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Day 279: WHAT THE FLOCK

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 279:

I went out late last night to gather eggs from the duckens and there were these… birds? raptors? pterodons?

Something big, and blue, and it flies in flocks.

Also it likes to attack my head.

Whatever they are, they scream like hawks and they tear at your head like owls and personally, I was quite happy with my bird-free existence up to this point. I mean sure, some songbirds would be nice, but if this is my option? I’d opt out.

And of course they didn’t do anything at all to the native fauna – didn’t attack my animals, didn’t fly off with any of the duckens… they were just here for me.

Anyway, they’re dead now. I killed a number of them and the rest caught fire and plummeted to their death when the sun came out. (That’s still baffling, but I’ll go with it.)

My head was bleeding despite my helmet, so it’s time to work on fixing that up a bit.

And I’m thinking I’d rather deal with the zombies and the skeletons and the horror squids, so I’m going back underground as soon as I can.

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Day 278: sunny and wet

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 278:

Did I mention digging into a lake yesterday? Because I totally dug into the bottom of the lake, or bay, or whatever this thing to my north is.

It’s really wet in a cave when you let a lake in.

Fortunately, I was able to wedge some glass blocks into the space. I used glass because it’s not likely to break (not the way I make it anyway) and it lets me see that there’s water above me, which is handy when one is about to die of incoming water.

I’m still digging toward the sheep and dreaming of using lanolin to make some waterproof clothes.

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Day 277: good caverns

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 277:

Wow, I feel like I’ve slept for weeks.

I’m still digging toward the sheep, but I keep finding nice caches of iron or ore, so of course it’s taking longer than it should.

On the other hand, it’s rainy and miserable outside (which might be why I slept so well; it’s difficult to hear zombies moan over a good chucking rainstorm) so it’s not like I’m going to be boiling sugar or making paper or anything like that  in this mess. And all things considered, the caves, although dank, are still drier than the storm.

At least, when I don’t dig into a lake.

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Good news!

One Among the Dead•Publications

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

After much hemming and hawing, I have purchased a new laptop. So our adventures for One Among the Dead will be resuming shortly! Sometime after I actually, like, remember what the heck I was doing.

It’s almost tempting to start a new world… might give her a complex though.

Meanwhile a reminder that if you haven’t looked at the Kickstarter for The Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide Volume Five, it’s open for only eight more days. They’re about $500 short of funding so  your $5 pledge gets you a DRM-free e-book and gets a bunch of kids closer to awesome reading material. (And it gets you one of my stories!)

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Young Explorers Adventure Guide Volume 5

Publications

You might remember that last year, my story “The Smell of Home,” about an old dog who turned out to be more than he seemed, was published in the 2018 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide.

This year, my story “The Ground Shifted”, about a teen with a vestibular disorder discovering the source of her problems, was accepted for publishing  in the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide Volume 5.

The Young Explorers Adventure Guide series is middle-grade/young adult science fiction aimed to represent a diverse range of characters and situations. I’ve enjoyed writing for it, and as far as I know all the kids who’ve read it have enjoyed reading from it.

The kickstarter for this year’s volume launched recently and you can preorder/pledge for a copy now.

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