A heads-up: I'm going to be on somewhat less over December–January – I won't be entirely absent, and may even get a fic or two out, but my general online presence will be reduced for my upcoming holidays, due in part to connection difficulties and in part to me doing other stuff with my time.

The new I Dream of Daisies chapter has been... well, it's had its difficulties and I've done a lot of plotting, writing, scrapping and replotting over the last few months. I think I've got something decent down now, though, so it's just a matter of writing it and then you should be able to read about some dream-raiding with everyone's favourite pink earth pony who comes in a two-pack with Fluttershy (good thing it's her and not... uurgh... Rainbow Flash). Not about to set any deadlines I'll miss for that, but it's coming.

Also of interest is the Hearth's Warming Care Package fic contest, the only fanfiction-related charity event I've ever come across and one I'm glad to say I participated in. Twenty-five authors wrote twenty-five pony stories for seven-year-old Kiki Havivy, who is diagnosed with brain cancer. I've known folks with the disease, and have hazy-but-fond memories of being read to, so I'm really glad I had this opportunity to contribute something to the happiness of an ailing child. The results of the private judging round are to be released on the 2nd of December.

Public voting ended yesterday, and I can't tell you which entry was mine yet, but I can and will tell you that the fics Playing Along and Going Up are absolutely worth a read, whatever your age.

And speaking of fanfiction recommendations...

Chronomistress was reviewed in the first round of the Seattle's Angels review series on the front page, which is why I checked it out. It's quite well done and includes some very cool world-building in a place less creative authors would just toss a Dr Whooves. On the negative side, there are some pretty gross scenes to do with changeling eggs (not really that negative, just kinda squicked me out), the fic's world is begging to be further explored (also not super negative) and the story gets weirdly preachy and philosophical at the end in a way that kinda comes out of nowhere.

Brony Steve Makes Out With Fluttershy, by the same author as Chronomistress, is a satire of brony-in-Equestria stories. I imagine not everyone will find it a particularly comfortable or agreeable read, but I certainly found it an interesting one. Like Chronomistress, there's some preaching that may turn you off, but at least it's more appropriate in this kind of fic than that kind.

Life is a Lemon is probably something you've seen on the feature box by now, but I'm going to give it my personal recommendation. Blueshift is known for his ridiculous crack-comedies and Twixie-except-they're-inanimate-objects stories, but I'm always far more excited when he starts a multiparter. Those tend to have humour, yes, but they're not all about humour. Instead, Blue takes a cracky premise like "a recolour of Twilight moves into Ponyville and becomes her obsessed fan" or SPOILERSBUTMAYBENOTREALLY "Mr Cake is actually a cake" /SPOILERS and make them engaging, thoughtful works about deeper things than lolwhatif. His story about a pony who thinks she is a lemon is no exception.

If a Pony Catch a Pony is something I'm a little hesitant about recommending. Its author claims it was heavily inspired by Catcher in the Rye and follows its plotline quite closely at points, which is seldom a good sign in fanfiction. Having not read Catcher, I am unable to comment on how much of a find-replace pony story this was. However, I'm still going to give a rec based on the quality of the prose alone. The fundamental thing I ask from writing is that it convey events well enough to make itself invisible, or that it be interesting and engaging enough to justify not being invisible. This story is one of the few cases of the latter I've found in fanfiction – the prose had me eating up every word and sentence in delight instead of skimming the boring, overwrought parts or rereading passages for clarification. That, and I think I relate to the Octavia of this story entirely too well. Oh, and it's a ScratchTavia that doesn't awkwardly repurpose straight-man-and-wacky-guy roommates into lovers, and actually works because of that.

Heart of Gold, Feathers of Steel was a great fic when I read it months ago, is a fandom classic, and is even better now with its overhaul. I haven't read many fics about Gilda, but I doubt I'll find many better than this one. It's very much a fanfic-type-thing, in that it revisits the events of "Griffon the Brush Off" from a different perspective. I guess you might want to avoid it if that kinda thing weirds you out.

Austraeoh I just finished yesterday. It's a fun 200k-word adventure told in two hundred chapters of around 1k words each. It's entirely unedited, but has relatively few technical derps considering. Stylistically, well, it's entirely unedited and looks to have been a daily writing exercise – it's much better than you might expect one of those to be, but still fraught with overextended scenes and obtuse banter. Probably the most compelling thing about it is its presentation – a photo for a cover image, a four-word synopsis, and written by a silent author (who is quite obviously the dupe account of... well, it's very obvious, go figure it out). Saying too much about it kinda spoils the cultish mystique, so I won't. There are worse ways to spend a bunch (okay, a whole bunch) of five-minute breaks.

Observatory Hill is a fic that makes me wish we had (or that I knew of) more good stories about post–"Luna Eclipsed" Luna – she's certainly a much better character than sad "Fluttershy with a horn" Luna ever was. The Luna here is well written and quite hilarious, with an interestingly strained relationship with her sister. There's an action scene at the end that gets a little confusing and would probably work much better on screen than in prose, but other than that it's a nice read.

Background Pony finished since I last blogged, and I can say I enjoyed it most of the way through. Now, the great thing about this fic is you can either read it as a one-shot by just reading the first chapter, or you can read it as an epic by plowing through the whole thing. It's certainly not for the reader who balks at purple/violet-edged prose (or one who doesn't like sad endings) but I think The End of Ponies gave me Stockholm Syndrome (or at least increased tolerance) for SSnE's overblown style of writing, and the prose here never quite reaches "Scootaloo's cheeks flamed from within" levels of crazy (Vimbert seems to have smokily beaten the adverbs out of Skirts, at least). And I'd recommend reading it one chapter at a time, because it's really, really a story paced for serial reading.

Everfree and the Poisoned Flower is a pony story told in the style of a folktale, and features Coyote (and man do I love me that Gunnerkrigg Court). It's short, simple, and has a great little atmosphere about it. Although if anything it feels a little too short, like it should have come in a collection of similar fairy tales.

I Could Just Eat You Up is a delicious love story that will leave you hungry for more ham sandwiches.

In case I don't blog again before the end of the year, I wish everyone a great December!