Only an hour

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Ah, well. I only got an hour of free time for my writing today. No big. I’ll make up for it tomorrow.

But for you, dear Reader, I have a link: Morningstar.

What is that, you wonder? It’s a free online game of the point-and-click narrative variety. It’s also remarkably well done–the visuals are excellent, the voice acting (there’s a lot of voice acting) very strong (although you can mute the sound) and you can even save the game part way through.

The story is simple: You’re second-in-command on the space ship Morningstar, and the opening of the game is a fantastic little cut scene of you and your ship crash landing on the surface of an alien world. The captain is injured and unable to move (but full of advice) and your engineer is dead. Can you salvage enough of your ship to make lift off? Why did you crash in the first place, and what happened to the other ship lying wrecked across the sand. Finally, how can you prevent it happening again when you try to leave?

It’s a surprisingly long game, with a lot of detail, and the story takes you much further down the rabbit hole than you expect. And of course, it’s all about the puzzles. How do you get this control panel to work? Where are all the pieces of the hull-repairing glue dispenser? What are you going to do about the ruined CO2 filter?

You click on items to pick them up, combine them, and use them with objects in the environment. Best of all, the objects are used in ways that are thoroughly sensible–not always a given in this sort of game. The captain gives you hints about the next step in the mission, but there’s a walkthrough, too, just in case. And the visuals are excellent. Hell, even if you just watch the pre-title animation sequence, you’ll be impressed.

It’s great fun. One of the best c&p games I’ve played in a long, long time. Enjoy.

The end of the week

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Saturday morning (yesterday) I took a long walk over the hill to Starbucks so I could work on Everyone Loves Blue Dog. I really wanted to finish, but I couldn’t. In fact, there was so much polishing needed, I made notes to myself to go back and polish even more scenes.

We ran some errands on Saturday afternoon, including picking up a book we’d ordered through Indiebound.org. Annoyingly, the automated email told me my order was waiting at the store, but when I got there, half my order (Blood of Ambrose) hadn’t arrived. Annoying. Now I have to go back when it does.

We had our Mother’s Day dinner after that, at the Hi-Life. Salad Eater had the Pork Porterhouse, which she really enjoyed but thought they skimped on the marmalade. Her marscapone polenta was terrific. I had the empanada, and it was so incredible that I have to find a recipe for it. The boy at kid food, and was happy.

After we got home, my wife put my son to bed and we sat down to watch OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. It’s a French spoof of 60’s spy movies, and it came very highly recommended, but there was a little too much social embarrassment humor for me to bear. The scene where the incredibly self-centered, utterly insensitive protagonist loses his cool at the muezzin for waking him at dawn (the French-speaking hero has no idea that it’s a Arabic call to prayer) was pretty funny… in fact, many scenes were very funny. I just have a low threshold for embarrassment.

Still, the chicken-chucking fight was hilarious.

Then there’s this morning. Today, Mother’s Day, is traditionally a day where I do no writing. I woke early, roused my son, and together we made a nice breakfast for his mom: oatmeal pancakes and sausage patties (both heart-shaped) along with some other treats. It was a happy morning.

After she left, my son’s buddy came over, and we had a super-soaker battle. They soaked me through and through, and I returned the favor.

Finally, they both decided to play at his house. They’re gone now, and I won’t be picking up my son for another two hours. Maybe I’ll get some writing done after all.

Quote of the day:

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“For all his veniality and selfishness, Cat was a cool, smart dresser, unlike most _Red Dwarf_ fans,who smelt of piss.”
— Patrick West

Meme!

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This meme is stolen from Brett. Open your current WIP and type out the first ten verbs that appear in the manuscript.

I went to Man Bites World, because it’s newest.

  1. was
  2. sat
  3. did
  4. slumped
  5. fidgeted
  6. stared
  7. pulled
  8. was
  9. was
  10. had been
  11. grown

Boy, that doesn’t sound promising, does it? It’ll work when it’s finished, though. I promise!

Also, thank you to everyone who has been voting in my polls. Today’s is about recurring characters in a series and last weeks poll (which I should close this weekend about what I should do with my ARE copies of Child of Fire.

First, a funny thing

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On my last post, ethelmay dropped a link in the comments of my LiveJournal for this video by debut author Lara Zielin. You’re going to be seeing this link all over the web, so you might as well watch it now.

Besides, she’s funny and she has verve. Like.

What am I doing posting again so soon after I said in my previous post that was going to a thing at my son’s school. Well, I felt worn down and flushed, and I told my wife I was feeling sick. Out I went to catch the bus home early.

While I was standing at the bus stop, I remembered that, as a kid, I was sick on the first day of school every year. My nervousness about going back to the hall of bullies always manifested as illness.

It’s denial. I’m good at denial. It helps me behave like a sane person, but it also sneaks up on me and makes me miserable.

It’s good to be aware.

Pizza tonight

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My son’s school is having a benefit pizza party tonight. Mom and boy are already there, hanging out at Volunteer Park or the library nearby, and I’ll be catching a bus over there later to join them. It sucks that they have to kill three hours between the end of school and the start of the party, but it didn’t make much sense to have him ride home on the school bus for an hour, demand food at home, then take a Metro bus in the other direction.

As for me, I’m making progress on Everyone Loves Blue Dog, but I can’t shake the feeling that I should have finished by now. I really really want this thing to be in my rear view mirror. Man Bites World is sitting fallow while I tinker and trim, and I am itching to get back to it. … Blue Dog is solved. It’s done. At this point, I’m just managing the reader’s experience, which is important (very important, I know) but it isn’t interesting.

Also, I’m tired. Tired enough to feel kinda sick. If we owned cell phones, I’d call my wife and beg off.

“Road Cones Protect My Head”

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Speaking of tower defense games, here’s trailer for a new game, Plants Vs. Zombies:

Or you can check out the more traditional trailer here. And if that’s not odd or cute enough for you, this has to be the cutest zombie moment ever

You’re welcome.

Today (5 things make a Monday)

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  1. For dinner tonight, I made roast chicken (note: I hate my oven) and a from-scratch baguette that had tapenade rolled in it. Olive bread? Big hit with the fam. I’ll be doing that again.
  2. Just watched the latest CASTLE.  Yeah, it’s a good show.  And I would like 26 bestsellers, too, please.
  3. Just when I thought the swine flu thing was winding down, I find out it’s actually getting much worse.
  4. And I realize I’m a little late (hah!), but there are a couple of free comics online you can check out.  One.  Two.  That second one was written by Chris Sims, of Invincible Super Blog fame–it’s pretty ridiculous funny.  What’s that you say?  The internet is full of free comics?  Never mind.
  5. If you Google funny robot, no quotes, you get this animation, which at least has a robot in it, although I’m not sure where the funny comes in.  Look for more Google top hits in this blog in the future, since actual, thoughtful content turns out to be pretty hard to come up with.

Yesterday

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Here’s a quick tally of yesterday’s strangeness (not all of it bad):

Woke early. Worked on …Blue Dog for a while, then rushed home.

Went out just after lunch to see BATTLE FOR TERRA. My son nearly fell asleep on the bus.

We all stopped in at a comics shop for Free Comics Day. The first comics we saw were very, very adult. We had to make our way to the back to pick up books the boy wanted.

At the movie theater, I had to take the elevator. This particular shopping center (Pacific Place) is four stories with a wide open mezzanine structure. The escalators trigger my fear of heights, and for some reason I was extremely vulnerable yesterday.

Loved the movie. See previous post.

At the boy’s insistence, we sat down to eat at Johnnie Rockets, which was even worse than I remembered. The meal was interrupted partway through by an PA announcement that they were evacuating the building.. I stayed behind to settle the bill, then met my wife and son outside. So much for visiting the bookstore in the basement.

On the bus ride home, I noticed something strange just before we came to our stop. A woman was standing by the door to her townhouse, pushing a man away. She would then turn to unlock her door, and he came up close to her again. She appeared to be fending him off.

My wife said “That didn’t look good.” We all got off the bus and I immediately went over there, but they had both gone inside. When I turned around, I saw that my wife had flagged down a police car. We explained what we saw, and he promised to look into it.

Was she about to be raped? Why was the building evacuated? I don’t think we’re ever going to find out.

BATTLE FOR TERRA (no spoilers)

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We just returned from BATTLE FOR TERRA, and it was fantastic! Great characters, thrilling action scenes and a powerful ending. My wife cried (which is not a spoiler–she cries at happy endings and sad ones, as long as it’s emotionally powerful). She also walked out of the theater with the urge to travel.

The boy loved it, too. We saw it 3-D for him (‘natch) and he kept saying “Whoa!” and “Awesome!” all through it. There were a couple scenes that I thought might be too intense for him, but no. He was all over that stuff.

And it’s gorgeous. This is the most beautiful science fiction movie I’ve seen in a long time.

For me, one of the most interesting things about the story was how the violence came from fear. This is something I’ve been working through in my own work, and it was wonderful to see his take on it.

Go see it. It’s wonderful.

Also, thanks to everyone who’s voted in my poll. I’m grateful for all your ideas and the poll is still open.