Yes, there are ties that need to be broken at whedon_elite but  setentpet has cleverly decided not to reveal what they are. She's simply requesting more people vote at the original post, which only heightens the suspense in my opinion.  Well played, indeed. Now goest thou and vote. ASAP.

Speaking of voting, only 13 ballots have been cast at Round 16 of btvsats20in20, which is kind of sad. Do you understand what that means? Never mind the long hours spent slaving over a hot stove in front of a computer making icons, that means only 13 or so people have appreciated bangel_4e's super-adorable Lorne banners for the round, and that just ain't right!

 So I'll make it easy for you to join in the fun:   THEMES       CATEGORY ICONS & SETS   ARTISTS' CHOICE ICONS & SETS

BTW, the rules forbid me from promoting my own work so I wouldn't and won't. However there is nothing to technically forbid me from saying that Set #1 in the AC sets deserves more looks than it's gotten. And I don't know the artist all that well beyond a few exchanges here on LJ and I won't even say their name. I just think it's a nifty set. And this is NOT to take anything away from any of the other wonderful sets. The rest of the competition?  I'm pretty cool with so far. I'd always like to do better than I'm doing but hopefully that will just push me to improve. (Once again I feel I've hit that "brick wall" stage of things. Or maybe I just keep running into different parts of the same damn wall.)

Weirdly enough, I am actually allowed to promote my own work when it comes to voting for Viewer's Choice at the rwsawards but I really haven't because...I like my own poster for "Closure" and am thrilled that it was nominated, but boiiko and Restfield's (aka rbfvid) entries deserve to be in the lead. Both of those posters are the total package in terms of aesthetic and technical merit.

I have no opinion to offfer on the Reader's Choice section - there is a list of terrific work, many by people I know, love and respect, and really not a bad one in the bunch. So you're on your own there. But do vote while you have the time. It takes but a minute.

* Thank you to the voters at actress_ic Challenge 111 for voting my Lillian Gish icon Best Crop, and congratulations to the other winners erinm_4600, dragonydreams, vampgirl_nisha, ciuciuvaraworld, sandy79 and mops1980! This is my first time entering this icontest and it's very encouraging.
Thanks as ever to my darling beta-Muse velvetwhip for her input. My entries this round are dedicated to her because of our shared love of silent films; and she requested the Alice Joyce icon, introducing me to an actress I'd never heard of before.

1-4 are my entries, 5-6 the alts. 1, 2 & 5: Lillian Gish; 5: Dorothy Mackaill; 4, 6: Alice Joyce
        1  - 6
Winner, Best Crop

Resources: "Frames" on 1 - 3 by scoobyatemysnax;  floral prints on 4 -6 by colorfilter.

Speaking of betas, the final slate of nominations for Round 11 of rwsawards have been posted and THANK YOU to the darling person who surprised me with a Best Beta nomination!  I understand these awards are judged (rather than popular vote) and thank goodness; becaus I can find so many of my favorite fics of the last year in any given category, I'd be paralyzed with indecision. I don't envy the judges one bit; the nominations slate is a Who's Who of some of the very best writers and artists in Buffyverse fandom right now. I'd name off all my friends who have been nominated but we'd be here all day so, trust, you're better off checking it out for yourself.

I'd never heard of the RwSA until the fabulous velvetwhip pimped it the other day: dedicated entirely to BtVS/AtS fanfiction and fanart. (Crossovers are limited to Supernatural.)  It has categories for icons, as well as banners, wallpapers, manips, and a somewhat more limited number of fiction categories than the SunnyD awards. (Which isn't necesarily a bad thing at all, and may in some ways be easier for my little brain to handle.) No meta categories *pout*. Someday, maybe...?

Nominations are accepted until July 27th.  Read the Rules & Dates carefully, because anarchy is a nice idea in theory but not so great in practice. Then check out the current list of nominees , which includes the short list of people who are not eligible for further nominations in this round.

In a recent conversation slaymesoftly and spuffy_luvr both expressed the idea that these awards are a great way of nominating older works that newbies may not be aware of and/or recent "fringe" authors who are new to fandom or simply not as well-recognized. There are certain authors who get nominated and awarded repeatedly, with very good reason: they are good writers and/or they've built up an appreciative following.

The outpouring of creativity in our fandom is amazing, and I know it's easy for me to forget a fabulous story I read a few months back but got lost in my copious list of bookmarks, while certain other stories/authors jump out at me easily.  So these  awards challenge me to go deep into my personal "library stacks" rather than just grab the story within easy reach at the front counter display.

If anyone happens to know who made the gorgeous banner above, please let me know so I can give credit where it's due.
ETA: RwSA's moderator darkgoddessgege just informed me that she's the artist. Gorgeous.  (In future, my dears, follow the example set by the lovely comlodge and artists since time immemorial: SIGN YOUR WORK! You wouldn't post a story or meta anonymously, would you? Of course not.)