Interview follow-up, reviews, and my secret story · 6:47pm Jan 13th, 2013
I greatly extended my post answering the Golden Vision interview questions. I added a lot a few hours after the post first appeared. Then I added things I said or wish I'd said in the interview, which I color-coded so you can go back and read just those parts if you read the post yesterday after 3PM Eastern. The red paragraph on modern vs. Greek tragedy is interesting. The red paragraph near the end about Bickham, Snyder, & Prose may be useful to other writers. The interview isn't up on YouTube yet.
Recently Seattle's Angels reviewed "Friends, with Occasional Magic," the second ponyfic I wrote and the first story I submitted here. It's attributed to Shagbark, my original pen name. I've asked some mods if they could transfer it to Bad Horse, but never gotten a reply, so it will probably stay where it is. Nick Nack called it a "genuine story that rings true with a certain emotional poignancy."
I said in an earlier post that EqD refused to read it. That wasn't entirely accurate. What I meant was that EqD said on their submission page not to submit stories like this--it violates the rules "no humanized" and "no stories about the fandom." So I never submitted it. A few days ago, I submitted it anyway, with a note that it broke these rules, and an explanation why it had to. The EqD pre-reader who likes air pirates gave it a chance, read it, and rejected it permanently, noting that because of the rule-breaking, it would have to have been well above the usual EqD standards to be published. He said, "This juggles far too many characters in far too few words to really characterize any of the characters in it beyond broad strokes, and your habit of not using dialogue attribution for a few lines at a time in a scene with six characters occasionally makes it difficult to keep track of who is talking. ... For that matter, almost no time is spent on description, leaving much of the conversations to take place in an empty, diner-shaped void."
I don't agree with this criticism, but it isn't obviously wrong either--I had to think about it and consult with GoH before deciding not to revise--and I appreciate that the pre-reader gave it a chance. Not using dialogue tags was deliberate--I thought the voices were so distinct that I decided to see how many speakers I could get speaking at once with no attribution and without any confusion. I went over the dialogue line-by-line several times to make sure all the attributions were clear from the dialogue and context before submitting. I'm less confident that I did the right thing with the description, but they would have had to have been brilliant descriptions fascinating enough to avoid bogging down a story that has no physical action and yet a lot of balls in the air at once. A diner is a mythical setting; like a throne room or the pearly gates of heaven, describing it in detail risks destroying the mythology that it invokes by conflicting with the reader's detailed ideas about how these things look. (That's my justification in retrospect. I wasn't thinking that when I wrote it.)
I also got glowing reviews from Seattle's Angels for Burning Man Brony; check them out here. You might be tempted to skim over Nietzsche's review because it looks like he's having fun with words more than reviewing, but slow down and read it--he gets it.
I haven't forgotten about my late Christmas present to you! I will finish all the requested reviews, but maybe not until after judging the AppleDash contest entries. Have I mentioned the AppleDash fanfic contest? I'm the Simon for this American Idol.
RBDash47 is still waiting for me to finish my Vault interview, which is months late now because I want to use it to make an announcement. More on that later.
So I managed to have a pony-filled week without writing a single line. Funny how that happens. I spend more time now blogging and responding to notifications than I do writing. It's almost like being a real writer.
...announcement?
Suddenly I am overcome with curiosity.
708167 I think I'm going to be able to make an announcement soon about the utter destruction of my nemesis.
708298
Yeah? Well better hurry up then, because if you dawdle any more this 'flu will finish your job for you. And how are you going to monologue at me at how evil you are if you let a measly virus claim me.
...unless the virus was your plan all along!
GoH: You...you fiend! You monster from the deepest pit of hell!
BH: Well flattery is a nice start, but you'll need to do a lot more pleading than that to get the antidote. A lot more. Going to take an awful amount of time which is a shame because time--
GoH: *gack*
BH: Mhm. Yes. Time is the one thing you don't have.
GoH: I--I thought it was the 'flu...
BH: For once you weren't wrong. It is in fact a variant of influenza. Modified, obviously.
GoH: What...*hrrk*...what strain?
BH: It thought it would be obvious. But then again, your mind might not be working as well.
GoH: ...tell me...
BH: Well you know how there's swine 'flu?
GoH: yes
BH: Horse 'flu, Ghost. Horse 'flu. Well Equine Influenza, but you get the idea. You must really be far gone not to see that coming. Childish of me, I know, but I've never been able to resist the dramatic flourish.
GoH: ...wh....why?
BH: We are enemies. Mortal enemies. One of us would kill the other. That's what mortal means.
GoH: Why...like this...a dog's death...no...no point...
BH: It isn't a death, you know. More of a...cleanup. I made you. Made you to be a weapon, something useful for the League. Instead you became...this. Amateur heroics, and pointless petty righteousness. An embarrassment. A mistake. And I, Ghost--
GoH: *gack* *gasp* *choke* [silence]
BH: ...[silence]...I always clean up my mistakes. Minions! Dispose of the body. I've work to do.
708363
DAMN IT, FICTIONALIZED BAD HORSE! I NEEDED FICTIONALIZED GHOST FOR SOMETHING!
708363
denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw2896-pinkiecry.gif
708718 And that is why he must die. Did you think I would stand for your turning to my nemesis for help, rather than me?