What Every Person Should Learn from Sandy...

If you can learn anything at all from Sandy, learn this. YOU are responsible for the survival of your family after a tragedy. Yes, the government will do what it can to help you, but YOU..and only YOU..are capable of making sure your loved ones will have the basic necessities when they need it most.

Don't think 'It can't happen to me' or 'I've gone camping once. I can deal with it if it happens.' Don't think 'I don't have to do it today. I'll do it if my area gets a warning.' Don't make the mistake of thinking you'll have the luxury of having a warning. Don't let anyone tell you you're over reacting. Make NO excuses at all. Go today and get it done and take comfort in knowing that in a disaster, your family will be as comfortable as possible.
 
Buy a weeks worth of bottled water, battery powered radios, hurricane lamps and oil. Buy a hand cranked can opener. Buy a TON of canned food. Buy a Coleman camping stove and some propane canisters or a couple of packs of sterno. Buy a small propane heater. IMAGINE the worst case scenario and buy the items you and your family will need to survive it for at least a week, if not longer.

Buy a twenty gallon gas container and fill it, then stow it away in your garage or shed. Take empty two-liter soda bottles - fill them with tap water - seal them. Store away as many of those as you can for the emergency flushing of toilets, washing dishes and hands, doing laundry, etc.

Consider no electricity in the dead of winter. Have a fireplace? You can keep everybody (and your neighbors) warm if you pile them all into your living room...so make sure you have a good supply of dry firewood. 

Buy magazines, crossword puzzles, books, maybe a few cheap, fun games...and hide them away in a closet. Buy anything you can think of that will occupy your family's time without electricity, as boredom will set in very quickly without your usual toys. If you can't afford some of these things, watch for them at flea markets and garage sales.

There are tons of great sites online with suggestions of things you should have on hand in case of an emergency. Go to them. Learn from them. Follow their advice.

I'd also suggest involving your kids in your plans. Have a fun little discussion of what they think they'd need in a variety of bad situations, and then, go together to buy those things and let them help decide where to store them. It will be teaching your children a valuable lesson in preparedness and responsibility.

A lesson that might someday save their lives.

Happy Anniversary! Let's Kill Some Stuff!

I love killing people in online games but I've always loved role-playing (playing your character like the world it is in is real) too, which is why I had jumped at the opportunity to play on EQ2's first RP-PVP server, Venekor, seven years ago. The RP community there was impressive, even between enemies, which was amazing, since PVP servers are rarely known for their civility. As the Dark Elven Guild Leader of the strongest 'Evil' guild, I had a wonderful friendship with the role playing Erudite leader, Sarriomar, of the strongest 'Good' guild on the enemy side and we had chatted in voice chat on more than one occasion about motivations for war, etc..that actually included story lines. Even though many of the people on our server weren't RPers, they were all good-natured people who had fun with it all. But not three months into playing, this friendly guild leader decides to leave the game, and he informs me he has left his guild in the capable hands of a friend. A Wood Elf by the name of 'Back Stabbith.'

Now, role players are very funny about names in these games, as a horribly stupid one can ruin their 'sense of immersion.' It's hard to be trotting through an ancient forest and come upon someone named 'Ilikeboobs,' and the GMs (in game customer service folk) were usually good about forcing people to rename themselves on role-playing servers. So for me to suddenly have to deal with someone with this...unfortunate name...was annoying. I immediately didn't like this man and I made sure that he knew it, calling him every unpleasant name in the book and insisting to everyone he was clearly a preteen boy.

The rivalry and war that began between our guilds after that was nothing short of epic. For two years we raged against each other in every possible way. In game, on the forums, in team speak... competing for boss mobs in PVP and raiding firsts, we were at each others throats constantly, and while I still had some friends amongst his guildmates, I literally hated him.

Two years in, Sony made some terrible game changes which seemed to discourage pvp instead of encouraging it and player interest dwindled. A few of us started playing quite a bit on lower level alts, trying to recapture the fun of getting into pvp with people who just loved to fight and didn't care if they won or lost. As it happened, Back Stabbith was one of those people, and he ended up joining our little alt guild, but even when we fought together, we were curt to each other in voice chat. He had a dry, sarcastic wit that was constantly aimed at me, and I had a habit of telling him where he could go with a string of four letter words.

As player interest continued to die, it got to the point where we couldn't even draw enough numbers to raid. Unfortunately, this happened much more on the 'evil' side than the 'good,' so Back's guild, Exile, was still making progress. One frustrating day, with less than twenty people of raid level even showing on our side of the server, I asked him if they could use a warden. To me, the big rivalry that went on between our guilds was already many months in the past, so it didn't seem that big a deal, but Back's attitude was a little different. The second I joined them, he marked my invite into their guild like it was a historic event. He acted like it was some kind of victory to them, and it really drew my ire. But being so very tired of drama, I just remained silent, barely speaking in guild chat and never joining them on their voice server except for raids.

However, Back started talking to me every day, and in a much more friendly tone. (Like in this screen shot, taken a few days after I arrived in his 'good' side city. He randomly walked up to me and famously said, "You look nice in high settings.")

And he was doing things like running around with his pets named after me.

While it didn't wipe away two years of being mortal enemies, I guess it eased the tension a little. We had a mutual love of PVP and having played both with and against each other, we found we worked very well as a team. And we...started having fun together...which was entirely new.  It didn't take long after that for our 'killer' partnership to become somewhat mutually exclusive. For months, you could find us out in the wilds of Norrath, hunting with each other at all hours of the day and night. And eventually, on October 6, 2008, that partnership extended into real life as well.

Since then, we've been inseparable and a mini PVP tour de force! We jumped in and out of World of Warcraft with each new expansion.

Played Age of Conan from the earliest alpha stages. (*points at the Durham, NC based Funcom office outside her front window*)  

 

Did a stint in Lord of the Rings while waiting on the release of Chinese Aion. 

 

Got tired of waiting on the NA release of Aion and played the Chinese release instead...for four months. (Easily the most hysterical gaming experience ever! If not for our Addiction guildmate, Inti, who translated for us, I don't think we could have pulled this off!)

 

Then, finally got to have a blast with the American version of Aion.

Hopped to Rift from early Alpha until Guild Wars 2 came out.

        And GuildWars 2 is where you'll find us still, buried in Blackgate's WvWvW trenches. 

 

He says he's lucky. I say I'm lucky. Probably both are true. About the only unlucky person here is the unfortunate enemies that run into us in game, because this is about as well-honed a pair as you'll find in PVP! 

So Happy Anniversary, Baby! Now, let's go kill some stuff! :)

GuildWars 2 : WvWvWs : Pointless Fun!

While fighting the never-ending back and forth battle that is WvWvW in GuildWars 2, at least ten times a night I laugh out the words, "This is the stupidest game ever." It is the strangest combination of 'crazy fun' and 'completely pointless' I've ever encountered, and I've been playing these games since before the internet existed.

The creators of GuildWars 2 tried to create a world that was perfectly accommodating to ever type of gamer, and save for large scale dungeon raiders, they truly succeeded. Solo, grouped, explorer, farmer, hard core pvper...they all have their purpose here. And you can make things as easy or difficult as you like... trotting out into the world alone or waiting on dynamic events that will take you there with a party. For pvpers there is a choice of tournament style or structured, but by far the most fun to be had in this game is in the enormous World v World battlegrounds. These aren't like WoW's BGs where you queue and go in for a set point match with a group of forty people...these are persistent realms with ongoing battles between hundreds (if not thousands) of people that do not end for weeks. Then, they fast calculate how each server performed and base the next match up on each one's strengths, so you are always in the closest / fairest fight they can give you.

Literally at any moment of the day or night you can jump into a massive battle between your server and two others. No matter when you enter these realms, you are immediately caught up in the heat of that map, whatever the current drama. Because something is always going on. But outside of the nice little server buffs to be had and tokens to be won, the truth is, sometimes I have no idea why I do it outside of it's really fun to defend your keeps or chase down and kill people. Pointless, yes, and yet my husband and I laugh like fools all night, running around with the zerglings or doing little ninja runs on our own, often until the wee hours of the morning.

In GuildWars 2, there are no real consequences to your death outside of repair fees, so you never really care when you die, and since the opposing side can't speak to you or see your name, there is never any ego deflation involved. It's freeing, in a way, because there's no excuse not to go for things that might seem dangerous. Pick off that pack Dolyak in the middle of twenty enemies? Yeah, what the heck, let's do it! And we have, many times! And we've gotten away!

Played side by side with my husband allows us to get two perspectives if we need them. It's not unusual for one of us to be shouting "RUN!" when the other is trotting into an ambush. There isn't an upgraded supply camp on the map we can't take out if needed and we can set up an arrow cart damn near anywhere at a seconds notice. Sometimes we'll push the enemy over a bridge and then they'll push back...they'll get to our keep and get wiped out and we'll push to theirs and wipe out and suddenly we're back to fighting them on the bridge...having gained precisely nothing in the past few hours of battle, and yet...each time it happens...it's exciting! You're fiercely attacking or fiercely defending something at all times and the tide can turn very quickly.

There's no carrot we can obtain anymore, each having two sets of top gear and all top weapons, and yet...we're still playing every night and still loving every second of it, which is easily the biggest compliment I could give to any mmo these days!

A Future with a Past.

(I tend to ramble when I'm writing my blog, using whatever words spill out of my brain when I'm writing it. It is in no way, shape or form how I write a book. ~Jodi McClure)

(Because I worry about these kinds of things late at night.)  

'Swing Zone' takes place in the year 2229, but the city of Freedale isn't exactly futuristic. Due to an apocalyptic event that happened two hundred years prior, they are barely ahead of modern technology and in some areas still far behind. Lately, a relative questioned why the city seemed archaic in some spots and I felt it required an explanation.

The earth changing event that occurred in 'Swing Zone' left very few survivors, and most of their homes and cities were in ruin. Supply chains were broken due to ravaged highways, failed electrical grids, etc...so pretty much everyone in the Freedale of the future is descended from bunker dwellers or the people who had survival built into them. Survivors eventually banded together - and using mostly salvaged parts, they started recreating a functioning city, but they had a lot of problems. Gas was scarce and roads were generally impassable, and with satellites down, they had no contact with anyone overseas (or even received news from those places for years.) They also had armed gangs on the outskirts to deal with, making salvaging parts a problem in itself.

What they did have was books, recovered from the ruins, and a general working knowledge of how things were put together, but outside of salvaged items, what they didn't have was parts. When the city began manufacturing basic items (using mostly scrap and bog iron,) it was things like simple tools, nails, pipes and wires, etc. Getting to the point where they could make the parts to make the parts to make anything complex took them close to a hundred years because food and shelter were their major focus and they didn't have the population on hand to create or run that many factories, let alone mine or find the metals they needed for them. So while they had knowledge...it wasn't close to enough.

 From the point to where their population could sustain that kind of production to the point where they surpassed us in technology was barely met at the start of this book. With very little arriving from overseas and precious little oil, they had some futuristic items but generally, the city was a mix of old and new. Hundred year old tenements made of post apocalyptic salvage sitting next to mirrored glass skyscrapers. (Not unlike New York City in the 20s/30s.) Cars are a rarity due to gas constraints, so people rely on motorcycles or mass transit. Entertainment items like radio, television and sports arenas not surprisingly topped the survivors' lists of 'must have' luxuries. Every new gadget on the market becomes an enormous fad to city dwellers, and treasure hunters (like Mia) search for unrecovered CDs and DVDs that had been best sellers prior to the disaster.

      
That's how you get a city that is trying to surge forward at the same time as it's falling apart. Overrun with corrupted politicians and gangs, it's a mirror of cities past, but there are those who believe they can change that. However, part of that plan requires standing up to some very dangerous enemies, and in 'Swing Zone,' the bad guys running wild in the city are the least of its leaders' problems.

When writing a serial like 'Swing Zone' where two hundred years of history have passed, there's only so much you can hit on it and still keep the story moving forward. Freedale's entire past is relegated to about four paragraphs interspersed between the storyline, but I did my best to make sure all the pertinent information was in there. The fact is, the event is two hundred years past and has very little to do with the story outside of explaining how the area's two prevailing factions (the gadget loving 'techies' and the ecology loving 'purists') came to be and why they are at odds.  

While I've seen it categorized as a post apocalyptic series, 'Swing Zone' is actually a speculative fiction with a paranormal element, and while that may be very subtle at the start, it's anything but subtle at the end.  

If you'd like to experience the serial, please go into it understanding it is produced in issues, fifteen in total, at a price of $2.99 each, which means if you wish to read the entire serial it's going to run you a full $45. These are Grit City 'Emotobooks.' They are illustrated with abstract art meant to heighten the reading experience. You may or may not find value in that. It depends on you and your tastes and preferences, but if you're not prone to do things like collect comic books or pay for art, you may initially balk at this price. That's fine. But for the folks who appreciate that kind of unique combination, the 'Swing Zone' emotoserial is in a category all its own.

If you've read this far and are interested in trying out an Emotobook...Grit City is giving away a free copy of Issue One this Labor Day weekend. You may use the code TQ24U when checking out the book at this link: Swing Zone Issue One

The Strange Browns Mills, N.J.

Recently, I spent a couple of days in Browns Mills, NJ, which is in the heart of 'Swing Zone' country. In fact, the location is so close to the fictional town of Lakeside, one could argue it is, especially since the entire town is nestled around Mirror Lake. Stuck in time and bordered by Lakehurst, McGuire Air Force Base and the Jersey Pinelands Reserve, it does seem suspiciously like the purist's rural town. Rumors have existed for decades about Browns Mills. Aliens seem to favor it if you go by UFO reports, and its many trails into the pines are known to be haunted by strange travelers. Even the hotel desk clerk warned us not to drink the water...because it made people crazy, she said.

                                                      Can you hear the Banjos playing?

In a state where people are crammed together (NJ has one of the highest population densities in the country) Browns Mills is oddly detached from its neighbors, making it a stand alone anomaly. At night, driving down its dark unlit roads through endless stretches of woods, you'll swear you can see an eerie green illumination lingering over the tree tops. Lights that you are sure are at the end of your road never get any closer, despite your driving towards them. In short, while it's populated by very nice people, Browns Mills is a very strange place.   

The giant conglomeration of three military bases (McGuire, Ft. Dix and Lakehurst) that occupy its northern border is like its own little Area 51. Besides the enormous Blimp hangers that dwarf the mighty pines, you can have a field day exploring all the oddities of that site on Google Maps. Suffice to say, it's actually a pretty cool place for paranormal enthusiasts like myself, and we were giddy as hell when we actually ended up lost out there one night. Like something straight out of the Blair Witch movie, we kept turning down roads and finding ourselves a few minutes later right back where we started. If not for Big Daddy's amazing sense of direction, I would probably STILL be circling a swamp somewhere on Range Rd.

Cool Blimp Hangers (You have no idea the size and scale of these things unless you're actually standing there, but let's put it this way....these bad boys are REALLY far away from me.)

     (The Sadly Unattractive Scrub Pine which makes up 90% of the NJ Pinelands)

Anyhow, then we went to Seaside Heights and we were like "YAY!"

 And more "YAY!"

I always have a good time in New Jersey! :)

Learning by Doing

A few months back, Big Daddy (that's my husband, don't ask) purchased a motorcycle. A Honda Rebel, chosen because it was cheap and small enough that, at 5'2, I could handle it too. Eager as I was to learn how to ride it, I'll never forget the sinking feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when the dealer started explaining to me how to break, throttle, clutch and shift gears using both hands and both feet. Not being highly adept at processing that kind of information, my eyes glazed over, my brain already insisting I would never be able to do this. For whatever reason, I had thought a motorcycle was simpler. Like, you had two hand breaks and 'the gas' and that was it. Clutching and tapping up and down with your toes? That was new to me and I was pretty sure I didn't possess that kind of coordination. About the only thing I had going for me at that point was...I really, really wanted to ride it.

Big Daddy had me follow him to an empty strip mall, and it was here I practiced for an hour the difficult process of starting from first gear, shifting to second, back to first, and stopping without stalling. It was easily 95 degrees out that day and I was in two layers of protective clothing beneath a leather jacket, convinced I was going to end up eating the asphalt. Fortunately, that did not occur, but I was shaky when I first started. Terrified, actually. And I stalled and stalled all over the place. About the only useful thing that happened that day was I had gotten the first ride under my belt and was at least familiar with the feeling.

Three days later, we repeated this process and I actually even made it into third gear....but I still felt confused and unsure of myself. From this point, I started taking the bike out early EARLY in the morning and riding it around our little neighborhood. Slowly, very slowly, I started to get a better feel for what I was doing, and the following week, even made a few attempts at normal hours to shake my fear of doing this in traffic.

Then, one day, I realized I was riding the bike without thinking about it. Like, overnight, suddenly, my brain made all the connections and moved this process into the 'knows how to do this' file. I call this a quantum leap. (Not exactly the same as the official scientific meaning, but close) From that day forward, I've been completely at ease when I ride. A total pro. :)

I've always been the kind of person who didn't learn well listening to a teacher and writing notes from a blackboard. In fact, I pretty much stared out the window my entire four years in high school. I was a dreamer. Too creative for my own good and devoid of any desire to learn anything I had no interest in. The two things I took well to were drafting and electronics, and it was because we were physically doing things...using the equipment each day. In other words, I learn well by doing. (And vocational school was clearly the perfect path for me.) 

Five years ago I was thinking that I'd like to write a book. Having dabbled a great deal in writing short stories and plays, I believed I had enough content in my head to lay out an entire novel. I just had no clue how to go about doing that. So I started reading and studying the topic on the internet and that voice comes in my head. "This is too much work. You can't do this." But, since I really want to write a book, I start trying to do it anyhow.

Believe it or not, the process, to me, was very similar to learning to ride that bike. There's a learning curve. It's trial and error, practice, problem solving and self perfection. You look for feedback and grow from it. Your ego takes a beating, but in the end...it's like battle scars you end up wearing proudly.  And suddenly, one day, you know what you're doing.

Like anything else, you will always be learning and improving, but getting that initial knowledge down is such a great feeling. It's an accomplishment all by itself. The crazy thing is, as much time as I spent on that first novel, I never published it. I just dove right into writing the second one, convinced I was a better writer and could make a better book. (That being my novel 'Swing Zone,' which is put out by Grit City Publications.) 

Then I wrote a sequel novel to that...the aptly named 'Swing Zone 2.' Then I wrote 'Under the Radar.' Then I wrote 'Homebound.' And I don't even think about the 'how do I write a novel' part anymore. I'm completely at ease when I write. A total pro. :)

So whenever I see young writers questioning how they can learn to lay out a novel, I always tend to chime in with, 'You write a novel.'  Just sit down and do it. Because what you'll really be doing is learning. (albeit...sneaky ninja learning.) At least, with writing, you can edit and re-edit as much as you like, adding and subtracting text and story and moving content around. But once you have the layout basics down, you've got them down forever, and then you can actually have fun writing, which is what it should be about. 

Cause we are Living in a Serial World and I am a Serial Girl.

Writing a serial is very different than writing a novel. A serial needs to contain a rollercoaster of drama and intrigue that keeps the reader coming back for more. There also needs to be a certain flow of conflict and resolution, so readers feel like they are making progress even as you present them with new problems. While the long term story plays out in the background, you have to be able to hand out sizable pieces of the puzzle at the same time as you are making the puzzle larger than it was. It's the difference between writing a two hour movie and five long seasons of 'Lost.'

A serial writer has to be especially good at weaving several stories together while having them run on more than one level. For instance, Swing Zone is a romance on its surface, a battle for power between two men at its core, and a question of technology vs simplicity at its base, threaded together with more than one mystery. Figuring the proper pace to introduce characters and mete out story and information is much more like constructing a crossword puzzle than a book. You need to be more than just a writer. You need to be an engineer.

The serial writer has a few very useful tools at their disposal though. We can get away with having a much larger cast of characters and, in fact, it's required to help maintain the complexity of the tale. In order to keep readers guessing, we need to present more than one solution, which means we can introduce red herrings. And layers mean we can play with the readers perceptions, revealing other characters points of view later in the book that might change the way you see the entire story up to that point. I used the series 'Lost' as an example and it's a very good one. Every season lent a completely new perspective to the story and every answer just led to more questions. About the only difference between me and J.J. Abrams is that *I* have to tie it up my story with a logical ending. There can be no loose ends or unanswered questions.

If you've never written a serial and you'd like to try it, or if you have a novel you're interested in breaking down into one, I can only suggest you present it to a smaller audience as you go along and measure their reactions. Getting a glimpse into audience perception and having that real time feed back can help shape your tale. You always want the truth to be one of the paths they are considering, and if they are completely lost at any point, you have to go back and fix it. You want to challenge people to really think, not leave them frustratingly confused. They get much more excited if they think they're hot on your trail.

There are two different ways to write a serial. The first is to have a strong outline. The second is to write by the seat of your pants, or as I like to call it - fiction on the fly. Making up your story as you go along, letting it guide you, seeing where it will take you can be challenging if not difficult. Evermore so if you expose each chapter to public view, since you can't go back and revise. Charles Dickens wrote 'Great Expectations' this way, before editing it into a more cohesive novel. If you're incredibly creative and like sticking yourself in a pressure cooker, it can be a lot of fun, but you've got to be ready to write your way out of all kinds of nasty corners and holes. I personally believe this form of serialized fiction brings out the best in a writer, because it's amazing what you can come up with when your choice is to produce or die.

Online forums that allow for members' stories are a good place to hone your skills. Just remember, you need to have a good idea of where you're heading. People don't like to get led all over kingdom come only to have the story disappear because you couldn't think up an ending. The skill is not in writing it, it's in making it all come together.