Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Round Five of Five!

And so, the runup to the holiday ends.  As usual, I'll be taking the 25th off to be with my family, and I urge you all to do the same--whatever "your family" means to you, spend some time with those people who make your life a little better, and who are there for you when you're at your worst.  They won't be around forever, and can be gone without warning; let them know you love them, in as many words.  Letting the people you love hear that simple truth is never a mistake.

And now, one last seasonal fanfic before we adjurn for holiday.  Merry Christmas, and I'll see you all on the 29th!

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Four of Five!

So, how about that new FiMFic update, eh?  We're one step closer to GenFic, now.

Though I have to say, I'm a little disappointed; the site post made it sound like we'd be able to tag any/all franchises contained in our stories, but when I went to update my fics, I found nothing for the Choose Your Own Adventure™ series, or for The Screwtape Letters (or even just a C.S. Lewis hub), or even for the collected legends of Taliesin!  So I guess all my stuff will be rocking the solo MLP:FIM tag until knighty gets his act together.

Now, on to some seasonal fiction.  Get your reviewage, below the break.

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Three of Five!

In defiance of my predictions of "maybe this will get better, but at least it probably won't get worse," things have gotten much, much worse.  I'm still on track for getting out this week's reviews, though, so that's something.  Small successes?

We have to find the good bits where we can.  Holiday-themed fic review, below.

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Two of Five!

The holiday ficcing continues!  By the way, you'll notice I haven't said anything about the leaked stuff; I glanced through some of the highlights, and it's pretty much all stuff that makes me sad.  Even the stuff in there that makes me happy also makes me sad--like, I had a good laugh at [I'm putting it below the break, but rest assured it's 100% spoiler-free], but it was a sad laugh, you know?  Like, it makes me sad that these are the people in charge of wrapping up the show, and the "they didn't know" defense just makes it worse.  Ridiculous pettiness would be one thing; ignorance and apathy are sadder to me.

Oh man, that got grumpy fast.  Okay, done talking about that.  Here's a funny screencap and another mini-review!

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part One of Five!

So, thing that destroys my productivity is still a thing.  But I've managed to get a little reading done.

And as you know, I do enjoy the holiday season.  So to make up for the missing posts, here's your Christmas present: one full week of holiday-themed posts!  That's right, every (week)day until Christmas, I'll be posting a short review of a seasonal fic.  Sure, you might say "that's only five mini-reviews, it's not really 'five days worth of content,'"  but you know what?  I'm doing it over five days, so that makes it five days' worth.  So head on down below, and see what fic got the Chris treatment today... and make sure you come back tomorrow, because we're going M-T-W-T-F in the leadup the holidays!

In case you hadn't noticed...

...I haven't been keeping up my schedule the last week or two.

Unfortunately, I can't really talk about why; I don't feel it'd be appropriate to share, even through the semi-anonymity of this ponyfic blog.  Suffice to say, it stinks, but nobody's dying or going to prison or anything that awful.  There's just a thing, it's taking up all my time and energy, and at this point I don't know how long it will last.  I'd hoped it would just be a few days... but that was three weeks ago, and since then I've burned through my entire buffer of posts, and have read barely anything (pony or non-) in the interim.

I'd hoped to get back on track this weekend... but that obviously didn't happen.  So, in deference to reality, I'm calling a one-week hiatus on ponyposting.  Check back here next Monday at the usual time.  Fingers crossed, things will be back to normal by then.  But if nothing else, I'll at least have a more definitive update.

Apologies if coming here three times a week is the highlight of your life; for what it's worth, I enjoy posting too, and I'll try to return to form as quickly as I can.

Mini-Reviews Round 213

It's santa-hat time in FiMFicland!  If you've got an account, consider bedecking it for the holidays.  Go from this:

To this:

And enjoy your month of stylish accoutrementery!  And once you've done that, you'll no doubt be in the mood for some seasonal fics, but you needn't fret on that count either; head down below the break for a couple of reviews of Christmas-ish fics.

First Sentences in (Fan)Fiction the 24th

So, you remember a while ago when I plugged my participation in the Alicorn Amulet Collab?  You know, encouraging you all to go read my Carrot Top chapter (because of course Chris wrote the Carrot Top chapter...), and also the others?

Well, if you didn't listen to me then, or if you did but then stopped keeping up with the updates, the collab has posted its final chapter.  Go check the whole thing out; there's some good stuff in there.

I had intended to comment on all the chapters as they were posted, but I fell behind, felt weird about commenting on chapter six when chapter nine was already posted, and long story short, I didn't.  But, since every chapter is mostly self-contained and has a different author, I thought, "What if, now that they're all posted, I did a blog post looking at the opening of every chapter?"

So I did.  Head below the break to see what I think of how everybody handled their hooks!

(Oh, and for the record: my opening was "Although she knew it was silly, Carrot Top couldn’t help but flinch when the door to the waiting room opened. She’d flinched when the princesses had come in the first time to explain the setup of the testing room and reassure the half-dozen ponies who’d volunteered with a thorough listing the safety procedures in place; she’d flinched when Twilight had popped her head in to let them know that they’d start in just a few minutes; and now, she flinched again as Twilight trotted back into the room."  Make of that what you will.)