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felixcloud6288 · 2 years ago

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It's Hurricane Season so I'd like to share some advice as a life-long Floridian who's experienced a few things. This is going to be directed primarily to people living in areas at risk of blackouts which could last several days.

Preparations

Aside from food, water, and gas, some things you'll want to make sure you have are flashlights and batteries. Make sure to refill any medications you might need.

From @dea-certe: Fill up all vehicles and maybe a few gas containers now. Firstly because it will be more expensive in the storm aftermath, but also because it will be harder to find. I went to five different gas stations to find fuel at one point and was kicking myself because I had used so much has keeping the phones charged and keeping the heat going.

Get raincoats in case you need to go outside cause the wind will destroy any umbrellas.. If you can't get one, take a garbage bag and tear a face hole into it and use that.

Also, get bug repellent, especially mosquito repellent. Mosquitos breed around still water and there will be a lot of still water.

And if you have an infant, make sure to stock up on diapers, baby wipes, etc. Even if you don't have an infant, baby wipes can be useful to help keep yourself clean.

You might want to buy some gardening gloves as well to make the post-storm cleanup safer.

SUPER IMPORTANT FOR SANITY AND SANITATION: get caught up on laundry and dishes. No power means no running water. Don't make things worse by not having clean dishes or clean clothes to use. While you're cleaning, change your bed sheets as well. Once you have power, change your sheets again.

Also, download any games, ebooks, shows, etc you can onto any battery-charged electronic devices you have. It will help your sanity when all you can do is wait.

From @metadata-uber-alles: My recommendation re: radio is to make sure you have an actual AM/FM radio, one that can run on batteries. You can probably thrift it if you don't have one already. Most radio stations stream online too, but if the power goes out you'll be rationing your phone battery and may not have internet.

Finally, while you should ideally board up your windows to protect them from debris, make sure at the minimum that all your windows are closed. Wind pressures are going to suck air out of any openings in your home.

Food and Water

First and most important: DO NOT BE A HOARDER!!

Even if your home has no power, that doesn't mean your local grocery store has no power. You can expect some reduced supply due to damaged supply lines and a spike in demand, but you shouldn't be worrying about empty shelves. At worst, have the amount of supplies you might need for 10 days. If you normally go to the grocery store every 2 weeks or longer, just stock up the amount you normally would.

Buy more items that are less likely to spoil and don't need refrigeration. When you have no power, prioritize eating anything which requires refrigeration (milk, cheese, meats) or has a short shelf life (bread).

Demand will be higher in preparation, and supply will be diminished for a bit, but supply issues only become unbearable when people start hoarding.

As for water, you'll need a surplus since you need water for so much. I cannot stress this particular part enough:

You need water to flush your toilet.

If there's somewhere with running water you can go when you need to poop, use that whenever possible, but you need water available at home to refill your toilet's cistern if you don't have that option (either time, distance, etc).

Make sure you have a supply of drinking water. Don't go buying every water bottle you can find (See the bit about hoarding), but you should buy more than you might normally use. Instead, gather water through things like your sink or from a hose into any sealable containers you might have . If you have a bathtub, fill it up just before the hurricane. If you have a pool, that's another source of water. If no debris got in the pool, you can use it for bathing. If you have empty buckets, you can get some additional water during the hurricane by filling them with large rocks or bricks and leaving them out in the open to collect the rain water.

Different water sources will be used for different purposes:

bottled, canned, or other store-bought water: Drinking, cooking, and refrigeration (explained later)

Water in unsealed containers: refill the toilet cistern

Water in a sealed containers: bathing and cleaning (Can also be used for the toilet)

As mentioned with food, supplies at your grocer will be reduced but not necessarily empty. You should be able to buy enough additional drinking water and be able to also use it for cleaning, giving you more water for the toilet. The tip about gathering rain water will only work once. There will likely be no rain for at least a week afterward.

In case you need to evacuate

Keep tabs on whatever emergency alerts are available. Check what your local radio channel is or what sites to check online. Make sure you know how to get to your local shelter, including alternate paths in case a road is inaccessible.

Load your vehicle with anything you might need to bring with you before the storm so you don't have to spend time looking for them and double checking when every minute could count. Pack some pillows, blankets, and extra clothes just in case. Also include anything you cannot risk losing for school or work like laptops.

Refrigeration

Without power, your fridge is now just a giant cooler and a ticking bomb to being a biohazard. Fill it up as much as possible. Cold air escapes easily when you open it and heat disperses fastest throw the air. Remember how I said you should buy extra water? A fridge filled with cold water will stay cooler longer. Any liquid will do. Fill your fridge with water bottles, soda cans, beer, fruit juice, whatever. As long as it doesn't spoil at room temperature. Milk can technically help too, but since it spoils you shouldn't keep much of it and should use it quickly.

Additional things like fruits and veggies will also help. What matters is you want to reduce the amount of empty space and fill it with anything which can keep the temperature down. Put a frozen block of iron in for all I care. Just don't have a super empty fridge.

If you have a generator

Good for you. You're not completely without power now. But you need to set priorities on what to use it for. Generators can only supply so much power at a time so you can't just hook everything to it and expect things to work out.

Top priority is the fridge. Twice a day, morning and evening, plug the fridge to the generator and let it run for two hours to cool things down. Don't hook up the fridge when you don't expect to open it (like when everyone is asleep).

Second priority should be charging cell phones, laptops, and anything else like that. Depending on your circumstances, you can charge them at work, from your car, etc so only hook them up when batteries are low.

Third, comfort. I understand this will be stressful, but hooking up your tv and gaming computer isn't the best idea. If you've done what I suggested earlier, you'll at least have something to watch or do without needing to hook it to your generator. Like with the above electronics, you might be able to find other ways to charge them, but only attach them to your generator when you don't need to worry about necessities.

Finally for the love of god, DO NOT HOOK AN AC TO THE GENERATOR!!. Air conditioners draw a lot of power, especially once the room is hot. But your generator can only do so much. The AC will kill your power supply really quickly. Use a fan or the AC in your vehicle if you need to cool down.

Also worth noting, if you have an electric vehicle, that could potentially be used as well. I don't know specifics, but look into that if you own one.

Final notes

This is not comprehensive and I may be wrong about some things.

Please refer to actual expert sources for comprehensive help.

This is just suggestions from someone who has to deal with this every year and has figured out how to deal with the aftermath. Your living conditions may be different so please check how to handle any concerns unique to you.

Stay safe and do not give up hope.

#original post #hurricane #hurricane prep #weather

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olderthannetfic · 1 year ago

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"Why do people download pdfs when epubs are right there? Do you like not being able to adjust font size?" Because not all of us know how to do that? And because when I open a pdf on my laptop I can search inside it to get to a specific word/phrase, but I have no reader that can do that for epubs? How snobbish r u to ASSume that ppl (whose experiences are not urs, no matter how SIMPLE u find ur own tech) simply "don't like" access to a good feature? Or do u just want that Smart User trophy?

Ur is a city-state, anon.

PDFs are superior when you want to be able to print something with a consistent layout, but epubs are a thousand times better for reading longform text.

Since your ability to type things into search engines is apparently limited, here's the first result I got:

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thewhumpyprintingpress · 2 years ago

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The Whumpy Printing Press

The Whumpy Printing Press (WPP) is a small press dedicated to publishing the stories of the whump community. Founder and Editor-In-Chief Kay @whumpy-writings

If you appreciate our work, you can support us on ko-fi And if you want to stay up to date with all things WPP, you can subscribe to our newsletter here.

Current Projects:

High Stakes and Bloody Business: anthology, submissions open, expected publication October 2025

12 Months of Whump: novellas, submissions closed, expected publication 2025

2026 Whumpy Books: novelettes, novellas, novels, short story collections, and graphic novels, submissions open, expected publication 2026

Calls for Submissions:

For all submissions, we ask for nonexclusive, worldwide, English language publication rights for ebook and paperback.

High Stakes and Bloody Business

Bring out your vampires! For WPP's fourth anthology, we’re looking for stories that involve vampires. Your vampire(s) can be the whumpee, whumper, and/or caretaker. We will also consider stories about vampire-adjacent creatures such as dhampirs, succubi, etc.

Word Count: Up to 17,500 words

For this anthology, we are looking for stories in the following categories:

Micro-fiction: 250 words or less

Flash fiction: 251-1,000 words

Short Story: 1,001-7,499 words

Novelette: 7,500-17,500 words

Each author can submit one story per category. So for example, you can submit a short story and a micro fiction but you can’t submit two micro fictions.

Compensation: ebook contributor’s copy, one free paperback OR $10 USD, and discounts on additional paperbacks

50% of proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Bat Conservation International.

Submissions Open: November 1, 2024

Submissions Close: July 31, 2025

Expected Publication Date: October 2025

Submit here!

2026 Whumpy Books

The Whumpy Printing Press is now open to novelette, novella, novel, short story collection, and graphic novel submissions! We’re looking for standalone stories as well as series, and are happy to work with both new and established authors.

Your story should clearly fall into the whump genre (i.e. a character needs to be hurt). We’re looking for strong stories with a balance between whump and plot. We are especially fond of sci-fi/fantasy settings, but will consider any story as long as it gives us whumperflies!

Word count: at least 7,500. There is no word count maximum.

Submissions for the 2026 publication year must be received by September 30, 2025.

More information

Submit here!

Check Out Our Bookstore!

Books Available Now:

*WPP is a Bookshop.org affiliate. If you purchase a book on Bookshop.org after clicking one of our links, we will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Anthologies

Hurt and Comfort

Once Upon a Blade

The Whumpboratory

Novellas

Bloodbag

12 Months of Whump

Lux in Tenebris: Poena et Salus

Hunting Static

The Windows to a Shapeshifter's Soul

Never, Never

Creatures From the Caldera

Deepest Canyon: A Starslinger Tale

Novels

Cry of Fangs

Magnanimous Moonrise & Savage Sunset

Zines

ABCs of Whump

#whump #whumpblr #whump community #whump writing #whump anthology #whump fic #writeblr

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ballsballsbowls · 6 months ago

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2024 Reads in Review # 3-10

@wordcubed wanted me to answer all of the questions for this ask game. Because it's all of the questions, and I am still working on it, this section is going to be questions 3-10 (I wanted to save overall best/worst for last).

I guess it's worth a reminder that my ebook TBR has only been cleared to about September, so a lot of the true gems I have been getting from events haven't come up yet.

3. DNF With Prejudice: Book(s) you didn't finish on purpose

I DNF a LOT of books (print books, probably hovering right around 50% and with ebooks probably more like 75-80%). I’ll stop basically the second I realize I’m bored. Most of them are wholly unmemorable, but I keep brief-but-detailed notes on why I DNFd if I get past the 25% mark in a book (mostly so I know if I should try something else by the author or not). These were my favorite DNF notes this year, lightly cleaned up for other humans to read.

The Bride of Lycaster by Perci Jay – DNF notes: ~75% No fucking?

Suck It Up by Emm Darcy and May Sage – DNF Notes: ~70% Everyone here sucks so bad

Knot My Type by Evie Mitchell – DNF Notes: ~30% insipid and unrealistic even for a romcom

ETA: Mercy by Ian Haramaki - DNF Notes: ~30% "What's with the boob window?"

4. DNF With Regrets: Book(s) you didn't finish but want to get back to

I can’t think of a single one. Even the books I DNF’d in November/December, I don’t think I cared enough to go back and try again. I did set a few aside to try again later but I don’t count stuff like that as a DNF.

5. Crowd Pleaser: Book you would recommend to almost anyone

Bombshell by Sarah MacLean (Historical Romance MF). I recommend Sarah MacLean to anyone who thinks they’re “just not into” Historicals/Regencies. The fact that most of her series exist in an interconnected world makes it that much more fun. She was inspired to write this series based on historical accounts of a girl gang. Bombshell would be a fantastic entry point into her books and into Historical Romance/Regencies in general.

Dragon Blood Series by Lindsay Buroker (Fantasy Romance MF). I’ve read the first three books and bought the next three. It’s got WWI-style airplane dogfights; it’s got someone using magic to give a guy jock itch; it’s got a steampunk society; it’s got romance subplots; it’s got a sword infused with the spirit of a horny woman. If you’d rather not read sex scenes it’s got shockingly few of those, too.

Playing the Game by M.Q. Barber (Contemporary Erotica MMF). This came highly recommended to me, and I can see why. It’s really sweet and well-written.

6. Dead Dove Do Not Eat: Book you would recommend to a select audience with a mountain of caveats

This one’s only really the caveat that it’s, you know, Phantom of the Opera, but Angel’s Mask by Jessica Mason (Historical Romance MF) was quite good. It’s just also, you know, Phantom of the Opera but hornier. If that’s a problem.

I also have been having a lot of fun so far with the Seven Omegas for Seven Alphas series by Vivian Murdoch (Historical Omegaverse Erotica MF), which starts with A Duke’s Christmas Rejection. But Vivian Murdoch is not playing around when she says a series is dark.

7. Wasted Potential: Great premise and/or characters but fell down on execution

House Isador series by Joely Sue Burkhart. The worldbuilding is fascinating and fun and there’s MMMMMF and it still manages to be shockingly unpleasant to read. I read the first 6 books in a sort of fugue state and remember saying “I am still reading this and I’m not even sure why” a few times.

8. Blorbo Of The Year: Perhaps not your favorite of the year, but contains The Character

This series could easily have been slotted into almost any other “not perfect but fun” category on this list, but The Wayward Sons series by L Eveland (Contemporary Serial Killer MM) has THE blorbos of 2024. Mind the trigger warnings, mind the continuity and timeline, mind fifty other things, but definitely my favorite of the suspiciously prolific “gay serial killer adopted brothers and the first one is a psychopath and the second one has OCD and the…” genre. I had a FANTASTIC time with them and read all 4 existing books this year and have been sending my loved ones screenshots of pages where my Blorbos are Blorbo-ing. I am not even much a person who ends up with Blorbos or Book Boyfriends and I’m deeply invested a few of these idiots. It’s a shame that they are such fun and interesting characters and that their boyfriends are all thoroughly mediocre by comparison.

9. Compels Me Though: Okay, maybe not all of it made sense, but you had a great time anyway

I’m not sure it’s quite as bad as the ask implies, but Merry Farmer’s MF historical romances that I’ve read are definitely proof that there’s value in books that aren’t an A+ read, too. Her stuff is fun and an easy read and a solid B+. She’s a prolific writer as well and has started getting into MM historicals and MM contemporary now as well.

I think On Thin Ice by Calliope Stewart (Contemporary Omegaverse Romance MMF) fits in this category as well. There’s a TON of stuff in the book that simply doesn’t work, but what does work really, really works.

10. Sleeper Hit: Not a book that you have to force into people's hands, but well-executed

Lord Holt Takes a Bride by Vivienne Lorret (Historical MF). It was silly, it was touching, and even people whose opinions I respect are completely unimpressed with her work for some reason I currently cannot fathom.

Come Undone by Madelynne Ellis (Contemporary Rocker Erotica MF). I’ve been a fan of hers for years and rarely hear anyone else talking about her, and the Black Halo universe is surprisingly complex for being marketed as an erotica. She’s currently doing a lot of promos for Reflex/Replay/Refrain/etc., since she just finished that series but Come Undone is the first in the overarching series and has a couple major plot points that come up later.

#word I hope this will tide you over while I finish the rest!#reads in review 2024 #stop b think of the children

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study-with-aura · 2 months ago

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old photo

Monday, April 14, 2025

I know I didn't update at all last week. I've been working on papers and reading for Lit. I ended up choosing Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe for my Am Lit project since I also have to write a paper on the Civil War for Early Am History. I can potentially use the novel as a source for my paper. The only problem is that the book is over 600 pages for the ebook, which is how I'm reading it and annotating. I'm trying to do 30 minutes of reading during my regular study time and then 30 minutes of reading during my extracurricular reading time, which I am not reading any other books right now until I finish this one and all of my annotations since I may have to go through it twice, but the second time with a skim reading.

I have the topic for my Civil War paper too. The theme is the changes the Civil War brought to America, so I'm focusing on the big three: political, economic, and social. It has to be 5-10 pages, so that should give me plenty of material rather than focusing solely on one of them. I could definitely do that, but I feel like I'd be reaching for words before I hit the conclusion. Besides, all three of them really go together. A lot of social and economical changes occurred because of the political changes, and political changes occurred because of certain economic and social changes. You really can't write about one without including the other two in some form.

No promises I'll be up-to-date on my updates the rest of the week. As excited as I am for my lit project and history paper, (yes, I get excited over research), I'm starting to hit burn out territory. 24 days of school left. I can get through this. Summer is on the horizon!🦄

Tasks Completed:

Algebra 2 - Learned about data inferences + practice

American Literature - Copied vocabulary words + continued working on final project

Spanish 3 - Finished formal commands in a restaurant sentences + read them out loud to my dad for speaking practice

Bible 2 - Read Psalms 81, 82, and 83

Early American History - Read about the economy during the Civil War + worked on Civil War paper

Earth Science with Lab - Read about fusion energy + read about the challenges of using fusion energy + wrote a paragraph on the benefits and challenges of having a fusion power plant

Art Appreciation - Completed daily critiquing assignment on Vincent Van Gogh’s The Potato Eater's

Khan Academy - Included in Algebra 2 lesson today

Duolingo - Studied for approximately 15 minutes (Spanish + French + Chinese) + completed daily quests

Piano - Practiced for two hours

Reading - Read pages 354-408 of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Chores - Cleaned my bathroom + cleaned windows in my bedroom and in the study + laundered bedding

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Psalm 23:4)

Group Bible Study (1 Samuel 21-24)

Volunteered 2 hours at the library

Ballet

Contemporary

Journal/Mindfulness

#study blog #study inspiration #study motivation #studyblr #studyblr community #study community #homeschool #homeschooling #study-with-aura

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traegorn · 1 year ago

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Someone asked me if I'd make my books available as ePubs for non-Kindle ebook reader owners.

Bloody Damn Rite is still in its Kindle Select exclusivity window, but the first novel, The Witch and the Rose, isn't -- so I thought, why not?

You can now buy The Witch and the Rose through my Patreon shop. The price is the same as on Kindle ($3), and that version can be read on pretty much anything.

I may make PDF versions of my old web comics available like I used to too, so people who want the bonus content from the print books can get ahold of them without filling your bookshelf up with my dumb books.

Finally, $10 Tier Patrons will get any books I put up for sale on Patreon included in their membership. Now, besides getting your name in episodes of the podcast... you get some free books you never asked for! Hooray!

That's it. That's what I needed to tell you.

#Mia Graves #The Witch and the Rose #Trae Dorn #books #contemporary fantasy

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chuckmorganbooks · 8 months ago

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New Release…10/22/2024

Crime Unraveled, A Buck Taylor Novel by Chuck Morgan

Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Buck Taylor and his team are back in the 13th novel in the award-winning CRIME series.

Special release week ebook price…only $.99 (10/22/20 thru 1/27/24)

HORRIBLE NATURAL DISASTER OR MAN-MADE CATASTROPHE?

The picturesque Glenwood Canyon in Colorado has been a source of awe and inspiration for tourists and locals alike. But now, it has become a scene of chaos and destruction. The highway through the canyon, known for its engineering marvel, has been obliterated by a massive landslide, causing the Colorado River to be blocked. As the disaster unfolds, one question lingers: was this a natural disaster or a man-made catastrophe?

Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Buck Taylor is determined to find the answer. But when a geologist is found murdered, and another's wife meets a brutal death, Buck realizes that there may be more to this case than meets the eye. As he delves deeper into the investigation, he uncovers a web of secrets and lies involving a wealthy local family with a rich history. And as the body count rises, it becomes clear that someone is willing to do anything to keep the truth hidden.

When Buck thinks he's getting closer to the truth, an ecoterrorist group claims responsibility for the landslide, throwing the case in a new direction. With the harsh Colorado winter fast approaching, Buck and his team race against time to unravel the mystery before it's too late. But little do they know the end of the road may bring about a disaster that hits closer to home.

Reviewed by Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite

Confusion and panic erupted in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, after part of Glenwood Canyon collapsed in the night, shaking buildings in the small town, breaking windows, and leaving a section of a major highway and the Colorado River blocked. A state trooper and a few motorists, who were on the affected highway during the incident, were all found dead. Speculation among some of the townsfolk was that an earthquake was behind the disaster. Some thought it was an explosion. Local authorities bring in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the incident. As agent Buck Taylor of the CBI goes in pursuit of answers, he finds himself with more murders, all connected to a rich and powerful family that owns mines in the canyon. What was the family after? Can Agent Taylor expose them and stop their reign of terror in Colorado? Find out Chuck Morgan’s Crime Unraveled: A Buck Taylor Novel, Book 13.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you are looking for a mystery murder novel with a touch of crime, Chuck Morgan’s Crime Unraveled is just what you should be looking for. Starring the seasoned crime-solving Agent Buck Taylor, Morgan weaved an intriguing plot, treating me to exciting twists, adventure, thrill, drama, mystery, and so much more. The edge-of-the-seat suspense hooked me, leaving me flipping through page after page. Morgan breathed life into the scenes with colorful depictions, making me feel like I was next to the cast in every scene, watching events unfold. The depictions of the cast’s emotions and the juxtaposing of their complex traits allowed me to connect with them. Albeit the thirteenth in the series, this whodunit featuring money, power, greed, blood, murder, deception, secrets, blackmail, and murder is a stand-alone read.

Don’t miss out on the special release week ebook price…only $.99 at:

#book blog #book review #books #authors #currently reading

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mariyekos · 10 months ago

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Writer interview game

Tagged by @dithorba a little while ago so sorry about the delay but thank you for the tag! Just took me a bit to get to this.

When did you start writing?

I want to say 2014ish. The oldest fic I still have access too was started in 2014, but I don't remember if it was the first I ever wrote or the first big one I wrote. 2015 was when I started really getting into writing. I didn't post any of my writing to 2016, but I'd written tens of thousands of words by then. That 2014 fic got to 38k before I set it aside! (It was a time travel fic which hadn't even gotten to the time travel part 😅)

Though actually looking at the question again... sure I started writing fic in around 2014, but I actually started writing for fun before that! I had a teacher in elementary school, probably 5th or 6th grade, who encouraged me to write a story. I don't remember why she did, but I probably just liked writing so much that she recommended I have an outlet for that. I started with some original fiction that I want to say was something about people deserted on an island or something. In eighth grade I had another writing assignment that I'm pretty sure ended up being 25 pages long when the requirement was probably something like 5-10. After that I got into fic, and besides two or so original stories that never made it past 5k, I've stuck with it since.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write? -

I'm not good at writing romance and don't usually write romance, but I enjoy reading about romances. Generally I still prioritize plot over romance though. Once I got a book that was definitely a romance first novel and let me tell you, I was really annoyed when the MCs decide they wanted to storm out of the conference room to have sex in the hallway when they were in the middle of interrogating the guy who'd killed the POV MC's mother and was plotting the murder of a bunch of other people. There are times and places to do that! Don't do that when we have plot going! Figure it out and then go make out once we've made some progress!!

Other than that... I find body horror fascinating but I'm also not great at it. Unlike romance, body horror is something I would like to get better at writing myself.

(On a related note, the favorite genre of original fiction is fantasy. I looooove high fantasy novels! Give me magic and knights and religion and mythical creatures and I'm sold.)

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often? -

I don't think I've ever been compared to anyone. I have no idea who or what my writing is like to anyone else.

As for writers I want to emulate... this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I've gotten into the habit of screenshotting fics I really enjoy so I can break down what I enjoy and think about how to integrate that into my own writing. I'll sometimes take pictures of books if I have my phone on me while reading, or screenshot ebooks for the same reason. I wouldn't say there's one writer in particular I'm trying to emulate at the moment. I do want to get more flowery in my writing though. It might be a slog for some people, but I adore it, so that's something I want to work on.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space? -

There are a couple places! Sometimes I'll write at my desktop computer, but I frequently write on my laptop while sitting on my bed. There's a chair by a big open window that I'll also write at from time to time because I like the light. Usually when I'm in my room it's because it's later in the day/night, whereas when I write in the window chair it's because it's earlier and the light streams in the room in a pretty way. I like to change it up a little bit from time to time.

When I was younger I wrote pretty exclusively on my phone. It was either my phone or the family computer, which I did start on, but that was hard because I didn't want to write when anyone was home so...yeah. Now I hardly ever write on my phone. For one, my two main WIPS are over 85k words long so they'll just crash if I try to write on my phone. Beyond that I tend to write when I'm at home, and I'm faster at typing on my laptop than I am on my phone. It's physically more comfortable. But I will use my phone if inspiration strikes when I'm out and I want to jot something down, or if it's the end of the day and I'm in bed and want to knock out a few (hundred) words before I go to sleep. (Occasionally this will turn into a thousand words like a few days ago but. Usually it's for shorter stints!)

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse? -

Great question. I wish I knew!

I will say that several of my recent fics have been motivated by seeing someone post something that makes little sparks go off in my mind. They'll put out a question or a sentence or three, then my head will go 'ah yes, what if we explored this-' and go deeper. From there it's just a matter of how much I feel like writing. Sometimes there's an idea I enjoy but little motivation to write. Sometimes I really, really want to write but even if the ideas are sitting there, I just can't get the words to flow because none are appealing in that moment. Sometimes I just have to trudge through a hundred words or few before I get in the groove of things and the words start flowing.

I will say that I daydream about things a lot. So sometimes I will daydream about a scenario until it turns into something fic worthy. Other times I'll have a fic, daydream, and then get enough of a foundation that I feel like I can write. It just depends.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you? -

Uhhhh. Angst? Pushing characters to emotional limits and seeing how being stretched may make them react? Character studies? If there are recurring themes they're probably unconscious. I like feeling things, I like making characters feel things, and I like examining them when they do.

I will say that a good deal of my recent writing (posted and not) has to deal with unpleasant situations and how people react to having to make a decision when their only options are bad ones, or to people doing unhealthy things. Lots of heavier topics in my recent writing. Does this surprise me? Nah, I enjoy it. Does it perhaps say something about my recent mental state? Well.

Even if they go through hardships they make it through. Are they happy? Well. They're alive. Happiness means something different to everyone. For those of you who've read xxxHolic, if you remember Yuko's quote about Subaru....it's stuck with me for a very long time. That and Subaru's horrible terrible quote about happiness to Kamui in X. Should the takeaway be that you should be okay with not finding happiness because happiness is not for everyone? That not everyone can find happiness and this is a fact of life that we should make peace with? Probably not. You should always strive for more. But whether I and the characters I write about are doing that as much as they probably should... it's fascinating exploring what happiness means to someone, and where the line between contentment and happiness lies, especially in regards to peace and acceptance.

What is your reason for writing? -

It's fun. I like imagining characters in scenarios, and when I write, I preserve a variation of that scenario that I can always come back to and enjoy. Sometimes I'll daydream variants of my own fics that don't happen quite how I wrote them. And that works because I have that base to come back to! Writing also helps me straighten out some of the kinks in these daydream scenarios. It's also fun to improve.

I also write to share my ideas with other people. I love reading what other people write, so I like to share my ideas so they can have a little peace of that happiness too. It also opens the door for discussion, which I absolutely adore. Sometimes even a short comment can get my brain firing all cylinders again, prompting me to think about something in a new or deeper way. I was very chatty in college discussion classes and I miss forums. I love talking about the things I love, I love exploring different themes and motifs and language etc etc, and fic is an excellent way of starting the discussion.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer? -

I'm not sure. I would like to say ideas, but even then I don't know. I can write long things? But I feel like that's more my a product of my definite weakness, which is being concise. I really struggle with that. It's something I've tried to work on from time to time, but I still tend to get so wordy I lose steam on fics before they're done. My google drive is the graveyard for dozens of unpublished fics. And when I say dozens, there are definitely over a hundred.

How do you feel about your own writing? -

I think it's on the good side of okay. I'd probably rate it 6.5 or 7 out of 10, with 10 being "this is the most amazing thing I have ever read, get this person an award, I need to talk about this writing," 0 being "this person seriously needs a beta and to look up the fundamentals of writing, I could not finish this." and 5 being "yeah this is readable, was worth my time to read it."

Recently I did some self reflection and have come to terms with the fact that my writing isn't what I want it to be but that's okay. I'm young. I've been writing for 10 years, sure, but for how much of that time have I really been trying to get better as a writer, as opposed to merely writing? How much time have I spent studying other writers? How much time have I spent trying to tweak my writing without giving up? I have time and I have room to grow. I might not be at the top but my stuff is still readable for the most part.

I think I have a better relationship with my writing than I did a year or two ago, when I felt like I was not able to do what I wanted to do and immensely frustrated by it. I'm still a little frustrated, but I don't feel paralyzed like I used to. My two current longfic wips, sitting at 89k and 101k words, are fics that I wrote for plot and and am currently revising. They're both almost done in terms of plot, only needing another ~2 and ~3 chapters respectively, but I'm only ~25% and 5% through revising for writing respectively. By that I mean going back to make them sound pretty. And even more importantly, I'm revising them to make them consistent in terms of style, and for the style to mimic the atmosphere/plot of the fic! I'm trying to work on matching my writing style to the narrator, which can be a bit tricky when the narrator doesn't exactly lend themself to the style I would like to write in, so I've been working on blending the two.

My writing isn't perfect. I wish it were better. I really, really wish I were better at using literary devices, adding in references, the general 'being flowery', and making these big overarching themes that readers can catch onto. I wish I were better at connecting small thins to the big themes. I love picking apart writing, and I want people to be able to pick apart my writing to find gems too. I need to strike a balance between explaining all my choices in the writing and not explaining them but hoping readers pick up on it. It does not always make sense for the narrator to explain all of the logic to something, because some of that should be innate. But I also don't want things to seem illogical, or for signs to be so obscure no one catches them. It's hard to strike this balance. I'm not very good at it yet.

So when it comes to the art of writing, I think I'm overall only just barely okay. When it comes to the craft or the act, sure I can write. I've written 288k words of fic this year. I can do plots. I can put words on paper (or on screen). But are they works of art? Well...they are, technically, I'm not going to deny that, but are they museum worthy? My current answer is no. If they're going in any museums then it's the city museum at best. It's the filler that people enjoy, but could easily be replaced. It's okay. People enjoy it! I'm proud of it. But I know it could be better.

That's the main thing. I know it could be better.

I want it to be better. I need to get down the patience to make it better. I'm making strides, but I'm not where I want to be yet.

My writing is enjoyable, but again I would place it on the good side of okay. Or the okay side of good. Not the good side of good. It feels childish in a way, compared to some of the greats. Not all writing needs to be chock full of little references and themes and flowery language to be good, but since that's what I want my writing to be, it means I'm not where I want to be and thus that it isn't good at what I want it to be. It's okay at what I want it to be.

We'll see how far I ever manage to get. I have so many words I haven't' published because I feel like they're not "good writing" and it's frustrating me because I want to share. I'm just sitting here hoping someone doesn't get to the topic before I do... because I definitely have stuff in my vaults that I enjoyed but hadn't finished tweaking, only to find someone wrote the same topic but better, causing me to place them in the grave because I can't hope to match that and don't want to be accused of plagiarism, because who's going to believe I wrote my thing first but then left it in my drafts for 3 months?

So...yeah I need to get over myself lol. I can write. I've been writing a long time. What I write is enjoyable. It could just be better. I want to get better at writing as an art. Hone my skills, refine my craft, and all that.

#erurandomness #thank you for the tag! took a while to get to but this was fun to think about #because man do i have a lot to think about #eruwrites #erubabbles #eruanswers #tag meme

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disabledcharacters · 1 year ago

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The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Part 1 (of 4) Chapter 1 (of 50) Page 3 (of 913)

Towards the end of November, during a thaw, at nine o’clock one morning, a train on the Warsaw and Petersburg railway was approaching the latter city at full speed. The morning was so damp and misty that it was only with great difficulty that the day succeeded in breaking; and it was impossible to distinguish anything more than a few yards away from the carriage windows.

Some of the passengers by this particular train were returning from abroad; but the third-class carriages were the best filled, chiefly with insignificant persons of various occupations and degrees, picked up at the different stations nearer town. All of them seemed weary, and most of them had sleepy eyes and a shivering expression, while their complexions generally appeared to have taken on the colour of the fog outside.

When day dawned, two passengers in one of the third-class carriages found themselves opposite each other. Both were young fellows, both were rather poorly dressed, both had remarkable faces, and both were evidently anxious to start a conversation. If they had but known why, at this particular moment, they were both remarkable persons, they would undoubtedly have wondered at the strange chance which had set them down opposite to one another in a third-class carriage of the Warsaw Railway Company.

[Planet ebook] Available in epub, pdf, mobi

#the idiot #lev myshkin #prince myshkin #fyodor dostoevsky #books #epilepsy #disability #disabled characters #i've read 6 chapters so far #it's long but i'm enjoying it so far

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moonlightreal · 1 year ago

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"Why doesn't she self publish?"

Why haven’t we gotten Strange Fate? Why hasn’t Ms. Smith just self published it? A question posed by Jen on Goodreads and hey, it got me thinking!

Short answer: we don’t know.

But I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Simon & Schuster owns rights to the series and is blocking publication in some way. Maybe they’re saving it in hopes that paranormal romance becomes the big thing in YA again. YA has its fads, there was girl meets vampire, then dystopian, and right now on my library’s suggestion page it looks like a “loads of representation, possibly too much representation” fad is fading into a “books for girls who love true crime podcasts” fad. So Strange Fate really missed its popularity window so there’s no need to rush, maybe the publisher prefers to save it and see if it fits the next fad better.

The problem is that I don’t know enough about publishing contracts to know what rights a publisher has.. I have read that the publisher of a series gets “right of refusal” on any new books in it, but if S&S had a chance at Strange Fate and said no, would Ms. Smith be free to shop it around or self publish, or would S&S be able to just sit on it? I don’t know. Anybody know a successful published author they can ask?

2) Strange Fate isn’t finished. We’ve heard that it’s finished… a bunch of times… but it has also been rewritten a bunch of times. There was the 1999 Strange Fate with Blade the vampire, the Strange Fate with Brionwy’s story in Sarah’s dreams, the Strange Fate with the Night World characters in Sarah’s dreams, and the latest update we have is that Ms. Smith is “rewriting it completely” in 2022. With all of these rewrites Strange Fate may just be starting over and over and never quite getting to all the way done and publishable before it needs to start over again.

3) Strange Fate isn’t any good. LJ Smith is a good writer. But she went through family illness stuff that was bad enough that she wasn’t able to write for 10+ years and then had a major medical emergency that left her in a coma. Meaning her brain was not doing ok, and the brain is where the writing happens. Strange Fate has also been in development hell for 20 years, with multiple changes and rewrites. Oh, and during this time teen life and YA literature went through some really big changes. If this kind of thing happened to a hundred writers with a hundred books, most of them wouldn’t be able to overcome it! We want to see Ms. Smith overcome it because she seems cool and the universe has been unkind to her and we want to see her succeed, but if she doesn’t there’s no shame in being defeated by impossible circumstances!

4) Maybe Ms. Smith doesn’t know about the self publishing options available today. She was a writer in the nineties when stuff like ebooks, patreon, kickstarter and lulu.com were not a thing yet. Does she know she has all these options? Does she have an editor to explain them all? We don’t know.

5) And if she does know about them she may not want to take advantage of them. Ms. Smith was a full on very popular published author in the 90s, and self publishing would be a step down in pride. It would also be a step down in money; self-published books don’t usually make it onto the shelves at B&N or at libraries., and a self publisher won’t handle the marketing for you like the teen branch of Simon & Schuster will. I have no idea how well off Ms. Smith is, she must be making some kind of royalties from the TV series and reprints, but she had major medical issues that must have cost a lot.

So that’s my guesses. I don’t know the truth but I bet it’s one of these, maybe more than one together. What do you think?

#lj smith #strange fate

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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The Lost Cause prologue part IV

I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a rollicking solarpunk adventure about defending the Green New Deal from seagoing anarcho-capitalist wreckers and white nationalist militias; Bill McKibben called it "a chronicle of mutual aid that is politically perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful":

The book comes out on Nov 14 from Tor Books and Head of Zeus, and I'm running a Kickstarter campaign to pre-sell the ebook, hardcover and (especially) the audiobook (Amazon refuses to carry my audiobooks, so this is the only way to get them into readers' hands); you can back it now:

http://lost-cause.org

To whet your appetite, I'm serializing the book's prologue, which really kicks things off:

Here's part one:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/06/green-new-deal-fic/#the-first-generation-in-a-century-not-to-fear-the-future

And part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/07/met-cute-ugly/#part-ii

And part three:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/09/working-the-refs/#lost-cause-prologue

And now, part four:

A couple of my friends were working on an AP science project— they’d made an enzyme they thought would break down polyethylene at room temperature—and I’d promised that I’d help them after school. Walking home past Verdugo Park, I ran into some more friends sitting in the grass and chatting, so I sat with them, watching the kids on the playground and the dog-walkers and the swordfighting class boffing each other with foam swords, and hours slipped by.

By the time I headed home, the sun was low and the day was finally starting to cool off. I remembered that I’d forgotten to pull the blinds before going out and imagined how hot and stuffy the house would be. Maybe Gramps had gotten back early enough to lower them. Otherwise, I could lie in the backyard in my hammock and do some reading while I waited for the house to air out some.

The blinds were drawn. I went in through the back door and dropped my bag on my bed, stripped off my tee and pulled on a fresh one, and headed to the kitchen for a snack.

“Gramps?”

He didn’t answer, which I figured meant that he was playing his podcasts through his hearing aids. They were supposed to be smart enough to pass speech through, but they struggled with people shouting from other rooms. I grabbed some more iced coffee and went into the living room.

Gramps was sitting in his spot on the old sofa, staring out the window. “Gramps?”

He didn’t look around. I moved into his line of sight and then drew back. His face was set in a mask of rage I hadn’t seen since I was a kid and came to live with him, the face he’d make before he’d hit me. He hadn’t hit me in a long time, not since he’d raised a bruise where one of my middle-school teachers could see it and she’d called CPS on him. They’d made him do a month of mandatory anger-management classes.

“Gramps?” I reached for him but didn’t touch him. He was quivering.

He fixed his gaze on me. Glared.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

He stood up. He was shorter than me now, and couldn’t quite straighten up, but it still felt like he was towering over me. “Kid, you know exactly what’s wrong, and don’t pretend otherwise.”

Oh.

“Gramps, he could have killed me. I saved his life. I know he’s a friend of yours—”

“Shut the fuck up about that, kid. Don’t talk about my friends. Don’t talk about who I know and who I don’t know. You know what that dumb asshole Mike Kennedy is up against? Forty years. Seven felony counts. Most of ’em to do with you: kidnapping, assault, attempted murder. Death penalty shit. Don’t think that the DA isn’t going to use that, the feds have got a hard-on for anyone who doesn’t toe the line on their Green New Deal bullshit. They’re gonna tell him that either he testifies against his friends or he’ll get a lethal injection. Kennedy’s no genius, either. He’ll cave. You just watch.”

“Gramps—”

“Shut up, I said. You think saying my name on your viral video is gonna help anything. Shit, kid, why didn’t you just turn me in yourself?”

“Come on, Gramps. I didn’t plan this, Mike did.” I wanted so badly to leave, but Gramps was between me and the door. “Tell you what, let’s go visit him. They’ll let him have visitors in lockup, right?”

Gramps sagged back down into his chair. “Kennedy’s not in lockup. They let him go an hour ago.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, that sounds good, right?”

He shook his head and gave me a disgusted look. “No, kid, that doesn’t sound good. That sounds like he ratted everyone out already. In which case he’s a fucking dead man.”

I took a deep breath. Gramps was clearly on the brink of losing it altogether and telling him he was being overly dramatic would definitely push him right over the edge. “If that’s true, then maybe you should talk to your other friends, or maybe him—”

“Just shut up, okay? Don’t talk about shit you don’t and can’t understand. Look, if Kennedy sold out his friends then he’s got what’s coming to him and besides, there isn’t a damned thing in the world I could do to stop it. But what’s more likely is that he didn’t say a word, but they’ve put him on the street so that people get the impression that maybe he did, and now he’s in fear for his life and the only way to save his skin is to run back to the station house and start talking. It wouldn’t be the first time they tried that stunt. And the fact is, it doesn’t matter which one it is because he’s gonna get shut up before he can do that, because everyone understands what’s going on here and what’s at stake. So me calling that sad sack now would just make me the last person who spoke to the victim before he turned up dead.”

“That’s terrible.”

“No, kid, that’s life. What’s terrible is that my own grandson is involved in this ugly stupid mess, and that every dumbass on the internet is trading clips with my name in them, doxing me, associating me with this ridiculous garbage.”

Now I was starting to get mad. “I didn’t do it on purpose, you know. Your friend threatened to kill me. I didn’t tell him to get up on that roof or fill his Super Soaker with hydrochloric acid.”

“Yeah, you didn’t, that’s true.” He picked up a beer from the table next to him, finished the last swallow, set it down. “You didn’t. But you were and you did and now—” He shook his empty beer. “Ah, shit. Brooks, listen, you know that my friends are okay, but some of their friends . . .”

I knew. I’d sometimes spot Gramps’s friends marching with the Maga Club groups, carrying ugly signs, conspiracies and racism and “demographics are destiny.” Or set up with a table on Magnolia on Food Truck Friday, showing videos about “the great replacement” and “socialist tyranny.”

“I know who you mean.”

“None of ’em ever liked you. They didn’t like your father even before he went to Canada with that woman. When he did, well, that sealed it for ’em. To leave America and go work for the socialists? Kid, it’s a good thing he never tried to come back here, I’ll tell you that much. Far as they’re concerned, the only good thing that rabbit flu did was kill a bunch of foreign commies, agitators, traitors, and climate bed wetters. By which they mean your father and mother. And by extension, that means you. Your sex thing doesn’t help either—”

My head filled with that buzzing sound I heard whenever Gramps tried to talk to me about sexuality. The fact that I wouldn’t call myself straight made him crazy. The fact that I wouldn’t say “gay” or “bi” or any of those old-fashioned terms made him absolutely bugfuck. “Queer” was okay with me, or “pan,” but honestly, who the fuck cared? Why would my grandfather need to know which people I wanted to fuck and which people I did fuck? I’d explained this to him calmly and I’d had shouting matches with him about it. My other friends had problems with this stuff, sure, but their parents were able to at least pretend to understand. Gramps was a generation older and not only didn’t he understand, he didn’t want to. “Just pick one, kid,” is what he’d say, and then I’d overhear him saying worse to his friends when they took over the kitchen to play poker or the living room to watch a game.

“Jesus, Gramps”—that buzzing sound was blood, of course, coursing in my ears as my rage built and built—“would you just shut up about that bullshit? I don’t care what your asshole friends want. In case you didn’t notice, one of them nearly murdered me last night—”

“Shut. Up.” Loud, in that boss voice he used when he was getting everyone else to listen to him, whether it was on a jobsite or during an argument over cards. “Yeah, one of my friends just about murdered you last night, but he didn’t, did he? You know why? Because of me. Because of who I am in this community. Our name, Palazzo, it goes back a long way in this town. We’re Lockheed originals, thanks to my own dad. That counts for something. You’re safe because you’re my grandson, that’s what I’m trying to explain to you. But it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card. You’re not untouchable.”

“Thanks for letting me know.” I hated it when Gramps acted like he was in the Mafia because he and his friends were the kinds of assholes who periodically got drunk or disturbed enough to commit some act of idiotic vandalism.

“Kid—” he started. I left.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/10/weaponized-interdependence/#super-soaker-full-of-hydrochloric-acid

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

#pluralistic #books #science fiction #clifi #solarpunk #the lost cause #kickstarter #audiobooks #audible #crowdfunders

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mas-cot · 11 months ago

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Artista Pirata: pc (windows, mac, linux) cracked software, mainly adobe and sofware for designers. Direct download, 10/10

Anna's Archive: ebooks (mobi, epub, pdf, azw etc...) in multiple languages. Direct download.

Audiobookbay: audiobooks via torrent

Watchsomuch: Movies and series via torrent

Massgravel: microsoft products with activated license

Game PC ISO: videogames. Direct download

#pirating

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itxhuyyhere · 16 days ago

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Week 10 - Assignment 3 Process - Group 19

In week 11, my job as a gameplay programmer sort of came into focus because we were progressing forward with the level 1 miniboss fight. While most of the team focused on developing the visual, narrative, and even some game design, I remained focused on developing the mechanics to create a challenging and readable encounter for the player. I was ultimately working to make combat feel responsive, fair, and in line with the pacing and stakes in the game.

The main challenge of the week was tuning the skeleton AI and combat logic for the miniboss. In early play testing the miniboss was spamming attacks in an unmanageable way, abruptly increasing difficulty for the player with no corresponding degree of player skill. The hitboxes did not match the animation whatsoever, which didn't contribute to clear damage-on-hit messages and made it unclear to the player what they were expected to do. Using Fullerton's (2018) principles related to meaningful choice and player feedback, I redesigned the miniboss to have clearly telegraphed attack patterns that have cooldown windows and wind-up animations (both in animation and design) to allow players more time to react.

I also rewrote how melee hitboxes are handled altogether, timing them, as closely as possible, with the frames in animation to provide a responsive feel with predictable input. This alone addressed a large body of negative feedback in playtest sessions and resulted in a more fluid combat loop.

Along with improving the feel and adjusting the polish from the feedback we received, I also added subtle mechanics to give players some tools in terms of countering the boss attack. For instance, providing several frames of invincibility immediately after taking damage allowed a player to not be stunned continuously, and improved recovery animations helped re-establish player agency in and around combat. While these observations might seem like game bugs to address, they focused on the player overcoming skill-based challenges in lieu of randomization or luck.

Full ownership over the miniboss logic, AI, etc allowed me to actively explore how player emotion is intricately related to gameplay systems. Even seemingly benign bugs in timing or movement can result in unexpected player frustration, or lack of intent. However, after many iterations, I feel I am getting closer to a fight that rewards strategic positioning, timing, and acceptable levels of risk—all values we wanted our protagonist to confront on their journey.

Reference:

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698

#igb120 #asg3 #gamedevelopment

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