UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

Tales from the junkyard

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Clint

It’s one of the most common questions you’ll hear a writer asked at a convention panel or other public appearance: “Where do you get your ideas?”

And it’s one of the most common opinions amongst writers that this question is both pointless and silly. Neil Gaiman has been one of many to articulate why. Or as one of my friends likes to boil it down: “Ideas are easy. Execution is hard.”

I would suppose it’s not universally true or the question wouldn’t be so persistent and pervasive, but I have the same damn predicament as most writers I know: we are overflowing with ideas. It’s sitting down and forming a cohesive and entertaining story involving them that’s the difficult part. It’s chopping away unmercifully at all your cool ideas until there’s nothing left but a lean, mean tale-tellin’ machine. First drafts tend to have a lot more ideas spelled out in them — or at least mine sure do — but if you leave them as-is your story is in danger of turning into nothing but an infodump. And although Zombie Ranch does have its share of infodumps, the trick for me is always trying to walk the line of making them entertaining, and, in the cases where a character is involved, making sure what they’re saying sounds like something that would actually be coming out of their mouths. You should see some of the first-draft Suzie speeches in my notes. Or, well, no, you really shouldn’t. Even Frank has had times he waxed eloquent before I slapped at my typing hands and thought, “Yes, this is an awesome and informative speech, but realistically all Frank would say here is ‘Yup’.”

Well, anyhow, the point I’m attempting to meander my way towards is that there are cuts, and there are ideas that won’t fit, but it’s a rare case that I would advocate getting rid of them entirely. There’s a reason you thought they were awesome enough to bring down out of your head, right? Yeah, you looked back at it later and it didn’t work for the narrative, or the timing wasn’t right, or it was some seriously tin-eared dialogue to be trying to stuff into a character’s mouth. All of these are excellent signs they need to be altered or removed, so get rid of ’em — but then, I say keep ’em around somewhere. In a notebook, or an old version file. An idea junkyard. Some sort of fixed form record that’s not just careening around in your brain, even if it’s just to occasionally glance over them in the future and cringe in shame.

These are your outtakes, to use a film or television analogy. Sometimes they might even be complete enough to quality as “deleted scenes.” Have you ever checked out the extras on a DVD/Blu-Ray and watched the deleted scenes, or read an early draft script? Most of the time they’re not that great, but they can have interesting ideas in them, and sometimes a director or writer will take stuff from those scenes and use them in another installment of a franchise, or even a different story altogether.

I won’t claim that’s always a great thing, because Prometheus. But still, especially when you’re working with on ongoing setting and characters, keep your notes and your drafts around. With Zombie Ranch I’ve got that problem where I have more ideas for what to do and what to communicate than I may ever get around to having the opportunity to present, but occasionally it helps to go look through the junkyard and see if there are things from the past that might be able to have their turn in the sun.