Still writing... · 12:30am May 5th, 2016
Don't worry; I haven't forgotten about The Moon Has a Harsh Mistress. I've got several more scenes drafted, together with a good outline of what's going to happen. The mysteries in the story - what's happened to Equestria? Is Luna herself? What will happen to the moon colony? - do have answers, and they will be explained.
However, due to a challenge from one of my offline friends, I'm spending this month rewriting a fantasy novel I started and abandoned before My Little Pony started airing. Writing > 1000 words every day - and not skipping around and writing a lot of cruft like when I did Nanowrimo, but writing presentable stuff I wouldn't be ashamed to post online if it were fanfic - is very good practice, and I hope to keep some version of it up in the future. Since I'm hoping to publish this novel someday, it'll probably be a long time before you see the direct fruits of this month, but I'm planning to put up a blog post when it does happen.
And yes, some Equestrian influences have galloped into the novel. For example, the one political theory textbook my protagonist brought on his quest (yes, his little sister has the same reaction you're probably having right now) begins not with an organized social contract like Locke's book does in the real world... but it begins with the virtue of friendship, and tries to found society on that.
When I get back to ponies, I'll be building up my chapter buffer for a bit, to ensure some regular posts... but you should have some more chapters before the end of the summer. Till then, here's a snippet:
"... In fact," Mother continued, levitating a thick bundle of papers into an envelope, "with events this significant in the offing, I think I'll need to throw away and redo the last chapter I've written."
"What?" Flash's mouth dropped open. "You can't leak our plans -"
"Hold it, hold it!" Rainbow jumped into the air. "Are you saying that Daring Do is actually going to come up here to the moon!?"
Mother put her hoof up to her mouth but failed to conceal her chuckle. "No, it's just... well, if you took my last draft allegorically, it would've made a really bad message."
I snorted. "I don't think any of your readers are going to do that."
"What's allegory?" asked Rainbow.
"Never mind; Twilight can explain it better than I can. But in the meantime, my publisher wants something, so... could you take this to the spell-ladder for me? After all, I think you're going to want to look at the spell-ladder for other reasons, too..."
Oh, good! I was wondering about how you were comin' along. Hope its turning out well for you!