State of the Scribe: August 2023 · 2:58am Aug 1st, 2023
Hey pones, hope your summer is going great! Assuming that's what time it is where you're at, of course.
Back from my vacation this month--that meant a lot of work to catch up on, lots of stories to write and moving (twice, X.x). Things should be settling down a little for me over the coming weeks, though my next one will be pretty crazy. I'll be working Gencon this week--working, not just visiting like I've done the last several years. Pretty excited/scared to see how that turns out.
Now that I've graduated, I've turned my attention to writing in a much more concrete way. Anyone who's watching the world now knows why someone like me would be nervous--right now AI are pretty garbage at it, but who knows what a decade from now will look like? I sure don't.
What it means is that I've got to get books out now, with an urgency I've never felt before. Can't predict the future, but it seems reasonable that things will get crazier before they start making sense. I've five books into my 12 book plan for the year... not great, but I think the rest seems very much within reach. I'd be quite surprised if I don't hit nine, anyway. Some of them may be with the company I write for, but that still counts!
Anyone who knows me will know that all my existing stories will keep going until they're finished. I can't predict what the future will hold when a story is finished, whether or not their slot will be filled, or by what. But until that strange day, the words go on.
There's Don't Bug Me, the biggest story I'm writing here on Fimfic right now. The story of what it's like if a whole summer camp arrives in Equestria all at once--as changelings, in a version of Equestria that's still reeling from the devastating impact of the invasion. That story's on track to finish before the end of the year, though anyone reading it will know it still has quite a lot of runway left. Truth is, that story could've been another 50k words or longer--but that means months and months more, rather than reaching a conclusion within a resonable timescale. We're getting there!
We also have Beyond the Veil of Sleep, which launched last month. This story follows Mira, a batpony desperate to protect her tribe after the failure of the Lunar Rebellion. We'll see a whole lot of dream magic, some nightmare moon, and lots of dreams. This story is also still concluding on my Patreon, where it will continue for the next months until it reaches its end. It should keep updating weekly through the end of the year and beyond.
Words of Power continues of course, showing the struggle of a former human, now Kirin named Lotus, who needs to learn enough magic to get to Equestria and get a cure. I know the artists have gone truly all out for this month's chapters. Get ready to be blown away, I know I was.
Then there are the stories I write on my Patreon, because genfic doesn't exist and I can't put them up here. But you don't have to pay a dime to read them, just click the link. Heck, you can follow a patreon without paying anything, if you want notifications when they go live.
Spirits of Change is first, the story of a world inspired by His Dark Materials, but with Pokemon instead of animals as the daemons. There the legendary pokemon rule the world with an adorable but iron grip. When Hayden settles as a mew instead of an eevee, their life is turned upside down, as they're swept up into the dangerous world of legendary politics. Think My Fair Lady and Game of Thrones with pokemon and you're in the right zip code. This thing is one of my longest running passion projects, something I never thought I'd get to write, so the chapters really get crazy. You can check it out here: [url=https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe/posts?filters[tag]=Spirits%20of%20Change&sort=published_at]https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe/posts?filters[tag]=Spirits%20of%20Change&sort=published_at
Then there's Deep Below, another passion project--but this one about Splatoon. The last survivors of humanity are stored away in an ancient bunker, until a team of squids on a salmon run wakes one of them up. Soon the bunker's watchful stewart has become a squid, and has to discover the truth of what happened to humanity--while healing from the horrors of the apocalypse they still remember vividly. Read here: https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe/posts?filters%5Btag%5D=Deep%20Below&sort=published_at
Both of these stories will get an epub/pdf release when they're complete.
Lastly there's the usual group of Patreon stories updating each week. When they're complete (or nearly so) they'll make it to fimfiction, as usual. Oh, and a quick note: Hand of the Ancients will actually update on Fimfiction, not Patreon as the calendar says. I'm away from home and don't have my image editor, so I couldn't fix it >.>
Second String, the tale of earth's brave football warriors turned Equestrian liberators, can be explored here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-in-78044865
Legio IX Hispania, our historical journey into the question of what if the lost Roman legion ended up in Equestria, unravels here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-legio-78027950
My Discord, a hub of fun writing activities and lots of other pony-related shenanigans: https://discord.gg/J8hq6MX
Obligatory Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe
Want a copy of one of my books? You can see what I've printed and buy a copy here: https://starscribe.net/
I've always liked Roger Ebert's quote on movies, "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough."
Looking at the schedule it loks like there is a sudden gap in updates for Words of Power. Going by an update every 2 weeks the next one should be thursday 3 augustus. I really hope we don't have to wait another week for the next chapter.
Why is Words of Power only twice a month, rather than weekly?