Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Photoblog Savannah 10/26-10/28


     I love our adventure time travels. Mar is the captain of our journeys while I'm the co-pi....well, not really, I'm the navi....well, not really. I'm the funny looking guy people whisper, "How'd he get with that?" as we walk around places. But that's  good with me.
     Every time we go on a trip I write a lot while there. A day trip maybe only some poems or a vignette or two. With more than a day I can knock out a very very very very rough first draft of a short story or novella. The stories don't always have anything to do with the places we go but visiting these places inspires me greatly. On this trip I wrote a rough of a novella that I hope to revisit soon. I like a lot of the things that came out into that story.
     But enough about my delusions of grandeur, here's my photoblog entry for the trip. As always it is mainly photos with a few comments about each image. I pick the images I choose to use for the most part by random choosing. I returned from this trip having taken 2.73gb of photos.

    That's a lot of bad photography.

This first photo is the rest stop we parked at just as we entered Georgia. It was really nice. If heading up there from Florida you should check it out.

I mentioned this on Twitter but I broke one of my fang teeth trying to eat a beef jerky from the nice rest stop's vending machines. It was my fault, I know my teeth are too fucked up to try and eat something that hard. I took care of it though with 4 pills of truck stop healthcare. America.

Fort Frederica National Monument. A really nice place to visit.

Took a moment while walking around the grounds for a writing break. I tell Mar all the time that I'll go anywhere with her because she always chooses interesting places to visit, all I need is chances to write during the trip.

Inside the fort's Visitor Center.

One of the few remaining structures from the Fort is the King's Magazine.

If you love taking pictures of scenery you could spend all day walking around these grounds. We were there a good hour plus and had one of our packed lunches afterwards sitting on a bench outside the Visitor Center.

Our hotel, which Mar found a good deal on Groupon for, and the kickstarter for the trip, had decorated in Halloween fun. Loved it.

People have always told me if I made it to Georgia I need to check out some BBQ there. Wiley's BBQ was one of the highest rated places and for good reason. We loved eating there.

There was a little wait for the food but it was well worth it. It's a small place and very busy. Mar at the point of this picture was ready to eat her phone. The bad thing about any kind of wait in a BBQ joint is the great smells that rip you up while waiting.

If you go to Savannah you have to check out the Riverfront area.

Mar took this picture of me looking at a purple heart monument.

This was a surprise for us to find. I don't think either of us read anything about this ship being there.

Heading down the old iron railed steps was a good thing. The old cobbled streets just added to the atmosphere of the place. I really feel more at home in a place that looks like it was built before I was born.

Our second meal while in Savannah was at the Olympia Cafe. Mar doesn't really try different foods but they had burgers so she said we could stop there and she got a burger while I ate a Lamb Gyro sandwich.

The thing I was looking forward to the most on this trip was visiting the Gordon Low House. We weren't  allowed to take photos in the house quarters but it was still really cool to go there.

I took this photo in the Gordon Low House gardens. I took it thinking that my friend Tankgirl probably would have taken a really nice photo of the rose.

They were having a family day at the SCAD Museum Of Art and you could get in for free. It was really cool. I say cool a lot. Fuck you, it's cool to say cool. I grew up in the 80's, don't blame me. This picture was near the exit from the back area of the Museum.

At the Savannah History Museum. I love me a good diorama and this one was awesome.

The Forrest Gump bench.

Mar was feeling this touch exhibit when my mouth went off, "Stroking that beaver pelt are we?"

They had a good Juliette Gordon Low slash Girl Scout exhibit at the History Museum.

This sign was in a ton of gift shops and stores. If I'm not mistaken its a old New Orleans police sign so I don't know why they have it so much in Savannah?

Spotted this painted on the side of a house while looking for a local comic book store I had heard about.

This huge ass causeway bridge tried to get up in Mar's face but she kicked its ass. While leaving on Sunday she saw it in the distance and flipped it off. Reason one million to why I love her.

A very rare sight was spotted during a late snack run down the street from our hotel.

Fort Pulaski. There isn't a photo I could take that would do this place justice. The fort alone is well worth the visit but there are so many trails and picnic areas you could spend a whole day there easy.

We took the Park Ranger tour which was really cool. Then you can walk around all on your own so we did both. I recommend doing both since the tour is well worth it for the information you get from the Ranger and it also doesn't take you everywhere within the fort.

Looking out on top of the fort from some of the Civil War battle damage makes the mind go in so many directions. It's a beautiful view but you still have to think about the fear those soldiers must have had in those moments.

Another view on top of the fort.

The fort's magazine.

I loved the angles of the corridor in this pic. You could film a Classic Doctor Who story in that corridor alone.

Tybee Island Light Station.

Look at that gut. I deserve to live under the stairs. The boy who lived to eat everything, that's who I am.

The Tybee Island Museum is right across the street from the lighthouse station and you pay one price for both places.

You will find all kinds of interesting things in the museum. From this divers outfit..

to Nazi stuff... 

to a Girl Scout area.

I love this picture. The angle, the sky, the location, the shadows, and Mar's butt.

I picked up three patches to add for my collection on this trip. One from each fort and one from the Gordon Low House.

And as is our tradition we stopped at a KFC on the way back home from a long trip. This is something we do on trip since we don't eat out that much on trips and specifically at fast food places. Mar just had to get a picture with the statue they had inside. I don't know if she was really this excited to have this picture taken or just tired from the trip. I say both.

Here's some links you might want to check out:


Share/Save/Bookmark

Sunday, October 21, 2012

NEW! Course Change


One-Shot, You Pick The Price! Vignette
History has taught us one document, one grouping of words can show you so much about what followed its creation.


Share/Save/Bookmark

Thursday, October 18, 2012

NaNoWriMo 2012


     The past three years I have taken part in and finished NaNoWriMo and it's been some of the most exciting, fun, and productive times of my writing life. I think the more you write, the more your brain can get clouded with thoughts of what a story should be; so I think its really good to just freely exercise that writing muscles from time to time without watering the process down. To me doing NaNoWriMo is like running. All the machines and routines are great but sometimes you still need a good run for your life to get your heart up and survival skills ready to strike. It also cleans out the brains caches so to speak.

     My writing area war room or war corner is more accurate. The rest of the room, well, you don't want to see that. Nothing to see but diplomas, dirty underwear, and cat tunnels.
     With all the normal writing I do every month adding NaNoWriMo to that will mean I will have to get all the way away from things like TV and the internet which I usually have playing in the background to keep the voices at bay. With NaNoWriMo I let them out.
     There is no TV in this room and I will be writing on my really really old laptop which can't connect to the internet even if I wanted it to.
     P.S.- all of my November releases will new editions of previously released projects so they will just have to be reformatted and uploaded.

     Maps, my cool handmade raven coaster, and some of the research books which are always on my desk. Since this is NaNoWriMo I'm not going in with much of a idea of what I'm going to write about so I don't need specific research books so the everyday ones I keep will do.
     If I need something specific OFF TO THE LIBRARY!

More of my everyday research materials. These are also things I can mindlessly flip through when frustrated with something I'm working on. A lot of cheap bin books from B&N are in there. You know the kind- A Million Ways To Say Fuck and the like.

     There are some blank note cards and also some with many notes on things I wish to take on in this story. Story elements I've been weak with writing in the past, words I use too much, themes I want to explore, and notes from previous NaNoWriMo years.

     A little inspiration spot. Two gifts from friends. One is a metal pen holder with a nice quote about writing and the second is a encased band aid with a note from a friend who I no longer talk to. And also a piece of art by the very cool artist Brenda Kirk. If you want to buy something by her she has a store here.

     So if you have never attempted NaNoWriMo give it a try. Check your local area for meeting spots. They happen a lot at libraries and bookstores with cafes or just cafes. Find writing buddies if you think that will help. I go solo on mine and don't do the meet ups but it's good to still join a local group on the website. Sometimes it helps when just needing to talk to another writer.
     And finally, remember finishing isn't everything, it's diving in that matters.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Max Brooks at FIT


     There was a event scheduled at one of the local colleges, not far from we live that was said to be a speaking event with the writer Max Brooks from The Zombie Survival Guide fame. Mar really liked his book and we thought cool but for a week or more no one could get answers from the student event organizers about if you had to pay, was he going to sign books, or anything until the day of the event when they said it was going to be free but first come seating to students. Then they said it was free to students but $20 dollars to everyone else. Then it was free to all and they couldn't understand why all this same day confusion was causing issues with people.
     Only a school with this much entitlement and this much money would go back and worth on money issues like this like it doesn't mean anything. I know many people who wanted to come but didn't want to drive a long way not knowing firmly if they could get in. The official website of the student organization running the event, on the college website, hadn't been updated in months.
     Come on. If you don't know anything about putting on an event study the press releases and materials and procedures others have used in putting on their event to learn how to do things yourself. Hey, sorta what you are there for.
     You know, in a college.
     Being a self-publisher I have to do a lot of things writers normally don't do like creating covers and publicity and the like, but the one way I can tell you how no one will take you serious, its not NOT making mistakes, mistakes are understanding when you are not a trained professional in something, it's acting like they don't matter.
     We decided to go since it wasn't that far from where we live and when we got there we got more confusion and people acting like not having answers wasn't that big a deal. I ranted about this last night during the event on my Twitter if you want to check it out but it went short of like this "Do students get in first? "Doesn't matter, it's not going to be full up." "Will he be signing?" "Probably" "Will there be a limitations on what he will sign?" ".....vacant look..."
     The event wasn't advertised much even though they were bragging about all the places they put ads. Hell the night before a local theater was sold out with probably double the sale wanting to get in to a showing of the season premiere of the Walking Dead but nothing was said there as far as I know.
     We wouldn't have even known about it if our local comic book store hadn't reposted something about it on Facebook {these people should study our local comic shop, they know how to do events.}
     That being said none of use were surprised when in a community that loves zombies- we have zombie walks, zombie proms, and all sorts of zombie fun this event wasn't even close to half full, in a small venue, and the people we talked to when we got there weren't expecting it to be?
     We actually overheard some of them talking about how much it cost to get him and laughing. Goes back to that entitlement word I used. And we deal with these people all the time living near the college campus.
     I've helped run events, I really hope these people don't go into this sort of things as a career because as I said on my Twitter, when your student event looks clearly to be a student event you failed.

     But lets get to Max Brooks. He was very funny throughout. Very entertaining. I'm really glade we got to see him and he handled  the trolls that were only there to get get noticed or for credit with a blade sharp tongue. I had heard before that he was cool to hear speak but this was way better than I was thinking going in.

See, not many people at all. A shame.

Couldn't get good stage pics. They had the lights turned up too high for a already well lighted venue.

Mar and her sister Trill got copies of The Zombie Survival Guide signed and photos with him. I wish this event wasn't such a clusterfuck or I would have picked up a copy of the G.I. Joe book he wrote and gotten that signed also.

*If you like the blood splatter effect on those photos I learned how to do it watching this You Tube video. Might be of good use for people doing Halloween stuff this month.




Share/Save/Bookmark