More Ardiverse and 'Balladeer' works coming · 5:45pm Jul 3rd, 2015
Soon in the case of the Ardiverse, those being stories with the wolf Ardi and his misadventures among the ponies as well as Queen Vespid and the Changelings; and not to far off for the 'sequel' to My Little Balladeer, in which Princess Twilight finds out there's more than one human world out there when she meets John again, and more of the villains from the original Wellman stories show up. Like the Shonokin. If you don't know who they are, you'll be sorry when you find out!
Anyway, I just wanted to let those of you who follow me to know that yes, more stories are coming, some of them very, very soon. On a related note it would help to find affordable artists to do some cover art for both new stories and old ones like 'Balladeer'. It just looks so naked without it.
Thanks all and best wishes, and if you celebrate the Fourth tomorrow I hope you enjoy it.
I look forward to seeing these -- I think you're a really excellent writer, and very good at depicting the interactions between Ponies and various other sapient races (which I realize is the common thread uniting all your major stories). I have pretty much enjoyed everything you've ever written, especially your longer work.
As for me, I'm most of the way through Chapter 7 of All the Way Back, "Caving," which is turning out nicely so far. I hope to get this chapter up by the 4th, and maybe even complete All the Way Back as a whole this summer. My planned name for the sequel is Cleaning the Stables, in which Luna starts to actually start implementing her planned reforms of the Guards by creating her own New Model Guard, equipped with superior weapons and tactics -- title's a reference both to the fact that these are equoid sapients, and the famous Labor of Hercules. I'm happy to be finally getting some work done on my older incompletes, which sometimes feel like a Herculean Labor as well.
Hope things are well with you on the East Coast, and good look on your stories!
3204443 I look forward to seeing these -- I think you're a really excellent writer, and very good at depicting the interactions between Ponies and various other sapient races (which I realize is the common thread uniting all your major stories). I have pretty much enjoyed everything you've ever written, especially your longer work.
Thanks for the praise, though at least half the good in what I do needs to be credited to my editor, and I think you know who that is.
I *do* want to go into more detail about the wolves and their society in the future -- I have an idea for one where Twilight and a pair of her friends go along with Ardi in wolf-form to try and work some diplomacy, and they find out the hard way that the rest of the wolves are NOT like their friend at all. For that matter, Ardi's not much like the wolf they knew in Canterlot and Ponyville when among his own folk. Suffice it to say that Ardi's folk may not be always be as noble as the ponies think.
Also with the Wellman stories (a little OT here) I keep thinking of a scene to do with Twilight in the human world. In it she asks Sunset (after they've made peace) if she ever met anyone like John, and Sunset just shows her to the school library where they have some Wellman novels. Suffice to say that poor Twi is stunned to find out she met a fictional character. And when she tells her friends about it later, she points out that for all they know they're someone's fictional creations. Hard to think of a way to do that without it being a little too much a case of me winking at the audience, however.
Glad to hear about the progress made on the Luna story! I'm looking forward to reading it.
Things are good enough here and I hope they're going well for you and yours as well.
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Knowing some things about real lupine culture (my icon's not just for show) I can hazard a guess about what these might be. Particularly, dominance by combat, only one pair in each pack breeding, and a much steeper individual social hierarchy (and less heritable one) than among Ponies. True, these are based on real (non-sapient) wolves, but then Ardi's race are living closer to their savage origins than are the Ponies of Equestria (the Human equivalent would be hunter-gatherer bands).
In context, I started writing All the Way Back right after I finished Nightmares Are Tragic (early 2014) and expected to finish it right away. Hah. It was my first attempt at doing an original novella-length fanfic, and it shows. I at first had no idea where the story was going other than the general concept "Luna rises out of depression and self-loathing over her previous fall, to resume her role as an effective military leader, Celestia's true partner rather than mental basket-case crazy sibling." With which, I admit, I've stuck.
I wrote 5 chapters in early 2014 and then became sidetracked by other ideas. In particular, The Romance of the Open Road, which I saw as dependent upon A Long Night at the Hippodrome -- and then I lost my notes on ALNatH (computer broke). Only recently has it occurred to me that since I know where both stories are going, this isn't necessarily an obstacle to completing All the Way Back. So I wrote a new chapter of All the Way Back in late 2014 and recently two more new ones, so I'm up to 8 and more than half of the way through.
I've finally gotten Luna to the point of rescuing the captive and fighting the Dragon (the really nasty huge ancient lightning-throwing one, not the honorable and essentially-friendly adolescent Fischfootur). I now have some decisions to make on whether to make it a more subdued fight or pull out all the stops. I'm inclining toward pulling out all the stops, which would fit with my theme of showing that the Shadows are still an active menace (indeed, a rising one) and still want Luna under their control. My next decision is to what extent certain other parties are going to show up. I'll probably have decided in a week or two, and begin writing Chapter 9.
Hopefully, I'll actually finish the story in a few more chapters, and do it this summer. Which would be nice, as it's a very essential story to my larger story arcs.
I know I'm coming in a bit late, but a just wanted to say this is excellent news! Like I said before, My Little Balladeer was my gateway to MLP fan fiction, so I'm extremely happy to hear about the progress of the sequel and the new Ardiverse installment.
It's times like this I wish I had artistic talent for anything other than abstract symmetrical designs; I would gladly draw cover art for Balladeer and the Ardi stories for free were I able to do so.
3232593 Thanks, and sorry it took this long t respond, I was out of town for a week. I'm glad to hear that I wrote something you enjoyed that much; and whether you can draw art or not, thanks for your kind words and offer. I appreciate them both very much.
3232593 How exactly did you find "My Little Balladeer" if you weren't reading MLP fanfiction before? I haven't seen any fanfic archives for Wellman's works.
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I accidently found My Little Balladeer through a Google search. I was looking for info on Wellman's "Silver John" series and Ardashir's story popped up as one of the results.
4072873 Got it, thanks.