The Chrissy B show

Okay, this is pretty awesome.  Next wednesday i'm heading down to London to be on the Chrissy B show.  Let me clarify what the Chrissy B show is.  It's an inspirational talk show (it's on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays at 9:30 on sky channel 203, check it out) and i'm going to be appearing on an episode about achieving dreams.  I'm going to be talking about my book and how I, well, achieved my dreams.  The air date of the show is on the monday the 4th of march (Although that isn't definite, so stick around for any updates).

I'm writing an interactive fiction story.  You probably don't know what that is.  Ever heard of a choose your own adventure book?  No?  Yeah, I guessed that.  Well, choose your own adventure books used to be popular a long time ago.  They were basically stories, but instead of you having one story being set out in front of you and you reading that, there were multiple paths the story could take.  For example...

You and your knights ride up to the castle, flags aflutter in the wind.  Atop the battlements you see legions of goblins, readying their spears and other makeshift weapons.
Turn to page 50 to charge into the castle.

Turn to page 65 to pee pants.

That's the basic idea.  Anyway, around the 70's, a popular type of game on the computer was the text based adventure game, which is basically like a choose your own adventure book, only on the computer.  Players would use commands like "move west" or "hit troll" to do things, sort of like in one of the aforementioned stories.  

So what i'm writing now is a more simple version of a text based adventure game.  It's called interactive fiction.  What I do is write what's happening in the story, like normal, but then give players a number of options so that they can change what happens in the story.  Yes, it's pretty hard. 

What i'm writing won't be great, as it's a first attempt, but oh well.  I'll notify everyone when it's done so you can go play it (if you want to)

One more thing.  If you like to write (and you're under 13) then be sure to enter the 500 word competition.  It's a pretty awesome short story competition in which you have to write a story that's 500 words or under.  You might as well check it out.  The link is below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2013/

That's all for now.

Stay frosty,

-Joe

A meaningful post

(Like always, the lights dim and a camera goes to a close up of my serious face) This is a really serious post.  I want to talk about something I see a lot around my school, and have actually experienced myself.  I want to make people aware that they might be doing this to try to stop it from happening.  I'm not naming any names or saying anyone in particular is doing this, so please don't be offended or think that i'm aiming this at you.  I'm speaking to everyone here.

In the past, I've had a fair number of people snigger at me, or say something not exactly pleasant.  For example, I've been told that people have seen me walking around and called me a "droopy face" (A direct result of my heart condition, by the way.) What i'm trying to say is that, if you do this, even if you think that the person doesn't realise, or you're just having fun, that it's wrong.  If you see a person who might be a little overweight, stop before you laugh at them and consider what their day is going to be like after you do that.  

The victims of this do see it happening, and it's an extremely uncomfortable experience.  Imagine what it would be like having to stand there and pretend you don't see what's happening as four people point and laugh at you.

In addition to this, it's rarely, or probably never, these people's fault.  How would you feel if you were about to point out that person acting strangely, when someone tells you that this person is autistic?  What if that overweight person looks like that as a result of a genetic condition?  Would you make fun of me in any way if you knew it was because of my condition?  Then why would it be the same for anyone else?  You should never do that to someone, because the chances are, you've got it completely wrong and it's not their fault at all.  Besides, what good can come out of laughing at someone?

I really hope I can make a difference with this post.  All I ask is that you think back to see if you've ever done something like this, and if you have, then remember what I said next time.  If you see a friend doing it, then please tell them that it might not be their fault, however hard it may be.  If you find it too hard, then at least do not take part in the mocking.  If this kind of thing happens to you, share it on facebook or twitter so that people can see the error of their ways, and make a difference.  Even if this doesn't happen to you, I'd still be thankful if you'd share it, just to spread awareness of this kind of thing.

If this kind of thing happens to you, then my advice, although this is extremely hard, and I know I wouldn't be able to do this, would be to turn round to these people and tell them the kind of thing i've just said.  If you point out to someone (for example) making fun of your eyes that you didn't choose what they looked like, i'm sure they would shut up.  If it's a result of the condition, tell them about it.  They can't argue with facts.  If you can't do this, then simply ignore them.  However hard it is to do so, they're bound to go away after a while.  

That's just my opinion though.  The reason I wrote this was because I think this could have a real impact on the way people think when it comes to things like this.  Once again, please don't be offended by this.  I'm not talking to anyone in general.

That's all for today.  I'll talk about my book in my next post.

Stay frosty.

-Joe

More London

Yay, i'm going to London tomorrow! It's for an MRI, where someone sticks a needle in my arm, shoves  me in a tube that's about as big as my body while i'm lying flat on my back, and tells me to lie perfectly still for half an hour while they scan my body.  Oh, and the music they play doesn't exactly drown out that drilling noise that's emanating from the machine.  So, why am I "yaaying" about this, you ask me?  Because I get to spend the whole day in London.

Yay!

So, plan for tomorrow:  Go to London, buy baguette, have MRI, go to oxford street, go to pizza express (maybe) go home.  Done!

Also, the editing process for the book has begun.  I've also completed a cover design form, so I think work will begin on making a cover soon.  We also have to choose between a soft launch (Book completed in three months, and released straight after) or a hard launch (book completed in three months, but released later on.  That one gives us more time for publicity) So that's happening.

In terms of what i'm writing at the moment, I'm not sure.  I'm still on the fantasy book, and i'm kind of doing Red Zone at the same time.  There are some other things I want to write as well, so it's really hard to decide.

Oh yeah, I play Warhammer now.  It's a hobby where you have to assemble and paint models to make an an army, and then use that army to play a turn based strategic game against someone else's army.  It's all very complicated.  A lot of people think it's quite nerdy, but there's not really much logic to that.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Thanks for reading!

Stay frosty.

-Joe

Merry Holidays!

Wow.  It's been a while.  I keep forgetting to do this.  Hopefully, I'll start doing it regularly again instead of.... You know.  Wow, it's been a year since my last post.

That joke never gets old.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice Christmas (Or Hannukah, or Ramadan) and new year.  Now that the holidays are over, it's time to try and get excited about holidays we don't even celebrate just so we have something to look forward to.  Bring on Chinese new year!   新年快乐！

Also, here's an update on the book.  Nothing much has happened since the last post.  But, Live it publishing go back to work later in the week, and that's when the process will begin.  So, things'll get interesting soon.

Finally, I thought i'd make everyone jealous.  For Christmas  my parents very kindly bought me a macbook pro for writing.  So that's cool (I started writing this section and then realized it was kind of pointless, but i'm gonna keep it here) I have to say that if you love to write, or make music, or draw, or anything along those lines, a macbook is the way to go.  They're much better for a PC in these areas.


Well, Thanks for reading.  Keep coming back here for updates on the book.

Stay frosty,

Joe