Zombies, Run: Day One

I thought I'd keep track of my progress, embarrassing as the early days might be, so I can show myself how far I've come.

Today was my first attempt at the first mission of Zombies, Run - a great exercise app. Unfortunately, I am horrendously unfit and I live in an area that is entirely hills. Somehow, zombies always seemed to converge just as I started heading up hill. They need to have some common courtesy and give me a chance to run down hill these first few times!

But I liked the story and I really enjoyed the characters so far. Sadly I didn't make it through the last 20 minutes of the first mission. That's my aim for tomorrow. But my stats for today,as embarrassing as they are, were:

Run time: 21:29
Distance: 1.71km
Pace: 12:33min/km
Supplies collected: 13
Materials earned: None
Mobs evaded: None (Eeeep, someone isn't surviving the zombie apocalypse yet)
Inventory:

5 First Aid kits
2 Pain meds
1 Baseball bat
1 CDC Box
1 Bottled Water
1 Sports Bra (Yeah, I laughed, too)
1 Antibiotics
1 Pair of Trousers
1 Set of Batteries

Epic Worldbuilding Project

I'm embarking on what I've been calling my "Epic Worldbuilding" project for Guardia. I've always wanted to show the depth of the world behind the books but I hated the idea of doing it in an encyclopedic-format. So after toying with a few ideas, I've decided to do it through a series of letters and stories, shared by some established characters, prior to the series' timeline. It will also give people a glimpse of the lives behind some of the minor characters.

As a teaser, here is the map I am currently working on. It's been a learning curve, this cartography venture, but I quite like how things are turning out so far! I've also noticed my work is becoming more and more inspired by the art nouveau movement. I have no regrets!

Zombies, Run!

I suffer from arthritis, so it's often hard to motivate myself to exercise when all too often a simple walk will result in two days of aching and swelling. But as someone who was once a bellydancer, martial artist and rider, I hate feeling so unfit and unhealthy. You feel completely unattractive, even if you're not really overweight, especially when you couple that bad body-image with near-constant pains.

Which is why I am so excited to start using the Zombies, Run! app. tomorrow. I stumbled across it on Tumblr and totally fell in love with the idea behind the app. As a writer, I love the idea of immersive, story-motivated exercise - I kind of wish I'd thought of it myself! I'm not nearly ready to jog through the story like most - especially given how hilly my suburb is - but you better believe I'll be speed-walking my terrified little heart out. I even succumbed and finally updated all my music and iDevices to take advantage of the way the app. blends the story and music.

This is going to be a year, not only to get my work published, but to get myself feeling better again. And what better way to do that, than with zombies?