Zombies, zombies, everywhere!

Just finished my very first course in Flash and very first Flash game! Thanks to everyone at #austzombie for helping out, as well as Amy, Suzie, and Tehani for the videos! And of course, thanks muchly to the ever-patient (sometimes ) Lords of the Code, Steve and John at uni.

To be honest, probably won’t continue learning Flash – although it IS fun. Will wait to see how much Jobs (Apple CEO) decimates it.

Ready to get going?

DeadHead

This is for a project at university. The assignment is to create an interactive Flash (ActionScript 3) game with a solid storyline. Of course, in my zombie-mania the past few months, I chose to do a zombie story. Here’s a taste of the plot:

The world as you knew it is gone. It’s been years since the first outbreak and people started getting sick. The government is still around – in a fashion. The military are roaming the country, setting up safe areas and ridding us of the infection. The world and humanity will live past this.

But not you. It doesn’t matter what caused this, whether biological weapons, GM foods, voodoo curses, plague or aliens. You’re already infected. You wonder how long you can still pretend to be human. You think…what was the point of life? What did advertising ever do for you? Or sport,  shopping, schooling? Did any of it make a difference, as you are here now, dying cell by cell, only to rise up and attack your own kind? What is but one more zombie, when humanity will survive without you?

Background: http://r2krw9.deviantart.com/art/grunge-blood-140291810, http://struckdumb.deviantart.com/art/Blood-Film-111889899, http://keren-r.deviantart.com/art/Blood-Brushes-20739863

Zombie: http://tonyfbaby.deviantart.com/art/DMC-Zombie-84018035

Font: Capture it 2

Born and bred in Orroroo, South Australia, Fleur McDonald never dreamed of the national – and soon to be international – acclaim she has received. Her first book, Red Dust, was published on the basis of only three chapters by Allen and Unwin. Their senses were spot on, as Red Dust became the number one bestselling book in Australia by a debut author in 2009. Fleur has just handed in Blue Skies, which is not a sequel but follows the same sub-genre of outback romance.

Yet for all her success, Fleur remains a modest woman. When emailing her for this feature, she claimed she ‘wasn’t big enough’ to be a focus. “What makes me different from anyone else?” she asked. “I’m just a woman who likes to tap at a keyboard! I still have screaming kids, farming work and washing that breeds in my laundry!” She’s a talkative woman who loves to laugh and is quite calm when talking about her work. But she starts to get uneasy when you mention her book as a romance.

“When writing Red Dust, the relationship between Gemma and Ben just sort of grew … I was concentrating mostly on the stock stealing and investigation. The same with Blue Skies – I was concentrating on rural depression and the depth of despair. The characters dictated what happened. It’s not so much that I dislike being called a romance writer, just that I hope that people see more to my books than the relationships that happen.”

She recently joined Romance Writers Australia. Like many people, she used to think that romance meant ‘Mills and Boons’ books, but with her favourite authors joining, she was able to get past her resistance. “Actually Lisa Heidke (http://www.lisaheidke.com) suggested that I join. The RWA is an exceptionally supportive group … and they focus on all relationships, not just hot and steamy ones!”

Fleur is a strong personality in the sub-genre too. With Fiona Palmer, Helene Young and Bronwyn Parry, she is part of an initiative of cross-promotion with Australian Outback Romances and Mysteries (On Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Australian-Outback-Romances-and-Mysteries/487483840088) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/outbackromances)).

“These women are so supportive,” she exclaims. “It’s lovely to have others to talk to about writing, our frustrations and loves and everything that goes with sitting in an office, all by yourself, trying to write!”

Working on her farm near Esperance, WA and keeping her two children, Rochelle and Hayden, in line, Fleur is already a busy woman. In two short years she’s finished two books and started working on the third, Purple Roads.

Even though Australia is trying to shed its outback settler image for a high-end ‘civilised’ look, Fleur lets us into the back scene of the country: the farms that drive our economy and feed our families, and the issues the media often ignore.

Red Dust is published by Allen and Unwin in 2009, Blue Skies is due out in March 2010 and her next book, Purple Roads, is to be published in 2012.

Model/stock:
:icon twilightstarstock:
[link]
Skin texture: [link]
Eye veins: [link]

Wordpress 2.8.6

Re-design from a  TemplateLite.com creation

~

Wordpress installation

Plugin installation

Twitter integration