It is crazy that it's already August but with the new month ... comes brand new Scoobies to celebrate. Who are we kidding? We celebrate all of you and thank you ALL for your contributions here. 

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

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

I'll begin with a hearty thank you for the nomination and award. It was very kind of you to think of me. 

Like many fans of an age with Buffy, I missed the show when it would have been most timely for me, because my teens and early 20s years were busy and chaotic. A few years down the line, a musical-loving friend watched the show, became obsessed with OMwF, and started showing me clips from that episode. She eventually talked me into watching the whole series.

That must have been around early 2008, as my first bit of toe-dipping into fanfic was that year. I didn't stay long. Another short visit into this world happened in 2010. I read a lot. Wrote a little. Never finished a story.

In the fall of 2014, I started digging through some of my digital clutter and found my collection of fanfic drafts. One of them caught my attention. It was novel length by spring, fully posted to an archive by summer and my belief that I would "get this out of my system and move on" was quickly shattered.

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

Sometimes what kicks off a project is a conversation with my beta/brainstorming partner about a canon arc or characterization choice that veers into "What if" territory. Sometimes, it's a scene that appears in my head I have to study and contemplate to figure out the story around it. And sometimes, I'm staring at a blank doc, feeling like I have something to type, but not knowing what, until a story starts appearing on the page.

But I wouldn't use the word inspiration. That sounds like I'm looking for story ideas. I'm not. I've spent my entire time in fanfic wishing I had fewer of them, actually. I'm constantly overwhelmed.

Who is your favorite character to write and why?

Most of my stories center heavily on Buffy. Specifically, what happens if she's given the breathing room (or impetus) to mature in varying circumstances. When I started writing, I thought my goal was to give Spike what he wanted, but I quickly came to understand that a maturing Buffy was the best vector for doing so, so she became my star.

But I still don't know that I'd call her my favorite. When Dru pops in for a cameo or a post-season 3 Faith rolls into town, I always have a good time. They're fun and interesting, and pairing them with my altered-by-the-circumstances Buffy is guaranteed to be a great scene.

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

Of my completed multi-chapter stories, A Touch of Her Style may be my best writing, as far as quality and consistency. Pieces is by far my best completed drabble story, and among my best one shots. Both were projects where once I got rolling with them, they snapped together like puzzle pieces, with very little effort. My best work is always the stories that tell themselves, the ones where I get out of the muse's way and let it flow.

"Hardest to write" is a toss up among a few long standing WIPs. One because Spike's logical, in-character reaction to the scenario I built wrecked my vision of the story, and I've never figured out how to reconcile the situation. Another is a highly technical, tightly formatted piece (season long drabble story) that is difficult to write for those reasons, but at least the characters are behaving as expected, so it's not a miserable experience. Another is a rich, complex story with a big cast (12 narrators, 5 of them OCs) that I absolutely love, but it's an emotional, often depressing journey that thus lends itself to being put on the shelf for long mental health breaks.

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

So, so much. But that's what makes BtVS so fic-able. It's full of interesting characters and great stories, but it left mountains of potential on the table, in very easy reach. It's just as full of "what ifs," gaps, inconsistencies, and loopholes. BtVS really is a fanfic writer's candy land.

My top three changes would be:

1. To not ruin Buffy's growth and maturation arc just to keep Angel on screen in season 3. The production team sacrificed the characterization of their star for the sake of prepping a spin off and Buffy as a character never fully recovered. Faith got short-changed as a side effect, never getting enough screen time for us to truly understand her. Lose, lose.

2. To not let Anya and Tara slip into the roles of "Scooby arm candy" and leave them there. Tara got it worse, but Anya's a victim, too. They were both loaded with potential that went untapped. Anya was given throwaway comedy lines that made her look dumb when her knowledge and experience should have a powerful tool in the Scooby arsenal on a regular basis. Tara's gentle, accepting personality would have made her the perfect confidant for Buffy, easily her best friendship match in the later seasons, but we only got a glimpse of than in canon, no on-going development for that relationship. Or for Tara herself. She deserved better.

3. (Here's where I get booted from the fandom for heresy.) To have never produced OMwF. Season six is packed full of half-baked ideas, irregular and ill-logical characterization, and story arcs that were badly paced, leaving a lot of debris on the ground for season 7 to pick up (or fail to), when season 7 did not have that kind of time. If the hiatus between seasons 5 and 6 wasn't spent putting endless hours into producing a musical, that time could have -and probably would have- been spent getting plans for the entire season ironed out and locked down. We got one episode that contributes nothing to the larger story that couldn't have easily gone into the surrounding episodes, in exchange for the quality of the entire season. Again: lose, lose. So yes, I think the first bit of BtVS I ever saw is among the show's worst missteps.

And this is why fanfic exists.

Thank you, myrabeth! We love having you here and can't wait to see what you'll write next. <3

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Our Commenter of the Month is the lovely Grief Couseling.

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

A guy wearing a trench coat in a dark alley accosted me one night, opened his coat all sneaky-dickens-like (Not Charles Dickens-like), and had all these DVDs attached to the inside panel. He was like, "Hey, man, you wanna take a wild trip?! Watch this show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer." And I was like, "Joke's on you, I've already seen it!" Because I had, because my sister who used to write fanfic for the show forced me to watch it in the early 2000s alongside Angel in episode succession just as it aired on TV and I was immediately hooked. By the way, that man in the trench coat? He now owns Amazon.

What motivates you to leave comments?

I'm not an avid reader, I have to be honest. Getting this award was shocking (but thank you so much!!) because I feel like I fail fandom by not gobbling up as much as I could - but I've been in this fandom since 2006 so it's not as typical for me to go on those days-long reading binges like I used to. BUT! When a man in a trench coat says, "Hey, pretty lady, you wanna take a wild trip? Read this story!" And then sneaks me a NC-17 tale? You bet your butts I'm commenting. There's not much motivation involved. If I read it? I comment on it. I might not hit up every single chapter if the story is complete, but I absolutely give it some love. It's impossible NOT to. By the way, that man in the trench coat? He used to be Steve Jobs.

Do you also write or are you strictly a reader?

Well, I like to think I'm a writer, but that's up for debate. When a man in a trench--okay, joke landed. The point is, I see a lot of dudes in trench coats and they're always famous in a few years. What gives, science? Yeah, I write. Like, a lot. And I used to write under another name to hide from the FBI. It's been a decades-long hunt to catch me for thousands of cereal killings (I love me some Cheerios) and they'll NEVER CATCH ME.

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

I lurked for about three to four months on livejournal. I didn't really know about all the archives (there were so many more back then) but I'm not a very shy person so if I liked something, I tackled the author with praise. Maybe a little TOO much praise back then, because I was in my 20s and hadn't yet learned about being in your 40s.

I think I instinctively knew how important it was to give others feedback when an author responded to one of my comments, who apparently had received none and was so touched to have literally anyone say something. If I could brighten someone's day by thanking them for sharing their art with the world? Man, that's pretty easy! It literally takes no effort on our parts to give even a simple thank you, or an "I loved it or liked it", or send a man in a trench coat to their comments box to give them bootleg copies of Chance on DVD.

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

I actually never think about the author's response when I leave a comment. It's not about that for me. Like, when you give something to someone (For instance, bootleg copies of Chance) it shouldn't be about the thank you you get in return, it should be about the gift. I also know how stressful it can be as a writer to have a lot of comments to reply to, and sometimes you're stuck thinking "I sound robotic, or repetitive, or maybe not as grateful as I actually am" so I never expect the author to take that step to say thanks. I know they appreciate it, because of all the spyware I've installed in everyone's houses to keep track of how many times a day they smile from comments. Is that weird? ;)

Thank you, Grief Counseling, and yes ... it's a little weird but we love you so we'll welcome it. But if you see anyone in hair rollers ... it's on you. :) 
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And that's a wrap on interviews. Now stop reading this and go go go create for our new event. Take us on epic adventures and introduce us to the monsters from your nightmares! :) 

Take care,
Chelle, Dusty, GetItDone, and Grief Counseling