Jumping off into the Holidays

Halloween has passed us by and we are now quickly marching onward into November. I am a huge fan of the Christmas – mostly because of the lights. I am already planning my outside light display (soon lights… soon….) which will hopefully not blind my neighbors.

I had an interesting October that included a real vacation, recovery from having my wisdom teeth removed, and going to a convention and conducting panels. Hell – I even recorded them (insert links) so you can all view them at your leisure. I felt incredibly proud of my panel on sexual assault and consent issues. It is something I am personally attached to given the past I have lived through. If I could make a living just helping work to prevent women and children from being mistreated and abused I would probably do it. Though the work is hard and very "sticky" for me mentally. I would need a hell of a vacation policy to recover pretty regularly.

In book news, I am a little stuck in a very important chapter for the second book. It is a chapter involving Cael's father so I am taking careful pains to create the exact scene I want to help explain more of Cael's backstory and why he could be, well, annoying at times. I think there is a little piece of my mind in each of my characters – so I do get attached to them and their stories.

If you take the time to watch the author's panels, you will find that writers can even surprise themselves while they create these stories for your consumption. I create ahead of writing and while on the fly. Sometimes as I type the words into the word processor something comes to mind that just needs to be said/described/experienced and I put it down on the page. Just as a point of how important those little pieces are to me as a writer – Mesieve was created on the fly. There was no pre-thought into him; his story just happened. He has become a central character that I never knew I was going to have.

I also had some amazing networking opportunities at the convention I attended. The Comic and Media Expo was in Mesa, Arizona, and had a nice list of skilled artists and content creators for attendees viewing and purchasing pleasure. I am sure everyone wanted more people to attend, but that is the fate of every artist trying to make a living (or a hobby) out of hawking their wares. I did however get a chance to meet some awesome people, and make connections for content and ideas that I never thought of. A few people stand out and I would like to cover all of them in due time – however a couple major ones stand out I want to talk about today.

The first – Tavis Maiden. I started following his work when I saw him on Strip Search. He had his booth set up and was incredibly friendly to chat with. Since there were not too many people present I talked to him for the two days I attended around my panel times. I also gave him an ebook copy of my book since I got to read a lot of his stuff online for free as well. It's only fair. Don't know what he will do with it but I hope he reads and enjoys it.

The second person was Jessica Feinburg, who was selling many of her dragon themed art items. I can't really do her work justice by describing it, so please just go to her Facebook page and store and check it all out. I traded a book for a dragon play/place mat that I already put to use rolling the dice in my Pathfinder campaign. She tolerated my presence and gave me a lot of product ideas that I am trying to find a way to make possible.

Lastly, I want to thank those who attended the panels I was hosting. The convention was nice enough to give me time to fill – and I actually did which surprised even me. All of these videos are available on my YouTube channel linked off of my Facebook pages. If you get time, check them out. I will have a book signing in December so keep posted on the next time I am out in public selling/signing books for all of you. 

Science of Zombies

Son of a B-. No, I won't swear at that level in the blog, but I sure as hell did say it out loud when I read and watched the video about the science that could create an actual zombie-like event. Located on Mashable, this article discusses the ability of a virus to meet the qualifications necessary to create a zombie horde.

You see, nature is a mean spirited destroyer of all things - just as much as she can create some amazing wonders. No one should ever forget that that same person who creates the awesome beauty of things like this image at right:








Also create terrible things like this:

That is an image of Hurricane Sandy from space as it envelopes a majority of the Eastern Seaboard. Like I said - Mother Nature is not all sunshine and honeybees. 

Imagine my displeasure to hear that she allows for viruses to take over human brain function. I don't think anyone can ignore the fact that Rabies is a disease that acts like this. It is a mean spirited bug intent on death and to spread itself to new victims. Why do you think Rabies causes aggressive behavior and salivation in animals? Aggression makes the animal use its main weapon - biting, and salivation is a method to spread itself - since Rabies is passed through fluids. 

It doesn't take much of a stretch to get to unending hunger and other loss of mental control. The video explains that all it takes is a virus specifically targeting those parts of the brain. The terrible part of it as well - is that the virus could easily enter via a sense of smell. The damn olfactory nerves lead directly to the part of the brain that handles these sorts of things. 

Damn Nature. Now I have to worry about things I may smell. This planet is flipping crazy!

Terminal Defensive Positions

I am pretty sure my family has been involved, in some form or another, in most every major conflict in the last 1000 years of Western European history. No - I can't confirm all of that - that is the beauty of "anecdotal" history. Needless to say though, of all the generations currently alive - all of them have served in the military. At least one member of the family has found their way into the defense of the country we call home. Part of the reason this matters to me - is because all of us are obsessed with tactics and strategy. My love of strategy also bleeds over into my fear of the undead.

In the past I have written about my need to know the escape routes of places I am at, or think of how I can turn said locations into an easily defensible position. This is important to me - in some part of my mind I need to know what sort of defensive strategy I should have in place for where I am at a given moment. Handy? not most of the time, but it is in that one in a million time when that sort of information needs to be understood. 

This entry will discuss the importance of Terminal Defense Positions. These are locations that have a few required ratings that a person should take into consideration, to determine how long you should stay there, and what sort of places really are the best places to escape to in case of zombie outbreak.

1. Limited Approach. How limited are the access points for the undead to reach you. Are you trying to hide in a green house? (That is an Epic Fail by the way) Are you just hanging out in your basement/attic? (Another possible group of FAIL) Are you using one of these?

Yes, that is one freaking epic-ally hard to approach fortress (Built in Yemen according to the Google Image search that found it). While this limited approach appears, well, pretty awesome, it does suggest utter failure in the next category.

2. Length of Stay before Re-Supply. While that Yemeni fortress above is a great place to draw a proverbial "line in the sand", it probably doesn't have a natural spring of fresh water inside of it. That rock looks pretty dry. Probably doesn't have access to fuel - either wood, oil, gas, or anything else. While it would be perfect for a solar installation (power for the place and shade for you is a good idea) lugging solar panels around in the apocalypse is not going to be an option here.

3. Supplies. How difficult is it to manage long-term in that location. Can you supply yourself food, fresh water, and fuel supplies? Materials to rebuild equipment that breaks? I do not consider non-replenishing scavenging here. The idea that you can "scavenge forever" is faulty - and fails to take in the assumption that there are million of tons of high-grade explosives and nuclear weapons that will be used in a Zombie Apocalypse. 

That whole "you need two keys and some magic codes from that briefcase by the president..." goes out the window really fast when a rural base commander see a nearby town overrun with undead coming at his soldiers, and he gets a technician to jury rig an override to that fancy trigger gizmo inside of it. Nuclear weapons need two things - fissionable materials and a really big *bang* surrounding it to get it to become unstable. every other part is just to help or control the reaction when it prepares to go off. Urban centers will be ravaged by fires, nuclear and traditional explosions and the thousands of people living in that town that panic and strip the place bare before you get to it. Scavenging will not be a good fall back plan. 

4. Available Skill Set. Some people are more valuable than others to save - sorry Geek Squad. Unless you can toss together a Tesla Coil or any other technical feasible device other than an Ipod we don't need you. I will not have to worry about my IP Address in the Apocalypse. Civil engineers, Contractors, Electricians, Pipe Fitters, Masons... Hell with it - just find every tradesmen you can tie up and toss in whatever vehicle you have around. Ignore doctors, get the Nurse Practitioners first - they do a lot of the real work anyways. 

This is a perfect time to be friends with a Union Representative because chances are he knows some of the best in these trades. Please don't discuss Union vs. non-Union here - Unions are more connected typically than non union and we need that knowledge fast. You don't have time to take applications and do background checks.

Additionally, it is handy to know that crazy, food hoarding gun enthusiast down the street - that I assume you made sure to invite to every fun event at your home you could get away with over the past few years. If he is hoarding Twinkies you don't have to be his friend - we want the people that are hoarding raw grains and salts for curing the meat they hunt or fish themselves. That family - strange as you may think they are, will have what you need. You better have been helping them out otherwise they might just shoot you on sight.

These four values should be used to evaluate any location that you want to sit down in and ride out the hoard of undead wiping out all those people you didn't really like anyways. Next week - we will begin going over locations that are best suited for a long term survival of you and your family (or people you saved instead of your horrible, horrible, insane family that were the first to be turned).  

Bad news - California is actually, AGAIN, one of the best places to be for this sort of event - if you can avoid the initial problem of that state having more undead than any other on the continent. Goddamn hippies did that on purpose didn't they?

The Undead Yogi

So, I received an email from Meetup.com that was supposed to be a suggestion for a group I could be interested in. The only interest it gave me was to think of buying a shotgun because there might be a Zombie living among us.

My reason for this is as follows: The description of the group was for some new-age living style run by some guy who changed his name to sound like he has read the Bhagavad Gita a few too many times. Sounded okay so far (not that I am in to all that), but a few lines later it said the man died at the age of 7, and then came back to life. Hold-UP, he what? so this undead seven year old starts wandering around and no one tells anyone?

Now I am sure they will say he is just as alive as anyone else, which may be trued for the musculo-skeletal realm of things, but they may just be ignoring the fact that small children disappear when he is around. Classrooms of children disappear into thin air when he has everyone "meditating". What gives, last thing I need is to be led in meditation by someone who will it the person next to me gets munched on. "We all feel healthier and enlightened" YOU good sir are being drugged while he eats the people too sick to get away, that is why your group is so healthy, you are losing the sick end of the spectrum.

There, now I feel better.

And another note to anyone reading - my fear does not make me unable to kill zombies, in fact it makes me
more willing than anyone to get rid of them, no questions asked. I intend to survive them, not scream and run away. (Because standing my ground and screaming like a little baby is sooo much more brave)

The Crisis of Creativity

I will one day be in a crisis of my own creativity. First I am pretty sure you are all wondering what the hell that means, and second you are probably wondering what that looks like. Well, hopefully I can answer both questions for you dear readers.

My better half, in her wisdom, has decided that one day I will write a zombie horror story. Knowing my infinite luck in this arena, I probably will break down and right that very story. In fact I have one that terrifies me that I intend to put on the page. It includes every disturbing thought that comes into my mind when it comes to Zombie-ism, and the ending is something that creeps me out. So, story being done - I just haven't written it.

My greater fear is what happens if it is made into a film - I would be required to go. I would have to be on set, I would have to promote the very things I want nothing to do with. My not wanting to go and being honest runs the risk of appearing to be giving the movie easy viral advertising. Which, if the movie terrifies and disturbs people like it does me - would be perfectly fine. However if people think the movie sucked - than well I look like a doofus.

Thankfully my risk of doofus-dom is pretty low - and at least I can't look as bad as John Kyl the unapologetic bastard that he is.I think I would have to stoop pretty low to be poorly viewed in the communities of the world that value things like honesty and a sense of morality. Goodness, what could I do to be that bad off?

Another blog for another day.