How to use this Page

A while back I mentioned that I was exploring Second Life, a virtual world created by Linden Lab, and its users. Joan Kremer is an author who has not only found paying work in Second Life, but has also co-founded Story Mountain Center, a virtual hangout for writers.

In real life (RL), Joan is a professional nonfiction writer as well as co-founder and editor of the online literary journal, Cezanne’s Carrot. You can find out more about Joan at JoanKremer.com. And do check out her blog, Writers In The (Virtual) Sky for info about writers and virtual worlds.

I recently interviewed Alas Zerbino (Joan’s avatar name) about her experiences on Second Life. Appropriately, the interview took place in Story Mountain Center in SL.

How long have you been on Second Life?

Almost a year — my “rez date” is 2/20/08. I first heard about SL in a training industry magazine. The not-yet-declared recession was affecting my business (corporate training), and I was looking for ways to expand.
I was reading a magazine, and the writer talked about all the corporate training going on in SL. I decided to check it out.

What was your first experience like? Did you like it right away?

Yes, I loved it — though I had a hard time getting my head around it for the longest time. I actually didn’t get to the training venues mentioned in that article because I was so enthralled by everything else here.

It was something I’d never experienced before (I’m not even a video gamer), so I was just exploring for a while. Somehow or other, I ended up on Cookie Island at the INKsters location and realized there were WRITERS here!!

So then I started checking out all of the groups and locations on the SL Search to see what was here. It was a lot!

A few days after I’d first come in-world, I happened to meet this avatar also strolling around INKsters. We got to talking, discovered we were both writers, became great friends, and from that came our desire to build our own writers’ center.

Story Mountain was actually Clarissa Tolsen’s idea (Inkygirl note: Cynthia Struloeff in real life) — she’s an award-winning short story writer and teaches creative writing at the university level. Between the two of us, we expanded the initial vision into something more, and have more plans not yet implemented.

It just so happened that about the time we were envisioning Story Mountain, another author we’d gotten to know (Cybergrrl Oh in SL, Aliza Sherman in RL) had the chance to buy all of Athena Isle (she rented a piece of it at the time) and asked us and the other women owners here now to go in on it with her and create an island that supports women’s endeavors in whatever form they show up. So we eagerly joined in and bought this sixth of the island.

Do you get many writers coming to Story Mountain Lodge?

Yes, actually! Even when we’re not offering any programs. I’ve met a lot of writers who just wandered in here. They found it on SL’s Search function.

I notice you’re putting together an overall calendar of SL writer-related events and activities. What inspired you to do that?

That was one of our visions for Story Mountain from the beginning. Both Clarissa and I were amazed at all of the resources for writers here, but didn’t like how hard it was to find them all over. We wanted, from the beginning, to have Story Mountain be a resource for all writing resources possible in SL.

We started with a “vendor” downstairs that shows a lot of writing groups here (though there are more that need to be added). We talked about how to collate all the events, too, but it wasn’t until I explored Google calendar more that I realized I could put anything on a Google calendar and feed it into Second Life.

I actually started checking into that because *I* wanted a single calendar I could check to see what was going on any given day (I wasn’t organized enough to transfer events to my personal calendar — LOL).

Then I found the calendar downstairs that can display Google’s calendars, and I figured that was the answer. So, I went through all of my writers’ groups and notecards (I have everything I’ve received since I joined SL — I’m a terrible pack rat) and I started adding them to the Google calendar. When I was pretty sure I didn’t have a lot of mistakes, I announced it online and set up the feed for Story Mountain.

It’s still not complete, and I’ve notified all the avatars I know who organize events/resources for writers, asking them if they want to participate.
Those who wish to can also ask me for admin access to the calendar so they can update it themselves. The response has been quite favorable.

How much time do you spend on SL?

Oy! Hard question — a lot, and yet not enough!

A few months ago, I was hired as the official blogger for another SL installation — The Learning Experience — and that’s taken a lot of my SL time, especially since I had to spend time getting to know that place (which is huge).

So I probably spend 20 hours a week working in SL for that blog. My time in here fluctuates with what’s happening in the real world, too.

The holidays kept me out of here way too much!!! LOL So now I can spend more time enhancing the work I’ve started here at Story Mountain.

Wow, so you got that blogging assignment through Second Life? That’s great! Did you approach them, or did they approach you?

They approached me, actually. It’s a neat story…

As a writer, I’ve known for a while that blogging was becoming more important, so when I saw a blogging class advertised in Second Life, I checked it out.
The teacher was Kitviel Silberberg, who in RL is a well-known blogger, among other things.

He really “harped” on having a focus for your blog, which I sure didn’t have at the time. In fact, my first blog idea he pretty much laughed at.
It was while I was taking that class, that The Writer Magazine finally got back to me with its decision that an article about Second Life didn’t fit their editorial needs.

At first I was a little ticked off — not because they rejected my story, but because they rejected the notion of SL as a great writers’ resource. So I was sitting in that blogging class musing about that, when the idea came to me — OK, I’ll write about SL writing resources on my own blog! Which was great because then I could write whatever I wanted!!

So I put together the blog, and this time my teacher loved it!! Months later, he contacted me because he was setting up the blog for The Learning Experience and wanted to know if I’d be the blogger. For pay, no less!!

What a wonderful story —- thanks so much for sharing it. How else has Second Life helped you as a writer?

Lots of ways. First of all, I’ve gotten to meet so many writers — including published book authors — personally. In this era, making connections (”networking”) with others in the industry helps tremendously for marketing your publications.

Second, a lot of those authors I’ve met in very small, informal discussions here and have learned a lot about their journey to success, as well as great writing tips.

The biggest thing, I think, is that it’s motivated me to write a lot more than I had been doing!! Because of INKsters’ daily prompt contests and the open mics, I’ve done a lot more writing since coming into SL.

After going through my stash of existing short pieces for the open mics, for example, I had to start coming up with something new or bore everyone to tears! LOL

Plus, just hanging around with other writers (which I can’t do in my tiny town in first life) is motivating me to write. I could go on and on with specific examples, but those are the basic ways.

Some writers avoid SL because they think it would take time away from their writing and that SL offers too many non-writing distractions. How do -you- manage your time on SL?

It’s funny, but the things that take me away from writing in SL are the same as those in RL. As I said, I’ve never had an interest in video gaming, so I’m fortunate that one of the few addictions I DON’T have is an obsession with the games in Second Life!

I’m also “fortunate” I guess in that the recession is giving me more available time. How SL interferes with my writing time is the same as anything — anything and everything can distract me from putting my butt in that chair at my desk each day.

So, whether it’s reading email, watching the news, my “day job,” the bills, or Second Life distracting me, I have to make sure I hold sacred that daily writing time (which, unfortunately, I don’t always do).

That’s another thing I’ve been reminded of constantly by the authors I’ve met here — nothing can come before writing. And when I do my daily writing, I’m so energized and excited that I have more energy for everything else in life.

From my limited landowner experience, I know that owning SL land can be costly. Are you making any income from Story Mountain Lodge?

No, we’re not making any money, but then that wasn’t our intention, either.
Because we share this island, the cost is not exorbitant, and with Clarissa and I splitting it, it’s even easier to handle.

But we would like to make enough to break even eventually. That’s one reason why I took the blogging job — to help pay for Story Mountain. And Clarissa will be teaching classes here for a small fee, which should also offset some costs and her time. (She’s a FABULOUS teacher — inspiring and supportive!)

If we expanded the size of our property, we would definitely need to find a way to pay for it. Also, I’ve won a number of writing contests here in SL, which has also offset Story Mountain’s costs.

What kind of classes will Clarissa be teaching?

She teaches literary fiction writing, which is different from other writing classes that I’ve found in SL. She uses the same materials she uses for her university classes, but without the grading!!

She’s taught one intro to fiction class, and is planning intermediate and advanced literary fiction writing classes, plus some theory classes.

She also is talking with several poets she knows about them teaching poetry writing classes. And a published nonfiction author I know is planning a course in writing nonfiction.

We want to provide serious writers with serious writing classes — and support groups, too.

That sounds fantastic! SL seems like an ideal venue for virtual education, from what I can see. It’s certainly more personal than doing it by e-mail or plain text chat. Would you be open to hiring other writers to teach classes in the future?

It IS great for virtual education — and there’s plenty of academic research that’s backing up that claim. And YES, we’d LOVE to have other writers teach classes here!

We’ve had to put that on the back burner for other projects, but anyone who wants to teach a writing class here should definitely contact one of us!

One of the things we agreed to early on was to build Story Mountain at a rate that wouldn’t mess up our writing and our real-world lives.

Another thing I want to get going on fairly soon is to set up writing groups here — for support and critiques, like in first life. A lot of people are interested — especially those like me who live far from metro areas that have writing groups.

Do you have any current writing projects you’d like to talk about?

One thing that’s connected with SL is the novel I drafted during NaNoWriMo this year. It was because of the support group for NaNo in SL that I got excited about doing it (my first NaNo) — and then was able to complete it.

So now I’m starting the process of developing the next draft. The story itself has nothing to do with SL — it’s just the support I’ve gotten here that’s helpful.

I have one completed novel (on its nth draft), which I’ve yet to send out to the “world,” but I may just put that on hold for a while — call it my apprentice novel.

There are also several great literary magazines in-world that I’ve got story ideas for, including some that are set in SL. Also, I’m co-editor of an online literary journal that publishes literary fiction in the “magical realism and beyond” genre, and I’ve met writers in-world whom I’ve encouraged to submit stories.

What advice do you have for writers who are thinking about trying Second Life?

First read my blog! LOL

Seriously, one of the focuses of that blog is helping writers new in Second Life. But basically, my advice is:

1) leave orientation island as soon as possible.

2) get all the help you can from places like NCI Island for getting around in SL.

3) join as many of the writers groups in SL as you can — that’s how you learn about events, meet other writers, find the places writers hang out, and so on.