Vote in Tiebreakers for Round 6 of btvsats20in20. Make sure to vote in all three at the post; voting closes Friday January 23rd; which gives you at least a day to beat your friends out of the bushes and encourage them to vote.

buffyversetop5 is officially closed this session, which means no more posts this round - but it's like a party where the kitchen is closed but there's tons of food and drink still overflowing the buffet table and another gallery wall you probably haven't seen yet. I got in four posts of wonderful fics and artwork recs - better late than never? - thank you to yourlibrarian and petzipellepingo for hosting such an incredible party twice a year.

Right now I'm enjoying three fics that you can expect to see on my Top 5 recs for next January - why not start early this time around?:

Answering Prayers by velvetwhip (Joyce/Angel, early S3 AU) is a marvelous, funny, touching "deleted episode" that focuses on Joyce's personal journey as a Slayer's mom but also as a woman and a person in her own right as she tries to find answers to where her baby girl might have gone and finds more than she bargained for. Why aren't there thousands of such stories?  Why has Joyce been so overlooked in fandom?  I don't know but this fic feels like an oasis in the desert and just might become the story that future fan writers build off of and around when it comes to writing about her.  So far it's very PG (up to chapter 3 and no sex scenes) and I have no idea where Gabrielle is taking this. But I cannot wait to find out.

the kids are alright by kwritten (Tara, Dawn, Buffy/Tara, S7-AU) the next segment in the B/T Finding a Balance 'verse, this one focuses on Tara's relationship with Dawn as surrogate parent, in a late seasons AU in which the women of the 'verse support and love one another, damaged children doing their best and somehow managing to keep the darkness at bay. I don't associate this author with "fluff" and this is - and it isn't. Again I ask, why aren't there a thousand fics about the Tara & Dawn relationship? This makes a lovely pairing with brutti_ma_buoni's "The Real You".

Palimpset by spuffy_luvr.beer_good_foamy (Buffy/Spike - or is it, Buffy/William? - and Willow, AU S10 comics.) The link takes you to the epilogue, which has links to the previous four chapters. Think shades of "The Ballad of Randy and Joan" and beer_good_foamy's "Building Character" but plottier, a wild ride with intricate issues of identity and agency roiling beneath the surface. I need to reread it before I can comment on the last two sections. It's incredibly subversive on several levels, not the least of which is the key role Willow  and the Willow/Buffy relationship plays here; their friendship is not the sidenote in a spuffy fic, it's absolutely central.  I've said this before: spuffy_luvr is becoming a Willow author of note.

But it all turns into a pumpkin when the clock chimes midnight There are still about six hours left to post your rec lists at buffyversetop5 Classic Recs 2014!  (Right now it's 3:51pm EST time in the US, if that helps.)

I was certain I'd missed it entirely - AGAIN - so I wandered over to check out what I missed and found that there's still a little window of opportunity left.  So many fantastic recommendations, I can't begin to name my favorites.

FYI: Every time someone posts a rec and says "but everyone in the fandom has read it" I have honestly been able to reply "I HAVEN'T."

The last two weeks I've received a sudden and unexpected influx of gifts and blessings here on LJ, and just gotten quite a lot of pleasure out of my participation in this fandom. I've been wanting to acknowledge all the love coming my way and spread it out, but it's hard to put into words. Or rather, words I have by the ton; coherence not so much. So I'm going to try to return and spread the love out all this week, because it's too much for one little post.

1) Buffyverse Top 5 was just a tremendous amount of fun to participate in. yourlibrarian and petzipellepingo deserve a huge round of applause for being such wonderful hosts, as always; and kudos to everyone who participated with rec lists of their own and/or comments. It was a great party! I remember enjoying myself last year but not to the same degree as this time but I was very new to fandom, didn't know as many people; and was focused on the goal of rec'ing meta because nearly all the other rec lists were focused on fanfic, with emphasis on shippiness.

Thank you velvetwhip, snogged, shapinglight, debris4spike, sparrow2000, lusciousxander, punch_kicker15, beer_good_foamy, rebcake, dragonyphoenix, endeni for all your lists; and thanks to the artists who keep bringing all of us what you love in any format....


This time around I had a lot of things I wanted to rec in every genre - fic, meta, art, vids - and only had time for a fraction of what I wanted to do. But other folks had the same idea: picspams, podcasts, videos, meta, some folks mixed things up in all forms; a lot of very new to me authors and stories that covered a wide range of the Buffyverse in terms of 'ships, gen, female-centric, etc - something for everyone. All of it very high quality on every level of craft (technique) and art. There's enough there to keep me busy neglecting housework chores for some months to come. And it continued a trend that I've noticed of late: that my fandom circle of aquaintance, friendships, reading habits and tastes have been widening. It keeps things more interesting and fun, and reminds me just how large this fandom really is, and how much variety of people and interests within it.

The "bad news" is that this round is over until the next "Classic Round" starting October 30th. The good news is that gives me plenty of time to procrastinate until the last minute prepare my lists in advance.

(And I hope y'all will forgive me an indulgence: I already mentioned in my last post that petzipellepingo surprised me by including one of my own posts from last June in their Top 5 picspam list. What I forgot to mention because it hadn't sunk in quite yet, was that I was keeping company alongside snowpuppies and comlodge, two of the most amazingly talented artists in this fandom. Are you kidding? I'm still dancing with joy.)

2) While I'm celebrating communities here, I want to give a shout-out to the wonderful editors of the Sunnydale Herald: rahirah,  secondalto, oni_9, lynnylou, gillo, audela & menomegirl  continue to prove at least 2-4 times a week that the activity and creativity in this fandom is truly an embarrassment of riches with your . At least 2-3 of the meta I rec'd on Buffyverse Top 5 I found on their lists, not to mention all the meta I wanted to rec but didn't have the time to. (Barb explained to me once how they manage to run and organize it and I still can't wrap my head around the work they do.)


And they've been providing something invaluable: free marketing and PR. Readers I wouldn't have been able to draw on my own, even if it's one person, and I didn't have to lift a finger. I didn't even have to tell anyone I'd written it; it's just there. I've watched my sweetie try to build her art blog and an audience out of whole cloth, without the support of a community or ready-made audience and it is damn hard and frustrating work. So every time I see one of my posts linked there it's another gift just falling into my lap, and I don't think there's any way I can adequately express my gratitude for that except to say "thank you".  (Can I get an "amen", somebody?)

Every time I got on the computer to continue writing I'd peek nervously at the BT5 home page in case someone else did a post on the subject before I finished or rec'd the stories I planned to; because in this instance I literallly had five and only five stories on my list. Buffy and Tara friendship (or even B/T ship fics) are one of THE hardest things to find in this fandom. And the only reason I even had five on my list was because punch_kicker15 rec'd new-to-me author elviswhataguy and literally saved my biscuits.

So, no one in swooped in before me, thank goodness; nor has anyone else done a "5 female-centric fics by clockwork_hart1" rec list. SHE'S MINE AND YOU CAN'T HAVE HER, PEOPLE. (I am, however, willing to share her on alternate Tuesdays.) No one else has done another meta list or an art list or...anything, actually, since rebcake posted her AO3 list on Sunday...three days ago.

Not that I'm trying to be a nag or anything, folks but....oh who the hell am I kidding? Ask my sweetie, she'll tell you: I AM an old-school nag and yes, I am nagging you right here and now. (A gal's gotta play to her strengths.)

DON'T LET BT5 DIE OUT! I need recs, lots of recs! Art, icons, fics, vids, essays! Show me stuff I haven't seen before, introduce me to people and to corners of fandom I didn't know existed. Show me that buffyverse fandom is about more than just "shipping" (romance, porn, whathaveyou.) Remind me of the richness of this verse as well as the unrealized posssibilities. Tell me something I don't know. Surprise me. Celebrate your favorite people and things - pimpage (aka "love") is what makes the fandom go 'round.

How else do you think I'm going to fill my empty hours and hone my talent for endless procrastination this year?

And if you won't do it for me, then, um....think of the children?

Posting my top 5 fanvid recs list in this round of TBT5 ended up being more challenging than I thought it would be! For one thing, endeni and petzipellepingo both rec'd two vids I had on my list ( here and here respectively); just yesterday I wished that more people would post non-fic rec lists. I gotta be careful what I wish for!

Also, my post honestly took me half the day to complete; I'd probably be a lot faster if I actually wrote out a list beforehand, maybe? (Like that'll happen.)  If I'd been faster and included all the ones I'd intended to I might have been able to put up another 5 vids; I may be able to find a couple more because the mods are strict on the 5 recs per post rule, and there's a couple of vids I hate to leave off, including Kayennatic's elegant and mournful Buffy character study, "O 'Death" .

Anyway only about four people, myself included have put up rec lists so far  - velvetwhip has 5 favorite Willow fics - so there's plenty of room for participation. The more the merrier, come join the party!