Summer Games

It's been a long time since I've done any video game writing here on the main blog. Now that I don't need daily content, I've been more...selective about what goes up here. That said, I have been doing a bit of game-centered writing recently that I thought I'd share.

I now have a separate Twitter account that I use specifically for game- and nerd-focused content (@Active_ate), and have been busy tweeting my progress through various old games, sometimes with self-imposed restrictions for extra challenge.

Dancing Dagger, Air Blade, Slumber Sword, and some careful death control overcome Atmos. #FF5Freelancers pic.twitter.com/G5z9U0Kf31

— Active_ate (@Active_ate) June 11, 2015

To give all this writing a home, I started another Blogger page (http://active-ate-games.blogspot.com) and have been writing about my game variants over there. If you like math and bad jokes, you'll love what you read. Here's an extra-nerdy excerpt from a Final Fantasy 5 Solo Time Mage challenge run report:

Earlier in the Ship Graveyard dungeon, a well-hidden chest contains a new kind of weapon. The Flail has some very interesting qualities: it boasts a slightly higher Attack (16) than the Dagger (14), it deals equal damage from the back row, and it cuts the enemy defense to 25% of its original value.
What's the catch? The weapon is wildly random, both in Hit% and damage dealt. Here's the formula from the Algorithms Guide:  

Attack = (Weapon Attack/2) + (0..Weapon Attack) 

M = (Level*Strength)/128 + 2 

Defense = (Defense/4) 

ATTACK: 16                 HIT%: 70 

The above Attack formula means that, on any given attack command, the Attack value will be anywhere from 50%–150% of the listed weapon Attack. For the Flail, that means 8–24. The Multiplier (M) will usually be the same as that with the Knife (due to the bug), and the Defense/4 property boosts damage significantly. 

The Hit% of 70 means just what it says on the tin: this weapon will flat-out miss on three of every ten attacks—before calculating any enemy physical evasion, of which Siren thankfully has none. I like the narrative suggestion with this mage-only weapon: picture a frail robed wizard wildly and blindly swinging a spiked ball on a long chain with one hand while protecting his face and eyes with the other.

The Final Fantasy 5 Four Job Fiesta is fast approaching, and in honor of the most wonderful time of the (retro RPG enthusiast) year, I wrote an article about it for Laser Time, one of my favorite pop culture/video game podcast networks. I was proud to share this article with the Internet gaming community, and hope it will attract a few new players to the Fiesta this year.

I also started a new sports project with an old friend, Sticky Bleachers. We hope to one day build it into a multi-writer sports blog and podcast, but for now, it's a Twitter account and some unique video content. We kicked off the YouTube channel with a simulated NBA Finals series with NBA Live '96 for Sega Genesis (that's Sega Mega Drive for you European fans) with a current rosters rom patch. This means we can see LeBron James face off with Stephen Curry in a pixelated dream world – with commentary by my friend and Yours Truly.

I'm also continuing work on Five Suitcases – the book and the travel blog – so I'm keeping myself busy indoors as the days in Dublin grow longer and warmer.

The In-Sight Far-Away Finish Line

Happy Valentine's Day, go see St. Vally's bones, spend time with loved ones platonic, romantic, and familial, all that jazz.

In addition to promoting and updating The Frugal Guide, I've been pouring a lot of time into my next book, Five Suitcases. Ten weeks after really hammering away at writing, I've come to a difficult spot.

The book is about 80% finished by sheer text bulk -- it's actually already longer than The Frugal Guide -- but I still have a few more chapters to write. The difficult part I've reached now is constructing this series of stories and chapters into one cohesive work, and it's a lot more challenging than I thought it would be.

When putting the finishing touches on The Frugal Guide, I only had to make sure that my conventions were consistent throughout the book; that a new reader could read the book from e-cover to e-cover and conclude that they were all indeed written by the same person. It was mostly a matter of making sure I always used the same capitalization and naming choices (City Centre, no the), times and prices (24-hour time, €13.00), and abbreviations (Mon, Apr) throughout. The format of my reviews -- name it, review it, make a Bono joke, list the pertinent details -- didn't need much refinement.

Not the case with a creative nonfiction book like this. I've written most of the chapters like long form blog posts, sitting down over a few days, pounding out a few thousand words, and putting it aside to work on the next story. This has worked to get the bulk of my word goal written, to be sure, but now I have to start actually reading the chapters I wrote a month ago to make sure they match in tone with the ones I'm writing now. I'm already starting to notice some things that will need to be adjusted, and I'm sure there will be many more.

I also want references between chapters -- jokes linking situations I've been in and people I've met -- but to do that, I'll have to carefully construct them between chapters to make sure the comedy or tragedy has some punch and doesn't fall flat.

I think the best thing to do now would be to read everything I've written, the whole almost-finished book, taking copious notes as I go. This will help me construct the final few chapters and make the ones I've already written sharper, crisper, and more enjoyable for future readers.

...I hope it ends up being more fun than it sounds.

A Media Blitz

Since returning from Morocco, I've made a conscious effort to promote the book and the podcast outside of my normal blog and social media channels. Holiday backups and the general nature of print publishing being what they are, my work is just now starting to pay off.

I did a Skype interview with a reporter for my hometown newspaper in Dubuque, Iowa. I hoped that the cache of a local boy going off and doing good things in a far-off, exotic land like Dublin would be appealing enough for a story. Combine that with the strong Irish connection to Dubuque and you have a really tantalizing scoop.

They printed my interview and a review of the book, but the full text of the article is subscription-only. Non-subscribers can read the snippet in the link below and take my word that it was a good review.

DBQ friends, check today's TH for a feature about The Frugal Guide: Dublin! Link to online article (TH sub req'd) http://t.co/lKBpDfxinW
— Cory Hanson (@HansonCory1) February 1, 2015

I also made contact with the editors of Dublin People, the free newspaper that had published a few of my own articles last year. Mine is the book of the week in the current edition, so you can check out a free copy of Northside People East, Northside People West, or Southside People at your local supermarket or newsagent OR check out page 21 of the PDF edition.

Another free community newspaper that has published my work before is the Southside-specific NewsFour. I spoke with one of the team about my book and a review is published in the Feb/Mar edition, also available in (Southside) libraries, cafes, and newsagents. As of this writing, the online edition is not yet available. Look for an update (you can follow me on Twitter and never miss an update, smile and wink!) if and when it is made available.

NewsFour also does an audio podcast to update the community about the contents of the current edition. The book got a mention and a plug from the editors and the host of the show on RICC radio. The podcast -- cued up to the book's plug -- is available on Soundcloud at this link.

Did someone say audio podcasts? Well, it just so happens that I published a new Frugal Guide: Dublin podcast today; this one an interview rather than a guided tour. In it, I visited with the director of the Contemporary Music Centre about the good work they do to support new music in Ireland and to provide free access and entertainment to the lucky citizens. The accompanying article and an embedded podcast player can be found over at Five Suitcases.

In addition to my personal Morocco story, I wrote and sold a more general-audience travel article about visiting Marrakesh specifically. I sold the article without my byline, but you can visit the published article here and decide if it sounds like my voice.

In addition to all this press, I've been keeping busy researching new attractions for the Frugal Guide eBook and working on my weekly writing quota for my next book. Look for more updates whenever I have time to surface for air.

New Five Suitcases: A Week in Morocco

Cross-post of an article published on Five Suitcases, the new home for my travel-specific writing. Over Christmas, we spent a week in and around Marrakech, Morocco (thanks, Ryanair direct flights from Dublin!) seeing the sights, hearing the sounds, tasting the tastes, and... smelling the smells of North Africa.

It was a great trip, and we had a wonderful time. Rather than draw one trip out into seven or eight Travel Monday posts as I would have done before, I made one long(ish) post with a condensed, less-personal, more tip-heavy article that looks more like a traditional travel article on a website or in one of those cheesy in-flight magazines.

Full text of the post is below, but feel free to visit the post over at Five Suitcases to like and share!

---

From the cold, dark, lonely reality that is expat Christmas in Dublin, we planned an exotic and exciting escape. An escape to a new continent, a warmer climate, and a country in which everything would be open on Christmas Day!

Surprisingly, Irish discount airline Ryanair operates direct to Marrakech Menara Airport twice weekly. This sets up well for the long weekend and the weeklong Moroccan adventure.

Morocco, we learned, is surprisingly large -- approximately the same size and shape as the US state of California -- with most of the population in the northern (non-Sahara) half of the country. A number of famous and mysterious cities will be on the travel planner's list: Hollywood-famous Casablanca, hat-famous Fes (Fez), Spain-in-sight Tangier, well-known express terminus Marrakech, and many others.

We decided to make Marrakech the hub of our week-long holiday, alternating days in the city with side trips to the mountains, the desert, and the coast.

From Marrakech Menara Airport, we took the municipal bus no. 19. The bus runs frequently and quickly directly into the center of the city -- the fortified medina. Aggressive taxi drivers compete for business at the airport exit and can be a sensible (if slightly more expensive) option to get to a specific address.

Marrakech, for tourists, is in two parts: the ancient walled medina and the Ville Nouvelle or New Town. The medina is exactly the picture of an Arabic trading post: tiny streets haphazardly laid out, endless souks -- narrow market streets with merchants and vendors selling all manner of food, household goods, spices, and souvenirs -- and the always-buzzing main plaza, Jemaa el Fna.

The square changes mood throughout the day. In the early morning, before the tourists are awake, locals stop for breakfast in small street cafes. These very French-influenced breakfasts are usually small breads or pastries served with Moroccan green tea with mint and lots of sugar. Merchants drive horse- or donkey-pulled carts into the square loaded with their goods and sometimes a small tent.

Later in the day, fortune-tellers, snakecharmers, and henna artists squeeze into the square with the merchants, orange juice and dried fruit stands, and crowds of tourists. At night, food grills and street musicians continue to happily separate tourists from their money.

Towering over the square (and the rest of the city) is the impressive minaret (steeple or tower) of the Koutoubia Mosque. The first mosque on this site was completed around 1157, and it serves as a constant reminder that Morocco is an Islamic country. Five times daily, the Koutoubia (and dozens of other mosques in the city) issues the call to prayer. Loudspeakers project these haunting chants from the tops of mosque minarets throughout the city. One can't help but feel decidedly not-in-Kansas-anymore while listening to these sacred-yet-exotic calls. These would be the soundtrack to most of our Moroccan adventure.

The Minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque

Beyond the media, the New Town looks decidedly European. Wide streets are lined with orange and olive trees and sidewalks. At large intersections, multi-lane roundabouts circle fountains as cars, scooters, and buses fight for positioning. The famous (but sadly not free) Majorelle Gardens offer a quiet rest in a beautiful and clean walled botanic garden. These gardens and the mansion inside were once owned by Yves Saint Laurent, the now-deceased French fashion designer. After his death in 2008, his ashes were scattered here in his favorite garden.

From Marrakech, agents offer many different day and overnight trips leaving conveniently from the city center. The Atlas Mountains just east of the city offer many different kinds of outdoor entertainment from impressive waterfalls to adventure hiking to skiing. Beyond the mountains is the sprawling Sahara Desert. We took a two-day, one-night trip over the mountains to the fringes of the desert for an unforgettable camping trip.

These tours, and there are dozens of them each day, visit a number of scenic and historic sites en route to the desert. The Ait-Ben-Haddou Kasbah has been used in a number of Hollywood movies, beginning with Lawrence of Arabia and continuing to a recent filming of Game of Thrones. This city of clay was originally built by settled-down nomads to do business with the trading caravans traveling through the river valley. The word Kasbah refers to a clay-walled building with security towers at each corner. This hillside stronghold has several of these buildings, forming a very easily-defensible fort.

Ait-Ben-Haddou Kasbah

Nearby, the ancient-modern city of Ouarzazate boasts more ancient clay-walled forts and buildings, all well-maintained for use in film and television. The city even boasts a functioning studio and a museum of movie memorabilia used for local on-location filming. Interesting that this city in the middle of the desert has carved out such a lucrative market to boost the local economy based on its Western-friendly attitude and Middle-Eastern look.

Most overnight desert trips include a short camel ride from the road to a small campsite. Hosts in traditional nomadic dress lead the camels to the circle of tents, serve a hot meal of tajine (a North African meat or vegetable stew made in a conical dish), and lead songs around around a campfire. The experience is quite touristy -- the tajine is discreetly brought to the campsite on a truck, and other identical campsites are set up not-quite-beyond eyesight or earshot -- but it's a great time nonetheless.

Camels Waking up at Sunrise

After returning from the desert, we took a break from the crowds, noise, and smell of Marrakech with an overnight trip to the seaside fishing village of Essaouira. The city is served by Supratours, the coach system operated by Morocco's national railroad to connect cities without rail lines. The bus ride was surprisingly comfortable and hassle-free -- most of the passengers were Western tourists, as I imagine is the case for most Marrakech-Essaouira buses.

The coastal village was quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. Fishers unload their catch at the busy port and shipyard, and much of it is sold immediately to local residents and restaurants. A row of fish grills just off the port allows visitors to choose a fresh fish to be filleted, grilled, and served immediately. Unlike Marrakech, motor vehicles are not allowed inside the walled medina of Essaouira, so locals and tourists can wander the (much, much cheaper) markets without fear of scooter and motorbike handlebars knocking unsuspecting elbows. A sunset walk on the well-kept beach made for a perfect end to a day in this relaxed resort town.

Essaouira

With this trip, we checked off a number of firsts from our travel list. Despite its proximity to Europe and the recent French influence, this country was unlike anything we'd seen before. We experienced exciting highs in the stunning natural and cultural wonders and sometimes disheartening lows in the unchecked pollution and poverty of the inner cities. It was travel in a much more real sense; we weren't visiting a neutered Western Disneyland. Morocco has real teeth, and at the end of our trip, we felt gloriously bitten, chewed up, and spit out by this beautiful country.

Travel Tips

1. Almost all prices in Morocco are negotiable and flexible. Savvy hagglers can get great deals in this already low-cost country. Novice negotiators beware: always agree on a price before accepting any kind of good or service, including taxi rides. Making this process even more frustrating is the lack of small coins in circulation. Many businesses are cash-only, so they never go to banks to get rolled coin for change. Almost everyone will try to get exact change from you, and some will simply refuse to make change at all. 
2. If your itinerary is flexible, you can save money by booking side trips the night before they leave, as agents try desperately to fill empty spaces for next-day tours. Play hard-to-get for the best price. Keep in mind that this carries the risk of finding only sold-out or cancelled tours.
3. Travel safely. Morocco is a developing country, and poverty and crime are widespread. Follow the same rules you would when traveling anywhere: use a money belt for most of your cash and important documents, don't flash too much money, and be wary of scammers, thieves, and pickpockets. Be even more cautious about asking for (or accepting) directions from locals. Most will be directions to a market or shop with a high-pressure sales pitch, and some will be to dangerous dead-end alleys. Try not to stray too far from well-known and well-lit areas at night.

Happy Holidays!

It's Christmas Day, for those who celebrate. It's our second holiday season away from the States, and boy how time flies. It seems like just yesterday that we were spending a quiet (and cold) Christmas in Cork, Ireland's other capital.

But looking back, so much has happened since that little holiday away. We've checked off a number of other travel destinations, like Belgium, Derry, Munich, Prague, and Scotland. If it counts as a travel destination, we visited our families back in Iowa and New York.

Family has come from America to see us in Galway, Mayo, and County Clare (writings of those trips coming soon).

I've accomplished a number of personal goals, finally pushing "publish" on my free eBook, and it's been very successful so far. The downloads creep up slowly each day, and as it becomes available on more platforms, I know it will grow. I hope to continue promoting and updating the book as the new year begins.

I'm well into writing my second book, pumping out my daily writing quota without much trouble. Instead of spending those hours every day on new blog content, I feel like I'm getting a better product with longform, pictureless, personal essays. Hopefully the new year will see another book on my e-bookshelf.

We hope you are kickin' it with someone you love this holiday season, whichever holidays you celebrate. If you are away from your close family and friends like we are, we feel you. Try to spend some time connecting with them with this amazing world wide web through which you're reading my words now.

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season and new year to all!

Cory and Sara

Cong, Co. Mayo
(Photo: Keri Hanson)

First Frugal Guide Dublin Supplement

The first-of-many supplemental posts for The Frugal Guide: Dublin is now available on Five Suitcases. In it, I explore Moore Street, one of Dublin's little seedy (but relatively safe) secrets near the busy shopping district of Henry Street.

Dubliners know Moore Street's reputation well, and I've seen many a "respectable" person buying the smuggled tobacco from the unscrupulous crooks patrolling the cobbled street. In the article, I comment,

If you are wondering why the police don't monitor this infamous corner of small-time crooks, you clearly don't live in Ireland.

And I mean that sincerely. Clearly there is crime (small-time, of course) happening at all hours of the day and night here, but I've seen Gardai (Irish police officers) actively avoid walking near Moore Street as they patrol Henry Street. Are they more concerned with the heavy rate of shoplifting and crowd control on Henry Street? Maybe.

But the small-time crooks have always left us alone when we've visited Moore Street during the day. We love visiting the seriously-cheap fruit and veg stands, especially when making applesauce, where bruised, mealy apples really shine. I also recommend a daytime walk through Moore Street in my book as a free (and safer) look at the grittier side of the city without aimlessly poking around Sheriff Street at midnight.

[Shudders]

Just so you know I'm not farming for your clicks, the full text of the Moore Street supplement article is below, but feel free to visit Five Suitcases, share the link, comment, etc.

Moore Street: Dublin's Shady-but-Beautiful Market

Dublin's near-the-river north side is known for three things: history, petty crime, and shopping. O'Connell Street and Parnell Square just about corner the market on the history front; the General Post Office and O'Connell Statue are riddled with bullet holes from previous conflicts, including the unsuccessful-but-pivotal 1916 Easter Rising, and the Garden of Remembrance pays tribute to those who fought for Irish freedom.

Henry Street -- the packed, pedestrian-only passage heading west from the Spire of Dublin -- is the beating heart of Dublin's retail economy. Move over, Grafton and the Creative Quarter, Henry has it by a mile. Huge shopping centers and small storefronts battle for business amid costumed characters (like local favorites Super Mario Busker and Spider-Man), and the consumers just can't get enough.

Just off of the busy Henry scene, the shopping and petty crime collide on Moore Street, one of Dublin's most unique (and infamous) little markets.

Moore Street Fruit and Veg Market

Every day, local merchants set up carts and stalls selling a range of foods and household goods. I like to check out the almost-suspiciously-cheap fruits and vegetables, but vendors do a good business selling cleaning products, paper towels, and hardware, too.

Occasionally, a fish stall emits a certain pungency into the street (and the hapless indoor Ilac Shopping Centre, which has an entrance nearby). Seen at this stall one hot summer day: A seagull grabbed a particularly nice-looking salmon fillet when the barker was busy. The happy bird dropped the fillet on the street and began to pick away at the soft, delicious meat. Upon discovering this thievery of an expensive cut of fish, the barker shooed away the gull, picked up the fillet, and put it right back on display.

This is just some of the, um, folksy charm of Moore Street. Every day, trench-coated figures call out, "Cigarettes, tobacco! Cigarettes, tobacco!" as they sell illegal tobacco, usually from Eastern Europe or Central Asia, to canny smokers looking to skirt the tobacco tax. Some bold crooks try to unload stolen smartphones, a warning to Dublin visitors and residents alike to hold on to their valuables.

If you are wondering why the police don't monitor this infamous corner of small-time crooks, you clearly don't live in Ireland.

But should you visit Moore Street? Absolutely! Daytime visits are a great way to see some of the "real" city without venturing too far away from City Centre into the rough neighborhoods of Dublin, which I don't recommend doing.

If cheap fruit and vegetables don't tickle your fancy, the brick-and-mortar shops on the street might. A number of international markets representing Asia, Africa, and the Middle East line the street on both sides, right next to the big discount supermarket chain Lidl. The famous butcher F.X. Buckley sells high-quality meats, conventional and unusual, from its brightly-lit shop near the Henry Street intersection.

Tripe, pigeons, and more familiar meats at the butcher on Moore Street! pic.twitter.com/6JOl1f2OXE
— Cory Hanson (@HansonCory1) December 5, 2014

If you are strolling on the north side, take a few minutes to explore this little slice of decidedly-non-touristy Dublin. Enjoy some cheap fruit, but check your fish fillets for beak marks!

For Moore more on Moore Street, Henry Street, and the rest of the Northside Shopping District, check out City Centre North in my free eBook, The Frugal Guide: Dublin.  

The Frugal Guide: Dublin 2015 Now Available

At long last, the time has come. For the last month, I've been hammering away at my book. Research, writing, editing, self-publishing, and website building have been my life. I'm finally proud to announce the official launch of the book and the supporting website, www.fivesuitcases.com

Five Suitcases will be the home for my more "professional" travel and book writing. For now, it is mostly the supporting site for The Frugal Guide: Dublin but it hopefully will be home for all of my future publishing projects. Personal stories and opinions will still appear over here at Narc Ex HQ, but I'll also be publishing Dublin event news and book updates over at Five Suitcases. Whenever I publish a news update or book supplement over there, I'll make an announcement and cross-post here.

I'm also announcing my next book, Five Suitcases, a non-free humorous memoir about my expat experience so far. After keeping a daily blog for 1.5 years, I've really grown to love sharing stories. I think I can really make them shine with the luxury of extra time, so the book's chapters will really read like longer, more polished blog posts.

Thanks to all of my blog readers and those who've sent me feedback and encouragement. You are all amazing and keep me motivated to be better every day.

Below, I have cross-posted the announcement article from Five Suitcases. If you care to, download a free copy of The Frugal Guide: Dublin 2015 from the links below, leave a review, like it on Facebook, and all the good stuff.

From www.fivesuitcases.com

My first book, The Frugal Guide: Dublin 2015 is now available at Smashwords. After a long process involving countless hours of research, exploration, writing, and editing, the book is finally ready for the eyes of the public.

This has been the main focus of my life for the last month as I learned the ins and outs of the self-publishing world all while finishing this book. My daily blogging routine was completely derailed as I poured everything I had into this book... a book that I am happily giving away for free.

For now, the book is only available as a direct download at Smashwords. The most popular eBook formats are all available, and all free. In the near future, the book should be available from iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and other online eBook retailers.

I must again thank my volunteer editors: Sara Hanson, Carolla B, Karl, Jason L. Baker, Rosebud, Anne Reiva, Jen Reiva, Matt Haxton, Anne Canaveera, Trevor O’Brien, Rita Lupkes, Kent Eiler, and Keri Hanson. With their help and advice, I was able to clarify some of the content and fix mistakes. They were much more valuable than maybe they even know. Their comments inspired more ideas for things to include. From the first crowd-editor edition, I added about 5000 words of brand-new content - all because of you!

Now that this book is published and available, I'd like to announce my future writing plans:

1. Produce additional Frugal Guide: Dublin content like an audiobook, fully-illustrated walks, additional audio video content to enhance the book, and periodic news updates that will be published as posts here.
2. Continue research and updates of the FG:D book for this and future editions. There are tours I have yet to take and attractions that I have yet to visit. In future editions, I hope to include personal reviews of everything that I mention in the book.
3. Begin Continue work on my next book, a (not free) personal memoir about my expat experience from finding out about our move through our first two years in Dublin. In case you haven't guessed, the working title of this book is Five Suitcases. Thanks to Mary Reiva for suggesting the great title for the book and my website.
4. Improve the website of both Five Suitcases and my personal blog, The Narcissistic Expat Diaries, possibly even integrate the two. I'm running into the ceiling of my own web design abilities, so I'll have to either learn more or hire someone to do it for me. I think you know which I'll choose.

For now, download and enjoy The Frugal Guide: Dublin 2015 and please let me know what you think. Rate and review the book on Smashwords (and other retailers, when it becomes available), like it on Facebook (www.facebook.com/frugalguidedublin), and feel free to send me a private message through the Contact page above.

Visit my personal blog via the tab above or directly (iowa2ireland.blogspot.com) for a huge backlog of my expat moving experience and for regular personal updates from me.

Thanks again, to EVERYONE for all your support and encouragement. This is a huge achievement for me, and I'll always be proud of it.

Re-branding

It's Thanksgiving week, and I've been blogless for more and a full week. Putting together a book is a lot of work in the final stages.

Right now, the text of the book is very close to being ready to ship. Thanks to the hard work and contributions of my volunteer editors, it's looking great!

Most of my effort this week has been focused on building a website to support the book beyond what I have here. My vision is to one day have a website devoted to my travel writing specifically, including my Dublin book and any future travel-specific writing projects.

Hopefully, the website will be home for additional book content like audio, video, and fully-illustrated walking tours (like my old versions of the Urban Park Scramble). It will be a little bit more... commercial than the site here, with a focus on specific travel tips and articles for serious travel planners.

The lighthearted personal blog material will still be available and coming in one form or another, just not sure where. Rest assured, I'll keep the iowa2ireland URL pointed to wherever my personal blog content ends up, but it may have a different home and different look soon.

We'll be back here on Thanksgiving with another special live Twitter event!

Finishing the eBook, Not Too Late to Jump in!

The blog will be dark this week while I finish up my eBook. It's so close yet so far away from final publication, and I haven't been able to really focus on anything else. Blog posts written now would be hurried and forced. Heck, I haven't even picked up a video game controller in more than a week!

For the last 2 weeks, I've been pouring 10+ hours/day into the book, and I still have some labor-intensive finalizing work to do. Making images and maps work on the variety of e-reader screens will be a big challenge, and I have never designed anything like a book cover before, so I have lots of work to do.

I am also making decisions about publishing platforms and styles, all while making final tweaks to the text, thanks to my volunteer editors.

You can still be a part of those text tweaks! I've had 20+ volunteers jump in to read a portion of the book draft, and the feedback has been great so far. People are finding undefined local words (like publican and An Post) and sneaky typos that my eyes would miss. With this extra bit of polish, the book can really shine.

If you haven't volunteered and would like to take a look at a piece of the book, let me know with a comment or Contact form submission. All editors who submit feedback will be credited in the acknowledgements of this and all future editions of the book! More information about the volunteer editing process in the previous post.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement! When the book is finally published and available, look for announcements here.

See Your Name in (e)Print!

Well, my free Dublin eBook is just about finished. The body text is complete, and I've done one round of labor-intensive copy editing for typos, misspellings, and style inconsistencies. The first comb through was an unpleasant five-hour experience that I'd rather not repeat so...

I'm looking for volunteer crowd editors to take one more look through the text of my book before it goes to final formatting and e-publishing. I'm calling it crowd editing because I don't want to throw the whole book at a few people and ask them each to read the whole thing. I'm hoping to get a few dozen (fingers crossed!) volunteers, each to take a look at a manageable little chunk of the text. If all goes according to plan, each editor will have a couple of pages of text to read, and we may be able to have more than one editor look through each section, which would really be great!

Editing or writing experience is NOT required. Heck, I have neither. Anyone who can point out obvous typos, glaring factual hairrors, sentences unclear, (inconsistencies], and bad jokes can help. If you can read this page, you can help me get my work available at the highest-possible quality.

What do volunteer editors receive in return? Besides the warm fuzzies and good Karma of helping someone to help others, each editor will get credit in the acknowledgements of the book. No matter what kind of feedback you provide, you can get your name in this and every future edition of this book- forever!

Interested? Here's how it will work. Contact me (through the Contact page of the blog, email, Facebook, Twitter, a loud yell, any way you know how) as soon as possible and let me know you'd like to help. I'll reply with four things:

1. An editing request asking you to take a look at a certain chapter or range of paragraphs in the text of the book.
2. A link to a Pastebin page containing the ENTIRE text of the book. That's right, every editor will have access to the entire text of the book, stripped of all formatting and images WITH EACH PARAGRAPH NUMBERED. It'll make sense when you see it.
3. The second link will be to a Google Form survey. This is to record your comments and corrections.
4. A big, grateful digital hug.

When you get your request, open the Pastebin page, find the paragraph lines, and read away! If you have suggestions or corrections, try to make a note of the paragraph number for easy fixing later. Do not try to make corrections or notes on the Pastebin page. If you want to copy and paste it into another kind of document for easier reading, go ahead. Be aware that it will still have no formatting or images.

When you have comments or suggestions (even if it's just, "Looks great!") open the Google Form link and plug in the name under which you'd like to be credited (even if it's a pseudonym or anonymous), the range of the book you read, and your comments. Try to include paragraph numbers in your comments if you have specific suggestions. 

If you want to read and comment on more of the book, then bless you! Please feel free to read as much of the book as you'd like and give me as much feedback as you can. Your comments can only make this book better. If you decide not to edit the book after taking a look, no problem! You're volunteers!

If you know anyone you think might be interested or might be able to help, please let them know! Have them contact me through any of the above channels so we can have as many eyes on this thing as we can.

Let me know through the above channels if you have questions, comments, or want to help get this book out there!

If you're interested, here's a cover shot teaser!

eBook Epilogue

Two eBook posts in one week, I know. I'm very close to finishing the book, and I've been laser-focused on it for the last full week. It's become difficult to pull myself away to put together blog posts. Not that I haven't been writing! I've been piling on 1000-2000 words a day to the book to get it finished, so I thought I would put up some of the last pieces of the book as a teaser.

This epilogue is not only a foreigner's guide to a Dublin pub, but I also feel it sums up the focus of the book with an emphasis on socializing, exploring, relaxing, and sitting back with a drink.

Meanwhile, I'm reworking all the previous content published earlier into full-book format. Upon re-reading, there are a lot of style and tone inconsistencies that need to be fixed and unified to make this feel like a single work.

After cleaning up the text, I then have to learn from scratch how to insert and format images and maps for e-readers. Shuffling images around on documents and PDFs is one thing, eBook formatting quite another.

When it's ready, I'll be putting out open calls for volunteer crowd editors, or book beta testers, if you will. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, read or download the Epilogue from the Free Dublin eBook page of the blog.

As always, any and all feedback is welcome in the comment section or through the Contact page of this blog. Thanks for your support!

New eBook Chapter: Beyond City Centre

This is (hopefully!) the last chapter of regular content of this book! I'm approaching my target word count for the main book content, and now I just have the easy task of assembling the introductory material and appendices before the even easier task of final editing, proofing, and publishing.

...So I've a ways to go, but we're getting close! This long chapter covers are few of my favorite spots away from the River Liffey, but not as far out as Dun Laoghaire or Howth. We take a walk along the Royal Canal in the north and the Grand Canal in the south while visiting a few of the best free spots in the extended city- in my humble opinion, of course.

As per usual, check out the chapter (Beyond City Centre) over at the Free Dublin eBook page of the blog, and send your feedback to me through the Contact page above.

Thanks for your support as we reach the home stretch!

New eBook Chapter: Outer Coastal Villages

I've been working on the plan for the last few chapters of this short book quite a bit in these last few weeks. I'm almost finished with two more in addition to the one published this week. These chapters usually require some on-the-ground research, and sometimes I have to visit an area more than once to get everything exactly accurate. When giving turn-by-turn directions, I want to make sure I don't make any errors- even in a book that will be given away for free.

That said, this new chapter explores the villages of Dun Laoghaire, Howth, Bray, and Greystones on the coast north and south of Dublin city. These are all an easy (and cheap) DART ride from City Centre and their walking opportunities are great. I recommend visiting one, but not necessarily all, of these villages. The choice will depend on the taste of the traveler in question. Howth has more rugged hiking trails and great fish markets, Dun Laoghaire has a few more village shopping and pleasure boating opportunities, and Bray and Greystones have the fantastic- but less difficult- Cliff Walk and Bray Head hiking trails.

Check out this (and all the other) chapters on the Free Dublin eBook page of the blog.

Feedback is always welcome and appreciated through the Contact page or in the comments section below.

Howth Lighthouse

New eBook Chapter: Viking-Age Dublin

I know, I know. It's been a while since the last chapter of guide was published. Believe it or not, things have been quite busy around here at Narc Ex HQ. This one has been quite a long time in the making, and I had to do a little extra visiting and note taking to give my most accurate advice and recommendations.

In this chapter, we cover the oldest part of town: Viking-Age Dublin. The Viking invaders first chose the spot where a smaller river met the Liffey as their strategic docking station, and from there they built their city. When the Vikings were booted (or assimilated into the local Gaelic and Norman population), other invaders set up camp here.

Today, the Irish have full control over this center of power from which they were ruled for all those centuries, and we lucky tourists can pay the area a (mostly free) visit. The guide includes tips for visiting Dublin City Hall, Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, and the churches and cathedrals just to the west.

As usual, check out the pdf download over at my Free Dublin eBook page on the blog for the latest version of the Viking-Age Dublin chapter. I plan to eventually include a map and maybe some photos, but that will have to wait until I have the text and content of the book finished, which shouldn't be too much longer!

Dublin Castle Norman Tower and Chapel Royal

A Big Writing Project

I have been slowly working on a large-scale writing project over the last few months. Inspired by all the people who have contacted me through the blog, I have begun work on a free eBook to distribute to potential Dublin visitors.

I originally thought to complete the book before making any kind of announcement or material available, but if the goal of the project is to get as many Dublin tips out to as many Dublin visitors as possible, it only makes sense to get things out as soon as they are finished(ish).

The main focus of the book will be free and cheap activities in Dublin. I hope to include essays with general Dublin and Ireland money-saving information and step-by-step walking tours. The book will not be written as the only book you'll ever need to visit Dublin, like so many other commercial guides. These books require regular research and up-to-date information on things like hotels, transportation, and the latest tourist activities. This research is time consuming, costly, risky, and just not fun.

My book will hopefully be entertaining, informative, and useful for the potential Dublin tightwad visitor. If someone finds it funny and/or useful, I might set up a PayPal donation button for readers to voluntarily buy me a pint for my trouble. If someone finds it unfunny and not useful, they can simply go on their merry way.

Publishing the book in pieces will also help me get the hang of this whole e-publishing thing. I am planning to protect my work with Creative Commons licences, which are meant for freely-shared material. I won't have to endure the trouble and expense of copyrighting material that I plan to give away, and people who use and share my work can do so as long as they credit me and don't sell it.

I'll be setting up a Free Dublin eBook page on the blog on which to post each piece as they are completed. As each piece is edited and completed, the library will change and build. Each new piece will also get a unique post with a link for download and to the Dublin eBook page. Hopefully, the completed book will be available in a number of formats in individual chapters and as a complete book for people to pick and choose the content they want. Inklings of future audio and video content are also swimming around in the back of my mind, so stay tuned.

The first piece, Dublin's Urban Park Scramble is a guided walk through Dublin's three City Centre parks. Right now, the piece is only available in PDF format as I experiment with publishing choices and the look of each piece on computer, print, and mobile platforms. Bear with me as we learn the free publishing game together.

Dublin's Urban Park Scramble

This is the first part of my free Dublin eBook project. It is a step-by-step walking tour through Dublin's three City Centre parks- St. Stephen's Green, Iveagh Gardens, and Merrion Square.

Dublin's Urban Park Scramble [PDF]

Feel free to download, read, and use this walking tour immediately. More walking tours and essays to follow on the Free Dublin eBook page of the blog. I also hope to make this tour available in other formats to give the reader more choices.

Feedback is welcome and appreciated in the comments below or through the Contact page above.

This work is protected with a Creative Commons license. Feel free to read, use, and share. Any shared versions must be attributed to me and you are not allowed to sell the work commercially. See the link below for more details on the CC license.

 

Dublin's Urban Park Scramble by Cory Hanson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Selling some Spare Writing

With so much practice doing this writing thing in my spare time, I decided to try my luck at writing generic internet-friendly articles on a variety of topics and put them up for sale.

I recently sold a usage-rights-only article about my new hobby of streaming video games. The usage license means that I retain ownership of the article and can still claim it (and share it here) as my own. I did not include a byline (By Cory Hanson line under the title) in this article, so it was published without an author line on a how-to site.

When I sell full-rights articles (which I have) I can no longer claim them as mine and can't share them here, but when I sell the one-time usage of an article, with or without my byline, watch for it to appear in the In Print tab on the blog.

If you care to read my piece about internet video game streaming, you can check it out here.

I hope this can turn into something I can do to develop my writing and to make a little something on the side.

My Writing Process Blog Tour

Big thanks to my blog buddy Anne from Nearly Irish? for the nomination to participate in this year's My Writing Process Blog Tour. The tour is simple, bloggers invite each other to answer a few questions about their blog and their writing projects. Each blogger links to the blogger who invited them to participate and to their own nominated blogs. It's like Neknominations, but hopefully with fewer fatalities...

What am I working on?

As an unemployed expat trailing spouse, I am primarily working on this daily blog. With lots of time on my hands, I have the freedom to sit down and write some brief creative blog-fiction every day. 

The original goal of the blog was to help us record and share our expat experiences for ourselves and our American friends and family. Since arriving in Ireland, it has grown well beyond that into my daily focus, the reason to get out of bed, but not necessarily change out of my sleeping clothes...

I have met some great people through the blog, Irish locals, prospective expats, visiting tourists, and other expat bloggers like Anne up there.

The skills gained as a hobby writer on the blog inspired me to write some occasional voluntary articles for free community newspapers in Dublin, the most recent of which can be found under the In Print tab above.

In the very recent past, I have had some very modest success selling articles of various topics on a freelance content website. I hope this can turn into yet another outlet for my writing and maybe a small revenue-generating hobby for the rest of my life.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Well, the short answer is, it doesn't. Not in the broad scope of the dubious heading, Personal Blog... This space is just another outlet for parshally proofred opinions and sentiments spewed from a darkened room. The format of this blog goes against nearly every blog recommendation on the web- and that's the way I like it.

Most blog tips are aimed at people trying to maximize their ad revenue and traffic on their site. Content is usually laser-focused on a popular or profitable niche topic that isn't necessarily interesting to the blogger. Posts are less frequent than the six-per-week goal I have here, and are much shorter to grab the click/swipe/close crowd. Nothing wrong with a monetized blog, of course. Many talented writers make good full-time livings maintaining one or more of these blogs, and more power to 'em! It just isn't my style. 

My six-per-week goal forces allows me to explore a wide range of material. Any topic can be a potential blog post when I have to write as many unique and marginally interesting posts as I do. It keeps me active in the community, looking up and attending events happening around town- if for no other reason than to post about them here. Post subjects may seem scattered, and again- that's the way I like it.

Why do I write what I write?

Each piece that I have written so far- on any platform- has been of great personal interest to me. Blog articles are of course records of my own experiences and hobbies in Dublin and around Europe. I can write easily and passionately about these with little or no research or thinking. This makes them great as intellectual dumbbells, keeping up the tone and endurance of my writing muscles without really pushing them to grow.

The newspaper articles and for-sale internet pieces are like the bench press of my writing. I still choose topics in which I am interested to keep me motivated. In the newspaper articles, I have covered volunteer efforts to clean up litter, books on local history, and a series of free classical music concerts by young aspiring musicians. My for-sale internet pieces have been basically bite-sized blog posts with all opinions removed and replaced with practical information for the casual clicker.

I feel that the next challenge for me will be to write and cover a topic in which I have no interest. I know professional writers have to do this all the time, but I am a bit hesitant to step into that deep water, especially when my ability to eat and sleep indoors doesn't depend on it...

How does my writing process work?

I approach each kind of piece in a different way. Blog posts are most casual, for-sale articles require a bit more attention and care, and newspaper pieces have to be thoroughly edited, picked-at, and cleaned up- mostly because of exact word count requirements.

No matter the piece, I write in 50-minute bursts with 10-minute breaks. Having the internet and all her distractions so close to hand can be a real drag on writing output, but it is unreasonable to expect a human to sit at a computer with the golden, shiny, plaything for too long without playing. I set a timer (on a website) for 50 minutes and work uninterrupted. At the conclusion of the timer (it opens any chosen YouTube video as an alarm) I set the timer for 10 minutes and can go nuts. Maybe I go outside and walk around, maybe I make a cup of tea, maybe I check the sports scores or social media platforms. At the end of the 10 minute break, it's back for 50 more.

Blog posts, with their freeform structure, can be rattled off rather quickly. I take on a topic from beginning to end, usually without an outline. Any source checking happens when I get to that idea, and is usually done on Wikipedia. Don't try this on your English papers, kids! After finishing the post, including links and photos, I hit the Preview button and proofread. If it is moderately coherent, I schedule and publish the article and move on.

Newspaper and for-sale articles are tackled much more deliberately. I always use outlines for these topics, and usually make large headings in the the text of the document to mark them. When dealing with the strict word counts of a newspaper article, I have to be very careful about word choice and phrasing. It has to be interesting and fleshed-out without being wordy. Of course, the same rule applies for for-sale articles, but the word count is approximate and flexible, allowing me to say what I have to say in the number of words I choose.

After finishing one of these articles, I proofread once, then shelve the article for at least one day. The next day, I proofread again, this time carefully reading the piece aloud to myself to make sure it makes sense and flows well. If major changes are needed, I make them and wait another day before reading again. Most writers don't have the luxury of so much time with their pieces, but I thankfully don't depend on a steady income from writing, so I can take all the time I need.

Wrap it up!

I'm glad this piece was for the blog and not for an exact word count article. If that were the case, I would have a lot of editing and cutting to do. As it is, I can click Publish and forget about it!

Sadly, I wasn't able to find another blogger to continue this share-fest chain letter. There goes my Webby award nomination!

RDS Rising Stars Article

Yes, two articles in one week's paper means I get to indulge in two lazy easy blog posts.

In the same week, I helped out with the Sandymount Beach Cleanup and attended the Spring 2014 RDS Rising Stars Gala Concert. After the concert, I interviewed the performers and wrote a piece for local community newspaper Southside People.

The Rising Stars Programme gives promising young musicians a chance to perform in a professional venue to a large, cultured audience to showcase their talents and to give them valuable performance experience. The community benefits by having a chance to attend a free night of classical music, open to all.

If you care to, check out the online edition of the article or scan through the print edition PDF, article on page 7. Fantastic photos (taken by a professional photographer) available on both editions of the article.

...Also, you may have noticed that these links were already available on my new In Print page on the blog. I hope to be adding more and more non-blog pieces as my voluntary writing contributions continue.

Sandymount Beach Cleanup Article

Working hard on my typecast reputation as an environmental volunteer writer, I had another article accepted to the free community newspaper Southside People. This time, instead of cleaning up the River Dodder, I helped out and reported on the achievements of local volunteer organization Sandymount Beach Cleanup.

The group meets each month for a friendly beach pickup, gathering the garbage that washes up on the shore from the tides and storms. This was my first beach cleanup, but returning members report that they have picked up less trash since the first big cleanup, but are wary of any strong storms or unusually high tides to bring in more litter.

An unpleasant but important-to-note fact: In addition to the expected cans and bottles, the group collects a lot of sanitary waste that presumably gets through filters from a nearby wastewater treatment plant. Most of these products are not biodegradable and end up circling the ocean currents to be deposited unpleasantly on a beach or shoreline. The group advocates the responsible disposal (don't flush!) of these products and the use of biodegradable products.

Anyway, check out the online article or scroll through the print edition PDF (page 11). If you are a real Southsider, pick up the print edition at a newsagent or supermarket near you!

Some great photos on the article by fellow volunteer Aidan Murphy, I did take one very matter-of-fact photo of a portion of the day's take.

Part of the Day's Take

Note: I added a new page to the blog titled In Print on which to post links to my original writing that is published outside of the blog.