At current, I am one hundred and eight pages into Philip K. Dick's The Simulacra, and so far there have been at least eight viewpoint characters and no clue what the plot of this book is supposed to be in the slightest. It involves a psychokinetic piano player who believes he has deadly BO, competing android manufacturers, the world's last psychoanalyst (named Dr. Egon Superb, which is just wonderful), major class conflict, mobile spacecraft dealerships with mind-controlling alien

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....that's a pretty punny name you came up with there.

Ever think about reusing it in another show? You could get a lot of mileage out of a pun like that.

This was originally a lengthy comment in the comment section of Equestrian Time-Slip in response to TheFeanor asking what my inspirations for The Mare in the High Castle were. I decided to repost it here, with some minor additions, because it seemed like a better fit for a blog post.

Just off the top of my head, here's a rundown, but be warned, it's a long 'un:

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This may come as a surprise, considering my most popular story by a wide margin is a gritty and violent alt-history, but my favorite genre of fan fiction - by far - is actually Original Flavor.

And it's a cryin' shame that there's, like, none of it.

The only one I found on TVTropes, Getting Back on Your Hooves, had a missing word in the first sentence. I stopped reading soon after that.

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"The world has become so serious that humor is a risky profession."

Well, that happened. In true blackshirt tradition, some far-right gunmen committed good old-fashioned direct action against a satirical magazine for making a cartoon. Truly a testament to the fact that images and simulacra are far more real and important than reality.

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So, I wrote a thing, Equestrian Time-Slip. I'm not going to go so far as to call it a prequel to Do Hippoids Dream of Electric Shetlands?, because saying "It's a prequel to Electric Shetlands" is like saying a Moebius Strip is a straight line. But it is prequel-ish. I guess you could call it a Matryoshquel, if such a thing can exist.

Also, it may make your brain melt.

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Alright, so....I lied. I did not finish Special Illumination. But I tried! I really did!

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Don't worry, I'm still working on Special Illumination. I've got the next few chapters waiting in the wings already and a nice, neat little outline of the rest of the story, but I got this sudden burst of inspiration and came up with a short little story that I just had to write down before my wellspring of inspiration dried up. It's called Trip the Light Fantastic, and it's about Ponyville's two most preeminent musicians. Naturally this short little story grew in the telling and ballooned up

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Sorry for the distinct lack of updates recently. Rest assured, I haven't abandoned either of my stories. But between spending all my writing time on a professional writing project, finally getting around to cracking open A Clash of Kings, and the entirety of Special Illumination being rendered AU with one line of dialogue from the show, I haven't really had the time or inclination to get the ball rolling again. But rest assured, I'll get back into the swing of things sometime in

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Well, I almost did it. I had my evening coffee brewed (that's a lie--I drink instant) and sat down to finish tonight's chapter of "Special Illumination", but then this whole "anthro-ponies in high school" debacle happened. I almost managed to make it a whole month with one SI chapter posted a day, and fully intended to get tonight's done, but I just felt compelled to spend the last few hours poking holes in this breaking news. And yes, there are a few holes. Copypaste from my DHN comment:

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