Fic Announcement: Magic of the Heart (Shipping and Handling 3) · 4:09pm Aug 23rd, 2019
Yep. We're actually doing this.
Cover art by the incredible artist HARWICK, who deserves all of your admiration.
Presenting "MAGIC OF THE HEART", the final book in the "Shipping and Handling" trilogy that I promised all the way back in 2015 when I completed "Hocus Pocus".
When I finished my last novel, I had all sorts of writing plans. I had four stories (unrelated to this story universe) that I was planning to write, and also was planning to finish out the "Shipping and Handling" trilogy someday, which was by far the most requested of the suggestions I provided.
Then my page went dark. For three and a half years. Some people assumed I had left the fandom, or at least stopped writing. And being honest, those other various smaller stories are probably never going to see the light of day.
But this will.
I promised you guys that someday, I'd finish this trilogy. And now, come hell or high water, I'm going to finish it.
"Magic of the Heart" takes place several years after the events of "Hocus Pocus". As you can see on the cover, Dinky and her friends are now young adults, approximately 18-19 years old. While "Shipping and Handling" focused on Ditzy Doo's exploits, and "Hocus Pocus" was all about Dinky instead, this one is roughly equally about both of them, weaving two separate but intimately interconnected storylines into one (complex, lengthy, but hopefully satisfying) narrative. This mean's there will be plenty more adventures both from the cast of characters that work with Ditzy at Equestria Speedy Shipping Services, and the ones that study with Dinky at Celestia's Academy for Gifted Unicorns. If you're a fan of the first two books, every face on the image up above should be pretty familiar; those are all major characters.
"But PRB," you may ask, "You never wrote all those other stories you promised, why should we believe this one will be different?"
Those other stories, when I announced them, were just concepts. Most of them didn't even have outlines. They were ideas I was planning to develop.
"Magic of the Heart" on the other hoof, already has 50,000 words of finished text written and ready to go. That's more than half the entire length of "Shipping and Handling" (excluding the bonus content). As if that's not enough, the entire outline for this novel is completely finished, so I know every event that's going to happen for the rest of the fic. I just have to actually put the rest of it down on paper.
Before I wrap this up, I need to talk about the cover artist, Harwick. (Click his name in the image caption to visit his page.) I've worked with artists on commissions before, (almost always much smaller ones than this), and I have NEVER had an experience with an artist anywhere near as positive as the one I had with Harwick. Not only does he do beautiful work, but he responded to all my messages quickly, made any changes I asked for without issue or complaint, and completed the work insanely fast. I contacted a lot of artists about this cover, and most of them ignored me or turned me down when they heard I needed an image with ten ponies in it, but Harwick took the challenge and was absolutely awesome about it, so please, give him all your love not just as a great artist, but a great person in general.
Okay, so, I'm going to be doing a Q&A blogpost in a day or two with some background info about the story. (No spoilers, just information about the structure of the story, the rating, the length, the release schedule, etc.) so if you have questions, ask them here and I'll answer them in that next post!
Oh, and I need an editor or two, so if you want to view the chapters early and have some small say in the structure of certain scenes, send me a private message. Anyone who has edited for me formerly is welcome back, of course, but new editors are welcome too. Editing entails both searching for errors in the writing mechanics, and double checking that the plot makes sense and the characters are behaving in-character, though of course I have the final say on changing any of that stuff. And because the plot of this book relies heavily on the plot of the first two, please have read both of those if you're planning to edit this one.
Alright, I think that's everything! Expect "Magic of the Heart" to begin very soon, probably very late August or early September. See you then, and I hope some of you are looking forward to diving back into Ditzy and Dinky's world one last time!
~PRB
My eyeballs are ready
Aw yiss, this series is one of those nice fluffy favorites of my. Glad to hear its happening.
Cool! I'm much excite!
Shipping and Handling was the first MLP fanfic I read and I'm glad to have hung around long enough to see its conclusion.
Very excited to read your work again!
All memes aside, don't be afraid to take your time with this one. I, for one, would much rather wait another few weeks to get a product that you are happy with rather than a rush job.
Wtb printed copy of this trilogy
<squee> yay
You stole my breath.
--Spade
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Don't worry, I've always taken the time to make sure this stuff goes through quality assurance before I publish it.
I'm 50,000 words into the story already. So chapter 1 has had plenty of time to be re-read and re-checked repeatedly, so I feel confident about releasing that soon.
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I wish I had a way to provide printed copies!
I actually have a hardcover printed copy of each of the first two books, that were given to me as a gift, but as far as I know, those are currently one of a kind.
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Did you try Lulu? Dunno how much work is involved in getting something published there though
Ooooo.
Of all the many things I want to say here, not many can convey my excitement. So glad to see that it's finally happening! With the show ending soon, it's nice to have bits of pony to latch onto.
Huzzah! \o/
...Now I really need to get myself to finish Hocus Pocus ^^;
I AM SO GLAD I STAYED SUBBED TO YOU!
*excited Kermit-style flailing*
Boy howdy, this is an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
Can’t wait for this story to start. Love both of the previous stories so much!
Most excelled news :).
My body and soul is ready <33
Squeeeeee
Man. This fic a sequel from a time on fimfic when I used to edit. . .
If you need someone to double check on plot and no one has stepped forward I'll step up for you, just give me a week or so notice to re-read the other books... I know you're asking a lot of me here but I will suffer the fate of having to re-read these wonderful fics to help you. (Shipping and Handling was one of the fics I remember pulling out of queue to read when it updated)
This takes me back to a time when I cared about the show and fandom. While I didn't care much for some of the pairings I loved "Shipping and Handling" but sadly I never managed to read through "Hocus Pocus" probably because I was becoming apathetic towards the series and fandom. I should go back and re-read the first story and finally finish Hocus Pocus. Good Luck PRB.
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The ships are actually not the important part of Shipping and Handling, ironically.
The plotline involving the characters that work at the matchmaking company is. So I totally understand some of the shipping bits weren't great.
If you do end up reading Hocus Pocus, tell me what you think!
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I will, in comments of course
I am thrilled.