Story Launch: To Perytonia · 12:30pm Aug 26th, 2017
Well, this has been a darn long time coming.
Put on your sturdiest pair of horseshoes, grab your travelling saddlebags, and eat a big breakfast. Today, we leave for unknown shores, and we don't know when we'll be back.
Join me, gentle reader, to Perytonia!
The story is up and should be available here with its prologue and first chapter. I'm pretty garbage at advertising and putting myself out there, so if people would spread the word, I would be very, very grateful—assuming there are people you think would enjoy the story, that is! If you want some more info, read on, and accept my sincere apologies for the blatant repost of the cover art if you checked in during the last two days and have already seen it.
To Perytonia will update Tuesdays and Saturdays until it has run its course. The story is already fully written, so there is no risk of interruptions or delay. Expect ~20k words per week on average. If you wish to wait for the story to finish before reading, that date falls in 2018, so that gives you some idea of its length.
I currently sit on a wealth of material related to the story. I've done artwork of characters and concepts, I've drawn a crude map, and I have references and a dramatis personae, but think that currently, that stuff would only detract from the reading experience. What I may do in the coming weeks/months is post it under spoiler tags in tagged story blog posts for those who like that sort of stuff. It's funny: As a reader, I would consider these things extraneous and wouldn't want them. Faulkner's map of Yoknapatawpha, for instance, frustrates me, but as a writer, I love making supplemental stuff!
Anyway. The story is fully written. All that is left is to have people read it, and this has been a labour of... labour. I tend to write long and elaborate blog posts about the writing process, and long-time readers may remember that the last story I wrote before my hiatus was bad for my mental health. I used the phrase "written myself sick" as a counterpoint for others for whom writing is a work of healing. To Perytonia has been neither of those. I'll have more words on that later. Today is launch day. Today is cake-and-pressing-the-submit-button-day.
Finally, a short shout-out. A bunch of them, actually. I would be very glad if you actually took the time to read this.
I'd like to give my deepest and most sincere thanks to Kits, Corma and Still Waters for everything. Without these three titans this fic would not be what it is. I won't go into detail here, but it seems unfair to wait for the author's notes half a year in the future to give thanks. I'd also like to thank Ferret, Carabas and ShutterflyYay for crunching words, reading and editing, giving second opinions and generally helping smooth things out to ensure that I haven't made too many egregious mistakes. Thank you to Whiteout, Multiversecruise and Broken Hero, too, even if all you did was say you would give it a look: I appreciate it!
Finally, thank you. Even though I am toying around with the idea of writing non-pony stuff (an inevitability), there is no denying the profound impact of having an audience. You are important to me. It matters to know that there are people who read and enjoy what I write.
That's all. If you decide to read To Perytonia, I hope you have a good time with it.
I sincerely cannot express how excited I am to have you come back with a new story. This ridiculous fandom has been something of an anchor in my life for the past six or so years, and your fiction always sticks out to me as being one of the brightest lights within it. I'll never forget that time I accidentally read Building Bridges
Thank you, so much. And congratulations on completing this gargantuan thing!
Huzzah! To Perytonia!
Also, I'm glad to hear that the writing of this one was not as painful for you as Taken for Granite.
I'll do my best to spread the word, though my circle of friends is vanishingly small.
Your pic seems not to be working, but yaaayyy it's happeninnnggggg
Link externally hosted art and map material in the authors notes of the relevant chapter, as an optional extra for those interested?
-someone interested.
Looks like my year just got better
4648439 That really means a lot to me, hearing that. Thank you, sincerely, and hey, I hope you realise I'm not being facetious when I say that your music is The Best to me. There is no other musician out there whose music is as infinitely relistenable to me as yours.
And thanks again, because the whole "grats on completing it" thing kinda feels like... an appropriate thing to hear and thank someone for, because I can not overstate how much work I've put into this. I'm saving up the details for The Blogpost About That, but let's just say that when you pass 1200 hours spent on a project, well. I'm not going to forget about this story, ever.
4648441 To be fair to TfG, the crime wasn't the story itself. While it was the closest I've strayed to sad in a long while, it was really about my own mental state at the time of being. By that token, this story should have been crushing to write, but , well. I'm still digesting how I feel about this one, to be honest.
And hey, I'm not trying to come across begging for exposure, for the record, I just figured that there might be people in the market for a long adventurefic, and I'm so bad at being sociable. Thanks!
4648450 Gah no what why how. Do you mean that the cover art embed here isn't working? No one else has said anything? It should go straight to an imgur hosted thinger!
4648635 Hm! That may not be the worst idea, actually, but at the same time, I don't love distracting the reader. I don't know how many fic readers actually read my blog posts though. Blagh, this is complicated. I should probably trust in peoples' ability to make autonomous decisions.
4648674 Hope not to disappoint! Ideally, those who end up liking this story can have something to come back to on a regular basis. Don't know how big that audience is, but eh!
Having gotten a chance to read through this early, I am super happy to see it in publication!
4651170 Did you ever read any of it, or is this emphasis on "gotten a chance"? Either way, I really appreciate it, and if you do decide to dip your toes in it, I hope you enjoy it!
4651672
I got through the first three chapters before work devoured my existence again, and have been poking further as time allows. Thankfully the existence devouring is done for a while.
By the way, it says this is a season two story, but as you know, it's not season two anymore.
Without spoiling anything, can you say whether concepts or characters from later seasons will feature if the characters could run across them at this point of time, in an AU setting? Like cameo appearances or references to later characters, or other things that were introduced later, but presumably existed before then. I always love it when authors include these tiny bits of worldbuilding. Or were parts of this story written / conceived too early for that to have been possible?