My Current Favorite Free Android Games

If your New Year’s Resolution involves productivity, you may want to skip this post.

I’m very picky about my tablet games–they must be free, can’t be too easy, and must NOT feel like an addictive timesink (like a slot machine).

The last game I recommended over on my Tumblr was Disco Zoo, which was fun and charming for a while, but once I unlocked Mars and all its inhabitants, my completionist gene failed to kick in, so it’s been idling on my tablet for a month or two now.

Wanting a game I could play while watching TV with my sweetie–brainless, but not too brainless–I discovered Mary X.

I love its elegant art; with each level, you get a different queen’s portrait at the top of the play area. Portraits motivate me. I’m up to like…Mary 27 right now.

Also motivating me is the soothing piano music. (My brain has assigned the following lyrics to the melody: Kit-ten….Yes, my name is Moxie Kit-ten…) If I found the tune somewhere, I would probably download it. I might try transcribing it. Who knows?

The game has zero IAP, and you don’t see ads until you lose a game, or if you’re desperate for an undo.

Being a number-combo game, it plays like Triple Town, but the mechanics feel simpler–or at least, they make more sense to me than Triple Town did.

Recommended!

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Next, I’m always craving word games, but many of them are too easy for me. And I hate Scrabble. And I don’t want a Google gaming account or whatever they’re called, so Words with Friends is out.

Luckily, I discovered Wordiest.

Wordiest is simple. Make two words out of a group of letter tiles. Use letter multipliers and word multipliers to get teh big scorez. Submit. See what weird word combos other folks came up with. Beat a lot of people, up your rating. Lose to lower rated people and your rating will drop. No account needed!

I play mine with dark-on-light colors. And my rating right now fluctuates from 94 to 96. The click of the tiles is so very satisfying.

The only annoying thing is the strange set of definitions they use. Whatever, man!

Got any free Android game recos? Post ’em here!

Resolutions, 2017

I have two resolutions this year:

1. Write at least 250 words a day.
2. Learn to bake homemade bread.

I’ve attempted to bake bread two or three times before. Tends to come out…uh, let’s say dense. But now that my KitchenAid is here (in hot rod red, of course), I gotta try out that dough hook! Mom’s going to help me.

Having just finished writing an 400,000-word book (took 15 years) and two short stories (in 2 months), I know I can write! However, I’m interested in seeing if using Spreadsheet Voodoo to measure my words per day can increase my consistency (and maybe my output).

I kept the daily wordcount low to set myself up for success. Since I’ve started using my spreadsheets (Tuesday) I’ve written about 1K on My Frenchie Valentine (working title), and 2K on The Horror of Hriana (working title). So far, so good!

Any resolutions you wanna share?

3 things I discovered in 2016

In 2016, I discovered many a new and good thing, including (but not limited to):

Half-sleeve shirts. What did I ever do without them? (Answer: I either looked less-than-professional in plain ol’ T-shirts, or I kepr rolling my sleeves up.) Loved layering my black half-sleeve shirt with bright necklaces and loud cardigans/dusters.

Krita. Photoshop CS2 began some strange voodoo in 2016–like making all the art tools disappear, whoops? So I sought out a replacement digital art program. Krita is free, it is awesome, and now that I understand it better, I love it.

(Courtesy Wikipedia)

My cat’s personality type. Pixel J. Cat esq., an orange tabby, lived with my husband some 8 years before I married into the family. Though Pixel and I have always gotten along well, I find him puzzling at times. For instance, why does he ignore my corkboard of jewelery (which is currently on the floor, leaned against a wall), when other cats would go nuts destroying all the shiny things?

Then I discovered his personality type through the blog The Way of Cats. Pixel’s a “gamma” type cat. Here’s the Gamma explained:

These are cats who don’t know the environment can be changed.

Training them consists of anticipating their needs and letting them know how much we care. These cats hate to be a bother.

The Gamma’s retiring nature will bloom under dedicated fussing, and they must never be neglected.

Pammy’s blog has helped me level up in my cat mom skills, and for that I’ll forever be grateful!

Tune in next time when I announce my two goals for 2017!

 

Trevor Smith, Book Cover Illustrator

After a month of correspondence, I’ve decided not to use Trevor Smith as my  cover artist for SCVK.

However, he was professional and prompt about his communication, and he deserves more clients. Posted above are some of his pieces you in case you’re looking for a science fiction book cover. (The last one won him the Grand Prize in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest!) I just love his little pops of color!

His covers start at $600, unless you have a concept he’s really into and are willing to hand over a lot of control to him, then the price starts at $300. He understands that book covers are billboards and wants to do a good job selling your book.

I found him through the KBoards Yellow Pages forum and am glad to have another great artist to follow!

He’s also on DeviantArt. Consider commissioning him today!

Long Books: Ur doing it right

My currently unfinished CliffNotes synopsis of SCVK (to be sent to my cover artist) is so far at 11 pages.

That’s 1.29% of the entire manuscript.

My total pagecount for the ARMELLO fanfic is 10 pages!!!!

My writing is ridiculous. <3

Summary of Art 2016

Template from http://dustbunnythumper.deviantart.com/art/2016-Summary-of-Art-BLANK-648938152

I did a lot of studies this year, pushed myself to do more backgrounds and storytelling. Not bad! Feel like I did more art than my files reflect, but whatyougonna do?

As proud as I am of the Penguin value study (Sept–and one of my first Krita pieces), Moxie’s 4th of July picture (July, probably my last Photoshop painting), and my Purrfect Christmas cover (Dec, even though I did it in Nov, SO NIENER), I’m also really happy with the scenery and storytelling pushes I did in August, October, and November. Whoo for progress!