Interview meme; five questions from Kindkit

[janedavitt]

kindkit (I did that tag without recourse to the FAQ. Yay me. If it works, of course) interviewed me and asked me the following. I think the idea is if anyone reads this and wants me to interview them, just ask. And I will.

1) Tell me one thing you miss about England, and one thing you don't
miss.

Bluebells. My parents live next to a bluebell wood and they used to flower around my birthday (May 7). The scent of them singly is faint, almost not there, but after a rain shower, with the sun warm upon them, the wood, carpeted with them, so you couldn't walk in it without crushing them, so the ground was blue, just exuded this perfume. Hyacinths are close, but a little too strong. Bluebells are delicate; pick them and they die in minutes. The local kids used to yank up armfulls and dump them on the path outside out house because, by the time they'd finished playing, they'd wilted. Here's a link to google with some pictures;
Bluebells


What do I not miss? The weather. England is middling for the most part; I love the dramatic swoops Canada has; the blazing hot summers, the icy cold winters. Variety. Had too many holidays of two weeks in a tent, listening to the sound of raindrops on canvas, to miss British summers.

2) How did you first start reading/writing fanfic?

Even though it was less than two years ago, I can't quite recall but it went something like this. Season six had finished and I had this urge for more Spike. Perfectly understandable. Wasn't very clued in; didn't know anything about fanfic as such, but I knew there was a sister group to atvbvs for fanfic and I subscribed and began to read. Might have done a search for Spike fanfic because I read some fics on web pages, but not much. Then, after a month, I decided to write my own. Took me ages; three weeks or so to do a short, G rated Buffy and Spike (no /, heck, no kisses even) of about 2000 words. Spent longer on that than I have on any other fic. Posted it to atvbvsc and people were kind. Within a few days I'd knocked off two Willow/Tara ficlets and I never stopped. Sod Willow and her magic addiction; writing makes that look like kid's stuff. Discovered fanfic.net. Months later, discovered boards, yahoo groups, awards...in March last year I found here. I'm slow ;-) Wonder what would have happened if I'd come here first sometimes.

3) If you were to write Giles being spanked, who would spank him?

Would I do that? Not sure. He's Giles, you know? Whom could he trust that much, assuming it was done with his consent? Or surrender control to with all that that implies? Spike's the obvious candidate as I'm deep in BCD revisions right now. If he wasn't chipped in the period BCD is set,that would have been part of the chapter when Spike's in control for the night because it would be appropriate given what led up to him giving away his control.

Wesley? Umm. Yes, and I can think of one scenario when it could work; if it were set after Wes were tortured by Faith, if you could fit in a trip back to Sunnydale (or maybe Giles go to him as there isn't much time. Or set it after the Council men have been defeated when there isn't so much going on), if Giles thought it was partly due to him that Wes had been hurt (remember how angry Wes was that Giles didn't tell him about Faith waking up?) and Wes wanted to take out his anger, hurt someone, instead of always being the one to be hurt...not a nice reaction, maybe not very good for him, but possibly Giles would go along with it. Or Giles, feeling guilty over killing Ben, needing some sort of penance and turning to oh, gosh, lots of people. Even Angel, who knows something about guilt and brooding.

Hmm. Seems like I can rationalise anyone getting spanked. Heh.

4) What do you love about the Regency period?

If I can be superficial and base it on Heyer/Austen novels, it was such an elegant, leisurely time. The dresses; I can see myself in sprig muslin with puffed sleeves, or pomona green silk. I want to go to a modiste and be transformed into the first style of elegance, I want to dance at Almacks, eat shaved ham at Vauxhall, watch a balloon ascension and drive a carriage like the Grand Sophy. I want to fall in love with someone who's dressed by Weston and takes twenty minutes to tie his cravat...but will sweep me into a crushing embrace and not care if it suffers the consequences. I want to see the countryside, just before the Industrial Revolution, with England a 'green and pleasant land'...If I think about it rationally I know it was far more squalid and if you were poor or an ill bred commoner (yep, that would have been me!) it was hell, but even so. It's bathed in this glow of romance.

5) If you had a hotline to The Powers That Be, what event in BtVS/AtS
would you erase?

I want to immediately say the bathroom scene but it had all those consequences and they weren't all bad...
Lilah. I'd let her live. I want her kicking ass at W&H and taking Wesley's mind off Fred the best way. I realise that this is based on me watching Wes/Lilah vids all day but right now, I want her back.

That was fun! Thank you ::hugs::