An Important Announcement · 8:11pm Dec 29th, 2015
This is, on the one hand, quite hard for me to post. On the other hand it's also been a while coming.
You may have noticed that my output has dropped off considerably this year. I know that at least one of my fics was presumed dead for a while before it updated. One of them has never updated since it was begun. There are two reasons for that.
The first is that my ideas have dried up, and to be honest the enthusiasm isn't there like it used to be, especially for some of these projects.
The second reason is that I published my first ebook this year, and a lot of my energies this year have been devoted to getting it ready to go out, and then to working on the sequel, amongst other things. And I'm finding that, not only am I finding it hard to get into the mood for pony fanfic anyway, but I'm also beginning to begrudge it the time and effort spent on it, when I could be working on my own projects.
And so, for that reason, I have decided to bow out. All of my fics are, from this moment, cancelled.
If cancellation notices don't appear right away, that's because I don't intend to leave them hanging. What I intend to do over the next week or so is put up summaries of how they would have gone, if I had finished them. After that, the cancellation notices will go up on the individual fics.
This will come as a shock to Sir Viper, but I swear I didn't intend to do this when I spoke to you at the weekend.
I also promise that this isn't a stunt, like the last time I made an announcement like this turned into.
I am not leaving the site. There are still too many good fics around here that I haven't gotten around to reading yet, and there are some great bloggers here that I intend to keep up with. All that I am doing is stopping writing fics.
Edit: Draco Loco has suggested to me the idea of putting my fics up for adoption. If anyone would like to adopt any of my unfinished fics then leave a comment here or in the comments to the story itself. If I don't hear anything in a couple of weeks I'll assume that there isn't any interest and I'll put up the plot summary.
With that out of the way, some thanks and some apologies are in order:
Thank you first of all to the Albinocorn, for being a really great guy and a great pre-reader, and for introducing me to Sunset Shimmer, and I mean that generally and in the sense that his interpretation of her remains definitive for me.
Thank you also to Starlight Nova, for always being there to look at the next chapter of Comes the Sunset, and to sirviper235 for having so many wonderful ideas and never letting his enthusiasm flag.
I would like to thank Yami Vizzini for his mostly positive, sometimes scathing liveblog on TV Tropes, and Jordan179 for his excellent blog posts and commentary more insightful than the fic itself.
And lastly I would like to thank all of you who have read and liked my stories over the last few years. You've been better than i deserve.
And now, the apologies:
I would like to apologise especially to everyone still reading Comes the Sunset (Hi, Harwick!), I've really cocked up with this story, both in terms of producing a decent sequel and in terms of actually getting the bloody thing done. That will be the first fic that I summarise, if only to put you out of your misery. Your patience was greatly appreciated.
I should also apologise to SirViper, as well as thanking him, considering how much work he has put into Comes the Sunset that will not now come to fruition.
And I apologise to all of you for not being able to finish all of these fics. I hope you understand.
And now, I have some summaries to write up.
Oh, thank you! I appreciated that you didn't mind me taking some things from your work for Post-Traumatic, I felt honored by that and by your praise for my comments.
What kind of e-book are you writing?
Have you considered putting some of your fics up for adoption? I'm good if you decided against it already, I'm just currious.
3650335
It's an epic fantasy in a vaguely Roman-esque world. Part one is already out, and part two will be out once the cover is done and I get through the final editing pass. What I have in mind ultimately is a kind of Cosmere-esque universe with lots of different settings co-existing alongside one another. That's a long (long) way off yet, but I do intend to turn Vengeance of Dawn into an original fic as well, since it's already mostly about an OC anyway.
3650389
I hadn't thought of that, because I honestly didn't think anyone would want to, but yes, I would consider it if there was interest. I'll edit the post to add that in.
Is there a fic you'd like to adopt, or were you just asking generally?
Well, I'm sorry to see your pony career end; I was looking forward to seeing how Comes the Sunset ended, but, your original fiction book looks quite promising! And I'm glad I could be a positive influence on you!
Godspeed, my friend.
3650477
Aww, thank you. You were great, honestly. I guess you understand as someone who is considering calling time yourself.
Did you make any decisions on Sunset of Time, in the end?
3650486 The idea still excites me greatly, and I'd love to try. It's just trying to figure out how to keep all the themes and messages while making enough changes so people don't know it's so heavily associated to MLP (and to a lesser extent Harry Potter)
3650476
I was asking generally. I'm not a writer, no skill in writing, and no ability to weave an interesting story. I'm more of a general idea guy, which I portray through my blog posts. But I can't imagine nobody would be interested in adopting some of your fics, they're too good.
3650522
Well, the good thing is that themes about friendship and the like are pretty ubiquitous, and I have to say I can't remember any particular Harry Potter influences on Sunset of Time. When I tried thinking about turning Vengeance into an original fic, what I decided to focus on (since themes of entitlement, selfishness and thoughtless cruelty aren't really core to MLP as it is) was coming up with unique worldbuilding that didn't scream ponies with the serial numbers filed off. I should think your biggest problem would be the characters, apart from Sunset whom you pretty much made your own.
When do you think you'll put up the summary for Truth of the Heart? And no, I'm not asking to adopt this one.