COMPETITION: Notice As Heroes Awards enters it's 25th round, I decided it was time to do something unusual at this site. Have an author competition. But seeing the huge amount of authors I had and the big variation insubmissions I decided to put down a line and invite all authors who have contributed with 5 or more fics in my past rounds to enter this competition. All authors with 5 or more fics in my archive will be contacted by me and invited to enter. Any author with less than 5 fics (even if the fifth is in the nominated bit still) will not have the opportunity to enter. This is for my most loyal contributors, a kind of reward for submitting fic after fic, cause it's contributing that keeps this site alive and well. What do the authors have to do? First of all decide to enter, like any other award I will have to have at least 3 competing. Go to the archive at this site and pick out the three fics that best repressents them as authors, but the fics will have to fit 3 different categories, doesn't matter which, but they have to be different. I award variety, not reruns. Write a profile and answer the questions I send by mail. The winner will receive a plaque to display at his or her site, (s)he will also get his/her own profile at this site. This competition will only be eligeble at anniversary rounds, meaning it will be a very rare award, so I hope my most faithful submitters will seize this chance. If you find out you are one of the authors with 5 or more fics in the archive and for some reason can't find any mail from me inviting you to compete, please contact me

COMPETITION: The Winner Evaluation I want to thank all my participants in this special contest. It was great to have so many authors showing their interesst, it was great reading so many great biographies, getting a little bit into each authors set of mind, their reasons for writing, their inspiration. Also it was great to come to the realization to how many great fics I have come to have in the archive. So before anything else is written I want to thank all the participants. My intentions when I started judging this contest was not to just find good fanfiction, because if that was what I was looking for I would have serious trouble announcing a winner. Of course I judged the fics sepparately in terms of quality and genre. But what I was first of all looking for was diversity. When this left me with three outstanding authors I had to search for something else. And in the end I came to the conclucion that the winner would have to be: Gidgetgirl The reason for why this particulary author was chosen is because of her great originalty to her plots. I don't want to call it easy to make really dark and angsty plots, but they are easier appreciated as great fiction than fiction of lighter, more humourous variety. I've had many different types of both angst and fluff throughout these past 25 rounds. It is so easy to give into the pure sillyness and loose the meaning when it comes to humor. It's easy to loose the depht when you write fluff, however this isn't the case with this author. The mix of a childs adorableness, fantasy and the sort of intelligence that people aren't always aware of existing in a child. As well as original plot-ideas, introducing original elements such as a demi-slayer. The way she can write the inner angst of a childs painfull past without overdoing or underdoing it. She knows where to put the balance between being serious and silly. "Throwback" is an excellent example on how she can all of a sudden turn Angel and Faith into their child selves, really portrait Faiths painfull past through the innocent eyes of a child. Keeping such distinguished characteristics we know the characters and then some. It's funny, it's intelligent. An original piece of fiction. "Thine Own Self", being part of the Hopie Cronicles, portraits what I have to call the most original kid in fiction, her background, her powers, the innocence and the whole bit with her favourite toys being a crossbow and Bob the flamethrower. And the massive amount of original characters who, unlike many stories throughout the net isn't forgotten midway. Each character gets their own personal time in the stories, you get to know them and you get to like them. "Cheaper by the dozen" has to be one of my favourite fanfics, the way she can put 12 allready existing Buffy-characters as siblings, keep their distinct personalities and yet make them believable as kids. My favourites in this story have to be Anya and Andrew the youngest twins, even being put in two 4 year old bodies they are exactly the way you know them. So far I will have to say this author has been the only one who can make me read Angel/Cordelia (one of my most hated pairings) and make me enjoy the story so much that I forget my dislike for them. And for anyone who doesn't know me, I have to tell you, that is an astonishing accievement!

COMPETITION: The Honorary Authors Because of the competition being so hard and so many participating I decided to give out an honorary award the two other authors to stand out of the crowd. A congratulations and a plaque to both "crazy_girl_mary" and "D. M. Evans". And with this being me and the fact that never before have I given out any honorary or second place awards, I hope both think of this as positive.

AUTHOR: Biography: Gidgetgirl First and foremost, I love fics that explore character motivation and psyche. When I read a fic, I want to know why the characters do the things they do, what they feel, and, most of all, what defines the dynamics of the complex buffyverse relationships. In terms of psychological depth, I love looking into the characters whose pasts seem to motivate their present personalities, most notably Tara (TARA INSIDE, NOTIONS, DADDY'S GIRL) and Faith (CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, THROWBACK, THE BAD GIRL, BACKLASH, THE HOPIE CHRONICLES, THE OTHER SIDE). I really like fics that explore what makes people tick, and, I have to admit it, I'm a sucker for fluff and kiddos. There's something about writing or reading about a child that appeals to me: there's an innocence there, but more importantly, a kind of wacky, but sage knowledge that people lose once they grow up. It's pretty obvious looking at my 50 + stories at ff.net that I'm a sucker for kidfic. I love throwing our favorite canon characters into parental roles and trying to imagine how they might grow, change, soften, and receive redemption through the eyes of their children. I'm also found of 'throwback' fics, which has become fairly common slang for fics in which characters are turned into small children. THROWBACK gave me the opportunity to explore Faith's past, and to give Angel a child-like side that we rarely see in adult Angel, and I've since found myself compelled to throw back other characters, always choosing a setting in which character dynamics play a major role. My two other recent fic loves are AU fics which are not shippy and unusual crossovers. Almost every all-human AU fic I've ever read has been ship-centric, and it got me to thinking: what about using alternative settings to explore the most complicated relationships on the show? Not the romantic relationships, but the platonic ones. CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN was my attempt to take a look into the Faith and Buffy relationship in a different setting, but with its sequel, TALK IS CHEAP, I've returned to look at the relationships between all of the characters, framing the buffyverse dynamics in vignettes told from the POV of small children. Unusual crossovers, and unusual crossover pairings, are just so much fun to write. Currently, I'm in the midst of a Full House Crossover, and I've completed a Home Improvement Crossover (in which Xander appears on Tool Time) and a Sweet Valley Crossover (in which everyone suspects Jessica is actually a robot). By far my most popular crossover, The Call pits a Spuffy child against several teenage babysitters...the Babysitters Club. Crossing together a supernatural world and these other, more ideallic, non-supernatural worlds is a challenge, but for me, it's more fun than practically anything else. Recently, I've also started a yahoo group for supporters of weird or unusual buffy ships (www.groups.yahoo.com/weirdbuffyships). It's given me an opportunity to experiment with ships like Xander/Fred, Lindsey/Anya, Giles/Tara, and more. I write Buffy fic because I can't seem to help it and because there's always more to write if you're willing to look at it from a new angle. Next to shiny things, there's nothing I like better than a challenge, and that's exactly what fanfic is.

AUTHOR: Questions and Answers: Gidgetgirl Why did you start writing fics? - I started writing fics on Halloween night my freshman year of college... my roommate and I were insanely hyper and crafted a 'plan' to see if we could convince people that Dawn's first name was actually 'Gidget' through fanfiction. We figured that no one would name their first child Buffy and their second child Dawn, and Gidget Dawn seemed to go with Buffy Anne, hence project Gidget was born. That is actually where my authorname comes from. Soon, I found myself drawn further into the world of serious fic, and stories that I'd been thinking up in my mind for years (Anni from the Hopie Chronicles was born in my mind while watching Angel Season One, long before I knew fanfic even existed) demanded to be written. From there, it's all history. What will you say was the ultimate inspiration for starting in the first place? - Probably my dreams, as I tend to dream dreams set in the Buffyverse, which inspire all kinds of fics, notably LE BELLA. Feedback is also a huge inspiration for me, as well as a naughty muse that I like to call Morrigan. Are there any fanfic authors out there that in some way have affected what you write and the way you write it, in that case who? - Hmmmm... probably HonorH. Her 'Ties that Bind' series was the first fanfic I ever read and it inspired me to write fic of my own. Which characters/pairings do you prefere to write about and why? - Faith and Tara because of their backgrounds, Anya for humor purposes, and Dawn because I think she's relatable. As for pairings, I like unusual pairings (like Lindsey/Anya), but I'm also a sucker for Buffy/Angel (a shock, I know, given my tendency to write Spuffy and Cordy/Angel), Xander/Anya, Faith with just about anyone, but especially Lindsey. I like to ship together characters who have either relatable pasts (like Lindsey's childhood poverty and Faith's childhood neglect) or matching needs for redemption (as in a post-vengeance Anya and a post-evil lawyer Lindsey). Which episode would you most like to rewrite of all episodes on Buffy and Angel and what would you change? - Hmmmm... I'd say Conversations with Dead People, but I already did that, but I think I'd actually most like to see The Real Me rewritten with Dawn three years younger, as she was originally meant to be. Do you write about other fandoms, in that case which? - I crossover to lots of fandoms (The OC, Roswell, Babysitter's Club, Home Improvement, Harry Potter, and I've written independently for Roswell, The OC, Charmed, 7th Heaven, and Dawson's Creek). Have you written or do you still dream about your "dream fic"? - Like I said before, several of my fics have literally been 'dream fics' in that I actually dreamt them before they turned into reality. I think, for me, the actual dream fic was probably either Things Unseen or Small Packages. What category do you prefere to write and why? - Kidfic, because I'm a kid at heart, humor, because in real life, I'm not that funny, and pastfic, because I think we all deserve explanations. What is your greatest source of inspiration? Besides Morrigan the Muse? - Probably real life, in all its splendor, complete with crazy friends and a tight-knit family, and also people-watching in general and interacting with small children.

AUTHOR: Fanfiction Archive: Gidgetgirl A very Hopie christmas (Angel/Cordy) Silliness and fluff, companion to Only Hope Ahem (Cordelia/Doyle) Cordelia and Doyle discuss baby names... Cheaper by the dozen (All) Nine year old Faith Giles is the middle child of twelve, and a troublemaker. Hilarity ensues. Come The Spring (Buffy/Angel, their daughter) Giles has been raising Buffys daughter as his own, but then Bryn learns who her real parents are. Conversations with small people (All) Ghosts of their pasts appear to the Scoobies in the forms of their little kid selves Jezebel (Drusilla) Drusilla as a child... Le Bella (Wes/Willow, Buffy/Spike, Angel/Cordy, Faith/Lindsey) Hopie goes to kindergarthen... Little Poet, Little Vamp (Buffy/Spike) Buffy and Spike’s four year old twins, popsicles, and Daddy the softy. Luck of the Irish (Angel/Cordelia) This story is a fluffy companion piece to my Hopie/Anni series that includes Only Hope, Le Bella, and Things Unseen, as well as another companion, A Very Hopie Christmas. Mommy's little Capitalist and the Perfect Costume (Xander/Anya) Xander and Anya tries to find the perfect Halloween costume for their daughter. Not So Fast, Small, Green Entrepreneur (Xander/Anya) An other adventure of mommy's little capitalist... Notions (Tara) Taras experience as a kid. Only hope (Angel/Cordelia) A little girl named Hopie... Seek and destroy on Halloween (Cordelia, Wesley, Faith & Liam) Cordelia and Wes are adults and Faith and Liam are kids and it's Halloween. Sheep Karaoke (Angel, Cordelia, Connor, and leprechauns) This is a companion to The Hopie Chronicles... Small Packages (All) The Scoobies are running a preschool for little slayers, when Faith shows up with a three year old daughter who can talk to the dead. The Bad Girl (Faith) Faith and Angel have been turned into small children, and Wes and Cordelia have been taking care of them. The Bad Word Game (Liam) Four year old Liam’s take on girls, vampires, popsicles, and Saturday morning cartoons. The Constitutional Cutie Series (Lindsey/Anya, Angel) Lindsey and Anya's four year old daughter studies with her Aunt Fred, tortures her Uncle Angel, and talks about sex, ice cream, the constitution, and other wonderful things. The Life in Shadow Series (Tara) *R* A series of vignettes looking at Tara's childhood. Angst warning. The Natural Way (Kate/Oz) This is a companion to The Hopie Chronicles, taking place right after Thine Own Self, in answer to The Matchmaker challenge at LMMDI, for a leprechaun to play matchmaker between Oz and Kate. The Zoe and Emma series (Buffy/Spike) A ficlet series following Spike and Buffy's four year old twins: dreamy Emma and Hurricane Zoe Thine Own Self (Angel/Cordelia) And other story from the Hopie universe. Things Unseen (Wes/Willow, Angel/Cordy, Lindsey/Faith) The Watcher's council steals Wes's baby from Lilah's womb Throwback (Faith, Liam, Cordy & Wes) A spell goes wrong and Angel and Faith are turned into to 4 year olds...