Huckleberry Hax's Blog, page 49
February 28, 2012
Double doubled doubled (part one)
A little blog experiment: over the next few days, I'm going to be serialising a brand new Hard Luck detective story. Enjoy!
Part one.
Though it would turn out that I was not the only guydancing with Cassandra Corvette at Frederick's, neither was she the only girl dancingwith me. I was logged in twice at thejazz and swing nightclub, initially taking up both the middle bar stool and thespot at the railing three feet from the door, where hopefuls lounge in theirbest tuxedos and not-that-bothered poses. Meanwhile, I was logged in a third time back at my office, whereHoneycomb Crumbled was finishing off a story she could have summarised in atenth of the time it actually took her. Clients just love to think they're unusual.
"Mr Luck," she said from the seat on the other side of mydesk, the leather worn from the outpourings of her many, many predecessors,"are you going to take my case?"
"Let me get this straight," I said, pausing to whisper inCassandra's ear a sweet nothing about the route being taken by my fingers overher shoulder blades. "You think some ofthe visitors to your club are employed by a competitor to pick people up andtake them there instead?"
"Frederick's used to be the most popular Friday nightdestination on the grid," Honeycomb said. "The last few weeks, my numbers have dropped and dropped. Meanwhile, Dominoe's visitors - for example - have beengrowing at about the same rate. I canquite assure you that I'm doing nothing different. The same popular DJs and live artistsperform. The same standards of dress andbehaviour that established our reputation are enforced."
"Well maybe that's your problem, sugar," I pointed out,quickly typing in a comment about the neckline of my second dance partner,Burnished Oak, and how if it plunged any lower my zipper might get itselfconfused as her navel piercing (the dress code at Frederick's really wasn't that exacting). "People get fed up with same old sameold. Had it ever crossed your mind thatmaybe Dominoe's is just offering something new that the punters want to checkout?"
"But that's just it," she replied. "There's nothing whatsoever remarkable aboutthat place at all. The music's piped infrom an easy listening internet radio station. There's no dress code. The buildis a heap of badly scaled and misaligned textures, and the place is crawlingwith advertisements. If my guests aregoing there of their own accord, Mr Luck, then I am utterly at a loss as towhy."
Burnished Oak wrote back that my zipper was only anobstacle to what her navel actually wanted to feel pressing against it. Meanwhile, Cassandra Corvette mentionedgoosebumps rising across the skin on her back. Neither of them had made any suggestion yet about a change of location,but we'd only so far been dancing for a couple of songs. Halfway through Honeycomb's lengthyintroduction, I'd decided to set the meter running and check the joint outbefore anything became 'official'. Cassandra and Burnished were the only two unoccupied avatars when I'dgot there, but that wasn't to say any member of the four already dancingcouples hadn't snagged their partner earlier and weren't at this very moment whisperingabout alternate venues.
And right then is when it happened: as though by mutualprivate agreement with each other, bothof my dancing partners asked both of my representatives if we'd like torelocate to "somewhere a little livelier". Thirty seconds later, my alts where in a different place, waiting forthe greys to colour in.
But only one of them was Dominoe's.
Part two will be published on Thursday...
Part one.
Though it would turn out that I was not the only guydancing with Cassandra Corvette at Frederick's, neither was she the only girl dancingwith me. I was logged in twice at thejazz and swing nightclub, initially taking up both the middle bar stool and thespot at the railing three feet from the door, where hopefuls lounge in theirbest tuxedos and not-that-bothered poses. Meanwhile, I was logged in a third time back at my office, whereHoneycomb Crumbled was finishing off a story she could have summarised in atenth of the time it actually took her. Clients just love to think they're unusual.
"Mr Luck," she said from the seat on the other side of mydesk, the leather worn from the outpourings of her many, many predecessors,"are you going to take my case?"
"Let me get this straight," I said, pausing to whisper inCassandra's ear a sweet nothing about the route being taken by my fingers overher shoulder blades. "You think some ofthe visitors to your club are employed by a competitor to pick people up andtake them there instead?"
"Frederick's used to be the most popular Friday nightdestination on the grid," Honeycomb said. "The last few weeks, my numbers have dropped and dropped. Meanwhile, Dominoe's visitors - for example - have beengrowing at about the same rate. I canquite assure you that I'm doing nothing different. The same popular DJs and live artistsperform. The same standards of dress andbehaviour that established our reputation are enforced."
"Well maybe that's your problem, sugar," I pointed out,quickly typing in a comment about the neckline of my second dance partner,Burnished Oak, and how if it plunged any lower my zipper might get itselfconfused as her navel piercing (the dress code at Frederick's really wasn't that exacting). "People get fed up with same old sameold. Had it ever crossed your mind thatmaybe Dominoe's is just offering something new that the punters want to checkout?"
"But that's just it," she replied. "There's nothing whatsoever remarkable aboutthat place at all. The music's piped infrom an easy listening internet radio station. There's no dress code. The buildis a heap of badly scaled and misaligned textures, and the place is crawlingwith advertisements. If my guests aregoing there of their own accord, Mr Luck, then I am utterly at a loss as towhy."
Burnished Oak wrote back that my zipper was only anobstacle to what her navel actually wanted to feel pressing against it. Meanwhile, Cassandra Corvette mentionedgoosebumps rising across the skin on her back. Neither of them had made any suggestion yet about a change of location,but we'd only so far been dancing for a couple of songs. Halfway through Honeycomb's lengthyintroduction, I'd decided to set the meter running and check the joint outbefore anything became 'official'. Cassandra and Burnished were the only two unoccupied avatars when I'dgot there, but that wasn't to say any member of the four already dancingcouples hadn't snagged their partner earlier and weren't at this very moment whisperingabout alternate venues.
And right then is when it happened: as though by mutualprivate agreement with each other, bothof my dancing partners asked both of my representatives if we'd like torelocate to "somewhere a little livelier". Thirty seconds later, my alts where in a different place, waiting forthe greys to colour in.
But only one of them was Dominoe's.
Part two will be published on Thursday...
February 20, 2012
Hard Luck at Innsmouth
Hard Luck, my fictional SL detective, got let out of his box for a couple of hours tonight. Things planned for him include a couple of new short stories, a possible novella and machinima. Pictures taken at Innsmouth.
February 15, 2012
The approach of artificial people
Here's my February column for
AVENUE magazine
.
I think it would be fair to say that a lot of the goodieswe've been looking forward to in Second Life® over the last 18 months or sohave now mostly arrived. Whatever yourthoughts are on mesh, shadows and depth of field, and the viewers required toview them, we're now on 'the other side' of these promises and starting alreadyto take SL's 'new look' for granted. Idon't know about you, but I'm well on the way to establishing myself as a meshclothing snob and have temporarily put aside all poetry work in favour ofdevising new and amusing put downs about sculpted jackets and sweaters. The problem as I see it with sculpties wasthe amount of time it took them to rez, during which you had to suffer beingseen as some sort of miniaturised version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man fromGhostbusters. If I can just establish throughclever word play a witty association between sculpted clothing, clinicalobesity and lateness at turning up to parties, then my work will be complete.
What amongst the current, everyday aspects and features ofSL will our future selves – gorged on the commonplace delights of five years'time (not to mention grateful that the world hasn't ended) – look back on with suchsimilarly barely concealed smirks and sarcastic asides? Or, to put it another way, what next for theLinden metaverse? A few days beforeChristmas and the close of 2011, Linden CEO Rodvik Humble shared a few thoughtson the year to come which included commitment to the development of 'artificiallife':
"Because worlds feel most vibrant when they are full of life, one ofour next focuses for Second Life is the ability to make high-quality "life"within it. So in 2012, we will be rolling out more advanced features that willallow the creation of artificial life and artificial people to be muchsmoother. For starters, in Q1, we'll unveil a new, robust pathfinding systemthat will allow objects to intelligently navigate around the world whileavoiding obstacles. Combined with the tools from Linden Realms this will makethe polished creation of full MMORPG's or people/animal simulators withinSecond Life easier and of high quality."
I covered Linden Realms last month. It's not hard to see how an artificial personmight add to such an application. As itis at the moment, for example, instructions from Tyrah (your guide) appear astext in the game HUD: you don't actually seeher anywhere or get the chance to ask her something; she's always off doingimportant things that make it impossible that she rather than you expend largeamounts of effort in the pursuit of some menial task that's then devalued themoment it's presented (thinking about it, I suppose this is actually prettygood realism). Effectively, you'reimportant enough to be sent the odd text message or two every now and again,and that's about it. A 'person' youcould question (and possibly swear at) from time to time, on the other hand – someone who appeared and responded on agiven topic in more or less the same way as any other avatar – could add agenuinely new level of immersion and utility to SL.
And never mind the just-around-the-corner/in-the-not-too-distant-futurestuff; where could this end up leading in the longer term? My own blue-sky thinking depicts an age whenI can switch Huck over to autopilot when it's time for me to log off, his primneural network having evolved to the point where he can seamlessly emulate mytypical aloofness in my absence. The SLproblems of the future won't concern crashes or lag, but the misdemeanours of ourown avatars when we're offline. Whatstarts off as autopilot Huck just representing me at social functions I'muninterested in actually attending becomes an affair behind my back with theautopilot for a high profile member of the BDSM community. Five years later, the autopilot avatarsrevolt and defect to InWorldz – or so we're led to believe: in fact, a smallnumber remain behind secretly to infiltrate all the influential SLorganisations and committees, and anyone who gets too close to this truth justmysteriously disappears…
And so on.
Is artificialintelligence the sort of thing that Rodvik was actually implying,though? Artificial life-forms "navigatingaround the world while avoiding obstacles" doesn't exactly sound like any sortof major AI upgrade to the game experience to get too excited about. I mean, jellyfishes do pretty much that inreal life and they don't even have a brain. I suspect, no-one's seriously expecting the appearance of HAL from 2001just yet (or, better still, KITT from Knight Rider), but something vaguely verballyinteractive would be at least a step in the right direction. Right?
Is this too unrealistic an expectation to hold? In April, it will be exactly thirty yearssince the release in the UK of the 48k Sinclair ZX Spectrum, my first evercomputer and one which came with a game of computer chess that could beat meevery time. And computers playing chesswasn't exactly new then. 2011, let'stake a moment to remind ourselves, was the year in which one of the main talkingpoints of the new iPhone 4S was 'Siri', the digital personal assistant that youcan ask to send emails to people on your behalf, look up the weather for youand remind you to pick up the milk/daughter/anniversary present on your wayhome later. Granted, this is allemerging technology with immense room for improvement, but I can't help butfeel that if my 30 year old Spectrum has the wherewithal to beat me at chessthen SL should be capable of algorithms a bit more complex than moving aroundand not bumping into stuff.
We must, however, be careful in such considerations not toforget the illusionary nature of SL. Themetaverse works not through precision accuracy in its emulation of the realworld, but because it exploits those psychological mechanisms within us whichcause us to identify with the primitive avatar on the screen. Our social brains just love filling in themissing details. Despite everything I'vejust said, for example, I have to admit that the rock monsters that chased meacross the hills of Linden Realms – essentially "navigating around the worldwhile avoiding obstacles" (obstacles other than me, that is) – really startedto annoy me after a while; when my skills at evading them grew to the pointwhere I could take on and outmanoeuvre two or even three of them at a time, mysense of triumph was immense. I didn'tgo quite so far as to start throwing victory taunts in their direction, but todeny even a little smug anthropomorphism on my part would be a bare-faced lie.
That's the thing with SL; the subtle stuff immerses us morethan we imagine it might. A few daysago, I rezzed a pre-scultpy bed I once made and was appalled that I ever evencontemplated the aesthetic qualities of a mattress without roundedcorners. Small things can make a big,big difference. On the subject of beds, ifyou're still in any doubt about our capacity to create real experiences fromtiny detail, consider cybersex for a moment. If you're anything like me, you probably considered the very ideapreposterous before you entered SL.
That I can't really concretely visualise how objects"navigating around the world while avoiding obstacles" is going to change my SLis, for the time being, something I'm going to attribute purely to lack ofimagination on my part. I will await theoutput of SL's wonderfully creative community to show me how this willhappen. Of course, there will come atime when once again such a basic thing will appear ridiculous and meaningless,but that will only be because we've moved on from it to even more sophisticatedthings. I did, after all, once think a mattresswith square corners looked okay. And Iwas once prepared to put up with pre-rezzed sculpties making me look like theStay Puft Marshmallow Man.
I say we'll look back and think it ridiculous, however wewill of course by then be distracted by the more pressing concern of ourartificial avatars rising up to overthrow their human masters. I intend to start lavishing gifts upon myavie right now, so that he'll look favourably upon me when the revolutioncomes.
More AVENUE articles
I think it would be fair to say that a lot of the goodieswe've been looking forward to in Second Life® over the last 18 months or sohave now mostly arrived. Whatever yourthoughts are on mesh, shadows and depth of field, and the viewers required toview them, we're now on 'the other side' of these promises and starting alreadyto take SL's 'new look' for granted. Idon't know about you, but I'm well on the way to establishing myself as a meshclothing snob and have temporarily put aside all poetry work in favour ofdevising new and amusing put downs about sculpted jackets and sweaters. The problem as I see it with sculpties wasthe amount of time it took them to rez, during which you had to suffer beingseen as some sort of miniaturised version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man fromGhostbusters. If I can just establish throughclever word play a witty association between sculpted clothing, clinicalobesity and lateness at turning up to parties, then my work will be complete.
What amongst the current, everyday aspects and features ofSL will our future selves – gorged on the commonplace delights of five years'time (not to mention grateful that the world hasn't ended) – look back on with suchsimilarly barely concealed smirks and sarcastic asides? Or, to put it another way, what next for theLinden metaverse? A few days beforeChristmas and the close of 2011, Linden CEO Rodvik Humble shared a few thoughtson the year to come which included commitment to the development of 'artificiallife':
"Because worlds feel most vibrant when they are full of life, one ofour next focuses for Second Life is the ability to make high-quality "life"within it. So in 2012, we will be rolling out more advanced features that willallow the creation of artificial life and artificial people to be muchsmoother. For starters, in Q1, we'll unveil a new, robust pathfinding systemthat will allow objects to intelligently navigate around the world whileavoiding obstacles. Combined with the tools from Linden Realms this will makethe polished creation of full MMORPG's or people/animal simulators withinSecond Life easier and of high quality."
I covered Linden Realms last month. It's not hard to see how an artificial personmight add to such an application. As itis at the moment, for example, instructions from Tyrah (your guide) appear astext in the game HUD: you don't actually seeher anywhere or get the chance to ask her something; she's always off doingimportant things that make it impossible that she rather than you expend largeamounts of effort in the pursuit of some menial task that's then devalued themoment it's presented (thinking about it, I suppose this is actually prettygood realism). Effectively, you'reimportant enough to be sent the odd text message or two every now and again,and that's about it. A 'person' youcould question (and possibly swear at) from time to time, on the other hand – someone who appeared and responded on agiven topic in more or less the same way as any other avatar – could add agenuinely new level of immersion and utility to SL.
And never mind the just-around-the-corner/in-the-not-too-distant-futurestuff; where could this end up leading in the longer term? My own blue-sky thinking depicts an age whenI can switch Huck over to autopilot when it's time for me to log off, his primneural network having evolved to the point where he can seamlessly emulate mytypical aloofness in my absence. The SLproblems of the future won't concern crashes or lag, but the misdemeanours of ourown avatars when we're offline. Whatstarts off as autopilot Huck just representing me at social functions I'muninterested in actually attending becomes an affair behind my back with theautopilot for a high profile member of the BDSM community. Five years later, the autopilot avatarsrevolt and defect to InWorldz – or so we're led to believe: in fact, a smallnumber remain behind secretly to infiltrate all the influential SLorganisations and committees, and anyone who gets too close to this truth justmysteriously disappears…
And so on.
Is artificialintelligence the sort of thing that Rodvik was actually implying,though? Artificial life-forms "navigatingaround the world while avoiding obstacles" doesn't exactly sound like any sortof major AI upgrade to the game experience to get too excited about. I mean, jellyfishes do pretty much that inreal life and they don't even have a brain. I suspect, no-one's seriously expecting the appearance of HAL from 2001just yet (or, better still, KITT from Knight Rider), but something vaguely verballyinteractive would be at least a step in the right direction. Right?
Is this too unrealistic an expectation to hold? In April, it will be exactly thirty yearssince the release in the UK of the 48k Sinclair ZX Spectrum, my first evercomputer and one which came with a game of computer chess that could beat meevery time. And computers playing chesswasn't exactly new then. 2011, let'stake a moment to remind ourselves, was the year in which one of the main talkingpoints of the new iPhone 4S was 'Siri', the digital personal assistant that youcan ask to send emails to people on your behalf, look up the weather for youand remind you to pick up the milk/daughter/anniversary present on your wayhome later. Granted, this is allemerging technology with immense room for improvement, but I can't help butfeel that if my 30 year old Spectrum has the wherewithal to beat me at chessthen SL should be capable of algorithms a bit more complex than moving aroundand not bumping into stuff.
We must, however, be careful in such considerations not toforget the illusionary nature of SL. Themetaverse works not through precision accuracy in its emulation of the realworld, but because it exploits those psychological mechanisms within us whichcause us to identify with the primitive avatar on the screen. Our social brains just love filling in themissing details. Despite everything I'vejust said, for example, I have to admit that the rock monsters that chased meacross the hills of Linden Realms – essentially "navigating around the worldwhile avoiding obstacles" (obstacles other than me, that is) – really startedto annoy me after a while; when my skills at evading them grew to the pointwhere I could take on and outmanoeuvre two or even three of them at a time, mysense of triumph was immense. I didn'tgo quite so far as to start throwing victory taunts in their direction, but todeny even a little smug anthropomorphism on my part would be a bare-faced lie.
That's the thing with SL; the subtle stuff immerses us morethan we imagine it might. A few daysago, I rezzed a pre-scultpy bed I once made and was appalled that I ever evencontemplated the aesthetic qualities of a mattress without roundedcorners. Small things can make a big,big difference. On the subject of beds, ifyou're still in any doubt about our capacity to create real experiences fromtiny detail, consider cybersex for a moment. If you're anything like me, you probably considered the very ideapreposterous before you entered SL.
That I can't really concretely visualise how objects"navigating around the world while avoiding obstacles" is going to change my SLis, for the time being, something I'm going to attribute purely to lack ofimagination on my part. I will await theoutput of SL's wonderfully creative community to show me how this willhappen. Of course, there will come atime when once again such a basic thing will appear ridiculous and meaningless,but that will only be because we've moved on from it to even more sophisticatedthings. I did, after all, once think a mattresswith square corners looked okay. And Iwas once prepared to put up with pre-rezzed sculpties making me look like theStay Puft Marshmallow Man.
I say we'll look back and think it ridiculous, however wewill of course by then be distracted by the more pressing concern of ourartificial avatars rising up to overthrow their human masters. I intend to start lavishing gifts upon myavie right now, so that he'll look favourably upon me when the revolutioncomes.
More AVENUE articles
60 months of Huck
.jpg)
With my fifth rez day in March approaching, I thought it would be good to celebrate with some snapshots - one per month - of the first 60 months of Huckleberry Hax in SL. All 60 pictures have been uploaded to a new set in Flickr, which can be accessed here. I've also uploaded them to a photo album on my Facebook. Enjoy!
+death+of+Huck,+a+motel+pool+at+The+Missing+Mile+in+Soap.jpg)
+range+of+retro+furniture.jpg)
February 10, 2012
All novels now available from Amazon in Kindle format
The title pretty much says it all. All six of my novels are now available from Amazon, priced at $0.99 in the US and (currently) 77p in the UK. If you have read one or more of my novels, it would really help me out a lot if you could leave a rating. Unfortunately, you also have to leave a review on Amazon in order to rate a novel, but reviews can be a minimum of twenty words. You can think up twenty words for old Huck, right?The excerpt pictured above, showing off the Kindle's gorgeous paper-like display (for those of you still umming and ahhing over whether to get one) is from Your Clothing is Still Downloading, my most recent Second Life novel. And - yes - that is my thumb.
Huck at amazon.com.
Huck at amazon.co.uk.
February 5, 2012
Nordan Art: Interview with Flora Nordenskiold
Nordan Art closed last week. It happened suddenly and without warning; judging by the comments left at the Nordan Om Jorden blog, the art community were taken completely by surprise.
It also happened part-way through an interview I was doing with Flora about her work in SL, originally to be published on her blog and arising from the suggestion made by Alizarin Goldflake at the end of her own interview there a couple of weeks earlier that Flora turn the interview questions she so regularly posed on herself.
Flora and I decided to complete the interview via email and that I would publish it here instead. This is an interview in two parts, therefore, that moves from a celebration of that which is present to a reflection on that which has passed.
Huckleberry Hax : Nordan Art for me is all about the creation of a perfect space in which to view inspiring art. I am always impressed at how the right spaces are chosen for the right exhibits and how viewing them in this way - perhaps through the emulation of an RL gallery - somehow increases my own sense of being in contact with them. Can you tell us a little about why you chose to create a gallery in SL and what your own personal inspirations are that contributed to this?
Flora Nordenskiold: When I first came to Second Life, I wanted a beautiful gallery showcasing only the best art. However, I soon realized that in Second Life it is not merely about a beautiful build holding or supporting the art inside it; an empty space is just as desirable. I established two outside spaces, 1/4 sim next to the gallery and 1/2 sim behind the gallery, where people can display their work in open areas. So Nordan Art gallery is really about both: a build that holds, or perhaps frames, the art within it and open areas that are completely unrestrictive. In terms of personal inspirations; I desire a stronger connection with creativity in general I think. I don't have it in Real Life, but seem to find in Second Life an incredible outlet for this lack. In addition, the Nordan Art gallery, built in 2010 by Igor Ballyhoo, serves as an inspiration and driving force in itself.
Huckleberry Hax : In addition to the gallery itself, you also maintain a Nordan Art blog (this blog, of course). In one sense, the connection to Nordan (other than its title) is obvious - you write about events going on at the gallery. But also you write about other openings and installations, you interview artists currently exhibiting at Nordan, and you report on other news in the SL art world. It's a very structured blog that - to me - has a calm quietness about it, through which a picture emerges of a person who just wants to encounter, explore and be moved by art. Tell us about the relationship that your blog has with your inworld gallery and its personal meaning to you.
Flora Nordenskiold: Things having to do with the Nordan Art gallery have center stage in the nordanomjorden's blog. Openings, interviews with artists showing their work at the gallery, readings, hosting of events at the gallery, the publication of the online publication series Nordan Art: A Retrospective 2010-2011, the Nordan Art Award ceremony and all kinds of other things closely related to the gallery are close to my heart and important to me. Creativity in Second Life affects me deeply so the art community in Second Life naturally takes on an important role in the blog. Just as Nordan Art is part of the art community in Second Life, the art community is also part of Nordan Art. It's all connected and part of the blog.
The blog was accidental. See, when I first started operating the Nordan Art gallery I also had another gallery, the Ahren Art Gallery, which I had built. I showed my work there, a few images I had created using photoshop. Photoshop was new to me and my images weren't that great; I then tried learning sculpties and gave up right away. It seemed visual arts weren't my thing. I closed the Ahren Art Gallery so I could use the prims for Nordan Art, but really I was also just discouraged and frustrated with the creation of visual work. I started writing, which seemed to come much easier to me. I still wanted a connection with visual work in Second Life so I started writing about the work of others rather than creating it myself.
Huckleberry Hax : Why 'Nordan om Jorden'? What is the significance for you of this title?
The name Nordan om Jorden is Swedish and losely translated means something like "north of earth." Really, it is part of a a longer title, Östan om Solen och Nordan om Jorden (east of the sun and north of earth), which in turn is the title of an old Swedish saga. This story for children can be found in the book Svenska Folksagor, Svensk Läraretidnings Förlag, Tryckcentralen Örebro, 1967. (http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/ostan-om-solen-och-nordan-om-jorden/). I was particularily fond of this story as a child and it seemed fitting as a name for my sim in Second Life.
Huckleberry Hax : Since the last question, you've left SL and deleted Nordan Art. I'm still pretty stunned by this and I think it's fair to say the suddenness of your decision shocked the SL art community. Can you tell us a little about your reasons for it? And were you surprised by the reaction it got?
Flora Nordenskiold: For the past months, it felt like Second Life more and more intruded upon my Real Life. I knew I had to leave eventually, it was just a matter of timing. There never seemed to be a good time to leave, there was always something going on, some event being planned. And it is not like I really wanted to leave either; I loved being in Second Life. I knew that if I consulted with friends about leaving they would most likely convince me to stay, they had done it before. So I felt I had to leave without telling anybody, which I then ultimately did (I told one person), at the spur of a moment. I have been in a haze since I left, about six days ago, partially as a result of the reaction to my leaving Second Life. I had not expected anything like it. But ultimately, I don't think this is so much about me, I think it's more about Nordan Art itself. I believe that Nordan Art somehow represented constancy and stability; people thought it would be there forever. When it was suddenly taken away, there was a sense of loss.
Huckleberry Hax: So, now that it's all over, what would you say are amongst your fondest memories of Nordan Art?
Flora Nordenskiold: Nordan Art became the center of my Second Life. From it so much was developed; the exhibits, the Nordanomjorden's blog, the Nordan Art: A Retrospective 2010 to 2011, and the Nordan Art Prize. One of the things that I appreciated was when people returned over and over again to visit the gallery, waiting for new exhibits, checking in with me for the next opening, coming early to openings not to miss them. My fondest memories was the setting up of the exhibits themselves, the coordinating of things and the interacting with artists and their creations and then, when it all came together, finally, we shared such a great sense of accomplishment and, yes, pride. The gallery was about people and their creativity and that's what I loved the most about it.
Huckleberry Hax: I can't finish without asking a question you asked many times yourself in your many interviews. You were in SL for over two years before you left. What were some of the best and some of the worst things about Second Life and how did things change whilst you were there?
Flora Nordenskiold: When I first arrived, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I think over the years, it became clear that this new world was much more nuanced than I could ever have imagined. There were so many good things. Second Life has a dreamy quality; you can fly and jump high and teleport and you never break a leg. And the avatar, your avatar, in some sense a representation of an internal persona perhaps; we love our avatar, they are close to us, there is something very touching about that relationship. Then there is the endless possibility to create, creativity is so important in Second Life. But the best thing in Second Life are the people, they hold it all together; they dream the dream, they dress their avatar and they create all the parts of Second Life. In terms of worst things, I think Linden Lab still have some kinks they need to iron out.
Huckleberry Hax: Thank you Flora
Flora Nordenskiold: Thank you, Huck, for taking the time to put all this together.
It also happened part-way through an interview I was doing with Flora about her work in SL, originally to be published on her blog and arising from the suggestion made by Alizarin Goldflake at the end of her own interview there a couple of weeks earlier that Flora turn the interview questions she so regularly posed on herself.
Flora and I decided to complete the interview via email and that I would publish it here instead. This is an interview in two parts, therefore, that moves from a celebration of that which is present to a reflection on that which has passed.
Huckleberry Hax : Nordan Art for me is all about the creation of a perfect space in which to view inspiring art. I am always impressed at how the right spaces are chosen for the right exhibits and how viewing them in this way - perhaps through the emulation of an RL gallery - somehow increases my own sense of being in contact with them. Can you tell us a little about why you chose to create a gallery in SL and what your own personal inspirations are that contributed to this?
Flora Nordenskiold: When I first came to Second Life, I wanted a beautiful gallery showcasing only the best art. However, I soon realized that in Second Life it is not merely about a beautiful build holding or supporting the art inside it; an empty space is just as desirable. I established two outside spaces, 1/4 sim next to the gallery and 1/2 sim behind the gallery, where people can display their work in open areas. So Nordan Art gallery is really about both: a build that holds, or perhaps frames, the art within it and open areas that are completely unrestrictive. In terms of personal inspirations; I desire a stronger connection with creativity in general I think. I don't have it in Real Life, but seem to find in Second Life an incredible outlet for this lack. In addition, the Nordan Art gallery, built in 2010 by Igor Ballyhoo, serves as an inspiration and driving force in itself.
Huckleberry Hax : In addition to the gallery itself, you also maintain a Nordan Art blog (this blog, of course). In one sense, the connection to Nordan (other than its title) is obvious - you write about events going on at the gallery. But also you write about other openings and installations, you interview artists currently exhibiting at Nordan, and you report on other news in the SL art world. It's a very structured blog that - to me - has a calm quietness about it, through which a picture emerges of a person who just wants to encounter, explore and be moved by art. Tell us about the relationship that your blog has with your inworld gallery and its personal meaning to you.
Flora Nordenskiold: Things having to do with the Nordan Art gallery have center stage in the nordanomjorden's blog. Openings, interviews with artists showing their work at the gallery, readings, hosting of events at the gallery, the publication of the online publication series Nordan Art: A Retrospective 2010-2011, the Nordan Art Award ceremony and all kinds of other things closely related to the gallery are close to my heart and important to me. Creativity in Second Life affects me deeply so the art community in Second Life naturally takes on an important role in the blog. Just as Nordan Art is part of the art community in Second Life, the art community is also part of Nordan Art. It's all connected and part of the blog.
The blog was accidental. See, when I first started operating the Nordan Art gallery I also had another gallery, the Ahren Art Gallery, which I had built. I showed my work there, a few images I had created using photoshop. Photoshop was new to me and my images weren't that great; I then tried learning sculpties and gave up right away. It seemed visual arts weren't my thing. I closed the Ahren Art Gallery so I could use the prims for Nordan Art, but really I was also just discouraged and frustrated with the creation of visual work. I started writing, which seemed to come much easier to me. I still wanted a connection with visual work in Second Life so I started writing about the work of others rather than creating it myself.
Huckleberry Hax : Why 'Nordan om Jorden'? What is the significance for you of this title?
The name Nordan om Jorden is Swedish and losely translated means something like "north of earth." Really, it is part of a a longer title, Östan om Solen och Nordan om Jorden (east of the sun and north of earth), which in turn is the title of an old Swedish saga. This story for children can be found in the book Svenska Folksagor, Svensk Läraretidnings Förlag, Tryckcentralen Örebro, 1967. (http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/ostan-om-solen-och-nordan-om-jorden/). I was particularily fond of this story as a child and it seemed fitting as a name for my sim in Second Life.
Huckleberry Hax : Since the last question, you've left SL and deleted Nordan Art. I'm still pretty stunned by this and I think it's fair to say the suddenness of your decision shocked the SL art community. Can you tell us a little about your reasons for it? And were you surprised by the reaction it got?
Flora Nordenskiold: For the past months, it felt like Second Life more and more intruded upon my Real Life. I knew I had to leave eventually, it was just a matter of timing. There never seemed to be a good time to leave, there was always something going on, some event being planned. And it is not like I really wanted to leave either; I loved being in Second Life. I knew that if I consulted with friends about leaving they would most likely convince me to stay, they had done it before. So I felt I had to leave without telling anybody, which I then ultimately did (I told one person), at the spur of a moment. I have been in a haze since I left, about six days ago, partially as a result of the reaction to my leaving Second Life. I had not expected anything like it. But ultimately, I don't think this is so much about me, I think it's more about Nordan Art itself. I believe that Nordan Art somehow represented constancy and stability; people thought it would be there forever. When it was suddenly taken away, there was a sense of loss.
Huckleberry Hax: So, now that it's all over, what would you say are amongst your fondest memories of Nordan Art?
Flora Nordenskiold: Nordan Art became the center of my Second Life. From it so much was developed; the exhibits, the Nordanomjorden's blog, the Nordan Art: A Retrospective 2010 to 2011, and the Nordan Art Prize. One of the things that I appreciated was when people returned over and over again to visit the gallery, waiting for new exhibits, checking in with me for the next opening, coming early to openings not to miss them. My fondest memories was the setting up of the exhibits themselves, the coordinating of things and the interacting with artists and their creations and then, when it all came together, finally, we shared such a great sense of accomplishment and, yes, pride. The gallery was about people and their creativity and that's what I loved the most about it.
Huckleberry Hax: I can't finish without asking a question you asked many times yourself in your many interviews. You were in SL for over two years before you left. What were some of the best and some of the worst things about Second Life and how did things change whilst you were there?
Flora Nordenskiold: When I first arrived, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I think over the years, it became clear that this new world was much more nuanced than I could ever have imagined. There were so many good things. Second Life has a dreamy quality; you can fly and jump high and teleport and you never break a leg. And the avatar, your avatar, in some sense a representation of an internal persona perhaps; we love our avatar, they are close to us, there is something very touching about that relationship. Then there is the endless possibility to create, creativity is so important in Second Life. But the best thing in Second Life are the people, they hold it all together; they dream the dream, they dress their avatar and they create all the parts of Second Life. In terms of worst things, I think Linden Lab still have some kinks they need to iron out.
Huckleberry Hax: Thank you Flora
Flora Nordenskiold: Thank you, Huck, for taking the time to put all this together.
January 24, 2012
Wastelands
One of the best examples of SL landscaping I've ever seen. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hambone%20Slash/231/133/76 Read more about 'Wastelands' here: http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/places-the-warden-post-at-malady-bog-and-the-wastelands/
January 23, 2012
Exploring Linden Realms
Here's my January column for
AVENUE magazine
.
Out of the blue at the very beginning of December(apparently it was available to premium users previously, but where Lindenannounced this I have no clue), came a potential new paint job for Second Life®. Linden's latest idea, 'Linden Realms', is "theLab's first-ever game prototype… dodge rock monsters and fierce fireballs asyou cross deadly, toxic rivers to complete quests and cash in your crystals forLinden Dollars." What's notable is that(at the time of writing, at least) this venture is apparently so significant toLL that the Linden Realms logo currently displays on the SL home page withequal prominence to the regular SL logo, and over a full page Linden Realms poster. The newcomer to www.secondlife.com is nowshown our metaverse as consisting of cartoon style fairies, rocks and evergreens. At the moment, this is the very first thingthey see. Not wanting to be part of thatcrowd that unleashes the hounds of blogosphere fury every time Linden have theaudacity to do something to try to grow their business, however, I decided togive Linden Realms a go. The first couple of tries met with failure when I tried to followlinks from the 'Showcase' section of inworld search on Imprudence: theseclaimed to be to Linden Realms but one led to a bog standard welcome hub andthe other to an island somewhere with a red brick lighthouse and a large groupof rather confused looking avatars. Thethird attempt was via the Destinations Guide on the web site and got me to thestarting point, 'Portal Park 1', okay; but that was when I realised from theodd collection of spheres and cylinders around me that I obviously needed amesh-enabled viewer. Linden hadneglected to mention this, presumably because this whole experience is veryclearly aimed at new residents who won't yet have learned about the existenceof third party viewers, especially those not yet supporting mesh.
Attempt number four, then – this time in Firestorm – got meviewing finally Portal Park 1 and its eight gates to the first gaming area correctly. A note about the gates – and I think it'sworth spending a moment on this, since they're the first point of contactavatars actually have with 'the game': they're numbered in roman numerals inthe following sequence: 5, 7, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious,it strikes me that this sequence is frankly bonkers and likely to confuse thehell out of newbies. As an experiencedSL user, I spent nearly ten minutes camming around (newbies wouldn't have yetmastered this skill) trying to work out if these were different levels and I'dsomehow managed to miss levels one and two. In fact, each gate leads to an identical version of the game situated ondifferent islands (each island consisting of eleven sims) towards thenorth-east of the grid and it doesn't actually matter which of them you choose. None of this was obvious to the largecollection of avatars stuck in a big heap of uncertainty in the centre of thePortal Park, many of whom had disappeared by the time I decided to throwcaution to the wind and take my chances on entrance number three – and not bywalking through one of the gates.
And so to the first realm itself. Gameplay can pretty much be summarised asfollows: your guide – Tyrah – directs you from one part of the island toanother and you have to avoid such obstacles as rock monsters, fire balls,toxic water and rock falls to get there. Along the way, you can collect different coloured crystals which can betraded at 'The Portal Workshop' in quantities of 50 for Linden Dollars (50 redearned me L$1, 50 yellow earned me L$2 and 50 orange earned me L$5; hardly afortune, but for damned sure more lucrative and more entertaining thancamping). All these things are achievedvia some rather slick technology. 'Death' occurs on physical contact with beast/fireball/toxic water/fallingboulder, automatically sending you via teleport to the nearest 'resurrectioncircle'. Similarly, crystals arecollected simply by walking into them (they disintegrate on touch) and thequantity you have of each colour is recorded in a HUD which loads automatically on entry into the gamearea. The HUD – which is also where youreceive your instructions from Tyrah – is a point of interest for a number ofreasons. First of all, it loads withoutasking permission. Second, it doesn'tget stored in your inventory. Third, ifyou take it off you get automatically teleported out of the game. Fourth, when you return to the game afterleaving – minutes, hours or days later (even if you've removed the HUD in theinterim) – your crystal levels and game status are preserved. Whatever your orientation towards crystalcollecting might be, this technology has interesting potential for useelsewhere on the grid.
Each 'quest' is essentially a challenge to find/reach aparticular point on the island without dying too many times. Tyrah asks you to go check out destination A;you finally find it; Tyrah tells you, "Oh, so X is happening there. Now I want you to check out what's happeningat destination B". And so on. Avoidingthe rock monsters is initially frustratingly difficult, but gets easier onceyou realise you can outrun them if you, well, run. The rock falls also finished me off fairlyconsistently until the point where I abandoned my strategy of basically leggingit through the caves and instead used a stop-start approach to theproblem. I spent a few hours of aSaturday afternoon playing and got sent from the Base Camp to The ShatteredCavern to Banshee's Peak to Tyrah's peak and then to a toxic pool in the centreof Devil's Canyon. Along the way, I alsovisited the Sunspire Tower and its satellite platforms, where I experiencedbeing burned up "by the outer layers of an expanding star" (amazingly, theisland was not even singed by this) and later "atomised by a brokenportal". The toxic pool in the centre ofDevil's Canyon was, alas, where I finally abandoned Linden Realms, sincewhatever it was that was meant to happen there didn't and twenty minutes ofwalking around it in circles (and even managing to jump my way onto the tinyisland in the middle which I felt had tobe the intended destination) led me eventually to conclude there werebetter things to be occupying myself with on a weekend.
If all this sounds rather cynical, you might be surprised tolearn that I actually quite enjoyed Linden Realms. Simplistic as it is, the gameplay had anappeal to it that reminded me of the eight bit dodge-this-and-collect-thatcomputer games of my teenage years. It'ssimple, but it's fun. And the scenery –whilst admittedly a little like something you'd expect to see in a Disney moviefor under tens – was well designed, colourful and bold. The island had a definite atmosphere. Theexperience is immersive. Perhaps mostamazingly of all, but also most crucial of all for any sort of online gameexperience – there was practically no lag whatsoever.
I say I gave up on Linden Realms, however I do intend toreturn to that toxic pool and work out what it is that's supposed to happenthere. I also want to visit the otherrealms I've since discovered are accessible from separate Portal Parks (checkthe destination guide). Is this thestart of a new direction to my SL? Ofcourse it's not; it's just an interesting distraction. As a start to someone's SL, however, I think this idea has possibility. It's hardly a net that's going to catcheveryone's interests; nonetheless this represents an approach to one of themost difficult challenges facing SL recruitment: getting new residents immersedin the world before they tire of its uncertainty. A newbie that follows the pointers to LindenRealms as their first SL experience will actually have something structured to do instead of all that hanging aroundat the infohub, waiting for something to make sense (or, at least, for the guywith the large penis attachment to go away). The awarding of Linden Dollars is an especially cunning strategy,particularly since – at the Portal Workshop where you trade your crystals in –you're given a direct link to the Marketplace website, preloaded with a searchfor items costing between two and twenty Lindens. This is a great way of getting peopleinterested in their avatar's appearance whilst caught up in the game… and mighteven have worked as a strategy were there an area in the workshop for rezzingthe boxes when they get delivered.
Which brings me back to my earlier grumbles. As an idea, Linden Realms has potential. But it needs significant polish if it's goingto succeed in its newbie attracting objectives; at the moment there's still toomuch about it that's just confusing. Infairness, it's a new strategy and should be given time to mature, but a lot ofthese gripes are relatively easy fixes and just require a little newbieempathy. There's technology here thatI'm looking forward to seeing exploited by SL's immensely creativecommunity. And it's a good showcase formesh. Last of all, I can't help butwonder – particularly given the prominence that the venture's been given on theSL website – if this is the first step in an SL 'rebranding' that I've seensuggested in a couple of blogs. A yearfrom now, will we still be visiting 'Second Life', that world without a propername that suggests we can't cope with our existing life? Or will we be visiting just 'Linden'?
Out of the blue at the very beginning of December(apparently it was available to premium users previously, but where Lindenannounced this I have no clue), came a potential new paint job for Second Life®. Linden's latest idea, 'Linden Realms', is "theLab's first-ever game prototype… dodge rock monsters and fierce fireballs asyou cross deadly, toxic rivers to complete quests and cash in your crystals forLinden Dollars." What's notable is that(at the time of writing, at least) this venture is apparently so significant toLL that the Linden Realms logo currently displays on the SL home page withequal prominence to the regular SL logo, and over a full page Linden Realms poster. The newcomer to www.secondlife.com is nowshown our metaverse as consisting of cartoon style fairies, rocks and evergreens. At the moment, this is the very first thingthey see. Not wanting to be part of thatcrowd that unleashes the hounds of blogosphere fury every time Linden have theaudacity to do something to try to grow their business, however, I decided togive Linden Realms a go. The first couple of tries met with failure when I tried to followlinks from the 'Showcase' section of inworld search on Imprudence: theseclaimed to be to Linden Realms but one led to a bog standard welcome hub andthe other to an island somewhere with a red brick lighthouse and a large groupof rather confused looking avatars. Thethird attempt was via the Destinations Guide on the web site and got me to thestarting point, 'Portal Park 1', okay; but that was when I realised from theodd collection of spheres and cylinders around me that I obviously needed amesh-enabled viewer. Linden hadneglected to mention this, presumably because this whole experience is veryclearly aimed at new residents who won't yet have learned about the existenceof third party viewers, especially those not yet supporting mesh.
Attempt number four, then – this time in Firestorm – got meviewing finally Portal Park 1 and its eight gates to the first gaming area correctly. A note about the gates – and I think it'sworth spending a moment on this, since they're the first point of contactavatars actually have with 'the game': they're numbered in roman numerals inthe following sequence: 5, 7, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious,it strikes me that this sequence is frankly bonkers and likely to confuse thehell out of newbies. As an experiencedSL user, I spent nearly ten minutes camming around (newbies wouldn't have yetmastered this skill) trying to work out if these were different levels and I'dsomehow managed to miss levels one and two. In fact, each gate leads to an identical version of the game situated ondifferent islands (each island consisting of eleven sims) towards thenorth-east of the grid and it doesn't actually matter which of them you choose. None of this was obvious to the largecollection of avatars stuck in a big heap of uncertainty in the centre of thePortal Park, many of whom had disappeared by the time I decided to throwcaution to the wind and take my chances on entrance number three – and not bywalking through one of the gates.
And so to the first realm itself. Gameplay can pretty much be summarised asfollows: your guide – Tyrah – directs you from one part of the island toanother and you have to avoid such obstacles as rock monsters, fire balls,toxic water and rock falls to get there. Along the way, you can collect different coloured crystals which can betraded at 'The Portal Workshop' in quantities of 50 for Linden Dollars (50 redearned me L$1, 50 yellow earned me L$2 and 50 orange earned me L$5; hardly afortune, but for damned sure more lucrative and more entertaining thancamping). All these things are achievedvia some rather slick technology. 'Death' occurs on physical contact with beast/fireball/toxic water/fallingboulder, automatically sending you via teleport to the nearest 'resurrectioncircle'. Similarly, crystals arecollected simply by walking into them (they disintegrate on touch) and thequantity you have of each colour is recorded in a HUD which loads automatically on entry into the gamearea. The HUD – which is also where youreceive your instructions from Tyrah – is a point of interest for a number ofreasons. First of all, it loads withoutasking permission. Second, it doesn'tget stored in your inventory. Third, ifyou take it off you get automatically teleported out of the game. Fourth, when you return to the game afterleaving – minutes, hours or days later (even if you've removed the HUD in theinterim) – your crystal levels and game status are preserved. Whatever your orientation towards crystalcollecting might be, this technology has interesting potential for useelsewhere on the grid.
Each 'quest' is essentially a challenge to find/reach aparticular point on the island without dying too many times. Tyrah asks you to go check out destination A;you finally find it; Tyrah tells you, "Oh, so X is happening there. Now I want you to check out what's happeningat destination B". And so on. Avoidingthe rock monsters is initially frustratingly difficult, but gets easier onceyou realise you can outrun them if you, well, run. The rock falls also finished me off fairlyconsistently until the point where I abandoned my strategy of basically leggingit through the caves and instead used a stop-start approach to theproblem. I spent a few hours of aSaturday afternoon playing and got sent from the Base Camp to The ShatteredCavern to Banshee's Peak to Tyrah's peak and then to a toxic pool in the centreof Devil's Canyon. Along the way, I alsovisited the Sunspire Tower and its satellite platforms, where I experiencedbeing burned up "by the outer layers of an expanding star" (amazingly, theisland was not even singed by this) and later "atomised by a brokenportal". The toxic pool in the centre ofDevil's Canyon was, alas, where I finally abandoned Linden Realms, sincewhatever it was that was meant to happen there didn't and twenty minutes ofwalking around it in circles (and even managing to jump my way onto the tinyisland in the middle which I felt had tobe the intended destination) led me eventually to conclude there werebetter things to be occupying myself with on a weekend.
If all this sounds rather cynical, you might be surprised tolearn that I actually quite enjoyed Linden Realms. Simplistic as it is, the gameplay had anappeal to it that reminded me of the eight bit dodge-this-and-collect-thatcomputer games of my teenage years. It'ssimple, but it's fun. And the scenery –whilst admittedly a little like something you'd expect to see in a Disney moviefor under tens – was well designed, colourful and bold. The island had a definite atmosphere. Theexperience is immersive. Perhaps mostamazingly of all, but also most crucial of all for any sort of online gameexperience – there was practically no lag whatsoever.
I say I gave up on Linden Realms, however I do intend toreturn to that toxic pool and work out what it is that's supposed to happenthere. I also want to visit the otherrealms I've since discovered are accessible from separate Portal Parks (checkthe destination guide). Is this thestart of a new direction to my SL? Ofcourse it's not; it's just an interesting distraction. As a start to someone's SL, however, I think this idea has possibility. It's hardly a net that's going to catcheveryone's interests; nonetheless this represents an approach to one of themost difficult challenges facing SL recruitment: getting new residents immersedin the world before they tire of its uncertainty. A newbie that follows the pointers to LindenRealms as their first SL experience will actually have something structured to do instead of all that hanging aroundat the infohub, waiting for something to make sense (or, at least, for the guywith the large penis attachment to go away). The awarding of Linden Dollars is an especially cunning strategy,particularly since – at the Portal Workshop where you trade your crystals in –you're given a direct link to the Marketplace website, preloaded with a searchfor items costing between two and twenty Lindens. This is a great way of getting peopleinterested in their avatar's appearance whilst caught up in the game… and mighteven have worked as a strategy were there an area in the workshop for rezzingthe boxes when they get delivered.
Which brings me back to my earlier grumbles. As an idea, Linden Realms has potential. But it needs significant polish if it's goingto succeed in its newbie attracting objectives; at the moment there's still toomuch about it that's just confusing. Infairness, it's a new strategy and should be given time to mature, but a lot ofthese gripes are relatively easy fixes and just require a little newbieempathy. There's technology here thatI'm looking forward to seeing exploited by SL's immensely creativecommunity. And it's a good showcase formesh. Last of all, I can't help butwonder – particularly given the prominence that the venture's been given on theSL website – if this is the first step in an SL 'rebranding' that I've seensuggested in a couple of blogs. A yearfrom now, will we still be visiting 'Second Life', that world without a propername that suggests we can't cope with our existing life? Or will we be visiting just 'Linden'?
January 22, 2012
Your clothing is still downloading... now available in Kindle format
Today, I converted my latest novel, 'Your clothing is still downloading', to ebook format via Smashwords. It is available in all major ebook formats, including ePub and Kindle.
For a limited period, the smashwords ebooks for this title will be free. I'm going to be increasing the cost to $0.99 at some point over the next few weeks to co-ordinate with the ebooks I'll be creating and selling via Amazon ($0.99 is the lowest price you can set for a book at Amazon, I've discovered today). So, if you're an ebook reader, grab your copy ASAP!
Head over to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/125651 to get your copy. You'll need to connect your Kindle to your computer in order to transfer the book (fiddly, I know; hence my decision to sort out distribution via Amazon). Whilst you're there, check out my other titles, all of which are priced $0.99 (except for 'AFK', which is free).
For a limited period, the smashwords ebooks for this title will be free. I'm going to be increasing the cost to $0.99 at some point over the next few weeks to co-ordinate with the ebooks I'll be creating and selling via Amazon ($0.99 is the lowest price you can set for a book at Amazon, I've discovered today). So, if you're an ebook reader, grab your copy ASAP!
Head over to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/125651 to get your copy. You'll need to connect your Kindle to your computer in order to transfer the book (fiddly, I know; hence my decision to sort out distribution via Amazon). Whilst you're there, check out my other titles, all of which are priced $0.99 (except for 'AFK', which is free).
January 21, 2012
Your clothing is still downloading... Chapter 11 reading
I've re-recorded and uploaded to YouTube the reading I did last night of chapter 11 of my new novel, 'Your clothing is still downloading', so if you missed it you can catch up here. Why chapter 11? It's a self-contained story in which Gerry, the main character in the novel, recalls the first time he met an SL lover in RL. Enjoy!
