@TheStorySmith She is seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist weekly, does yoga, wears ice packs on her feet, has various deep tissue massage tools for her hip. It's getting better, but its slow progress.
I dont know if its sympathy pain, but lately I've been having early signs of issues. Pain shooting through my knee, lower back, so on. I think its from bouncing around in a truck all day, I'm curious to see if it improves over the off season. If it does maybe a career change is in order.
@thewebrecluse I agree, gaming is also a great benchmark of my mental sharpness. When there is a decline in my mental processing ability, there is a measurable standard that I think is overlooked. Not sure if you're at the top of your game? Play COD against a 12 year old. You will know where you stand instantly.
@TheStorySmith Its probably not as severe as yours, but thats where my wife is at. She cant sit because her hips are messed up, and cant stand because her feet are messed up.
I'm starting to feel the wear that driving a dumptruck is having on my body, and it feels good to be able to heal during the winter.
@thewebrecluse I played WoW back in the 2k's, but it was mostly because my friends were doing it and it was really the only way to interact with them. I did have fun though.
I think MMO's weren't ever really my thing, totally, but I really got lost in the online survival games of the 20teens. I think it helped me process the stresses of Afghanistan and Iraq, running around a desolate server, never knowing when a stray round would hit me while I manage my backpack space.
I'm not officially laid off yet, I've been told there is still a little work left for this season. But DAMN it feels good to wake up on a monday morning, put on my comfy jogging pants, and write in front of the fireplace while sipping hot coffee. Damn it feels good to be a gangster.
@rupertramsgate I understand completely. I'm sure if I sent my manuscript to a publisher I would have denial after denial with nothing but suggestions on how to make it more publishable, or how unsellable zombies are or some shit. I dislike the boxes we have to make our art fit into, I wish I would just say "Its for people who like it. Its not for people who don't like it."
@Cadence I like the sound of that. I'm ashamed to admit, that when I read poetry (limited selections of course) I don't always understand what they're trying to convey. I tend to avoid it because of this, despite knowing that writing poetry would help me become a better writer.
@DWDavis it is, I'm sure. I just find it strange that Mad Max and Logans Run are in the same catagory. Maybe what I'm looking for is more like a sub-genre
@Anouk I agree with that, except Negan. He's bad, for sure. But I realized that he wasn't nearly as bad as my first impression. Whether he deserves redemption is up for debate, but I think thats what makes him compelling, the fact that the line is so blurred. He did horrible things, but he wasn't a senseless murderer. He was a dictator in a lawless and remorseless world, and did what he thought he needed to maintain order. A symbol of the path Rick was heading down.
@Anouk I recently rewatched the entire series in order to catch up with newer seasons. I saw it in a completely different light the second time through.
@SterlingWright Well, I truly hope so. As a fan of the zombie genre for as long as I have been, I've consumed a fair amount of trash. I would like to write something I would like to read when I'm senile, forgot I wrote it, and thoroughly enjoy it.
@awrene thanks for this, I'm going to have to think about it. Writing is something that just happens, for me. I've never considered that beyond the content of the writing, that my writing itself could be analyzed. Maybe I never found my writing itself very important, only the story I'm telling. This will require a deep dive, I think.
@bettertobend thats a good way to put it. Its better to think simply and avoid complex lables. Now to make my brain agree. 😆
@JanGoesWriting You're absolutely right though. I think thats the secret sauce to writers like Stephen King. Its not the content really, but the investment into the lives of the charaters that make is stories compelling, and his monsters frightening.
@SLWeippert Thats quite a combo. Sal Stein called that "double mumbo-jumbo", asking your reader to suspend their disbelief too far. Space vampires, werewolfs on the moon, robot wizards.
Star Wars had space wizards though, and that clearly worked.
Do you find it difficult to convince your audience your world is a reasonable suspension of disbelief?
@awrene Hmmm, I'm not sure. Do you have any examples?
@Laura_47 @singlemaltgirl Thank you! Progress is slow, but its a constant source of excitement for me when I get to dive into that world.
@singlemaltgirl That sounds about right. I wish there was a little more to narrow down the genre though. It would put my book right along side world war z, the road, and the stand, which while similar, are all very different kinds of stories.
Its a little like saying Blade runner, time cop and Star Trek are all sci-fi.
What genre do you write?
I struggle to define what I'm writing. It takes place in a zombie apocalypse, but I wouldn't say its about zombies. Its about people, relationships, and hardship. Its a road trip, a tragedy and a comedy. It just happens to have zombies as a hardship to endure. How to I pick a buzzword to describe a whole story that isn't really about the thing you would define it by?
I have a Podcast with my wife where we talk about zombie books, movies and tv shows. I'm also writing a novel based in a zombie apocalypse.