Believe It or Not, I Still Write Stuff Sometimes

Letters from a Senior to a Junior Changeling

A series of notes sent to a young changeling in the field by her superior, and a glimpse into the minds of a race whose views on friendship and love are at once totally alien and disturbingly easy to recognize in ourselves and those around us.

It's been a while since I wrote anything worth mentioning fanfiction-wise, but I've got a new story out, which I've linked to above.  I was a little hesitant to post about it here, as I don't particularly like excessive self-promotion (my own or other's).  But hey; what's the point of having a fanfic-centric blog if you aren't even going to mention your own fanfics?

Anyway, those of you wondering what my own writing looks like now have a chance to see for yourselves.  And in the unlikely event that anyone who frequents this site belongs to the "If you don't like it, let's see you write something better!" school of literary criticism, now's your chance to determine what stories I am or am not qualified to have an opinion about!

Okay, snarking aside, I hope you'll give this story a look if it tickles your interests.  And if you do decide to read it, I hope you'll enjoy.  Many thanks to Pascoite for his exhaustive editing/pre-reading/reviewing/whatever-the-fandom-is-calling-it-these-days, and to Nelvakre for letting me use the image above as cover art.  And if you want to comment on the story, feel free to do so here or on FIMFic; either way, I'd love to hear what you think.

6-Star Reviews Part 104: The Rummy Business of Old Blooey

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

As we start to get close to season three, I find myself wondering what effect the new episodes will have on fanfiction, numbers-wise (obviously, they'll have plenty of impact on the content of new fanfics).  Last year it seemed like there was something of a lull following the premiere of the new season, at least for a couple of weeks.  It'll be interesting to see if the same thing happens this time.

Below the break, my review of Cloud Wander's The Rummy Business of Old Blooey.

6-Star Reviews Part 103: Forever!

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

Crossovers with television or video games tend to go over my head, but crossovers with books... that's more in line with my interests.  So its nice to see that it's time for a Dresden Files crossover!  My review of Chengar Qordath's Forever!, after the break.

Even Yet More Stories You Haven't Read (But Should Have)

After making an open request for links to severely underrated fanfics last week, I got plenty of responses--enough that I was able to put together this post and still have plenty of excellent little-known leftovers, even after ruling out several stories which were too well-known (sorry, Centerpiece of My Collection), too long for me to read in a reasonable amount of time (sorry, Stories of a Warden), or in one case, which were in fact Chronicles of Narnia fanfics (sorry, South).  That, and turning away a few which weren't actually all that wonderful--I don't particularly enjoy playing gatekeeper, but ultimately I'm the one making the recommendation.  Still, I couldn't have done this without all of you who sent in stories.

Speaking of, I'm not sure whether etiquette dictates that I should or shouldn't credit the people who pointed me towards the stories I'm linking to here.  Since several people specifically asked not to be identified, and since for several more I have no name or handle, but only an e-mail address, I'm going to leave the recommenders unattributed--for now.  If you suggested one of the stories here and would like some recognition, just let me know and I'll credit you appropriately.

So now, on to the stories!  As always, they aren't necessarily the absolute best things ever written.  What they are are short stories which are much, much better than their meager number of readers would seem to indicate, spanning multiple styles and/or genres.  Check them out below the break.

6-Star Reviews Part 102: Sparkle's Law

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

I'll be honest: up here, I got nothin'.  Below the break, my review of AestheticB's Sparkle's Law.

An Experiment in Crowdsourcing

One of the most popular things I do on this blog is "Stories You Haven't Read (But Should Have)."  Which is nice, because it's also something which I really enjoy doing; bringing attention to fanfics that don't get enough attention.  There's only one problem: little-known fanfics are, by definition, little-known.  The odds of me having read a wonderful story that hasn't gotten the wide acclaim it deserves are pretty minuscule, after all.

So, I'm going to try enlisting some help.  If you know of a fanfic that unjustly missed its fifteen minutes of fame, I'd like you to tell me!  In a week or so, I'll do a SYHR(BSH) post, and I'm hoping that the collective readership of this blog will be able to point me towards a few gems that would otherwise never have made it onto my radar.

Here's the rules:

1.     E-mail a link to the story to me.  You can feel free to discuss your favorite underrated story in the comments as well, but if you want me to read it and post about it, send me an e-mail.  I don't care where the story is hosted, as long as you can link to it.

2.     The point of this exercise is to find little-known stories, so the front page of EqD and the FIMFiction feature bar probably aren't great places to look.

3.     Sending me a link is not a guarantee that I'll feature that story.  Obviously if I think the fanfic you sent me is terrible, I'll exclude it.  But if (and based on past experience, I fully expect this to be the case) I get far more recommendations than I can possibly read, let alone post, without dedicating my every waking hour to ponyfiction, then a lot of good stories might end up left out in the cold.  But fret not!  I'll hold onto those e-mails, and continue to use them in future SYHR(BSH)s.

4.     Short stories only, please.  I'm not going to put an arbitrary word count on it, but use common sense.  Yes, I realize there are little-known gems with six-figure word counts, but for practical purposes I'm going to have to restrict this to smaller works.

5.     If you know of more than one story that is desperately in need of attention, go ahead and tell me.  But please don't send twenty or thirty links; I am but one man, after all.

And that's it!  Hopefully this goes well--finding a wonderful story you'd never even heard of is one of life's great pleasures, if you ask me, whether it's fanfic or not.  I can be e-mailed here; thank you in advance!

6-Star Reviews Part 101: Rest Stop

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

In a shameless bout of self-promotion, I'd like to mention that my CYOA, The Purloined Pony, was featured in one of EqD's semi-regular Blast from the Past posts.  Anyway, it made me feel good to know that someone remembered it, and liked it well enough to get it into that collection (along with the excellent if incomplete Fair Feather Friends, the maddeningly inconsistent and incomplete Memories of Days Long Past, and a story I haven't read).

On a semi-related note, it's a shame to see the state that EqD's comment section is in.  Once they moved over to IntenseDebate, I stopped commenting on that site altogether (I wasn't prepared to make a new online account just so I could comment on a pony blog), and haven't really looked down there since.  If the comments on that post are any indication though... it's not youtube, but it's not all that far off, either.

Below the break, my review John Perry's Rest Stop.

6-Star Reviews Part 100: 6 Angry Mares

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

I have been looking at that cover image for more than a minute, trying to figure out Dash's legs.

Also, review #100!  Woo!  Let's celebrate by, um... staring silently at our computer monitors as we read on.  Below, my review of Jelly's 6 Angry Mares.

6-Star Reviews Part 99: The Best Night Ever

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

For some reason, I found it remarkably depressing when I went to the grocery store and they already had a full Halloween display.  I think it's because I've got a September birthday, and the proper order of events is birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.  My holiday schedule is being infringed upon!

Below the break, my review of Capn Chryssalid's The Best Night Ever.

Unpleasant Truths

I'm writing this about two and a half hours before it's scheduled to go up; I had a different post ready to go, but I'm bumping it to Friday because I'm still feeling frustrated from, well, the subject of this rant.  Go ahead and look below the break for some musings about music, fanfiction, and what the two have in common.

6-Star Reviews Part 98: The Contest

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

Rather than go on vacation or have a picnic, which I understand are the normal things to do over Labor Day weekend, I decided to scrape and re-caulk the exterior base of my parent's house.  In retrospect, a picnic probably would have been slightly more enjoyable.  Also, I can't get this gunk off my fingers.

Below, my review of Cold in Gardez's The Contest.