here are many different Buffy and Angel books to discover on the shelves of your local library or bookstore. Whether official or unofficial, most specialize in either one series or the other, but only one is every fans dream! I am of course referring to the Bite Me! book written by Nikki Stafford. This book, originally published in 1998, has been updated and revised with the greatest of detail to encompass the first six seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the first three seasons of Angel, the Series.
BUFFY BITES BACK
Stafford's, first Edition. It all started with a girl, the rest was herstory.
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Following on the heels of the CoA review of this incredibly detailed book, curiosity knows no bounds and Nikki has graciously given us an insight into her beginnings and the catalyst for her career in writing. "I began writing professionally for a student newspaper in university," Nikki tells us, "and before that had tried my hand at creative writing, and wanted to write fiction, but when I was taking my graduate degree in English lit and looking for a publishing job, I came across ECW Press. The publisher wanted a book on Xena: Warrior Princess, and asked if I would be interested in writing it, based on my previous submissions." The rest, as they say, is history.
Then followed an idea that led to the original Bite Me! book, which was Nikki's
personal choice. "I'd been watching Buffy at that point and really pushed the publisher
to let me do a similar book, with an episode guide, bios, and such. Unfortunately, they
only gave me three months to finish the book. A few years later, following the success
of the original, I asked to do an updated version, which they gave me a year to write.
This gave me time to really research and write the book I'd always wanted to, rewriting
some of the earlier sections. My friends thought I was insane, but I'm really glad I did it!"
To pen a book which flows with such ease, it is obvious Nikki is a huge fan, but odds are that hasn't always been the case. "I watched Buffy off and on, but somehow every time I flipped over to it, I saw I Robot, You Jane, not one of my favourites, and I started to think it was just a monster-of-the-week show. Then I saw it from the first episode, and I was hooked immediately. Seeing it from the beginning made all the difference. When Angel was spun off, there was no question I would watch it, and while it made a slow start, it was so great to see some of my favourite characters week after week."
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"I saw it from the first episode, and I was hooked immediately. Seeing it from the beginning made all the difference."
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In the episode guides of Bite Me! there are several sub sections such as NITPICKS, which contains continuity errors and bloopers from the show. Nikki is the first and very proud to admit that she discovered all the bloopers reported in the book by herself. "It was really hard to stay away from the Nitpicks/Bloopers sites while working on the book, but I wanted to be able to honestly say I found them all myself, and I did (it's easier when you have to watch them 5 times...believe me, most of them weren't obvious). Like I said in the book, I didn't nitpick to make fun of the episode, it was all in fun. But when the book came out and I was able to happily run off and find some good blooper sites, I realized there were a ton of things I missed...oh well it was still fun."
Chatting with Nikki I asked about the HIGHLIGHTS subsection of the book, telling her I would have liked to have seen the same thing in the Angel section. Her reply was an enthusiastic, "Thanks! I'm glad you liked them. I would have loved to do the same for Angel. I wish I could have had the room to write the Angel guides as extensively as the Buffy ones. I tried to work the best moments right into the episode guides so I could still mention them. There are so many highlights from Angel, the one that immediately springs to mind was Numfar's 'Dance of Joy' in the season two episode, Through the Looking Glass. I still laugh out loud thinking of that. Joss Whedon is such a crack-up. Wow, there have been some great moments on this show!"
KUDOS EN MASSE
CityofAngel.com gets numerous mentions in Nikki's book, along with personal kudos to our very own Kristy Bratton. Nikki is not surprised at the huge fan-base both Buffy and Angel has, but it was difficult for her to choose which websites to feature. Nikki admits, "I had a very hard time choosing, and at first considered not running one at all, because by the time it hit bookstore shelves, two of the sites were no longer at the addresses I gave for them. But I think the Internet presence of Buffy fans is too important to ignore, so I put it in anyway. I wanted to keep it small though, and it was so painful to cut this massive list I originally had, to the smaller one you see in the book. I knew there was a huge fan presence on the Net, so it didn't surprise me, but I was surprised at the professionalism of CoA.
Inside the pages of Bite Me! The Angel Episode Guide and a candid view of David Boreanaz
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"I remember first contacting someone on the site and chatting about the book, and she said 'Oh, I'll put you in touch with our publicist.' And I thought 'Publicist?' So I'm thinking if it's a fan-site, 'publicist' could be a person who deals with getting the word out. But then I got this very professional, well-written press release, so I finally bit the bullet and just asked them, are they actually a real staff? And they told me how the site was put together, and they're very professional. If there's any site out there that should be considered The Official Angel site, this is it. And I'm not just saying that because you work there! I was so impressed with the people on this site, and not only are they professional, but friendly and helpful as well. I had a great time working with the people on CoA, and I was more than happy to mention them in the book!"
One thing that always grabs a fan's interest is what makes for a final draft, what is left in and what are omitted, and why? There were some things in particular that Nikki regretted having to leave out. "Oh, there's so much... I wish I could have made some sections longer, talked about the episodes more, and done a complete, exhaustive Angel episode guide. When I was watching Angel I had just as many notes as for Buffy, but we made the decision early on that Angel would have to be shorter or this book would be huge. Maybe some day I'll be able to do a separate book just for Angel, and that way I'd be able to incorporate music, highlights, nitpicks, etc, for all of those episodes as well.
"I wanted to do a table of writers, as I think it's important to know that Joss Whedon wrote this episode, or Tim Minear [executive producer] wrote that one, but in the end for space reasons it was left out of the book. There were also some heated discussions that happened because of certain incidents in episodes. While I mentioned some of them, and the fan reaction to them, I couldn't do all of them, as some were very complex, such as the death of Tara. That would have been interesting." When Amber Benson's character was killed off in the episode Seeing Red of season six, the fan backlash was fast and furious. The fans love their favorites but in this wacky world of Whedon, when you least expect it - expect it! "I also did a section on Allie Costa [Little Willow], who is wonderful, and I would have liked to profile some other people who have played a major role in the Buffy/Angel fandom. Ah well.... Things to remember for my next book!"
Nikki with her ever supportive husband Robert
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Of course, Nikki has already written several other books covering other popular television series such as Star Trek and Xena, so there just may be future plans in that department. "I keep an eye out for new shows every year and I become interested in some of them, others I don't. I was a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation and I enjoyed Roswell, Smallville, Alias, and Firefly. I have just begun watching Birds of Prey. Right now, I'm taking a break from writing, but in another year or so, I might have found the one I want to write about."
I found out during the course of this interview that Nikki has relatives of friends who live less than 5 miles away from me. When we were chatting she mentioned she had been to The Oracle Centre in Reading which is a huge mall so I thought it would be fun to put something along the lines of: "The Oracles salute you Nikki Stafford!" here at the end. With connections to the Powers That Be in the Buffy-verse, one never knows what blessings will be bestowed upon one, and a 10% discount at Harrods never hurts. Bite Me! is a must for any fan who slays vampires in their darkest dreams, full of over 450 pages of quipts, quotes, facts and photos, this book will keep you entrenched in the shadows for many an evening to come. As its author, a true delite!
Written by CoA Staff Writer, Allison Brown
Got Bitten!
Winners of the Autographed copy of "Bite Me!"
signed by Nikki Stafford
The Answers are:
Q - Name the three (3) times Buffy actually says "Bite Me"?
Season 1 ~ "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" ~ said to Herself (in the Bronze with the Pool Cue)
Season 3 ~ "Helpless" ~ said to Quentin Travers (in the Library with the Crossbow)
Season 5 ~ "Intervention" ~ Buffybot to Spike (in the Crypt with the Candlestick)
Q - Name the three (3) infamous Vampires who actually did Bite Buffy?
The Master
Angel
Dracula
The Winners are:
Mary M. ~ Cherry Hill, NJ
Amber H. ~ Lincoln, NE
Guido S. ~ New York, NY
CityofAngel would like to Graciously Thank Nikki Stafford for her patience with first time nerves, and her very generous help in donating not only her time, but also copies of her book.
If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Behind the Scenes' feature, we would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com
