The Mantle

For quite some time, I've used FiMFiction primarily to promote Gardens of Equestria. Being one of the premiere fiction sites related to MLP on the internet, knowing full well that there are an enormous amount of visitors a day and it being the origin of Fallout: Equetsria...well, it was a no-brainer.
However, in doing so, I've done myself (and the community) a disservice. And that's something that bothers me. I've made a few mistakes here and there, bothered a few folks I never meant to. Those issues have been resolved, but they're in my head. The last thing I want is to cause havoc because of just how foolish I can be.
So it's time to actually transform this into something real.
First of all, I have a confession. While I've been playing up the Executive Producer, Creative Director and Lead Designer role of GoE, in truth, I'm an author to the core. I've won seven National Novel Writing Months. I have a couple published short stories. I've written more than 50 novels, novella, short stories and bits of flash fiction under a variety of pen names. I'm working on a wholly original novel series where I'm aiming for a world as vast and varied as Discworld. But that's not a Pony thing. That's something I hope to publish professionally.

There's one other confession. I'm no artist. I'm a designer. I'm a terrible artist. But I'm pretty dang good at working with existing material and creating something cool. It's something that's come in very handy for my GoE work. But surprisingly, it also became very useful here.

Due to an injury I sustained in January 2015, I can't read things on the computer for significant lengths of time. Same goes for iPads or iPhones, unless I'm able to made significant color adjustments, reduce glare and other things. As such, I can't read stories on the FiMFiction site. That's why I like the fact that there are .EPUB versions of almost every story on here. That allows me to put it on my iPad and read it as I see fit.
But here's the thing: I'm one of those people who hate blank album art covers in iTunes. Well, it turns out I hate it just as much in books as well. It gets better though. Inconsistent sizes and shapes? Drives me nuts. Yeah, totally OCD right?

Well, that's why I decided to create actual covers for each of the EPUBs I decided to read. I learned how to in my little FO:E Project Horizons EPUB project. Now, all I really did was use the existing artwork and add text, some minor effects, backgrounds and a consistent size (using the Amazon Kindle cover page size template). It wasn't all that hard for me, but as I said earlier, I have a knack for this sort of thing.

But they're not mine. ^^ So if you're wandering by because some random person just sent you a new picture for your story, I really don't have any ulterior motive. If folks want to credit me, that’s fine. If not, I don’t mind. If they don’t want to use them, that’s okay. In truth, I made them for myself and decided since I already put the work into it, might as well share.
I’m also brainstorming a new story idea that’s an actual FanFic and this is beyond the bridge novel between GoE 1 and GoE 2. And you have only yourself to blame.
Now, I know there are only maybe a dozen people actually following me at the moment, but if folks wander by, I wanted to let them know what’s going on.
So hopefully you folks enjoy what’s coming. Trying to juggle my deviantArt, GoE and this will be hard, but it’s time to actually contribute something, even if it is in my own small way.
Oh and one final thing…I’ll also be occasionally posting my thoughts on various stories I read that really hit me. The Hard Reset Trilogy being the first. Wow, seriously, that story emotionally kicked my flanks. But we’ll get to that in a little bit.
Until next time!

-NI

PS, If anyone has a request, please let me know. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it (I have so very much to do already that it's given me panic attacks), but if it happens to be a book I'm interested in reading, there's a fair chance I'd end up doing it anyway. ;)