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By Jonathan Green
Everyone remembers their first.
Mine was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It was 1982 and I was ten years old at the time. Here was a book in which I – the reader – was the hero. I got to choose the course of the adventure, deciding which paths to take, which traps to risk, and which monsters to fight. I had never seen or read anything like it before – and so began a life-long love affair with Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain inspired me like no other book ever has. It's why I'm doing what I doing now, and I know others have also been inspired to follow a career in genre writing because of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks – New York Times bestselling author Graham McNeill for one.
Earlier this year I wrote a piece about the history of Fighting Fantasy for SFX magazine. But the more I researched the story behind the creation of the world's premier gamebook series, the more story I realised there was still to tell. To do the subject justice I needed to write a book –and so the idea that was to become YOU ARE THE HERO was born.
YOU ARE THE HERO will tell the story of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, from the early days of Games Workshop right up to the present day and beyond. I have already interviewed the creators of the Fighting Fantasy series – Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone – who are both keen to have their story told. In fact, Steve Jackson once said to me, "You are the perfect person to write this book."
Not only will YOU ARE THE HERO tell the amazing story of how Fighting Fantasy gamebooks changed the world, it will also cover everything from spin-off novels and puzzle books, to foreign editions, board games and video games. It will even delve into such areas as the gamebooks that never were, the myths and legends surrounding the series, and how Ian Livingstone's newest gamebook – Blood of the Zombies – almost never happened.
But I can't do this without your support. Check out the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter page today and the unique rewards available to those people who back the project and pledge your support today.
Thank you.
You can find the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1412864360/you-are-the-hero
You will find the YOU ARE THE HERO Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/ComicHeroes#!/pages/You-Are-The-Hero-A-History-of-Fighting-Fantasy-Gamebooks/449514028443744?fref=ts
Alternatively, visit www.JonathanGreenAuthor.com.
Yesterday, as you might know from our various Facebook pages, blogs and Twitter feeds, was one of our regular Horus Heresy days. Me, Dan, Aaron, Gav and Jim gathered with Nick and Laurie to discuss future projects, thrash out timelines, throw ideas around and generally plan out what we want to do with the story and characters to come. It's a great day for all of us, as the stuff that comes out of that witch's brew of creativity is so damn inspiring that you just have to get it down on paper as soon as possible. The new Heresy books we have in the pipeline (and, no, I'm afraid I can't tell you what they're about yet...) are so cool I just want them right now. Largely because I want to read them and in two cases, write them.
But that's not what made my day.
When we broke for lunch, we headed to Bugman's for burgers and chips, sitting on one of the long tables in the centre of the bar. We sat and we nattered about movies, comics, and things in the meeting we hadn't quite finished. Dan told a good story about meeting Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy in a lift in San Diego, and spread some good old Hollywood gossip. Lunch arrived (except for Aaron's) and we tucked in.
Seated at a table behind us was a family of three; mum, dad and son. At one point I saw the son talking to Gav and figured that he'd recognised Herr Thorpe (which he had). It turned out this lad was named Charlie, and he was a huge Ultramarines fan, so he and I had a chat for a while, talking about the books, his completed 2nd and 4th Company armies and so on. It's always an ego-boost when a reader comes up and tells you that they like your books, that's a no-brainer. We got a picture taken and Charlie went off with a big smile on his face. All good.
But that's now what made my day either.
Ten minutes later, Charlie's mum came back into Bugman's with a freshly-purchased copy of the Ultramarines Omnibus II and asked me to sign it. I did and then she told me that Charlie had a brother called Max, who they had sadly lost to cancer, and that their trips to Nottingham had largely involved coming to Warhammer World and the Queen's Medical Centre. Now Charlie doesn't find reading easy, but he loved the Ultramarines books and since picking them up, he's become a voracious reader.
And that's what made my day.
I write because I love to write, tell stories and spin yarns that entertain and make people think. I hope my books linger in the mind after they've been finished, but if they don't, that's not a problem so long as the reader was entertained for a while. If my book does that, then colour me happy. If not, I'll try harder next time. But it's a great feeling to know that you've made an impression on someone while they've been going through what must have been a terrible time. Being able to inspire someone to read books is made of win, and it's something that puts a whole new perspective on telling stories about toy soldiers...
To feel that what we do can have a positive influence of people makes all the effort worthwhile.
What it tells me is that books matter, stories matter. They make people laugh, cry, gnash their teeth, shake their fists in anger or fall in love with the characters. Stories provoke emotions in people and everyone who uses their creativity as a medium of expressing their inner self wants to feel that their work has had that effect. It's humbling, its a boost to the self-esteem and its a reminder that a good book of any kind can mean something really special to the reader.
Meeting Charlie and his mum made my day, so thanks for that.
Brad Cohen warhound 20/20 (a cheap, foul tasting fruity brew created by heretical mechanicus xenobiologists, true Imperial drinkers wouldn't touch it with someone else's, but its become extremely popular amongst the type of idle juves that gather on hab-park benches to commit petty crime and hurl incomprehensible insults at passers by whilst wearing the strange and heretical hoody/trackie combination popular amongst down hive scum)
Graham: I love this blend of real world and the fictional...
Daniel MacGregor Aquila sunrise (awful I know)
Graham: This wins for being the first to make this terrible pun.
Greg Smith Ferrus Beerus - lager without a head
Graham: For making me laugh the loudest.
Nathan Dowdell Blessed Degreasing Agent #14 - WARNING may be harmful if ingested by those with less than 40% augmetic replacement. Do not operate heavy machinery for one chronosegment after ingestion. Overconsumption may produce logic errors and impious meme-processes - please imbibe responsibly.
Graham: It's going to appear in Lords of Mars!
Alec McQuay Squat Stout/II Legion Special/XI Legion and Lime - *REMOVED FROM SALE* *MANUFACTURER'S RECALL. ANYONE CAUGHT DRINKING, TALKING ABOUT REFERRING TO OR KNOWING ABOUT THESE THREE DRINKS THAT NEVER, EVER HAPPENED WILL BE KILLED, BY IMPERIAL EDICT. INCLUDING THE PERson updating our FaceBook status about it. Oh... FU-
Graham: The relevant authorities have been notified. Stay by your front door, citizen.
The forward elements of the capering host were drawing near, and coils of hallucinogenic fogs writhed between the legs of the riotous assembly. It moved with a life of its own, eager to explore its creators' bodies and taste their sweat, their breath and their dirt. The screams that reached to the skies were delirious and joyous, agonised and ecstatic, a braying wall of sound that echoed from the sides of the valley like the raving of a million madman.
Scarifier priests spun and leapt throughout the dancing horde, their hooked chains and envenomed blades whipping and stabbing with gleeful abandon to cause pain and excruciation. Where their poisoned tips pierced an artery, the grateful victim would be seized by mad choreomaniacal fits. Roaring observers aped their lethal convulsions and the dancing mania spread ever wider, becoming more and more elaborate until the original victim's madly-pumping heart emptied their body and a new dance began elsewhere.
Mass psychogenic hysteria gripped the thousands of men and women, who screamed and laughed and cried like mourners or celebrants. They fought, they fornicated; moving to the rapid, pulsing beat of a driving imperative that none among the Iron Warriors could know. They carried towering banners, streaming gonfalons and serrated pennants ablaze with imagery that was at once obscene and alluring, repugnant and inviting.
Forrix recognised none of the heraldry, feeling a gut-deep revulsion at the graceful sweeps of the symbols worked into the textured banners. A meld of curves and voluptuous arcs penetrated by hard lines with barbed arrowheads atop their length. Nor were all the members of the host equal; kings and queens and princes were feted in all their finery; silks and steel, velvet and leather. Their crowns were bone, their orbs the skulls of willing sacrifices, and the sceptres the woven finger bones of the handless handmaidens attending them.
And just as there were the gaudy courts of royal madness, so too were there regicides by the dozen as pretenders tore them down and took their bloodied crowns for themselves.
As degenerate as the dancing host's behaviour was, it was nothing compared to the physical malformations wrought on the flesh of its number. Some disfigurements appeared to be congenital, others the work of swords or maces in ritualised combat, but the vast majority appeared to have been engineered by scalpels, bone saws and genetic modification.
Men with anatomies reversed by horrific surgery capered on their hands, with legs sutured to their shoulders and faces in their bellies. Vat-grown cherub-grubs led packs of wild, spine-backed creatures, like the bastard by-blows of loathsome centipedes and giant scorpions. Women cavorted naked with scented oils slathering their bared breasts. Many of these women were gifted with breasts beyond the number decreed by nature, and these violet-hued individuals were attended by howling slaves and weeping devotees.
Amid the heaving, spasming march of the decadent host, some were content to dance, some to debase, others to violate, yet more to scream their throats bloody as they drove their bodies to lunatic extremes of excess. They howled with the hybrid monsters and the most desperate for sensation set themselves ablaze and laughed as the flames consumed them.
Forrix took his helmet from the mag-lock on his thigh as the rapturous mass of degenerates drew near and the acrid tang of perfumes began to discomfit him.
'I saw some strange things on Isstvan, but this is...' began Forrix, snapping his helm into the gorget seals as vocabulary failed him. No mere words could give name or reason to this behaviour, no codes of honour could reconcile this madness with the militaristic perfection and arrogant swagger the Emperor's Children had once possessed.
'What has happened to you, my brother?' wondered Perturabo, his face betraying no hint of the terrible anger that must surely be raging within his heart.
'Where are the legion warriors?' asked Falk.
Forrix scanned the heaving mass of frenetic humanity as they spilled over the outermost earthworks; cavorting through razorwire-edged killing grounds, across spiked ditches and past iron-faced gun emplacements. What would take months of bloody siege to break through was overcome in moments by the vanguard of the Emperor's Children.
At some unheard signal, the host fell utterly silent, halting in its maddened march a stone's throw from the Iron Warriors. Clouds of kicked up dust mingled with the twitching curtain of narcotic smoke issuing from hidden censers. After so cacophonous a din, the silence felt impossibly loud, and Forrix scanned the sweating, breathless host for some sign of what was coming next.
That sign came as the lunatics abased themselves on the sand, prostrating themselves as supplicant savages before burning flora. Soltarn Vull Bronn dropped to one knee, placing his palm on the earth.
'Get up, damn you,' snapped Forrix. 'Iron Warriors bend the knee to no-one.'
Vull Bronn ignored him and cocked his head to one side, as though listening to a voice only he could hear.
'He's here,' said Bronn. 'The Phoenician. He's coming.'
Forrix looked up as the flesh host before him parted, pushing themselves back with their bellies scraping the sand to make a wide corridor between them. Through the swirls of pink and mauve clouds, Forrix could see the outline of something huge and swaying approaching. Vague silhouettes of power-armoured warriors marched alongside it, their forms granting some hope that the III Legion had not abandoned all pretence of being a fighting force.
Fifty warriors in the shimmering purple of the Emperor's Children emerged from the smoke, and their appearance drew a gasp of shock from the assembled Iron Warriors. Slashes of vivid pigment were spattered over their armour, the myriad contrasting hues and clashing colours offending the eye with their garish disregard for the legion's heraldry. Jagged spikes jutted from pauldrons and their helmets were byzantine winged affairs, with amplification hoods and intensifiers worked into the visors.
They carried a banner of stiff pink that Forrix could tell was fashioned from human skin, its texture and stench all too familiar to him. A runic form was emblazoned at its heart, the recurring motif he had seen worked in various forms upon the armour and flesh of the maddened horde, but distilled into its purest form. Borne by legion warriors, the symbol offended Forrix less than it had before, and he found himself drawn towards its beguiling curves and graceful loops.
Anger touched him, and he threw off whatever glamours were worked into its form.
Where had that come from? A word of ancient usage that was meaningless in this age of reason and technological certitude. Whatever toxin burned in the censers was a powerful psychotropic indeed if it could drag such an archaic term from the mind of an Iron Warrior.
Like the mortals before them, these warriors parted to form an honour guard, and behind them came a screaming, wailing mass of legionaries whose weapons were unlike anything Forrix had ever seen in a battle barge's armoury. Like oversized axes they were fitted with all manner of amplification devices, tonal distorters and artefacts whose function Forrix could not even begin to guess.
Thrumming bass notes of raw kinetic force throbbed in their long necks, and Forrix wondered if such weapons might be employed in the reduction of a fortress wall. These warriors went without helms, and their faces were a horror of distended jaws with eternally screaming mouths and gaping wounds in the skull where their ears had been surgically adapted to collect and render sound into its purest elements.
And then the primarch of the Emperor's Children stood revealed, his entrance as dramatic and sudden and shocking as he had no doubt intended.
Atop a vast palanquin of living beings fused, sewn and warped together, the Phoenician emerged from the sentient clouds of fumes. A squad of warriors in Cataphractii armour bore this flesh palanquin on the vast shoulder guards of their armour, the spikes and sharpened edges of their pauldrons drawing blood and screams of pleasure in equal measure.
Fulgrim's frost-white hair spilled from beneath a helm of dazzling silver, and his entire body was wrapped in a cloak of shocking purple and golden feathers. Motion rippled beneath the cloak, like a metamorphic larva on the verge of hatching into the most beautiful creature imaginable. Fulgrim waited until his Phoenix Guard halted before throwing open his cloak to reveal his sculpturally perfect body. His elegantly curved pectorals, rolling deltoids and ridged abdominals were bare of armour and gleamed with fragrant oils. His limbs writhed and fresh tattoos of coiling serpents; tattoos that even now began to fade as his superhuman biology undid the damage to his epidermis.
Perturabo stepped towards the living platform as Fulgrim descended on a ramp of shields held out by his warriors. Forrix saw a warrior in perfect balance, who understood his body and its articulation to the highest degree. His every step was carefully placed, giving the lie to his flamboyant appearance.
'Brother Fulgrim,' said Perturabo, 'Welcome.'
Warriors emerged from the hellstorm of explosions and scything fragments, searching for handholds beside him. They followed his example, knowing that where Kroeger led, the blood of the enemy was sure to flow. Fire and noise burst around him as he climbed higher and grenade dumpers ejected their payloads in tumbling cascades, but the enemy was running low on explosive ordnance and there were too few to do any real harm. Shrapnel whickered through the ranks of the Iron Warriors, but encased within layers of ceramite warplate, only a handful were blooded.
Vannuk climbed next to him, his burnished armour pitted with small arms impacts, and his helmet scored with heat burns. He had his bolter in one hand and loosed a short burst of fire. A scream, and a body torn up by mass-reactives fell from the wall.
'First blood to me,' grunted Vannuk.
Kroeger's bolter was still mag-locked to his thigh, and would likely stay there until he'd reached the rampart above.
'Who cares about first blood?' said Kroeger. 'So long as there's blood.'
Vannuk paused to take aim at another target, but Kroeger felt the wall beneath him tremble with substrate activity and punched his fist into a crack in the wall. He spread the fingers of his gauntlet to support his weight and swung out to grip a handhold over to his left as the wall ripped open in a leering slice, like the maw of a bottom-feeding ambush predator. Vannuk barely had time to scream before he was swallowed. Oozing tendrils of liquid rock webbed the gap in an instant, drawing the seams of the wall closed again.
'Idiot,' was all Kroeger had to say on Vannuk's demise, and pushed himself onwards.
He climbed with random leaps and surging effort, evading spikes of glistening rock and hails of gunfire with a mix of skill and luck. A turret slid down the wall in flames where he had been climbing only a moment before. The mangled wreckage trailed its cybernetic crewman on ropes of cabling before slamming into the rock below. Its armoured panels tore open like wet paper as it exploded. Flames belched, and corkscrewing contrails ripped in all directions as its shell hopper cooked off.
A shell burst hit the wall next to him, and Kroeger flinched as the impact caused his visor to darken momentarily. He looked up to see a long line of frightened faces looking down at him and grinned. They feared him and they were right to.
'Death is coming for you!' he yelled at them. 'This iron without will soon be iron within!'
Sporadic blasts of fire beat on his armour, a mixture of lasfire and solid rounds. The shots spanked from his pauldrons, but didn't penetrate. Kroeger reached down and freed his bolter from his thigh. He swung the weapon to bear and squeezed off a three round burst of shells.
One man's head simply vanished, the impact trauma enough to tear his skull from his spine. Another soldier exploded from the chest up as Kroeger's round detected enough mass to trigger the warhead's detonation. The third man fell back screaming, his face torn up by bone shrapnel from the dead men beside him. It was wasteful to expend mass-reactives on mortals, but the sheer mess it made of their fragile bodies was too satisfying to ignore. Clamping his bolter back to his thigh, Kroeger hauled himself up, hand over hand, grinning beneath his iron visor as he saw the chewed up battlements within reach. The wall's integral defences were dead here, and now there was nothing to stop him.
He took hold of a coiled length of protruding rebar and hauled himself up, rolling over the broken-toothed remains of the wall. Shell fragments were embedded in the stone, and even as he dropped to the rampart, he had his bolter unclamped again and was searching for targets.
Only two Iron Warriors came over the wall with him; Vortrax and Ushtor from the patterns on their helms and shoulder guards. Kroeger saw an Imperial Fists warrior turn towards them, a captain by the look of him. His face registered surprise, and he shouted a warning to another two Fists squatting in the midst of a company strength of frightened mortals.
'No helmet?' hissed Kroeger, aiming and firing in one fluid motion. 'Stupid.'
The captain went down, but Kroeger was irritated to see that his shot had merely grazed him. The other Imperial Fists rose to his defence, moving apart and firing at their attackers. The mortal soldiers loosed panicked shots at random.
Vortrax fell back against the ruined wall, his breastplate hammered by concentrated bolter fire. Spasming detonations and a crack of mashed bones told Kroeger the mass-reactives had pulped him inside his armour.
Ushtor traded shots with the Fists, but these warriors were too cool under fire to be caught out by such undisciplined salvoes. Kroeger took his time and pulled his gun hard into his shoulder. He sighed on the leftmost of the Imperial Fists and put two carefully placed shots though his helm. The warrior dropped instantly, the back of his head a hollowed out shell of dripping brain matter and scorched bone.
Where the mortal soldiers had turned their attention to the fighting on the ramparts, two Iron Warriors gained the wall. Bolter fire hammered the mortal soldiers, ripping arms from shoulders, torsos from legs like bodies caught in the flailing blades of a threshing machine. Their screams were pitiful, and Kroeger took little satisfaction in their meaningless deaths.
The Fists were the true prize here.
The fallen captain rose with a bared sword that blazed with a razor-edged golden light as he leapt towards the two Iron Warriors. First one, then the second died, carved up with powerful strokes aimed at the weakest points of their armour. The captain kicked them from the wall and turned to face Kroeger.
'Come at me and die, traitors!' he yelled, his face a mask of blood from where Kroeger's shot had torn a finger-deep furrow in his skull. Kroeger shook his head and and shot him twice in the chest. Beside him, Ushtor collapsed, his armour blown outwards by the force of shell detonations. Kroeger ignored the dying warrior's grunts of pain and loped towards the Imperial Fist who'd killed him.
Another warrior without a helm. Did Dorn's weakling sons want their heads blown off?
The Fist backed away, ejecting his bolter's magazine and slamming home a fresh clip.
'Nowhere to run, little man,' said Kroeger.
'I'm not running,' answered the Imperial Fist. 'I'm waiting.'
Despite himself, Kroeger's curiosity was aroused. 'Waiting for what?'
'For them,' said the Fist.
Hammering impacts spun Kroger around, and he felt the pain of lacerating tears and holes punched in his side. He dropped to one knee, seeing at least two dozen Imperial Fists charging towards him. They fired from the hip, but suffered no loss in accuracy. Two more shells struck him before he could scramble to cover; one in the shoulder, one in the centre of his chest. Warning icons flashed to life on his visor, and he coughed a wad of blood through the vox-grille of his barbican helmet.
Kroeger fought to get off a last volley, but his arm hung uselessly at his side and his bolter lay in pieces before him. He hadn't even realised he'd lost the weapon. He looked over the edge of the wall, seeing only a handful Iron Warriors clambering towards the rampart. Hundreds of mortal soldiers opposed them with explosives and massed fire. There would be no help from that quarter for now.
How demeaning to be kept out of a fortress by such dross.
Kroeger stared down at the dark blood pooling in front of him, its bright gleam and iron tang curiously pleasant even as it leaked from his numerous wounds.
A cold shadow fell across the bloodied ramparts, and a roaring blast of jet-hot air blasted downwards from screaming retros. Kroeger's spilled blood boiled in the heat and mortals screamed as their uniforms erupted in flames. The Imperial Fist with whom he'd traded words fell as the ammunition in his bolter exploded and transformed his wrists into charred stumps of flesh and nubs of fused bone.
Something fell from the sky, vast and iron, monstrous and cold.
It landed in the heart of the citadel with the booming clang of a funeral bell; the Olympian master of battle, a demigod in burnished warplate, a hammer-wielding avatar of thunder.
Perturabo, the Lord of Iron.
For the past few years, the event's been held at the Quad in Derby, which was a great venue, full of nooks and crannies, odd turns and secluded cubbyholes where writers, fans, artists and the like mingled to chat and just generally hang out. This year's venue was the Phoenix Centre in Leicester, which was a smart venue with a good bar (always important) but I felt it lacked something of the character of the Quad. Still, that didn't affect the quality of the event. The first year I was there, I didn't have a lot to do, but the previous year, I was all over the place on podcasts, panels, workshops and barside conversations. This year I was on two panels and had the Sunday to be a fan, going to panels to actually hear the other panelists – something I didn't get the chance to do last year (apart from going to eat the noisiest pie in Dan Abnett and Alistair Reynold's final panel of the day). On the whole, I prefer being busy at these things, as I think if you have writers, artists, editors, agents and their ilk at such events, you need to work them like dogs!
This year's lineup of guests was particularly strong, and I was lucky enough to get this year's Guest of Honour, Ken MacLeod (a fellow Skye man, no less) to sign my copy of Intrusion, though I did make a bit of a hash of it all, as I'd followed him into what turned out to be a small room with a very intense looking workshop going on. I got the signature, but didn't feel I could get into a long chat with all the very earnest folk who'd come to take part in the workshop looking on...
Black Library was well represented, with this year's other Guest of Honour being none other than Mr James Swallow, he of Blood Angels, Horus Heresy and Sisters of Battle fame. Hanging onto his coattails was myself and the lovely Sarah Cawkwell, whose record of blushing in my company continued unabated (though I forget what I said that made her blush). I'd managed to get roped into two panels this year, and the first was Dragon's Pen.
Dragon's Pen
This involved me, Conrad Williams and Paul Kane pitching our novels to an esteemed panel of Dragons, and doing it badly to highlight the common mistakes folk make. I'd dug out an old novel synopsis from years back that had never gotten any further and decided I'd reacquaint myself with it before pitching it like an idiot. I figured, I'd pitch like I normally do, and that would probably have enough blunders in it that I'd be okay. But as I re-read the synopsis on the train, I found that I actually really liked the story. So when I came to pitching, I made some glaring errors like saying my mum was a big fan (and therefore the rest of the world ought to be), that I'd previously published it as fanfic and the internet liked it, that I wasn't willing to change anything, that it was formatted to my tastes, not what the agent/publisher's website wanted. Oh, and I held back the ending just in case they stole my idea. I disagreed with the panel's assessments of the story (whatever they were) and generally made an ass of myself, which was entirely the aim of the panel and got the idea across of how NOT to pitch to agents and publishers. Conrad's pitch for a 70s themed pack of sleuth, medallion-men vampires called Dracularseholes, will live with me for many years to come, and Paul's pitch of a story set around a convention where the world outside turns into zombies seemed entirely prescient... A great panel, with lots of laughs, and lots of good pointers from us on how not to do it, and from the panel on the things you really ought to do. Everything I did above, do the opposite and you'll be fine.
Steve Jobs Killed SF
This panel was a great one. I was on it with Charles Christian, Jim Swallow, Tony Ballantyne and Kim Lakin Smith. The notion being that SF was in decline because all the gadgets and technology that are the staples of this fiction is already within (or will soon be) our grasp. This was a spirited debate, with lots of good points raised by the panel and the audience. What made me laugh about this one, was that I was on a panel last year called 'Has SF Conquered Mainstream?' so I'm not sure what happened in the intervening year to cause the genre to be dying! In any case, the broad consensus seemed to be that, no, the genre wasn't dying at all, but had diversified into many sub-categories that SF as a single genre almost wasn't an appropriate 'label' anymore. Every genre that makes up that broad church is thriving, so despite Steve Jobs giving us all we wanted, even before we knew we wanted it, there's always new horizons to look to, as technology and imagination are always on the grow.
So, with my panels done, I went to actually listen to some other panelists speak. Genre tv was discussed at length, as was adapting your work into other media, and though I missed the 'Diversity in the Genre' panel (which Sarah was press-ganged into at the last minute) I'm told it was a cracker. And as we sank we well deserved pint at the end of the day, Graham Joyce landed at our table like a freight train to persuade us to come to FantasyCon in Brighton, which would be great, but given it's the week after UK Games Day and the week before I whisk the family off to Canada for the BL Book Expo in Chestermere Public Library, I don't think I'll be able to swing it.
The following weekend was Salute, which was held in the Excel Centre in London. I travelled down to the event with Christian Dunn, and we had a great old natter about genre tv and writing Choose Your Own Adventure books – where I revealed that I'd written two of them in my schooldays in my English jotters. I still have Fortress of the Desert Lord, which is a lovely reminder of the fact I always wanted to write and why I'm not a multi-millionaire architect...
Salute was a very different beast from Alt.Fiction, as I was there purely to chat and sign books. I wasn't sure what to expect about Salute, as the last time I'd been to this event, it was to run demo games of Inquisitor. Not a short span of time. But it was a great event, and barring an hour when I managed to grab some lunch (£5.90 for a small coke and a sandwich!) and see a great many ex-GW staffers working at the event, I signed for the entire time I was there and got to spend some quality one on one time with the readers. It's why I like events like this, I get the chance to spend time talking with the people who actually buy the books. At Games Day, it's a rush, a non-stop pell mell of folk, and as much as I try to spend a good bit of time with everyone who comes to see me, I don't like the idea of folk spending their entire day in a queue, when there's better thing to go and see and do! It's one of things I keep getting told at events...speed it up, but I reckon the person last in the queue deserves at least as much time to chat as the person at the front. Anyway, I talked to loads of folk, signed loads of books, and had a great time there before threading my way through London to get back on the train to Nottingham.
So if I spoke to you at either event, thank you so much for coming along, and I hope you enjoyed it all as much as I did. If I didn't, then I'll hopefully see you at one of the upcoming signings. I'm in the Dublin branch of Games Workshop with Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski Bowden on the 26th of May. I think we're going to be there from 12 noon, but I'll post something closer to the time just to be sure.
Right, got to get back to Angel Exterminatus. I hope to hand the halfway finished manuscript in to the editors today.
I'll be there from around 11:00 in the morning, but as well as just hanging out, going to panels and talking to folk (and trying to get my new copy of Ken MacLeod's Intrusion signed, I'll also be on a couple of panels. On Staurday at 12 noon in Screen 1, I'll be taking part in the Dragon's Pen event, where we show you how NOT to pitch. I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing for this, but knowing me, I'll probably just pitch the way I normally would and that'll show you all the horrible pitfalls to avoid. Fellow Pitchers will be Conrad Williams and MD Lachlan, and the Mighty Dragons facing us will be...John Jarrold, Steve Tribe and (ulp) Ramsey Campbell. Scary stuff... I'm betting that after this, I'll have a lot more sympathy for the folk facing Duncan Bannatyne and his cohorts.
Then, also in Screen 1, I'll be taking part in the SF Panel discussion with Tony Ballantyne, James Swallow, Charles Christian and Anne C. Perry. This promises to be a lively discussion as well, and we'll be looking at, amongst other things, where SF has to go now that Steve Jobs and Apple have made the Star Trek communicators and 40K's dataslates a reality...
You can find the full programme, together with all the great guests coming along on the Alt.Fiction website.
So come along, it'll be a great weekend of writing, talking, signing and connecting.
See you there.
"The beginning is the time the catch and keep your readers. A beginning of a story is very important, if you don't get you readers eye at the beginning they are not going to read the rest of your story, even if the middle of the story or the end of the story is really good they will never know."
Out of the mouths of babes and innocents, eh?
So, with Priests of Mars off with the Editors, I'm in the early stages of my next Heresy novel, Angel Exterminatus, in the pleasing position of having all the novel synopsises (do you know how many times I typed that word...?) ahead of me till the end of the year done. Since my last venture into Heresyland, I've been to Arkham, the 41st Millennium, the Age of Legends and the Old World, but now it's time to get back to the treason of the Warmaster, and boy, am I looking forward to this one. Last time, I dabbled in the fascinating, murky waters around the main thrust of the Heresy with The Outcast Dead, but now I'm getting back to playing with the Big Toys; Space Marine Legions and the Primarchs. Angel Exterminatus is going to be a big book for a number of reasons, and in a number of ways, most of which I can't really elaborate on for fear of spoiling the surprise or venturing into waters I haven't yet charted, since this book is still in its Beginning Phase.
And that's kind of the theme of this blog entry, new beginnings.
I sometimes struggle with the beginnings of books. I know the plots, the characters and the overarching themes/plots I want to cover, but getting the right fit up front is so important to me that I often spend the first few weeks on the opening two or three chapters, which is a lot longer than I want to spend there. But I'm a firm believer that if the foundations you set up at the beginning of a book aren't right, then the rest of the novel just won't stand up straight, you'll constantly be pulled askew by the bad start you've made and won't be able to get back without building it all up again from scratch (see, all those years at university studying architecture and building surveying weren't wasted!). I've scrapped beginning after beginning, rewritten, rearranged and re-just-about-everything-else with quite a few of my novels, because that nagging voice in my head keeps telling me that something's not quite right. That voice is almost never wrong. The other voices...? Well, time will tell...
With Angel Exterminatus, I'm in that stage of a novel where I'm finding the fit of it all, the right voice for the characters, the clothes they're wearing and and the scenery they ought to be chewing in their dialogue. I'm feeling my way around. I know this place, but it's been a while since I visited, so I'm limbering up for a long haul. It's a slow process, like going on a date with a whole lot of people at once, some you know vaguely, some are new to you and some are strangers who've just walked in after hearing that there's a free buffet. And you have to impress them all. Like going on speed dating and hoping to get everyone's number at the end of it all. It takes a lot for everything to align at once, but when it does, as it has now...then it's a great feeling to know, just know with utter certainty, that it's working, that it's bloody right. That this is how it ought to be done.
The first couple of chapters of Angel Exterminatus are set post-Isstvan V and deal with the Iron Warriors prior to the arrival of the Emperor's Children for a meeting between Perturabo and Fulgrim. It's taken a while to get right, inventing new things to make sure that the Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children feel like no other Legions, that they have their own character and don't inadvertently end up as pantomime villains – a common pitfall of portraying the Chaos Space Marines. I want to ensure that the scenes, dialogue and vibe the reader gets will lead them to the Iron Warriors or Emperor's Children even if I took out all the specific names and unit types. It means striking a balance between what people already know, what they want to see and what I want to achieve with the book. Certainly these legions are very close to my heart, and I know that a lot of people like them too (the steady sales of Storm of Iron and Fulgrim tell me as much...). And since it's a joint novel between them, I don't want one to overshadow the other. At least until the end...
I'm at that point now, with a through line that works in what was established for the Legions back in the Index Astartes days and what's come since. Over the years other people have written the Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children, of course, but in my head, they're still mine. Which is a patently ridiculous notion, given that they exist in a shared universe, tie-in fiction realm, but still...they're mine. Which is how you have to feel if you're going to write anything with conviction and love and passion. If you don't write thinking that this is the only way these guys can be portrayed, then you're not invested enough. So I want to make sure they meet everyone's expectations of the masters of siege warfare and decadent excess (not least of all, again, mine...). To make them my own, I wanted to invent new traditions, new colour schemes, new units, new names and new....everything, all of which needed to be introduced in a way that didn't feel like an Index Astartes article or an excerpt from a Codex. All that white heat of creation takes time and effort and imagination that combines in a witches brew of sitting around looking like I'm not doing very much at all, doodling with words and sounds on a notepad and scouring my books/net for interesting resonances with the subject matter. All of which is a long way of saying that the beginnings of a novel are just about the most important part of a novel, so get it right...
But. There's always a but. There's always the danger that in that obsessive quest for perfection you end up spending the lion's share of the time you have to write the novel on the beginning. It's a trap I've not often fallen into, thankfully, but it would be apt in this case since the Emperor's Children are just about to turn up...


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Thanks...my rigs a 2005 LJ, 2inch lift, 31X10.5 Duratracs Im in the process of monstalining it...pretty mild and mostly stock as you can see. I am worried about my tires as if you are familar the duratracs are an AT, although a very agressive one at that. Why do you say not to go up alone..get lost, get stuck, hear banjos?
If you decide to go sometime hit me up...Id like to wheel for a day.

subset: commoncrawl


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10wk old yorkie puppies, two male& one female. CKC registered, have had first shots, and wormed twice. Mom and dad on site, both weigh 5lbs so puppies will be small. Very playful&loving. More info Email a friend |
puppies available. Several colors including sable/white, and black/white. Ages 2-5 months old. -$450 each for current puppies, all are full blooded but no papers will be provided at this price. (All can be AKC registered, if desired add $150 for registration... More info Email a friend |
We have a beautiful litter of white to cream labradoodle puppies available. They are first generation, mother is an AKC Lab and father is an AKC white Standard Poodle, puppies are CKC registered, dew claws are removed, and they are UTD on vacines and wormings... More info Email a friend |
They are CKC reg. The Mini Bull is a combination of French Bulldog and Old English Bulldogge. They are a wonderful combination and are very smart and playful. They love people and are great companion dogs. We have males and females with lots of merle colors... More info Email a friend |
Beautiful cream/white English Golden Retriever puppies for sale! Mother on site. Raised in the home with daily interaction. 7 males, 4 females. Parents have great temperaments. 1 year health guarantee included. Limited AKC registration. Ready end of June... More info Email a friend |
4 IOEBA registered Old English Bulldog puppies, Blues & Blue Brindle. Ready to go Home up to date on shots, dewormed, crate trained and 1 year health guarantee. For more information contact 704-649-1963. www.carolinasbluebulldogs.com More info Email a friend |
Beautiful puppies 4 males . Akc Ch Bloodlines parnets on site family raised very sweet lots of personality loves children. shots and deworming UTD. pictures upon req. More info Email a friend |
We have some adorable CKC registered doxiepoo puppies ready to go, there is a a white and black male available., $300.00 , parents are AKC registered, mother is a mini dachshund and father is a toy poodle, these guys are non shedding and hypo-allergenic... More info Email a friend |
CKC reg. very sweet with lots of personality, smart and from working parents. This breed loves to play and they love children come see them to day. Every puppy comes with a health guarantee, shots, and wormings up to date. We accept cash, credit cards, ... More info Email a friend |
We are a small State Licensed and Inspected kennel located in Georgia..BUT WE DO DELIVER TO COLUMBIA AND CHARLOTTE AREA'S.. We have a Cream male Shih Poo-Ready Now-Vet checked, Utd everything..He should be 5-7lbs grown..He is 500.. Also, we have a Male ... More info Email a friend |


text: Set to be released in early November, Flying Pans — Two Chefs, One World is a new cookbook that highlights the travels of chefs Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver of the ever-popular Marine Room restaurant at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. With vivid photography by Gregory Bertoloini and our very own Maria Desiderata Montana serving as a contributing editor, the book takes readers on a journey to places including Thailand and Brazil, and everywhere in between, and is written in a reader-friendly style to encourage cooking. (760/214-2524, www.twochefsoneworld.com) MIA STEFANKO


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4:27 pm
Tue September 25, 2012
On Valley Edition: Dueling Tax Measures, Scholarships for FUSD students
Today on Valley Edition we look at the competing tax measures on the November ballot, Propositions 30 and 38. Both promise to protect funding for schools but critics have questioned both, and some political observers have said that the presence of both on the ballot could mean neither will pass. We also talk with a Fresno couple who donated $1 million to fund scholarships for students at Fresno's Tehipite Middle School. And we also learn more about plans for a walk and series of events to raise awareness about asthma in the Central Valley.


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"If the fact that Benghazi was indeed a terrorist attack had been made clear from the outset by the Administration, there would have been much less confusion about what happened in Benghazi that terrible night. The attack clearly was not a peaceful protest in response to a hateful anti-Muslim video that evolved into a violent incident. It was a terrorist attack by an opportunistic enemy."


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Onex for Footnotes brings classic comfort in a slide that's a warm weather staple. With a chic crossover embellished with rhinestones, 'Savannah' is a must have this season.
FLAT RATE SHIPPING JUST $5 ON ALL US ORDERS! All shoe orders ship tax-free! Fast and Free Exchanges for 90 Days on all items! Pre-paid UPS label included with order for easy Exchanges and Returns.


text: Recipient Of The 2013 Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence Award.At Wingate by Wyndham we know you mean business. Our hotel is proud to offer a host of valuable amenities at no extra cost to you. Our all inclusive pricing model gives you access to services and benefits you will not find at other hotel chains, all FREE of charge.Lexington is located in Virginias beautiful Shenandoah Valley, a city rich in history and breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.The Lexington Wingate by Wyndham features southern hospitality and it is conveniently close to the areas main businesses and historical attractions.Conveniently located just off the Interstate 64 and 81.No pets allowed. Pool and Spa.


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Episode #3 was a hum-dinger -- not as intense as the first two episodes, but we have a larger mystery to solve and we saw the return of a major character.
I now have a theory of Walker biology that I think covers the vast majority of the "watch this hand while the other hand is doing something important" undead logic.
Like biology? Like THE WALKING DEAD? Like both? Well then click through, my friend, and see if you like my theory. And if you don't, post your own in the comments.


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7. | laker | ||
a retired pirate that lives on the lake, with the big beard and hook for a hand and yellow trench coat maddox will be a laker in 50 years
1. | laker | ||
A small fart, also known as silent but deadly "Julian, I just layed a laker!"
"Lakers are sweet, Asim, let me try" |
2. | laker | ||
a straight person pretending to be lesbian; hence "lesbian faker" Did you see her lookin at him? What a laker.
3. | laker | ||
a wealthy person who does not live at the lake but owns a cottage and/or boat there. most travel a minimum of an hour to inconveniently make the lake busy as hell. lakers make the gas prices go up and increase the summer population by 200%. laker: "i just bought a boat that i don't know how to drive. can you show me to the nearest marina with the most expensive gas, since i can afford it, so i can fill my 2 boats and 7 jetskis?"
local: "you must be a laker." |
4. | laker | ||
ditching for a baby reason. ditching because an extremely lame and stupid excuse. "Hey we still going to the game Friday?"
"Yea bro!" "Don't laker on me!" -Doesn't show up- "Bro you lakered on me!" |
5. | laker | ||
a retired pirate that lives on a lake, with the big beard and hook for a hand and yellow trench coat look at that badass laker bro
6. | Laker | ||
Watching a grown person cry after losing to a competitor that they assumed they were superior to, finding out that they are not. Then later, instead of admitting the other team was better, you explain how you had some unrelated problems that impacted your ability to focus to use your full potential. You then start to cry some more and make it so pitifully about you (and not about the better team that beat you) that you become the center of attention. It occurs in sports, politics. Everytime the lakers lose a championship (especially to the Pistons or Celtics) they do that.
Hillary Clinton acted like a Laker when she lost to Obama. Watch Kobe literally cry like a Laker. The Tea Partiers are a bunch of Lakers |


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Comrades! My book of Point Reyes photographs is now available for your ebook or iPad. I myself don't own an ebook or an iPad, so I can't actually tell you how it will look there. However, it IS only $2.99, so you can't beat that, right? I mean, we're talking about eighty-four photographs* for the price of a cappuccino! Holy cow! That's incredible!
*True, they are not the sort of photographs that you can hang on your wall, but on the upside, you can carry them around with you and show them to your friends, so that's got to count for something. Did I already mention the cappuccino?


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Library Policies
The library board has established these policies to govern the library. These policies serve as a blue print for effective library operation, underscore the library's service philosophy and ensure that patrons receive consistent service. The policies are reviewed to help guarantee that they remain timely.
Collection Policies
Includes our Statement of Purpose, Selection Philosophy, Confidentiality Policy, Responsibility For Materials Selection, Selection Guidelines, Gifts Policy, Weeding Policy, and Requests for Reconsideration.
Circulation and Computer Policies
Includes: How to register for a library card, Interlibrary Loan Policy, Audiovisual Loan Policy, Equipment Policy, Internet Use Policy, Computer Policy, and Wireless Internet Access Policy.
Facilities, Equipment & Conduct
Includes information on handicap accessibility, fax policy, equipment use, Program Room and Study Room Policy, bulletin boards, displays and exhibits, and our Conduct Policy.
Volunteer Policy
Includes a policy statement with definition of volunteer, list of benefits of being a volunteer, types of volunteers & tasks to expect, and guidelines for volunteers.
Policy Regarding Library Contracting
Includes information about how the Kalona Public Library contracts for library service with other cities.


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The Yadkin Valley Heritage Corridor Partnership launched a mobile phone Web site promoting Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin and Caldwell counties.
Users pointing their smartphone or tablet devices to GoYadkinValley.com will be directed to the mobile site m.goyadkinvalley.com that gives travel information about the Yadkin Valley. The site gives visitors access to information in six specific areas: agri-tourism, historical and cultural, outdoors and recreation, scenic byways, wineries, and visitor centers. The mobile site has a geolocation feature that enables GPS tracking of attractions.
"Technology plays an important part in travel planning," says Helen Ruth Almond, project manager for the YVHC Partnership. "It's like having a digital visitors' guide in your hand."
The mobile site is accessible from any Internet-capable phone or tablet and is optimized for smartphone functionality. As new map kiosks are installed in the region, QR codes (a two-dimensional bar code) will connect users to digital sources of visitor information through the mobile Web site.
"Ultimately, we want to help tourists navigate around town," explains Leslie Schlender, economic development director for the Town of Elkin and chair of the YVHC Partnership. "Our goal is to improve directional signage and access to tourist information, and the mobile site is another layer of that goal."
Recently, Surry and Wilkes counties, in close collaboration with the YVHC Partnership, were awarded $124,960 from the Federal Highway Administration Scenic Byways Program for the instillation of kiosks and directional signage in the region. A vehicular signage program is being developed by MERJE Design and the YVHC Partnership. The regional initiative also developed a regional brand identity, municipal banners, brochure maps, gateway signs, and online and print advertisements.
The YVHC Partnership was established to develop place-based economic development strategies for northwest North Carolina and to increase visitor spending in the four-county target area. Specifically, the Partnership is focused on increasing recreational infrastructure through the development of a multi-use trail system along the Yadkin River and tourism marketing infrastructure through a comprehensive and integrated wayfinding program.


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So I've been playing a few months and I've been having trouble cracking heavy armor. One of my friends runs Karchev with a Destroyer, Devastator, Juggernaut, Beast 09 and Behemoth. Most of his lists are 3 or more of those 'jacks with the only infantry being mechanics. Every match we play he marches right up the middle of the field towing and keeping Karchev surrounded with jacks until the Devastator can charge my line and explode everywhere. I've tried everything I can think of to counter it but nothing seems to work; he keeps Karchev too well protected for me to get to him. Its gotten to the point where I don't even want to play against him because its not even an interesting game.
How do we deal with that much heavy armor? The Devastator is the biggest problem since knocking it down doesn't even reduce the armor.


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This product is now past the best-buy date and discounted accordingly.
Blending Indonesian beans in perfect proportion with Central and South American varieties, Caribou Coffee's signature coffee-shop blend balances a robust, zesty taste with a clean, fruity zest that is sure to wake up those sleepy eyes. Box of 12 K-Cups


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Hi all!
I'm going to try to do more posting instead of just reading on these forums! Anyway, would anyone be interested in playing on a Terraria server? It would just be hosted on my pc, so not dedicated or anything. I really haven't played online with anyone, but I'd be thrilled to play with you guys. Just let me know and I can set something up.


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Pamela Perkins, who resides in Hawaii, created this small festival and offered to share it with the LifeWays community. Enjoy!
Wandering in the Meadow
A Springtime Mini Festival
I created this simple festival for my 4- and 6 year-old granddaughters and a few friends to celebrate springtime. I chose (with some poetic license) to incorporate a few cultural elements from our shared New England and local experiences, which lent a Japanese, American and Hawaiian flavor to the celebration.
The children and adults gathered into a circle as I sang one of the numerous songs I have used for many years to bring a circle together. I had prepared the center space with a large sward of green silk gauze, and a basket with props where I would sit. After we all sat down, I began to play the following, first just with the lyre, then again, adding singing.


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[ Text of section added by 2012, 165, Sec. 84 effective January 1, 2013. See 2012, 165, Sec. 137.]
Section 4H. The state secretary shall, in the distribution of laws and documents to members of the general court, effect such exchanges among members as they shall direct; and the secretary may employ such additional clerical or other assistance as may be necessary for the purpose. Copies of the laws and documents apportioned to members of the general court which remain undisposed of for 3 months after the end of the year in which they were issued shall revert to the commonwealth and be subject to general distribution.


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Drunk Mom Creates Unintentional Social Commentary On Young Parenting By Getting Stuck in High Chair
We've done some dumb things after a night of drinking — ask us about our butterfly tattoo — but getting stuck in a piece of furniture (as far as we can recall) isn't one of them. That's not the case for our heroine today, though: a drunk 31-year-old mother, who intentionally wedged herself in a high chair and had to be rescued by the fire department.
Serena Curtis and a friend had just polished off two bottles of wine when Curtis decided it might be funny to sit in a high chair. She wasn't laughing for long, though.
Turns out the tipsy mom got pretty well stuck, and struggled in vain for an hour to free herself. Her pal captured the whole incident on her smartphone's camera, rather than help, which proves that impaired judgement was highly contagious that night.
Eventually, the drunken duo decided to call the fire department after it became clear that Curtis wasn't going anywhere. âI was so embarrassed," she said. "I just had a dressing gown on, but luckily part of the chair was hiding my face."
Wisely, Curtis decided not to share the humiliating incident with her kid. âItâs my sonâs highchair. I havenât told him yet. Iâll wait until heâs a bit older,â she said. Odds are, he'll just learn about it on the internet, like the rest of us.
Next: High School Wrestler Hit By Falling Light During Match


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Latest News
« Previous EntriesThe Constitutional Convention: have your say!
Friday, May 17th, 2013Ireland's Constitutional Convention will be looking at the issue of votes for emigrants this weekend, as it examines the issue of electoral reform. Mary Hickman of the VICA campaign will speak. The public has been invited to make submissions on the Constitution.ie website. There are many people who have written in on the issue of votes for emigrants, and VICA and the Federation of Irish Societies in London have made particularly good ones.
If you haven't submitted yet, it's not too late. It doesn't need to be terribly long – put in a few words and help shape Ireland's future, and your own.
Here is what I submitted today:
1. Summary
(a) Votes for overseas citizens should be considered as an important part of electoral reform, and especially for Dáil elections. Overseas citizens are affected by decisions made in Ireland, and they need genuine political representation that will enable their interests and concerns to be voiced and addressed.
2. Issues affecting emigrants
(a) Opponents sometimes argue that allowing overseas citizens the right to vote would be giving them power to make laws they won't be affected by. This argument ignores the fact that emigrants are, in fact, affected by many laws and policies enacted in Ireland, in which they have no say.
(b) Overseas citizens who are hoping to return can be particularly affected by decisions made by legislators regarding any of the following:
- Economic policies affecting their ability to return
- Social welfare policies (like the habitual residence condition that has been reported in the Irish Times to have prevented at least 3,000 returning emigrants from accessing social welfare after they returned home to find work or care for elderly relatives, sometimes resulting in destitution.)
- Policies around education and the cost of university education for the children of returning emigrants.
- Spousal immigration laws, which could determine whether an emigrant has the right to return home to live with his or her partner
(c) Decisions that affect citizens while they live abroad, whether or not they plan to return, include those made in areas such as:
- Taxation: Many emigrants are required to pay tax on property they own at home. "Taxation without representation" is a reality.
- Pensions: Many emigrants have worked in Ireland and are entitled to a contributory pension; they will thus be affected by any changes in pension levels.
- Levels of consular staffing and protection, which can affect the safety of citizens during times of crisis
- Levels of emigrant support, which provides for on-the-ground assistance in local Irish communities abroad, often to the most vulnerable of emigrants.
- Broadcasting policy, which regulates the ability of Irish communities in the UK and elsewhere to access Irish radio and television broadcasts as well as access to RTE onine services
- Diaspora engagement policies, including the development of cultural, heritage and business initiatives; network development, return policies, foreign direct investment initiatives, and more.
- Citizenship, which can affect the citizenship rights of spouses and descendents.
(d) Many of these policies have a strong impact on the lives of the Irish abroad, yet the effects of these policies on emigrants and overseas citizens are barely on the radar for Irish policy-makers and voters.
(e) There is thus a real need for meaningful representation of the perspectives of overseas citizens in the government.
3. The problem of balance
(a) Some object to the notion of votes for emigrants based on the idea that the Irish abroad could wield disproportionate power in their home constituencies. This is a legitimate concern, but the solution is not to ban all emigrant and overseas citizens' voices, but rather to come up with a compromise solution that allows for a more balanced representation of all citizens' perspectives.
(b) Regional constituencies for emigrants, such as exist in France and Italy, should be explored as the simplest solution for allowing the clearest and most balanced representation of emigrant interests.
4. The problem of taxation
(a) Some people question whether it is fair for overseas citizens to vote when they do not pay taxes. It is often forgotten that the young emigrants of this generation, in particular, who have left Ireland in order to be able to pay their mortgages, will have to pay taxes on those properties. Similarly, older emigrants, many of whom are on limited incomes, may have inherited family properties which are also taxed.
(b) A problem arises when people treat the saying "no representation without taxation" as if it is a well-established democratic principle. It is not. The US is the only developed country in the world that taxes its non-resident citizens on income earned abroad – and yet the US is only one of well over 100 countries around the world that allows its expats to vote. Even in the US, there's no actual connection between paying taxes and being allowed to vote: the requirement is that non-residents file taxes, but don't owe them on income under about $90,000. So relatively few US expats actually owe any taxes to the US – yet all US citizens are entitled to vote.
(c) The confusion arises from the fact that the "No representation without taxation" sounds like "No taxation without representation" – a genuine rallying cry for democracy arising out of the American Revolution. "No representation without taxation" is the opposite – it's a call to restrict democracy; a demand for a return to pre-Enlightenment era when only men of property could vote. We don't demand the exchange of taxation for voting rights in any other context: the penniless are as entitled to vote as the wealthy, and we don't exclude net beneficiaries of taxation from voting.
5. The distinction between "citizens" and "the diaspora"
(a) In the public debate over emigrant voting, there seems to be some confusion about whether the vote should be for emigrants, the 3 million citizens living around the world, or for the wider diaspora estimated at 70 million. Yet few, if any, advocates of emigrant voting rights are calling for the diaspora to be allowed to vote.
(b) The Constitution currently, it could be argued, supports votes for all citizens, but not to the wider diaspora. Article 2 makes a clear distinction between them:
It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.
(c) The Irish Nation, thus, is specifically meant to be comprised of everyone who has Irish citizenship. The Constitution states that there is a distinction between citizens, no matter where they live, (who are entitled to be part of the Irish Nation), and the wider diaspora ("the people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage"). The worldwide population of citizens have a claim on the Irish Nation, but the non-citizens of the diaspora have merely a 'special affinity' that is to be cherished but which offers no such claim.
(d) Article 1 sets out the rights of the Irish nation:
The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions.
(e) This begs the question: If the self-determination right of the nation is "inalienable, indefeasible and sovereign", how is it just or appropriate that a significant part of the Irish nation is deprived of that right?
A few words in tribute to my father
Monday, May 13th, 2013I've been quiet of late, not because of any lack of things to talk about in the diaspora realm, but because I've been busy with some other things, mostly having to do with my father – I minded him for about six months before he died this winter, and since then I've been dealing with all the things involved with tying up the affairs of a well-lived eighty-year life.
I think my dad deserves a mention on this site. The experiences of him and my mother, both emigrants from the 1950s-era outflow, were the inspiration for my initial interest in emigration. They always remained as proud of being Irish people as they were of being American citizens, switching their passports to blue and raising their children in suburban New York but always calling Ireland "home". They – like so many others of their generation – maintained their loyalty to Ireland throughout their whole lives. If I'm honest, I've sometimes questioned whether this loyalty has always been fully deserved, and it's probably this question more than any other that has inspired my work on this site. But that's for another day.
I was really moved by what one of my friends wrote to me after my dad's death: "Your Dad was part of the best generation to represent us in the States – they repaid their hosts by working hard, raising families and living by good values. You can be very proud of him." And I am.
I'll just repost his obituary here:
Columbus (Colm) Bowden died in New City, New York on Jan. 19, 2013, a week before his 81st birthday. Colm was born in Balleen, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland on Jan. 27, 1932. He came to New York in 1958, after a few years working in England for the Ford auto company. He married Teresa Philbin from Castlebar, Co. Mayo, in 1964, moving to New City to raise their family in 1968. Colm spent most of his working life as a New York City bus driver. After retiring from MABSTOA in 1987, he worked for the Town of Clarkstown for ten years.
Colm was much loved by his daughters, grandchildren and many friends and family. He will be remembered for his kind spirit, loyal friendship, generous heart and gregarious laughter. An enthusiastic card-player, he enjoyed frequent games of 25 at the Irish Center in Blauvelt, where he also spent numerous happy Sunday mornings cheering for the Kilkenny hurling team. He maintained strong ties to his native country, visiting relatives and old neighbors often; he phoned his sister Lena every week until the end of his life. Colm was very proud to have been named the Kilkennyman of the Year in 1985 by New York's Kilkenny Association. An avid reader, he always kept up with the news from home, often with clippings sent by his late sister Kit, and the daily papers. A faithful Catholic, he was also a lifelong Pioneer after taking 'the pledge' at 18. After his retirement, he joined the Clarkstown Senior Citizens' Club, where he made many new friends.
Colm loved travelling. Happiest behind the wheel, he drove to explore America and visit friends in such far away places as Montana, Florida and Canada's Prince Edward Island. He celebrated his 70th birthday with a train trip across the country to San Francisco and his 75th birthday with a journey that fulfilled his lifelong dream of visiting New Zealand and Australia.
Colm is survived by two sisters in Ireland, Lena Downey and Lil Cahill; his daughters, Eileen Feeley of Alexandria, Virginia and Noreen Bowden of New City; and his two grandchildren, James Colm Feeley and Katherine Teresa Feeley. He will also be missed by his many nieces and nephews in Ireland and America. He was predeceased by his sisters, Margaret, May, and Kit (Sister Ethna), and his brother, John. His beloved wife, Teresa, died in 1986.
Back to normal programming soon.
Tweeting for Ireland
Sunday, October 7th, 2012For the last seven days, I've tweeted under the @Ireland account on Twitter. Run by WorldIrish.com, the account is curated by a different person every week. It's a relatively new idea, modeled after the @Sweden account I was pleased to be the first person to tweet from the Americas.
The week was great fun, with chats on topics including the Irish in South America, the visit of the Canadian Immigration Minister, the Late Late Show, the Irish at war around the world, emigrant voting and more.
New curators are needed every week, so if you'd like to take the helm for a week, see how on WorldIrish.com.
Reflecting, post-Harvard
Monday, October 1st, 2012It's high time I got back to my blogging: I graduated with my Masters in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government a few months ago. It was a grueling but wonderful experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life. One of the great things about it was the way the program enabled us all to pursue our various interests and passions, so I had the luxury of studying issues around democratic participation by emigrant citizens. I'll pop up a few of the results of that work in the next few posts.
One of the extraordinary things about the Kennedy School, apart from the superb professors and my talented classmates, was the fact that, of course, the Kennedy school is named after that great icon of Irish-America, John F. Kennedy, and he is invoked everywhere. In an Irish context, the JFK thing sometimes seems slightly parochial ("There's the descendent of the man from New Ross, walking the streets of Galway!"), but of course his vision had a global impact, and still has the power to inspire action around the world today.
As the child of Irish immigrants, to be able to study at such an institution meant a lot to me. My parents left school at the age of 13 and 14; My father didn't love school, but my razor-sharp mother left school because she had leave home to work to support her family. She was so hungry for learning that she used to read my textbooks when I was a kid, and she often spoke how she hoped to go back to school eventually. She never got to do that; she didn't live to see me graduate high school. While I was at Harvard, I often thought of my mother's unfulfilled dream, and it added a bit of sadness to my pride that I had made it there. I reflected a lot how I had gotten there, and how my parents' journeys from the Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s had paved the way. I am grateful to them.
Anyway, I'm back to the blogging and eager to get started again!
A bit of a hiatus, but I'm still here!
Friday, October 7th, 2011I've been on hiatus for the past couple of months, owing to a rather dramatic change in circumstances. I've moved to Boston for a year to study at Harvard, where I'm working on a mid-career Master's in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government.
I'm sorry to be missing all the excitement of this year in Ireland, what with the presidential election and all, but I'll be back before long. In the meantime, my academic programme is a really wonderful experience – I'm studying alongside 200 other students from all over the world (something like 70 countries – including students from India, China, Japan, Egypt, the UK, Ethiopia, Croatia, Norway, Canada, Ivory Coast, Israel, Palestine, Nigeria, and lots more). Among our ranks are former (and future) government ministers, social entrepreneurs, soldiers, diplomats, technology consultants, journalists, college professors and many more interesting people of all sorts.
I was surprised to find that I seem to be the only one of the 1,000 students in the entire Kennedy School who has arrived from Ireland – though I have found two other Irish graduate students here at Harvard, both in the Graduate School of Education, one a teacher freshly arrived from Meath, the other a long-time resident of San Francisco.
While I'm here I'm studying things like economics, leadership, negotiations, advocacy, and policy change. So far, it feels like a wonderful gift, and I feel really lucky to be part of this class.
I'm still following all the events in Ireland, though I've been too busy to post of late. As I settle in I'll be able to post a bit, although I'll likely be quieter than usual on here until I graduate in May.
Should we appoint prominent diaspora members to the Seanad?
Monday, May 30th, 2011Irish-American businessman Tom McEnery has made a number of suggestions about how better to engage the diaspora in assisting Ireland with its economic crisis. Mr McEnery, an author, businessman, and former mayor of San Jose, lectures at Santa Clara University and Stanford University. He wrote an article in the Irish Times advocating greater engagement with the Irish diaspora:
It is time to think and act anew. Irish officials must implement solutions quickly, before it's too late, redouble efforts at creating wealth in emerging companies and harness the untapped resources of the Irish diaspora.
There is much talk of this vast diaspora, but its resources are not being utilised. Until the Irish leadership sees that taoiseachs delivering platitudes and bowls of shamrocks will not substitute for meaningful engagement, it never will be utilised.
His first two suggestions are focused on economic development:
Merge IDA, Enterprise Ireland and other agencies involved in economic development into one agency, name a leader, maybe an American chief executive like Craig Barrett, and support innovation, jobs and company formation. Then measure performance, not press releases;
Put whatever resources you can muster into worldwide venture capital funds that have a link beyond the monetary to Ireland, a real eco-system, and make the creation of companies, not reports, their core product;
The most interesting of the suggestions is the last:
Instead of abolishing the Seanad, select members who serve at no salary but chosen only from the Irish diaspora. From Silicon Valley select the likes of Craig Barrett, John Hartnett, founder of the ITLG and the Wilde Angel Fund, Conrad Burke of Innovalight and John O Ryan, the inventor behind the dynamic Rovi Corporate.
Add in Maria Shriver, Gabriel Byrne, Chuck Feeney, Niall O'Dowd and Declan Kelly too. And then from across the US, Australia, Canada and globally pick more such people and use them. Don't lose them in a jumble of compliments and forums. As I once noted, I often found more wisdom in a conversation over a pint in McDaid's or an hour at San Jose's Irish Innovation Center than a day of speeches at Farmleigh. Implement, implement, implement as if your future depended on it – for it surely do.
I appreciate the spirit behind this suggestion: there are many in the diaspora who are willing and able to take a philanthropic approach to Ireland, and who would surely do us much good. I also appreciate the desire for greater engagement that is driving this idea, the generosity and good will among the diaspora that it highlights, and the innovative approach that is so sorely needed in rethinking the relationship between Ireland and the Irish abroad.
But I think it's a highly problematic idea, for the following reasons:
- Appointing, rather than electing, more representatives to the Seanad would reinforce the undemocratic nature of that body.
- Asking people to serve in an unpaid capacity will ensure that only those of significant means will be able to do so. Not every talented person is wealthy enough to do substantial amounts of unpaid work.
- These kinds of appointments would reinforce one of the most fundamental distortions in Irish society: the distinction between the insiders and the outsiders. One of the keys to the way the potential for success is often unleashed in the Irish abroad is that when Irish people leave, they often find themselves less bound by the restrictions of class and connection. Recent efforts to implement top-down networks and give government greater access to the most successful of the Irish abroad are aimed at establishing a hierarchy among the Irish abroad that the establishment here understand and are more comfortable with. This is not a step forward.
All the same, we're blessed here in Ireland, in having a large international base of people around the globe who are interested in assisting us. We haven't got the relationship right yet, but the more ideas we can throw around the better. I believe that we should favour those ideas that move us toward greater equality and more democratic representation of all of our citizens.
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As someone who has spent time in hotels and hotels in Montevideo, I have to say that Puntoberro is one of the nicest places I´ve seen in my travels. It is not even like being in a hostel but more like staying in the home of a good friend. The proprietors Gaby and Juan are always on the premises, making... More
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This thread is for those who would like to share a memory from their childhood! Whether it be a good memory, like a special holiday, or a bad one, like a severe injury, feel free to share!
This thread is for those who would like to share a memory from their childhood! Whether it be a good memory, like a special holiday, or a bad one, like a severe injury, feel free to share!
My Pokemon White FC: 4728-4965-2910
My Pokemon White 2 FC: 4513-8303-2953
My earliest memory of childhood just so happens to be the one where I fell from a bike, crashed, and had to get stitches. =/ I think that was when I was... 3?
I had no childhood, that is why I have the ethics and entitlement of an 8 year old now.
I remember going camping when I was young. I fell backwards over a camping stove and burned all the back of my right leg.
someone touched me, it was a bad touch.
i had to point it out on a doll.
also i am a pretty terrible person lol.
^^ Best memory was watching pokemon the first time on t.v when it first aired in the US and getting pokemon cards on christmas when I was 6 or 7 (I can't remember what age lol!)
The Pokemon I breed are Dratini's, Eevee's, Bagon's, Swinub's, Numel's, Yanma's, 1st Gen starters, Trapinch's, Lotad's, and more in the future. If there is a certain nature or gender you want just PM me. I will give away one of them for a TM, shiny, a item, or a pokemon I am looking for. Again, PM me for more information. (This is for the IV Gen only. The game I own is SoulSilver. FC is 3998 0043 0901)
I'm also looking for ditto's jolly/timid
I have way too many childhood memories to really pick through and point out, but the one that's sticking out for me right now was when I got stitches as a nine-year-old. The boys and I were being stupid and decided to play with these poles that were out by the shed. We messed around with them for a while until I accidentally smacked my brother, and he chucked the metal pole he was holding right at me, smacking me in the forehead, and cutting it open. Got seven stitches that night in the shape of a crescent moon. My friends were all wondering what the heck happened the following morning when I went to school. I was happy to tell them the whole story.
WINNER OF Best One-Shot of 2012 - Best Timeless Fic of 2012 IN THE SHIPPING OSCARSCurrent Chapter: Chapter One - 5/24/13 / Current: Last Chance - 11/3/11 - Chapter 20 progress: 50%
I mostly had a bad childhood then good. I don't know what was worst getting bullied through school life in Elementary school or the fact that my dad was a women beater who would always beat my mom and almost try to kill her. Out of the outcome it all taught me to become a better man. The good parts was me hanging with my childhood friends, sister, and mostly the good ole sega genesis and classic 90's tv shows.
All credits for BT's Army Against Arrogance Banner goes to Brutaka.
All Credits to Black Terminator's Region Express banner goes to Sworn Metalhead
Dang, I got allot of good and bad childhood memories that I don't know where to begin.
Well I remember in the 9th grade, I use to skip school with a couple of old friends of mine and we made a shelter in some near by woods that took use a week to complete it.
- It was big it could fit about 10 people in it.
- it had a green tarp over it so we was protected by any weather. Also it blended good with the environment so no one could see us from far away.
-It had plenty of chairs that we "found" around the area and school.
- in the winter we made a bonfire to keep us nice and warm
- It had a look out spot. if you was to climb up a certain tree you could see the trail we made.
But like always good thing don't last. 3-4 months someone notice us and told the school about it and it was quickly shut down the next day. But thats another memory that I wont forget
everything before my parent's failed marriage ten years ago!!
like when we'd go to parties, go on trips, etc.
oh it's a love/hate romance. 'cause i could watch her dance, if i've got my boots.
credit to Ruby Moon
I was a really dumb little kid. But weren't we all, I guess.
Anyway, most of my most prominent childhood memories are of my best friend, who lived across the street from me until middle school when she moved to the next town over. We'd sometimes walk home together (although not often because she had a tendency to start her walk home ASAP, and she also walked faster than me despite being almost the same short height as me), and I'd gravitate towards her on the playground during recess a lot.
But I mostly remember when we used to look through the windows of our house across the street to each other and wave, and kinda mouth stuff like "wanna come play?" and other such things. It was pretty funny, in retrospect. Interestingly, we were also constantly on-again off-again friends, because we were just so overexposed to one another that we'd get sick of each other quickly and OMG I NEVER WANT TO SEE HER EVER AGAIN SHE'S SO MEEEEEAN, as little girls do. Sometimes I'd go over to her house and we'd play computer games (The Sims and Petz were really big with us at the time), or she'd come over to mine, or we'd just run around in her backyard, since mine is really small and boring.
They're very fond memories for me, especially since she's still my best friend to this date, and we're still hanging out and doing stuff together... just, now it's more college-kid stuff instead of elementary school-kid stuff, and we're not constantly being exposed to the worst the other has to offer, so. :P
The good: Spending hours playing Pokemon, and discovering baseball :3
The bad: my parents divorce... especially when i thought it was my fault
My Pokemon White FC: 4728-4965-2910
My Pokemon White 2 FC: 4513-8303-2953
I remember a time when I was a kid, I had an accident then and had to be operated on at an early age. Wow, that was painful and marks of that incident are still with me to this day.
Worst childhood memory?
Hmm...nothing sticks out, really. Maybe the time I pushed my friend into a pond...
Best memory?
Most of them are pretty fresh. In my childhood...hmm...
I didn't have a very exciting childhood.


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Spies ruled out of Tests Down Under
8 Jul 2011
Injured Springboks Pierre Spies and Zane Kirchner will miss the away leg of the Tri-Nations while Peter de Villiers is hoping that CJ van der Linde recovers from an injury to take his place in the 28-man squad.
Spies and Kirchner were not among the group of 27 announced on Friday, as De Villiers confirmed that they are unfit to tour. Because the touring party is short on props and Coenie Oosthuizen is carrying an ankle injury, Van der Linde could become the 28th man if he passes a fitness test on Monday.
Spies has recently returned from a holiday in Italy, and underwent a full medical assessment upon his return. De Villiers said that the Bok medical team had found that Spies is carrying a groin injury, and so can't be considered for the away Tests against Australia and New Zealand.
De Villiers feels that Kirchner's shoulder injury is not serious, but that he should not be risked. He said that he would rather that Spies and Kirchner rehabilitate in South Africa than risk further injury in Australasia.
Van der Linde is also carrying a groin niggle and will undergo a full assessment on Monday. De Villiers said that if he comes through that test, he will be taken on tour. He stood by his belief that captain John Smit should not be used as a prop.
'John is a hooker,' he said. 'He can cover at prop, but we only want to use him as a hooker for this tour.'
Saru CEO Jurie Roux was also present at the announcement and said that tighthead Brian Mujati, who played for the Boks in 2008, wasn't considered because he's not a South African citizen. Neither Roux nor De Villiers were able to say whether Mujati will have his citizenship sorted out before the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Heinrich Brussow is coming back from a serious injury and will be rushed right back into Test rugby without first obtaining match practice at a lower level. De Villiers said that he needs to phase Brussow in sooner rather than later.
'For me, he's a timebomb. If I had the power not to play him, I wouldn't play him. But he is a very important player for the World Cup and I will need to phase him in on this tour.'
As reported by keo.co.za on Friday, Johann Muller picked up a hamstring injury in this week's training. The injury is not so bad that the big Ulster lock won't be able to tour.
Springbok touring squad - Gio Aplon, Bjorn Basson, Heinrich Brussow, Juan de Jongh, Jean Deysel, Dean Greyling, Alistair Hargreaves, Adrian Jacobs, Elton Jantjies, Ashley Johnson, Ryan Kankowski, Werner Kruger, Patrick Lambie, Charl McLeod, Johann Muller, Lwazi Mvovo, Odwa Ndungane, Wynand Olivier, Coenie Oosthuizen, Ruan Pienaar, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Danie Rossouw, John Smit (c), Deon Stegmann, Morne Steyn, Adriaan Strauss, Flip van der Merwe, CJ van der Linde.
103 Comments
8 Jul 2011, 23:44 pmWell after Spies had a lovely long rest in Italy no wonder he is now injured???????????
Anyhow we now have a chance to try out A. Johnson at 8. Deysel 7 and if Brussow is able to start then Brussow 6.
I would like to see D. Rossouw at 4.
9 Jul 2011, 00:32 am@Tacitus(Deucalion)-57: it's becoming apparent that Butch James is PDV's no.1 flyhalf, hence Morne Steyn travelling
9 Jul 2011, 00:43 amMaybe having Brussouw in this Boks team will bring them wins vs NZ ans Oz like when he was in the team before he got injured.
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I'm doing somthing wrong here :
If I subclass ApplicationObjectSupport and then in the subclass to a getApplicationContext() call shouldnt I receive the ApplicationContext object ?
Doing this I get a null. Do I need to do anything in config to make sure that a constructor other than the default is called, because this is whats happening ?


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Greg Pugliese Mason, NH Male Last 20 Scores: 15.4 handicap 91.5 scoring avg. 51.6% Fairway 1.91 Putts 23.3% GIR Overall: 21 Birdies 174 Pars 46 scores entered Courses Green Meadow GC
Amherst CC, Inc. Shattuck GC Townsend Ridge CC Quail Ridge CC Allendale CC Mohegan Sun CC at Pautipaug The Overlook CC Twin Sprs GC Friends |
Recent Scores
* only 9-holes played
List All Scores
Equipment gpugliese says:
It was indeed, stupidly fast greens though, much faster than anything I've played in New England. 7/27/12


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Become a member? -> Sign up HERE! (No membership fee!)- If you find any broken links, errors, please report to firstname.lastname@example.com, or email@example.com, and we will get them fixed as soon as possible. Thank you. - |
The International Student Organization (ISO) is dedicated to help international students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with their academic, social, and cultural development. The organization provides opportunities for students to expand their insight on different cultures of the world by participating in educating and strengthening UW-L campus students and La Crosse community members. ISO is one of the oldest student organizations on campus and has been a pioneer in organizing various events to promote cultural exchange. Traditionally ISO is a co-host of the greatest event of the year, the Annual International Banquets, which is well-known among students, faculty and the community. This year we are very fortunate to welcome over hundreds of new international students and also returning students. For our students, we will be also organizing social activities over the semester. In addition, we are also looking for motivated members to join the executive team. We hope to see you at our events and we wish you a wonderful year of unforgettable experience at UW-L. Warmest regards, |


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My bf is putting together his BOB so I wanted to make a checklist for him, possibly something I could later share with friends (see list at bottom of this post).
I thought the first and easiest place to start was the 10 Essentials. Something simple that covered the basics of BOB preparedness, that's not overwhelming and would allow the recipient to develop a bag in stages instead of feeling everything had to be thorough and perfect at once. In my search to get the official list I ended up revising it and creating one of my own for the purpose of creating a BOB, not to replace the hiker's 10 essentials.
I'm not really looking for feedback on the concept or origins of the original 10 Essentials list, or how the original list should be used. I'm just using the idea of the 10 Essentials, specifically as presented in the third link below, as a simple launch point. So I'm looking for feedback on the list contents themselves, not the theory of a 10-list. The intention here is to create an easy starting point for someone new to preparedness or making a BOB, providing a foundation layer that will cover the essential areas and divides up options (such as putting together a basic boo-boo FAK now, then evolving to a proper trauma-ready FAK later).
This seems to be the nearly universal original 10 Essentials list:
- 1. Map
2. Compass (optionally supplemented with a GPS receiver)
3. Sunglasses and sunscreen
4. Extra food and water
5. Extra clothes
6. Headlamp/flashlight
7. First aid kit
8. Fire starter
9. Matches
10. Knife
In searching to verify those items I found this list, which is a 10 + 4 list and seemed to cover some of the things I felt were missing from the original list such as bug repellent: Ten Essentials Plus Four
Then I came across this list, which updates the original list by grouping the "tens" into categories instead of single items, but still based on the implied categories of the original list: The 10 essentials: A revised list for emergency wilderness survival (scroll down for the list). That made more sense to me, particularly since it gets people thinking in terms of fulfilling basic needs (food, water, shelter, fire, tools, navigation, weather protection) instead of just singular items.
So in an effort to condense the information and present it in an easy-to-use format I combined those 2 lists and expanded on them in a little more detail, such as changing Sun Protection to Weather protection; adding Hygiene with Insulation; breaking up Illumination to include a section for Signaling; and dividing some of the categories into subsections to be more clear.
Feedback is welcome. Let me know if you feel I've forgotten something or misrepresented something (such as missing an important item or misstated quantities). (ETA: to be clear, a full BOB packing list would accompany this, I just wanted something simple that isn't overwhelming to get someone started.) My second post below lists some initial thoughts on what the next layers of the BOB might be. Feedback on what should go there is welcome as well.
The 10(ish) Essentials (for a BOB)
1. Navigation
- map, compass
2. Weather Protection
- SUN: sunglasses, sunscreen, hat
RAIN: poncho, waterproof bag cover
COLD: hat, gloves
DUST/DEBRIS: googles, dust mask
3a. Clothing/Insulation -
- GENERAL: bandana, socks, underwear, bra (women), pants, shirt, boots, jacket
CHILDREN: extra undies and/or "pullups" may be helpful for children newly potty-trained
3b. Hygiene
- GENERAL: hand sanitzer, wet wipes and/or liquid soap, toilet paper and/or tissues, toothbrush, toothpaste
WOMEN: menstrual products (tampons/cloth or disposable pads/menstrual cup), pee funnel
BABIES/TODDLERS: diaper bag with all necessary pee, poo, rash and cleaning items
4a. Illumination
- flashlight and/or headlamp, extra batteries, candles (also helpful for #6. Fire)
4b. Signaling
- whistle, light stick (disposable glow stick or battery powered light stick) and/or flare, signaling mirror
5. First Aid
- ENVIRONMENT: bug repellent, lip balm, eye drops, saline spray (dry climates)
BASIC: bandages, tweezers, antiseptic wipes, pain killers, allergy meds, digestive remedies, moleskin
ADVANCED: trauma supplies, training
SPECIAL: current prescriptions, items necessary for medical conditions
6. Fire (redundancy preferred)
- IGNITERS: waterproof matches/container, lighters (and/or block and striker)
TINDER/FUEL: alcohol wipes, Vaseline-soaked cotton balls, paraffin-soaked dryer lint, or fuel sticks
7. Tool Kit
- TOOLS: pocket knife, small pliers/multitool
REPAIRS: zip ties, cordage, duct tape, safety pins
SEWING KIT: regular and heavy duty thread (or at least dental floss), regular and heavy duty needle(s)
8. Nutrition (3 days worth)
- BASIC: (no-cook/no-water food)
- – ex: granola, nuts, jerky/dried meat, dried fruit, protein bars, peanut butter, crackers, foil pouch tuna
- ADVANCED: (cook/add water food)
- – ex: MREs, dehyrated/freeze-dried meals, food saves/seal-a-meal pouches, dehydrated soup, oatmeal
– small stove (alcohol, wood, or gas fueled), metal cup or pots (heat water), mess kit (plate/bowl, utensils)
- - formula/breast pump, baby food (jars, dry and/or instant), foods and formula that don't require refrigeration, extra bottles, extra bottle nipples, necessary brushes and items for cleaning bottles
- - children are often more particular and fussy about foods than adults. What you may find acceptable may be completely "inedible" to your child. Bring foods they're familiar with as well as simple snack foods/finger foods. If your child is still at the age where they require assistance for meals (such as needing food cut) consider packing items that won't need much effort from you.
9. Hydration
- WATER & TREATMENT: water (min. 2-4 quarts/2-3.75 liters per day), filter, purification
STORAGE/TRANSPORT: bottle/canteen and/or bladder (min. capacity 16-32oz/.5-1 liters)
10. Emergency Shelter
- space blanket (additional bedroll, blanket, or sleeping sack also helpful), lightweight tent or tarp for tent (with necessary stakes or rope)
edits: clarity, added items to list based on feedback, added items for families


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