Buffyverse Fanfic by Herself

( She liked you. )

( Oh, sure, let's have the better word. )

Author's Note: OK, campers, those of you who are still with me through changes and redactions. First of all, I'm sorry to jerk you around--I know it's frustrating as a WIP reader to have over a dozen chapters just suddenly yanked. And that's what I've done. (The redacted chapters are still here; they've been retagged as distance: redacted, and can still be read with their comments if you click on that tag in the journal sidebar.)

With the help of only_passenger and thedeadlyhook (whom I thank heartily herewith) and my own fevered dissatisfied brain, I've rethought where this story is going, and hereby resume it with good expectations for finishing it in a timely manner.

And don't despair for The Proper Slayer either, because I plan to continue with that once Distance is concluded.

( I'm a honey trap, huh? You think they'd've told me. I'd have combed my hair.  )

( The Aurelian trust. They didn't change your PIN number when you came back human, did they? )

( I thought it was my daughter you were in love with. )

Author's Note: Some readers commented on the last part about the logistical difficulties of some of the action. I just want to point out that in the Jossverse canon, all kinds of logistical difficulties were skimmed over or ignored altogether, and ask you to read this story in that great tradition of La La La.

( I'm a blood-drinker, missus. You know that. )

Buffy's run away from home and from her guilt-wracked love affair with a soulless Spike. When she tries to leave the past behind in a small Canadian town, her life takes a strange turn.


( Do you still want me, Buffy? )

NOTE: I have redacted the last two updates on this fic. I wasn't happy with my characterizations. The parts are still up, but struck-through and no longer linked directly. The story instead continues from here. Thanks for your patience with my writerly freak-outs! I hope this will mark the resumption of normal service. :)


Since Distance has been sent to its room to think about its sins, The Proper Slayer has come down and is tugging at my skirts instead.

This fic was last updated in early November, so herewith, a brief recap of the story so far:

( Spoilers for LET'S GET LOST and THE PROPER SLAYER behind the cut .... )

~~~

( Mrs Summers, there's a vampire here! )

Feb 26, 2008: NOTE: I'm redacting chapters 20 and 21, and replacing them with new material. In order to keep things orderly, I'm doing a strike-through here and will link chapter 19 to the new chapter 20.




( You have to take me as I am. )

Feb 26, 2008: NOTE: I'm redacting chapters 20 and 21, and replacing them with new material. In order to keep things orderly, I'm doing a strike-through here and will link chapter 19 to the new chapter 20.





Since Distance has been sent to its room to think about its sins, The Proper Slayer has come down and is tugging at my skirts instead.

This fic was last updated in early November, so herewith, a brief recap of the story so far:

( Spoilers for LET'S GET LOST and THE PROPER SLAYER behind the cut .... )

And now for the next part of The Proper Slayer:

( Hey baby, how was work? )

To my loyal wonderful readers:

There's always a risk when a writer does what I've been doing, posting a story just as fast as I make it up. I've never been the kind of writer who outlines or plans; I often don't know what's going to happen when I sit down to write the next part.
It's a high-wire act. For most of the time with Distance I was on an almost magical roll, the story just poured forth, I was on fire.

Then that changed.

I'm sure most of you have noticed that the story has lost some of its focus and momentum. I thought for a while that I could write through this, but now I think I'm going to take a step back, and will probably remove a big chunk of the recent parts, and do a major rewrite/revision. I can't say what parts will be yanked yet, because I want to do a thorough reread and have a good think about it. Nor can I say how quickly I'll make the changes, or much of anything, except that I hope the finished product will be better as a result.

I understand if this is annoying or worse than annoying, but of course we all know that fanfic is a labor of love, and a diversion, and for me writing it it's also an experience and an experiment--and in this case I reserve the option to revise the experience and create a different experience.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the parts that are posted here that I'm going to remove. I can't make those entries private so I may have to delete them and alas delete the comments too. Or I may figure out a way to map the links around them while making it clear they're no longer a part of the fic.

This is kind of a downer for me, but again, that's what can happen when you write out in public.

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( Don't leave me here. )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( No slayer is ever defenseless. )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( Come here, you silly little bitch. Could thrash you for a little fool. )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( Who ever thought you having a wet dream on my back would be so romantic? )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( I haven't had a happy drunk in I don't know when. Kiss me. )

A big thank you to those who commented on the last post eliciting questions and suggestions about the fic. (It's not too late to add your thoughts.)

I found the whole discussion in the comments interesting and inspiring. I think there's more to explore in this story, so I'm going to let it go on and not worry about tying it all up and ending it yet. Though I may have to slow down the posting rate ....

OK, so I'm probably not going to be able to post part 60 today, because I haven't yet written part 60.

Hence, an experiment. I thought I'd ask here for people to respond if they'd like, by commenting on anything about the story that they're wondering about, that feels like a loose end or a plot/character hole, that they'd like to see happen or see the characters discuss before it wraps up. I ask this not because I'm fishing for more praise but because right now it feels like I have zero perspective and could use someone else's . And often I get ideas from the comments, hints and reminders of things I wasn't considering that I then consider.

So, no promises that anything you ask about will actually happen, but please speak up and know your comment, on WHATEVER, may be a valuable spur to my creative process ....

Thanks!

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( What d'you want, you greedy little minx? )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

Note to my readers: I did that annoying but sometimes necessary thing of deciding that what I'd posted in the last chapter wasn't quite right. So I've altered the ending of part 57; some of what was there is now instead in part 58, and then there are new scenes. Hope this doesn't confuse anybody. Click the previously link to get caught up.


( Spike? What just happened? )

Thank you, slaymesoftly!

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

Author's note: I changed the amount of time Spike spent in London before going to Dawn in St Andrew's from a couple of week to more like a couple of months. I'm not revising what's posted here but the change will be reflected in the final archive of this fic at Bugger This.

( I never wanted to leave you. You know that, yeah? )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( You're always too easy on me. )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

This part was really REALLY hard to write. ( Read more .... )

This section of the fic has been redacted. I've left it here as an out-take.

( Tell me the truth. What's the matter, Buffy? )