#JOAL GOAL :3

[binchannies]

my tummy did something

PHI V FLA 11.09.24 joel intermission review

[qguardian]

Idea for Last of Us 3

So GameTheory recently put out a video that shows that Ellie probably isn’t immune because of something in her body, but she’s immune because she caught a different strain of the fungus that eats its brothers and sisters, allowing its host to be free of the zombie infection, and possibly any infection. Combining this theory with recent events, here is my idea of TLOU 3.

Jackson gets a visitor from a aging immunologist, in her 70s or so. She claims that she was looking for a famous smuggler to get her to the remaining fireflies in Catalina Island because just getting to Jackson was a struggle and her old bones needed help to make the long journey. They have to inform her that Joal is no longer around, but the fact that she is searching for the fireflies peeks Ellie’s interest. The immunologist, let’s call her Jill, says she has vital information about the infection that could lead to a cure. After some deliberation, Ellie agrees to help her find the fireflies, and someone convinces Dina to help, leaving her son behind for the cause of finding a cure and possibly reconnecting with Ellie.

Act 1- The Journey to Find the Fireflies

Similar game play to TLOU 1 of going from area to area fighting off infected and bandits. During this journey, at some point Jill’s mask get’s broken in an infected area. Panic ensues, but she quickly calms them down. It is revealed that much like Ellie, she is immune to the infection. The escape and make camp and Ellie also reveals her immunity, recounting the events of the first game and says they were so close to a cure but Joel ruined it. Jill laughs and states that he didn’t. Ellie and Dina are confused. Jill explains that their immunity doesn’t come from inside them, but from being infected with a competing strand of the infection that eats the others kind, and basically anything else. The firefly scientists were so desperate for a cure, they never took the time to fully understand her immunity and were willing to kill her on a hunch. The weight of the revaluation that Joel was right to save her weighs heavy on Ellie, and motivates her to keep going. 

During the next gameplay section, Jill reveals she isn’t partitioning the fireflies for science, she needs them for soldiers because she needs help to find this strand of the infection that makes people immune. Also over the section, Jill shares stories with them about the pre-outbreak America, some good, but also about the tensions between many groups and how leadership did not solve the problem, but provoked it. 

Finally, they reach the fireflies, explain the situation, and ask for help locating this strain. There are no clues as to where it is except Ellie’s origins. Jill explains that she had isolated this strain in her lab, but her lab had been burned down by Zealots (Scars) that had been pushed out of their home and were taking retribution on anyone who they passed. The only hope was to find where Ellie came from and hope that that is where she was originally infected. Ellie said she grew up in Boston, but vaguely remembers her mother telling her they had moved there when she was still an infant (or something else that retcons the first game). The fireflies state that their goal then is to find where Ellie was born and dispatch a group of people to aid Jill, Ellie, and Dina. A group of people that includes...Abby and Lev. 

Act 2 Ellie’s origins and finding the strain

More Journey ensues. The first goal is to reach a firefly contact that keeps detailed record of all known members and associates. During the journey, Dina and Lev are holding back their respective friends from keeping Abby and Ellie from killing each other. Jill tells more stories of the old days to keep people calm. During the journey at some point Abby finds out that her dad almost murdered Ellie for no reason, which means Joel was sort of in the right and that she went on a crusade to murder him for no reason. Cue her emotional weight. 

They reach the contact and they say that they only knew that Ellie’s mom had been fleeing from somewhere deep in the Appellation mountains of Virginia. All previous groups sent to investigate the area had gone mission and the few people who were known from the area never spoke about it. It was suspected of a massive bandit nest, possibly zealots like Scars, lived there and were hyper aggressive of all that come onto their land. It was their only lead, so the group heads out.

More Journey. More character building. Group is forming hesitant trust bond. 

Group arrives to area, remarking they had not seen an infected in a long time. The few structures they came across were abandoned, but in good condition. Finally, the group climbs a mountain to get a good look at the area and can’t believe what they see.There is an entire settlement that looks near untouched of the infection. Electricity, cars, other tech, all in perfect working order. The young ones are excited but Jill is reserved. She says they still might be dangerous but Ellie says if the other groups had found this place they wouldn’t want to leave either. They rush to the gates.

To their surprise, the gates open and they are welcomed into this settlement, called Oasis. Basically the place looks like Southern California but in the mountains. Grand looking buildings, homes, etc.. The person they meet says not to worry, they will get them settled, fed, bathed and clothed. After that, their leader would want to welcome them. Cue some cute scenes of Ellie and co enjoying modern comforts for the first time. Jill is still reserved. The next day they meet the “mayor” of Oasis, who makes it pretty clear that they were welcome but wants to make sure no one else was coming. He expertly dodges any questions about how this place exists, and just says that he has taken care of his people and the infection is not a worry here. 

The gang leaves still feeling good but Jill is visibly distressed. After they get somewhere private, Jill reveals that the “mayor” was the last president of the united states. He was surrounded by his old cabinet. She fully explains about the tensions and near civil war the country was in right before the outbreak. Dina says she and Lev appear to be the only ones not white in the whole city and they were getting looks. Jill theorizes that Oasis was built before the outbreak specifically as a shelter for it.They might be sitting on the strand that makes people immune, and refusing to share with the rest of the world. The weight that the outbreak was planned sinks in. 

Act 3- Oasis

The rest of the game is discovering the secrets of Oasis, finding Ellie’s lost family, and confronting the Mayor. They discover that the immune strain is here, along with another strain that turn people into zombies but aren’t aggressive. Oasis uses these zombies for labor, intentionally turning visitors into these slaves to serve their lavish lifestyle. No surprise that most of the slaves aren’t white. The gang decides to steal some samples of the immune strain and escape, but are obviously confronted. The climax finds Ellie confronting an enraged mayor who exclaims that he orchestrated the outbreak to punish an ungrateful nation, choosing to only save those who followed him. He destroyed billions of lives for the sake of his ego and he refuses to let this strain outside Oasis because he had no desire for the country to recover. Once the infection had wiped out the rest of the world, him and his followers would rebuild the world in his image. The gang brings an end to him and runs for their lives, though most don’t make it out. The only two who I would guarantee survive is Ellie and Dina, and Jill sacrifices herself somewhere along the line. They manage to recover a single sample of the immune strand. Game ends with them trying to figure out how to get strand to someone who can cultivate it to make a cure in secret. 

And yea, that’s about it. This was long but I would love to know thoughts. 

[ajbrooks-writes]

🖤💔 for the writer wip ask!

Thanks @wordsofpaintandsmoke! This is referring to writer wip asks game.

I’ll answer for my main wip For The Crown.

🖤  what are your MC names?

My MC’s are Elthian and Ryvaeryn. Elthian goes by El in informal situations. Ryvaeryn goes by Ryn most of the time, unless she doesn’t know or doesn’t trust you. Any other shortenings or nicknames for Ryn will result in injury.

For the purposes of the next question i’ll chuck in a couple more characters. Secondary characters are Joal, Kalen, who goes by K most of the time, and Skye. I’m a big fan of nicknames. And long names.

💔: give a brief character bio of your 3-5 MCs

I feel like going super factual here:

Crown Prince Elthian is 29, has a wayward older brother, Orrian,  lives at the royal castle near the capitol of Mantha. Elthian’s mother died when he was four, his brother abdicated when he was 11, and he has been training since then to be king. All he wants is to be a good, fair leader. Like his father.

Ryvaeryn is 26, an only child, the only central OC to grow up on the mainland. Her parents died when she was one, her grandparents (guardians) were killed when she was 15, and she has been running since then. All she wants is to feel like she belongs, and find a deeper purpose.

Joal is 30, has a sister, lives at the castle. Their mother died in childbirth, father disappeared, they were in abusive foster care until age 10, when he and his sister escaped and became homeless. He saved Elthian’s life, he and his sister became wards to the crown. His sister left at 19. All he wants is to be reunited with his family.

Kalen is 32, also has an older brother, a Duke, who runs their family estate. He had a stable childhood, until he killed his uncle in self defense when he was 13, and took a long time to find acceptance. Kalen’s goal is to help people, particularly with traumatic experiences, to feel safe and accepted and happy.

Skye is 21, her older sister died two years ago, she’s from the southern islands where her family still lives. Skye lives at the castle most of the year, and has done since she was nine. Elthian is a good friend to her. All she wants is to be validated as a person, and find someone who understands her.

Just realising how bleak their childhoods were. Oops. They all have deep emotional wounds. Lets remember this is a feudal society.

Thanks for the ask!

[westessexfootball17]

22/9/19 Results

Chelsea:1 Liverpool:2

Arsenal:3 Aston Villa:2

West Ham :2 Man Utd:0

Crystal Palace:1 Wolves:1

There was a bumper four games today with 12 goals scored and Liverpool finished the day top and still with a 100% record after a 2-1 away win at Chelsea. It took the Reds just 15 minutes to take the lead Mo Salah rolled a free kick into the path of Trent Alexander-Arnold who fired home a brilliant shot into the top corner. Chelsea thought they had equalised on 28 minutes when Cesar Azpilicueta found the back of the net after the Liverpool defence failed to clear a Willian cross but VAR decided that Mason Mount was offside in the build up and the goal was disallowed. Two minutes later and Liverpool had a second when bad Chelsea defending left Roberto Firmino unmarked in the box and he headed home an Andrew Robinson cross. Liverpool had chances to put the game to bed before Chelsea were handed a lifeline 19 minutes from time when N'Golo Kante scored with a brilliant solo effort to half the arrears which lead to a tense finish where both Michy Batshuayi and Mount had chances to earn the Blues a point but Liverpool held on to restore their five point lead at the top and extend there unbeaten league run to 23 games there longest since November 1990. Arsenal are 4th after coming from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-2. John McGinn gave Villa a deserved lead on 20 minutes.Ainsley Maitland-Niles was then given his marching orders for a second bookable offense to reduce Arsenal to 10 men just before half time. Nicolas Pepe scored his first Gunners goal to level things up after 59 minutes but 89 seconds later Wesley put Villa back in front and it looked like they would hold on but two goals in the final 10 minutes turned things around sub Callum Chambers drew Arsenal level again after 81 minutes and then six minutes from time Pierre Emerick Aubameyang completed the comeback to earn Arsenal a vital three points. At the London stadium Man Utd's poor start continued as they lost 2-0 to West Ham. The Hammers were rewarded for their excellent first half performance when Andriy Yarmolenko shot past a diving Utd keeper to put them in front on the stroke of half time. United were brighter in the second half but Hope's of a comeback were derailed when Marcus Rashford was injured and finally put to bed when Aaron Cresswell scored a stunning free kick five minutes from the end moving the Hammers up to fifth in the table. The days other game saw Crystal Palace and Wolves share the points after a 1-1 draw,Diogo Jota scored the equaliser in the fifth minute of injury time. It was a poor first half but 60 seconds after the break a Joal Ward shot went in off Leander Dendoncker to give Palace the lead it got better for the London side when Romain Saiss was shown a red card but they couldn't find the all important second goal and had to settle for a point.

[valeriebielbooks]

September Writers’ Forum

In my journey through the steps of independent publishing, refining my writing skills, and most recently completing a successful agent search, I’ve come across some excellent information, tips, tools, and shortcuts that I think would be beneficial to any writer. Once a month, I’ll share the “best of” information and news from the publishing industry as well as feature other authors and writing instructors with tips to share. I am incredibly thankful for the assistance and advice given to me from writing and publishing professionals and am happy pay that forward. On a professional level, I also use my publicity and editorial skills to aid other authors through my company Lost Lake Press.

October Book Events in Wisconsin

Well, hello October. You are going to be good to readers here in Wisconsin. I’m having a fangirl moment thinking about all the spectacular authors we have the opportunity to see this month.

At the top of my list is the Fox Cities Book Festival from October 9 – 15. Authors include Laurie Halse Anderson, Nickolas Butler, Liz Czukas, Tricia Clasen, Patricia Skalka, and so many more. Check out the whole schedule here. Best of all this festival is free for the attendees.

Mystery to Me Bookstore, 1863 Monroe Street, Madison

October 4 at 7 pm – Joal Derse Dauer and Elizabeth Ridley discuss Saving Sadie – How a Dog That No One Wanted Inspired the World

October 18 at 5 pm – Steve and Ben Nadler discuss Heretics at the UW-Madison Memorial Library, Room 126

October 19 at 7 pm – Debussy’s Paris – Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque by Catherine Kautsky

October 26 at 7 pm – Michael Stanley will discuss Dying to Live - a Detective Kubu Mystery.

A Room of One’s Own, 315 W. Gorham Street, Madison

October 3 at 6 pm – Ann Leckie will discuss Provenance and Ancillary Justice.

October 11 at 6 pm – Meet Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands.

October 17 at 6 pm – Alex Lemon will discuss his novel Feverland.

Books & Company, 1039 Summit Avenue, Oconomowoc

October 5 at 6:30 pm – Join Brad Meltzer for an author talk and book signing.

October 6 at 7:30 pm – Michael Perry will present his monologues at the OAC Little Theater.

October 17 at 7:00 pm – Join Kathleen Ernst, author of the Chloe Ellefson Mysteries, for an author talk and book signing.

October 18 at 7:00 pm – A book signing and author talk with Mary Dougherty, author of Life in a Northern Town.

Boswell Books has a number of excellent ticketed events coming up in October. I’m posting the link to their event page now as they can sell out.  (Please note these are often in bigger event venues in the Milwaukee area.) See details here.

October 23 7 pm  - Scott Kelly, author of Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

October 8  4 pm – Rick Riordan, author of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3: The Ship of the Dead (and so much more.)

October 29 at 2 pm – Kate DiCamillo, author of La La La: A Story of Hope (and Tales of Despereaux and Because of Winn Dixie.) This event is co-hosted with Books & Company of Oconomowoc.

And . . . we are in the middle of BANNED BOOKS WEEK.

Last month, I challenged you to read a least one book from the list of most-often challenged books through the years during the month of September. Have any of you read a banned book lately? Inquiring minds want to know. I feel like if someone tells me something is banned, it makes me want to read it even more. Right!!??

Featured Subject

Book Piracy (A personal experience this time!)

“Aargh!” Yes, talk like a pirate day was last week, but that was pretty much my reaction to finding my first book being pirated by shady book websites this month. I’ve previously addressed this problem back in February here on the Writers’ Forum, but at that time it wasn’t from personal experience.

At first, I reported a few of these to Google using the “reporting pirated books” steps in this WikiHow article, which also has a number of great steps to take BEFORE you publish your book. Then I realized just how much time I was spending trying to take down these thieves. Was it worth it? I’m not sure. Dave Chesson on Kindlepreneur.com gives some of the same tips on what to do, but also cautions that sometimes it might not be worth the time. He does give step-by-step instruction on what to do to report these sites if you choose to continue. And finally, Bill Peschel’s article “How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Ebook Piracy” put this all into perspective.

So, I’ve taken a deep breath and stepped back from internet policing duties. My time is better focused on creating new stories, and that’s a heck of a lot more fun anyway.

Pre-Publication Information

Book Cover Design

There are an infinite number of articles and guides about book cover design. We can’t discount the need for stellar cover design in your book’s overall success. But where to start??

Katie McCoach writes about first impressions and the things your book cover must do to entice the reader to purchase it. The Marketing Christian Books website makes some of the same points and talks about the importance of book covers to get readers to recommend your books to others. To get into the nitty gritty of design, read the Top 8 Design Tips for Self-Publishers by Joel Friedlander on the Book Designer website. (Note: This website is an amazing treasure trove of helpful articles on all self-publishing topics.) And if you are confident you want to be in charge of the design process, Nate Hoffelder lists 14 Sites for Making a Spectacular Book Cover on The Digital Reader website. My best advice is to find books in your genre and look at those that are most successful. Familiarize yourself with the design trends and see how you can incorporate those elements into a book cover that uniquely captures what your book is about.

Editing Topics

I would have appreciated this article about em dashes, en dashes and hyphens at the beginning of my writing journey. It would have saved me a ton of time during the editing process when I had to fix these in my manuscript.  Make sure you know the difference between these three and how to use them.

I had to laugh when I read Ellis Shuman’s article about self-editing “These Words Have Got to Go!” . . . it seemed like Ellis was speaking just to me when noting commonly overused words and phrases. Take a look and see if you’re doing some of these same things.

Work and Writing-Life Balance

Many of us work full-time “day jobs” and then need to fit our writing into the evenings and weekends. Christine Bernard explains how she balanced these challenges in The Work / Writing Juggling Act and R.S. Mollison-Read does a great job with a short list: 5 Tips on Writing a Novel While Working Full-Time. And writer Tracey Kathryn encourages us to get away from the keyboard for physical activity in her article, "Exercise and Writing: Time Away from the Keyboard Boosts Writing Power."

The Value of Writers’ Conferences

Victoria Noe’s article “Rebooting my Writing Career at a Writing Conference” is a great piece of advice on how refocusing over the course of a few days (usually a weekend) and immersing yourself in the craft of writing along with our tribe of other writers can make a huge difference to our success. This article particularly resonated with me as I had just returned from the fall conference of the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators. While I was a presenter at this conference, I took the time to attend other sessions and came away with renewed energy and focus for my work in progress and the ability to see clearly the edits needed on a book that is about to go out on submission. Beyond the aspects of craft tutorials, which even seasoned writers need as reminders from time to time, the camaraderie with other writers is invaluable. Knowing that we all suffer from the same creative ups and downs is incredibly therapeutic and can give us the boost to maintain your persistence in this crazy industry.

Post-Publication

Book Promotion Demystified

One of the smartest approaches to book marketing that I’ve read in ages comes from the IndieBRAG website. Author Florence Osmund gives excellent advice in her article “Book Promotion Goals and the Strategy Behind Meeting Them.”  These tips aren’t just for the indie author, many traditionally published authors do not get much promotional support from their publishers and need to educate themselves on the steps to effective book promotion. I appreciated this checklist from Belinda Griffin of the Smart Authors Lab as a helpful way to organize your promotional activities. Overall, both of these authors address the importance of an author platform as a component of your promotional efforts. That leads us to . . .

Your Author Platform – What Matters Most?

This question is always asked at writing conferences. What should my author platform include? (Or even what IS an author platform? --- for those at the beginning of their author journey.)

Glenn Miller says, “Your platform is your meaningful marketing presence, as much online as in the real world. It’s the sum of all your audiences and your authority. . .” in his article “Your Author Platform: The Hub and Spokes” on CareerAuthors.com.

This article is an excellent summary of what your author platform could and should include and what matters most. And the answer to that question varies a little bit based on what you write, but the approach of dividing up your author platform into a hub and spokes is visually helpful and (I think) makes the whole thing somehow less daunting.

Social media is always a necessary component of an author’s platform. There’s no way around it—we live in a digital age. However, which social media you use the most is somewhat subjective. I will argue that every author needs an excellent website, but after that your activity on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc… needs to be authentic and engaging (not overly pushy or only focused on selling.) If you’re time is limited (and who’s isn’t), pick the social media platform you like the most and use that primarily to engage with fans and potential fans. For instance, you could focus only on Instagram but have those posts feed over to Twitter and Facebook automatically, saving you a lot of time. I personally enjoy Facebook and communicate with other writers and readers there frequently. Not everyone shares my love for Facebook.

Author Deanna Cabinian lists four reasons why she’s stopped using Facebook in this article, but she doesn’t ignore social media entirely. She prefers Instagram—which makes a lot of sense as she writes young adult novels and will find more of her audience on that platform. (The age breakdown on social media platform use in 2016 from Pew Research might be helpful, depending on the genre in which you write.)

Crafting Your Media Pitch

I can’t stress enough how reaching out to traditional media needs to be part of your promotional efforts. This is one of my own areas of expertise as a public relations professional, so I love articles that guide authors through what can be an intimidating process.

First, read “Media Attention: 9 Ways an Author Can Get It” by Chris Well on the Bookworks Blog. He dispenses with some common misperceptions of approaching the media. Then you need to craft your hook and the pitch that will get attention. Penny Sansevieri talks about the Art of the Media Pitch and how to Craft the Perfect Pitch. This is easy-to-understand advice that will walk you through the best way to market your topic/novel. I love her HUH approach—make your pitch Hip, Unique, and Helpful. And finally, she reminds us that there’s a lot of value in approaching regional and local media in her article “Finding Readers Nextdoor: Network in Your Neighborhood.”  Yup—I’m a Penny Sansevieri fan and you should be, too!

I hope that these articles helped you on your writing and publishing journey!

Happy Reading & Writing, Valerie