Random Ramblings CCCXCVII · 8:01pm Mar 13th, 2020
IN WHICH I PROVIDED UPDATES
I said I’d be back as soon as I could. Now watch this video for happy time.
Would y’all like a real update? Click the ‘Read More’ button.
Yesterday, I uploaded two chapters — one each from two separate stories. I’ll deal with them in order, but first, an apologia. Oh, if you didn’t already know, that’s actually the old Greek word for ‘explanation’. How it morphed into ‘apology’ with a radically different meaning is a mystery to me because I’m not a linguist.
As the two of you who regularly read my word-vomit know, I’ve been in my hometown for the better part of a month caring for my gravely ill father. Won’t lie; he’d probably be dead right now if I hadn’t decided to move in when I did. He appreciates having me around, though I’m nearing my physical and (especially) mental limit.
I’m old enough to remember life before the internet. We didn’t get it until we moved into my dad’s house shortly after it was built in 1996 (so, 97-ish?). We had dialup, as did pretty much everyone else, until near the end of my time in high school, when cable internet became a thing. Unfortunately, this house no longer has internet thanks to my dad’s life falling apart and having to cut back drastically on costs. But, thanks to the state newspaper stopping print editions except for Sundays, he’s considering re-getting (is that a word?) internet. Also he gets worried when I go into town to the coffee shop for two hours, like I did in order to give you those bits of story.
Having internet back at this house would entice me to leave less often, but a working air conditioner is rather more importan me. My dad has never been good at having regular maintenance done, so everything eventually falls apart. Sometimes literally.
Yesterday got up to 81ºF (that’s just over 27ºC for all you metric nutcases) and humid because a storm is set to roll in. The upstairs of this house, the part that was built to be, and once again is, my domain, was so unbearable for the heat I couldn’t take it. Even now as I pre-type this, it’s still a little too hot for me to sleep. My dad may want the downstairs to be a sauna (with no muscle mass, he gets cold easily), but I’d rather it be cold and I can just put on layers. Cheaper that way during what used to be winter. But we really don’t have winter anymore here thanks to global worming, which does exist.
At least the weekend will be rainy and cooler, more in line with what March should be rather than June. But I digress.
I hope you enjoyed the chapters I put out. One positive about being away from the internet is it gives me more time to write due to less distraction, although the physical act of writing can itself get tiring — sometimes the spirit is willing but the flash isn’t. That’s why so many ideas remain stuck in my head, queuing up to get typed onto a screen.
One question you probably have: Why on earth did I decide to take a detour in my Mayor Mare story to focus on Discord for a chapter? Well, like with Anon-A-Fix, it’s all about establishing motivation. Discord is not normally a character who can be cowed, but Annie is very good at getting to him and she gives a good justification — she did in fact stand up to Celestia and directly defy her yet lived to tell the tale. Not too many can say that. We also don’t know what magic Annie has learned over the past 250 years. Since she can now shapeshift with little effort, it stands to reason she’s probably proficient at other things that would ruin Discord’s day even if it doesn’t turn him into a statue.
While I’ve always wanted to explore the relationship between Annie and Discord, it was also a bit of necessity that led to their chapter being second. I spent some time trying to think of what Orangeglow might do to screw everything up this time. Nothing quite seemed to fit after the Wall. Well, thank you Covid19. I now know how OG will screw up Equestrian next, and it’s a perfect situation to drive our poor Mayor Meyer Mare to drink. I haven’t started the chapter but I’ll do it as soon as I can.
Now to EQUESTRIA GIRLS. The document I originally numbered “Chapter Five” is the “Rainbow Rocks” chapter, but I decided to wait on that one, in part because I don’t currently have access to the original video to novelize it, so I haven’t been able to write the ending yet, but everything else of that chapter is pretty much complete.
Don’t expect me to novelize “Day of the Flutter”. It’s too good a story for me to rag on. Also I’m annoyed at my inability to include much BurgerBelle to date. Hopefully Chapter Seven will fix that.
Putting Sunset, my Sunset, in the middle of this insane world makes some perverse sense. Instead of being an active participant in the timeline like she is in all my others, here she’s just observing and understanding about as much as I do, which is not at all.
I decided to rewrite my next story Blooming Friendship from the ground up. My 400th blog is coming up, so I may use the space to post excerpts of the original version of the first chapter from 2017 versus what I started writing three days ago. I had both documents open but rarely referred back to the original cut when doing the rewrite.
Writing nothing is surprisingly difficult but I think I’ve gotten better at it. Being cooped up at my dad’s has probably helped.
Anyway, that’s all the news that isn’t. I’ll get the next EQUESTRIA GIRLS chapter out as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience with both that and reading this to the end.
Peace out!
