HB: Today's author I discovered reading his short comedy "The Thousand Year Urge", but that is not what we will be discussing tonight. No, the story in question is an epic tale titled: "Under the Northern Lights" by Sieurin. Sieurin, how are you?

Sleepy. It's Sunday morning, and I spent a late night... reading and computer surfing. No much partying for me. I'm past forty...

HB: Sieurin, I have to ask: how you choose your pen-name and how I'm supposed to pronounce it?

I was born with it - it is my actual surname. And "scheurin" is a start. No one can pronounce it here in Sweden either. Apparently, some ancestor was a French (?) engineer head-hunted here by some mine or whatever. Or to put it in Under The Northern Lights terms: he was a Russ.

HB: Oh, you're from Sweden? Neat! I guess that explains a few motives from Under the Northern Lights. But first I need to know: how did you get introduced to MLP?

I saw some fan art which made me check out the show. Oddly enough, the first episode I watched was the less than perfect "Over a barrel" (because one of the fan art pieces was of Braeburn), but I stayed on anyway, because I liked the characters' personalities.

HB: How long have you been writing? Did you ever write stories before FimFiction?

I have had some short stories published in gaming mags way back then, and wrote poetry and draw comics as a kid, but most of my writing has been for tabletop roleplaying games. Yet not much written, but relatively speaking.

HB: Do you have any authors on or off FimFiction that you look up to?

I dunno. I often find myself liking one story an author has written, but not another. Jetfire made me write MLP as a fantasy adventure story. Friendly Uncle's sex joke comedy made me write the small jokes that made me write the longer pieces.

HB: Under the Northern Lights has become immensely popular. It even has its own TV-Tropes page! Tell me, did you plan on it becoming an epic length hit?

Gods no. It was planned to be a longer piece though, not a one-page joke. It originally started with, based on MLP: FiM's tendency of having non-ponies representing "foreigners" musing with other Swedish fans what Swedes would be. Long before The Caribou Vikings of Faust, I might add... back in 2011.

HB: The level of detail you put into the story is very impressive, even going so far as to include foreign names for nearly every established character as well as a huge cast of OC's. How much work goes into planning each chapter before you start writing?

I've planned the story, and I've a rough plan before I sit down with each chapter. Most work these days is making myself sitting down and actually writing. 10% inspiration, 90% hitting yourself with heavy objects. And of course, some things like the 'foreign names'... while most of the fandom, and most of this site, are Americans, I'm not, so a lot of the names and such are in my own language or another language I know, while the English names are foreign and might need more thought!

HB: That's neat to hear. Having read a little bit of Norse Mythology myself, I can't help but notice the similarities in a few areas. Would you say that you drew much inspiration from it?

Yeah. You have surely noted MLP:FiM draws a lot inspiration from myth and legends, and I'm just continuing the trend. There's a hefty bunch of Sami and Finnish myth and legend there as inspiration there as well. I hope I haven't mangled those as much - I know I had to do some research there. The Norse stuff I had known since I was a kid. You tend to pick it up by osmosis when it's your culture, and I've always been interested in myth and religion.
But of course, it's inspiration, not a copy. Learning about Norse or Sami culture by reading UtNL is, well, not a good idea!

HB: I'll keep that in mind. What would you say is the most difficult part in writing your stories?

Actually sitting down to write. And when a story is this long, remembering all the small details of what you've written earlier. The audience will! This is not writer's block, mind you - I usually know what will happen in the next chapter, but making it reality... I'm a disgrace. I think it was Gabriel Garcia Marquez which would treat writing as a desk job - he'd put on a shirt and tie and sit down at the typewriter in his home office and write from morning to evening with the usual siesta they have in those countries, just as when he worked a white collar job in an office. That's the way to do it!

HB: Was there ever a chapter that you remember being particularly difficult to write? If so why?

Hm. The chapter where Twilight and Spike escape the pirates' camp. I cannot write combat scenes at all basically, and I'm still not satisfied with it. Besides, this is a fanfic I've described as Teen with no gore - I have to remember who I'm targeting.

HB: If it makes you feel any better I still enjoyed that chapter, especially the part with Spike's bluff. Before we wrap up, I gotta ask: do you have a favorite ship?

Not really. I have some unfavorites; I don't like incest or foalcon, for instance... so I obviously won't like a Shining/Twilight or Luna/Pipsqueak ship. And I'm not that fond of foeyay, like Celestia/Discord (which might be canon, but I'm still not fond of it). But I've written at least three short pieces where Rarity and Twilight are an item, so I probably have an unconscious urge to see fashionista socialites and awkward academics together...

HB: Finally, do you have any words of advice for young up-and-coming authors out there?

Plan ahead, better than me! Get proofreaders who are neither too lenient or try to rewrite your story for you. Listen to constructive criticism but don't let the whiners and fanboys get to you - do that better than me as well. And write, write, write. The only way to learn it is to do it, and bounce the pieces off others. Writers shouldn't exist in a vacuum.

HB: Thank you for your time. I look forward to your next chapter and wish you good luck and good cheer.

Thanks!

HB: Ladies and Gentlemen give Sieurin a big hand and go visit his page Here. If you feel like reading a cool (no pun intended) story about Twilight, Luna, and a whole bunch of awesomeness, go read Under the Northern Lights while you're at it. This is Hesitant Brony signing off.