State of the Horizon, and upcoming stories · 1:50am Aug 27th, 2016
(200th blog! 
)
It's been an exhausting couple of days. On Thursday, I was recuperating from some stress-related health issues, while simultaneously scrambling (on an off day) to deal with my employer losing a vendor whose product covered a small but significant fraction of our customer base. Today, I spent a few hours on the phone arranging a settlement for my ex-wife's student loan and renegotiating credit card stuff with my bank. In short, I've been pulled away from ponyfic by Adulting. The good news is that I can pat myself on the back about having Adulted. The bad news is that Adulting -- no matter how many decades of practice I get at it -- remains hard.
But I have a happy announcement! To distract myself from some important ponyfic commenting I meant to follow up on over in Bad Horse-land (well worth reading even if there are still things there with which I disagree), I finished editing a story which I am going to post on Sunday afternoon:
BBBCF
There's a lot of things about Cadance and Shining Armor that never quite made sense: their sudden appearance before the Royal Wedding; their suspiciously convenient suitability as rulers of the Crystal Empire; their oddly abbreviated pregnancy; and even their quick change of heart after Spike suggested that they forgive Thorax.
Twilight Sparkle knows exactly how deep that conspiracy goes — she was there in the beginning, when her hive's queen created Shining. And she wasn't happy about it.
Some of you will recognize BBBCF from last year's Writeoffs, but it was last Saturday's changeling episode that finally brought the last piece of the story together, and I wanted to get it out while the iron was hot.
Next up is Time Enough For Love, because I've now spent over $400 on that story [1] and I damn well need to get some egoboo out of those sunk costs. I'm going to shoot for early September, and I might be looking for another pair of eyes on the new content I'm editing in.
--
[1] About half of that I'm happy with: I commissioned some utterly gorgeous cover art from Nadnerb which I'll reveal in an upcoming post. The other half vanished into thin air: I commissioned darf to write a Mature-tagged companion to the story, exploring the sexual side of Celestia and Clover's relationship, and then he ragequit ponies. He says he'll refund me, but I know his financial situation (and his drug habits), and there's no way that's going to happen.
Wow, shit.
Sorry to hear about the exhaustion; happy that it was collateral to (what sounds like) some success. Hope you get back to a more normal degree of Adulting for a while.
The Bad Horse-land, well, I came in there late and stayed out of active participation for a few reasons. It seems to have grown out of a bad situation that was mishandled by multiple parties, but the discussion itself was interesting and his commentariat has done an admirable job of working towards some sort of synthesis . I'll be interested to see your further input should it be forthcoming.
As for the stories, I never read BBBCF at the Writeoff--I haven't even been able to keep up with Fimfic itself as much as I'd have liked the last year, much less follow much of anything happening there--but look forward to seeing both. I hope that working in the additions to Time Enough For Love goes well.
I'm sorry to hear about your adult troubles, but I want to read that story, so...
This post about evened out for me?
Publish your story.
Adulting's never any fun. Hopefully you don't have to do any more for a bit. You probably should do some unadulting for a while to recover from all of that.
I was curious to see if I could spot a picture of you as a colt around anywhere, but I think I must've set my search terms wrong...
derpicdn.net/img/2016/8/23/1232269/medium.gif
img05.deviantart.net/7999/i/2011/286/7/a/colored_baby_eastern_dragon_by_mirumquis-d4cr59x.jpg
--Sweetie Belle
4174202
It's already prepped, just gotta hit the button.
But a Friday night release is an absolute kiss of death for story popularity. Readership drops off heavily through the weekend, and it's high views per time unit which drive heat (and featureboxing). Statistically, first thing Monday morning would give me the very best chance, but with Sunday I have a chance of getting an early toehold in the box so that it's there for the Monday morning crowd, and that's a gamble I usually take.
So Sunday for sure!
Very excited to see "Time Enough for Love" in the queue. I loved Barbarian Warlord Celestia.
"...arranging a settlement for my ex-wife's student loan..."
I've found that to be the simplest type of negotiation ever.
Me: I'd like to reduce the amount of my student loan, perhaps reducing the payments, or interest.
Them: Pay us. We'll take a check.
Me: Actually, since the prime rate is so much lower right now--
Them: Pay us. We'll take a check.
Me: We're undergoing some financial difficulties at the moment.
Them: Pay us. We'll take a check, but we won't credit your account until two weeks after it clears, and then we'll write you another bill for the remainder of the interest we charged you after we cashed your check but before we credited your account. Tough noogies.
Sounds rough. I'd certainly agree about taking some time off and playing some games and such. Peerside's out, and that's certainly on my reading list (and waiting on my kindle for me), and having discovered Endless Sky on Steam, I'll probably be spending some time indulging in my Escape Velocity: Nova nostalgia myself...
--arcum42
so are new stories just on the horizon.
I offer editing services if you havent already engaged Ferret!
Looking forward to the story! It really sounds like a fun premise.
As for that thing, BH brought up? I was actually in the room. Regardless of the political aspects, Dave was an utter douchebag and made the whole panel into a pointless, unpleasant event.
I am getting to a certain age, one where I am so utterly done with competitive victimhood and The One True Way, that I would love to see all the SJWriters and Rabid Puppies die in a fire.
Seriously. Hand me a fucking match.
Ouch. My most expensive story probably hit $150. My latest one (once I bother to hit Publish) cost zero. I'm
poorfrugal by necessity.Ah, adulting. The universal nemesis. I hope you get some respite from that; just think, nobody is going to frown and shake their head if you have ice cream for dinner. You might like said story that I'm about to publish too, it has Best (your words) Princess in it. I'd offer to help with editing, but there's way too much on my plate right now, including 1000+ editor comments on my OF project
. I second the motion to engage Ferret
Adulting is better than adultery, I think, but it can still be a pain. Still! Go you; I'll be sure to read that fic when it's fully ready and posted.
Seconding iisaw on the fandom thing, too.
I paid $120 for art for stories no one read.
It was a very empty feeling. But I still have the art, and I still like it. It helps.
As for adulting... I've had so little energy to write after patients and stuff for weeks. It's ridiculous.
I reeeally need to get back into reading ponyfic[1]. If for no other reason than that I'm many stories behind on your backlog, which is, frankly, unacceptable.
[1] Well, the good-parts-version, at least.
Time Enough For Love is my top favorite writeoff piece, I await its big reveal
Sorry to hear about the recent spike in Adulting difficulty. Here's hoping it settles back down soon.
Also, very happy to hear some of my favorite Writeoff stories will be making it to Fimfiction. I look forward to seeing how you've expanded them.
4174314 you live in LA? You should come to some of the SoCal Bronies meetups! I think we have a Santa Monica potluck coming up!