Roll the Trains

Well, I'm back.

So, this is my first blog post...erm, where to begin?

OK...I just managed to quote Samwise Gamgee and Bilbo Baggins in two lines. Off to a good start...

Hrm...

Concerning Hobbits The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum

The Spectrum-Verse is an amazing thing. According to my PM list, it's been 104 weeks and 10 hours since I sent Redskin122004 an offer to proofread his chapters, two years exactly.

Two years.

The amount of material that has been generated since then is frankly astonishing. Spectrum is now up to eight official side-stories, hundreds of thousands of words on FimFiction, and a TVTropes page that grows at a frankly frightening rate (and my hat off to whoever finally worked out which magnificent bastard I named 'Prime Minister Rokubungi' in honour of).**

Likewise, small ideas and gags that both authors dropped in suddenly flourished huge...when I wrote a scene set at Heathrow Airport and briefly wrote in Prince (and very quickly King) William, I did not expect the role this young monarch would grow into through the hands of other writers.

Like an oak-tree, massive things grew from tiny seeds, which then began to throw off branches...

Proudtobe came first. He took us to Europe so see the fall of Germany, and introduced two of our lasting characters, 'Blue Spy' and a certain 'Knight of Germania'. Then, through other amazing hands, readers have seem the premise of Spectrum carried all across Earth and no less than TWO Equestrias. The universe built might not be on the epic and inspirational scale of Fallout Equestria (Blackjack is Best Pony!) but it is remarkable in its cohesision - few FoE writers can make their works gell with every other magnum opus (then again, the Equestrian Wasteland is a huge and open sandbox for that very reason), but almost every part of the Spectrum stories link up into a greater whole. It's fascinating and amazing, a multi-layered and evolving mythology than grows on itself continuously.

And I'm ashamed to say that I missed most of it.

I'll openly say here that by the time 'The Writes of Passage' came out I was frustrated and tired of writing for Spectrum. I was finding it hard to work to other people's schedules and in a very unrewarding place at that time of my life, which contributed to my desire to make a break from everything and strike out as a proper author. That 'gag chapter' that earned so much vitriol was my way of attempting to say goodbye and (un)gracefully bow out.

I'll admit now that I regretted it almost immediately. The comments that followed on from that chapter hurt, but also revealed to me how stupid I'd been in throwing away good ideas for the sake of a joke (whoever suggested I should have used that chapter to elevate Cadence into an Alicorn and thus lend weight to the proceedings deserves a medal!).

But no, I wanted Alicorns by the boatload, and made a terrible mistake.

To Redskin, and the story, both of whose credibility I wounded at that time, I apologise.

And now, as it were, I'm back. Amazingly, despite my pig-headedness, I've been welcomed with open arms. Yes people, believe the hyperbole, the folks on Team Spectrum are downright lovely, supportive, creative and understanding. It is...in some strange way, harmony...

OMG!!! ALICORNHOOD FOR TEAM SPECTRUM!!!!

But in all seriousness, I am grateful, happy, and humbled to have been allowed to add something once more to a project I once turned my back upon. And I will do everything to make the most of this chance.

To everyone on the team, I say thank you. And to Redskin, I say you're amazing.

So, here I am, and hoping that you'll enjoy these meagre drabbles of mine. I'm hoping that this will be good work for my professional writing, maintaining a schedule of my own, and hoping that I can live up to the stellar examples my fellow writers and editors have established.

But, most of all, I'm hoping you enjoy the ride.

There's a train departing, and I hope that I can take you into some wonderful and terrible places, deep into the best and worst of what people can be, and of course, how amazing we are when we work together...

If anything, that is what the Spectrum-Verse is proof of.

"Now Departing Halifax on Track Seven: Extra-Priority working #3782, the Last Train From Oblivion."

** TV tropes is amazing in of itself. At this point Last Train has been up for just a few hours and already it has sections of its own over there. It gives my ego a lovely buzz.

At the same time, I'm aiming to learn from this. One comment in the YMMV section about 'Unfortunate Implications' has long left me feeling quite cold. I consider myself open-minded and unprejudiced, and yet certain...let's say 'preferences' do make themselves evident in my writing. Looking back over a decade of material, I can see I've never depicted a male/male same-six-relationship (other than a brief dalliance with Gundam Wing fanfiction in my youth - Trowa X Quatre forever!) - instead it has always been female/female, even in my debut novel 'Timewreck Titanic', and that leaves me ashamed. I'm hoping to try and correct this imbalance and write more outside my comfort zone with Last Train, and I hope that anyone with any thoughts or critiques or insights on sensitive or controversial topics feels free and welcome to voice them here.

On a lighter note, anyone seeking to bulk out the Shout-Out section might want to carefully re-read parts of Chapter One, specifically keeping an eye out for names that might just sound a little familiar...

...oh, and Burt Lancaster's in there somewhere, along with a few other celebrity cameos.

Thanks for listening guys. Let's make this an awesome ride!

Comments

[Doctor Fluffy]

I started writing Last Train's tvtropes entry within... I think, within minutes of it getting posted
I'd been kinda waiting for that part.