A look at some Wordle variants

As mentioned recently, Wordle has taken the online world by storm, drawing people in with the once-a-day challenge. Like many popular games, it has spawned variants, some keeping the challenge related to language(s), and others branching out into other subjects.

There are, apparently, variants for specific fandoms, such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (includes dashes so you can guess droids), Taylor Swift, and Pokémon; I only recently learned of those, and would probably struggle with them. I had heard of Lewdle (the name says it all) and apparently there’s also a Sweardle (also fairly obvious). I’m not particularly good at trivia, even for fandoms I enjoy, and my usual vocabulary doesn’t seem to work well for those last two. In addition to the original game, I am enjoying these variants:

Globle, a geography game where you try to guess today’s country. The color of the guessed country indicates proximity to today’s answer. There is no limit to the number of guesses, I’ve ranged anywhere from three (on a lucky day) to twenty guesses so far.

Nerdle, a math game with a calculation to determine. There are only eight spaces, and one of them is always an equals sign, so they’re fairly simple calculations.

WordleGame, not for their English remake – I like this one for the selection of foreign languages. I occasionally remember to visit it and try the Spanish puzzle for the day.

The big one… and I mean that literally, is Quordle:

Quordle image showing 4 squares of completed word puzzles

Instead of one word, you’re trying to match four. The difficulty is that all of your guesses apply to all four quadrants, so a guess that helps you on the first word may give you no new letters on the fourth one. To balance out the increased difficulty, you have nine guesses instead of Wordle’s standard six.

Which, if any, is your favorite Wordle variant?

Thoughts on An Unintended Voyage

I’ve mentioned Marshall Ryan Maresca’s books before, specifically in this post about The Velocity of Revolution, so it’s safe to assume I was excited to receive another of his books, An Unintended Voyage, to review. This novel picks up from a plot hook left hanging in Maresca’s Streets of Maradaine series, and is a great starting point for new readers. This review was originally published in the November 1, 2021 issue of Booklist.

During Marshall Ryan Maresca’s Maradaine Saga, Sergeant Corrie Wellington was abducted along with assorted children and put on a slave ship bound for places unknown. An Unintended Voyage reveals Corrie’s plight, landing her at a debtors’ house in Mocassa working to pay off an unintended debt accrued after the slave ship. Raised believing that Maradaine was the center of the world, Corrie experiences all of the culture shock inherent in being dumped in another country and interacting with people from nations she hadn’t heard of before. Her protective streak quickly extends from her shipmate Eana and the women they share a house with to victims of random violence on the unpatrolled streets, which ultimately leads to meeting a language tutor and securing a steady job as a bodyguard. Eventually she finds herself protecting other foreigners against religious fanatics who predict – and encourage – impending doom, coinciding with a solar eclipse which will enhance magical abilities. An Unintended Voyage is another delightful read for all ages, expanding on Maresca’s worldbuilding with hints of future adventures spread across the world.

Wordle Microfiction

By now, you’ve probably heard of Wordle, a daily word game reminiscent of the classic board game Mastermind, where you use logic to determine what the hidden code is. Wordle locks you into six guesses to reach a five-letter word in English. Many variants are already available online, including some other languages, an equation option, and a rather educational geography one.

You may have heard of microfiction, which is a subcategory of flash fiction – microfiction stories cap out at one hundred words. Wordle Microfiction combines those by using your Wordle guesses as story prompts, which gives you anywhere from one (if you’re really lucky) to seven (if you fail the day’s Wordle) five-letter words to use in a story.

From this example, you could write something like this using the day’s Wordle as a prompt:

That loser was sadly mistaken if he thought I’d relinquish my seat just because he’s my elder. He should have watched where he was walking instead of bumping into me just as the train approached. He wasn’t even on the train long enough to justify a seat, on at one stop and off at the next. Lazy old fart. Wait… where’s my wallet?

For an extra challenge, you restrict yourself to only using the words in the order they were entered on Wordle.

Feel free to share your Wordle microfiction in the comments!

The Paramount Theatre Presents Groundhog Day: the Musical

It seems like just yesterday that Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, was released in theaters. Alas, yesterday was closer to thirty years ago in this case. The basic premise, as described on IMDB.com is “A self-centered Pittsburgh weatherman finds himself inexplicably trapped in a small town as he lives the same day over and over again.” Needless to say, hijinks ensue as he moves through shock and denial to some extreme actions, followed eventually by making the most of it.

Broadway took what’s already an entertaining concept and added music to it, and the Paramount Theatre in Aurora included it in their Broadway series this year. Weatherman Phil sets the mood in the prelude with a handful of snarky comments, movie references, and swearing that he will never take the Punxsutawney assignment again. He doubles down on this attitude in his first song, singing about how much he hates Small Town USA.

The musical proceeds as expected given that it’s based on a movie many of us already know and love. Where the Paramount excels, as always, is some great stage effects, like watching Phil drive drunk in a snow storm pursued by a police car. Why yes, of course they crash… you could almost feel it.

As with previous shows this season, proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test is required to attend (and they’ve partnered with a local place for the test), and you’re expected to wear a mask the entire time expect when taking a sip of your drink. Unless you’re the idiots behind our subscription seats, who thought they were exempt from the rule. (I’m sure there are others, those were just the ones we could see. Sat down, took off their masks. Put them on again when the usher reminded them of the rule, but they were off again at intermission, and during the second half when there was a brief pause to resolve technical issues on stage.)

All in all, another fantastic show at the Paramount. Go see it if you can.

Quest Calendar’s diverse characters

I wrote extensively about the Quest Calendar last year, keeping a journal of my character’s adventure (starting here) throughout the year. I’m not doing that this year. In fact, I didn’t expect to be posting about the Quest Calendar at all, but I wanted to highlight some of the enhancements they included in their 2022 product.

Like last year, all of the character sheets are available as PDFs on their website. In addition to a new set of characters, they made last year’s characters available on a re-designed character sheet, as well as equipment and inventory sheets. These will be incredibly useful on this year’s adventure.

Six Quest Calendar characters with background and portrait

But this post isn’t about inventory or equipment, it’s about the diversity of characters they chose to include. Last year, they hit most of the main character classes you would expect in a fantasy setting, plus a few extras (with some duplicates due to Kickstarter options, I believe). You pick your character a couple weeks into the year, after working through the mechanics with a sample adventure.

Look at this year’s selection: Machine Artificer (robot? droid?), Half-Demon Swashbuckler, Human Cleric (there wasn’t actually a straight up cleric in last year’s selection), Feline Monk, Draakon Elementalist, and Avian Necromancer. My goodness, what an interesting selection!

Last year, I chose to play the half-elf druid, and Cassandra picked the gnome thief. This year, it was a tough choice. I briefly considered the cleric, and of course contemplated the feline monk, but the final selection actually came down to the avian necromancer and the half-demon swashbuckler. Both of them are entirely different from last year’s druid, and after some consideration, I opted for the half-demon swashbuckler.

I’m not planning to keep a character journal this year, so if you want to follow the story, I’d check their website to see if calendars are still available. If you’ll excuse me, I have to follow some children down a dry well to see where they’ve wandered off to. Their parents are worried.

My Three Names in Triple Vision

My exciting moment yesterday was holding a copy of Triple Vision in my hands, which includes my short story, My Three Names. Having edited both of Cassandra’s published books, it’s delightful to have made it through the creation and editing process with The Writing Journey to see my own story in print. I read some of the other stories during the critique phase; I’m looking forward to reading all of them now. If you’re wondering about the title, every story had something to do with the number three.

But really, I’m so very excited. I love how the story evolved from my first draft, improving because of the feedback from other writers. The creative process benefits from constructive criticism and different perspectives, revealing where something that was clearly set in your mind didn’t make it onto the page or specific parts of your story make other readers laugh.

Frances holding a copy of Triple Vision, an anthology of stories and poems from The Writing Journey

My five pages (in lieu of minutes) of fame being with this paragraph:

“Like most fae-blessed, I have three names. The first two are just what normal people have. Let’s call them legal names, one of which is probably what’s on your birth certificate, and a nickname or preferred name. In my case, my legal name is Margherita Phang. No, I’m not part Italian. My Chinese-American father indulged my Irish-American mother’s decision to name me after the pizza. Yes, really.”

You’ll have to read the book to find out where it goes from there.

Thoughts on Wish You Were Here

I have several things I’d like to share about Wish You Were Here, a recent novel by Jodi Picoult. Unfortunately, some of those are spoilers that are better suited for a book club discussion, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anybody.

The premise of the story is that Diana O’Toole and her boyfriend, Finn, are supposed to leave for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Galápagos just as the Covid pandemic is picking up. Finn, a surgical resident in New York City, makes the difficult decision to stay behind, but encourages Diana to go without him. Diana immediately encounters problems: her luggage gets lost, there’s barely functioning Wi-Fi on Isabela Island, her Spanish is minimal (she was counting on Finn for that), and to top it off, the island and her hotel close as she arrives. Stranded until the island’s quarantine lifts, she finds herself rescued by a woman who introduces herself as “abuela” (grandmother) and develops a friendship with her family.

The intermittent Wi-Fi connection allows the occasional e-mail from Finn to get through, detailing all the weirdness and stress that we heard about hospitals experiencing in the news in the early days – and now, with the Omicron surge – of this pandemic. The isolation allows Diana to rediscover herself and explore the beautiful island she’s stranded on. Picoult perfectly captures both the isolation and the terrifying effects of Covid on our lives, yet somehow does it in an uplifting way.

A look back at 2021

Like 2020, 2021 wasn’t quite the year we expected or hoped for. Here in the United States, 2021 started with a violent insurrection attempt inspired by the former president. His inability to accept defeat was predictable; as I mentioned previously, he never learned to lose. Thanks to quick thinking on the part of Capitol police, none of the lawmakers were injured, the election results were certified, and many of us were able to watch the inauguration of a new President later that month. An easy option for following the ongoing investigation into the insurrection is to read Heather Cox Richardson’s daily updates.

Going into 2021, we knew that COVID vaccines were being tested and produced and would soon be available for all adults. Unfortunately, the rollout was initially slow, though it sped up as vaccine production ramped up following necessary approvals. By summer, vaccines were also available for teenagers.

Having attended a wedding via Zoom at the beginning of the year, the opportunity to socialize as more friends were vaccinated was eagerly received. Bristol Renaissance Faire reopened after taking a year off, and I drove to Minneapolis for a friend’s barbecue. Just as things were starting to look up, we lost a young family member in Guatemala to the pandemic, right as he became eligible for the vaccine. (Countries that aren’t developing their own vaccines tend to have a slower rollout.) On the same day, we lost a friend in Wisconsin; we attended his funeral later that week. Near the end of the year, my aunt in England passed away; I watched funeral via LiveStream.

As the Delta variant wave climbed, conventions tweaked their policies to include vaccinations and masks, allowing Dorkstock to a somewhat quieter Gamehole Con in October. So there has been gaming – outside the house even – and goodness knows we bought too many board games there.

Some happier highlights from the year include writing – in addition to the ongoing character journal that I maintained for my Quest Calendar, I submitted a couple short stories for competitions and worked through the write, edit, re-write process with a local writers’ group to include a short story in an anthology called Triple Vision.

I also wrote a couple songs this year, mostly about fandom (“filk”), including a Blowin’ in the Wind parody about Avengers: Infinity War, Cthulhu Sleeps Tonight, inspired by a crafty friend, and a silly song about ducks and my friend John’s charity bike ride.

Safe to say, 2021 was neither the best of times nor the worst… just somewhere in the middle, and somewhat unexpected.

The Quest calendar (conclusion)… part 23

Having defeated the undead dragon, Faris rushes back into the city to deal with the necromancer.

I rushed back to the city, evading flames and corpses. Edvarius seemed undeterred, vowing to retrieve the dragon bones and try again. Tired of his boasting, I attacked him immediately. He responded by animating several of the dead villagers around him, forcing me to slay them again. (Not that I slayed them the first time, mind you… that was the dragon.)

More zombies rose as Edvarius cackled. I fled, just slowly enough to encourage the undead horde to follow me, leading them away from the villagers. I led them out of the city, dashing back in just before the guards locked the gate. Panting, I chugged a couple health potions before returning to deal with Edvarius.

Alas, he had more tricks up his sleeve, conjuring corrupted spirits to attack me. They slowed me down a for a couple minutes. I hurriedly quaffed my last elixir, boosting my physical prowess, just as Edvarius attacked me directly with his magic, leering at me with glowing eyes. Every part of me hurt, but I eventually fought him off, evicting him from my mind.

I rushed to attack, transforming into a wolf and stunning him with my ferocious teeth and claws. He almost recovered from my last attack, but Richard swooped down for a killing blow with his talons. Transforming back, I retrieved the Dragon Staff from Edvarius, along with some gold and a couple potions.

Lord Fellmont and Rufus were released. Young Victor was arrested and then lectured by his father about the damage done to the city and its people. Treason is punishable by death in West Haven, but Lord Fellmont had his son locked in the dungeons until his fate could be officially decided.

I was summoned to Lord Fellmont’s audience room, where he thanked me for my efforts and knighted me, and gifted me a majestic horse for my travels.

Thus ends the core adventure, and Faris leaves the town of West Haven for a mini-adventure over the last couple weeks of the calendar.

An Advent calendar that pops

Earlier this year, I was shopping for a card on Lovepop and stumbled across an Advent calendar in their sales section. If you’re not familiar with the website, they specialize in super cool pop-up greeting cards, including some Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel ones, among others. (Oh, I probably shouldn’t have looked at that page, now I want some cards.)

Half a year early, I purchased the Pancake the Penguin’s Christmas Adventure pop-up Advent calendar. The real miracle is that I remembered about it in late November and knew where it was, setting it on the dining room table on December 1st. Every day, I assemble some of the previous items, read the story snippet and open the day’s pouch, revealing another piece for the story.

Pictured above is the calendar box in the upper left; Pancake in the upper right; Pancake (wearing a cute little backpack to carry her golden key) and her adopted sister, Pep, in the bottom left, where they have discovered some Christmas trees; and Pancake and Pep traveling from the ice cream forest to the “icey forest” (that’s how it’s spelled on their map).

Wait… why do I re-assemble the pieces every day instead of just leaving the display? On day 1, I revealed Pancake the Penguin, the star of this adventure. On day 2, with only Pancake and her home on the table, Zuko jumped up and stole Pancake. After a quick chase in the kitchen, I determined it would be safer to keep the pop-ups in a container.

As we wrap up this year’s calendar, I’ve noticed that Lovepop has some other Advent calendars. I’ll keep those in mind for next year. And determine what catproofing is needed.

Have a great Christmas!