comics and read those (just the Buffy ones) and I loved all the Spuffy! I remember reading S11 thinking that this storyline would be really fascinating if it was fleshed out a little more (comics only have but so much time/space). I was curious about what Spike and Buffy's life living in a prison trailer together with him feeding from her would BE like. It sounded stressful! And kinda sexy...  So I thought surely there's tons of fic out there about this (I had written fic for another fandom a long time ago so I knew of fanfiction in general). Sadly, I didn't find anything in that setting/scenario at all! So I thought hrmm if I want to see that, I guess I'll have to write it. So that's how I essentially began writing fic before I even started reading it. I've been playing catch-up ever since.

Why do you love Spike and Buffy?

Because they are the whole package. They inspire greatness in each other. Everything they share, they well and truly earned it. They're hilarious together. They're viciously honest with one another. They're full of passion and fireworks and that BIGNESS about them only makes their soft moments all the sweeter. They're an endlessly fun pairing to write because there are so many versions of their relationship and their individual levels of growth to play with. Each season gives you wildly different potentials and outcomes. 

Which three fanfics that you’ve written are your favorite? Why are they your favorite?

Oh my. Okay. That's hard. I really love them all. I'm always most over the top in love with whatever I'm working on currently. I can't help it. So I'm unabashedly obsessed with The Time We Had right now. I love the sweeping epic romance of that one. The unpredictability and how I can throw them into any situation at any time and it works because TIME TRAVEL is endlessly fun. I love The Fairytale because I think it is so funny and absurd and it was such a wild idea that I was laughing my way through as I wrote it because who would give Angel an actual Pinnochio nose?! That's so stupid, but whatever! We're going for it! And that was so different for me to just play and have fun with a story and take things a little less seriously. Then I'd have to say Gray because that story felt like all of my favorite things tumbled into one story. It had chapters of fun and lightness. It had the angstiest angst I could imagine. It had my favorite Spuffy to write which is established Spuffy, but with heaps of conflict to keep it interesting. And at the same time, they never lost faith in each other, which was so beautiful and, to me, what real love's about. And OH it had Angelus and Drusilla and a sassy adult Dawn! I just had all my cakes with that fic and they were delicious. 

And I'm realizing now that I just picked my fics in reverse order of writing them, so make of that what you will...

What words of advice would you give other fans who write or want to write fanfiction?

Have fun and don't agonize over it. I think some people get really twisted up in the perfection of their stories, to the point where it's daunting to start, daunting to keep going or to finish. To the point where you invest so much time into something that when it's criticized or doesn't get the enthusiastic response you were hoping for, it can be really crushing. I know it's hard not to sweat the details because sometimes you have to sweat the details for a story to work! But generally, readers will happily go where you take them. If you're having FUN telling the story, I think readers really feel that! It's also important to note that what works for someone else might not be what works for you and that's a-okay. No one is doing anything the right way in fanfiction. Just their own way. So try not to compare or doubt yourself. If you're here and you're making something you love, then you're doing everything right.