An early warning that my review (and everything else) schedule for the next fortnight may be messed up even more than usual. Thanks for this go to my three significant medical appointments in the space of a week, one of which may need a follow-up in fairly short order. Anyway:
Read it Later story count: 373 (-2)
Four fics this week. There would have been five, but one story got deleted. I should probably think of something diverting to say in this space, but I'm not actually going to do so. I mean, most people would probably find my G3 wall clock more interesting than my vague ramblings. (I do indeed have a G3 wall clock. It features Royal Bouquet – and is pink, yes.) Never mind, I seem to have used up enough space now, so let's get going:
Diary of a Silent Tyrant by xjuggernaughtx
Derpy's Rainy Day by dragonpony111
Running Late in Manehatten by Autumnschild
Fluttershy is best pony by Super Trampoline
★: 1 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
More details released about Griffish Isles
I gave a brief mention to the new Griffish Isles convention a couple of weeks ago when I posted a roundup of UK cons planned for 2018. At the time very little information was available and so some of what I said was guesswork. However, the convention's official website has recently been considerably expanded, so it seems reasonable to revisit the subject now.
The con's date remains set for Saturday 19th May. In the middle of Everfree Northwest, though I rather doubt anyone will manage to attend both!
The venues have now been announced as the St Thomas Centre (M12 6FZ) and the upstairs function room at Powerleague Football (M12 4JD). These are both about 12 minutes' walk from Manchester Piccadilly station, and they're about six minutes' walk from each other. This is very good news for potential attendees: proximity to a mainline rail station is a major plus for a convention.
The reason for the split venues is interesting. The St Thomas Centre will be used during the daytime for various talks, activities and games, and is also where vendors will be. This venue will be alcohol-free, not something I've seen at a UK-based pony convention before. The Powerleague function room will be used in the late afternoon and evening, and will be a chilled social and musical space which will have alcohol (cider!) on sale. There is a downside to this, though, which I'll get to in the tickets section below.
The staff page ("Organisers") has been updated and now features five people, with potted biographies of each one. I don't know them all, but I do know some of them and they're names that reassure me. This is all looking very promising.
The mascot has been unveiled – and as you might expect, she's a griffon! Her name is Bobbie and as you might also expect with a name like that, there's a touch of the friendly police officer about her. She was drawn by StormBlaze, an excellent artist who is well known and respected in the British fandom.
The one crucial piece of information that we don't yet know is the price of tickets, though the site does say that these are expected to be released in about a month. Hopefully prices will be announced before the actual release, to avoid too much of a scramble. There will be two tiers, the higher of which will include a T-shirt.
A major difference from UK PonyCon is that only adults will be able to stay for the whole event. Powerleague's licence conditions mean that under-18s will have to leave by 8pm, while "Foal" tickets (available to kids with an adult) will be valid only until 4pm. This is a shame, albeit an understandable one in the circumstances.
You can never tell until a convention actually happens how successful it will be, but so far Griffish Isles seems to be on course. Here's hoping it turns out that way!
The con's date remains set for Saturday 19th May. In the middle of Everfree Northwest, though I rather doubt anyone will manage to attend both!
The venues have now been announced as the St Thomas Centre (M12 6FZ) and the upstairs function room at Powerleague Football (M12 4JD). These are both about 12 minutes' walk from Manchester Piccadilly station, and they're about six minutes' walk from each other. This is very good news for potential attendees: proximity to a mainline rail station is a major plus for a convention.
The reason for the split venues is interesting. The St Thomas Centre will be used during the daytime for various talks, activities and games, and is also where vendors will be. This venue will be alcohol-free, not something I've seen at a UK-based pony convention before. The Powerleague function room will be used in the late afternoon and evening, and will be a chilled social and musical space which will have alcohol (cider!) on sale. There is a downside to this, though, which I'll get to in the tickets section below.
The staff page ("Organisers") has been updated and now features five people, with potted biographies of each one. I don't know them all, but I do know some of them and they're names that reassure me. This is all looking very promising.
The mascot has been unveiled – and as you might expect, she's a griffon! Her name is Bobbie and as you might also expect with a name like that, there's a touch of the friendly police officer about her. She was drawn by StormBlaze, an excellent artist who is well known and respected in the British fandom.
The one crucial piece of information that we don't yet know is the price of tickets, though the site does say that these are expected to be released in about a month. Hopefully prices will be announced before the actual release, to avoid too much of a scramble. There will be two tiers, the higher of which will include a T-shirt.
A major difference from UK PonyCon is that only adults will be able to stay for the whole event. Powerleague's licence conditions mean that under-18s will have to leave by 8pm, while "Foal" tickets (available to kids with an adult) will be valid only until 4pm. This is a shame, albeit an understandable one in the circumstances.
You can never tell until a convention actually happens how successful it will be, but so far Griffish Isles seems to be on course. Here's hoping it turns out that way!
Sunday, 28 January 2018
Horses! At Home! Coming to a screen near you on 3rd March!
For those wondering: yes, I do have views on a certain topic that is everywhere in the fandom at the moment. I may write something about it here, but that's by no means certain.
On a much happier note, HAHCon (the Horses At Home convention) is indeed returning this year! EqD has reported that panel applications are now open. This virtual convention was a success last time, with an absolutely hilarious turkey call contest being my personal highlight. No, I didn't enter, but if you want to experience it see this YouTube video.
This year's HAHCon will be on 3rd March. I did have a secret hankering for it to expand to two days after the success of the last convention, but realistically that would be a great deal more work. Probably better to have a great one-day con than spread themselves too thin and end up with a mediocre two-day con. Maybe one day, though...
I really like what HAHCon are doing, and I wonder how many other fandoms have something like it. True, nothing can quite match the experience of being at a Pony convention in person – but for those many people who for whatever reason aren't able to attend one, HAHCon gives them the chance to get some of the flavour.
This is exactly the sort of good, generous and fun thing that I like to see in the fandom, and so I'm happy to wish HAHCon great success this year.
On a much happier note, HAHCon (the Horses At Home convention) is indeed returning this year! EqD has reported that panel applications are now open. This virtual convention was a success last time, with an absolutely hilarious turkey call contest being my personal highlight. No, I didn't enter, but if you want to experience it see this YouTube video.
This year's HAHCon will be on 3rd March. I did have a secret hankering for it to expand to two days after the success of the last convention, but realistically that would be a great deal more work. Probably better to have a great one-day con than spread themselves too thin and end up with a mediocre two-day con. Maybe one day, though...
I really like what HAHCon are doing, and I wonder how many other fandoms have something like it. True, nothing can quite match the experience of being at a Pony convention in person – but for those many people who for whatever reason aren't able to attend one, HAHCon gives them the chance to get some of the flavour.
This is exactly the sort of good, generous and fun thing that I like to see in the fandom, and so I'm happy to wish HAHCon great success this year.
Thursday, 25 January 2018
Looking ahead to Ponyfic Roundup 200
It's not all that long until I'll be publishing Ponyfic Roundup 200. Insert my usual expressions of amazement that I've kept the feature going this long – without, I have to say, ever feeling that the well of fics to pick from was running dry. I'm now just beginning to think about how I might mark the occasion. For reference, this is what I did for previous milestones:
PR 50: nine newly-approved stories. Only a few of their authors – notably RarityEQM – appear still to be active on the site.
PR 100: six stories that were at least a month old but had under 100 views. None rated above two stars and two have since been deleted.
PR 150: eight stories, one published in each year from 2010 to 2017. This was fun, and I found a five-star story: A Hoof-ful of Dust's When the Levee Breaks.
I'd certainly like to do another themed edition, but I'm fairly open-minded as to what theme that should be. Even with my usual red lines (no foalcon ever, no unfinished stories, etc) there's a lot to choose from. What it won't be is a bunch of long fics, as I simply don't have the time for that.
PR 50: nine newly-approved stories. Only a few of their authors – notably RarityEQM – appear still to be active on the site.
PR 100: six stories that were at least a month old but had under 100 views. None rated above two stars and two have since been deleted.
PR 150: eight stories, one published in each year from 2010 to 2017. This was fun, and I found a five-star story: A Hoof-ful of Dust's When the Levee Breaks.
I'd certainly like to do another themed edition, but I'm fairly open-minded as to what theme that should be. Even with my usual red lines (no foalcon ever, no unfinished stories, etc) there's a lot to choose from. What it won't be is a bunch of long fics, as I simply don't have the time for that.
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Ponyfic Roundup 188: Pigs in Blankets
I still can't believe that Sainsbury's has been selling off festive-branded pigs in blankets flavour Pringles for 20p per 200g can. A quite ridiculous bargain. (If you're American, note that what we call "pigs in blankets" are a slightly different snack from what they are Stateside. Over here, they're chipolatas wrapped in bacon – no dough involved.)
Read it Later story count: 375 (+3)
As well as getting back into writing ponyfic, I feel as though I will soon finally be managing to get a little more time to actually read the stuff. I'm still not keeping up with other blogs/reviewers as much as I'd like, which is to say more than minimally, but that's also on my to-do list. Here's what I've been reading this week:
Uncertainty by MadMaxtheBlack
Tarnish by KitsuneRisu
A Birthday to Remember by ishu
Covet by cydoniia
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Read it Later story count: 375 (+3)
As well as getting back into writing ponyfic, I feel as though I will soon finally be managing to get a little more time to actually read the stuff. I'm still not keeping up with other blogs/reviewers as much as I'd like, which is to say more than minimally, but that's also on my to-do list. Here's what I've been reading this week:
Uncertainty by MadMaxtheBlack
Tarnish by KitsuneRisu
A Birthday to Remember by ishu
Covet by cydoniia
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
What Logan is reading away from the world of colourful ponies
Time for a little non-Pony post. After years and years of being told I should read it, I've finally started on The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius. In translation, I'm afraid! I've got through the first four so far (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula) and it's not a bad read. It's not quite the non-stop gossipfest some people make it out to be, as there's a lot of stuff about military campaigns and family backgrounds in there. Still, it does have plenty of entertaining/horrifying parts, so I'll keep going.
I'm also having another go at Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss. This is an oldish-school (1960) science fiction novel which appeals to me, partly because it's shorter than the bloated novels that blight the shelves these days. Also, though, because I like the setup: in the far future on a huge spacecraft, tribes roam the corridors looking for the mythical Forwards. (This isn't a very accurate summary, but it's good enough.) So far it's very readable, which isn't always the case for old-fashioned SF.
Finally, there's another SF novel. The Ennead. Yes, spelt like that. This is a young-adult book by Jan Mark; I'm not sure how well known she is outside the UK, but there was a time when she was everywhere in school libraries. She won the Carnegie Medal, the premier British prize for children's fiction, twice and was runner-up once, though not for The Ennead. This is set on a dying planet where refugees from Earth have settled. Only just started, so can't say much about it yet.
I'm also having another go at Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss. This is an oldish-school (1960) science fiction novel which appeals to me, partly because it's shorter than the bloated novels that blight the shelves these days. Also, though, because I like the setup: in the far future on a huge spacecraft, tribes roam the corridors looking for the mythical Forwards. (This isn't a very accurate summary, but it's good enough.) So far it's very readable, which isn't always the case for old-fashioned SF.
Finally, there's another SF novel. The Ennead. Yes, spelt like that. This is a young-adult book by Jan Mark; I'm not sure how well known she is outside the UK, but there was a time when she was everywhere in school libraries. She won the Carnegie Medal, the premier British prize for children's fiction, twice and was runner-up once, though not for The Ennead. This is set on a dying planet where refugees from Earth have settled. Only just started, so can't say much about it yet.
Sunday, 21 January 2018
It feels so good to be writing regularly again
It really is working. Chapter 2 of The Danger Within was published yesterday, making this only the second time on Fimfiction (after Where They Understand You) that I've managed a multi-chapter prose piece. As I've said before, the way I'm writing it and the speed I'm publishing at mean it's not going to be any kind of masterpiece, but the simple fact of being able to get at least some words down every day is reward enough for me. If readers enjoy it, and so far at least a few seem to have done, then that's a bonus.
I do, as it happens, have a one-shot taking shape in my mind, and The Danger Within is making it more likely that said one-shot will actually appear eventually. This is a story inspired by "A Health of Information", in particular the part of it dealing with how swamp fever works. I originally wanted to call it Fever Dreams, but as The Descendant has an anthology with that title I'm now using the working title All Set About with Fever-trees, from Kipling's The Elephant's Child. It may well be called something else again by the time it's actually published.
I do, as it happens, have a one-shot taking shape in my mind, and The Danger Within is making it more likely that said one-shot will actually appear eventually. This is a story inspired by "A Health of Information", in particular the part of it dealing with how swamp fever works. I originally wanted to call it Fever Dreams, but as The Descendant has an anthology with that title I'm now using the working title All Set About with Fever-trees, from Kipling's The Elephant's Child. It may well be called something else again by the time it's actually published.
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