On Christmas Presents, Where They Are Joined, and Building Bridges · 9:47pm Dec 28th, 2012
Hullo m'dears!
I would like to apologize for the post-spam. I try to keep these updates for when I've actually got something of substance to say, and therein the problem; there's rather a lot to say these days.
So, we've all eaten the [insert relevant food], we've watched the Hearth's Warming play and then done whatever else we do during these joyous or terrible holiday times. In my part of the world, this means a smattering of presents. It's funny; with each year, it seems I get less and less presents, but they also mean more and more to me. Today, I'd like to speak to you of a rather stellar present I received.
A year and a bit ago, I wrote a rather long adventure story called Within and Without. Maybe you've read it. Maybe you haven't. It's a season 1 adventure story that, like a distressing amount of my stories, is dear to me in a very unique way. It's in many ways the darkest story I've written (though that's not saying much), but I also love it to bits, flaws and all.
Imagine my surprise when I received this.
You'll pardon the large image, I'm sure, but yes. So it happens that Corma, a very dear friend of mine, decided to do this for me for Christmas. The original artist of Within and Without's original cover art touched it up for the occasion, adding detail, and another dear friend of mine assisted with advice on how to do formatting etc. Here's the full gallery if you want a peek.
The time it must've taken to reformat it to book format/style is considerable, and the organizational challenges - I am well and truly stunned.
I am also in possession of a hardcover copy of something I've written. This is a ridiculously awesome feeling, a childhood dream, even if it won't go much further than this for the moment. This is amazing. Corma, Kits, OB, y'all are amazing ponies.
And that brings us over to topic #2: Where They Are Joined is up and running. If you haven't already read the fics that lead up to it, you may want to have a look at Where Earth Meets Sky and Where Your Heart Is, the AppleShy and PinkieDash prequels, respectively. As I keep saying, you don't need to; the story was written as a standalone, as were they all, but they are a single continuity.
I haven't decided on update pattern just yet, but the entire story is done, and I just finished uploading the last of the chapters. I'm somewhat slowed down by the fact that the Gdocs import sometimes eats paragraphs, so I need to read through this one more time before I can enable the next chapters. It won't take very long, and I expect the next chapter or chapters will be up very shortly. The story is about the same length as the other stories in the continuity.
It's a bloody relief to finally finish it. I've been wanting to close off the WEMSverse for a long while now, and I'm finally there. I'm very excited to hear what people think!
Speaking of excitement (worst segue 2012), Somepony's Building Bridges comic finally got onto EqD. This is awesome in a million different ways and shapes, and I'm happy it finally gets the recognition it deserves. It also means Building Bridges is on the "Popular Stories" sidebar, which is absolutely hilarious. If you're came here via Somepony on DeviantArt, let me know!
That's about it. Hm. Awesome new book, talk about new fic, talk about old fic, yep. Now I just need to finish the whole release song-and-dance of WTAJ and I can move on to PinkieLestia. or RariLuna. Or FlutterDash. Or something else entirely. Huzzah! Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a wonderful end-of-year festivity!
Very nice
Now that is awesome!
How did they get that done? I am kinda curious where you can go to get a custom hard copy book printed.
I am intensely jealous of the book. JEALOUS I SAY! And of the comic too, while I'm at it.
And, of course, eagerly awaiting more WTAJ. Yours is some of the only stuff I feel like reading that isn't my OTP!
Speaking of, I cast my vote for what you can "move on to!" You can probably guess what that vote will be~ tee hee.
Again, grats on that book. So jealous
That is just...
cdn.derpiboo.ru/media/BAhbBlsHOgZmSSIdNGYyMjc1YTQ5NDViNzA0YzFmMDAwMDAxBjoGRVQ/2397__safe_sweetie-belle_image-macro_reaction-image_artist-uc77_that-is-beautiful.png
I wish I could get one of my books in a hardcover edition. I'm so jelly right now.
I stumbled on to you from... I don't know where exactly... but it started with Lost and Found... Apparently I need to go back and read everything else... It's such a wonderful thing to have too many stories to read.
See if someone did that for me, I'd have to process the fact that there's a novel in my hands that I wrote. That'd mess with my head.
But at least it's one single book, and not a shameful 6 or 7 volumes that is Fallout: Equestria!
Wow, you have awesome friends.
Wow! That book looks great! I have ALL the envy!
And I can't wait for PinkieLestia or RariLuna. Rare ships are even better when written by competent authors.
Wow congrats!
Oh wow, that book! I can't imagine how awesome that must feel! Congratulations!
Within And Without is my favourite adventure story ever
I'd love to get my hands on a copy! I know it's probably one of a kind though, and I'm not complaining, just putting it out there. That's a very special gift - you have some wonderful friends.
657368
Rarijack!
Did I guess right?
Looks awesome.
Wow, just, wow. I am super jealous. But you deserve it, you really do. Within and Without is a shining jewel among ponyfics, at least as far as I am concerned.
Yeah it does seem that the older we get the more thoughtful our presents become. I'd rather have 5 things I'll cherish than 25 I'll forget about in a month. Congratz on your first published novel! Next year I bet they get you a custom plush of yourself! (Then 'you' can do book signings!
)
~Momentai
Wow. That is an amazing gift.
Building Bridges is THE golden standard for TwiDash stories (romantic or otherwise, it could have gone both ways and still been amazing). I have yet to read Within and Without... I recently took to going to my oldest favourites and finally reading them. I started with Merely a Mare, and I discovered something shocking. I'd apparently already read half of it! It was the story i registered on FimFiction for. I favourited to await its completion and never looked back... That was over a year ago. That alone shocked me. Kinda scared to read old favourites now xD
Also, on the presents. I know the feel. This was actually my first year to give as well as get. It fept good, ya'know? I think I could stand getting nothing and giving everything on Christmas. Just another reason to go to college. -sigh-
(Can't edit posts on my phone, double post!)
I just realized that you wrote Building Bridges, Cloudy xD
It's the reason I'm following you; can't believe I forgot. Did I ever tell you it was amazing? Because it was. And is. /gushing
I know this book is special to you, but with your friend and your consent and if your willing, I would love to buy my own copy from what ever company your friend had it published at. I understand if you don't want to invest the time in to make this happen or just simply want your physical copy to be one of a kind.
Dude... that's awesome.
You, sir, have got some quality-grade friends.
Wow! That's an incredibly awesome gift to receive. I am incredibly jealous, as that would make a great addition to any bookshelf.
657507
Wow, that is really cool, from what I've heard from other authors who get their books in hardcover that is an insane amount of work. I can only imagine how it feels to have a copy like that though.
Wow...now THAT is a Christmas gift.
Silver out!
657363>>657378>>657396 657560 Thank you, yes, and don't I know it! Thems be the best fellows.
657366 657369 657385 Was done on http://www.blurb.com/ - and the very kind and generous soul who made it even tossed me the account info so that I could theoretically make more, hah. It's allegedly not terribly hard to use this service.
657368 Awf, you're very kind, thank you! And hey, I will do that strange Apple horse + color horse thing one day, I swear, but what with knowing you and all, it's a little intimidating, too, haha.
657370 I think we all suffer under ridiculously long reading lists. Not a bad problem if you ask me, either, by all means, but hi!
657375 Haha, yeah, I don't know. Lost and Found would have to be 2 volumes since W&W/O is literally the max amount of pages you can have. 440/440. Heck, the second you have more than one of your own books in your bookshelf like this, it stops being an awesome little curiosity and such, and you kinda gotta ask yourself what signals you're sending.
At the same time? Shiny. I may just.
657388 Hey, thank you for the faith at least! I hope to get to writing as soon as WTAJ is proper out-the-door and such. Still undecided though!
657490 It's technically possible for me to print more, but I'd either have to order them here to me, and then mail them back out to people, or set up a way for others to buy them through blurb.com
I mean, sorry, I assume you just say this as a kind comment or an aside, not as a serious question, but yeah. It'd either be cumbersome or of questionable legality.
663484
I honestly believe you aren't capable of writing AppleDash I *wouldn't* like!
Intimidating? Pfft.
657598 You're very kind to say so, at least!
657637 Haha, I don't know about that; it's not "published", really. Anyone can have their own book made like this, and I'll choose me a mane6 plushie over an OC any way!
657674 I know! Best. Friends. Ever.
657700 Haha, I'm still surprised at the attention BB still gets, honestly. And yeah, I hear you on gifts; I'd say something cliché, comment on how giving is better than receiving, but I don't know. If equal thought has gone into the gifts, they always feel amazing, no matter which way they're going. I'm really annoyed at myself for spending so little time on christmas gifts this year, and I've resolved to do far better for all my friends next year.
657732 There're actually two, one for the friend who arranged this, and one for me, but no, they're not unique in any respect. In theory, there could be as many as I'd like. I replied to it in another comment here, but basically, it'd either be illegal, or incredibly cumbersome. If there's a lot of interest, I may look into it, but I doubt it'd be viable. :|
657742 This was a sharp reminder of exactly this. You are so very correct. Awesome peeps.
658228 That's the best part; it looks really good in my bookshelf!
Then I realize how incredibly wrong and narcisstic it is.
Then I don't care and roll around in my bed giggling to myself again. This is so cool.
658679 The "work" is in reformatting it to something that fits a book. Books use a small indent, no-linebreaks style, but on FImFiction, I use large indents and linebreaks for paragraphs. It may sound like a small thing, but fixing that alone is a massive task. After that comes the job of making sure there are no awkward word splits across lines and soforth. Basically, you need to do a ridiculously slow edit pass over the entire thing, and when just reading the story at a regular/medium-slow WPM pace takes nearly ten hours, well.
I am very, very thankful for all the work put into this.
662073 Christmas was made. I struggled to do anything but laugh and stare at it for nearly ten minutes.
663484
Thanks for the link
663501
If having a hard copy of one of your best stories, gifted to you is wrong, then hay, I wouldn't want to be right.
663501 wouldn't writing a whole story where all you used was character appearances and names count as fair use? what the hell is wrong with this world.
I do understand where your coming from. and i guess you would be making profit from the fact it is ponies, otherwise I for one wouldn't be looking to buy it i guess, but really Hasbro isn't even trying to make money. they could release mlp on blu-ray and every brony would pay $80 for it. legal stuff is all stupid and unfair.
Happy Hearth's warming! (Sorry I'm a tad late, my schedule has not been kind)
I have exams next week, following that I shall take a break from the world to catch up on reading what you've published here these past few months (I'm still only on chapter 30 of Lost and Found).
That hardback copy of Within and Without looks glorious. Helps that it's probably my favourite story.
664010 Hah, well, fair point. It's more, if I were to edit and have printed/mailed to me more of my own stories and make this a thing, not as gift, but as self-made thingers? I'd start questioning myself and taking measurements for a new hat.
665018 Oh. Oh! Nono, the blame isn't anyones' here, except possibly the law and possibly mine. I'm not very well versed in this, I just fear this interferes with the fact that Hasbro has to act on possible copyright infringements to hold on to their trademarks and such. Currently, they have the right, but no obligation to ask for shutdowns of fanfics, It's not at all sure they'd win that battle, but it doesn't matter. They've no incentive to do so.
If I started turning a profit, things would change. It's not like I'd be doing this for profit, mind. I don't know how much I'd make through the store, but I don't really need money. Even assuming there's some 10-20 people who want a book, it wouldn't be a relevant amount, and the alternative is worse; even just asking for enough to cover shipping and printing would be very expensive. Norway's economy is very strong atm, so just mailing a book to the US would cost me about 30 dollars. I don't see a way for this to work out, presently.
665253 Happy Hearth's Warming to you too! I really hope you enjoy the rest of LaF! The latest story might not be relevant unless you've read WEMS (I forget if you have), but NRFP is nice and stand-aloney, and I'm looking to toss out some PinkieDash blurbs that're unrelated to everything, soon, too!
665301 Ah yes, but so far, it's just been the one (so far, *cough*), and it's been, through no provocation from yourself, gifted to you. I can comfortably say that this is not a bad thing, nor will it require a new hat! Ahaha.
665301 yes the law is too stupid. I mean really the bulk of a story is not coming up with character appearances and names. and yet if you did move forward they could sue you. now they could or might not win, but either way they would have cause to do so, where a law that protected fair use more would not allow them to threaten you as such. not saying they would do this or anything just. YOU would have to take such a risk our crummy law allows to exist in such situations at these. when it comes down to it, it is your story and hasbro is not losing anything due to you making it available to the public. that should be enough, but with our legal system. it isn't
still thanks for the story. the warm feeling i get from remembering it can't be taken away by crummy written laws.
P.S.- totally should sell these under the table at a con or something and make it super illegal! ironically break more rules
P.P.S - disregard my post script
665301 I have indeed read WEMS, and everything else up to LaF, some of it twice.
I need that book.
Within and Without is first fanfic I read that was truly epic. It changed the way I looked against fanfiction and encouraged me to read others.
Now I've read more than 800 chapters of fanfiction in over 160 different stories, all thanks to that story.
To bad it is not a mass-produced book. I bet a lot of people would be willing to pay money for that. (Hint hint)
665381 There's not too much to say about the book itself considering that it's kind of a concluded issue for now, but I simply had to reply for this:
>totally should sell these under the table at a con or something and make it super illegal! ironically break more rules
This would be something I'd happily consider, actually. Problem with this is, I live in the frozen wastes, and there are zero cons for me to go to without crossing an ocean or other.
670153 Oh damn. I am humbled and honored! Your name was kinda familiar (and massively catchy), so that certainly explains it; I just didn't want to presume, sorry!
671583 Aw, I'm very glad for your kind words, thank you! I've replied to the issue of mass production (or just batches. Or singles) in comments above here, but the long and short of it is that it's not practical currently. I don't know. I may have to do research. Odds are, it'd a dozen or two interested parties at most, I reckon, but postage prevents me from processing it personally, laws prevent me from setting up an online purchase option. Your interest is very flattering though!