An Overdue Update · 2:17am Nov 5th, 2023
Hello every pony!
I thought it was high time for a rather overdue update on what I have been up to as of late.
Firstly, I wanted to say that although I have been silent here I have been busy writing things. I am branching out from doing Pony, as you may know from my earlier mentioning of working on the Drozma story. That still isn't quite ready to go to press yet, but the indomitable Reese has been doing some work on it for me. I spent most of my creative energies last month working on Inktober, which was alot of fun and a good break from writing for a bit... which was important because this month I'm working on the National Novel Writing Challenge. I'm not sure what my results with that will be, but I am giving it a go for the first time this year. Part of the impetus for this was my earlier work on Up The Ohio Canal, which clocked in around the novelette range in terms of length. I thought that, maybe, I'd be able to produce a novel or at least novella using the same techniques I used to write that piece (GoogleDocs. GoogleDocs, and it's organizational headings for chapters is the technique). I also want to work on being able to write longer and more complex works generally, and to improve my ability to write original works. The novel I am working on now, working title Red Witches, follows a female fighter jet pilot from Ukraine, Nonna Radomira, as she fights to survive as a mercenary pilot for Vietnam in a war against China in 1992. It's a story not just about war, and it's tragedies, but also about love and finding purpose. I think. Subject to change, lol. Anyhow, it's something I have been working on for quite a few years: originally it was my parts of an larger Ace Combat text based RP, then I wrote a short story for my short fiction class (My professor hated it! Also he didn't know what a Babushka was. No, it's not just a head scarf! Thank god I had an actual Ukrainian classmate to help explain that one. Incidentally, Ms. L. R., your editing notes on Nonna were correct: she is not in fact straight. I just didn't realize that at the time I wrote that story.). I've taken all of those old writings, stuffed them into a Google Doc, and when edited and rearranged (read: completely rewritten) I hope they will produce a decent short novel. The only thing standing in my way is my glacial writing pace, random research questions that side track me, and everything else I'm doing.
Speaking of: Good New Everyone! I finally have a job. I landed a position as a "Museum Assistant" at the Dunham Tavern Museum in Cleveland, which is the oldest structure in the city. It's a kinds of "all hats on deck" job, as it involves helping with curatorial and administrative tasks, as well as overseeing the volunteer docent corp and tours. And it's only part time, 22 hrs a week or so. At $20 an hour, which is probably a bit low but double what I made during my Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument days so I shan't complain too much. Most importantly, it should allow me to maybe afford some insurance, which I have been stuck without since the end of July and has been making things rather close cut lately when it comes to dealing with my diabetes. I just love this country. So, as a recap, it's good money and gives me a lot of useful skills to put on my resume going forward when it comes to roles where I'm managing a team. And, this is what sold me on the position, I get an honest to goodness, real office! A private office with a door and a desk and everything! I know that's rather silly in the work-from-home, AI future we live in where we will all soon be replaced with ChatGPT attached to an email account, but I rather like the old fashioned idea of having a space, you know? Makes a person feel as if they have arrived. Plus, decorating is fun.
You'll be glad to know I also continue to dabble in a million and a half hobbies, all of them expensive. I have several plastic models I really ought to get started building, including a 1/48th scale MH-6 helicopter and a 1/72nd scale F-4 Phantom. The trouble is that I really need some better paints and painting equipment, probably an airbrush, before I start work on them. A friend of mine also recently gave me a Wargaming magazine that came with a free frame of Warlord Games' miniatures from their Black Powder Epic Scale: Waterloo game. I actually already have a set of rules that would work with them, not from Warlord Games, and I might use these instead but a friend of mine from my reenacting unit plays Black Powder, I believe, so I might convince him to do something with me at some point (or at least Xerox the rules for me, yo ho).
I have received news, lately, that in the coming year we will have a new Captain, my good friend and 1st Lt., Mr. D.R.. He's the person who recruited me into the battery, and one of the few amongst our older members I get along with. His promotion is very much well deserved. Sometime next year, I believe, I will be advanced to the rank\position of Quartermaster Sargent. As silly as reenacting ranks are, since we are all basically playing dress up, I really feel happy to be given some kind of recognition.
I any case rest assured dear readers that I am as well and as busy as ever, and that even if my updates are sporadic and not-so pony as of late you are all very much in my mind.
PS. Which one of you was in the Discount DrugMart parking lot the other night, with your truck covered in Pinky Pie stickers?! It was such a shame I wasn't wearing my Admiral Biscuit shirt that night. Myself & OGM were right next to you, and a bit startled to see such a endangered bird in the wild. Quoth Devo: We see you... and we know what you do 
Oh, well, thanks. :)
Congratulations on the job!
And the reenactment stuff!
And good luck, in general. :)