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What would you do to survive the Apocalypse? Rob the nearest gun shop? Rustled some cattles? Lock yourself in the bank? What about food? The number of Twinkie factories in the world is disturbingly low.

If you’re not sure, you’re in luck, chef and chocolatier (the greatest job title ever) Will Sprunk has been thinking about this very topic and jotted a few thoughts down. Sadly some of the suggestes are specific to London so…much sure you’re across the pond when the Apocalypse strikes, eh?

For the Fallout players ,around I intend to collect some Iguana on a Stick and wait for the Brotherhood of Steel to pick me and my old gray gameboy out of the wasteland.

Movies have trailers and posters. Songs have music videos and radio play. TV shoes have commercials and posters. Radio stations have prize giveaways and billboards. Cars have billboards and commercials. Houses have real estate listings and sign posts. Everything has advertizing

…

Except books. By and large the only advertizing books get is, at best, a few cover shots on a stand at the front of a book store. With the rare exception of a Harry Potter with got news coverage, there’s no advertizing to bring people into the bookstores in the first place. People looking for books go and get what they’re interested in. Everyone else lives their lives never knowing what or if anything has been published at all.

I’m not a publisher and I can’t change the industry, but it’s hardly any surprise that the average book only makes, at best, a few thousand dollars when it has to go up against millions of dollars worth of better known and better advertized competition. This website is more small attempt at breaking into the publishing world, encouraging readers, and getting the word out, but there are plenty of books passing me by as well.

Should publishers buy radio and TV spots? Should book signings and readers be a bigger feature? What about the internet? It’ll be big for sure. Maybe talk spots in podcasts? All possibilities, but I haven’t seen any of them. With all this choice, what does everyone think the best solution is?

No writing today. Just food and football!

Another Word of the Day Story: Bivouac

noun:
1. An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:
1. To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

Van Morrison is crooning another round of “Moondance”. It’s been playing on repeat for hours. The damn CD player is broke. What can you expect from a second-rate beater purchased from a chop shop in Tucson. It was damn lucky the car has even made it this far.
I’m turning out of the parking lot. Another day of work done, some freelance ‘jack-of-all-tradesing’ that has kept the car full of gas, my landlord off my ass, and enough change to buy Saltines and tequila. Bad habits both of them.
I’m not much used to the forest. Taller than builders, but none of the glass. Don’t really care for it. I always speed until I get to the lights of the town. During the day it’s small and not worth caring about, barely more than a gas station and a Home Depot, but at night it almost looks like Phoenix. No Carl’s Jr., though. It’s a damn shame, but I guess it doesn’t matter. That shit’s too expensive anyway.
Highway is always crowded. I’m not a fan. Can’t speed, can’t lag about, can’t even flash my brights when the signs are too small to read. It’s better past Newburgh. Not that many people go past that. It’s usually just me and a few 18-wheelers with Quebec plates. What the hell are the Canucks transporting all the time, anyway?
My exit. Last one before a long drive north. I’ll head that way one of these days. Me and my car will bivouac in Quebec for a bit, pretend we got the Oregon trail backwards. Probably wait till summer first. Car already grumbles about the cold. Landlord thinks he’s got me in a lease too. Whatever.
Not sure where I’d go after that. Keep going farther, one bridge at a time. We’ll see how that goes. Right now I’m just gonna enjoy the last few city lights. Might as well. Never know when you might not make it outta the forest.

Today, a short book review: Mother Tongue: english and how it got to be that way.

I don’t happen to have my copy with me anymore. It was lent out and remains in a permanent state of being traded amongst friends, but I wanted to review it as we get closer and closer to Black Friday, (*shiver*) since it’d make a phenomenal gift (Just don’t loan it!).

As a style guide it doesn’t fill a niche. As an academic research into linguistics it’s far too light. As a makeshift thesaurus it falls a bit flat and it has nothing of a dictionary to it. Instead, Mother Tongue takes the careful road of linguistic travelogue. It’s a fast-paced and flighty journey through the strange nuances of the English language. Most of all it’s fun. English is a terribly neurotic language, but it’s a joyous fellow and appreciates the attention.

Neither a classic, nor heavy non-fiction, nor one of the thousands of books of new fiction coming out, Mother Tongue fills an interesting little place that all writers really should look into (and everyone else as well). There are chapters are interesting word etymologies, swearing and its endless variety, curious changes in spelling, and generous addition of language lore and rumor.

I’ll let Amazon’s review fill in the specifics that I can’t recall well enough to attempt, but The Mother Tongue is well worth looking for!

Thanksgiving is a week away! 

For those who enjoy cooking, but are tired of the usual turkey fare, I’ve got a few recipes to pass along courtesy of Allrecipe.com.

For a main dish:  Bourbon Pecan Chicken

The sauce smells like something you’d fight vampires with, but the meal is great.  Make sure to finely chop the pecans or they won’t stick to the chicken.  Also, make more clarified bother than suggested.  It doesn’t seem to go far.  The resulting dish is not nearly as strong the ingredients suggest.  The sauce has a sweet taste with a slight mustard aftertaste.  The chicken, breaded and cooked with pecans, has a earthly flavor.

Instead of having mash potatoes on the side, you might try: Cajun Potatoes.

These restaurant quality seasoned potatoes add a bit of culture to the Thanksgiving feast.  Don’t worry too much about following the directions exactly.  I mixed and matched the peppers and salt fairly liberally.  Instead of tossing the potatoes in the mixture I just dripped it onto the wedges in the pan.  It comes out great regardless.  Also, for the spice-handicapped, the paprika can be used in place of cayenne pepper or visa versa. Put some mixed vegetables with this to complete the side.

Instead of pumpkin pie for desert I’d suggest delicious: Banana Empanadas

These delicious pastries are open to creative interpretation.  Don’t like Bananas?  Replace with peaches and apricots or any other fresh fruit.  I went heavy on the cinnamon and it was a positive addition.  Just make sure to put either confectionary sugar or a fruit glaze along the top after cooking else the desert can have too much of a pastry taste. 

If you ever get tired of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes give these a try!

Glimmer Train, the literary magazine, has contests every month.  This is a link to their list of contests.  Good luck to anyone who submits.

Today’s my dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!

America, 200 years after a nuclear holocaust. Washington, D.C is a blasted wasteland, irradiated, barren, and home to a myriad of small groups trying to a carve a life out of the deserted ruins that once housed the most powerful government on earth. With a handful of old weapons and scattered junk, a lone wanderer explores the dystopian remnants of society that optimistically awaited the future of technology in search of his newly and mysteriously disappeared father. Will he find shelter amongst the scattered townships of the desert or die at the hands of a raider with nothing better to do?

Does this sound like a book synopsis?

It certainly could be, but it’s not. It happens to be my rough overview of Fallout 3, a computer game by Bethesda, known best for the Elder Scrolls games (which could be books in their own right.)

I’ve been playing Fallout for a little over a week now. I could review it as a video game and on those merits it’s safe to say that it’s fun, but for Servusamanu, I’d rather review it as a piece of literature.

Video games tend to have a bad reputation as a medium for story-telling. There’s only so much I can argue against that, but there are definite exceptions and Fallout 3 is one of them.

It’s a world, a huge world. The story is engrossing, but seeing a barren nuclear wasteland and getting to walk around is a haunting experience. Books can describe and movies can show, but only games let you explore. Running out of ammo in the middle of nowhere is frightening and dramatic. I can’t help, but come up with story ideas. Why is this school infested with raiders? Why are all these cars on fire? How many people have wandered into this wasteland and ran out of supplies? Could I start a new village here?

As a medium for ideas, computers games probably aren’t for everyone, and I can’t imagine anyone who already plays particularly needs an excuse to get or avoid Fallout 3, but if everything I write in the next few weeks has a dystopian bent, you’ll know why.

As I was going through my bookmarks, looking for things that I thought might be useful tools for writers, and I came across the notes I had scribbled down after reading The Cimarron Review. Published quarterly out of Oklahoma State University , each issue is approximately one hundred pages and features three or four short stories and about thirty or so poems. While a few stories have a slight supernatural or eerie bent, The Cimarron Review is mostly filled with stories of cultural exploration, conflicts with society, and “slice of life” vignettes. While my interests tend to lie more towards genre fiction, I’ve found it to be an excellent source of ideas. The Review also allows short story and poem submissions!

Subscription Information can be found here.