This being Ireland, and not the Western/Southern United States as it is for a hefty chunk of the audience, only now are the effects of Summer starting to make themselves known. And still in a limbo where sometimes it’s warm enough to only wear a t-shirt outside, other times it’s not, and there’s no rhyme or reason. Plus the unpredictable rain, of course.
Another mild milestone this week! First story reviewed to be over 35,000 words long, if not quite a novel (apart from having fewer conflicts than one, it doesn’t hit the loose 40K cutoff threshold), and also the longest review week yet, with 50K worth of writing across these five stories.
And also the shortest story, at less than a thousand words. Yeah, I don’t know how that’s a thing either.
And finally, time for the last batch of entries for the Ancestral Tribute contest. Been quite a ride, and in a sense, the best came last; the winner is in this last batch, and these eight have the highest overall rating of the four weeks, with all fics getting a positive rating. Not to say there weren’t great entries along the way in the prior weeks, there were for sure, but it’s still somewhat telling, no? When in
Alright, I’m spent. It’s Sunday night as I’m writing this, I’m more knackered than Big Mac after the turkey call competition, and I have literally nothing to mention as a forward to this Ponyfic Review Monday Musings that’s springing to mind, except a pointless two-paragraph ramble on what I’ve been watching lately. I won’t blame you for skipping it.
We’re already starting to see dividends of my efforts on reading more longer stories, albeit small dividends: this is not the week with the longest word count (that still belongs to my first G5-fics only week, right before Tell Your Tale debuted), but it is only the second week to break 40,000 words. Moreso, it includes the first story over 30,000 words long.
Fifteen weeks strikes me as a reasonable break between Author Spotlights. And with the end of the year upon us, let’s look at an author whose work nearly always makes me laugh and/or smile. Not that this guy needs the promotion, with nearly 2,800 followers to his name (it’d be even more were it not for that immortal enemy Real Life™ – more on that later), but round here, what the ghost says goes. Thus, I give you Aragon.
Yes, I have seen Make Your Mark. No, I won’t be discussing it here – I learnt my lesson from my review of A New Generation on rushing out clunky reviews that I end up largely revising and redoing later. A lesson you’d think I’d have learnt from years of animation YouTubing… Expect something on it round the week’s end, or on the weekend.
Got some opening blurbs planned for the next while. Let’s lead off with a big one: 2023 for Monday Musings in review! A more sensible soul would probably make a separate blog for this, but I can’t always be sensible, can I? 
And sure, if there are souls reading this who can’t stand statistical quirks, well, there’s always scrolling until the first cover art to bypass the blurb. Which some may do already, come to think. 
End of the month, author spotlight time. We got us another new-ish* author that’s amassed a decent following in their time here with a body of work that’s been acclaimed by quite a large handful of folks as largely reliable and consistent, with a chunk of reasonable yet disposable stories, yet when there’s a knockout, there’s really a knockout. That being mushroompone. Don’t worry, they’re not the toxic variety of fungi.
Been several themed weeks lately, between my handmittpicked quintet for Monday Musings’ second anniversary, a Scootaloo week, and a spotlight on SockPuppet. Probably too soon for another. But sod it,
Well, I had a bit of a crummy week. Ended up taking my first sick day off work since… since ever, I think (I’ve taken chunks of days off before). Had no choice, as a particular problem I’ve had twice in the last year reared its head on Tuesday, got more intense than ever before on Wednesday, and on Thursday, left me unable to sit without proper pain. With all the fever symptoms and regular ibuprofen painkillers that implies by proxy.
Back in March, on Monday Musings’ 2nd anniversary, I spoke of being less gung-ho about reading and reviewing Ponyfic lately, and how it had shifted into an obligation kept up more out of habit then pleasure, one that was draining me as well as enthusiasm and energy for other hobbies and projects. I said I would try small things to rejuvenate myself in the near future, and see how it went.
While it didn't quite hit the stratospheric height of last year’s 168 entries, the third Thousand Words Contest eclipsing the 160 benchmark to the tune of 164 stories, despite only being open for five weeks instead of the usual two months (Bicyclette hosts contests on the regular these days, she’s a busy one), is yet another sign of our fandom still going strong.
Nothing to really announce or discuss, so I’ll make do with a plug. One most reading this will already know, yes, but it’s important, and something to be excited for. PaulAsaran, regular reviewer going on nine years now, was recently offered the privilege of having his reviews get site featuring. And last week, he accepted it for a trial. Meaning that, two years after Seattle’s Angels and the Royal Canterlot Library wrapped, we’ll have site featured Ponyfic reviews again.
Something I'd certainly noticed, but forgot to mention here until PaulAsaran's recent site-featured blogs called attention to it with links to all active Ponyfic reviewers/recommenders' latest blogs, is there's a new addition to the bunch, in abrony-mouse. Always a welcome sight – no longer just a quintet of us now! 
For everyone in America and the UK, where there was Memorial Day or a Bank Holiday the prior weekend, just transplant yourself back in a time a week to relate to this better.
Anniversaries of media or pieces of tech abound all over the place these days to the point they can often mean less if you yourself don’t have an association with it. That said, what with me casually checking in to Nintendo Life semi-frequently, I couldn’t have missed that yesterday was the 35th anniversary of a certain Game Boy. A family of gaming devices that’s a forerunner for the most personally influential gaming system for me.
Got a surprise today, though not a Halloween-themed one. In Monday Musings’ first review of a novel-length fic since going unscheduled, we also have not only the first Author Spotlight since then, but the first time period those two have been combined. And much like Rune Soldier Dan some time back, it’s that (charmingly) awkward position of being someone who’s also a regular reader and commenter of this space. Folks, I give you iisaw.
Something a bit unusual this week. I’ve had more and more review stories pile up on my backlog lately from an Ponyfic audiobook reader that isn’t Scribbler, and I figured, why not do an edition of exclusively fics read by them? It gives me the chance to also talk about the quality and quirks of their readings. That reader being StraightToThePointStudio.
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