State of the Scribe: June 2025 · 9:31pm June 1st
Hey pones! Brief one this week, not a lot changing, so I'll be brief.
Last month I had hoped to post New Way Home to fimfiction, but decided to hold off a little longer so it could get more art. It's one of those stories that's probably going to have art in most chapters--but doing this requires lots of lead-in. Apologies for the wait, but it will come eventually. All those patreon stories will make it to fimfic eventually.
Other than that, the biggest change here is that book 2 of the Forerunner's Child series ended last month, and now we're going through the third one. The kids completed their space mission, and now they're off to do... well, I guess it would be a spoiler. They're on an adventure!
Quarantine continues as the only regular fimfic story right now. Surreal feeling, but maybe not that strange after so long. I've written so many stories on this site, so many different TFs and adventures and science fiction invasions and more. It's how the orange part of my calendar keeps growing. There's only so many derivatives of the same subjects I can write before I feel driven to broaden the base left for me to draw from. Is that weird?
Of course I've got a few more stories to tell. Maybe a lot more, I dunno. I never would've believed I would still be writing these a full decade after I started.
Most of the actual news I have isn't pony related. I'm absolutely thrilled with how the first original book launch went, and especially grateful to anyone who took the time to leave a review. I turned that little book into a whole series (again, that's already written). The second book will release the first of next month. Cover might give a bit of a hint of what it's about, lol. Optimistic, cozy scifi. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F6MC1BBK
But I'll not waste a ton of time, I know many people only care about my ponies, and I respect that. One blog post for you to ignore, and I'll not harp on the book. I had planned on a retrospective when the book was out, but the more time I think, I'd rather do it with the whole series. I'm doing a book every 2 months, so that shouldn't actually take that long. I'd like to see how retention is, if some of the old adages about publication are true. (like "the best advertising for your book is writing the next one")
And heck, if the series goes nowhere in terms of career, I'll only be a little sad. I'm really proud of the story I told, my best work yet.
But as I said, not a lot of news this week. I'm headed to Japan for much of July, so maybe in August I'll have some things to talk about there. It's a research trip obviously, where no one will have any kind of fun. Strictly business.
Anyway, thanks for indulging me in this little diversion. I know Fimfic is pony site, and I feel bad I don't have as much time to write ponies anymore. If we never grew up, maybe I'd have the time to keep going, writing a bunch of pony that I didn't think I ever could. Crap I wrote that already. :3
Ongoing Stories:
· Quarantine, our vote-driven story about magical pony diseases and unfortunate transformations, is still rolling strong. If you're not voting yet, now's your chance to influence how Elliot's story unfolds. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/568477/quarantine
· For Pokémon, Celebi Like Them is first. Quinn's traveled back into the mists of distant history, with no sign of how to get his body back (or how to save his girlfriend) https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-celebi-121255137.
· Another Day at Unity continues to explore aspects of the Spirits of Change world that were out of scope for the main narrative. Visit strange new locations, meet all kinds of weird Pokémon. available right here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-day-at-115556555
- Ravana's Shadow: Sequel to Forerunner's Child. Mysteries unravel on a child-run colony far in humanity's future. https://www.patreon.com/posts/92942140
- 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
- Accidental Sunshine: Changeling discovers ponies, but can she learn to master friendship before her deception is discovered? https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-105351764
- New Way Home is the story of when accidental human arrivals to Equestria are discovered by some very unfriendly creatures, and they're forced to fight for survival: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-rescue-94115163
Grab copies of my books: https://starscribe.net/
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe
Come chat on Discord: https://discord.gg/fZ2Y5KgbN2?event=1275614019373498368
It's interesting. I was going back through the months to see a calendar where it was mostly fimfiction pony. The pictures became "upstream error" before I got there. That was apt.
There were the early pony stories in 2011-2013, where they were often off-canon because canon wasn't established yet, and the world was an open sketchbook. So many unique views of pony happened here.
There were the golden age stories in 2014-2017, where there were still many epics happening, but the world was more or less codified.
Then you had 2018-2020 pony with the series ending. I'm frankly surprised more epics did not start up with the specter of canon shooting a cannonball through new stories now mostly gone. The scope of stories became generally smaller.
2021-2023 had the hope for G5 and the failure thereof. There were a few G5 stories, but it didn't generate the energy. The fandom did some experiments, but it didn't open a new blank page to draw on. A sad number of old long-form stories got abandoned in the middle.
2024-present is now more the nostalgia era. You occasionally have some new writers with new long-form stories, and veteran writers pop in for a short-form story every once in a while, but the pond is shrinking, and it shows.
5848868
yeah… i wonder do we need to pull downloads of our favorite finished stories against the fall of night?
5848878
Keeping stuff that happened after mid 2023 might be an idea simply because fimfetch stopped archiving stuff.
Cover art for Ravana's Shadow looks exceptional! I can't wait to buy it, the first one came out exceptionally, too!
5848868
It's sad really. I love the show, but the Fandom was always where its heart really was. The stories here... there's a reason FIMfic is huge and other fabfic sites dedicated solely to one Fandom aren't usually as big.
Some, a lot, of sttories written here are astoundingly good. With characters and writing at levels or in ways I struggle to find elsewhere. Hinterlands? Empty Horizons? Fallout Equestria which spawned it's own subfandom?
Many of these writers, if they continued to write, didn't let their fans here know. I would kill to read anything else the author of Murky Number Seven writes.
There really is something special about these pony stories. They bring out something I haven't quite been able to nail down that I just don't find in a lot of other work. Closest I've found since has been The Death Gate Cycle.
As someone who was here since that 2011 era, I've adored the entire journey. This site, these stories, they are why I continued to like pony well into adulthood.
Anyway, thanks Starscribe, for letting us see your other published work. I don't mess around with Patreon because I'm lazy but I'm almost done with Forerunner's Child and will drop a review when I'm finished. Thank you for the years of pony.
5848885
It has always seemed odd to me when authors move on to other fandoms or their own original works but don't let the fandom know where they have moved to. It would seem that the added audience would help, or the additional book sales for their original works.
5848901
It can sorta make sense. Fanfiction is still widely looked down upon by the world at large. While you and Is and everyone here sees art for what it is, Fanfiction carries a tainted and tarnished reputation elsewhere.
You may not, as an author, want your published works to be associated with your fanfiction for that reason unfortunately.
Which is why in my review today, I avoided any mention of fanfiction.
5848881
FFF stopped working too for calibre so quick and easy updates of ongoing stuff is hard too... I put in an attempt to get around it but gave up.
On the upside if Knighty wants to block my ability to read current pony fic on my e-reader AND to use calibre then he'll no longer get ad revenue from me.