May 2012: Zhippidy

Hello Rebels. Thanks for joining us for May’s Featured Author Interview.Let’s all give a around of applause for this month’s Author, Zhippidy!



Zhip-Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited.

Qui-This month in honor of Cino de Mayo we have set up shop in Puebla, Mexico, home of the famous battle that's the reason behind the holiday!



Jazen-Yes I hear the margaritas calling my name.

Dai-Jaz you know it’s only 10am right.

Karima-It’s five o’clock somewhere!

Jill—Um, ok. Well ladies lets get things started shall we.

Featured Rebel Zhippidy-May 2012






Karima: Welcome to the Puebla History Museum!

Zhip-A museum?

Karima-Yes, it’s a place to learn, we are learning about you. Makes sense right? 

Zhip-Yeah sure.***looks around skeptically***



Karima- So Zhippidy The names in Gaal are very unique, how did you come up with them?

Zhip-I actually used Hungarian names. I think their names are beautiful and they can be either harsh or soft, depending on the character and not a stereotype of the name, if that makes sense. In America, some names carry a preconceived notion of the person, and I wanted to avoid that. Cassava's name just came to me, so I thought I made it up. When I was asked about the names, I searched online for Cassava and was surprised at what I found. It is actually a plant that is grown in tropical areas for food. If not processed correctly, it is deadly. How fitting.



Karima-What motivated you to set your story in medieval times?

Zhip-I have always been fascinated with that time period. I am drawn to books in medieval'ish eras, movies, and houses. I even went castle hopping in England and Ireland to satisfy some craving, but I want more.

Karima-What other hobbies to you have outside of sims?

Zhip-Writing, music, sketching, photography, AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons)



Karima-How fun! I bet you get a lot of great ideas from those! How do you come up with the ideas for your stories?

Zhip-Some is life-ish experience, but embellished. Most from my too strange imagination, sometimes dreams. Music gets me yearning and feeds my imagination. The story of The Song of Gaál came about first while I created a house for a GOS challenge, and the thought grew and changed, and this is the outcome.

Karima-You make us feel such a connection to your characters. How do you decide the personalities of your characters? 

Zhip-I am glad to know that I am doing something right. Their personalities, so hard to answer. Without seeming insane, they took on their own personalities. I know which direction I want to go, but the more I write, the more they change.



Karima-Well you have survived round one.

Zhip-Yeah and the museum was actually not that bad. 

Karima-Now it’s time for a word from our sponsors.

Mateo's Maracas

Mateo’s Maracas! Stop by our gift shop and get yourself a pair. You can shake ‘em high, you can shake ‘em low! Try our Cinco de Mayo specials, filled with Mexican Jumping Beans, and let the maracas do the shaking for you! Shake what mama gave you, as long as she gave you maracas by Mateo! 

*No beans were hurt in the making of these maracas.



Qui-Welcome back rebels. We're here at the Puebla Parade and annual reenactment! Zhip are you ready to see some fancy gun slinging?

Zhip-Gun Slinging? Won’t we get hit by a stray?



Qui-Nope, it’s all power no pellets. Just for effect.

Zhip-Well only if you are sure.

Qui-Of course. No author has ever been harmed in the making of these interviews. Now before things get loud our readers have a few more questions for you. What inspired the emotional roller coaster for Cassava?

Zhip-I needed him to experience things in order to react to other things. 



Qui-Do you ever feel connected to your characters?

Zhip-All of the time. Too much so I think.

Qui-I think we all probably feel that way sometimes! What genres do you like to read? Do you have some favorite authors? Any recommendations?



Zhip-Fantasy - all time favourite. Manga. Horror. My favorite author - CJ Cherryh - recommend, highly - read Rusalka. The Fortress series - oh I love it. She has your space fantasy, your ancient fantasy, your medieval fantasy your modernish fantasy. She is wonderful. Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn - wonderful. I felt like I was there. Janny Wurts - if you haven't read her, you don't know what you're missing. If only I could write like her or Cherry H. And also Morgan Llywelyn.

Qui-We'll definitely be checking those out! After being used to the humor and fun of your 'In-Game' stories of the lives of the sims that you play, the drama of Gaal is a huge contrast. Do like like writing drama better than the light-hearted fare?

Zhip-I didn't quite think The Song of Gaál would become a drama, I was leaning toward fantasy but removed vampires and removed magic because it somehow did not work with what kept coming to my mind.



Qui-Are there any other genres that you either already write, or would like to try in the future?

Zhip-I have a large part of a fantasy written. It was started some time ago, pre-Sims for me. I work on it once in a while and actually started building Sims places for it. Kisertet's estate is one built for the other story. 

Qui-That's an awesome estate, we look forward to seeing more of them! Do you have your stories planned start to finish, or do they change while you write them?

Zhip-This is planned out. I have made some changes as I go along only because some things didn't make sense. I want to try to keep it somewhat organized and realistic, believable I should say.
The outline is there, I am just filling in the pieces now.



Qui-Looks like we finished just in time. We will have another word from our sponsors now.

Rifles de Raoul, the Sponsor of this year's reenactment, has a message for all the participants. 

First, we would like to thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation, and their attention to historical detail. Secondly, I must again point out that actually loading the rifles does NOT add to the authenticity, and is, as always, strictly forbidden.

Please turn in all live ammunition at the rifle stand before the reenactment begins. Thank you, and Viva Mexico!



Dai-Welcome back Rebel. Zhip I thought we could have a bite to eat here at one of Mexico's beautiful beaches.

Zhip-Great thinking. All that gun play got me a little hungry.

Dai-While we wait on our food, lets tackle a few more questions. Are there any factors that will make you think of changing a storyline - fan reaction, a change of heart, something in RL that echos what you had planned, etc?



Zhip-To change the storyline, no, not really. The reactions of the characters may be changed from what I initially thought they would do, but that's the character growing and taking a life of its own. (Am I the only one that happens to?)



Dai-Ha ha! Not at all! I think we can all relate to that! Do you have a new story planned for when Gaal is finished? If so, what kind will it be?

Zhip-I don't, but I do have another that I may illustrate with Sims 

Dai- That would be great - we'd love your sims! Do you have a certain time of day you feel it's easier to write?



Zhip-Between 3am and 8am.

Dai-So, you don't sleep! Ha ha! Is there an activity when ideas come easier for you? Like walking, driving, sleeping; well, obviously, not sleeping!

Zhip-All of the above. I have paper and pen in my car because a song will slam me as I am driving along and I have to scribble and drive, or while walking the dog, I send myself texts with short ideas. It's crazy.



Dai-I think I ate too much.

Zhip-Me too.

Dai-Well Rebels while we relax a bit, here’s little public service announcement.



When she's clawing at the kitchen door,
that's not your Mommy anymore.
When her face looks like an apple core,
that's not your Mommy anymore. (verse from "That's not your mommy any more" by Matt Mogk)

What you don't know can eat you! May is Zombie Awareness Month!



Jill—And we are back again. We're at the Puebla stables, where the actors and riders for the parade and reenactment do all their practicing. Zhip have you ever ridden a horse?

Zhip-Yes but in not such, um, fancy clothing. What’s the deal with these costumes?

Jill—Well we are enjoying history today right? The performers let us borrow these for this segment. I thought it would be fun to dress up and see how they did it back in the day.



Zhip-Jazen’s margaritas are sounding better and better.

Jill-What was that?

Zhip-Oh nothing.

Jill-Ok its going to be an easy stroll around the arena. Nothing fancy. 
Zhip-Did you hear that girl, nice and slow.



Jill- Zhip, you look like a natural! We have more questions of course. You've been working with the Pose Player for Sims 3. Do you need to know a lot about game coding in order to create a pose? How did you get into creating poses for the Pose Player?

Zhip-You don't need to know coding to create poses. I tried to learn some because I desperately needed a toddler rig and all my attempts to make one failed. I tried off and on for a few years, more off than on, but, when I was convinced to share Cassava's story, I needed poses that weren't offered and really wanted to make my own.



Jill-You've been creating a lot of really great poses - most of which are children's poses. Are those easier to work with, or do you just prefer it?

Zhip-I like making the children's poses because there are so few. I also need them. I also make adult poses and have lots of ideas.

Jill-Do you take requests for your poses?

Zhip-I can, absolutely.



Jill- Do you have a page or site where simmers can find all your poses in one place?

Zhip-I am pretty new to blogs, and the one is all I have. I want to separate the story to it's own place and then create one for the poses to be on one page. I am still learning the blog stuff. For now, they can be found on my blog: zhippidyposes.blogspot.com/

Jill-Zhip see the horses weren’t too bad! You did great!



Zhip-Now I need out of these clothes. How did women survive wearing all these layers?

Jill-A great mystery of life. While we ponder that, we will take another short break.

Hola. I am Pedro. Si.

It is said… That to eat the worm… At the bottom… Of the bottle... Of the tequila, si… To eat the worm… It give you crazy ideas… Hallucinations… Si… That would be bad… Please… do not eat the worm… Gracias.

“Uh, what Pedro was supposed to do was tell you the proper way to shoot tequila, brought to you by the makers of Cinco de Blotto Tequila! There’s actually two different ways that are correct. 

First, the American shooter, also called ‘Lick-Shoot-Suck’. You take a single shot of Cinco de Blotto, some salt, and a wedge of lime. The drinker licks the back of their hand below the index finger and pours on the salt. Then the salt is licked off the hand, the tequila is drunk, and the fruit slice is quickly bitten. Groups of drinkers often do this simultaneously.

In Mexico, however, they drink their Cinco de Blotto in the "bandera" (Flag, in Spanish), named after the Flag of Mexico. It consists of three shot glasses, filled with lime juice (for the green), white tequila, and sangrita (for the red). They can be sipped or shot straight.
So raise a shot glass of Cinco de Blotto on Cinco de Mayo and don’t forget the toast, "Arriba, abajo, al centro y pa ´dentro!" (up, down, center and in)

Cinco de Blotto...remember nothing.

Jazen—Welcome back ladies. We're here at this Mexican cantina right on the beach to wrap things up. Zhip have you been enjoying your day so far?

Zhip-Yes it’s been very educational.

Jazen-Well we’ve saved the best for last, gifts and drinks!



Zhip—Aww thanks this is great! I love presents.




Jill-Ok Jazen I think I hear those margaritas calling my name as well.

Karima-Me too.

Dai-Looks like I will be the Designated Driver again!

Qui-Yep!



Jazen-Zhip we have a few more questions before you are free. Probably should get those out of the way before you down too many of those.

Zhip-Yeah you are probably right.

Jazen-You mentioned once that you were nervous about writing because this would be your first time. Have you found more confidence as the story of Gaal continued?



Zhip-It's my first time sharing something with so many. I write and write when no one's looking, like singers in the shower, or car. I want so badly to discuss the story and the characters and where it's going and hash out ideas and identify flaws. I really have a hard time not doing that in reply to comments, because then the story is over, yes? I worry still that I will mess something up.



Jazen-Given that you told an interesting story through pictures in the "In My Game" thread, why did you start writing and why not more on the lives of those characters?

Zhip-I haven't started that game in a while because it started to give me issues. I could do a story since they certainly have stories to tell. 



Jazen-I bet they do! Are there any stories you feel help motivate your writing?

Zhip-Honestly, all of the stories I read make me want to write more to share.

Jazen-Well that wraps up the questions. Let’s join the others at the bar.

Zhip-Sounds like a plan.



Well, Rebels, thanks for joinung us in beautiful, sunny Mexico!



And thanks to you, Zhippidy, for agreeing to be our FA this month!



We hope you enjoyed this month’s interview. Stay tuned to see who the next lucky author will be!