Several weeks ago, I was contacted by RBDash47, proprietor of the Pony Fiction Vault, asking if I'd be okay with having one of my stories, The Purloined Pony, inducted into (onto?) his site. Spoiler alert: I said yes. You should go check out his site for my interview (which should be going up sometime today; no pressure, RBD!), relevant links to and downloads of the story, and, most importantly, to take a look at some of the other entries on the site. There are a lot of great stories collected there, and a lot of wonderful advice and insight if you look through the interviews.
Speaking of other sites, I've got the Links page all prettied up! There are now links to all sorts of reviewers, fanfic posting and fanfic writing communities, and... well, that's pretty much it, actually. Still, I urge you to go glance through the sites listed there and see if there's anything (or anyone!) new to you. And as always, let me know if you're aware of any relevant sites which I haven't linked to.
Congratulations, Chris. The Purloined Pony is a story I really enjoyed, both for your clever and whimsical writing style and for reminding me of the CYOA books I loved as a kid. (Now if someone did a Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf-styled story, I would be in heaven.)
ReplyDeleteAnd congratulations on being accepted as one of the best. Yep. Congratulations. Certainly not jealous. Nope.
...
Not jealous.
Well, Purloined Pony took just over two years to go from "published" to the Vault, so don't despair yet!
DeleteWell, the obvious question is: what other stories have you written and where are they available?
ReplyDeleteMy fimfic account (http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Chris) has all the stories I'm willing to admit to. Fair warning: the quality of writing tends to go down as you go back to the older stuff (practice makes...well, better, anyway).
DeleteYou know, I've seen some strange choices for the Vault, especially lately. And that's not a knock against this particular story--I haven't read it, but it has a good reputation. But I've never understood why the Vault enjoys such a big following, except that its position on FiMFiction certainly gets it a lot of publicity and sort of an "official" status. It's still just one person's opinion, and for my money, I prefer getting that here, where that opinion is fully explained, and I can get a definite sense of whether I'd like the story in question, either in agreement with or despite the critique given.
ReplyDeleteI'm also assuming that Chris's story wasn't just recently published somewhere that RBDash would have seen it, since I know it's an old one. I am at least a little heartened by this, since I've never noticed him picking a story that wasn't quite recent, leading me to believe that if a story just happened to escape his notice or fly under his radar when it was still new, it had missed its chance. Though I'd wager that's still largely the case, at least it may not be absolute. There are some good stories out there that don't get much attention and may have never been considered.
DeleteWait, seriously? The vault is just one guy? That's insane. How did it get to be seen as such an authority on quality stories if it's all based on a single person's opinion?
DeleteI'm not saying his opinion is wrong or anything, but I've never been one to trust just a single critic's word when judging a story, not even ones I really respect, like Chris. That just seems really odd to me.
I think it's just that RBDash47 was the first person to decide to start making ebooks of fics he liked and interviewing their authors. Also helped that he started the Pony Fiction Archive, which might have been big if FIMFiction hadn't started (and did indeed start before FIMfic).
DeleteSo he was there first and he made the effort and that's why. I don't really see any harm in it.
No, there's absolutely no harm in it. It's just strange that it's the one that everyone seems to care about when there are plenty of other people who have very discerning opinions, but most people don't pay attention to anyone else. It helps when you get the biggest site in the fandom as your personal podium, no doubt.
DeleteI'm not saying it's harmful, I'm just saying I don't understand it.
DeleteImpressing a person who is as respected as RBDash47 is something to be proud of, don't get me wrong, but the way I've always heard people talk of the vault I was under the impression that it was strictly a collection of high quality stuff only. And I've always made a distinction between meeting an individual's standards of high quality and actual high quality.
Though I'll admit, fiction being subjective, trying to find a way to define "actual high quality" is something that's kept me up long into the night sometimes.
>How did it get to be seen as such an authority on quality stories
DeleteBecause it's *trying* to be an authority on quality stories. If Chris thinks a story isn't great, he'll say so in the review. If RBDash thinks a story isn't great, *he won't put it in the Vault*. The two sites have different purposes.
So far as I know, EqD is the only other part of the fandom that filters by quality. Interpreting this is left as an exercise to the reader.
Ah finally, a Vault interview I'll be interested in reading!
ReplyDeleteWow! congratulations!
ReplyDelete>Inspirations
ReplyDelete>Gdoc says "More kudos to Luc (yes, he gets two acknowledgements; he’s just that awesome!) for writing the CYOA-ish story on Ponychan that got me thinking this direction in the first place."
>Nothing in the interview.
okay.jpg
Ah well, thanks for crediting me as an editor. Good to see your work going places that mine won't. At least I know something of worth was made from my silly little experiment :P
Ah, nutters. I'm sorry, Luc. I really should have mentioned you there, shouldn't I have?
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