I said I'd annouce them, and I am. If you are a voice actor, give it a look! I remember discovering some very great talent from my readers last time (First Pegasus storybook). There are a lot of roles to choose from and PIAB has a great reputation, so don't hesitate to give it a gander.

To the tumblr post with info!

Source

Aside, I think the recent Scooby Doo remake is really great. This is coming from someone who hated Scooby growing up, so you know this new stuff did well to change my mind.

That is, however, completely off topic. What is ON topic is the state of Paradise. Which case I have some good news and some bad news. But the good news is some really, really good news. So I'll get the bad news out of the way first.

It's not really bad news for me, per se, but it does mean it'll be a little bit longer still before I can touch Paradise. My job is tapping my writing skills to give them a comic book script. The comic itself won't be that interesting to people outside the school, but I'll still be trying to make it a good story in the limitations set. This project will probably take a few weeks at least to make.

Now for the good news. If you like my writing, you will still be getting some o'that.

Masked heroes and ponies, what more could you ask for? A radio play is in development with the Pony In A Box crew, responsible for the very excellent Doctor Whooves Adventures and Daring Do Adventures, which I am a fan of. Next up will be the on-going series Mysterious Mare Do Well Adventures. Come join us in Manehattan, where crime is running out of control and none of the usual solutions are working. One mare endevours to change it all.

Auditions in a few days!

Those always have a HUGE turn out because PIAB has a great reputation among voice actors. For this property in particular, we're hoping in an even greater turn out because I'm ambitious as all hell and we have a lot of parts to fill.

Follow the development at our tumblrs.

http://askponyinabox.tumblr.com/ (if you don't currently listen to Doctor Whooves Adventures, you have no idea what you're missing)

http://slywit.tumblr.com/

I'll also be making another blog post once the auditions start. Should be in a day or two.

I hope this story makes up for the delays in Paradise.

Have a cute:

SlyWit! Hey SlyWit! Did you watch season 3?

That seems a rather dumb question. One I technically asked myself, so I have no excuse there.

What did you think, what did you think?!

... What does that even mean?

I have no thoughts. That is approximently my expression when immitating the sound of a deflated balloon.

Whut.

I literally don't have any thoughts. I had fun, there was some good laughing to it, some good episodes. I suppose I could go on a rant about how Sombra is an underappreciated element (notice how I didn't say character, because Sombra is literally only the shadow of a character), but I feel I missed the window on when anyone cared. Otherwise, I don't have strong feelings on season 3.

Why?! What about the Crystal Empire, the family reunion, Dash's parents?! And HELLOOOO! ALICORN TWILIGHT!

My life has changed. It doesn't resemble a thing like it was when I first got into the fandom.  For one thing, I don't have nearly the time I once did to sit around and discuss the new show. I've got new friends, a new job, busier lifestyle and actually I feel I'm in a better emotional state. The new episodes just sort of wash over me. I enjoy them but they haven't hit me with such a huge, all-consuming impact like they once did.

Or it's more accurate to say that I've not been in a place which they could hit me like that. And that Twilight thing ...

^Pictured above: the nefarious face of Hasbro eeeeevilllll

Really? People were bothered by this? More than the fact Lauren Faust left the show, or the Derpy controversy? I'm confused more than anything by the fan reaction. I suppose  it's because I saw this as a viable and satisfying ending for the series from day one: a point where every pony has accomplished their dreams. It even felt like one with the flashback mid transformation, a "remember the times we had?" sort of thing*. But in all seriousness, this is largely a cosmetic change and nothing else, not NEARLY as world flipping as the introduction of Cadance.

*The idea of this episode being a season ender is on the surface a valid theory. 65 episodes is the magic old fashioned number for rebroadcasting. It was likely that Hasbro could have pulled the plug on FiM and just rebroadcast the old episodes from there on, which would have made this last episode good for closure.

So you do have thoughts!

I suppose so. I suppose I've just not been engaged in the conversation enough to form theorys, opinions, and feel enthralled with each new episode's potential to talk over.

If you haven't been engaged with this new season, what does that mean for Paradise?

Means I'm going to continue as intended. I won't bend the plot over backwards to try to explain the Crystal Empire, Sombra, or what not. I'm perfectly happy with making my series canon to everything Lauren Faust had an actual hand in. I'm going to enjoy season 3 for what it is and keep Paradise what I want.

And though my life has changed, my devotion to writing has stayed constant. Stay tuned for updates on that side project.

Pinkie would make best Princess

Overtime, the personal element of generosity in my life, Madmax (who is so famous of an artist in the community, I probably don't even have to link her profile [though her link is in Paradise's section]) has supplied me with a lot of art. Sometimes I ask for small changes so it's made more inline with Paradise, but it is always beautiful work. Here is a complilation of some of the alternates and other things you may have not seen.

First up, I got a pair of the arts made for chapter 17, but they came a bit late because Madmax missed the email. It's alright Maxie, I still <3 you.

Originally, she drew it with apples. As they ate wheat in the story, I had to take them out.

Celestia's first flight initially had her looking badass

Awesome as it was, didn't fit that she was supposed to be half terrified

A long time ago, Maxie drew Celestia for me at four different stages of her life. While I used the unicorn and earth pony stage, Max's art improved significantly by the time I got to the pegasus arc. Here, you can see her old hair style that she had in the first few chapter's art.

While I needed a varient of this that had Celestia in bandages, Maxie did one with wings as well. There may be a joke about Maxie and wings. I'm not going to make it. I'm just going to suggest that one does in fact exist.

Back when Squeaks first offered to do the Story Book: The First Pegasus for me, Maxie did a few designs of the griffin Grenjar.

Lastly, have filly Luna working on spells. One of the most adorable things I've seen from the fandom.

Oops, how did that get in there?

Hello, dear reader. I've been expecting you.

And I sort of just wanted to show off this art.

Wait, you weren't here to serve my narcissitic needs of playing with my OC, but to learn more information on the story you like to read? Well, aren't you self-centered.

Alright, so I was going to release it last saturday, but my editors confused my new chapter for a Christmas, and decorated it with more red marks and yellow highlighter than a lemonade flavored candycane. I was going to mix my metaphors there, but saved it with the candycane bit. You know, because candycanes are Christmas.

Truth be told, I suspect that its because next chapter is a Luna chapter, and the change in pace gave some pause. Or, I might have simply written a chapter with a lot needing fixing. Anyways, I missed last Saturday, so I am making my next deadline this coming Saturday. Baring natural disaster, I don't see why I can't make it. I should have a few days to spare to make sure it happens.

Hope to see you then! I've looked rediculously forward to this next chapter for some time.

Edit: If you're the kind of reader to go back and do a few chapters, start on 15, I think. Though, 16 and 17 are deffinitely made to go together. I'd at least do that one

Well ... this week hasn't been the worst in my life. But small things add up, you know? And it's not even whether the events themselves were traumatic, but how you mentally appraise them.  Like, from an objective standpoint, having surgery in a foreign country is the most traumatic, yet didn't feel that way. I just mentally appraised all the new experiences as not so bad.

But this week was pretty terrible in the small things and it is somehow worse. Yet, not the worst.

My first draft of Chapter 17 was completed on Tuesday. I haven't gotten around to editing or announcing it sooner due to the week being busy. I'll be slicing it up tomorrow, maybe the day after. I hope my prereaders get ready.

Ah well. Might as well end on a happier note, won't I? I mean, I do get a day off.

Follow link for a picture of happy cuddily!

Long story short (as if "short" has anything to do with Paradise), I have a pair of editors working on chapter 16's complete draft, and they're about to hand it back to me for posting. As soon as I get it shipshape, I'll shape that ship to the sight and ship that shape for Fimfiction. Shipping may or may not result in insanity. (Celi-x-Edward4lyfe!)

Now for a special announcement of a friend's story, Q97randomguy is a fan of Paradise and approached me with permission to make a story based off the same universe. Flattered and curious, I'm actually giving some feedback and prereading for him (I do hate that term. I'm going to go with Editor or Beta Reader). I've noticed he's tackled a lot of Season 2 questions that I haven't really gotten around to addressing since Paradise's concept came mid season 1. Anyways, if you'd like more Paradise Universe goodness, give it at least a shot. It'd only take a minute of your time to decide if it's a story for you.

Paradise Sundered

>Wait! Is this story canon?!

Err, difficult question. Since Paradise isn't technically canon, though I try what I can to conform to it ... I prefer to label Paradise Sundered an Alternate Timeline under a different author.

So, the draft for 16 is much larger than I thought it'd be. At stretching to nearly 10,000 words, which is deffinitely a cut off, I think I'm going to be chopping the chapter in half and making it 16 and chapter 17.

>What did that picture have to do with this blog post?

It didn't, I just thought it was cute.

So, my plans are to start revising for chapter 16 and prepare that, then begin revisions for chapter 17. That should put their release dates close, like maybe only a week or two apart. So ... your Paradise has been doubled?

I said that the new Paradise chapter would come "soon" because I feel like giving a hard date is garuantee of failure. I've never, ever met one in writing. However, I thought that saying so, I'd keep which ever of my fans have survived this long draught updated on my progress. And hopefullly, start some kind of conversation.

Because I still love talking

A lot.

Talk all the time.

Anyways, currently, the first draft of chapter 16 rests at 7,102 words long, and I roughly estimate it's 90% complete. I had planned on finishing it last week, but no luck, and this week is turning quite miserable. So, I'm not sure the first draft will be done this time.

Sigh

I'm just a bit burned out with work.

As an aside, though: a friend left us an awesome, amusing gif from Pony In A Box Click the linkitydoo It's really awesome and you should totally click it

So, after this series of unfortunate events, I do come to you with some good news. From my perspective, it's rather exciting news. Biggest of which is this:

The First Pegasus, Illustrated and cast.

The First Pegasus Storybook has been inprogress for months from the people of PonyInABox productions. They've converted the story-in-a-story from Paradise into the kind of thing you might find on Reading Rainbow, a storybook with tons of illustrations

And Art-Anon really pulled of some fantastic illustrations. So, watch the video and see how it came out! Like, comment, tell the PIAB people they're awesome. I giddy over the comments it's received so far.

"But suh!" you ask. "This is fine and dandy, but what of my Paradise chapters? Where are they? It's been so long, may I 'ave som'more?"

Soon.

Soon is all I can say. So far, no internal organs have threatened to explode, no extra teeth have started falling out, no moving to new countries, though I still work really tough weekends. What that's meant is that I've sat down and I'm starting to pen the next chapter. I'm far into it and I'm quite excited. So ...

Soon.