There's An App For That: Infect Them All

The premise for this little gothic hack-n-slasher is very simple. You're a vampire... now go kill or convert everything you see, hence the title. Unfortunately however, despite a fairly constant varying crowd of victims (some of which can and do fight back), it just can't help but feel incredibly repetitive. That's not to say this isn't a great little distraction to sink your teeth into, though... it totally is!

 

Initially you only have access to one, but there are actually three different vampires to eventually choose from... each with their own set of strengths, weaknesses and unique vampire abilities (Warning: Miss Elizabeth's Vampire Bat Swarm is absolutely killer ~ >insert fingersnap<). You start the game with a basic vamper, but you can unlock the other two bloodsuckers, Elizabeth and Dracula, by going on a endless murderous rampage to raise the body count you leave in your undead wake.

 

Feliz Happy Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 192 countries every year.

To celebrate, here's a little bit of nature's beautiful greenery. Gaea is part of my "Simply Divine" series, and is available over at my CafePress Shop.

Simply Divine: Gaea

Gaea

Gaea (Gaia) or Mother Earth, was the great goddess of the early Greeks. She represented the fertile Earth and was worshiped as the omnipotent Universal Mother. In Greek mythology, she created the universe and gave birth to both the first race of gods, known as the Titans, and the first humans.

YouTube Treasures: Jinkx Monsoon

I absolutely adore Jinkx Monsoon! She is now in the top three of season five's Rupual's Drag Race, and I am so very happy for her! I sincerely hope she wins the title. She's amazingly talented, and seems to be such a genuinely kind person. It would be truly wonderful to see great things happen to good people for a change. She has had such an unfair amount of absolute nonsense dumped on her by some of the other contestants, but has somehow managed to take all of it with exceptional grace.

She'll be performing live in New York on July 14th in Vaudevillans, and I was able to snag a pair of VIP tickets for my boyfriend and I before the show sold out! I'm almost embarrassed to admit, but I have never ever been to a drag show, and am beyond excited that the first one I'm going to see will be Jinxk's!

Update 4.28.13
I'm a little disappointed that the video I had originally embedded into this post is no longer available. However, I was able to find an equally fabulous replacement. The magic starts at 1:11...

"Must Fix"

The past few months have found me spending most of my creative energies over at my CafePress Shop, where I have been diligently reworking and revamping every single section. The Shop has 203 sections. I'm still not done. Why am I doing this? Allow me to explain. Prior to this, I hate to admit, it had been quite some time since I had actually touched any of my online stores, despite the fact that they have and continue to supply a fairly loyal trickle of cash every so often exactly when I need it. So, I decided my shops were overdue a little love...

When I logged into my CafePress Shop, I was honestly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new products that have been added since the last time I had poked my head around... shower curtains, new coasters, jewelery, wine charms, etc... So, after going through some of the tools available to shopkeepers that have been designed to "help", I opted on the one that would add bulk items across all the sections of my store all at once. "Yay!", I thought! "Problem solved!" >blink< >blink<

Perhaps, I didn't quite understand what that option actually would do. Yes, all the new items were indeed added all at once... all across my store... everywhere and anywhere... unfortunately, with no regard to whether the design actually fit on the product, or where and how it would land on it. Products were named whatever the associated file name was... including its file extension.

Obviously, I don't blame CafePress for that. It's an automated feature. It did exactly what it was supposed to. I'm a grown man with grey hair in places I never knew men could get them... I know better. I should have read the instructions. Fully. Kiddies, take note! Not about the grey hair... but about the instructions. Being a Sagittarius, and a compulsive neat freak with control issues, I was about to lose my fragile little mind. "Must fix. Must fix", became my mantra. I say it my sleep, and sometimes even when I poo.

So began my quest to "fix". I decided I would look at this minor bump in my road to riches as a learning experience (read instructions), and as an opportunity to make my shop even better. Enter Google. Now, despite the Sagittarian propensity to act and behave as if we know everything, we actually do not. Not always. I know, it's shocking. Sit down for a moment to catch your breath if you must. I came across a lot of articles that offered some free advice on how to boost your CafePress sales. As with all things, you keep what resonates and leave aside what doesn't...

So, here's what I started doing:

1. Descriptions. Every design and section is now getting a unique description. It adds flavor. Some designs are even getting little teasers on the section's main page to entice shoppers to click on them. As I am doing this, I'm also going through all of my uploaded images, and not only adjusting their descriptions, but correcting their file names and updating their keywords. It takes time to redo all of this, but honestly... I am already seeing results. It's worth the time-commitment.

2. Several articles suggested setting your shop's pricing bracket to "Premium". That's the most expensive pricing tier that you can set your shop at. I actually set my shop to the "Marketplace" pricing tier, instead. My logic on that was whether a customer comes across your product over at your personal storefront or through CafePress's main site, the prices will be the same.

3. Some designs cross-link to other ones in their descriptions if the designs have a commonality among them that might interest shoppers. For an example, see "The Brides of Adam".

4. I created a secret, "hidden" section that has every single product in it, placed in the order that my OCD needs to see them. I make a copy of it, then after selecting all the products on the page, I change their descriptions and names all at once, and swap out the image... and viola, an entirely new section is added or an old one is redone in as little as half an hour. Of course, I still do a quick run through everything just to make sure it's all good... "Must fix."

Surviving Sandy

One of my co-workers finally gets a hurricane named after her, and it's a frankenstorm that shuts down the east coast. We lost power for almost ten days. Yet despite those really cold nights, we never lost sight of how fortunate we really were. Our house survived fairly unscathed, and we've only had to clean up a stray branch or two from the yard. I've been out of work for two weeks, but the office finally opened back up yesterday. Normalcy is slowly creeping back into our lives, and I am beyond grateful for that.

My temporary new commute route into New York yesterday was dreadful, though: Yesterday's Commute. Luckily, I was not involved in any of those accidents, but I was caught in the "after shock" of them. I didn't make it into work until 10am. >suckage< ~ >major suckage< Today's commute, was thankfully uneventful... a normal day... in a normal life.

Now to get some coffee...

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

I was tagged by fellow artist, author and Cuban, Narcisse Navarre, to participate in "The Next Big Thing Blog Hop". One of my previous blog posts, The Lady Navarre, talks about Narcisse and her first two novels. Be sure to check it out!

Once upon a time, there was a wicked witch who wasn't. One could say that was simply because her green just wasn't exactly the same shade as all the others in her family. It seemed to be just a little bolder, and a little brighter. She decided one day, for whatever the reason, to change her story and rewrite its ending to her own liking. Her world, however, would never ever be quite the same again when the full telling of it was done...

1. What is the title of your work in progress?
Book One of The Mhandrake Chronicles:
The Perfectly Mundane Life of Mhagdhalia Mhandrake (facebook page)

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
I have always been an enormous fan of the fantasy and gothic horror genres, so I really wanted to write a story from the other side of the looking glass, where princesses aren't always cookie-cutter pretty damsels dressed in pink with sparkling tiaras adorning their heads. I love the idea of taking familiar fairy tales and completely turning them upside down.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
Dark Urban Fantasy

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Initially, I had envisioned Miranda Cosgrove playing the role of Mhagdhalia, but Chloë Grace Moretz would be able to channel the main character's slightly roughened edge to perfection. Michelle Forbes must be Maeve, the divalicious villainous matron of the family, and Sofia Vergara as the fairy godmother, Carmen would be nothing short of divine. The perfect choice to fill the role of Michael, however, Mhag's gay best friend and comrade-in-arms has, as of yet, eluded me.

5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?
The Perfectly Mundane Life of Mhagdhalia Mhandrake is a journey of self-discovery for a young and magical green-skinned girl whose truth has been twisted up and locked away by a family desperate to keep her in the dark.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-publishing is an option. In fact, I have just recently (re)self-published Starlight Starbright, a full-color horoscope book showcasing my original Zodiac designs, but I would like to try a more traditional route for The Mhandrake Chronicles.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I'm not sure how to answer that. The full manuscript is still in my head. I have a point A and a point Z, but I write as I go, allowing the story to remain organic. The characters tell me what they need where and when to have their stories told properly. I'm about two chapters and another round of editing away from the end of the first book, though. It's taken me about three years to get to this point, mostly due to a full time job in the way and quite a bit of miscellaneous personal chaos.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?
The Child Thief by Brom, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling, and Wicked by Gregory Maguire

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
A little bit of this. A little bit of that. The Brother's Grimm. Poe. Anne Rice. Rice & Beans. Harry Potter. The Wizard of Oz. And Vodka. Definitely Vodka.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
The Mhandrake Chronicles is the fairytale survival guidebook for misfits. Despite being full of heart, and a fair dose of my sarcasm, it's a dark world and the perils faced by the main characters both physically and emotionally are very real.

Be sure to check out Narcisse Navarre's The Next Big Thing Blop Hop over at Khajj.com, and Rick Gualtieri over at the Poptart Manifesto. Also be sure to hit S. Conde's Idols of the Tribe and pick up The Red Speck!

There's An App For That: City Planning Games

Perhaps it's due to my over-compulsive need to organize the things in my surroundings (and in my head), but city / village planning games get me hooked pretty quickly. I remember spending many an hour watching the little mob riots take to the streets, or the giant robot from space come down and destroy my town in the original SimCity back when I was a kid.

As a homage to those early pre-gamer days of mine, here's the quick and dirty on some of my favorite city builder apps currently out there:

Cosmic Colony
Next to Fantasy Town, Cosmic Colony has got some of the best designed buildings and town decor around. A lot of creative thinking went into the look of some of the available shops, homes and alien relics. There's a space exploration mini-game available about once a day that rewards a random little somethin' to help spruce up the colony. Space pirates can be a problem, though...

Fantasy Town
Fantasy Town has some of the best art direction I've seen yet, giving the game a really unique, and very beautiful look. It's worth checking out despite the fact that earning money in the game for the land expansions can take a really long time. That, coupled with the unfortunate need to occasionally spend gems (which cost real world money to acquire) just to complete quests eventually turned me off altogether.

Forestville
Another absolutely beautiful game, Forestville's charm resides not just in its buildings, but in its citizens as well. The village is full of adorable little foxes, bears, birds, rabbits, frogs, beavers, hedgehogs, and deer (and the list keeps going). It's Furry Fandom Heaven! Each species has special, unique characters and rare versions such as the occasional crow, polar bear or blue frog that will randomly pop up and add even more variety to the mix! I'm all for diversity! ~wink~

Kingdoms & Lords
Kingdoms & Lords, ironically, suffers from the reverse issue effecting Fantasy Town. It's pretty easy to earn enough money early in the game to buy a great amount of land, but... you have nothing to put on it until much much later. Even then, most of the buildings you can add (which are exquisite, by the way) do nothing unless you log into a social network with the game (something most people might not feel comfortable doing). Kingdoms & Lords has a great deal of potential, however. It just needs to be fleshed out a bit more in its earlier levels.

Oregon Settler
Oregon Settler is a very fun, frontier-flavored city game full of covered wagons, head-bobbing farm animals, and malaria. Not kidding.  

Pyramid Valley

In Pyramid Valley, you get to choose between being either Ramses or Cleopatra (either avatar is decenlty customizable) and begin building your very own dynasty. Egyptian, Nubian, and Greek-styled architecture, and a complex trade route system make this particular city builder a very unique gem well worth playing.

Smurf Village

Filled with almost every memorable character in Smurfdom, Smurf Village delivers a very addictive gaming experience whether you grew up watching these little blue guys or not. The mushroom homes are very customizable (balconies, chimneys, etc.), and there's even a tropical island and mountainside to explore and build on now too. It's unquestionably Smurfberry Crack!

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

After an explosion at the power plant, Sprinfield gets turned completely inside out, and rebuilding it, as well as locating all of its lost citizens becomes a brilliantly scripted adventure! Each character you rediscover has their own unique jobs (quests) to fulfill, and the new Springfield is completely yours to redesign. This became an instant favorite for me! As a big fan of the show, the fun-factor is insanely high!

Tiny Village

The prehistoric-themed Tiny Village is frequently updated with tons of new content, as well as holiday events and quests. You can harvest resources, build houses and shops, or raise a multitude of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, many of the really great items require gems (which are purchased with real world money), and they're costly. My only other critique is that I wish there was a little more variation with the games' citizenry, or at the least a few unique ones walking about. As you can tell from the screenshot below... they all look alike.

LEGO: Zombies

If you're a horror fan and haven't checked out the LEGO Monster Fighters series yet, what are you waiting for? Though it's been ages since I've played with LEGOs, the Ghost Train (set 9467) was an instant "must-have" on my wish list once I saw it! Amazing! I've seen it fully assembled at a local toy store, and, honestly, the pictures over on LEGO's official site do not do it justice.

Zombie Bride

Anyway, in keeping with the theme of my previous post... I thought I might as well give a little shout out to LEGO's Zombie Bride. The Zombie Bride and her gruesomely handsome husband are available in LEGO Set# 9465 Monster Fighters: The Zombies.

There's An App For That: Zombie Café

There's a lot more than just brains on the menu over at beeline's Zombie Café. In fact, many items on that menu are fabulously grossified versions of popular dishes. Yes, "grossified" is a word. Your café starts out rather humble, but you soon have the opportunity to grow, remodel and hire up some more waiters. There's quite a selection of available themes for your café's look too, so you can pretty much put together anything from a roach-infested hole that should have been shut down ages ago by the Health Department to a classy, high-end five star restaurant... staffed by zombies. My only negative critique is that you're allowed a maximum staff of 10, and depending on the size of your restaurant that may or may not be enough.

Zombie Café is not your typical diner game. In fact, where it really shines is in its ability to eliminate the competition... literally. You can send your zombified staff out into the neighborhood and into other restaurants to make minced meat out of whatever and whoever they find within. If victorious, your zombies return with some cash, some extra food and hopefully a new recipe. Brilliant!

Anyone that walks through your door is fair game! Zombify them and make them
a permanent part of your staff, or serve them up as tomorrow's lunch special!

There's An App For That: Breaktime Studios

I've flittered away so much of my precious time on iPad apps recently, that I figured I might as well dedicate a few short and sweet posts (and reviews) to some of my more favorite ones.

First on the list are three games from Breaktime Studio.

Dream Dresses allows you to own your own fashion boutique stocked up with clothing and accessories that are very reminiscent of a trip through Disney's Magic Kingdom (though with enough differences to be legally ambiguous). You can stock up on sparkling fabric bolts while unmanned sewing machines (no third world slave labor here!) magically stitch together your merchandise. Your "boyfriends" (yes, you can have more than one...) give you money and a smile several times a day, while they otherwise stand around and do... nothing.

My "boyfriends" have a eerie resemblance
to George Clooney and Edward Cullen.

Pocket Potions allows you to own your own magical potion shop stocked floor to ceiling with strange herbs, and literally dozens upon dozens of different types of potions (each with their own unique special effect when drunk by your customers). Magically unmanned cauldrons do all the work once you plop in the ingredients and click the stirring spoons. If you're having trouble keeping your inventory fully stocked... try taking the door off and temporarily putting it in your inventory. That way you are free to stock the place up at your leisure and open the doors only when you're ready for business! Same trick will work for all three of their games.

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

Sweet Shop allows you to own your own (you guessed it...) candy shop. The decorative items are really cute and colorful, especially the gummy-themed tables and animated bears (not pictured).

My store clerk is a bug... a very big, and hungry bug... who likes lemons.

Canto a Yemaya

I've spent most of this morning cleaning up the house, both physically and spiritually (candles and sage). The drums of my people have been playing in the background as I've gone up and down the house stairs, trying to find a place for some of the things I slowly keep bringing home from my parents' apartment. My sister and I have until the end of the month to completely clear out the place. The task seems a little overwhelming at times, as though we haven't even touched the surface of what's there. Bags upon bags of garbage have gone out the door, and even more bags have been donated to charity. We're being very careful though, going through everything as thoroughly as possible, but the more we move aside... the more of yesterday we seem to find.

Once all is said and done, I intend to gather up all the photos and letters we have found into a book to honor our parents' journey.

Yemaya is the universal mother. From her waters flowed all life. She washes away all sorrow, grief, and anger with her tides, leaving behind beautiful pearls exposed in the sand. May she wash me away too... and find the pearl that I hope dwells within my soul.