Fun things I've been reading.

Continuing with my newfound resolution to rec at least some of the things I read and like (even though I'm still convinced you all must have seen them already, especially since I usually find things through other people's recs):

"It's Just a Jump to the Left" by kimberly_fan (who is actually a person, not a community).
This is a brilliant and complete Xander/Spike story, in which Xander's caught in a time loop very different from Buffy's mummy hand incident. The time-loop plot is interesting and comes to a satisfying resolution, and the gradual changes in Xander's feelings about Spike are a wonder to behold. There's a sequel in the works now, which I'm naturally going to be sucked into reading as a WIP. (Karmic retribution for never having suffered through a summer hiatus, since I just started watching the actual shows on DVD last September?)

"Old Blood" by Nan Dibble. Hey, this one's actually Spike/Buffy! (I'm continually amazed by BtVS's ability to get me interested in a pairing that's both het and canon; I swear that's never happened to me before. Maybe it's just that Buffy and Spike have such a slashy vibe.) Well, in fact the story focuses even more on Spike and Dawn's friendship than on Spike and Buffy, which is cool since that particular dynamic kinda got lost in the real S7. This is a slightly AU S7, picking up after "Get It Done." The plot centres on Spike's efforts to dust the fledges he created under the First's influence. The writing is beautiful. Oh, and the SITs are ever so much more individual, faceted and likeable here than in canon, even though they're still just minor characters! There are several sequels, which I haven't read yet.

Un-GIP

I'm calling this an un-GIP post 'cause I'm using it to ponder on why I don't have nifty-sexy icons like most of the rest of you.

Feel free to skip this probably very boring post.

This comes up 'cause glimmergirl noted my iconless state and offered to make me some. Which, wow, how sweet! But here I am up late at night and all introspective, pondering important life questions like "Why don't I have sexy fannish icons?" and "How will my life change if I get some?"

Um, the major reasons why I use the odd cat instead of a changing stream of sexy fannish icons are:

1) I started my fannish LJ only after keeping a non-fannish, personal LJ for a year. My flist for that journal consists of people I know in RL, and we talk about RL things, and our user icons are mostly representations of ourselves. In some cases, actual photos; in other cases, cartoon portraits or whatnot. So when I first created this journal, the idea of representing myself with a picture of, say, Spike, seemed very odd to me; he doesn't look like me at all!

2) I journal from an old laptop with a somewhat crappy screen. Text is OK, but most photos look very dark. Also, my only photo manip program's abilities are limited to resize, rotate and crop; that is it. So I don't really have the ability to make nifty icons for myself. So I just never worried about it.

3) When I first joined fandom, I was overwhelmed by its bigness and wondered how I would ever get to know people; furthermore, how would anyone ever get to know me? I figured I'd be a little easier to remember if my icon stayed the same instead of changing often (thus I can be remembered as a picture and a name, not just a name).

So, um, yeah, that's about it. That's why the cat. That, and I think it's a pretty nifty cat. (It's a detail from a photo in a book called "Why Paint Cats," and the markings on its face were actually painted onto the live cat, with vegetable dye. It's an odd book with very amusing pictures.)

But I've come to appreciate the eye candy of other peoples' icons (especially since my flist is tailored to the Spike-centric, so this means whenever I scroll down my flist I get lots and lots of Spike!) So I'm actually starting to feel kind of bad for not providing eye candy in my turn. Plus, hey, sexy = good.

So. You out there, what do you think? Should I beg sexy fannish icons from people with the ability to make them?

Staying up 'till 3:30 am reading fic is bad for me but oh, so, fun.

A final rec before I go to sleep (and hm, maybe tomorrow I should show some restraint and not go looking for fic, so that I can get some writing done ... or some job searching)

Back Before Dawn by Annakovsky.
It's a really interesting premise: what if BtVS S6 & S7 were actually a wishverse, and the original timeline was something different entirely? It's ultimately a lovely escapist fantasy: escape the darkness of S6 & S7! Nicely executed, with some really good character voices (parts are narrated by all the major characters and a few minor ones). No particular pairings are focused on; this is an adventure, not a romance.