6-Star Reviews Part 87: The Worst Bakers in Equestria

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What better way to follow up a gore/horror set like the Silent Ponyville stories than with a series tagged random/comedy?  Below the break, my review of Bob from Bottles' The Worst Bakers in Equestria.

6-Star Reviews Part 86: Silent Ponyville

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Given that the adult pony fandom is primarily an internet-based phenomenon, I suppose it's not surprising that video game crossovers are so common within the fanfic community.  And wouldn't you know, here's one of them!  Or rather, a whole bunch of them.  My review of Jake Heritagu's Silent Ponyville et al, after the break.

Fanfiction as a Coping Mechanism

A few thoughts on... well, it's all there in the title.  Just a heads up, this post is pretty depressing.  Everything is below the break, as usual.

6-Star Reviews Part 85: My Little Dashie

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Thomas Voeckler won the polka-dot jersey!  If you aren't a cycling fan, take my word for it that that's a good thing.  Also, be sure not to ask regular commenter and guest blogger Mystic about Cadel Evans; probably kind of a sore subject.

On a related note, Blogger has a tool which tracks referrals from Google.  It seems that this site has gotten several hits in the last week from people searching for "Thomas Voeckler Fanfiction."  Just a heads-up: if anyone writes a high-quality Voeckler/MLP crossover fanfic and sends it to me, I'm gonna post it.  Clearly, there's a demand for this, and I for one embrace the coming glut of pro cycling/pony hybrids.

Anyway, my review of ROBCakeran53's My Little Dashie, below the break.

Trawling FIMFic: Seeking Out Diamonds in the Rough

Today, I'm going to do something a little different.  Normally I focus on highly-regarded stories--6-star stuff.  What I'd like to try now instead is to walk you all through one of my occasional forays through the most recently posted stories on FIMFiction.net, as I seek out the next great good fanfic for my own edification.  What I'm going to do is give each story's title and synopsis (treat [sic] appearing after most of them as a given, BTW), whether or not I'm going to read them (and if not, why), and if I did read, what I thought of them.  Consider this a glimpse into my fanfic-reading-for-pleasure habits; a look at how I pick out stories I do or don't want to read absent any expectations or recommendations.

6-Star Reviews Part 84: Moonspire Run

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TitanRising's fic,
Moonspire Run, gets a review
Below the page break.

(Yes, I did a haiku joke.  Sorry, I couldn't think of anything interesting to say)

6-Star Reviews Part 83: Solar Flare

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Well, that was fun.  Indulging in a bit of creative writing always seems to put me in a good mood.  I think I'll try to leave a little more time for it from here on out (plus, I'm less than halfway finished drafting the story I was working on, and I'd hate to let it whither now that I've put in a good start on it).  But for the moment, I'm ready to get back to reviewing.  Which is good, because I enjoy that too!  Below the break, my review of Dragryphon's Solar Flare.

What I'm Doing Right Now Instead of Writing a Review

Yesterday, I tried to sit down and start reading Solar Flare, but I couldn't seem to get myself to focus.  I don't want to half-ass a story that I review (and I assume you all don't want me to, either), so I got up and did a few chores to let my head get itself on straight.  When I came back, I tried again, but still just didn't want to read it.  So I went for a bike ride, tuckered myself out, and after coming home... I still couldn't get myself interested in starting this story.  So, the obvious things having been attempted, I had me a good think and tried to figure out why I was feeling so apathetic.

Was I burned out on ponyfiction?  No, that wasn't it--it was reading critically and reviewing that I didn't feel like doing, specifically.  Was writing review after review becoming monotonous?  Not really; I always seem to find at least one or two different (i.e. not what was in the review previous) things to talk about for every story.  Then what?

Finally I realized: I wanted to do a little writing of my own.

Despite the fact that I haven't "published" any new fanfics in months, I do still write pony fiction from time to time.  I just tend to place it behind these reviews on the list of pony-related things to do.  And normally, that's fine; I like reading and reviewing stories (why else would I do it?), and frankly, I'm probably more skilled at that than I am as an author.  But I like to write too, and I haven't been doing very much of it lately.  In fact, I haven't done any creative writing at all since I got back from vacation.

Well, now's the time to fix that.  I had an idea that I sketched out shortly before I left on vacation, and it's been niggling at me for more than a month now.  So by cracky, I'm going to take a stab at writing it now, and not wait until some nebulous "later."  I've got a few completely free days right now in which to pound out some words, and that's exactly what I intend to do.  And once I've done that, then I think I'll be able to go get some reviewing done without wishing I was doing something else.

So.  Review Monday.  But for now, I write.

Thomas Voeckler is Best Pony

source: sportlive.co

That is all.

6-Star Reviews Part 82: On a Cross and Arrow

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While I have no intention of injecting politics into this blog (that goes for the comments too, please), I have to ask: who thought it would be a good idea to name Mitt Romney's former private equity firm Bain Capital?  I mean, I suppose it was probably someone's name, but did nobody ever say, "Hey guys, 'bane' has some kinda sinister connotations, maybe we should call our company something that doesn't suggest we're a merciless enactor of wanton destruction?"  It just seems to me like the equivalent of calling your restaurant "Nausea."

Anyway, Conner Cogwork's On a Cross and Arrow, after the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 81: Utter Madness/Happy/Burlap

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What the heck is that brown... thing in the picture supposed to be?  A potato?  A walnut?  A morbidly obese pine cone?  Maybe it's a fossilized dinosaur egg or the decapitated head of a dirt golem.  I have no idea, but it's weirding me out.

Lawnpygmys' Utter Madness, Happy, and Burlap, after the break.

Book Review: Bronies: For the Love of Ponies

(For the publisher's page/purchasing information, click here)

Well, here we are: the much-discussed Bronies: For the Love of Ponies is available for purchase, and Kazka Press offered me a reviewer's copy so that I could write it up.  I know there are a lot of people greeting this with extreme skepticism, and I don't blame them; can a short story anthology centered around "guys who love horses/ponies/an unnamed children's pony show" really be any good?  And after the theme was changed from "guys who love My Little Pony" to something more copyright-friendly, is there anything here of interest to the self-described MLP fan?  Well, I've read the stories, and I'm prepared to offer my opinions on the matter.  My thoughts, after the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 80: Fallout: Equestria

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Happy 4th of July to all!  Even those of you who aren't Americans should feel free to have a nice day--go on, you have my blessing.   I'm back home, having spent the last two weeks working my way through one of the fandom's most substantial works to date: Kkat's Fallout: Equestria.  I'll warn you in advance, this review runs pretty long, but if you aren't afraid of the wordcount (and if you are, maybe a 600,000 word fanfic isn't what you're looking for anyway), check below the break to see my thoughts.

Drak's Post Thing

I'm probably home by now, but as of post time I've also probably only been home for an hour or two tops, so we have one more guest post before I'm back (for real) on Wednesday.  Taking the reigns for me one last time is Drakmire, a fanfic writer who's currently one of EqD's pre-readers.  And as it turns out, his post deals mostly with that latter capacity; below the break, he sheds some light on the pre-reading process, both its theory and practice.

Also, I think we can all agree that he picked the best name for his post.