Fandom Classics Part 73: Melt

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My cat has figured out how to close my laptop screen by head-butting it while balancing on my knees.  On one hand, I marvel at his ingenuity.  On the other, he seems to be doing it just for fun--it's not like he's necessarily looking for a lap, sometimes he'll push down my screen and then hop off and wander away--and it's getting old pretty fast.  Plus, it just makes writing these reviews take longer when I've got one more interruption, even if it is a cute and fuzzy one.

So, ambion's Melt.  Review below the break, as always.

Fandom Classics Part 72: The Assumption of Applejack -or- Appletheosis

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I was thinking about fashion, recently.  I'm pretty fashion-blind, but even I can date a show or movie to within a decade or two based solely on the hairstyles of the female characters.  And yet, if you asked me to describe modern female hairstyles using the same kind of adjectives I could apply to 70's hair or 80's hair, I'd be at a total loss.  I mean, I flipped on the TV just now and went channel surfing to see what I could come up with, and I've got nothing.  Looks like I may have to wait twenty years or so before I can tell what modern hair looks like.

Anyhoo, my review of Blue Print's The Assumption of Applejack -or- Appletheosis, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 52

It's been a good week for my writing, this has.  First, I managed to snag a tie for first in the Writeoff--there were a lot of good stories in the mix, and I honestly didn't feel to positive about my entry, but as a policy I try to take all praise at face value.  Those of you who like seeing me write stuff can look forward to (a fixed-up version of) The Sweetest Water being posted soon, by which I mean "hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we'll see how it goes."

Second, xjuggernaughtx pointed out to me a couple of days ago that my fanfic Going Up is currently on the first page of FiMFic's "Top - All Time" list!  I'm not entirely sure how that list is calculated (only one other story in the top ten has less than 10,000 views), but that's pretty darn neat to me.  So, thank you to all of you who continue to like it when I write things: you make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

But enough about me!  Let's look at some of the fanfics I've recently read, below the break.

A Quick Trip Down Ponyfic Memory Lane

You know, I've got my problems with FiMFiction (still no bookshelves system; the Feature Box is, well, the Feature Box; people are allowed to clog up their page with a trillion .gifs so that I can barely load the dang thing; etc.), but on the whole it's a pretty nice setup.  I don't know of any other fanfiction site--pony or not--that combines it's ease of use, readability, and social features, and even if the thing's not perfect, it's a fair sight better than any other fanfiction platform I'm familiar with.

But I want to talk about the Before Times, or rather, about one specific aspect of them: filled-up Gdocs.  Those of you who've been around for a few years no doubt remember those, but some newer fanficcers might not know what I'm talking about.  So, indulge me as I ramble about the old days, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 51

Today's post was going to be my review of The Assumption of Applejack -or- Appletheosis... until I went to type it up and realized that I'd read the wrong story again.  Stupid FiMFic authors need to stop giving their fanfics similar names; it's Daring DONE!/Daring Don't all over again!

That being the case, we're doing a round of mini-reviews today so I have time to go read the story I'm supposed to be reviewing.  And naturally, we're leading off with...

A Writeoff Menagerie

Well, I'm back to being behind.  I spent most of the weekend rushing to get a story done for the There Is Magic In Everything Writeoff, and then far more time than I intended over the last few days reviewing all the entries.  This was the first time I'd done a three-day, 2000+ word writeoff, and... well, that is not the speed I normally work at.  The end result has a few glaring, painful mistakes (I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that; most of the entries have a dumb slip-up or three.  Par for the course with a time crunch, I guess), and needs some polish before I'll be happy with it... but I think I'll end up being able to turn it into a new fic, so I'm counting that as a plus!

Now, normally this is where I'd tell you to go read those stories and review them in the thread I linked above and/or vote on them, but 90,000 words by Sunday is a pretty tall order.  So instead, I've grouped all the stories into broad categories below!  Some are genres, some are stylistic similarities... basically, I tried to put three fics which all shared some significant features into each category.  If 23 stories is too much, consider seeing if one or two of the categories below appeals to you, and sample from those!  Or read all the fics in one category and see how they compare.  Do whatever you like with them, really; I'm just trying to provide some more manageable chunks for people who'd like to read some fanfic, but aren't interested in committing to tackling the whole list.  Check out my story groups, below the break.