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Borden Milk books Selena Gomez (for a birthday bash celebrating 70 years of mascot Elsie the Cow and Selena's record launch. Plus PBR sales spike with younger drinkers as the "ironic downscale chic" choice)  (MediaPost, reg. required) (Ad Age, reg.... Read the rest of this post

I can’t be self-promotional all alone here, people. I need your help! Vote for meeeee!

My proposal is up for voting right now on the South By Southwest Interactive Panel Picker. It’s a geek frenzy over there. Vote early and often.

VOTE HERE (login required)

Panel Proposal:

Video Game Research: Failing Our Way to Victory

Users are weird. They tell you one thing and do another. They click everywhere and read nothing. Erica Firment, a User Experience designer for Linden Lab/Second Life, chronicles fast and effective ways to make your software suck less by spending a few hours watching users fail.

1. How can video games win by watching their players fail?
2. What is video game user research?
3. What do you mean by “watch users fail?”
4. Can’t I just send out a survey? (NO!)
5. Why are 3D world interfaces hard to design?
6. What are some things in Second Life that got better by watching users fail?
7. How does Second Life collect information?
8. Why should developers and product managers invest in user research?
9. What are some easy ways for me to do user research?
10. What are some cheap ways for me to do user research?

Deidre will be chatting in the Second Life Author Salon on Wednesday, August 19th @ 9pm ET. This isn't like the chats you're used to! In Second Life you can create a free 3-D avatar and "sit" by the fireside as you chat with friends or shop the latest fashions in the virtual mall. It's a lot of fun (and a little bit addicting ;)).

To make it even more interesting Deidre is running a contest for those that attend the chat. All you have to do to win a $30 Borders gift card and a signed copy of RED FIRE and RED KISS is email the color of the dress Deidre was wearing in the chat to contests @ deidreknight.com (remove the spaces in the email addy). So that means you have to come to find out!!*

It's easy peasy to sign onto SecondLife.com and create your free avatar. Once you have finished your masterpiece, simply click on this link to enter the chat room: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Book%20Island/202/47/23/

For more details on attending the Author Salon, click here to visit the moderator's website: http://www.melissamayhue.com/Page9.html

What: Author Chat w/ Deidre Knight

When: Wednesday, August 19th @ 9pm ET

Where: Second Life Author Salon

How to Chat: Visit SecondLife.com and create your free custom avatar if you don't have one already! Next, click this address to enter the chat room location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Book%20Island/202/47/23/ See you there!

If you have any questions about this event, please email admin @ deidreknight.com (remove spaces in email addy).

*The contest will run until Sunday, August 23rd at midnight, and the winner will be notified via email.

CW cuts off 'Privileged,' 'Gossip Girl' spin-off (maybe little rich girls are going out of style? On tap instead: twentysomethings and vampires in the "Melrose Place" remake, and "Vampire Diaries." Also, GG star Chace Crawford signs on for the... Read the rest of this post

Inkygirl Haven For Children’s Writers & Illustrators will be hosting a critique circle for children’s writers at 8 pm EST tonight (5 pm SLT), moderated by author Kristen Darbyshire. Get your writing critiqued in a supportive atmosphere! Max 5 pages per participant.

If you’re new to Second Life, I strongly recommend that you show up earlier to familiarize yourself with the interface. You can find tutorials and tips for newcomers on the Second Life Support page.

Location of critique circle:
Inkygirl Haven For Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
(http://tr.im/kidlit)

Hope to see some of you there!

When I first began investigating writers’ resources on Second Life, Jilly Kidd’s name seemed to be everywhere. In addition to running the Written Word group with Hastings Bournemouth, Jilly is involved with an astonishing number of other literary-related projects.

How does she do it? Read on to find out…

In RL, Jilly Kidd is known as Adele Ward, and is a poet and fiction editor. Her first full collection Never-Never Land was launched by Bluechrome Publishing, and she’s working on a novel.

Adele says she has always worked in writing, mainly as a journalist, and her MA in Creative Writing qualifies her to teach as well. “I have taught workshops in real life and we’ll be having more workshops on Second Life this year. I’m extremely passionate about writing and ran a free online workshop before coming on to Second Life - it’s still going on http://www.communigate.co.uk/london/justpoets . Apart from Never-Never Land I also published a book of non fiction and had 14 poems in an anthology called Bedford Square published by John Murray. I still work as a journalist as well as fiction editor, proofreader, and will be teaching writing courses in RL too.”

Q. How did you get involved with Second Life?

I had just started writing my novel and had a set schedule (I usually set 3 hours per day to write), when I went ice skating at Christmas and broke my wrist. It was a bad break and I was too uncomfortable to continue with the novel so I went on to Second Life while at home getting better.

I had seen it on television and heard writers used it, but when I came on two years ago there was very little for writers apart from the wonderful Blue Angel poets’ dive and open mic run by Persephone Phoenix. I’m a real writing fanatic so I can’t help setting up writing projects anywhere I go.

Q. How much time do you spend on Second Life each week, on average?

This really varies depending on whether I’m setting something up or at a stage when things are ticking along nicely. When setting the project up from scratch it took a ridiculous amount of time - like full-time work really and you need to be on during the night to talk to people from the other side of the world. It also takes a massive amount of time and effort to get an area going and to attract people to events. The moment you stop an area dies very quickly. I think people would only do it if they have a passion and also if something has made them take time out of their normal work, like my accident.

Now that the project has been set up I still need to keep adding completely new services or people would get bored, but it doesn’t take too much time unless we have a major event like our Autumn Writers’ Exhibition which gives free display space to 100 or more writers. During big events it becomes full-time again. And sometimes I use SL to write in company, sitting with my co-organiser Hastings Bournemouth while we both work on our novels using Word. In fact I often leave SL on in the background, just as I leave Skype and email visible, while I get on with my writing. So I don’t really consider it time spent ‘in Second Life’.

To me it’s a website that works well with all the others I use while I’m online and writing. Unlike the other websites SL has a fantastic level of interactivity because we can use voice, and having avatars in a 3D venue helps us feel we are together. The feeling is very similar to a RL meeting and I can’t really get that anywhere else online for open mics, workshops and discussions. I think it’s very important for people to keep reminding themselves that it’s just a website like the others, though, and not become addicted to it.

It’s probably also important to know it’s not as easy as it looks for people thinking of setting up projects or business activities - it takes so much time and effort that it probably isn’t worth it unless they can link into already successful groups and avoid duplicating effort. It’s expensive to organise an area too, really, even though we were given the land free seeing as I do so much for writers.

I still need to take time off my paid work to do it and have lost out financially because of that. For non-organisers it’s great value though as they can get so much for free that would cost in RL - we give publishers and writers free space, promote authors for free in various ways including the bookstores and televised Meet an Author show.

The workshops would also be expensive but we never charge writers, and there’s a culture of providing these things free on SL. A lot of people want to organise an area and that’s when it gets very hard to attract traffic and time consuming to get it going, find loads of people copy all your new ideas so you then have to keep developing something else - it’s never-ending so I suppose you also have to really enjoy it and find ways to do it and keep enough time for paid work off SL.

You can see how London School of Journalism made a success of coming on to SL on http://www.publishingtalk.eu/blog - the secret really is linking into groups and activities that are already running well and have large group membership and good traffic. Not duplicating effort in other words. Not feeling you need to compete - we will mutually help on SL.

Q. What has your SL workshop response been like?

We’re setting up workshops in response to our members asking for them. They won’t only be in SL. SL will be used for the interactivity of being able to sit in a room and talk or text with other group members. In addition there will be Google blogs which are only available to members of each workshop where they can post writing and give feedback. I also give critique.

We are limiting the numbers in workshops so that people won’t have to wait too many weeks to get their writing critiqued. It isn’t really a question of what the response is like. I’m choosing people who we have seen participating at other events and who we know would be good members of a workshop. Each time there are enough people who can be trusted to commit to a workshop and to participate well in critique we canset up another workshop.

Q. What kind of writing courses will you be teaching in RL?

I’m qualified to teach creative writing to postgraduate level and I’m on the tutor list with two reputable colleges to teach on BA level courses. I’m waiting for a group to become free for me to teach - either when a tutor leaves or if the courses expand. I have also taught local poetry workshops.

Q. Did you take to Second Life right away? Or was there an adjustment
period?

I don’t normally get involved in computer games but I didn’t find it hard to learn how to use SL. I had expected to find more for writers on SL when I joined because that had been my reason for coming on, and luckily somebody told me about The Blue Angel Poets’ Dive. As I remember it was hard to find places and people I had anything in common with, but within a couple of weeks people had shown me how to use Search and how to join the right groups. I could easily have left if people hadn’t helped me.

Q. Do you mainly promote online? Or do you do much promoting of your SL
projects in RL?

I see it all as RL, with SL as one of my whole network of regular websites. It’s particularly easy to promote activities using the SL facilities like Events Search, sending group notices and group IM invitations. This also makes it difficult as all the other venues are also busy promoting their events just as much. I do promote the events on other websites that would be called RL ones.

I write about our activities on the Open University Website, on Facebook, on my own author blog, and on my Just Poets website where I’ve been running a free online workshop for years. The Meet an Author show is on the Treet TV website and that’s mainly watched as an online broadcast by people who may or may not be SL users. The authors on Meet an Author are all published so the show is promoted by the authors on their various websites and social networks, and also by the publishers.

Some major institutions, like the London School of Journalism, recommend us on their website. The articles I write for Publishing Talk (which is read by the national media and publishers) also bring a lot of interest to our area.

Q. That Autumn Writers’ Exhibition sounds amazing. How would a writer apply for display space?

We promote the Autumn Writers’ Exhibition very heavily in the months leading up to it and people can apply directly to me and Hastings or apply on our website. We manage to fit everyone in.

Q. How did you and Hastings start working together?

Hastings heard about the project I was working on for writers when I had been on SL for about 6 months. He came and took a booth to work on a novel he was writing. We got on well straight away, and although I had to move around a few times to finally get the right place to develop the project we were in touch and I asked him to come and help.

Q. Wow, you got your land free? How did that happen?

Well there’s no such thing as a free lunch as they say. I started being offered free space quite early on because I was so keen to work at developing writing projects and because I was doing it as a volunteer. Obviously this brings traffic and can also be used to attract tenants to a sim. So it’s really important when working as a volunteer and being given free space in return that you check you aren’t being used as free help to develop a business, which will probably make you redundant at some point.

I had a few bad experiences and thought my work trying to develop a good writing project would all have been time wasted, but when Thinkerer Melville bought Cookie Island and wanted to use it for creative and artistic activities he called me over to offer me the area for writers. I needed someone to help and that’s when I invited Hastings.

I also have space on two other islands, the Joysco and the London School of Journalism, and both were given because the owners knew of the work I do for writers and that I don’t charge. I’m happy to bring traffic to these areas, and in return the land is provided free.

In addition, I also have land on Broadway Live Island and have just been offered free space on the new Treet TV islands.

Q. It’s amazing that you are offering writers so much for free,
especially when it involves considerable time and effort on your part.

Writing is my passion and this is exactly what I’d be doing in RL too. Organising groups, readings, open mics, workshops. I have two young children so I stay in to look after them and SL lets me continue with my RL activities while staying at home as a lone parent.

Q. How do you find the right balance between time working on SL projects
and time working on your own writing?

I don’t find that a problem. I’ve always set myself targets for how much I need to write each month, and usually I also have a few hours a day set aside for writing. SL can also help with the writing because at times I’ve written a poem a week to hear it read at Sound of Poems on a Monday.

I also find it helps me write my novel if I sit with Hastings as he writes his. I also work as an editor and I get through more editing if I sit on SL and work in Word. Just being able to take a quick break to chat sometimes and then go straight back to the Word window to edit means I don’t completely leave the computer for a break.

I probably work for about twice as long while editing and the novel writing goes really well. It has all the advantages of writing and concentrating alone, but takes the edge off the isolation.

Q. Do you have any success stories to share?

It would feel unfair to claim the credit for people I’ve helped on Second Life who have gone on to get published, as I usually help them towards publication when I can see they have a highly publishable style. Although the Written Word is the overall name for the project now, I originally came on and started a group called Just Poets which had been offering a free online workshop for some years.

People on and off Second Life use that workshop and there have been successes - particularly people who have had books brought out by reputable publishers and also people who have got on to prestigious courses in creative writing and also good jobs in writing organisations. It takes about a year to have a book accepted by a publisher and another year for it to be launched, so the best Written Word writers won’t have a book out for a while yet.

There has been one major success for a writer I met and encouraged the first Spring I was on SL when I was organising the first SL Book Fair with Selina Greene of Book Island. I spotted a novelist with a fantastic crime novel there and stayed in touch with him to encourage him through the usual year of rejections and also helped him submit to another publisher.

After a year he was picked up by an agent and is due to be published by St Martin’s. I don’t think I can give the names of any writers I workshop or help towards publication without their permission, and I also think it’s right for authors to keep these things discreet. They do come back to thank me, though, which is really nice, and it’s also a great satisfaction to see them succeed.

Q. What are your upcoming projects?

With my own writing, my poetry collection Never-Never Land has just been printed so I’ll be busy with all the activities authors go through during and soon after a book launch. Magazine and broadcasting interviews, signings and things like that. I’m also being asked to teach by RL writing schools at the moment and would like to do more of that, plus guest lectures. I’m working on my second poetry collection and nearly at the end of a novel so I’ll be preparing to submit the novel to publishers.

On Second Life we will carry on with our very popular and well established events, especially the Writers’ Circle which has a big crowd reading on Wednesdays, and the Meet an Author show which is attracting interest from publishers who send authors to me.

All published authors on SL can apply to be interviewed and the interest from publishers means we have a great variety of genres coming up. We’re introducing more workshopping and the fiction workshop has now started, with face-to-face workshops weekly plus a private blog where the workshop group give each other feedback.

The idea is that writers who read at the Writers’ Circle can get together in workshops with people at a similar standard, if they want to workshop, and this can help them improve their writing. From that point I’ll advise them on how to submit their polished work to publishers, including the ones on the Written Word area.

Q. What advice do you have for writers thinking about joining Second Life?

My best advice is to come to an area like the Written Word where you can get free support and information about the writing community and activities on SL. The writers you meet there will be in the main writing groups so you can see which other ones are worth joining to get invitations to the best events.

There’s so much going on that I think it’s very important to choose the weekly events you like best and maybe concentrate on going to them. One good open mic per week will encourage you to write for it, whereas trying to go to everything will just make you spend too much time online.

You need to use SL to help and encourage your writing because trying to do too much in the virtual world leads to a feeling of ‘burn out’ when you don’t want to participate any more. Limit time online and choose your activities carefully.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Although the Written Word is the overall name of the project now I actually have a few groups which are active on the area. Just Poets is a popular group linked to the free online workshop on http://www.communigate.co.uk/london/justpoets which has been going for years, and where I help people polish their poems. The Poetry Society SL Stanza is the first virtual stanza of the RL Poetry Society in the UK, which has international members.

It’s our main poetry organisation and has a number of RL stanzas, which are groups that meet locally all over the UK and in other countries. We have a HQ for the Poetry Society SL Stanza group on the Written Word area in a Kentish Oast House building, and it links to websites which are fantastic resources for writers.

The SLociety of Authors group has all the published authors I’ve found on SL so that it’s easy to contact them and to point them out to the press or anyone else looking for published authors for articles or to invite them to read or guest lecture.

We have a very exciting event coming up. On Friday 3rd April at 10pm UK time (2pm SL time) the bestselling author Neil Strauss will be coming on to talk about survival tactics in catastrophes, followed by a quiz with multiple choice questions where the audience who get all the right answers will win a signed copy of his book.

I’ll be holding that event on the London School of Journalism sim and we’re scripting a gadget to let audience members see the questions and make their choices. Neil Strauss is published by Canongate, best known for his book ‘The Game’ and this event is inspired by his new book ‘Emergency’. We’re trying to show all the ways SL technology can by used by authors, and this event will be filmed and broadcast too. It’s all good fun!

For more info about Jilly and The Written Word, please see:
The Written Word website.

Thanks to Kristen Darbyshire for a wonderful talk last night on Second Life at the Inkygirl Haven For Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators.

Kristen used both audio and video in her talk, as well as lots of audience interaction. After giving a brief bio, she began with a reading of her new picture book, Put It On The List (which just came out from Dutton).

Then she had her young daughter read aloud from the book while Kristen turned the virtual pages of a giant version of her book in Second Life. It was fun to read the text comments from people during the reading as well as during Kristen’s talk.

Several people showed up near the end of or after the talk; they had been unable to get away from meetings, etc. in order to attend. I tried to greet each one as they arrived outside the building and to update them; though my body was still in the chat, I used the camera controls to zoom out to see who had arrived.

An experienced SL-er, Kristen also did a slide show as she described the process of how she got her book published, using a rotating floating cube to display her images. Afterward a Q&A session, Kristen showed people her virtual office on the second floor of Inkygirl Haven.

Many thanks to Kristen for a fun and informative session!

Feel free to visit the Inkygirl Haven For Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators on Second Life. You can find out more about Kristen and her work at Kdarbyshire.com.

Don’t forget about the chat with Kristen Darbyshire tonight on Second Life at the Inkygirl Haven For Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators at 8 pm EST (5 pm Second Life time)! Anyone interested in writing or illustrating for young people is welcome; this might also be a good opportunity for meeting other children’s book writers/illustrators on SL as well as checking out Inkygirl Haven.

If you’ve never been on SL before, I strongly recommend that you sign up at least an hour in advance so you have a chance to get used to the interface.

Highly recommended (before you sign up):
Joan Kremer’s Guide For Writers About Second Life

Chat with Kristen Darbyshire tonight:

URL: http://tinyurl.com/kidlit
Date: Monday, March 23rd
Time: 8 pm EST (5 pm Second Life time)

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.

appy news! I was invited to be a panelist at the South by Southwest Interactive conference next month, as part of their ScreenBurn track. I’m on a panel called “Funologists live and in person: Guerilla Game Research.”

I’ll share my experience starting some low-budget user research cycles for Second Life, and my work translating those frustrating observations into shippable engineering requirements.

There will be pretty pictures, and possibly cake.

The cake is a lie, but you should stop by anyway. There could be cake.

There certainly won’t be cake and not cake. Not at the same time, I can assure you.

In which I write about my evening as though it appeared in a social column:

Librarians-turned-Software-Goons Sarah Dilling and Erica Olsen spent the evening discussing religion, the raising of rhetorically skilled children, and workplace mentoring this evening over mojitos at local bistro Luna Park. Rumor has it that the field of software development pays more than *twice* that of Librarianship, and offers larger amounts of free food. Where will this double dose of database-discussing debutantes appear next?

took a stab at writing a Wikipedia stub on one of my favorite Second Life locations, Caledon, the steampunk/Victorian sim. I’m a Wikipedia n00b, and my stub got flagged for deletion (rightly) due to a lack of notable references.

Any of you SL-lovin’ librarians out there wanna take a crack at improving it?

Link to deletion discussion

Notability guidelines

Link to Caledon Stub (fictional places???)

I visited my local Bernal Heights library branch this afternoon, in search of a place to sit and read. It turned out to be one of the last weeks the building is open before it closes for an extensive renovation. On a kid-filled sunny spring Saturday, the current building gives the impression of being a community center rather than a library, with more conversations, computers, and chaos than visible books.

I’m looking forward to the new design. The neighborhood obviously is drawn to the location, which swirls with families out walking dogs and babies.

— — — —

Things I’m currently researching…

• Wedding venues in the Detroit area that are:
  • Non-religious
  • Interesting-looking or unusual
  • Cheap, cheap, cheap!
• Things to do in Brighton, UK
• Search Engine Optimization
• Cat grooming (did you know you can use baby powder to make your cat less itchy?)
• Better WordPress plugins (I’m playing with a new Twitter sidebar)
• Management jobs in SF for my sweetie Chuck this summer

With the recent news of Yahoo’s potential acquisition by vile Microsoft and its prior layoff of 1000 hardworking geeks, there was a bit of an air of piracy in the office last week.

Linden Lab is going into another round of recruitment, focusing on web developers, QA folk, and other nerdy types. If any web developers out there (you, yes, YOU Joy!) want to work in a more stable, hilarious, and weird environment, you might want to fill out an application to work at Second Life. Free beer, the Love Machine, and a frightening amount of RockBand can all be yours!

Linden seems to be where the socially-developed nerds go to work. There’s a much larger % of women, extroverts, parents, and charmers working at Linden than is considered industry standard. Which means you tend to not find yourself in conversations with dudes who can’t make eye contact with a girl, or folks who get REALLY EMOTIONAL about their code.

It’s good to be a god, too, even if it’s only in-world. You can read more about our wickedcool office culture in the Tao of Linden.