Vote Now at Slayerstillness and Otherworldlyrics icontests!

otherworldlyric  has only nine entries this time around. (You'd think that would make the task of voting easier, right? WRONG.) Lovely entries as always -  the clarity and strength of the imagery is just astonishing to me. This batch is entirely female-centric which is always cause for celebration. And I confess that don't know who most of those characters are, to be honest - and I don't care and don't need to for voting purposes. If the icon speaks to me in some way, that's all I need. And these speak to me - there's no doubt in my mind that these icons capture interesting women who would be worth my while, in a variety of moods and aspects: angst, confusion, courage, determination etc.

In just nine icons. And that's what it's all about for me. There's a particular feeling about this set, as if all nine were made by the same person, or it was a collaborative effort. I had a helluva hard time voting because they look as though they all belong together.

FYI, their next challenge is Barry Manilow's "Mandy".  (Full disclosure- I LOVED that song as a kid. LOVED it. Had the Barry Manilow double-disk greatest hits on vinyl - got it for Christmas in 1979. "Mandy", "Weekend in New England" etc.) Which is a lovely bit of synchronicity because I heard that song on the radio last Saturday and I started jotting down icon ideas.  Hopefully I'll have time to do something for it this week; my sweetie and I are moving back into our renovated apartment this week so its gonna be crazytown in my little world.

The Love Song for A Vampire entries at slayerstillness also feel very much of a piece with each other, except this time there are 30 - count 'em, 30! - entries to chose from. I haven't voted yet. I've tried. I stared at them on Saturday and couldn't make up my mind. Looked at them today and still cannot make up my mind. Hopefully the rest of y'all are more decisive than I am, because voting ends tomorrow night! I think I know who I want to vote for...maybe. Possibly. Until I change my mind again. Oy vey.

I'm surprised that there aren't any Darla entries, and Dru is only shown with Spike, but I have the vampire ladies on the brain quite a bit lately. I think that's due to a wonderful batch of icons by spikesredqueen and two stunning Drusilla portraits by comlodge here and here.  Vampire Willow is well-represented in the icon entries though, along with Vamp Xander - and you may be shocked to know that I heartily approve. As much as I love the ladies, I have no problem admitting that Nicholas' performance as VX was wonderfully sexy (and I don't find NB sexy in general) and creepy and doesn't get nearly it's due.

And in other news - the identity of snowdropsandtigers, who rec'd my blog on tumblr, has been solved. It's the lovely and gracious tigerpetals - who I never would have guessed because we can't have interacted more than twice before this week, but I look forward to chatting with more often. If I don't, however, that's ok too. Knowing that people are reading this, even if I'm not aware of their existence is sobering and suprising and wonderful. When someone recs this site or stops by to say high, that's a huge deal for me knowing that they're enjoying this playspace I've carved out, and feel welcome.

I'm not sure how many of y'all have read gabrielleabelle's meta "On Lurkers" but if you haven't, please treat yourself and do so. It's one of my favorite fandom essays:

"Studies indicate that lurkers make up 90% of online groups. 90%. 90! Peeps, that means for every one person who comments on your fanwork, there's nine others who read/watched/looked at it but didn't say anything."

"I know the general attitude towards lurkers is that they don't matter because they don't contribute. I'd say that they matter because they're the reason we contribute. They don't cease to exist just because you can't see them. They're there. They're consuming. And they're being fans in their own way."