I'm still a day's work away from releasing the next CSP chapter. Sinus headaches have wrecked my concentration.

But I've decided to explain my next project.

There were three core points to my thought process:

(1) Not a CSP/Maretian sequel (though large Ko-Fi or PayPal donations might persuade me to do that "return to the cave farm" bit you all keep asking for- the car repairs put me heavily in debt, and I'm missing my second most profitable convention this year)

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Usually I don't think about "which part of X I've written is my favorite part?"

But there's one entry of The Maretian I keep coming back to and re-reading- and I'm not usually in the habit of re-reading my own writing.

It's not perfect- Mark Watney is a little preachy in it, but given that he's expressing the enthusiasms that got him to Mars in the first place, I think it's excusable.

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OK. So, while working on the next chapter of Changeling Space Program, I've also been thrashing my brain for a new daily-update project. (Livewriting on Patreon has produced practically zero response, and I need to keep my writing income up after going deeper in debt to fix the van I just bought last year.)

A story about the diaries of Nightmare Moon clunked. I tried starting writing on Doctor Whooves: the Five Derpies, but had to stop because it needs more planning.

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https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-maretian-hardcopy-edition-ex/#/

It's less than two days to deadline.

Well, I'm buried in doing inventory right now, so not writing or editing much.

But yesterday I had a thought, and I wanted to throw it at you Maretian readers as a puzzler.

As I mentioned, both in-story and out, Spitfire was a last-minute addition to the crew. I'd originally meant to send Fluttershy, but I couldn't justify her participation in-story, not as an extension of CSP. But, as we all know now, Spitfire saved the crew on at least two occasions.

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The good news is, the IndieGoGo project has been revived and altered.

The bad news is, in order for the print run to break even at fifty copies instead of a hundred, the price for the three-book hardcover set has gone up. A lot.

The revised project only runs for two weeks. Here it is:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-maretian-hardcopy-edition-ex/#/

And the organizers are a long, long way below goal. If you want in, now is definitely the time.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-maretian-hardcopy-edition#/

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Let's see if this works.

I've been toying with the idea of doing fic readings for a while. The thing is, as a narrator my voice is... servicable, at best. But as a voice actor trying to imitate existing voices? ESPECIALLY female ones? I'm utterly useless. I'm no good as a mimic- never have been.

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... Avonder has opened up the crowdfunding for a limited-edition, three-volume print run of The Maretian.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-maretian-hardcopy-edition#/

... you know, the story that comes before The Maretian?

CSP just updated.

Read and enjoy!

As mentioned in the last blog, there's now a TVTropes page for Changeling Space Program and The Maretian (with My Flight thrown in).

Now, my favorite thing about TV Tropes are the "sugar Wiki" categories: Crowning Moment of Awesome, Crowning Moment of Funny, Heartwarming, Tearjerker, and Nightmare Fuel.

So, while I'm at Anime Dallas trying to pay my December bills and maybe get money for a transmission repair...

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And also CSP:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/ChangelingSpaceProgramAndTheMaretian

Thanks to GymQuirk who made it- as ever, I'm flattered!

I've enjoyed my vacation from writing after completing The Maretian. Over the past week my creative side has begun to kick back in, with scenes and plotlines for this and that project suggesting themselves. I was looking forward to beginning posts to my Patreon a week from today and getting back into writing, without the pressure of absolutely, positively, daily updates.

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I've decided to go ahead and add that tech appendix, plus a brief introduction, for The Maretian. This is more due to an ulterior motive (more on that in the author note for the appendix) than demand, but I think it does need doing.

But before I do that, I want to mention what really inspired me to attempt a daily update story.

What inspired me is Admiral Biscuit's SIlver Glow's Journal.

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I'm enjoying the absence of the stress of coming up with something, anything, for daily posts. (Don't worry, life keeps providing other stress to make good the difference.) And I'm beginning to toy with new and different writing, some non-pony and some pony (including two story ideas: Doctor Whooves and the Five Derpies and Nightmare Moon: Diary of a Magic Tyrant). And I'm still considering whether there have been enough "why can't Equestria send rocket fuel / soup / Discord

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... due to serious computer issues. Signs point to the swap partition on my desktop being borked.

Will try to write tomorrow, but it's been a long day here.

... one of my readers intends to do dramatization of certain parts of The Maretian, particularly the "Home" song.

Right now he needs a singing voice for Spitfire:

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/825065/looking-for-someone-who-can-sing-as-spitfire

Any readers who can reasonably pass for Spitfire and carry a tune at the same time, if you want to help, let him know.

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For those wondering, I think I've fixed all references to Martian seasons in The Maretian.

I think.

By all means, if you see one, let me know.

In the new revised calendar it's mid-winter on Sol 6, spring equinox is roughly Sol 103. Summer solstice will be Sol 296. Anything that says or suggests otherwise needs correction, so let me know.

Okay. I've assumed that, since in The Martian Mark Watney had twelve hours of sunlight after driving to recharge his rover during the Pathfinder trip, that he arrived during Martian summer. That makes sense, since if you were given a choice by orbital mechanics you'd choose early summer, when solar cells would be at maximum efficiency but before the onset of dust storm season.

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If you read The Maretian, you can recognize everyone, or at least guess.

Artwork by Jason "TexasUberAlles" Meador. EDIT: Go comment and fave on deviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/art/The-Maretian-742144602

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