Bulletproof Heart · 6:17pm Apr 7th, 2018
I've been holding this in for a while now. I'm sure those of you who have been paying attention have noticed me occasionally referencing my major project, Bulletproof Heart. I've been keeping the exact nature of it fairly close to the chest in the last year. Yes, year: I started this in April 2017. It's been my pet project, the one story that never ceases to hold my interest whenever I work on it. As of two weeks ago, I finally acquired the cover art, which is the straw that broke the Paul's back. I need to share this at last. So, without further ado:
My thanks to bakki for the commissioned artwork and to Novel-Idea for generously donating the title design. It's been two weeks and I'm still giddy with happiness over how this turned out. Yes, Paul's writing an Anthro fic. I just had to try it out for a change. Plus it lets me ignore that whole 'using guns with hooves' issue that always bugged me in other stories.
So, what is Bulletproof Heart? Aside from the obvious facts such as 'Western' and 'anthro'? It was inspired by a number of things, not least of which includes Fallout: Equestria and that delightful musical number at the start of this blog, the latter of which is indeed where I got the name from. It will be an alternate universe story where Equestria has been reduced mostly to desert and, as you might have guessed, it will star Rarity. Why Rarity? Because at the time I started this project I had no major stories/franchises starring her and I really wanted one. The most general, non-spoiler way to summarize it is to say it's about her learning to be a gunslinging drifter.
There's a lot more to it than that, of course. At over 250,000 words (so far), there had better be! And this is only the beginning. My plans call for this to be a trilogy, which each story focusing on different themes and goals for our heroine. Yes, I might just be a little crazy, but I'm having way too much fun with this concept to stop.
"Alright, Paul, this is all well and good, but when's the release?"
Not for a few months yet. I've got 2-1/2 chapters left to write and a good bit of editing to do. With SorenPixels helping me brainstorm, there are a lot of ideas and fresh elements that need to be worked into the existing material in preparation for the sequel. I've also got the amazingly talented Viking ZX acting as pre-reader to help keep an eye on overall quality (pardon me while I squee). At the moment I'm hoping for a July release, although if we're productive enough I might pull off one in June.
Aaand that's it! I just wanted to finally get this off my chest. Do you have any idea how hard it's been in the last year to not gush over this? I can't wait to finally get this out!
Man, that's a nice cover.
That looks like a S&W Model 29 and a Frommer Stop.
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Isn't it, though? bakki did a great job overall. And of course, Novel was a big help I really needed at the time.
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bakki doesn't typically draw guns, so I had to give him some real-world examples of the kind of weapons I was after. He didn't get it exactly right – Applejack's was supposed to have the harmonica-style cartridge, for example – but he did good with what I showed him. Since the guns I have in-story are made up custom jobs, I was focused more on appearances than brands while doing my search, specifically aiming for certain types of functionality.
That is a dang nice cover.
And since it's been confirmed that I'm Alpha reading, will confirm that this is a really cool and fun story. Heh, now I can start officially reccing it in places before it's out rather than just hinting at its existence!
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That would be greatly appreciated!
Time to board the hype train, I guess.
That’s a fine cover if I ever did see one.
There is nothing about this I don't love. :D
This looks amazing. I'll definitely be reading it when it debuts!
>Rarity
>Western
>Anthro/Humanized
If it's Rarijack on top of everything, you're looking at a 10/10, mister.
Don't usually go for anthro, but you've got Viking prereading it (and enjoying it a good deal, apparently). Guess there's a first time for everything!
Looking forward to the release.
And the cover looks wonderful, too.
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I'm certainly hyped, even if it'll be a while yet before the release.
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Thanks!
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That makes two of us.
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Looking forward seeing everyone's reactions!
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I neither confirm or deny anything in the shipping department. I will note, however, that the title has nothing to do with shipping whatsoever.
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I know going anthro alienates a lot of readers right off the bat, but I figured I couldn't call myself a FiMFic professional if I didn't use every tag available at least once.
nb4 someone mentions the never-to-be-used porn tag.
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cum on man, even I've written smut!
Holy dang, that cover is amazing! I didn't know that I was ready for gunslinging anthro Rarity, but here we are.
Oh wow, that cover looks amazing. The hype is real. Revising and editing a 250,000 word novel in four months is quite ambitious, but if anyone can do it, it's you. Congratulations on (almost) finishing the writing phase!
Man its already been a year since weve entered production? Man, it still doesnt feel like it was but only a few months ago that you were rambling off this idea to me and the brainstorming had begun. Yes i know that sentence hurts to read.
Hooray for official announcements!
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That's more or less exactly what I was thinking when I first got this idea.
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Eh, I'm not going for perfect prose this time, and I'm sure nitpickers like you and Pascoite would rake me over the coals for some of it in BPH. In this one I'm purely interested in story, and if the writing suffers a little for that, I'm fine with it.
Viking ZX is doing a decent job of pointing out some of my more glaring mistakes though, if that's any comfort.
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IKR? I originally wrote "six months" on a whim, but then decided to actually check when I first uploaded Chapter 1 to GDocs and saw I was way off. And when you consider we did some brainstorming and I had to actually write that first chapter before that, it's probably still off by a month or two.
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What? You mean you're not absorbing everything I write within milliseconds of its posting?
I am shocked and appalled, sir.