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Day-to-day musings and wonderings of an infected mind. |
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Zombeeluv's Mission Statement  I promise to be mildly coherent. I promise to post something when I have the time. I promise to tell bad jokes, share the word of the day/week, give antidotes of things that have happened in my life and poke fun at as many things as possible.It is my goal to not only be informative but also entertaining and somewhat annoying in my insistent use of bad zombie jokes, art and literature. Please NOTE: I wish I were better at blogging, communicating or multi-tasking, but I am not. I apologize for my absence, but not for doing what I need to. Peace, 
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| **yes before anyone yells, the title is an homage Phillip K. Dicks story – “Do Cyborgs Dream of Electric Sheep” Hi…sorry I haven’t been around for a bit, things have been a bit crazy in the ZombeeLuv domicile. Some good, some bad…all crazy!!! Last weekend, Zombee and I went up to Seattle for some much needed date, adult, away from everything time. I took this picture while we were headed back home.  So I mentioned on my Newsfeed that I am reading a book called Wonderbook. It is really amazing if you haven’t heard of it. A lot of what it talks about is creativity and perspective. Perspective is that thing that can make two people go through the exact same experience, but experience it differently. Roller-coasters, tennis matches, scary movies, philatelic conventions, zombies…these things aren't everyone’s cup of tea – and would result in varying responses from any random group of twenty people who were made to attend them. Creativity is that little niggle inside of us that allows us to create art, see the world differently and wonder when we are made to attend philatelic conventions what it would be like for a zombie tennis match to invade the space using a roller coaster – just saying. There are so many things around us that if we shift our perspective on them just a bit, they can give us inspiration for creativity. Wonderbook suggests walking around with a way to record these “ah-ha” moments so that when you are ready to comment pen to paper you have sources to pull from. The book also mentions that creativity must be fed and nurtured so that it can be allowed to expand, grow and reach its full potential. I am not at the point where I am keeping a dream journal by the side of my bed…mostly because Zombee likes to give me math problems right as I am trying to fall asleep…she thinks it is funny that I will answer her correctly or correct myself while the sandman is beating me upside my head trying to get my attention. But I am starting to take pictures and write down a lot more things that seem or feel inspirational. Here is just one from my trip last Saturday:  So what makes you inspired? How does your perspective work with your creativity? And if nothing else…how did you like my pictures? I took them with my phone, I think they came out pretty darn good!! **BTW before anyone tries to defend my girlfriend by saying it is rude that I call her a Zombee...she is the one who says she loves me for my brains, therefore she insists that she is the Zombee I love.  Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: Zombies are not your friends...if they aren't eating you its either because you don't have a brain or they are full.  |
| So I was getting caught up on the new show iZOMBIE last night, which I thought was a play on the ‘White Trash Zombie’ series by Diana Rowland, but come to find out is actually off of a comic book series by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, published by DC Comic’s Vertigo in 2010 and it reminded me that I hadn’t updated my blog in a week. “ARGHHH!!!!” *cough* So here I am. But since the inspiration came from where it did, let’s run with it! Yes? Inspiration vs. Plagiarism I used to write for a different site for a while and while there I was accused of plagiarism. The basis for this accusation was that we were both writing stories that had black dragons in them. For me it was a “Wait, did I?” moment. It was very confusing because there were linguistic barriers involved and the author accusing me had removed his story six months before the accusation was made, so no one could compare if the stories were similar or not. Once the site moderator got copies of both the stories, it only took a day to say, look this is not what plagiarism is. Later that year, I had stories that were actually stolen and republished by someone else on another site. It hurt and it made me feel violated. (You can check this to see if this has happened to you by copying a sentence out of your story and seeing what comes up in Google.) I quit writing for a while. Since then, I am a little gun shy and I cringe a bit anytime I see stories where descriptions might resemble a story I am working on. Especially since most of what I write is in the Urban Fantasy/Science Fiction genre. I mean how many times can you have a witch/zombie/vampire detective with a fairy/werewolf/necromancer sidekick who ends up falling for the succubus/demon/mermaid villain who ends up not being the real villain because the real villain is the self-righteous boss who is a wannabe dragon/minion/troll? I mean really!!!! When is it inspiration and when is it plagiarism? Let’s get technical. Plagiarism as defined on Dictionary.com: 1. an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author 2. a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation. So basically you can’t copy someone style and you can’t copy someone’s ideas. So since Diana already wrote about a zombie who became a coroner does that mean that Chris and Michael plagiarized her? No. Although both iZOMBIE and the White Trash Zombie series have zombies and coronary science in common, that is where the similarity ends. They did not imitate her. I have no idea if they have ever read or seen her stories, but regardless of whether or not they had, inspiration is not the same as imitation. And thank goodness for that!! Can you imagine if Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the only vampire book you would ever get to read? *shudder* or if Night of the Living Dead was our only reference for zombies? *gasp* THE HORROR!!!! Instead we live in a world where good little nerd boys and girls can watch Star Trek Next Generation and think…what if the generation after this is from an alternate reality where elves and dragons go into space and boom -- Farscape is born. (Disclaimer….i have no idea how Farscape was born, but the show rocks. I highly recommend watching it.) It’s impossible to copyright a concept or idea, but once we get words on paper they became tangible pieces of art. They can inspire others, but they belong to us. Let us celebrate our inspirations, cherish them and revel in their muse-like abilities, but once we are sufficiently motivated, set them aside so that our work is truly our own. Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: Just because the Zombie is small and cute, don’t think it won’t eat your brains. References: iZOMBIE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IZOMBIE White Trash Zomie - http://dianarowland.com/zombies.html J K Rowling – plagiarism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series Farscape - http://www.henson.com/fantasy_scifi.php?content=farscape |
| So I was watching the Science Channel yesterday (odd where you will find inspiration) and they were talking about logic. Logic is the tool the brain uses to work through a problem. Fun Problem: Without using a word that contains the letter ‘A’, list 50 words in 30 seconds. As a writer, it is important that we employ logic to get our characters through the story. Have you ever been engrossed in a book only to find that the ending made no sense? (Cough – Tommyknockers by Stephen King.) It is super important that there not be that “hand of god” moment, unless of course you are talking about god – the story of Noah’s Ark really doesn’t work unless God wiped out all the life on earth, right? As writers, we should always decorate our stories with clues and hints. But..logic doesn’t always appear to be logical. Example: A farmer went to the store and bought a fox, a chicken and some chicken food. He has to cross a river to get home but he only has room for one of the three things in his boat. How many trips back and forth does he need to make to get all three items across the river? Keep in mind, he can’t leave the fox with the chicken or the chicken with the chicken food. Now, forgiving the fact that a farmer wouldn’t buy a fox… how does this work.  Trip one…the chicken goes across Trip two…the farmer goes back alone Trip three…he grabs the fox (without getting bit we hope…and why isn’t this fox in a carrier…and the chicken for that matter…I think this farmer doesn’t know what he’s doing) Trip four…the farmer brings the chicken back across so it isn’t left alone with the fox Trip five…he takes the feed over Trip six…he goes back across leaving the fox with the feed Trip seven…he takes the chicken and now all three items are on the home side of the riverAs I have pointed out…this example really doesn’t play well in real life, but it is a good example of how you have to point out solutions as a writer. The trips are what we are explaining to our readers. There are many different ways to write but I have found one of the most successful for me it to know where I want the story to end up, then by writing the trips and putting them into the proper order and adding details to make sure there are no ‘hand of god’ moments, I can successfully put together the puzzle. So back to our fun problem…how did you do? Well if you were having problems, don’t worry, it can be tricky…but just remember no numbers contain the letter ‘A’ until you get to one-thousand, so how fast can you count? Zombie survival tip of the day: If you’ve run out of bullets, you can always use your rifle as a bat. |
So for my first blog entry I am participating in the activity on the "Invalid Item"  by A Guest Visitor .The question: How did you find WDC and how do you like it here? How Did you find PDG and how do you like it so far? I found WDC by accident. I have always known that I wanted to be a writer and I was looking online for resources to help me get to the point where I felt like I would be able to work through a concept to the end. I can’t even remember what search criteria I put in Google, but WDC was at the top of the list. It was extremely serendipitous, and the resources and people here at WDC are by far some of the most creative and helpful anywhere. Found? …so I have seen PDG on some peoples' signatures, so I knew it was a group that was out there, but I didn’t know how to join. My mentor, 🌑 Darleen - QoD  , asked me if I would be interested after I had reviewed a story of hers and commented on the quality of her portfolio (I highly recommend checking it out, it is really well done). And -- I am enjoying PDG a lot. They have introduced me to a new friend, DollarDays is painting  , and I am working through some items and tasks that I wouldn’t have done without the activities on the PDG Playground – which would be a shame because then I wouldn’t be collecting all of these awesome zombie jokes!!! Zombie Survival Tip of the Day: You don't have to run the fastest, just faster than the person behind you. |
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