Just published: the Wizards of Everfree Valley · 8:25pm Jan 10th, 2016
My intention in participating in the OC Slamjam contest was to develop a multi-chapter story loosely based on the life of Steve Jobs and equating the Personal Computer revolution (which I experienced very personally in the eighties and nineties) with the Personal Spell Caster revolution championed by my protagonist OC, Firefly. In fact, I chose his name very deliberately, (though some participants in the OC Slamjam complained pretty loudly about it!)
Of course, I had to find ways to fit the spell caster technology and its effects on society into the stories I wrote, while keeping within the guidelines of the contest. It was a challenge to have to include in each chapter a new OC which I had not conceived, but truth be told, I think it forced me write a much broader story and cover a wider swath of Equestrian society than I would have under different circumstances.
I resolved at then end of the contest to put together all these stories into a single, coherent narrative, this story. Of necessity this process has led to an episodic structure with a lot of different PoVs. Though a bit jumpy, I'm still quite pleased with how it turned out.
BTW, I added two new chapters and material to link all the contest entries together. These will be identified as these chapters are published, one or two per week, over the next month or so. I will also add notes on specific events or circumstances from the OC Slamjam in the Author's Notes for each chapter.
I hope you like it, and I look forward to your comments.
Dafaddah
Hmm...
I'm not a fan of Apple. By the end they had a "style over substance" feel to them that I did not like.
But I think I shouldn't forget the role Apple had in making consumer personal computing a reality. (And, if I were to actually be fair, their role in the smartphone arms race as a competitor, helping to push it's popularity and usability forward.)
Either way I'm looking forward to reading the story.
Jobs and Apple were far from being the only actors involved (and I hope you'll like my choice for the pony version of Bill Gates!), but they are reasonable standard-bearers for the category. As the story evolves, you'll see that like the microcomputer revolution of the 70s and 80s, this was a whole new industry developing, with a lot of players involved.