A little throw out to any of you who don't like to jump into stories until they're done. I just posted up the final chapter to Winter Bells, marking the end of not only that story but also the "In The Family" side-story trilogy. Hope everyone enjoyed it, and I am sorry to say it's going to be the last bit of Nyx and the Past Sins timeline I do for a while. Still going to be writing, already got something new coming down the pipe, its just not about Nyx.

Beyond that have fun and have a nice day.

First, quick note on Winter Bells. Editors were a bit busy with real life and mothers day, but will get to the chapter over the next couple days. Chapter 12 will be up soon.

Now, with that out of the way, we can get into the meat of things. EQLA finished yesterday, and I'm happy to say it was a good weekend for me all things considered. Yes, the brony convention curse continued. On Friday the local power substation was acting up so the whole hotel lost power during the evening concert with Mandopony and Michelle Creber. Still, they kept on trucking and made the concert amazing none the less, once the power came back on a few minutes later.

I also got to meet a online brony buddy of mine from Mexico City face to face and spent almost the whole weekend with him. That there is one of the best reasons to go to a convention, in my opinion, to put faces and names to the friends we make in this mostly online community of ours. That and his 6' 6", is built like a bear, and likes to give bear hugs that leave you gasping for breath. Basically, a really cool dude who I got to hang with. We even closed off the weekend with a trip to Medieval Times Dinner Theater.

Beyond that, the normal convention things occurred. I attended panels. (Saturday Voice Actors Panel ) I got to be part of the fan-fiction panel again this year. I got swag, more swag, and then spent more than I probably should have at the charity auction. (I bought the third most expensive item that was sold. Don't ask.) I even threw in a story-commission into the auction that, after a bit of bid fishing, turned into a ~15,000 SFW commission that sold for $205. Didn't think it would get that high. I'm happy I was able to contribute to the charity in such a significant way, but also smiled that some folks like my writing that much. Lots of money was made for the Child's Play Foundation at the end of the auction on Sunday. Speaking of, he who won the auction said he was going to e-mail me last evening. I didn't see your message if you did send it. Just want to make sure you get what you paid for.

So, in all, I'd call it a very successful convention that stoked the pony fires within me. So, at the very least, you all should see the commission story from me in the next few weeks. The guy who won it said he wanted to make it "interesting" and something "I don't normally do."

I'll let you decide whether or not to be excited or worried about that.

tl;dr version

- Winter Bells' final chapter is coming, just a little delay in editing phase.

- Had great time at EQLA

- Met an internet brony friend and hung out all weekend.

- Got to enjoy several panels and be part of the fan-fiction panel

- Got swag, art, prints, a plushie, and shirts

- Spent too much at charity auction. But hey, it's for charity

- Threw in a story commission into the auction, it sold for $205.

- Person who won the commission dropped some hints, so expect my next story to be a bit outside my norm.

- .......

- profit?

With Winter Bells drawing to a close (the next chapter is written, awaiting editing, will hopefully be up by the weekend, and will be the last chapter), I must once more fall into that odd stage of finding a new writing project. There are a few larger story ideas on the table, but I'd rather not jump right back into a big, multi-chapter fic. I'd like to take a break, which for me mostly means working on some fun little one-shot story. The last time I did something like this, it was after Past Sins and the resulting story was Drop of Moonshine.

Still, I'm a bit short on one-shot ideas at the moment. So, I'm going to throw my hook out to you guys and go idea fishing. Is there a kind of story or a particular premise you'd like to see me tackle? Do you have an idea burning in the back of your skull you've been hoping to see turned into the story but lack the time/skill/motivation to do it yourself? Do you want to just throw some crazy idea into the air on the off chance it's chosen?

Well then, please do go ahead and drop a comment on this blog. I won't make any promises to pick something suggested, but even seeing some off the wall ideas may get my own creative juices flowing a bit. I will also ask that you adhere to a few rules.

THE RULES:

1) SFW

2) Nothing related to Past Sins or it's side-stories. (Putting that storyline to bed for a while. It needs its sleep.)

3) The idea has to be something that can be expressed as a one-shot

4) No random OC's. Story idea needs to be about one of the show's main ponies, secondary ponies, or the background ponies.  

5) If I pick your idea, I'll PM you to discuss it further and to verify your permission to use the idea.

6) Don't be to sad/disappointed if your idea isn't picked. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea, just that I'm the wrong author to pursue it.

6) Have fun, be silly if you want, but also semi-serious. You know, like Pinkie Pie.

EDIT: I can tell now I've opened the preverbal flood gates. Still, I'm cool with that. I also thought of something to let people participate more if they can't think of an idea. If you read through the comments and see an idea you really like or would like to support, give a thumbs up to the comment.

First, I have to admit, EQLA's date kind of snuck up on me. I thought it was still a few weeks away, but it's next weekend.

For those of you who are going, I hope to see you there. I'd also like to announce that, like last year, I'll be on the fan-fiction panel being run by Closer-To-The-Sun. It will be on Friday from 6:00 PM to 7:00PM. It's kind of at the tail end of the day, but I hope to still see a good selection of folks there. And hey, if your waiting to get into that evening's concert, feel free to come rest your butt in our panel room. Or, if you're worried about dinner, go ahead and eat while we talk.

The nice thing about the panel last year was we got a middle of the day time and the convention only had one panel room. We had a nice turn out because of that. We're thankfully not competing against any other panels with our 6:00PM time, but I still fear a bit for our turnout.

Where's the love for the fan-fiction, I ask you?

In any case, hope to meet and see some of you there.

For those of you who father a rather shocking e-mail in your inbox this morning, yes the Past Sins Printing project has hit a very large roadblock. A recent change in Paypal's terms of service has made it so Paypal will not release the funding gathered by the group until the books were shipped out. This, of course, creates a paradox since the printing group needed that money to pay the printer to print the books. We can't do the printing without the money, but we can't have the money until we've done the printing.

So, at this moment, Equestria Publications is sending out refunds to everyone that put in money. So for those of you who fear for your money, rest assured it's being returned to you in full.

For those who fear for the printing project, I assure you that Equestria Publications is looking for other means of collecting the money. So please, don't lose hope and just have a little more patience. We are so close to the end. The book is ready to hit hard paper, and Equestria Publications is working hard to get it done. They just need time to send out refunds and then sit down and discuss other options for collecting the money.

I apologize in advance, but the next chapter of Winter Bells likely won't be ready for another week. Struggling with the last scene of the chapter, a part involving Cadance and Shining Armor. Considering what Shining has said to his dear wife in earlier chapters of the story, you may understand why I'm having trouble.

The tumblr run by Sevireth, Nyx Contacts, just updated with a beautiful, eleven page comic that I think deserves a plug over here.

Now, to give everyone some context in case you don't follow that tumblr, it's a story where 9th dimensional travel is possible. Don't know anything about the 9th dimensional theory, jump back a bit in the tumblr and you'll find a very detailed, artistically rendered explanation. (An explanation I've featured in it's own blog way back when. After all, who doesn't like 9th dimensional physics?) And an older, wiser Nyx is working with a team to explore the many different instances of reality.

And the question answered by this comic is one that seems so innocent at first. "When Nyx started jumping between instances of reality, she used to wear a disguise. There was one mission that changed that. What was that mission?"

The answer, the eleven pages of comic that you should really check out.

The links:

Nyx Contacts Tumblr

Severth's DeviantArt  <<-- The comic is posted here as well.

Nyx Contacts explains 9th dimensional physics

I'll even give you the first page here.

Besides enjoy a prank attempted by my boss, I helped out a little over at EQD. In case you missed them, here were my contributions.

Ponified News Article on G.I. Joe Retaltions

A Flash based Shipping Story Generator

It was a fun day of crazy, hope everyone had something they enjoyed.

This is a question I get usually once every week or so, and I've decided to just make a blog post about it. This is to inform everyone who cares about such things, and also give me something to link to when someone asks the question again so I'm not writing the same thing over and over again.

And this policy really applies to all of the OC's I've developed for my stories. I'm just focusing on Nyx cause she's the one people ask for the most.

So, here's where I stand where it comes to using any of the characters I've developed in your stories.

1) Please give me credit. If you use Nyx, Sweet Tooth, Mogul Magnete, Third Eye, or any characters I've developed, then please link back to both the story the character originated from and my own author profile here on Fimfiction.

-- Example: "Nyx is from Past Sins by Pen Stroke"

-- Example: "Sweet Tooth is from Little Sugar Shop of Horrors by Pen Stroke"

2) Please respect the character. I know this one may be a little vague. I'm not saying you can't put the characters through the ringer. Characters facing trials and tribulations is usually part of the reason a story is good. What I'm talking about is hurting, demeaning, or otherwise defacing the characters just to deface the characters, then I would respectfully ask you not to write that story.

-- Example of respect: RealityCheck has wrote a story where Nyx was, arguably, killed in one of the last chapters, but it was a major plot point and was the climax of his story "Nightmare Night and Nyx"

-- Example of disrespect: A short, one-shot story someone wrote way back where the entire story was Twilight, the princesses, and everypony else cooking Nyx and then eating her barbecued flesh for lunch.

3) Please avoid clop and foalacon. Now, this isn't a rule against shipping. While I don't write it myself, I know that a lot of authors find a lot of joy in writing about the blossoming romance between characters. Still, if it goes into the bedroom, please skip the naughty details. And if the characters are physically/mentally young, like Nyx, then a school age crush is fine. Just please avoid the hanky panky.

Those are really the only three rules I have. It is the internet and fan-fiction after all. If I said overtly no, then people would use my characters anyway and there really isn't much I can do about it. (This may be especially true on fim-fiction. Last I heard, claims of stolen OC's basically get disregarded by admins. Anyone, however, is free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

So, since I can't really stop folks even if I wanted to, I'd rather establish guidelines and ask that people abide by them out of respect of me and the stories.

But, let me say this before anyone goes galavanting off. I am honored that some people want to include Nyx and a few of my other characters in their own stories. At the same time, I don't want other authors to limit themselves. Just because you like Nyx doesn't mean she has to have a place in your story. The same rule applies to canon characters as well. If your story is about Rarity and Hoity Toity having a contest to see who can design a better dress, then you may not even need to include Sweetie Belle, Spike or even characters like Pinkie Pie and Applejack. You should only ever include characters that make sense.

The other thing is that including another person's fan character can carry a lot of baggage. You usually have to take into considerations the events of that character's story. You also have to deal with opinions other people have of that character. While including Nyx in your story may draw some people in, you may get slammed by others who genuinely dislike Nyx.

And, above all, I would encourage you all to be creative. If you are including someone else's character to fill a hole in your story, then consider dreaming up your own character. After all, the famous OCs like Little Pip, Nyx, Blackjack, and wouldn't have come into existence if their original authors hadn't tried to be creative. After all, if you write a great story and get lucky, that OC you created will become your own little star like Nyx is for me.

This is a two part blog. You can skip to the section you care about the most.

PART 1 - What Happens in Vegas

So, as I said in my last blog post, I attended the Las Pegasus Unicon. Thankfully, I seem to have dodged the bullet regarding all the financial issues that occured on the last day. (Though I am watching my credit card to make sure the Riviera doesn't try to double bill me after the fact.) I feel real sorry for anyone and everyone that suffered from this backlash. I, personally, don't have any more information on what happened. All I know is what I've read on EQD and Derpy News.

Beyond that, I do believe I had a crackerjack time in the city of gambling. Hit the tables and didn't lose to much. Got to watch the fountain show at the Belagio and part of the fire show at the Mirage. Got to meet good folks. Got to autograph a wicked picture someone drew during the fan-fic panel. Got to enjoy good food. Got some nice swag. And got a chance to see how my new car handled on the long road trip. (Not a "new new" car. Bought it used. Still pretty sweet. Blue, 2005 Mustang.)

Of course, all the time at the convention and recovering from the weekend has thrown off some of my writing time. Winter Bells 8 should be up soon, but it may be on Thursday again, like Winter Bells 7.

Part 2 - A Question of Commissions

After noticing this on Vimbert the Unimpressive's page and talking with him about it, I wanted to gauge interests. If I were to offer to do some fan-fic writing commissions, how many folks would be interested? I don't have any final details set yet, but I'd probably lean towards using a similar pricing scheme that Vimbert does: a certain amount of money per thousand words of estimated length. I'm also likely going to set some basic rules, like for example no clop and no commissioning for sequels/side-stories to things like Past Sins.

So, knowing all that, would anybody be interested?