March Updates and Goals

Hey everyone! I know I’ve been awful quiet around here, but I wanted to assure you all that I was still kicking. I also wanted to list a few developments that I’ve accomplished since my last update, as well as the new goals I found myself formulating as the weeks passed.

First off, I completed my reflection on the Endings collection. This was the story collection I did for BronyCon 2019, and you can read all the stories here on the site. The completed reflection is also located here if you’re interested in such a thing. I didn’t consider it complete until yesterday, as that was the day I sent for the final three copies from the bookmakers (two for my parents, one for me). I’d completed my final edits weeks ago, but was a bit strapped for cash to send out for the final copies. Let’s just say things aren’t easy over here in the Dude household, both economically and emotionally.

Speaking of emotions, I’m officially saying right now that I am not going to do my reflection on the 2019 BronyCon on this site. The reason is twofold: One, I don’t have much to say about the convention itself. Or at least, everything that I disliked about the convention can be summed up in a few short phrases and doesn’t require a whole blog to say. The phrases are this: The vendor hall was too small, the rooms were too compressed, the line management was even worse than usual, they scheduled all the good panels at the same time, and the rest of the panels were largely weaksauce (and this is coming from the guy who hosted the Nicholas Cage panel!). All in all, it was the worst BronyCon I ever went to, and I’m real sore it happened to be the last one.

Second, I’m really uncomfortable writing about my personal life and posting it on this site. Yeah, I know I could write it real vague and anonymous, but there’s some things I don’t like talking about on this site. My family is one of those things, and it was the largely dysfunctional situation we were in during the Convention that made the whole experience downright unpleasant for me. It’s not something I’m terribly thrilled about revisiting, and least of all on a website that I try awfully hard to keep my anonymity.

Me when anybody in this fandom asks me a non-MLP question

If I do write about the convention someday, I’m going to do it in a way that gets me money. Only burn bridges with your close family members for the highest dollar.

Speaking of money, I really need some. The main tactic for solving this problem, finding a job, is going about as well as you’d expect in the middle of a pandemic and economic depression. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure that out with the leads I’ve got, but we’ll just have to wait and see. If anybody reading this has any other ideas that might help in this endeavor, feel free to give them.

Anyway, I’ve got a few other goals I want to focus on this month:

• Finish Kung Pow: Enter the Hoof: At this point, I’ve started and stopped Kung Pow enough times it’s become a running joke of mine. But I’m hoping to complete most of it this month, if not all of it.
• Finish What You Give and What You Take: Again, another story that should have been finished long ago. I’ve got a ton of other projects I want to focus on, so squaring this story away is one of my top priorities.
• Rank the Solomon Kane pulps: I’ve talked about this Robert E. Howard character quite a bit already, and I’ve got the rankings firmly established already. It’s just a matter of putting my logic to the page.
• Quantify sequel/rewrite possibilities: There are some stories on this website I may want to write sequels for. There are old stories I didn’t publish on this site that I may want to rewrite. These will be quantified in an upcoming post.
• Figure out my ‘Missed Contest Stories’: I didn’t participate in a lot of the writing contests on this site in 2020, much to my deep regret. Given how nothing new has popped up in the contest announcement page for 6 months now, I think it’s best to hash out some of the story ideas I had for these past contests.
• Read and discuss Season 10 Bingo, Filly Anon Contest, and Jinglemas Stories: Of the three contests I did partake in, I feel like I should read and rank the stories written by other authors in these contests as well.
• Blog post explaining why Filthy Rich is the best character in MLP: This one’s pretty self-explanatory.

Sorry for the curtness of these goals, but I really want to get to fixing all these things I’ve been promising to do since November. Also because it’s getting annoying having to repeat my goals every other month without any advancement. Sometimes the best way to motivate myself is to annoy myself to the nth degree.