One Year Later

My lovely girlfriend baked me a cake to celebrate. Tasty, too!

One year ago today, I held my breath and posted the first Vault interview. I let it out pretty quickly and went on with my life, because yet another pony blog wasn't going to cause much of a stir, at least not at first. Besides, I had more posts to work on; in those heady days, there were new interviews twice a week.

(Hit the break for some more self-indulgent musings about the last year, or maybe just enjoy the updated look of the site. You might also be interested to know that every ebook has been updated to celebrate one year at the Vault with shiny new covers/logos, and all PDFs now boast clean, professional styling.)

There's a lot of fanfiction here in the Vault - just over two-and-a-quarter million words' worth (and growing every week), from sub-2,000-word drabbles to 600,000-word epics and everything in between, by authors from all over the world – but it represents only the tiniest sliver of what's out there.

I realized I could take it to the next level by asking the authors I invited if they'd take the time to answer some questions about themselves and their work, and that's where the real fun came in. Together over the last year, we've gotten to peek inside the minds of 60 of the fandom's best authors – and that "we" is no typo; I'm just as excited as anyone else to read a new author interview, I just get to do it a little earlier than everyone else!

The Vault means a great deal to me, and it seems it's come to mean a great deal to many readers and authors as well. Would you believe me if I told you it never occurred to me the Vault would become something like Equestria Daily, with authors hoping and dreaming of being honored with a post? It's not a responsibility I bear lightly. I'm often asked what it takes to get into the Vault, and I never have a good answer; I just know it when I see it. If you're an author who hasn't heard from me – or worse, hasn't heard good news from me – please don't take it too hard. If you love writing, you shouldn't stop... certainly not over the opinion of a complete stranger on the internet.

I could ramble for pages and pages, but I know you're here for the stories. So let me simply say that it has been and shall continue to be a pleasure and a privilege to serve the fandom in this way, and I am extraordinarily grateful to all of the authors and readers who have supported my little project. Here's to another year of excellent fanfiction.