State of the Author: Summer Solstice · 2:45am Jun 22nd, 2023
Rather than post these on the first of the month like some, I prefer to aim them at significant Celestial events.
Thus it is on this <checks notes> Summer Solstice, I present to you a State of the Author.
Which is kinda gonna take the form of updates on a bunch of stuff and pony pictures and might be kinda rambling and incoherent. In other words, perfectly on par for this kinda of thing.
First off, we're gonna talk about cons. I might or might not have announced I was going to Seaquestriafest and Whinny City, but I did. And there'll be blogs about them SoonTM.
I'm also gonna go to Trotcon and Everfree Northwest and Ciderfest, and possibly a fourth con (or possibly not). So if you want to step away from the computer/cell phone for a moment and book your tickets there for your chance to bask in my glory and maybe get a free t-shirt. They're comfy and easy to wear!
I don't have any special plans for Trotcon; due to work scheduling issues I'll be arriving late Friday, probably covered in various automotive fluids. But I'll be there and I'll be easy to spot and maybe I'll get last-minute wrangled into a panel. It's happened before. . .
If they do have a speedwriting panel, I'll bring my typewriter.
Otherwise, I'll just be around on Saturday and Sunday (and late Friday, maybe).
If you're at Everfree Northwest, you'll also have a chance to pick up actual physical copies of my books!
Now, I know some of you were at Bronycon '19 and of course bought all three that were on offer. Well, for you I present this:
That's right, there's now a fourth book and the actual copy you'll get in your hands (or hooves) will have the correct margins on the cover.
If things go well, there'll be a fifth book, too. I don't want to announce it just yet, 'cause I'm still in 'waiting for a proof to arrive to see how much needs to be fixed' mode. At least the next one has a mostly-white cover, so if I screw up the margins on that one it might not be noticeable.
Fiaura's got a panel on publishing books but it doesn't cover how to get the margins right . . . or line breaks, those'll be the death of me. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.
Ciderfest is gonna have opportunities for writers and performers and for once I'm on the ball enough to give y'all the link before it expires. Vivid Syntax told me I should sign up when I was at Whinny City, and then Nyronus sent me a PM, which means I gotta. Those are the rules, and I don't make the rules.
I don't know how much I'm supposed to share, so I'll just copypasta from their Discord announcement: "We're putting together one of the most ambitious convention experiences in MLP history, and we need your help." They're looking for writers, editors, actors, and artists, and you can show your interest by filling out this form.
Outside of cons, work has been work.
And while it's not delicate computer repairs (usually), there's been a fair amount of soldering things together in the past few weeks. As well as hitting things with hammers and trying to cast my mind back to the aughts and remember how to diagnose a Chrysubishi Seaclipse which runs okay except when it doesn't.
Speaking of which, I've got a few Mechanic blog posts that are percolating their way through the queue which you'll see sooner or later. Y'all will get to learn about a Silverado with Schrodinger's symptoms, and more than you wanted to know about a Volvo's evaporative emissions systems. There might even be a blog about a Dodge B2500 that didn't have spark, not because it's overly interesting from a diagnostic standpoint, but because diagnostics involved lots of extra wires running here and there.
And since we're segueing into stuff that hasn't been published yet . . . here's a couple of snippets from works in progress.
Most pegasi, even if they weren’t weatherponies, felt some pull towards the sky whenever weather rolled in.
Moonlight Zephyr wasn’t like most pegasi. As the pressure started dropping, she started yawning; by the time the first drops of rain were falling, her eyes were drooping; the first flash of lightning found her fast asleep on the couch, her muzzle tucked under a wing.
Wind gusts rattled the house and thunder boomed; her ears would occasionally twitch but other than that, she was out like a light.
Her early experiments had gotten her banned from the roof of her apartment complex. The superintendent had found her lightning-collector and followed its cord through her balcony door and he’d yelled at her a lot; her observation that her lease didn’t prohibit her from collecting lightning didn’t win her that argument.
...
Periwinkle slid the excelsior-packed box of jars towards the rear, then unspooled what her building superintendent had called ‘an electrical hazard, fire hazard, and tripping hazard all in one package.’
Kellet didn’t need the stairs; she dropped down in the center of the caboose and shook her wings out, then stretched them to their full extension and yawned.
She twitched them and tucked them mostly back in, then turned to Buttons. “It’s gonna rain today, I can feel it in my wings.”
“I can feel it in my scars.”
The jet got clearance to the main building from the second taxiway, and she watched its anticollision lights turn off onto the taxiway before she lifted her own radio. “Pegasus FALX requesting low-level clearance direct to Saltburn-by-the-Sea for a departure from Great North Air Ambulance.”
“Clearance granted. Caution wake turbulence, winds ten knots—” She let the rest of the weather advisory wash over her; she’d seen the windsock and could feel the ground currents from the bizjet gently buffeting her fur and feathers.
I was gonna have one of them ready (or almost ready) this weekend, but I got surprised scheduled for an extra twelve hours at a group home . . .
Sweetsong's adventures are getting a physical book!? Hell yeah!
In the short story "Dreaming Is A Private Thing" (Asimov) Main idea is a device that lets people record things & other people experience them. one of the Dreamies said "How do I do it? I don't know 'How do I do it?'. How do you NOT do it? Tell me how you not do it so I can stop." Asimove wrote 40 novels, 383 (published) short stories, about 280 nonfiction books, edited about 147 other books, over 600,000 post cards or letters (snail mail) + many introductions for others novels. He was posthumously diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome
Heinlein said "Why do it? It's a disease.".
I believe you just missed a New Moon too.
Those clips remind me of one of my favourite rom-coms.
Stardust.
I see this happening in the fic.
Maybe it’s time I actually make it to a con. No guarantees though. Maybe Ciderfest, I’ll have to check dates and locations though.
It seems you know how to get (and keep) our attention.
You’re having a busy year! I’m glad you’re going to be at Everfree. I hope we get a chance to meet up!
Nice bit of snippeting. Can't wait to read the stories!
I was thinking of you on the road trip I'm taking a break from, as I saw a couple freight trains north of Rochester IN.
Eight hours of driving to go...
EFNW is a *possiblity* for me this year. We'll see how it shakes out.
Sounds like you will be having some fun soon.
Can confirm, the shirts are excellent! n_n
Unfortunately, I have to work.
I'm also attending TrotCon! Have my voice panel again!
Be seeing you at EFNW! Gonna be a good one as always, I'm sure.
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Not only are getting, have gotten! And you can get it at Everfree Northwest (or possibly other ways, that remains to be determined).
The new and improved book has fewer paragraph break errors, correct margins on the cover, and more pixels on the cover.
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It's true; writers gotta write.
Just can't help ourselves.
Also I just realized I might have Asimov beat in number of short stories . . .
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I might have . . . Luna would not be pleased.
Stardust is a fantastic movie. Haven't seen it in a while, I ought to rectify that.
Also I now realize that every snippet I posted has a pegasus in it.
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Oh, you totally should! They're lots of fun, there's tons of pony merchandise and you can talk about ponies to anyone there and you might meet some of your favorite pony celibs.
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Did you know that Rick Astley did Highway to Hell as an encore at one of his shows? And not just the singing part. . . .
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I have a hard time finding it, thankfully I stole a copy from my local library. (well worth the $25 fee for "losing" it)
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We'll find a place and time
It has been a busy year and an interesting one so far. If nothing else, there's plenty of blog posts on the way (including cons I went to last year and still haven't blogged about :derpytongue2)
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In the Triptych Continuum (Estee) has post alicorn Twilight having had pretty much all the books in the treebrary stolen by souvenir hunters
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Hopefully at least one of them is sooner rather than later
I've probably been there (used to live in Lafayette, IN) Always fun to find trains on the road . . . well, not literally on the road, but you know what I mean.
Hopefully you've made it home by now
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Hope you can make it! I'd say it's a fun con, but you already know that.
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I will be! I've had some fun these last two months, too, just haven't gotten the blogs finished or posted yet.
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That's a shame. I've at least got the advantages of the seniority and indispensability of being able to say when I'm taking days off rather than having to ask.
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Yay Trotcon! I'll see you there!
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Yay, looking forward to it! Gonna be a great con!
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You replied a few minutes after I got home, actually!
I really need to stop trying to fit 10+ hours of driving into one day.
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The 22nd thing Asimov ever wrote was the short story "Nightfall" (1941) age 21. After that, with 2 exceptions he eventually sold everything he ever wrote for the next 50+ years. One a nonfiction article rendered obsolete, the other was a screenplay for Paul McCartney (for a project he abandoned).
On average this amounted to approximately 1700 words a day for 50+ years. Of course, the days he spent traveling, hospitalized, at cons etc. brought the average down.
Oh yeah, the average was greatly decreased by the fact that he didn't start writing full time until 1958.
Asimov was posthumously diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Some would think this gave him an unfair advantage.
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To be fair, I bought it on youtube and they removed it... didn't give me my money back either.
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Yeah, I never had money for cons until covid. And well, that wasn’t happening for other regions. I just need to find one that fits into my schedule (and let my wallet recover after my last con).
Hey, just swinging by to say thanks for the signal boost. Every little bit helps!
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Perfect timing!
I can still do one ten or eleven hour day without any difficulty. Two in a row, probably not. (Also depends on where I'm going/what I'm doing.)
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I could very much do that if I wasn't working two jobs.
I could probably do it if it was only working one job.
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EquestriaDaily usually has a list early in the year of what cons there'll be. I don't know where you are, but the ones I know of in the US are SeaquestriaFest (Ocean City, MD), Whinny City (Chicago), Trocton (Dayton), BABSCon (LA, I think?), Everfree Northwest (Seattle), and Ponyville Ciderfest (Milwaukee, WI). There's also one in Florida (Harmonycon, I think) and one in Vancouver BC which I'd like to get to some year (but it's in the winter, so not as good). There's also Galacon in Germany and Holland Ponycon in the Netherlands and I think a few others in Europe.
Everfree Northwest is currently the best for authors.
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You can just self publish on the internet. He had to find someone willing to pay uhm....lots of $ for him to do it. (It was 1 cent a word pre WW2. Not sure what it was during the 1980s.)
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That's true, it does give me an advantage.
I bet by the time he was publishing in the 80s, especially with name-recognition, he got paid more than a penny a word.