Well. *That* all happened. · 5:10am Jun 1st, 2023
["You want what, when, and why?"]
Dear Readers [including the ones who thought I had disappeared]:
This has been my first regular weekday off work since (checks work calendar) - January 2nd. How all y'all doin'?
Oh, sure, I've been around, and writing. Problem is, all of that writing was done for people who pay my salary. And who needed a lot of things written, in very specific ways, on very short turnarounds, and without any fiction or fun involved. Well, maybe not intentional fiction or fun. Did I mention I have an office? With a door and a window? And I slept there because they would need lots of things at unreasonably early hours?
Yay civil service.
Whatever. It's all done, and I've got a few hundred hours of "compensatory time" booked. Which means Everfree Northwest, and HarmonyCon, and maybe some other cons. Oh, and time with IRL family and friends, which, believe it or not, I also have.
While I was otherwise away, there was a bank run for some reason. A lot of tech bros nearly lost a whole bunch of money and some not-quite-legal stuff happened to make sure they didn't. I'm a lawyer, not a banker ["If you were a banker you'd have better hobbies." - Internal Editor]
I did, however, use it as fodder for a Quills N' Sofas speedwrite. (Did I mention for some reason they let me run speedwrites there now? They do.) And I did like how this one turned out - not only was it a "Big Heist" for a "Big Heist Contest" (of course I was running it. 
), I got to throw in one of my favorite real-world concepts, I got to write Luna as some combination of Batman and Robin Hood, give Flim and Flam some extra comeuppance, and use The Royal Canterlot Voice all in a single story written in an hour. (If you think what Flim and Flam did to get some bureaucratic approval was out there, remember that I worked in Washington D.C. for over a decade. There are worse.)
My friend Level Dasher--Josh was his IRL name--passed away a little over a month ago and I still miss him. Ironic, considering that I think we met IRL exactly three times, and didn't correspond much. But he was the one who convinced me, all the way at my first EFNW, that I could actually write short fiction about pastel-colored equines and have it be good. (That was the same conversation where I met my other oldest FimFicFriend.) He was the one who told me about Quills N' Sofas speedwrites. He was always there with a note of encouragement. He was the first editor I approached when I finally got serious about submitting stories to FimFic. And when I won Iron Author at EFNW last year, I immediately asked Level Dasher to edit the story. And true story - I almost missed my connecting flight home while we talked over Discord about the story. It turns out, I think it was the last story he edited before taking a long sabbatical for a move and a new job. And then he was gone.
Some people are just lucky and get to bring out the best of everyone around them, almost without trying. That was Level Dasher. That's why I'll miss him.
I will be trying to organize a tribute event for LD over on the Quills N' Sofas Discord sometime this month. Watch this space for details.
Various and Sundry: I do have a bunch of one-shot stories banked. I have some ideas for longer fics that I didn't get to write because of all the other stuff I had to write.
I am also in dire need of a new editor, particularly one who is good with short fics that may or may not get expanded. I can pay - not a lot, but enough for a hobby.
Regular posting and MT files will resume just as soon as pancakes...zzzzzzzzzzzz
Man, Level Dasher was a site legend . . . when I started the Not-A-Contest I didn't think to make a group for it, then got overwhelmed with fics, and he did the work to make a group for me . . .
Met him once at EFNW a few years back and we hung out and chatted, real cool dude.
Also, I feel you about work. I've had more days off this year, but not that many more . . . been overworked since mid 2020, and no sign of it letting up anytime soon. Sigh.
At least I can function with little sleep and I'm a fast writer.