On March 2nd 2013 I released my first every story, The Dragon and the Photograph. I was pretty amazed by the response, I can tell you. And thus began my love affair with writing.

So yes, yadda yadda, a year passed and various Important Life Events happened and I kept on writing.

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So says M. John Harrison[1], giving us an opening gambit in a subject I've been thinking about lately: Writing for an audience. Let's call it pro-writer. It's a good opening. Simple. Spiky. And it invites immediate criticism:

Writing just for yourself is frivolous, selfish, pretentious, produces drivel like self-inserts or crazy political-sociobiology theories masquerading as space opera. All these, let's suppose, come from pro-writer's loyal opposition, pro-audience.

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Hey kids,

I've got a new secret(ish) project coming up and, since it's pretty complex, I've been considering adding to my pre-reader roster. Greedy, I know, but more viewpoints are always appreciated.

To give you a brief idea of the fic, some features:
*Adventure longform
*Aged-up Scootabelle
*A fair few melancholy feels
*Steampunky/new weird fantasy
*Various plot-related narrative tricks
*Heavily inspired by Iain M. Banks, China Miéville and M. John Harrison.

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So hey, I guess I'm announcing upcoming fanfics now? Coming soon, my first foray into actual shipping: Frivolity, a RariPie romance.

You can blame Intelligent Shipping Discussion for this one. I don't ship any of the ponies, have an OTP, or owt like that, but when I was trawling through the archives I saw it supposed that Pinkie Pie is really difficult to ship. And thus it was decided.

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Contains spoilers, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, this is a little late, I know. I'm a lazy busy man, alright? Anyway, this isn't going to be a full review. Just a few thoughts, a bit of fun, 'cause I enjoyed the episode, and Scootacanon[1] is interesting.

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A few weeks ago I read two excellent books in succession: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks and Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. And do you know what? Both were littered with what story mavens call POV errors. That is, the viewpoint character changes during scenes. No, these books weren't using 3rd Person Omni. Not all characters in a scene got a viewpoint – just the occasional two or three. And no, these aren't odd or obscure books. Both are modern (1988 and 1995

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Chickens go in; pies come out.

In entirely unrelated news, I finally got to use a bunch of book tokens I'd gathered over thee last year a Christmas and birthday presents. Plus a trip to a charity shop. I now have a stack of seventeen books before me. I'll ... uh .. probably not be seen for the next few days.

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I just found out that my little horror tale Lyra Grows Fingers has received a dramatic Youtube reading. I can't link to it here, 'cause y'know, reasons, but there's a link in the story itself. It's very good, and I did a lot of silent squeeing when I found it.

I'm reasonably sure most of you aren't following me for my horror output and will have no interest in this, but I just had to post about it because it totally rocks.

One of the best aspects of the ponyfic community is the feedback. We've got comments, we've got several specialised groups for deeper reviews, and we've got EQD (sort of). All this makes an excellent environment for writers who take the craft seriously and want to improve.

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Louis Brennan's Gyroscopic Monorail

Yes, this really was a thing. Yes, it did work. It just never got off the ground, which is a shame because it is so awesome.

And the Segway slinks off backstage, trying to avoid being noticed.