This one turned out to be a little weird. I've been working my way up to the next big scene: the press conference. And after some consideration, I realized that said conference was going to wind up as its own chapter. (The title for that one will be Miscreated, and it should hopefully be up before the end of the week.) But there was prep work to be...
2020-02-17 01:55:59 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm not sure the Complete tag was accurate.
This story came about because of the joke British stereotype for how to deal with anything: you write a letter. To the editor, the BBC, whatever government agency you feel is in charge of fixing your issue -- they are going to receive Words. Things which are Strongly Lettered. In a Strong Letter. And if you h...
2020-01-30 23:25:44 +0000 UTC View Post
And this wraps Nightmare Night, along with sending the story into that next phase. Some readers had felt that Fleur was doing too well in her sentence, was in need of a shakeup -- and guess what? Social earthquake, right on schedule. Go ahead: deal with that.
This chapter wound up around 10,700 words. (Unlike the previous posting, there was no natura...
2020-01-28 01:12:43 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the first of what I'm hoping will be two chapters for the month, with both sharing the same calendar square and physical setting. The last pairing was Fleur and Fluttershy out and about in Canterlot, getting some idea for that side of the equation. Nightmare Night is for putting the mares among the populace in Ponyville and in both cases, it's about laying down some...
2020-01-23 23:11:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Okay: now this is me being silly for the sake of silliness. And also tentatively treading through the Mature waters again, because this is a sex-themed comedy. Or at least, a comedy based around sexual roleplay. While mocking a few RPG systems, which has got to be good for a few downvotes all by itself.
(They're like religions, you know. You a...
2020-01-21 03:14:54 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a case of clearing the queue: I had been working on a new chapter for Anchor Foal and I -- got stuck. Reached the 3500-word mark after two days, and just stalled out there. I was going to continue this morning, but... it's been a long month in many ways, I felt like I needed something light, and I'd had a rather silly idea...
So I worked on...
2020-01-19 02:54:11 +0000 UTC View Post
This one is an example of how ideas can mutate when you're not looking.
It started two nights ago, and it started during the small hours because that was when my lower-apartment neighbors decided to throw a party. After lying in a vibrating bed for a while, I began to experience dark thoughts about those with no consideration for when others were trying to sleep --
-- okay: &n...
2019-12-31 00:42:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I wanted to do a holiday story.
I didn't write one this year, which meant I missed being part of the flood of Hearth's Warming tales which saturated the New column for days on end. But I felt like I just didn't have much to say about the holiday. This hasn't exactly been my personal year for Peace On Anything, and when it comes to talking about the darker side of such...
2019-12-28 04:13:11 +0000 UTC View Post
This story's title has been hanging around for a while: it's the name of a magical effort from the endless abomination that is Corn & Peg. I knew on sight that it had to be a Rainbow story -- but I didn't have a concept for the story itself, and so everything went on hold.
A few days ago, I had a very strange encounter at a local supermarket. &nbs...
2019-12-25 23:08:00 +0000 UTC View Post
A few of you may recall this story idea arising from a blog post: the concept of Twilight coming across a coin she couldn't recognize and tracking it to the source. In this case, the Mature rating is present because while there's nothing directly explicit in the story itself, there's more than enough suggested to warrant a red tag.
Regardless, I tried to keep i...
2019-12-18 00:16:31 +0000 UTC View Post
In a small way, this story is about building towards (what I'm still hoping will be) the next big project. We've officially been at AU for a while for now -- and in that, we have a setting which has had a few mainline-extant pieces missing. This story officially begins the process of filling in one of the largest gaps.
I left the character tag off on purpose.
So t...
2019-12-13 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Because we can't just leave Cerea hanging, can we? In fact, after this chapter, there's no way to leave her in one place any more...
7400 words close out the month, and the one-year anniversary on Triptych passes quietly because... because things have been too chaotic to try and launch anything. Right now, all I can say is that there's going to be a blog...
2019-12-01 03:18:42 +0000 UTC View Post
I’m not completely sure this one qualifies as a comedy.
As mentioned in the ending Author’s Note, this one was written entirely in the hospital, over the course of two days. The first one was spent waiting to speak with a doctor, and that failed to produce a personal meeting because apparently my mobile network hates me or I need a new phone. Possibly both. And today...
2019-11-27 20:31:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Well, now you know why I stopped the last chapter at a natural break point: this one wound up being a bit over 9700 words.
(Also, I have been working on this part for the last ten hours. On and off. No appointments on Saturday, but -- it's still been a rough week. Possible blog to come.)
As promised, this was a two-chapter trip: they're on their ...
2019-11-24 06:35:47 +0000 UTC View Post
(I have tried to write this post three times, and that is why the final result is so short. When I put a link into this part of the window, it blanks the page while deleting anything accessed by the Back button. I have stopped putting links into this section.)
With Duet wrapped up, the other continuing stories have a little more freedom to move -- and so we're...
2019-11-22 05:03:35 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a rough month.
Put it this way: with this week included, I am averaging slightly over four medical appointments for every five weekdays. (And that's hard to do.) I've thought about blogging the details, but... after a while, the madness becomes wearying to me, and I suspect it's just about the same for everyone else. Let's just say that on the writi...
2019-11-20 04:58:01 +0000 UTC View Post
And so other things begin.
(I really wish I'd found cover art.)
In the end, this was both a bridge and a fracture story. It's starting the process of carrying us towards the next major work, and it's also a series of break points for the status quo. As much as the end of Triptyc...
2019-10-30 02:28:27 +0000 UTC View Post
This is, in fact, the push -- and as stated in the post title, the next chapter will be the final one. I'm going to try and finish in October, because I have faint thoughts/hopes/soon-to-be-dashed dreams of starting the next big project on the anniversary of having wrapped up the original.
But we still have to reach the finish line on this story. (Feel free to mentally ...
2019-10-28 03:02:09 +0000 UTC View Post
This is starting to feel like the final push on Triptych, at least in the sense that part of me wants to try and get it done before the end of the month. It means the other two continuing stories have to wait for a little while, along with postponing a few one-shot ideas -- I've been thinking about showing a day at work for the Doctors Bear -- but I'm feeling a need 2019-10-26 00:18:58 +0000 UTC View Post
With Triptych, there were chapters which I was afraid to write, because I thought they would produce an adverse response.
For Duet, there are chapters which I needed to write, because I knew they would bring a bad reaction.
Go figure.
I can safely say that this particular story is now approaching its close: we crossed the 100k m...
2019-10-21 05:44:46 +0000 UTC View Post
This wasn't originally meant to be two chapters. However, it was meant to represent one post charge, and that's the way it's coming out: the composition emerged in such a way that there was a natural break point, and I didn't want to ruin the flow by going into a mere {hr}. So two chapters, totaling out to roughly 7200 words, as a single update.
After this, we'r...
2019-10-19 03:15:33 +0000 UTC View Post
I really was planning to revisit Cerea today, but... Fleur's been on my mind, and it reached the point where the brief focus walk I just barely managed to get in found itself proceeding through the 'wrong' story, step by step. But it's still progress, and two chapters in a month is more of a recommitment for something which hadn't been updated in a while.
(As a Patreon e...
2019-09-30 01:35:19 +0000 UTC View Post
As it turns out, this may have to be an all-update month. The story moderation queue is a little weird right now, and I'm not completely sure all is well on auto-approval either.
In this case, I wanted to make sure everyone knew that Anchor Foal is still moving forward. This chapter actually represents a fairly major moment in the story: somethi...
2019-09-29 02:02:55 +0000 UTC View Post
There seems to be a theme with the last few updates. It stretches across two stories, there's a chance that it'll find its way to a third, and it reads as 'Here comes the problem.' In the case of Duet, it's been steadily ratcheting up the tension until it feels like something ...
2019-09-24 03:43:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Well... at least now I know I can still write. If I'm lucky.
The last few days have been upheaval. (Short version: she was discharged.) But when she rests -- if I can get a series of movies to catch her interest -- or if she just falls asleep on the couch...
It's a strange way to write, just hoping for the fortunate hours to line up perfectly. ...
2019-09-22 04:01:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Any writer is eventually going to wind up with one of those search histories.
Mystery authors -- those specializing in crime -- get the worst of it. A mystery writer who's on their game is going to have a search history which resembles that of a serial killer, mostly because they're trying to create a plausible one and that requires a certain amount of research. ...
2019-09-16 03:29:05 +0000 UTC View Post
As it turned out, I wound up changing the projected chapter title -- and the contents. I had initially thought this segment would conclude on a different story beat. But this was Applejack's chapter, and one where she did a lot of talking. A mare determined to speak will say what she truly wishes to -- and after what came out, I wound up feeling that for the sake of s...
2019-09-01 02:14:14 +0000 UTC View Post
I thought this was a quick idea.
Something basic, in a month where so much has been complicated. Something light and fun. Just a little comedy about kissing booths and the mares who don't necessarily want to operate them. A group of connected scenes which wouldn't take that long to figure out. All I had to do was write it down...
Nearly.
Sixteen.
...
2019-08-31 00:40:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I have no idea how that cover art wound up there on the random grab. It's someone else's cover art, for a different story. Given the trouble I'm having in finding artists willing to take commissions on the theoretical physical book project, that may be the only way I can get cover art at all.
...but at least it sort of fits.
A 12k word count on this one, which means I'm ...
2019-08-28 04:25:59 +0000 UTC View Post
As those who follow my site blog already know, this is the idea which arose from being in the audience at that one panel. It just turned out to be a much longer idea than I'd thought, because I originally believed this was going to be a fairly quick Comedy/SoL pairing: five to seven thousand words, post and hope for laughs. As-is? The word count came in at 12k a...
2019-08-24 20:03:57 +0000 UTC View Post