Those Post-Convention Pre-Holiday Christmas Author Blues · 8:27am Nov 29th, 2023
["Well. That year happened."]
Dear Readers (especially the demons of sound and darkness):
Everybody has a piece of music that reminds them of the Holidays. Here's mine:
I'm gonna be honest. The holidays aren't much fun for some of us. It could just be me, it could just be that my profession has a standoffish relationship with self-care. It could be things that didn't go right this year. (Or for a lot of past years.) It could just be I'm getting old. But things which are fun for lots of other people may not be fun for you. If you're one of those... well, I don't have any advice to give, aside from the fact that you're not alone. So just be kind to yourself. Find whatever family or friends are close to you. Spend time with them, in small groups. Just being there means a lot to people. I don't know why this is true, but it is.
I did a fic exchange with Quills N' Sofas last Christmas. I got a prompt from TheDriderPony about Starlight helping Pinkie build a gingerbread house. And I think it turned out pretty well, considering that Pinkie is one of the hardest characters for me to write.
But Starlight? Starlight, I get.
I wasn't expecting a comedy story to end up with some heart-to-heart canon interpolating backstory about why Starlight did what she did, but it did. And I'm glad it did.
Someone with a beautiful lilting Irish accent did a reading of my story Sonnet: To A Pegasi Navigator. The narrator, one Midnight of "Pony and Wolf Productions" does not appear to have a FimFic account. Whoever you are, thank you.
Brief PVCF travelogue: For a con that I hadn't gone to since 2018, that was sure an experience. I am going to be forever bummed out that I did not jump on the writing train and contribute stories like so many of the other writers here. But man, what an experience. More words collectively than Tolkien's works? JaniceTheLight writing more than 1/3 of all the stories? Getting to hang out with AdmiralBiscuit and AlwaysDressesInStyle and NavelColt to talk shop (and get secret story codes!) over barbecue? Secret events with Kelly Sheridan and Josh Haber? New Anthology? Watching the charity donation record get rekt harder than the MCU?
All good. All very, very good indeed.
["Elevators too slow. Windows would not open all the way for pegasi access. Bathrooms unusable by small quadrupeds. 2/10 would not recommend." - AdmiralBiscuit]
["Vegeta! What does the scouter say about its word count level??!?!?"]
[Twiggie_Hongry.jpg]
[Autumn Blaze: “Cool! They can use this gunpowder stuff to blow up buildings? We just used it as a dry rub…”]
[Twilight: {Scared Horse Royalty Noises}]
It was brief, but it was fun. Next year, with stories.
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Various and Sundry: I have my first-ever non-speedwrite-affiliated fic in progress! Blame AdmiralBiscuit. It's... kind of taking on a life of its own. But It's 5,000 words so far. Progress! 
Also, because I'm trying to act like a responsible adult (which includes keeping track of friends and family), I have a Christmas Card list! If I've met you in person, and you'd like one, message me, and I can add you to it. Real mail! Paper! Wow! Who'd have thought that's a thing anymore!
