• Member Since 18th May, 2012
  • offline last seen Nov 14th, 2020

GhostOfHeraclitus


Lecturer by day, pony word peddler by night.

More Blog Posts106

  • 264 weeks
    Words in print

    Recently, I've been asked for permission by Avonder to include Whom The Princesses Would Destroy... in a story anthology he's putting together. I'm not one for hoarding words and I gave it quite, quite gladly.

    You'll find it here.

    Read More

    6 comments · 1,913 views
  • 298 weeks
    Ghost Gallivants to Glorious Galacon

    Ghost Gallivants to Glorious Galacon

    -or-

    A Supposedly Fun Thing I’m Totally Doing Again

    (with apologies to David Foster Wallace)

    Read More

    33 comments · 2,493 views
  • 300 weeks
    Now(TM) with Travel Advice

    I'm safely ensconced in my hotel room in Ludwigsburg. Hope to meet at least some of you. To increase the odds of this happening, I offer the following advice:

    Read More

    18 comments · 1,105 views
  • 300 weeks
    Soon(TM)

    I will be flying to Galacon 2018 in under twelve hours and I expect I will be safely in Ludwigsburg within 24 hours. I will be hard to contact during this period, though I think I've acquired a method of fool-proof Internet access no matter where I am (aside from six miles straight up, of course).

    Hope to see many of you soon!

    16 comments · 860 views
  • 301 weeks
    Happy July 20th!

    ...or July 21st, depending on your timezone.

    49 years ago the first manned Moon landing was accomplished. It is one of my favorite moments in history (To learn about my favorite you may have to wait for December the 9th), and to celebrate I've re-edited Hoofprints to be a little less... ah, draft-y.

    Read More

    20 comments · 1,117 views
Jun
11th
2013

New story, and notes on upcoming stories · 4:08am Jun 11th, 2013

Hello my readers most magnificent.

So, first of all I wrote a new story. And were it on FimFiction (which it isn't) it would be tagged [Human].

No! Wait! Don't go! I can explain!

Toafan was kind enough to invite me to participate in a flash-fiction contest/here's a prompt see what you can do with it type thing. Now, I don't really do requests, and I'm swamped as it is, but I did consider it, that being the polite thing to do, and I realized I had the story all-but-complete in my head. So I wrote it.

Now it has to be tagged [Human] because of the prompt, but it is not a HiE story. Promise.

You can find it here: Hoofprints.

I think it may--a few rough edges notwithstanding--amuse you.


Right, moving on, there's some news regarding the more, ah, traditional writing projects of mine. I've not stalled, you'll be pleased to know, and I have one story ready for publication, and another at about 90%. Now, you may have to wait for these a bit longer because I want to publish them as a part of Obiter Dicta which is my fic/omnibus for shortish pieces, and I want a third piece before I make it public.

Currently I've written "The Game the Princesses Play", and "An Afternoon for Dotted Line". The first is a [comedy] piece and the second is a [comedy] [slice of life]. The third piece is probably going to be "On The Nature of War," but that depends on my ability to make the story worthwhile. Still, the story should be online before long. Writing's being going passing well lately, which, after the long stretch with writer's block, is good news indeed.

Thanks for reading!

Report GhostOfHeraclitus · 1,365 views ·
Comments ( 28 )

Please put that flashfic on this site. It deserves to be here. Even if it isn't as polished as your usual writing, it's still excellent.

"Hold on and try to steer with your knees" may be the best advice for guiding the human mind through the concept of time travel that I've ever heard.

Also, if this story isn't at least a thousand words long, that's a damn shame, because I want to favorite it.

As for the narrator, I want to say either Discord or the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Assuming that they aren't the same thing. Now there's a story idea...

Well, the narrator can't be Discord. He's not having enough fun with the event. After all, Discord would place a plaque right in the dust at that bottom step that said, "Don't forget your lines, Neil." :pinkiehappy:

SOON :pinkiecrazy:

Whelp, there is a Ghost story. Hold my calls. :pinkiehappy:

That was beautiful.

Oh.

OH :fluttercry:

Don't let Celestia read this. :fluttercry:
I don't think my heart can take much more of this. Too much heartbreak recently. :pinkiesad2:

That was great - thanks for sharing it.

"On the Nature of War"

Well...

This should be interesting.

1137023
Aww. Thanks. :twilightsmile:

1137035
It's about 1900 words, actually.

1137061
True, true, but Discord's been a lot calmer lately.

1137098
:twilightsmile:

Glad this aleatory temporal alignment of prose production served to render your general dissatisfaction into at the very least equanimity, if not felicity.

1137129
:twilightsmile:

Thanks.

1137157
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Makes the sharing worthwhile.

1137266
A part of me wants to start making long fake quotes and attributing them on the noted theoretician of war, the Gryphon scholar, Von Clawsewitz. :pinkiehappy:

But no, it's just a little story about war. You'll see. Well you will if I can make the blasted thing work.

1137141
Yeah. I know. It is a bit :fluttershyouch:

I think I know which line was the killer one, too.

Oh, and Blue? Celestia knows. She always did.
:fluttercry:

1137370
Of course she knows, she has carried it with her for a millennium. :fluttershyouch: But even so, to see it quite like that, all the knowing in the universe wouldn't help. :fluttershbad:

I can't say anything except that was... beautifully poetic.

1137370
Fricking Von Clawsewitz.
Everypony quotes him. Nopony understands him.
They need to just stop.

That was a fine read. You're a true craftsman of words!

Y U NO PUBLISH ON FIMFICTION?! :flutterrage:

I notice the story also gives an explanation for Neil's omitted "a", though it didn't point that out.

1138079
Well, I suppose may include it as a part of Obiter Dicta. I wasn't sure it was good enough to publish, I guess. I sort of wrote it all in a flash. Two hours or thereabouts. One editing pass, no significant changes.

And, yes, that's why Neil[1] flubbed his most important line. He saw Luna. :twilightsmile:

[1] Who's never named in the story. In fact the story has no names in it at all. A deliberate choice, that.

1138130
Please, post it on fimfiction, I want to fav it! :fluttershysad:

Honestly, I want to say the narrator is Q.

1138130 I sort of wrote it all in a flash. Two hours or thereabouts. One editing pass, no significant changes.
:flutterrage:
Did I tell you I hate you?

1138475
Several times. Loudly. There were also the murder attempts. One of those times that actions really do speak louder than words.

It's just... you know. Inspiration. I saw the prompt and saw the story. Once I knew what it's going to be about, it was dead easy to put words around.

1138490 There were also the murder attempts. One of those times that actions really do speak louder than words.
Dammit, and I paid extra for the silent ones.
i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt101/Twigy_tag1/fluttershy_upsc_icon_by_hopeira9-d4cn8jl.png

1138416

Ha HA! i.imgur.com/IDf0Qars.png

I was thinking it sounded kind of Discord-y, but too friendly and cajoling and pushing and oh right, when Discord is an Antagonist instead of a Villain, we call him Q.

It was a fun story, anyway. I'm a terrible sucker for little clevernesses and flourishes like the accounting for Neil's dropped 'a'.

I'm glad someone pointed out the dropped 'a', because I missed it, and that really adds to the story.

Another vote for FIMFic publication. This stands alone well. :twilightsmile:

Well, it looks like you might have three stories, then!

:twilightsmile:

It feels very strange to know that I only learned that Neil Armstrong fumbled his line because a read a pony fanfic about it. It also feels strange to like a story and not a have a little button that allows me show my appreciation.

What I found interesting is that the meat of the story isn't really the prompt, but instead a justification of why it happened.

Good sir:

There is a meme, to which I will not link, because I already know the answer to the question. You have done things with words I never conceived of dreaming to be impossible, much less ever seeing them done. I applaud your immeasurably superior skill.

PS:
:flutterrage: PUBLISH! :flutterrage:

1146252
Fun fact: Neil says[1] he did say the 'a'. Further analysis of the actual recordings has so far proved inconclusive. (Another fun fact: NASA wasn't actually expecting him to say anything.) Given that I don't recall an 'a'-length space between 'step for' and 'man', I like to think that this is actually what happened.

It's frankly downright mindblowing what you can learn you never knew about the moon landings with nothing more than the internet. Among other things I learned while researching it, the moon landers are between twenty and thirty feet tall, they had smaller doors than the spacesuits were designed for, you can find official recordings of the entire mission online for free, and Neil spent twenty minutes as the only person to walk on the moon.


[1] Perhaps that should be 'said'...

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