This needed a little thought here and there, not just a fast write-in, took me about 15 minutes to be sure of the parsing as well as entering the answers where obvious. All very fair and I would think of medium difficulty as the Quickies go.
| Across |
| 1 | PAINSTAKING - PA (father), IN (at home), STAKING (killing a vampire); def. conscientious. |
| 8 | ELLIPSE - EL (in Spain, the), LIP (edge) SE; def. curve. |
| 9 | PLACE - P (soft, piano), LACE (delicate fabric); def. locate. |
| 10 | INTERCEPT - (TIP CENTRE)*; def. cut off. |
| 12 | HEN - HE (male) N(ame); def. female. |
| 13 | MAROON - Double definition; a colour, and to strand, or leave stranded e.g. on a desert island. |
| 15 | UNREAL - Def. pretended, sounds like UN-REEL, to take off spools. |
| 17 | YAP - PAY (salary) reversed; def. shrill cry. |
| 18 | STAGE NAME - SAME (unchanged) around (AGENT)*; def. actor's moniker. |
| 20 | ACORN - Double definition pun; hard fruit of tree, and A CORN. |
| 22 | COINAGE - Double def; Bits of loose change, and a noun meaning the making up of a word - more usually seen as a verb, 'to coin a word'. Not obvious until you have the checking letters. |
| 23 | EJECTOR SEAT - Easy cryptic definition. |
| Down |
| 1 | PILOT - PLOT (conspiracy) with I (one) involved; I presume a pilot is 'one of them' because a pilot will PLOT a course. |
| 2 | IMPERIOUS - I'M PERILOUS (dangerous) with the L removed; def. domineering. |
| 3 | SKEWER - Double def; a spike, and something that would distort, since 'to skew' can mean 'to distort' e.g. an image. |
| 4 | ASP - AS (like) P (middle letter of Cleopatra); the cause of her demise. |
| 5 | IVANHOE - IVAN (terrible ruler, the Russian chap), HOE (remove weeds); def. Saxon hero, of the eponymous novel. |
| 6 | GREENSLEEVES - Cryptic definition for the tune, grassy elbows, ha ha. |
| 7 | DEVIL-MAY-CARE - (AVARICE LED MY)*; def. reckless. |
| 11 | TANGERINE - TANG (strong flavour), then ERE (before) wrapping IN, TANG-ER(IN)E; def. fruit. |
| 14 | REPROVE - RE-PROVE would be to show the truth again, REPROVE means reprimand. |
| 16 | CANCER - Zodiac sign, hidden in signifi(CANCE R)ecognised. |
| 18 | APART - A PART = actor's role, APART = separated. |
| 21 | NUT - Double definition; a fan, and a variety of nut. |