Underappreciated Author Spotlight: CoffeeMinion · 8:27pm Oct 11th, 2021
Been a while since I did one of these, and as I said last time, I'm running out of candidates. Maybe a new influx of writers who like G5 will replenish things? I don't know that we'll see quite the huge fanfiction community as G4 inspired, but maybe.
Anyway, why does CoffeeMinion deserve a follow? After the break.
CoffeeMinion currently has 382 followers, which is no small potatoes. His first story was posted in early 2015, so a little after the fandom's peak in general and a year or two after what I'd consider to be the fanfiction community's peak, at least in how easy it was to gain readers and followers. Since then, he's posted 41 stories and become a somewhat prominent fan of Limestone Pie. In a couple of his most recent blog posts, he's lamented a lack of motivation to keep writing, but hey, there's a lot of that going around. How many stories have I posted this year? Only two, one of which was for a contest. Once in a while a contest prompt does still give me a good idea, but not much anymore, and almost always as a sequel/prequel/side story to something else I've written instead of anything new.
I don't remember a ton about CoffeeMinion's early stories, other than them being the kinds of things you see from a budding but inexperienced writer: good ideas with some common rookie mistakes, but overall showing lots of promise. Of the 41 stories, I've read 12.
The oldest one I've read is "A Dinky Little Problem," which I'll pair with a later story, "Results May Vary." I actually read the second one first and was confused by some of the problems Derpy was having in trying to raise Dinky, and why she was being threatened with losing her daughter. It did provide a nice friendshipping angle between Derpy and Berry Punch as they commiserated in the difficulty of raising a child alone, and then when I read the first story, all the pieces fell into place (I think these were posted before there was any formal way of declaring a story to be a sequel of another, or I would have started with the right one). "Problem" shows the sometimes antagonistic relationship Derpy had with Sparkler in trying to get the latter to approve the adoption/file no objections to its ongoing status. Not too surprising a plot for these characters, and they have their teething pains with telly language, but they're still good examples of the genre, as they give a thoughtful picture of how this scenario would play out instead of dipping into maudlin sentimentality.
Next up was "Daring Do and the Goggles of Shipping." It looks like an epilogue was posted a year and a half after the final chapter, and I haven't read that. It's not long, but I'd have to reread what led up to it to get the proper context after this much time. It was kind of weird as a comedy, but that's not a bad thing. I almost think it tried to do too much, as the shipping parts were fairly rushed (another common issue for writers still getting their feet wet), and I'll go ahead and bring in another I read at about the same time, "Strange Obsessions," because they're both similar in construction. They more or less build to an end joke, the former suggested by the title and the latter by the cover art. In fact, that second one feels quite like a feghoot to me. It sets up Bon Bon as someone who understands a devotion to sweets, so Hugh Jelly finds an unexpected compatriot in her, but rather than go somewhere with it, the story ends in a joke.
I took a trip through wanting to tackle some of the fandom's cliches at one point, and I wonder if that's what CoffeeMinion started around here. We have Dinky adoption, Fluttercord (well before it was canon), and now a Doctor Whooves story in "Conscience," which goes by pretty quickly for all it implies. I think the author finds the Doctor's voice well here, and fans of such should find this a good example of it. I just think it needed to take its time a little better, plus Derpy didn't do much except provide a little comic relief in a story that didn't really need it. Minor quibble, though. It poses Star Swirl as a former companion of the Doctor's, which is an unusual concept, and Star Swirl had to leave to take his place in Equestrian history. When he faces a crisis of his purpose, the Doctor returns to help him. Interestingly, this was written well before we'd seen anything of Star Swirl in canon but one depiction in a play, so the cover art doesn't have the actual character. Just a curiosity. But this is a nice quick-hit piece for Doctor Whooves fans.
Next, back to comedy with "The Brief, Torrid Love-Affair of Fernando the Straw and Madame le Flour." This is the author starting to hit his stride. It's a well-formed random comedy about the imagined persona of her sack of flour from "Party of One" being romanced by a bendy straw (which I think was invented for this story, but maybe there's a reference I'm forgetting). I can't really give much of a plot summary that the title doesn't, but this was a genuinely funny crackship. If you're a fan of those in comedy form, then it's definitely worth reading.
Then CoffeeMinion dipped his toe into random comedy again with "Power Pony Adventures: El Taco Loco vs. The Red Menace." Sonata Dusk and Starlight Glimmer are both reading one of those magic issues of Power Ponies, but they're not remotely close to each other. Still, they somehow get sucked into the same fantasy session, where Sonata takes on the role of villain El Taco Loco in her siren form (though I think she was pulled in from the human world), while Starlight Glimmer becomes the Red Menace, a communist-like figure with a sentient beard who serves as a frenemy to the Power Ponies. The normal version is to become the heroes and get out of the comic by winning, so what do you do when you're the villain? No way of convincing the heroes that you're actually an innocent person from another world. This one is as absurd and funny as it sounds, and I enjoyed it a lot.
"To Serve in Hell" is CoffeeMinion's first foray into long-form fiction, and he planned it out carefully. I offered my services as a long-term editor on it, so it's one of the few stories of this length I stuck with all the way through. Now about that promised sequel...
This story follows the "Nightmare Moon won" timeline that Starlight Glimmer instigated, and it mostly follows Rarity and Rainbow Dash, plus posits some imaginative fates of major characters that the show never included in it. Rarity remembers how things used to be, but as such a high-ranking pony, it's hard for her to work against NMM's reign. She does aid the resistance though, and she gains some interesting choices of allies, including a Rainbow Dash who's also reluctant to go against the role she's taken in this empire, but her reunion with Scootaloo sparks her to reach for something more. Rarity's chief rival Sassy Saddles would like nothing more than to see Rarity to a calamitous end, yet she also can't help her nature as a pony, wanting a return to how she knows life is supposed to be. So they must engage with a large underground organization looking to thwart NMM's rule, but there are worse things out there than her. This is one of the better dark adventures I've read, and the ending does a good job of not necessarily wrapping everything up cleanly, but showing events starting down the path they will take.
More crackshipping, you say? "Time Enough for Wub" is Star Swirl x Vinyl Scratch. Yeah. Star Swirl arrives without his memory, only knowing he's on some urgent mission. Vinyl is coming off a recent breakup. I thought the action beats behind Star Swirl's mission made for a good story, but YMMV on the shipping. That one's a tough sell, and I was never quite convinced of the rationale behind it. But the intrigue around Star Swirl's purpose kept me engaged, as there's a twist in store for it.
"Santa, Bring me a Dinosaur!" feels a lot like Terry Pratchett's Hogfather in that Santa needs belief to remain alive, and even Death is very Pratchett-like. Death is ready to claim Santa if the last glimmer of belief fades away, and Santa only got one letter this year. But the foal wants a dinosaur. If he actually delivers, then word of mouth will surely spread and get him some more believers. It's a funny story, but given the subject matter, it also can't help but be cute, and this was a rather pleasant Christmas story to read.
"Father and Son" takes a look at Big Mac's relationship with Bright Mac at a time of lots of things changing. Granny Smith is looking both to turn over operation of the farm to her grandchildren and hassle Big Mac about starting a family. This one felt a bit unfocused to me. The angle about Big Mac raising a family doesn't happen until late in the story, and there's an early thread about Luna realizing Big Mac is in turmoil because of his dreams, but it takes her awfully long to act on it, and then she disappears from the story. The point here is more to paint Bright Mac as a non-ideal father, which is an unusual angle to take. Not bad if you want a nice thought piece, but it doesn't deliver any solid conclusions.
Last one is "Bra Quest!" in which Limestone Pie is thoroughly fed up with the uncomfortable and barely functional traditional bras her mother has provided her, so she convinces her mom to accompany her to the mall to find something that will actually work while not proving painful. Cloudy Quartz is not too happy with all this newfangled stuff at the mall, but she gamely tags along, despite Limestone's attempts to ditch her. Then comes Sunset Shimmer, newly arrived in this world and desperate for some way of finding food and shelter. One key point of allowing Limestone to buy a bra here was the assurance that she'd use her own money, but Sunset Shimmer has better ideas of what to do with it: namely, use it for herself. This was a fun comedy that sows not only some cute Limestone/Cloudy Quartz bonding, but Limestone/Sunset as well. And just maybe this planted the seeds for her eventual redemption. This was very enjoyable.
Of course, there are some more stories I should have read, like "Petunia and the Coelacanth" or "Heavy Rock," but whaddya gonna do?
Lots of good stuff here, leaning toward comedy, and shows steady improvement over what was already a solid beginning? That's worthy of a follow in my book.
Check out my previous underappreciated author spotlights:
Casca
Lucky Dreams
Ceffyl Dwr
Miller Minus
Impossible Numbers
Newcomers Edition with PapierSam and President Dead
Middle Ground Edition with Chris, PatchworkPoltergeist, and Norm De Plume
NaiadSagaIotaOar
Orbiting Kettle
Jay Bear
Good choice! I've only read a smattering of Coffee's stuff, but I don't think I've ever read something from them that I wasn't satisfied with.
Weirdly, I saw the title and was confused. Hadn't you already done a spotlight for CoffeeMinion? :O
I need to start using these blogs...
5594690
All the ones I've done are linked at the bottom.
I can accurately confirm that CoffeeMinion deserves all the follows
Thank you, sir. Sincerely.
As I’ve mentioned, you were in many ways the person whose works brought me into the fanfic side of the fandom. Seeing that come full circle like this is an honor. It’s also a thrill to get your quick takes on the fics you mentioned here. I’ve certainly learned a lot from your feedback over the years!
And for what it’s worth, I think I’m not so much feeling a lack of motivation as an… overabundance of RL. RL’s been an awful, awful lot this last year and a half.
5594569
5594777
5594690
If I hit 1k maybe Pasc can do an "Overappreciated Author Spotlight" for me. ;V