It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #129 · 7:01pm Sep 6th, 2023
About two months ago, I was asked to help judge a contest - the New Blood contest, to be specific. While I haven't been involved with Bean's group in almost two years, the idea of a contest to promote new writers was something I was fully in support of. I had a great time with the entries, and there was honestly a ton of great stuff in there. I'd say about half ended up in my likes pile and a bunch in my potentials for this blog. A few - good folks like heartlessons, GrangeDisplay, and WaywardSon - are excellent in their own right but because I've featured them before they're in the general pool rather than the new authors spotlight. (And I'll happily suggest you read their works! And everything that was in the contest, honestly, there were some real quality pieces in there.)
But today I'm gonna hit up some of the stand out authors who I haven't mentioned before and are worth folks taking a look at. (And I'm gonna do three because it was hard enough to pare it down to this and I've ended up with an odd number of stories on the shelf again.)
I'll have the last come first: see, LastToTheParty lived up to their name. A brand new author, their story was indeed the last one of the contest to make it out of the moderation queue and be published. The work in question is The Ponyville Files.
The story opens with Twilight - recently a Princess - getting access to the restricted Equestrian Secret Service archives. Her objective: read up on old foes and threats to prepare for future possible returns like Tirek's. Upon reading, she finds a volume labeled as the PONYVILLE FILES. Obviously curious, she reads and discovers that several ESS agents had been assigned to Ponyville. More notably, one of them is one of her friends and has been secretly working at Celestia's direction the entire time. While the friend's name is coded, one thing becomes quickly clear: the friend feels conflicted about hiding the truth from Twilight. That and, well, one other thing. (Note the tags.)
Now I'll say straight up: this is one of the best first stories I've seen in a long time. It'd be a good tenth story for most writers. It's succinct, has a clear approach, and an interesting hook. There's a mystery and it isn't hard to solve but there's just enough there to keep things interesting. There's some nice worldbuilding hints - Princess Celestia's in her prime chessmaster form here, and you get drips of that. And the ending section (well, sections, the little epilogue included) is pretty dang cute.
It isn't complex or world-shaking, but it's an excellent little shipfic with a touch of mystery. If this is the author's first story set up on a whim? I'm eager to see what else they've got to offer.
Next up is one of the older accounts in the contest: DarthBall with Going Against the Grain.
A stallion sits at the dinner table, looking at a dull, wilted dinner and a just as dull, wilted wife. She bemoans the recent sins of their son, Noteworthy - he's in trouble again. He's dating a griffon, and that's just vulgar. Miserable and hungry, the father seeks out the son to council him. He's never been there for his son before, never taken his side against the harpy of a mother, never done what was needed. Still, he comforts his son and encourages him. Tries to breathe a little life back into their relationship in this stark, empty home. Because, you see, the father is a changeling and this loveless family he's infiltrated is starving him to death.
Now before reading that spoiler, the whole rest of the story is pretty solid. It's great to see such a mundane situation played well. This would be a poignant little story as-is. The loveless marriage, the trying to mend at least a little something, the warm words between father and son? They're great stuff. The line "But if I don't start now, when will I ever make things right?" is just such a powerful statement. Love that.
But the spoilered twist adds a whole extra dimension to things. It made me re-read the whole story again and on the second go-through I spotted a ton of wonderful little touches that betrayed the truth I'd originally seen just as bits of writing flavor. Plus I think it really leans into the lore of it all - most changeling stories involve them in loving, happy relationships. I can only think of one other story that does it - The Starving Heart by Undome Tinwe's alt - and it this is more bleak (but in a good way).
The only part I'm not entirely sold on is the ending section, which feels kinda tacked on. Still, that's the only blemish on a solid and interesting story.
Last I'm gonna come to one I actually didn't like at first: Sabot Élégant's Not So Savory Adventure by Chromentazol.
The story details the internal dialogue of Sabot Élégant, mysterious restaurant critic. Arriving at Foin Exquis, an up-and-coming Ponyville restaurant, he quietly stages his review with a little help from Rarity acting as his partner in crime and decoy to distract attention away.
Now I'll lead this by saying I was initially put off by the story. Regular readers of this blog know how much I dislike second person stories, and bluntly the author's use of absolutely massive paragraphs started me off with a poor mindset. But by the end this ended up being one of my favorite stories in the contest.
The use of second person is actually used pretty well here: it keeps the identity of Sabot Élégant secret without having to awkwardly dance around the subject, pulling off that angle in a fairly graceful way. I won't say this often, but it was a good choice.
For the story itself, it's got an excellent patter going on - I don't know a thing about restaurant reviews (which is where your average reader is going to be coming from), but it felt realistic and intelligent, in the way a proper critic would perceive things. It also does a great job of weaving characterization into that, giving Sabot Élégant a fairly well-fleshed personality without disrupting the flow of the story itself (and makes the last line identity reveal all the stronger.) And the prose just flows in a way that a lot of authors struggle with. There's a hiccup here and there, but for the most part it's smooth sailing and feels natural.
I started out judging this story harshly and ended up very happy to be wrong by the end. It ended up winning to contest for pretty good reasons. Kudos to you, author.
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Ooh, I'd missed that the New Blood Contest had its results up! Thanks for the heads-up -- I definitely intend to read some of those! The one you chose as your second pick today really interests me, since second person and massive paragraphs are generally turn-offs for me as well. If a story is good enough to overcome both those initial handicaps, that says some good things about it -- and about its author.
Man, I really should re-format these paragraphs, huh? In any case, thank you for the high praises! It's still crazy to me that my story won 1st place, despite the other incredible entries and despite the controversial (as I've come to learn) nature of 2nd person stories.
The contest was a blast and a huge inspiration
I remember seeing the first vaguely when it was new, and it certainly piqued my interest. Your approval of it, and the points therein, are enough to seal the deal now. Sold!
And yep, the New Blood contest in general was a great idea and I'm happy it got a lot of folks out of their shell to discover just what they're capable of. That we, as readers, got some cool stuff out of it too is just the icing on the cake.
I’m glad I was able to participate in the contest, even if it was last minute! Thank you and everyone in bean’s group for giving us this chance to shine!
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Yup, results went up about a week ago now. And yeah, Sabot Elegant was something I initially was completely off on, but it warmed up to me real strongly.
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Well, honestly the second person dislike is really just me? I mean, everybody's got their stuff they hate, mine just happens to have an easy to spot tag. But you earned the win, let me tell you - it was a wonderfully crafted story and I'm looking forward to your next.
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Exactly why I was happy to hop on board. It's a great idea and a good cause. I'm very happy to see that the results were as strong as they were - while there were a few stinkers in the mix, most of the stories at least hit the 'good' level. Hopefully the success of this will encourage more people to give writing a shot. Always gotta encourage the new blood.
ooh, three for the price of one! :)
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It's a fairly common dislike, but as you've seen it can be overcome if the story is good enough. Another example that comes to mind is For Whom We Are Hungry by Cold in Gardez. Obviously I can't promise to like yours as I haven't read it (yet!) but I'm looking forward to getting to it!