Revised for Print: So Maybe · 4:01am Sep 7th, 2020
So, if anyone actively reads my stories, they might have noticed something new. In the author's notes of forty of my stories, I've added something: the date that they were revised for print. Minus a few very recent stories, there is a huge bump in quality from the previous editions. Most of my stories that will be ready for the first book I have I have in mind are from 2017. That's a huge leap in what I can do as a writer, and most of the stories got far more than a deep scrub of their quality; they got legitimate expansions.
I'll be showing off a few in some blogs, especially now that I have a bit of a backload. Currently, it's largely my shorter pieces that have gotten this treatment. Longer stories require a lot more time, and I'm trying to balance a helluva lot right now. They'll have to wait.
Up first is So Maybe, which was popular for some reason. Once I have cover art commissioned and the final three stories edited, I'll be working on getting that book underway.
Some snippets are below the break.
EDITED TO SHOW EXCERTS INSTEAD
Of everything to really bother Raven, it was Twilight Sparkle that bothered Raven. No, it was how the teenage filly was handled. She was Sunset Shimmer's unknowing (and yet oh-so-obvious) replacement, and it was soon clear to Raven that whatever Sunset lacked, Twilight Sparkle had in spades. From the moment the dutiful filly had gotten her curious mark, Princess Celestia saw everything in her.
Twilight Sparkle, now that she was older, was beginning to see everything in Princess Celestia too.
Twilight Sparkle, who was an ant under the microscope of Princess Celestia, and thought that lens the sun itself.
Princess Celestia was what Raven considered to be a wise mare. That never stopped her from being oblivious to how a growing filly who spent all her previous time mooning over Starswirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever was now looking at her.
At Raven's goddess.
And Raven only worried how the princess would deal with such a thing, her own Faithful Student, smitten with her.
Raven's cutie mark was a surprise too. She did not get the game piece that she had been expecting — no king, queen, mage, rook, knight, or pawn was upon her flank. It had been the day before the Summer Sun Celebration when last-minute plans ruled the household and Raven internally begged for the neatness and management nopony seemed to abandon on any other day. Nothing was in its right place. She wrung her hooves and muttered prayers to the majestic sun goddess that her visiting cousins would not destroy the rosebushes planted by her great-great-grandmother. She thought that would be an important wish, and if the goddess, whose name every Equestrian used at some point in their lives, would be willing to protect a rose bush.
Through determination and the careful glances to this and that from a filly with a chess player's mind and eyes that color of chocolate that were as eternally demure as the rest of her, she found what needed to be done. What needed to be managed. Somehow, she wrangled all that chaos and brought harmony in its place. With a quill and parchment, she wove a schedule here and scribbled a list there. Ink dotted her pristine coat and dripped across her fetlocks and smudged her cheek and muzzle every time she had adjusted her thick glasses.
That had not been the only thing to appear that day. Two days later, her cute-ceañera was proof of that. She now had the mark — the great, unchanging mark — that told her something about her very soul, whether that was great or small.
Dizzy with excitement, soft-spoken little Raven still looked up to the sun through much of the celebration, at least when she could manage.
When Raven said "Invalid image" I felt that
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Listen I'm trying, you hecker.
If you need help formatting the stories for print, hit me up! As you know, I've done it a few times and would be willing to lend a hand
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That's what I'm planning on! I just gotta get these things presentable first.