July Community Roundup

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Fireworks arc into the air. Flags wave in the wind. Blog authors are unable to resist endless movie references (seriously you’ll get sick of them soon). Welcome to the Independence Day weekend Zombies, Run! Community Roundup Post.

Before we get started, let’s all take a moment to celebrate the fact that everyone’s favourite Doctor Girlfriends could now get married anywhere in the United States with a classic piece of loveliness from The Wondersmith

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Good Job America by thewondersmith

Amazing. Here we go. 

Six to Start News

We’re horribly excited to announce that two of us from here at Six to Start will be appearing at this year’s Nine Worlds Conference in London from 7th – 9th August 2015: Adrian Hon (ZR co-creator, Six to Start CEO) and Matt Wieteska (Audio Director, Writer of Radio Abel, Me). We’ll both be speaking in various panels across the three days, so come and say hi! 

But that’s not all! The ZR writing team will be out in full force, with Naomi Alderman (ZR co-creator and Lead Writer) and Rebecca Levene both attending. Finally, some of the ZR cast are also on panels, so there’s plenty of Zombies, Run! related reasons to come along. 

You can find more information about the Nine Worlds schedule here. If you’re coming along, be sure to tweet us to let us know.

This Month in the Fandom

… has been absolutely ridiculous. I’ve never seen so much wonderful art, writing and discussion. Seriously, putting this post together has taken about three times longer than ever before because it was so hard to decide what to put in. You all need to be a touch less amazing or my pride centre is going to explode. Hit up the readmore to find a taste of what this fantastic fandom has been up to since we launched the All-New Zombies, Run!

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Couldn’t let you through without a bit more holiday-appropriate giffage. On with the art!

Art

So much stunning artwork this month. Check this stuff out.

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Draw Yourself As Runner Five by sredmund

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But oh babe, I really wish you would not cry by typelikemad

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Haunted House Meme by muterunner5

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F**k off Runner #5 by artithon

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Runner Five Morse Code by templait

This is less than 1/10th of the amazing artwork that was created by the community this month. Seriously, you are all far too talented and generous with your wonderful art. Rock on. 

Writing

As with the artwork, there’s been so much fantastic writing from the fandom in the past month that I’ve really struggled to pick out my favourites, but here they are!

First up, we have a lovely look at a post-Voice-in-the-Dark conversation between Sam and Runner Five by ask-abelsrunner5-jeren. 

Next, please go read this utterly adorable take on the moment Jack finds a prosthetic leg for Eugene by iwillplaythefool. 

As Zombies, Run! fic often is, this piece by Zephyros22 about Alice’s final message to Sam is completely heartbreaking and wonderful. 

Spoilers in this next piece up to S4M14, but anyone who’s past that point absolutely must read thetalkingcrocus on a certain hippy and a certain runner. It’s been stuck in my brain since I read it.

As a counterpoint to all the pain in the last two pieces, have some tear-inducingly sweet fic set after the end of Season Three Radio Mode. Straydog733 just completely nailing it here.  

Finally, a special bonus extra favourite from this month. The amazing runningalchemist has been writing pieces of Rajit’s infamous Novel and it’s exactly as delicious as you’d imagine. So. Good. 

Phew! That’s it for this month. Zombies, Run! Fandom: you are utterly fabulous. If there’s any fan work you’d like to draw my attention to for the next Community Roundup, drop me an email to matt at sixtostart dot com.

New Month, New Missions!

July is here and with two new missions from Zombies, Run! Season Four. Today, we have: 

S4M15: “Sweet Things” 

S4M16: “Old and Wise” 

Both missions are available right now for our Pro Members. Free and Legacy Members can unlock either one with their free weekly unlock credit. As always, let us know what you think of the missions here or on Twitter. 

bigslorps:

Featuring my foldable water bottle which… oh my god it’s holy! I always have it clipped to my bag when I go out and when it’s empty I can juse fold it up until I can fill it up again
A doodlish sketch I made of “Runner 5” The main protagonist of Zombies, Run! Whom is… you…
So in a way this is a self portrait!
Only in this one “I” am a looooot fitter XD
The app is available on IOS and Android and I definitely reccommend it!!!
Especially check out Radio Abel! As Eugene and Jack are precious!

And for those who are wondering… I do in fact talk to my ‘radio’ when I’m out on a run.

This Zombie Life

Time for an old favourite, now. Something to enjoy with a nice cold drink and a seat in the sun, perhaps (at least for our Northern Hemisphere Runners 5). Here’s a spoiler-free excerpt from Radio Abel Season One: This Zombie Life. 

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, This American Life is a weekly radio show and podcast which gathers stories from all walks of life for your entertainment. 

It’s wonderful, and it’s a favourite of many of ours here at Six to Start. Which is why, way back when, three of us – Naomi Alderman, Matt Wieteska, and Adrian Hon – got together with our favourite post-apocalypse radio hosts to produce this loving homage.

With the new update, is there any way to listen to the seasons with all the regular and side missions intermixed? I’m still on Season 2 but now the missions are sorted differently and it makes me sad. I want you guys to choose the order I listen to the side missions in – not do it myself!

Some background: The S2 side missions were originally written to (mostly) take place outside of normal story continuity. The reason we decided to separate them from the normal sequence in ZR4 is because they often messed with the overall tone of the story arc, and would result in weird things like Runner 5 going on a fun jaunt in the midst of some deadly-serious multi-mission adventure.

So, a good way to play the side missions would be to still interleave them with the normal story missions (e.g. two story missions, one side mission) but just bear in mind that they aren’t part of the main continuity (although they definitely are canon! (except for the Halloween ones, obvs)).

Have you guys thought about making some of the items you have to pick up in the 5K trainer like the book? It could have bonus content stuff and back stories, that kind of thing.

For sure! We already have a book in the works, which we announced in this very thorough Guardian interview by Keith Stuart:

We are deep into the planning of the first book set within the Zombies, Run! universe, and there is potential for original audio dramas that are not about you running away from zombies, but which are set within the Zombies, Run! universe.

All of these things take time and release dates are unpredictable, so we’ve been holding off on trumpeting this stuff too loudly. Also, there are only so many hours in the day that Naomi Alderman, our lead writer and co-creator, can expand the Zombies, Run! universe 😉

i almost died laughing on the treadmill yesterday while listening to your app. see, when i run i listen exclusively to showtunes, and the song sweet transvestite from the rocky horror picture show came on. it was at that moment that one of the radio abel hosts chose to announce that he had had his first kiss to that song. i cracked up (slightly impeded by the fact i was running) and spent the rest of the run imagining how that wouldve happened

From Matt Wieteska, writer of Radio Abel: Oh wow, that’s maybe my favourite song for Jack’s first kiss ever. You can imagine it so clearly:

Jack, having told his parents he’s staying the night at a friend’s house, sneaks into town for the screening. He’s heard a lot about it, but never seen the film before. He’s nervous at first, but there’s the costumes and the energy and besides he’s told his parents he’ll be out all night, so he may as well make use of it. I mean it’d be dumb if he didn’t even see the film, right? 

He doesn’t know any of the call-and-response script but tries to catch up as the film plays. Then, during the long anticipation, the Frank-n-furter who had, up until that point, been strutting wonderfully up and down the aisle, leans in and plants a big, red stamp on Jack’s lips. 

Amazing. My new head-canon.