Well, it's a year since the publication of my first story at least - a silly little story about Applejack and Doctor Whooves.

So over the course of this last year I managed to write seven stories and gather 179 watchers.  A hundred and seventy nine!  It's not much compared to the celebrities of bronydom, but it's still a massively big deal to go from sitting on my bed late one night and saying "what if ...", to where we are now. From time to time somebody on the internet will say "Oh you're Tamar! So you're the one who wrote such and such a story!" I even had someone in real life at a meetup tell me they liked my stories.

Thanks to everyone who clicked the watch button, and especially everyone who left a comment. I've said it before and I'll repeat it - each nice comment left gives me this massively warm feeling inside, it really does.

With all that said, I feel a little bit guilty for neglecting you all. I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. Without trying to use the "real-life issues" excuse as a cop-out, the last year has seen some pretty massive upheaval for me, and some large changes in my way of thinking. I'm a very different person from who I was a year ago. Don't worry, the change is for the better, I promise! But the change took a lot of effort, and I've been creatively drained for quite some time now.

I do hope to write for ponies again. I haven't given up. And I have some ideas flying around my head. I won't give you a timetable, but I will say this: Thank you so much for watching - watch this space!

PS - If anyone has any questions about anything, or anything they want to suggest, feel free to PM me, I don't bite!

I was interviewed by the Pony Public Library!  PPL is a new podcast type thingy. I think I sounded a bit awkward to begin with, you can probably tell it was my first podcast.

Anyway, go and give it a listen - it features a live reading (with annotations...) of Scootaloo in Cloudsdale and other discussions afterwards.

Pony Public Library Episode 1

The more eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that I have posted Icarus. Or, to be more specific, re-posted it.

I'm afraid the reposted version is not edited from when I originally retracted it for editing.  But I can explain.

Essentially, I started to get ideas for Icarus - big ideas, enormous ideas. I wanted to split it into three books, and make it considerably more epic and huge in scope.  I had some ideas that really gripped me - dreaming up ideas for a story is the best bit, until you actually have to stitch them together and try to make them work!

But then it started to expand a bit beyond the scope of a usual My Little Pony fanfiction. I started to wonder if I should really be putting so much effort into something that in the end I'd only be able to show to you guys - and while I really do love every single one of you, the sort of scope of story I was thinking of was something I'd want to show my family, and my old school teachers and university professors.  This particular comment by Inky Swirl on one of my stories caught my eye:

"Just make sure that the ponies don't get all your creative attention... The human world needs a writer like you."

This is incredibly flattering, and I'm not sure how true it is, but it did get me thinking a bit. So, I'm afraid I decided not to rewrite Icarus, even though I had made several attempts at it and fairly thoroughly planned out a new path for it. I want to direct my main writing efforts, when my exams are over, to an actual real-life original story, that will draw on a lot of the ideas I had for Icarus. I've re-uploaded Icarus, because I put an awful lot of effort and soul into it, and even if I'm not going to rework it I still want people to see it in its original version. Some people might like it.  But, nonetheless, I do apologise. I am sorry for promising big things for Icarus, and then going back on them. I feel that I've let down those who were looking forward to the new Icarus (which in reality is probably about three people...) and I am sorry for that.

I know that there are enormous MLP fanfictions out there, and many of them are fabulously well written, too.  I think that is a brilliant thing.  But it's my choice whether or not I utilise my creativity to write a longer fanfiction, and in the end I decided that I didn't want to.

Don't worry about cancelling that "watch" button, by the way - I am still definitely going to continue writing short little pony stories. I find it huge fun and it's good exercise for my creativity - currently I am considering a "Ponies Discover Red Wine; What Happened Next" sequel story, based off an idea and some discussions I'm going to have with a friend. I'm just not going to be writing any longer pony stories.

The word "Belmont" occurred to me as a word that had great potential. As it happens, it's the name of an area local to me - Belmont road, Belmont church, Belmont avenue, all that.  But it seems like a very cool word to use in a story.

I can't decide what it might be, though. So I want to know what you guys think!  If you came across a story that was just called "Belmont" ... what do you think it would be about? Is Belmont a villain? Is it a magical place? Is it a spell Twilight has discovered? Is it a new type of martial arts? Is it a psychological complex? Is it a type of bell (in which case we would spell it "Bellmont")?

This isn't really me cheating and fishing for ideas, I just wanted to open it up to discussion to see what you guys thought. So... who or what is "Belmont"?

Much-loved ponies,

Things haven't quite gone to plan. I had intended to use the break over Easter to get well and truly buried in Icarus and rewrite it - I have pages and pages of notes for new big ideas and where I wanted to take it. But then things happened in real life, and without boring you about my troubles, some things that I cared a lot about fell apart. Far from being able to flee into my creative conscious, I found myself completely locked out of it. I was stuck under one massive ACME writer's block for the whole break.

Things have been looking up recently, and I've just got to the stage where I feel I want to start work on it again - but now I have essays to write for university! Believe me, I'd far rather write about Rainbow Dash and her newfound (spoilers! Hush, Tamar!) than Rousseau, but that's how it is.

So, I'm better now, and I'm ready to start work again on Icarus, which I really do want to get right. But it's gonna be a while before it comes. Sorry about that.

On a side-note, at a recent meet I ran into a brony who actually knew my writing - Absentia, you legend! - which makes things a lot more real, which is cool.

As ever, your faithful student,

Tamar

PS - Thanks to everypony who said they liked Icarus how it was. Rest assured that if you liked it then ... well. Just you wait!

I've begun work on rewriting Icarus.  It's a pretty big task, especially with what I have planned for it, and like before I want it all finished before I publish, so don't hold your breath - it's gonna be at least a few weeks if not months.

But I feel bad for pulling it and I want to make up for it.  I want to write a short story for you guys, like my other shorts, to plug the gap - the only thing is, Icarus is taking all my creative juices for ideas.  Does anyone want to suggest something that I can write, maybe 2k-4.5k words, or another story for Applejack the Storyteller to tell?  I won't promise to use the ideas I'm given, but it'd be a nice break from Icarus to do something a bit more light-hearted.

Again, I'm really sorry for pulling Icarus - it's been discussed at enough length before, but I want it to be the best it can be.  I'm working closely with Dublio on completely reimagining the story.

Thanks for sticking with me!

And my sister made me THE MOST AWESOME birthday cake!

So, I've had some thoughts.  Comments and reviews on Icarus have made me reconsider.  I think they might be right.

People said they felt cheated by it, or disappointed.  At first I put it down to haters gonna hate, but now I realise that in the idea of "Icarus" there is potential for something bigger that at first I didn't imagine.

So - I've taken it down.  If you really, really liked it how it was, then I can reupload it.  But I won't do that until I've had another go at it, and then I will put a link to the original in the description of the new one.  I promise I will try harder, and do better.  I'll be home from uni for the Easter holidays coming up, so it might be finished some time after then.

Sorry if it seems insecure.  But it's my story, and I want it to be the best it can be.  For now, feel free to read through my shorter stories; people seem to like them more.

Yay!  100 Followers!  I never thought so many people would like my stuff so much.  Some of the comments and even messages I've got have made me so happy and really spur me to keep writing, so thank you so much!!

Still working on my longer story; it's almost finished with the first reviewer, then I'll pass it over to the second.