I won art from
twisted_slinky in
spn_bigpretzel's
Hurricane Sandy Relief Auction. I asked her if she'd do some for the second story I ever wrote, a Buffy/Supernatural crossover called
Take the Long Way Home. She did TWO pieces for me and they're both awesome. I also owe her so much for giving me such great feedback when I was writing that story, because it is so terrifying when you first start posting and I had NO IDEA what I was doing. A little support goes a long way, so thank you :D
Obviously, giving to worthy charities like disaster relief is extremely important, but as far as the fandom family goes, I think we all (myself included) need to do a better job in the 'giving feedback' department in the coming year. Personally, I'm often very tied up in writing my own stuff and miss out on a lot of great fic. I need to take more time to enjoy reading again!
If you're one of those that is afraid to leave reviews and doesn't know what to say, trust me, 99% of us authors are just regular people. We're not sitting in some French cafe wearing a beret, sipping some fancy coffee, and chain smoking while we finish our "masterpiece". We're much more likely to be doing the laundry and (God help me) trying to clean out whatever it was that was under the microwave *is ashamed*. Point being, we're not that scary. Anyway.... Check out my pretties!!!