Thanks to Rosalind and everyone else who entered!

Also, Silk Scarf Shoppe now has more gamer scarves in stock so check out their selection!

As a 15-year-old, Benny Imura will no longer be supported by the town of Mountainside. Instead, like all adults, he must find a job to earn his rations. But faced with career choices like testing the fence separating the town from zombies or sitting in a watchtower all day, following his bounty hunter brother Tom out into the Rot and Ruin becomes his best option.

Tom is loved and respected by the town, but Benny remembers Tom’s actions on First Night and has hated him ever since. Besides, Tom isn’t anything like Charlie Pink-Eye or the Motor City Hammer, bounty hunters adored by Benny and his friends. But out in the Rot and Ruin, Benny learns Tom’s philosophy about zombie killing and fears that the real monsters might be on the wrong side of the fence.

Rot and Ruin continues the recent trend of imagining society in the wake of zombie apocalypse. In Maberry’s world-building, monks live in the wastes caring for zombies, scouting programs include intensive combat training and kids collect zombie trading cards. And, in spite of the threat of the living dead, Maberry also conveys the complications which simply come from being fifteen.

Jonathan Maberry’s Rot and Ruin is an expansion of his novella “Family Business” published earlier this year in The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology. What struck me then was his poignant take on zombies. This expanded version retains the poignancy, but also ups the action and horror quotient making this a page-turner, even as it becomes more grim and reflective.

Other takes:

Silvercublogger: Don’t Cover The Art, Unless…

The Average Gamer: Cover Art

Aim for the Head: Browsing the Aisles

SnipingMizzy: In the eye of the beholder

Extra Guy: On Books and Covers

Zath: How Important Is A Game’s Cover Art?

carocat.co.uk: Cover art? No, thanks!

Pioneer Project: The game box’s big moment

Man Fat: How Important Is A Game’s Cover Art?

So my rough idea for this would be a collection of geek-friendly recipes loving collected into a PDF format (by someone with better layout skills than me) which could then a) be hosted by whoever wanted it on their blog/website and b) printed out and handed out at cons.

By geek-friendly, I mean stuff you cook for game nights, snacks which keep you up all night, cocktails which give you Rock Band courage, cookies shaped like the Death Star, etc.

Although I’m not seeing this as a moneymaking venture, I would want to avoid copyright infringement by having people submit original recipes — not things pulled from other cookbooks or lifted off the Internet.

It would also be cool if we called it the Necronomnomnom, but I’m flexible about that.

So please use the comment box for:

1) General brainstorming.
2) Letting me know you want to be part of this (you have a recipe, want to design the cover, have thought of a better name/better distribution method, etc).
3) General messages of support. :)

Also, please RT this, FB it, and send this directly to people who want/need to be involved.

And thank you!

But last night things changed. Last night, Natali sailed past her goal and she’s currently at 112%.

I’m proud to be part of this, humbled by the number of people willing to make someone’s dream come true and I don’t have the word to describe how I feel watching this unfold as a shared experience through Twitter. It’s like the taupe or mauve of emotions, or some other color I can’t identify.

However, I’m also realistic. $5000 is a good start, but she’s going to need more money. And since there are still 25 days left to give, I decided to still run this interview with her about UberDork Café and her reasons behind it.

Game Couch: Hi Natali! I guess we should start with the idea behind UberDork Café.

Natali: I am an ambidextrously-brained geek girl who just happens to be a single mom to two geekling girls. When trying to find new, fun things for us to try or places to go, I noticed the pickings were super slim. It got me thinking about what it was like being a geeky kid growing up and made me realize that the majority of our geeklings and even us as adults are really limited in places to go that really get us. That got me thinking about what the ultimate place would be for us. After I came up with it, I realized that unless someone actually created it, it may not exist for quite some time. So, I figured why can’t I be that someone?

Game Couch: I think that’s why I believe in this so much. A place like this would have had a huge impact on my life. But why would anyone not living in Wisconsin want to support this?

Natali: The simple answer is: this is just the start. I’ve had so many people tell me how much they wish a place like this existed near them. So much so that it has been added to the business plan- to open other locations across the… well who knows maybe world. :)

Ultimately though, the reason I think it is so important is what it stands for. UberDork Café is not just about a place you can go hang, grab coffee, game with your friends, listen to a lecture from a guest comic artist or throw your 5-year-old a build your own robot birthday party. It’s about a symbol of our community. Our community is strong but hidden- in back rooms of game shops, in basements with controllers in hand, behind computer screens with the online community we seek solace in.

What if there was some place to go do all of that while surrounded by people that got you? What if there was a place where geeky kids could go hang and meet other kids instead of avatars? Where people that believed in them so much that they might have a chance at a scholarship to go build the best video game ever or gadget that would save lives? What if we could all go someplace where everyone knew our gamertag? Or what a Dalek is? Or peacefully argue whose ears are more awesome- Spock’s or Yoda’s? Where we could wave our lil geek/nerd/dork flags high and proud?

But that all needs to start somewhere. Why not here? :)

Game Couch: What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from the Kickstarter campaign?

Natali: There are two huge things that I have learned.

The first is that I was absolutely right about my community. The amount of love and support I have gotten from my geeky peeps is overwhelming. I have cried move over these last couple of weeks than I can remember. And they have all been tears of joy, pride and gratefulness. We are a tight group that love and support each other. That love meeting others that are like us and extending the love and support to them. That together, there isn’t anything we can’t accomplish.

The second was how much UberDork Café is really needed. It’s a bit more of a sad lesson. After I launched this campaign, people started reaching out and telling me their stories. About how they’ve always wanted to go to a Con, but never had anyone to go with them. About how many hours they’ve spent online with the community they’ve met because most of the people in their lives just don’t get them like their online friends do. About how they could never tell their other friends they camped out at GameStop for a midnight new release. How they often wonder what they would be like if their childhood was different- if they didn’t have to change on the outside to fit in or if they had other people that believed in their geeky dreams and aspirations.

Game Couch: After the end of the Kickstarter campaign, Friday, August 13th, what happens?

Natali: Phase II kicks in. Clearly it takes more than $5,000 to open a place like this. The money from Kickstarter is a huge part in getting all the lovely little business details in order and having money to secure location. More funds will be needed to obtain equipment, supplies, etc. The raising of those funds is already being worked on due to more amazing support from my geek community. I can’t tell you how excited I am for when I can finally announce what it is!!! :)

Description:
Show your gamer pride with this vibrant blue, hand dyed, medium weight, 100% silk scarf. It measures approximately 10″ by 54″ and has a pearl white d20 die on each end and a line of darker blue accents along one edge.

How to Win
There are two ways to enter this contest:

1. Leave a comment below saying why you deserve to win the scarf!

2. Tweet about this contest linking to this post and leave a second comment with a link to your tweet.

One (1) winner will be selected at random after the contest closes on Sunday, July 18th at 6:00 p.m. EST. The winner will be notified via email, so leave a valid email address! I will ship anywhere in the world, so all humans are invited to participate!

Contest is closed
Congrats to Rosalind from Girls Are Geeks!

I came to this for the new fiction and was a little disappointed that there were only three stories and a Young Jayne beginning reader spread by Ben Edlund. However the stories are good (and poignant), if brief.

WHAT HOLDS US DOWN by Jane Espenson
is the best of the lot, featuring Wash and Kaylee doing what they do best.

CRYSTAL by Brett Matthews
focuses on River Tam and her connection to the crew.

TAKE THE SKY by Jose Molina
shows us Mal at 70.

Between the stories are cast interviews, articles on props (Wash’s dinosaurs! Shepherd Book’s Book!), details on the writing process, ship design, world-building and more — including highlighting work done by the fan community and fan films — making this a must read for Browncoats.

View all my reviews >>

Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper
Developer: Frogwares
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platform: Xbox 360 (also PC)
Released: April 27, 2010
Test Freaks’ Freak Score: 8.1/10

Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper plays like a composite of two games: a standard adventure game and an eerily accurate investigation into the Ripper killings. Arriving in London’s East End, Holmes checks in with the police, but Constable Humphries has misplaced an important pouch. Finley the landlord knows where it is, but he’s being troubled by The Captain. And so on. But just as you feel mired down in the “favor trade,” something connects back to the murder. You’ll hear troublesome rumors about a Dr. Tumblety, meet the disquieting Walter Sickert, or listen to complaints about a “Leather Apron” menacing the local streetwalkers.

And that’s before you hit the first crime scene.

Holmes at the crime scene.

Adventure games draw heavily from the mystery genre, but the usual mechanic of collecting inventory items and figuring out where to use them seldom feels like you’re solving a mystery. By the end of Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper, you’ll feel like you’ve solved a mystery. Beyond the Deduction Board mentioned above, you’ll also plot timelines based on eyewitness testimony — which is often conflicting — conduct experiments and rule out red herrings.

Every possibility must be investigated.

The Xbox 360 version is a port of a 2009 PC game so the graphics haven’t aged, but there are apparent budgetary limitations. Luckily the East End of London lends itself to the Silent Hill method of masking draw distances with fog and the reuse of character models allows for a bustling, living London. That said, environments are downright impressive – authentic details (Cat’s Meat, anyone?) have been captured, making the landscape appropriately filthy – and foreign to our modern eyes. Nighttime sections, where dim alleys are lit only by lone bull’s-eye lantern, are chilling.

A grim waterway.

Made by Ruth, the Cthulhus are 5 inches high and have a 6-inch wingspan, so while the site describes them as tiny, they’re definitely noticeable on your desk and they’re very well-made. They also come in different colors and varieties: from wide-eyed astonishment to “sleepy yarn eyes.”

You can buy them at the Etsy Store: cthulhuchick.etsy.com.

Read about their adventures at Cthulhu Chick (they’ve seen EvelynEvelyn and visited the White House).

And follow them on Twitter: @cthulhuchick.