Luggage Cat Says No
Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few days. I spent part of the week in Arizona, which was awesome as always. It’s one of the few places in the country that feels like Texas, only (in this particular case) prettier.
Had a great meal at Olive and Ivy, which has some seriously cool atmosphere and better food:
I'm sure these people are very nice.
The only downside to the trip was my complete inability to unpack when I got home:
Cat: 1, Unpacking: 0
This is clearly the natural state of equilibrium for my suitcase, as a cat-less state was only achievable for about a millisecond at a time.
On the upside, I did manage a good bit of progress towards getting Walker out on time, so things are looking good for the 11/15 release date.
TL;DR: Was gone, now back. Walker on schedule. Cat and luggage have merged.
Haiku Contest Winners
Dramatic re-enactment: Actual judges may have been alive
My delightful pre-zombie wife (not pictured above), has completed the judging. The winners, in no particular order, are:
BRW
Wild Meat Sacks at play Sunshine, tasty children snack Love brains, not boomsticks
BigD
Fighting for their lives Their friends now a bloody swarm Playtime now begins
Jake Livak
The force is with us Zombies won’t make us back down Vigilant we stand
Paboo
Delirium rage Crafting foul doubly dead Ruffians unite
Delty
School’s out for summer! Feast or famine? Life or Death? Darwin would be proud
Each winner will receive a signed copy of Bad Radio and a Lucky Zombie Token(tm):
Man, that book is huge!
If I'm so lucky, why are my feet stuck together?
Winners, please send your address to me at langlois.mike (at) gmail (dot) com!
Game:Eaten By Zombies
As most of you know, I love nerdy tabletop games. I also love zombies. A lot.
So, when I saw that Mayday Games had a Kickstarter project up for a swanky new zombie game, well, let’s just say I hadda get me some of that. The project closed at nearly ten times the original goal of 5K, which is amazing. Why? Because, zombies. That’s why.
My copy just arrived:
Looks like an ammo can. How awesome is that?
Stick, stick, zombie!
Awwww!
Here’s the game description from Mayday:
In the new game Eaten By Zombies! players strive to survive as the horde of the living dead make it their goal in Death to force you to join the crowd. You must work with or against the other survivors to be the last one standing. No not standing, cowering in the corner crying for their mommy.
In the spirit of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and “I Am Legend”, Eaten By Zombies takes you into a dark world of eventual death. Every turn you must venture out from your safehouse and scavenge for Swag. But not so fast, the Undead have other plans for your brains. Every day a Horde of fresh zombies will be waiting for you, and over time the threat gets greater. Now it’s time for your “Fight or Flight” instincts to help you to survive just one more day. Using the swag you’ve got on you (ie cards in you hand) you must survive any way you can.
If you can get away or kill the Horde, you may scavenge the remains of the desolate suburbs for any Swag the neighbors may have left behind. With the right stuff and a few good friends to out run, you may just make it through this alive… well, no probably not. But being the last one to die a slow, painful death means you can claim sole victory!
With a set of over thirty different cards to start with, no two games will ever be alike. This game is a combination of Card Drafting, Hand Management and Survival Horror with a few dirty tricks thrown in.
I dunno, if that doesn’t sound great to you, then all I can say is that we’re very different people.
One of whom is very, very wrong.
1st Round Complete
All of the ebooks have been awarded, so if you didn’t get an email or tweet, I’m afraid you were too late.
But don’t despair!
The zombie haiku contest for a signed paper edition is open until midnight on Sunday, so keep submitting! Winners will be chosen by my lovely wife.
Uh, that is to say that the winning poems will be selected by my wife. Winners will have to get their own wives.
Thanks, WWdN Visitors!
Hi there, WWdN visitors!
I guess I should have expected it, but I totally didn’t. One offhand comment from Wil Wheaton, and suddenly I’ve have more folks dropping by in the last two days than in the last two months combined. Wow.
Anyway, to say thanks, the first ten people to drop their email addresses in the comments below, or to me directly at langlois.mike (at) gmail (dot) com, will receive a free copy of Bad Radio, as either a Kindle gift or an epub file.
Note: you don’t have to be with the WWdN crowd to get a free copy, I’m totally not a jerk like that.
Thanks all!
EDIT: Damn you Wil Wheaton (shakes tiny fist)! Your ravenous horde must be fed! I’m upping the giveaway to the following:
10 Kindle versions
10 ePub versions
5 signed paperback editions
Here’s how to win the signed paperback edition (best!): Write a haiku about my favorite piece of zombie art by Jason Chan, which can be found here. The deadline is midnight on Sunday the 16th, and the winners will be picked by my lovely pre-zombie wife.
Good luck!
Update: All of the poems are in, winners will be announced tonight after much reading out loud and re-enacting in the kitchen!
Sneak Peek: Walker Cover Art
Click for full size!
Just fantastic. Amazing.
Walker is scheduled to be released in just over a month, so things are pretty hectic right now. Art, editing, and formatting are all in various stages of completion, so there’s a lot of juggling going on to make sure that everything comes together at the same time.
That said, of all the moving parts, getting the final cover art is a huge milestone, and one that I wanted to share.
A couple of notes about how Vinny works: He asks for detailed information about the book, covering both plot information and detailed descriptions of any relevant scenes, characters, or items. This can amount to a hefty amount of information, including a full synopsis and lots of excerpts from the book. He then asks me for any ideas that I might have for the cover.
Once he has all the information, he then turns around and sends me a sketch for something about a million times cooler than the stuff I suggested. At which point I say, “Why yes, let’s use THAT, shall we?”
It’s one thing to be an accomplished and recognized graphic artist, but it’s another thing entirely to be skilled and experienced specifically in the creation of novel covers, which is very much its own discipline.
So, along with sharing this preview today, I wanted to say thanks.
Bad Radio in Print
There’s much rejoicing in the Langlois compound today. Bad Radio is, at long last, available in print.
Behold!
Behind the scenes, it turned out to be no small feat to wind up with one book in two editions. The paper version was actually available weeks ago, but because of the way the two editions were labeled in the system, they were separate entities, with the paper version being very difficult to find without a pretty explicit search.
It’s all good now, and many thanks to the folks representing electrons and paper at Amazon who helped get this squared away.
Cheers!
No Trunk Meats Today, Thanks
Dramatic Re-enactment!
A guy just knocked on my door selling meat. Door to door. From a huge ice chest.
The meats were flash frozen in boxes, and were obviously purchased from a wholesaler. I know, I’m probably just some kind of crazy meat snob, but I really do prefer to not to eat things out of a stranger’s trunk.
Just sayin’.
Kindle-icious
Lots of new Kindle options out today, and while I think having color or touchscreen options is cool, this is what really caught my eye:
Apparently you can get the latest-gen Kindle for under 80 bucks. Granted, you have to get the ad-supported version, but that’s not really much of a hassle. The ads only show up as a screen saver when the Kindle is off, so it’s not exactly intrusive.
Kind of shocking considering that the Kindle launched at $399 just four years ago. And even as recently as a year ago, pundits were wondering when the thing would drop below the $100 magic inflection point, and what effect it would have on the market.
But 80 bucks? Combine that with the Kindle’s adoption of Overdrive for access to public libraries, and I think we’re in a pretty good place.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love paper books and other brands of e-readers, but Amazon gets the nod today.
Nicely done, Mr. Bezos.
Internet Comment Threads Aren’t Going To Troll Themselves
Internet Comment Threads Aren’t Going to Troll Themselves
I'M WINNING!
You’ve just read a political article on Fox News/Huffington Post/That Damn John Scalzi‘s Site and the sheer wrongheadedness and deliberate ignorance of those stupid neocons/libs/greenies/freepers is just too much to take. You should, nay, MUST set them straight in the comments. It’s the only way they’ll learn.
But are you really ready to play with the big boys? Do you have the tools you’ll need for the job? Do you even know what an ad hominem attack is? Read on, and get ready to join the trolling big leagues!
Doin’ It Up Right, in 5 Easy Steps:
Ad Hominem, Your Best Friend Ever
You’re a busy person, just like me. Why waste time reading and understanding your opponent’s arguments when you can just cut to the chase and go for the guy making it? After all, surely his arguments are just as stupid as he is. So what if other, smarter, people are saying the same thing. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the important thing is to win big in a comment thread on the internet. PERIOD. Somebody crowing about McCain/Obama’s economic policies? For heaven’s sake, don’t figure out what they’re saying, call them a name already!
Straw Man, Way Easier to Push Down on the Playground
Don’t let that guy tell you what he thinks! What are you, a baby? YOU tell HIM what he thinks! That’s the way to do it. It’s not like you have the answer to every little argument anybody might make. To save time, just listen to your favorite pundit’s talking points, and then no matter what anybody says, you just reply with those. It saves a hell of a lot of time, let me tell you. The best part? You can’t be wrong if you answer your own questions.
False Dilemma, Either You Use This Or the Terrorists Win
I think it’s pretty obvious that your position is not only the right one, it’s the ONLY one. Now, most comment thread ‘debaters’ aren’t going to realize that right away, so you’re going to have to make it plain and simple. Also, don’t wimp out when you use this beauty, combine with the Slippery Slope for maximum impact. For example, if gay marriage is allowed, the next day everyone is going to marry a pigeon. That pretty much shows the obvious consequence of gay marriage. Do you want to marry a pigeon? I sure don’t.
Post Hoc, or How Disco Destroyed the Roman Empire
Post hoc ergo propter hoc is just fancy talk for I WIN, JERK. You put one of those double vortex air spinners on your car, and your gas mileage went up. That’s proof right there, buddy. Did you put it on right before taking that long highway trip? Who cares? Driving is driving. Thing one happened, then thing two happened. You don’t have to be a school board member to see the science here. This one is pure gold when you want to show how stupid the other guy’s political candidate is. Just google his term of office, then google DISASTER DEATH FIRE PUPPIES. So easy a commie could do it.
Caps Lock, IT WORKS
CAPS LOCK ON MEANS YOU’RE IN THE ZONE. CHECK YOUR KEYBOARD LIGHT TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOCKED AND LOADED FOR INTELLECTUAL DISCOURSE.
I’ve done all I can. You’re ready. Now get out there and get mad!
Fugitive Prose 