huckleberryhax.blogspot.com

The approach of artificial people

2012-02-15T11:14:00.000Z

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.

60 months of Huck

2012-02-15T00:19:00.000Z

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!

All novels now available from Amazon in Kindle format

2012-02-10T10:42:00.001Z

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.

Nordan Art: Interview with Flora Nordenskiold

2012-02-05T13:11:00.000Z

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.

Wastelands

2012-01-24T22:59:00.001Z

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/

Exploring Linden Realms

2012-01-23T23:34:00.000Z

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’?

Your clothing is still downloading... now available in Kindle format

2012-01-22T23:40:00.000Z

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).

Your clothing is still downloading... Chapter 11 reading

2012-01-21T23:45:00.000Z

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!

Your clothing is still downloading (2012) by Huckleberry Hax

2012-01-21T00:08:00.000Z

Did the internet, I asked myself, really expose hidden, but pre-existing identity? Or did it create brand new identity that would never have happened without it? Or was its ultimate function just to take whatever identity you'd managed to build and to tear it into tiny, unexaminable pieces? Was Benjamin Burton just an evolution of his younger self – the guy I'd met at university who'd once told me he regarded marital fidelity as one of the most important pillars to the meaning of life – or was that man no longer in existence, replaced by a new human being who only happened to share a few of his memories?

What's a guy to do when his best friend asks him to impersonate him for an evening in Second Life? What if the person he wants fooling is his wife? And what if the impersonator has fallen in love with her before the week is over?

Available formats

Paperback: £8.99 Ebook: Free
PDF: Free Online (Flash): Free

Listen to Huck read chapter 11 here.

I would be delighted to hear your comments on 'Your clothing is still downloading', if you have read it. If you would like to give feedback, please leave it as a comment to this post (anonymous posting is enabled; you do not have to sign in to anything in order to leave a comment). Ratings/reviews on Smashwords and/or Lulu if you've bought ebook or print versions also help me enormously.

Connectives

2012-01-20T22:12:00.000Z

As Michael Rosen is currently pointing out, ten and eleven year olds in the UK are currently entering into SATs revision. I say 'entering into'... in fact, their whole educational life thus far has been in preparation for taking these tests. 'Literacy' has become about the analysis of short exerpts of other people's writing and the learning of rules and syntax. And we wonder why people are scared of writing...

Here's a poem I wrote almost exactly a year ago.

Connectives
by Huckleberry Hax

He has homework about connectives. *Connectives*.
He has to lay them out in a table. Time connectives,
additional connectives. Causal connectives. And I
have to bite my tongue so that I don't say, "What
the FUCK do they think they're doing? Instead, I say to him,
"This is boring, right?" and he nods. And shrugs, says,
"Still, it's got to be done." I say, "When was the last time
you got to write a story?" "Write a story?" he asks.
"A story," I repeat. Just to write one out." "Well,
we never get to do that," he replies, "not ever." "Not
*ever*?" "Not ever," he replies. "Sometimes we get to
write a plan for one. Or to describe a story character."

I despair. I want to scream. And he finishes his table
and starts work on the non-fiction paragraph they've
prepared with spaces for connectives to be inserted.
Literature will one day die because of the strangulation
of that which can be efficiently measured. How's that for
a connective, you bastards?

(c) Huckleberry Hax
23/01/2011

Your Clothing is Still Downloading: Launch event

2012-01-18T17:27:00.001Z

This Friday (20 Jan), I'll be making the PDF and Issu versions of 'Your Clothing is Still Downloading' available for free, and the paperback version available for purchase from lulu.com. A Kindle version will follow.

To celebrate this, the launch of my sixth novel under the name Huckleberry Hax (and the fourth to be set in SL), I'll be holding an event at my venue, the Nancy Redgrave Building. If you're free at 4pm SLT and fancy finding out about the novel, I'll be reading an excerpt from the book, a self contained chapter in which the protagonist recalls a real life meeting with his Second Life lover.

The Nancy Redgrave Building can be found here.

UPDATE

Thank you to all who came, listened to the end and gave such lovely feedback. The novel is now online and can be found here. I've also re-recorded the reading and posted it on YouTube. Picture below by Taralyn Gravois.

A Modern Lover

2012-01-12T19:59:00.000Z

I'll be reading 'A Modern Lover', a short story by D H Lawrence (which you can read online in advance here), on Saturday 14 January at 3pm at Nordan Art. Hope to see you there, and be sure to spend a little time following the reading looking at some of the wonderful exhibits. The current exhibition, which runs until 23 January, features work from Alizarin Goldflake, Piedra Lubitsch, Robin Moore, romy Nayar, Scottius Polke and Stephen Venkman.

UPDATE

This was a really great event, attended by more people than I'd expected. At one point, the sim was full and people were unable to get in. Thanks to everyone who supported the reading, and for your lovely feedback at the end. Picture below from Flora's review.

Christmas day poems

2011-12-25T12:47:00.001Z

Happy Christmas, all. I'm in a poetry writing mood today. I'll add poems here as I write them. Let's see how many I can manage.

Forced tears
by Huckleberry Hax

When you can't cry,
squeeze your eyes tight and
cover them;
wail;
beat the table blindly.

If it helps, think of someone you loved.
Or invert your eyelids.

If nothing else works, focus
on what will happen to you
if your absence of grief is noted.

Christmas shopping
by Huckleberry Hax

On the way, a
red car cuts across me at the roundabout.
Engine over-revving, he flicks Vs at me
through the window as he passes. His
skin is white like thawing snow. His lips
make a frozen
F.

Praise
by Huckleberry Hax

To bring up at that point she did oft’ disappoint was a case of exceptionally bad timing.
To push on ahead about poems not read was a hole dug that offered no climbing.
My brother might say that the mater’s okay but a fool primes a fuse that waits priming.
In concession today, she did casually say she dislikes ‘those new poems’ which aren’t rhyming.

Your clothing is still downloading... final proof on the way

2011-12-21T23:46:00.000Z

Look at this shiny cover! The edits have been made, the final text uploaded, the cover designed and the 'OK' button clicked. Along the way I learned that when paragraphs jump themselves completely onto the next page rather than leave a line all by itself at the bottom of the previous one, this is called 'orphan control'. Yes.

The cheery email from lulu announcing the final proof paperback's postage arrived today... so I can probably expect the package within the next three weeks, what with it being seasonal and everything.

Once I'm satisfied everything's in good order, I'll probably throw a launch event: read a few extracts, flip the switch on the web page which will let you download the PDF for free, and so on. It'll probably be some time in January, so keep an eye for notices if this in any way attracts the tendrils of your interest.

On SL profiles and hate speech

2011-12-19T21:47:00.001Z

Following some recent events in SL within the literarycommunity, I would like to make clear my views on people putting prejudiced,specifically hatred inciting remarks in their profiles, my own actions inresponse to this and what I would like event hosts to consider as their ownresponse. I’m writing this as a blogentry because it’s too big to fit on my own profile; I will link to this web pagefrom there. This will also form the policyI use at any events I host and will be available as a notecard from the NancyRedgrave Building.

I define prejudice according to its Latin origin – præjudicium,or ‘prior judgment’. To be prejudicedtowards someone is to form an opinion based on a belief about a category theybelong to rather than anything specific about them. Examples of such prejudices include ‘Britishpeople are repressed’, ‘Women are bad drivers’, ‘Single mothers make poorparents’ and ‘Black people are less intelligent than white people’. This is a wide definition and incorporatesstereotyping, overt and institutionalised discrimination, and inciting hatred.

I define inciting hatred as any communication thatdisparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such asrace, colour, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, orother characteristic (this is the definition for hate speech currently in useat Wikipeadia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech).

In other words, ‘prejudice’ is the umbrella term for anybehaviour or opinion based upon a belief held about a category of people (and thebelief that this is accurate for all of its members); inciting hatred, however,is a particular example of prejudice which involves actively promoting aprejudiced belief with the aim of bringing about further prejudice from otherstowards the target. Examples of incitinghatred would include the promotion of messages such as ‘Homosexual people areevil’, “Migrant workers wish to destroy our culture’, ‘All Jews are sub-human’ and‘All Muslims wish death upon non-Muslims’.

On the web, there are many ways in which hate speech can becommunicated, including posting on internet forums and social networks,creating video content and constructing dedicated web sites. It is now fairly common for websites whichrely on user content to publish an acceptable usage policy which includesreference to inciting hatred. Forexample:

· We encourage free speech and defend everyone'sright to express unpopular points of view. But we do not permit hate speech(speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin,religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/genderidentity). – You Tube Terms of Service.

· You will not post content that: is hateful,threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphicor gratuitous violence. –Facebook Terms of Service.

· [You agree that you will not] Post, display or transmitContent that is obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwiseobjectionable. –Second Life Terms of Service.

Inworld in Second Life, hate speech can be communicatedthrough things said in public or group chat (in or out of voice), through noticessent out to groups and through information posted on your profile. It has been suggested to me by a number ofdifferent event hosts that posting comments inciting hatred on your profiledoes not represent hate speech in the same way that making comments in chatdoes and should be respected under the right to freedom of speech.

I disagree with this. If somebody comes to an event I am hosting with hate remarks on theirprofile, I will regard this as the functional equivalent of coming to an eventin real life with a placard or handing out leaflets. It is still displaying and communicating hatespeech. In the same way that web sitessuch as those mentioned earlier are at liberty to restrict the use of theirsite by users who do not conduct themselves as requested, I am at liberty as anevent host to create and enforce an acceptable behaviour policy at myevent. If you come to an event I amresponsible for with hate speech in your profile and this comes to my attention,I will ask you to remove this content for at least the duration of your stayand if you do not comply with this I will remove you from the event. I ask other event hosts to consider theadoption of a similar policy.

Let me be clear on something. I would not remove someone for just expressinga view which I considered to be prejudiced which arose as a natural part ofconversation or discussion appropriate to the event itself. I draw a clear and pragmatic line betweenopinions expressed spontaneously and the active dissemination of hatespeech. Saying, for example, as part ofa conversation, ‘Immigrants coming to this country just seem to want benefits’ –whilst a prejudiced remark – is qualitatively different from placing in yourprofile a statement such as ‘Blacks settling in Britain are committing genocideof white culture and should be sent home’. I might not agree with the former statement – and might well challengeit – but I would not ban you because of it. The latter statement is hate speech.

I believe in strength through diversity. Human beings are social creatures, evolved tolive in large groups – ‘hunter-gatherer tribes’ – and a great deal of ourpsychology (such as our need to belong) is explained by this. ‘Survival of the fittest’, therefore, meansat the group as well as the individual level. Individuals within the strongest groups would have had a better chanceof surviving long enough to pass on their genetic material. And strength in a group does not come fromevery member having the same skills or outlook or personality. Nature favours variation. It is a valid thing to relish and enjoy thetraditions and qualities of our cultures, but to take the view that theseshould evolve no further is both a denial of history and of our destiny as aspecies. ‘Nationalists’ keen on‘preserving’ their country or way of life as they see it might not recognisetheir land as it was a hundred or a thousand years ago, just as futurenationalists would probably not recognise that which exists today. Customs, culture, lifestyle and language alwayshave and always will evolve.

I will not tolerate hate speech. It is offensive and it is ignorant. If you actively promote this in SL – throughyour profile or otherwise – I am likely to mute you and I will exercise myright to not attend or perform at events you are attending (just as I would doin real life). And I will eject you fromevents I am responsible for.

Christmas and SL

2011-12-12T21:15:00.001Z

Here's my December column for AVENUE magazine.
Photography by Brie Wonder

Christmas in Secondlife® is a slightly odd thing. Land owners texture their soil in snow, homeowners erect prim Christmas trees alongside fireplaces (complete with socks hanging from the mantle), and theincreasingly complex creations of the fashion industry manifest in a month-longtrade of assorted red outfits with white and fluffy trim. It's sort of like being trapped inside aslightly sexed-up version of a Coca-Cola commercial: on the one hand a soothingand familiar experience that activates those long-ago blurred memories of theundefinable magic and naivety of Christmas; on the other, a guilty pleasure inthe incongruity between childhood innocence and adult sexuality, shortsanta-girl skirts hinting at pleasures in front of the fireplace that neveronce occurred to us on those long Christmas Eves spent in front of the windowand watching the sky.

Christmas, they say, is for children; yet there are nochildren in SL (not actual children,that is). There are, of course, otherorientations to the festival – I imagine Christians, for example, would befairly pressing in their desire to point this out to me. I'm not a Christian – atheist would be thebest word to describe me (although I can never quite escape the feeling thatsaying so is a bit like admitting membership of an extreme left-wing politicalmovement) – but I was raised one and, as a result, listening to carols is anessential part of my Christmas each year. This is a habit which might appear hypocritical, but which to me is nodifferent from enjoying a few replays of 'Last Christmas' by Wham! or Shakin' Stevens' 'Merry Christmas Everyone' (the video of which,incidentally, is one of the finest examples of seasonal insincerity I've everseen, perhaps even a masterpiece of social irony – albeit, inevitably, an unintentionalone). I just like listening to this sortof music at this time of the year. It'sa brief reaquaintance with the warm fuzziness of my long-lost childhood and theassumption buried therein that all was well with the world.

All, of course, is notwell with the world, which brings me to that other great incongruity ofChristmas: the celebration of luxury and comfort whilst others are literallydying of starvation – at a rate of one every four seconds – and those whoaren't actually in the process of dying are living in conditions that wouldrepresent the end of civilised life to most of us if we ever had to endure themourselves. But it's thanks to them andtheir low wages that phones and laptops and games consoles affordably fill ourChristmas stockings each year in such an agreeable manner. Did I say affordable? Let's not forget that Christmas alsorepresents the purchase of food and gifts which many of us actually can't afford – a phenomena not unrelated(one might even propose causally connected) to the current economical slopedown which we inescapably find ourselves slipping. Why do we do this, year after year afteryear? Because we want the dream of theperfect Christmas – the lie every seasonal commercial, every greetings card andevery yuletide movie colludes with – to be true. The failure of that dream results in thatother great incongruous Christmas tradition: the family argument.

But this isn't one of those let's-all-slag-off-Christmasarticles; I'm as happy as the next man to turn an uneasy blind eye to humaninequality during the festive period. Last year I worked for a day at a homeless shelter on Boxing Day (that's26 December to non-UK people) and I'll admit here and now that the dissonancecreated both by seeing the need of the have-nots and by being part of a toolarge group of people all competing to show the most seasonal warmth – andalongside all the regular volunteers, who must sicken of all these peopleshowing up for a measly couple of days to do their bit for their conscience –left me rather wishing I'd stayed at home and watched the Bond movie onTV. I'm quite prepared to look uponChristmas as a Good Thing, at least in theory. And this brings me back to childhood, because there's nothing wrong in achild who knows no different to experience joy. If Christmas for adults is a guilty pleasure then for children it's justa pleasure.

My most vivid memories of Christmas concern either my ownchildhood or that of other children I've known. I remember Philip, for example: the eight-year-old when I was a teacherwho was neglected by his parents to the extent that he sometimes wore adultshoes to school because no-one got him up in the morning and got himready. On the day of the Christmasfayre, Santa's grotto was being set up in the music room and I caught himsneaking in during playtime (recess) to peak through a tiny gap in the blinds,all his normal aggression and anger replaced by an expression of pure innocenceand wonder. I remember Nina, the littlegirl in Romania when I was an aid worker: Nina was so entranced by herChristmas tree she snuck back into her flat one afternoon and lit its candles,and the ensuing fire destroyed almost everything in that room. And I remember how my father used to set up a tape recorder onChristmas morning so he could record the reactions of my brother and I when wewere very small and opening the presents left by Santa. Christmas back then seemed so much lesscomplicated than it does today, a feeling that's probably been experienced byevery grown-up generation. Whilst it'scertainly true that 'the good old days' are a product more of our imaginationsthan factual historical detail, it's worth remembering that – whilst we mightover-inflate the season now withunwise and unnecessary expenditure – Christmas itself is much older than moderncommercialism and children have been entranced by it for far longer than theexistence of Apple or Sony or Nintendo.

As I mentioned last month, November marked my entry into SL;December, therefore, was my first full month in the metaverse. As a result, thoughts of Christmas in SLevoke memories for me of newness and exploring and not quite understanding theworld – an innocence of sorts, just like the innocence we all search for whenit comes to this time of year. PerhapsChristmas, then – for those of us who embrace it – is an annual attempt atcleansing ourselves of the accumulated grime of adulthood, by which I mean thecynicism, the scepticism, the entrapment in current and employment and socialaffairs; the agendas; the drama; the tangled web of modern existence – whateverthat might be. We know it's a fragilebubble; we know the real world continues outside and we'll have to reconnectwith it once we're saturated by our attempts at disengaging; we know, in fact,that the attempts themselves will be meagre and weak and hopelessly superficial– it's a bubble that could pop at any moment. But we try anyway. We try becausenot to do so would feel like giving up in some way on our souls.

If Christmas really is just about the chasing of a simpledream, SL might not be such a bad place to do it in. Thanks to the metaverse, I no longer dread somuch those Christmas parties of people connected to me by the loose threads ofemployment or geographical locale; I no longer dread so much faking jollyconversation with colleagues I can hardly stand or neighbours I barelyknow. I still do all of these things, Imight add – and consider them worthwhile things to do – but that feeling ofdull hopelessness, that feeling of vague, numb despair is pretty muchabsent. In SL, I've found meaningfulconnections and those internal questions we try not to ask ourselves at thistime of the year – Is this it? Is thisall that I essentially am? - are plaguing me less and less. The parties I go to inworld are – mostly – of people I've actually chosen to spend timewith in my life: there's no need to fake good will, for I wish it upon themalways. And feeling that way towardsdistant people I've never met somehow makes it easier to feel it towards thepeople I have to rub shoulders with in the real world. Perhaps I'm just getting older, but whateverit is that makes us wiser, makes us wiser just the same.

For all its Coca-Cola tinsel, there's something about the seasonin SL that somehow captures its essence. Christmas isn't just for children, it's for the part of us we knew bestwhen we were children ourselves – the part of us that doesn't see why weshouldn't all just get along. That voicegot drowned out by all the noise of the adult world, but the struggle torecapture it each year – if only for a fleeting moment – goes on. SL allows us to drop just a little bit moreof that everyday baggage – to cast aside a few more grams of cynicism as weenter the bubble. As with allopportunities in life, it isn't one that necessarily gets taken or even seen;but seeing it and taking it might just bring you one step closer to yourhumanity.

Your clothing is still downloading... draft print version arrives

2011-12-03T14:33:00.001Z

Lulu.com have excelled themselves. Just three days after the final words of 'Your clothing is still downloading' were written, the paperback version of the first draft has plopped through my letterbox. Time, now, to get editing with my pen. I also - as you can see - need to start thinking about a cover design...

Your clothing is still downloading... done.

2011-11-30T12:11:00.001Z

This morning, 'Your clothing is still downloading' crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line with over three thousand words to spare. I've managed to put down 53,500 words over the last month and I'm pleased with the result.

I'll be aiming to add this title to my free downloads by Christmas, with Lulu print and Smashwords ebook versions soon after. I'll be doing a speedy readthrough later today and then getting myself done a personal print version so I can proof-read it properly (I always do this better when reading from paper). Once that's done, I'll be updating the book into a second draft and getting it up online for anyone who's interested to read.

Here are the last two paragraphs of the novel. There are no major spoilers in them, but you might want to skip them if you plan on reading the full novel when it becomes available.

It occurred to me in those first few months that the story of me and Cath was always about me wanting something I had no entitlement to. Is love ever actually any different? To want a person in that way is to want them in a way that just isn't possible; however connected two people can be – whatever metaphors we concoct – they are still two people, two minds, two realities, two separate visions of the world and its meaning. You cannot ever take a person completely from their reality. But that's just the overview. On a moment-by-moment basis, the connectedness it is possible to feel is extraordinary, astonishing, unfathomable. In these moments, the impossible becomes possible; it is life's greatest illusion that they are experienced only as the exception to the rule.

Douglas Adams once wrote about a whole world parallel to our own, accessible by turning your head through the billionth part of a billionth part of a degree. Very few things are actually impossible. In most cases, it's just a question of how you're looking at them at the time.

Your clothing is still downloading... 90% update

2011-11-26T12:57:00.001Z

This is it, folks; the final stretch. Today, 'Your clothing is still downloading' passed the 90% mark of 45,000 words. Whilst I'm still well ahead of schedule (I'm expecting to pass the 50,000 word mark by Monday at the latest), there's still a fair bit of story to be told and I'm anticipating writing all the way up to the 30th and possibly a little beyond. This might well end up a 60k novel. In any case, here's the paragraph that moved me into the last 5,000 words to the NaNoWriMo goalpost.

Lying. More lying. It occurred to me that in all probability I'd juststumbled across the very plan that Ben himself was forming. “I'vetold her,” he would say, perhaps in a telephone call. “And Itold her you didn't know who she was when I introduced you. So shethinks you have no idea. I thought it through last night and decidedthis would be the best way. It's obvious, really. Think about it:the key deception involved her not knowing it was you, and that's nowout. You don't have to pretend you don't know her any more. You'refree to explore each other however you want. That's all that reallymatters. There's no reason to own up to having known before today:that would satisfy only your conscience, Gerry; that would be aboutmeeting your needs and not hers.” Yes. A white lie to the benefitof all, easily justifiable in the name of discovered happiness. Inthe months that followed, these three days would come to appear atiny misdirection, he would reason. A minuscule absence of truth ofnegligible actual consequence. Your clothing is still downloading. Others can see you normally.

Long live text

2011-11-22T16:06:00.001Z

Here's my November column for AVENUE magazine.

November marks the five year mark for me in Second Life®, although itwasn't as Huckleberry Hax that I first entered the metaverse. That avatar – born, as it happens, as a workavoidance strategy to the task of writing a fifty thousand word novel in onemonth (National Novel Writing Month, or 'NaNoWriMo,' will be well in swing bythe time you read this; either I'll be on the way to adding another hastilywritten book to my collection or exploring some other new virtual world) – islong ago retired. Needless to say, themetaverse was a different place back in those days. The thing you rezzed into broadly looked like a human beinginsofar as it had all the limbs in the right place, but that was about as faras the comparison was valid. Clotheslooked like they'd been spray-painted on by a novice graffiti artist (who wasdrunk). Hair looked like discolouredmodelling clay. And so on.

What hasn't changedin all that time is the use of text communication. Huck himself was born in the midst of thevoice beta period, during which there was a great deal of discussion about thisupcoming change to the main grid and how it would effect interaction. Opinions varied, however one view back thenwas that it would be a rubbish thing and this particular bandwagon was one Ireadily leapt aboard. To a certaindegree, I've revised very considerably my views on voice. I use it quite a bit now for such events aspoetry open mics, the weekly improvisation event I go to (Predicate, onWednesdays at 3:30pm SLT; you should go) and my own book readings. I also like to chat in voice to individualfriends occasionally. To a certaindegree, voice is now something so commonplace in SL that we don't really noticeor question it any more. But has it – asback then the proponents hoped and the objectors feared – taken over as theprimary form of communication in SL? Without doubt, it has not. Textis still the way we mostly introduce ourselves to new people and develop anyfriendships that result. It's not untilwe know someone really well that the possibility of voice becomes discussed –and there are plenty of people who don't have the inclination or desire eventhen.

In some respects, it seems a little strange that this shouldbe the case; sure – old hacks like me who were around in those pioneering,pre-voice days might find transitioning to the miracle of speaking a littlehard, inflexible Luddites that we are; but what's the problem for thenewbies? After all, it's not as thoughspeaking to someone with your voice is a particularly hard thing to do - we doit all the time in RL. There's nothingto learn and nothing to unlearn, soit should be as natural as, well, talking to someone. And Linden put a lot of work into makingvoice an immersive experience in order to facilitate exactly that – not only doyou hear avatars' voices in the stereo field according to where they're standing,but their volume decreases the further away they are from you. Just like RL talking. So why hasn't it caughton?

Well, actually, it isn't just like RL talking at all. For starters, when you're looking face on atyour avatar, the person to your left sounds in your right ear and vice versa. And, as far as volume is concerned, thisseems to be far more an outcome of other people's mic settings and quality thananything to do with their distance from you, resulting in that cheerfulflirtation with eardrum perforation that happens when you turn voice all theway up because the person to your left sounds like they're whispering in thevague direction of a microphone somewhere in the general vicinity of their zipcode and the person on your right then sneezes. And then there's the dropouts, when somebody tells you something reallyimportant (it always happens when they're telling you something reallyimportant) and the key bits are substituted with short periods of silence (or,in some cases, everything you should have just heard, but at two or three timesthe speed). In the end it's just toomuch bother.

What's also missing in the understanding of SL voiceimplementation is the simple fact that when you're talking face-to-face withpeople in RL, it's not just their voices you're paying attention to. You're also attending to all thosenon-verbals such as their facial expression, the way they're sitting orstanding, who they're looking at, what they're doing with their hands as theyspeak and – a key one here for me – whether they're keeping an eye on theirwatch whilst you talk. The absence ofall this information is something you can just about get away with in aone-to-one context (hence the success of the telephone), but it becomesincreasingly difficult to manage the more people you add in. Personally, I find group voice conversationsa nightmare. There's nearly always adominate person or pair, there's nearly always at least two out-of-syncconversations going on at the same time and there's nearly always someone who'smic's so quiet that by the time I've brought up the voice list and individuallyturned them up the conversation has somehow moved onto a different topic and mywell-constructed, frankly hilarious quip has to be thrown upon the rubbish heapof wasted effort and failed social opportunity.

Text communication, on the other hand, is a greatly morelaid back affair. Whilst it's true thatthe missing non-verbals which can make voice communication harder than expectedpractically cripple any attempt at seriousconversation in text (which is why I doprefer voice for these discussions), much of our talk in SL via this medium isactually quite light-hearted and leisurely, and is largely unaffected by thisdeficit. Paradoxically, in fact, ourconscious awareness of the limitations imposed by text have resulted in boththe creation of conventions that get around the absence of non-verbals (such assmiley faces or that RP technique of describing observable behaviours, forexample “Huckleberry Hax walks to the nearest wall and bangs his head againstit”) and the allowance of a great deal of leeway in composition, relevance andtiming.

Along the way, we've picked up some entirely new expressionsas a result of text's rule over real-time digital interaction. LOL is perhaps the most famous of these, anacronym so useful and distinct as a word in its own right that it finally gotan entry in the Oxford English Dictionary this year: "used chiefly inelectronic communications... to draw attention to a joke or humorous statement,or to express amusement". I thinkwe can do better than that. DavidMitchell, for example, in his Soapbox broadcast earlier this year defined LOLas meaning “I acknowledge that you have made a joke and wish to express myenjoyment of it,” pointing out that the alternatives - “very funny,” “ha ha,”“most amusing” - could all be taken as sarcasm. I've even had a go at defining LOL myself a few years ago in my novel,'Be Right Back': LOL – Yes, that wasindeed amusing.

I doubt I need to mention the horror expressed by theso-called language pedants at the 'official' adoption of such new words intoour languages. The point they miss, ofcourse, is that language is the thing in which we live and it lives its ownlife right beside us, evolving to meet the needs of the contexts in which it'sused and the people therein using it. Text is, of course, not the possession only of SL, but in SL we have theability to write about what we're jointly seeing or hearing – to experiencesomething in words together. As technology improves (see my columnlast month), this might end up a thing of the past. So be it. But whilst this era is upon us, we can still make it a golden.

Speaking of LOL and its associated family of laughterrelated acronyms, a few weeks ago one of my friends in SL spilled coffee on herkeyboard, resulting in the entire bottom row not working. Whilst awaiting the repair date, we had a lotof fun playing the 'guess what this is meant to say' game and one of thosemissing-letter-words ended up making it through to regular subsequentconversation: LAO (LMAO, but without the M). It's a great world to live in where one friend can make another laughthrough the typing of three letters. Ireally mean that. In these days ofincreasingly sumptuous visuals, let's not forget SL is also still a great biglanguage playground. Most importantly ofall – if for no other reason than it won't always be this way – let's notforget to play in it.

Your clothing is still downloading... 75% update

2011-11-22T08:37:00.001Z

Still two days ahead of schedule, 'Your Clothing is still downloading' passed last night the 75% completion mark of 37,500 words. This year's NaNoWriMo attempt, I will now reveal, concerns an SL/RL love triangle. Here is the section that put the novel into the final quarter of its writing.

The coupleI was watching appeared to have said absolutely nothing to each otherfor the entire duration of my brief interchange with Sarah. Thewoman had her back to me. The guy seemed to be looking at some vaguepoint over her right shoulder. Sarah's bra disappeared. She wroteabout throwing it in my direction and, dutifully, I entered a fewwords in reply. What does one do with a bra thrown at you that'switty, intelligent and slightly insecure (but not in a sexuallyunattractive way)? I wondered. I wrote that I contemplated puttingit on my head as makeshift neko ears then thought better of it because Ithought nekos looked ridiculous. Somewhere in the world, Sarah'sdriver typed in a laugh and told me she was making a mental notenever to put her tail on when I was nearby and in a tipping mood. The guy on the table I was watching said something that looked likeit contained about seven words. The woman opposite him nodded.

Your clothing is still downloading... 50% update

2011-11-13T18:41:00.001Z

Two days ahead of schedule, 'Your clothing is still downloading' passed the 50% mark of 25,000 words on its way to NaNoWriMo completion. Here's the paragraph that took it across the halfway lime.

Did theinternet, I asked myself, really expose hidden, but pre-existingidentity? Or did it create brand new identity that would never havehappened without it? Or was its ultimate function just to takewhatever identity you'd managed to build and to tear it into tiny,unexaminable pieces? Was Benjamin Burton just an evolution of hisyounger self – the guy I'd met at university who'd once told me heregarded marital fidelity as one of the most important pillars to themeaning of life – or was that man no longer in existence, replacedby a new human being who only happened to share a few of hismemories? It was hardly the case I disagreed that opinions shouldever be revised; it was hardly the case I thought that before theinternet no-one had ever come to change their mind about something –the psychological literature was replete with suggested explanationsfor that process long before the first email got sent. But thedegree and the speed and the totality of the change was overwhelming. Were we built to absorb such change? Was it possible to sustain itindefinitely? Was there a limit to how far we could travel fromourselves before we looked back at the distant shore and realised wehad no idea who we were any more?

Your clothing is still downloading... 25% update

2011-11-07T23:05:00.001Z

'Your Clothing is Still Downloading', my 4th SL novel and National Novel Writing Month attempt, passed the 25% wordage mark today. Yes, I measure my progress by quantity. Here's the passage that pushed me into the second quarter - coincidentally, the first to mention the novel's title.

Irezzed as a floating purple cloud. “Your clothing is stilldownloading,” the message box told me. “Others can still see younormally”. 'Normally' is such a vague term. If 'normally' means'not as a cloud' then presumably that could include naked. Since,realistically, naked's what most people are likely to be worriedabout when they see a message telling them their clothes haven't yetarrived, you'd think Linden would be at pains to put their mind atrest on the issue if nakedness is definitely not occurring. “Yourclothing is still downloading, but don't worry - others don't see younaked” would seem a much more appropriate statement. But no. Theabsence of non-nudity assurance strikes me as distinctly suspicious. It's like a question answered with the reply to a different question. “Your clothing is still downloading.” “Jesus Christ, am Inaked?” “What? Oh don't worry, others can see you normally.” It's like a subtle form of misdirection. Whenever I read it, I getthat back-of-the-mind feeling that someone's just tried to pickpocketme.

InWorldz Huck gets born

2011-11-06T14:33:00.000Z

Just as Second Life was originally a distraction from my first ever NaNoWriMo, it seems Inworldz has become the distraction for this year's attempt. InWorldz Huck is pleased to meet you...

UPDATE - 7 NOVEMBER

So it turns out you can transfer money from SL to InWorldz. And that Redgrave have a skin store in InWorldz. Thus ends my period of definitely-not-going-to-spend-any-money-on-my-avatar-this-timeness. I knew it wouldn't be long.

One purchase later, and InHuck is looking pretty much identical to SLHuck.

Except for one detail... a freakishly pointy chin...

It's a measure-by-measure copy of my bespoke SL shape I'm wearing (by Scarlett Rhea of Harlot, incidentally), so I'm assuming this to be some sort of InWorldz quirk.

NaNoWriMo 2011 kicks off

2011-11-01T21:48:00.000Z

1 November sees the start of National Novel Writing Month 2011, the insane 30 day dash to write a 50,000 word novel. My attempt this year will be my fourth Second Life novel and is called, "Your Clothing is Still Downloading". Here is the opening paragraph:

I was sitting in Persky's with my sixth coffee of the day and the first two lines of an ad for a price comparison website scratched out across the back of a napkin, when Benjamin Fisher – aka Maximus Manchester – fell into the seat opposite me as though dropped through a trapdoor in the ceiling. “I need you to log on as me tonight,” he said urgently. “I can't talk now, I have a train to catch in five minutes. Did you touch your coffee yet? I've not drunk a thing since eight-thirty.”

That's all for now, folks. If you fancy joining me in my writing quest, I'll be spending most of my time inworld this month in The Nancy Redgrave Building, my three year old building named last year in memory of the first person ever to read my first ever SL NaNo, AFK. I've kitted out the building for the month to be a NaNo writers' hangout, which I have no doubt Nancy would have appreciated. Here's the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Varano/65/198/1000

A night with Higgs-Boson

2011-10-30T21:21:00.000Z

A second Life ghost story for Halloween...

He stood in the doorway to my office wearing an overweightavatar, complete with sweat patches under the arms. I could almost smell him. I'll never understand why some people can'tbring themselves to recreate themselves in an manner at least broadlyapproaching pleasant; then again, some folk get their aesthetic kicks from allsorts of unlikely directions. And atleast this was a variation on the herculean lumps of meat that were the normalrepresentation of manhood to visit, either to outline to me in stumbling wordstheir suspicions of virtual infidelity or to communicate to me with fists anunhappiness at my exposure of their own. Rotherham Higgs-Boson sat down in the chair opposite – I could almosthear the sigh – and I removed my feet from the desk and put down my paper withits concealed copy of 'Avatar Housewives' inside. “What can I do for you, Mr. Higgs-Boson?” Iasked him.

“This is very hard for me, Mr Luck,” he began, apparentlypun unintentional, “You see, I'm a particle physisist.”

“Working in Rotherham, by any chance?” I enquired, alwayskeen to impress upon new clients my astonishing powers of deduction at theearliest opportunity.

“Living in Rotherham,” he replied flatly. “I work at the University of Sheffield, butthat's unimportant. The point is, I'mnot given to any sort of belief in the paranormal or any other suchnonsense.” Whilst he spilled his angstacross my desk, its woodwork already soaked in the despair of so many othersbefore him, I did a quick image search on particle physisists at Sheffield; Igot quite a few different hits, but about a quarter of them were women and ofthose remaining only one resembled Higgs-Boson and resembled him to a tee. Professor Richard Byrne. The likeness between the picture on theresearch interests page and the avatar sitting across from me was quiteremarkable. His technical ability, then,far outstripped his powers of imagination – or, at least, that was what I wasmeant to think. I made a note of that.

“But what's a scientist to do when confronted with theevidence of his own eyes?” Higgs-Boson continued. “Books moved from their shelves in themorning. Papers tipped onto the floor. The television turned on. And now this!”

“If you're talking about things that go bump in your reallife night then I should remind you that I'm a metaverse investigator,” I toldhim carefully. “Real life stuff is outof my jurisdiction. In any case, itsounds more like you should be consulting a priest rather than a detective.”

“You don't understand, Mr Luck,” he told me. “This spirit... this poltergeist... it wasone thing when it was just messing about with my physical stuff... but now it'ssomehow managed to find its way into the metaverse.”

“Tell me more,” I said, mentally ticking the 'loony' box onthe case notes for this one.

“It started happening last week. My metaverse partner asked me why I waslogging on so late at night and not responding to her IMs. The times she gave me all corresponded totimes when I was asleep in bed! At aboutthe same time, all the moving of physical objects in my house juststopped. Then, two days ago, I logged onto find my avatar looking like this!” Hepassed me a picture. Whilst it rezzed, Iwondered what was the more improbable detail of this insane story – the notionthat a spirit could log into the metaverse or the possibility that an avatarlike Higgs-Boson could somehow attract a partner. Then the self-portrait blurred into focus: ademur brunette dressed in stockings, lace panties and a tattoo that looked likesomeone had written the complete works of Harold Robbins across her taught paleskin in black crayon.

“I need you to track this person down, Mr. Luck,”Higgs-Boson told me, sending me his friendship whilst he spoke, includinglocation and object editing rights. “Find out what she wants. I can'ttalk to her myself. I don't know. Maybe I can set up an alternate account forher. Surely some sort of peacefulco-existance is possible?”

A pre-empt. It had tobe. Naughty Richard had had his sexylate-night alter-ego discovered by his girlfriend and this was the ludicrousstory he'd concocted to try to cover his tracks. Approaching me was pressumably part of hisattempt to convince her of his integrity. It never ceases to amaze me the sort of nonsense the exposed adulterercan dream up and honestly think believable. But I accepted the friendship – plus my normal downpayment (multiplied afew times by my 'bollocks factor') – and told him I'd try to make contact thatevening. Seven hours passed and finallyI saw him log off. Then another hour andnothing. Then another twenty minutes. Finally, at ten to two in the morning localtime, the little blue box announced his reappearance on the grid. I waited five minutes and teleported over tohis location.

There she was, all skin and lust. She was lying on her side on a cheap sex bedin an even cheaper motel, her arm drapped across her naked hip and her gazeupon my face from the moment I materialised. “Hey there, Richard,” I said in IM, wondering what reaction the use ofhis RL name would evoke. For an age, Iwatched the message that s/he was typing something in reply.

Finally, the message, “Take me” appeared.

“That's an awful lot of typing for just two words,” I toldher. “Ain't deception a cognitivebitch?” Another wait; even longer, thistime. Finally, she replied with, “Smallkeys. Hard.”

And then again, “Take me.”

So Rotherham Higgs-Boson became the most non-verbal fuck Iever had. No better way to get to knowsomeone, I of course reasoned. But, infact, I learned nothing at all. The nextday, I waited for the male version to show up, but waited in vain. Just before his usual log-off time, I checkedthe internet again to see if I could find out more about the real life driverof this psychopath.

“Particle physisist killed in motorway accident,” the newsitem read. In several localpublications. On the way to work thatmorning, apparently. So that wasthat. Case closed. But enough Lindens banked to cover threemonths' rent or a night out at Zeta's lapdance bar (the latter beingunquestionably the more likely expenditure), so all in all not a waste of timein the slightest.

Or so I thought. Until ten to two in the morning, when the blue box announced alogin. And did so every subsequent dayat the same time until I cancelled the friendship. Some cases are better left uninvestigated.

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-10-26T12:14:00.000+01:00

For my 100th post, here's some information on my new novel project. 'Your clothing is still downloading' is the working title for my 2011 NaNoWriMo attempt, and will be a novel set in Second Life using a similar style to 'AFK.' My NaNo attempt last year - after four successive 'wins' - didn't get past 5,000 words and my project earlier this year - 'Fatal Crosspost' - faltered at just past 20,000 words; I'm very motivated, therefore, to get a new SL novel done by the end of November! More details will follow.

Farewell sLiterary

2011-10-24T15:41:00.000+01:00

Few places in SL have shaped my inworld life as much as sLiterary, so it was with great sadness that I read this weekend of the closure of this and its neighbouring sims. sLiterary has been the home of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) - due to kick off next week - for the past four years and it was my first SL NaNo - AFK - which kick-started my identity as 'writer' in the metaverse. I wrote AFK in November 2007, checking in at the NaNo Cafe in sLiterary each day to update my word count, and the other writers I would talk to there became my first real experience of literary community. Of course, there are so many other projects based there, such as the amazing Globe theatre, but the NaNo Cafe and shrine have always had that special place in my memories; one of those places that feels like 'going back home' whenever you drop by for a visit.

I made my last such visit today and took a series of pictures of the shrine and Globe. The reasons for the closure are outlined by Ina Centaur in this blog post, so I won't go into them here. Suffice to say, it's a great loss to SL - part of the worrying trend of private sims shutting down (850 so far this year, according to this report) - and a reminder that the metaverse is no more permanent than the real world.

'A night with Higgs-Boson' - A new Hard Luck story

2011-10-24T10:55:00.001+01:00

Some of you who've heard me read might recall my short stories about Hard Luck, a Second Life private investigator (a couple of them are available in this Written Word publication). I've written a new story - 'A night with Higgs-Boson' - and will be reading it at the halloween party at Nordan Art this coming Saturday. Details can be found here.

SL Anti-bullying event this weekend

2011-10-22T13:16:00.000+01:00

An anti-bullying event is to be held at Tadd's Cabaret and Dance Club. The weekend-long event - "Be a Warrior for Jamey Weekend" - starts today and follows the recent suicide of gay teen Jamie Hubley, the latest in a long list of teenagers to take their lives after being bullied for their sexuality. For more information, see here.

Östan om Solen

2011-10-21T22:59:00.000+01:00

I've been hanging out today taking pictures (and fiddling with sky settings) at the stunning Östan om Solen exhibit by Rebeca Bashly, a two week Halloween build, beautiful, still and unnerving.

Pictures at Flickr

Mesh and other matters

2011-10-17T12:53:00.000+01:00

Here's my October column for AVENUE magazine.

At long last, Mesh is here. What seemed like a whole year of waiting (no, now that I think about it,it actually was a year) has finally come to an end and all the regions havebeen made Mesh Ready. A new, MeshEnabled viewer is available for download (version 3.0, but still called 'Viewer2' according to my start bar, presumably in accordance with Linden's quest tomake things more intuitive). As was thecase with sculpties, it'll probably be a while in Second Life® before mesh starts making the sort ofvisual impact anticipated. Unlikesculpties, there's a whole load of pre-existing mesh content – 3D models madeoriginally for reasons other than rezzing in SL – which could be importedrapidly, however for previously in-world content creators like me looking tolearn the new method now that it's actually here, be warned that the userinterface of Blender looks not at all dissimilar to the control panel of thespace shuttle.

In the meantime, there are also the new features (much under-celebrated,if you ask me) of shadows and depth of field to enjoy. Shadows is something that's been experimentedwith by third party viewers such as Phoenix and Imprudence for a while now. The results weren't at all displeasing,however inworld photographs weren't able to capture this detail – leading toall the palava of having to take and edit screen captures, and then upload themas a texture – plus there was the problem that only prims were able to cast ashadow: light was unimpeded by avatar bodies, which meant that only wornattachments projected your presence over a nearby wall on a sunny evening. In my case, this was a silhouetted hair pieceand shirt collar, and the outline of a pair of spectacles; not really the sortof dramatic detail I was after (although it could have been considerably morebizarre had genitalia been involved). But the new SL shadows work like actual shadows: not only does yourwhole avatar block light, but the transparent parts of textures let itthrough. Combine this with depth offield – an entirely new feature – and the virtual world looks suddenly utterlysumptuous. Oh yes, and prims can now bemore than ten metres long. Which I amtremendously excited about.

Already, then, SL looks completely different from how itlooked a couple of months ago and Mesh has yet to make its mark. Gazing a couple of days ago at my beach huthome in blurred evening shadows behind my avatar (and through the FirestormMesh viewer, since I'm afraid Viewer 2/3.0 doesn't work for me at all yet) Irealised that this look was very close to the sort of thing I'd kind of hopedSL would be when I first entered it nearly five years ago. In fact, putting aside the (admittedly ratherhuge) issues of lag and rez time, it's all of a sudden a little difficult toimagine what a better-than-this metaverse could look like. A hastily assembled wish list now mightinclude such entries as clothes that don't disappear inside me when I lean tothe side a little and objects that break when I drop them (don't tell me you'venever thought of this). Maybe clothesthat drip when they're wet. Maybe a newphysics engine that doesn't make physical items behave like some sort ofinebriated grasshopper when collided with. But these would all require fundamental alterations to the grid code –maybe even a complete rewrite – and all for embellishments that would be littlemore than enjoyable tweeks for us old-timers and utterly invisible to newresidents.

Is 3D gaming approaching a threshold? Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly well awarethat everything could in theory be sped up and made more detailed. A higher prim allowance was probably towardsthe top of your own wish list a few sentences ago, and without a great deal of mentaleffort. There are plenty of meaningfulimprovements which could be made, for sure, to the metaverse as it stands. But the world of 3D has taken some importantnew turns in the last couple of years and I'm curious as to how thesetechnologies could potentially converge and render our current inworldexperience obsolete. First of all,there's the success of real world movement controllers such as Microsoft Kinectand the Wii remote (Wii Tennis is still a guilty pleasure for me, although thatidiot umpire needs to get himself a pair of god-damned glasses). Secondly, there's the onward march of 'actual3D' – by which I mean stereo depth perception – across our cinema screens andtelevision sets. 3D TVs are still alittle out of reach for most of us, but economies of scale are starting to takeeffect and it probably won't be all that long before most sets include 3D asstandard, just as HD now appears to be pretty much built in to anything thatshows moving pictures.

'Actual 3D' so far has made little impact on gaming,notwithstanding the Nintendo 3DS and its rather lacklustre sales. My reckoning is that this is about to changeand will happen most significantly with the next generation of games consolesdue out over the next two to three years. It's not as though the technology doesn't exist to do something earlier,but the timing of the next gen machines coincides nicely with the fall in priceof 3D displays towards something affordable by most. Of course, we might all be living off thevegetables we have to grow in our back gardens by then if the world economycontinues on its current curve – thoughts of virtual worlds a fond and distantmemory – but that's another issue entirely.

Despite the repeated evidence of the last three decades,it's all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that today's technology isunbelievable, easy to forget how what we once thought was incredible now lookshopelessly outdated. In September, itwas announced that a ban on the sale of 'Doom' to teenagers had been lifted inGermany, 17 years after it was put in place (and 18 years after the game wasinitially released). Doom was onceincredible. Not the actual first 3D environment to grace a computer screen – I can still remember 3D Monster maze onthe Sinclair ZX81 thirty years ago (and I probably shouldn't have admitted tothat) – but the first, perhaps, to produce a collective gasp of suchmagnitude. Now, it looks archaic. The German decision on its unbanning wasrationalised with the explanation that a game as old and chunky as this was nowlikely to be only of “historicalinterest” to gamers. Presumably their belief is that any game inthis day and age that doesn't show high resolution internal organs explodingwhenever a bad guy takes a round from the player's machine gun is about asharmless as Jerry the mouse sticking Tom cat's tail into a nearby wallsocket. It wasn't at all a decisionbased on 'not 3D 3D' being old in and of itself – of course it wasn't. But perhaps this step is also the first rungon the ladder for the genre's transition to the IT attic, that dusty placewhere we store such memorabilia as 3.5 inch floppy disks, cathode ray tubemonitors and pretty much anything that plugged into the parallel printer port.

Enticing as an 'actual 3D' SL on your TV might sound(perhaps with your RL movement mapped onto that of your avatar), this wouldstill be a window into a world you're not part of. I can imagine this enticing more people tothe metaverse, but would it be enough to make the experience so immersivelyspectacular it attracted the sort of numbers seen by Facebook? SL, after all, is not a 3D gamingenvironment: it's a 3D social networking environment and therein lies itspotential mass appeal. At about the sametime that Doom got unbanned, Sony demonstrated a new virtual reality headset tobe sold for the PS3 (http://goo.gl/5a6FH), a pair of glasses that places a tinyscreen in front of each eye. At $600each, these are probably unlikely to fly from the shelves (in any case, they'llonly be on sale in Japan); it's a new, expensive and probably imperfect step inthe next direction. But just imagine thepossibilities if this technology ever got joined to SL: a turn of your head tothe right and you'd be looking at the person next to you; you would be insideSL rather than looking into it; a non-windowed world of people and places, andno need to pick up any sort of gun in order to enter it. Now thatmight be something of interest to the masses.

Which all might feel inthe here and now such a terribly long way away. But just think: five years ago, you couldn't even get a prim bigger thanten metres long without having to resort to some dodgy backstreet deal with'megaprim' suppliers. Newbies these daysjust don't even know that they're born.

Plymouth

2011-10-13T19:07:00.001+01:00

The union's changed and
the underpass is gone, and
the walk down Sydney Street feels
like the memory of some dream
I once had, where the light
spilled more from the windows.
But the chambers are the same
and the clouds are more or less
identical; which is funny, because
new clouds roll over every place
a thousand times a day.

We sit by grand windows in the theatre bar
and the distance of four hours' drive
makes the whole world suddenly
small again. I dowse my
dissonance and he reflects, earnestly
"I could live here again."
The twenty-one years is crossed
in the lights of the midnight
street. Or the two years, or
the one. Or the nature of the next
reunion.

Anonymity - Three cheers for Linden Lab

2011-09-24T21:20:00.002+01:00

I'm now a regular columnist for AVENUE Magazine. Here's my September column.

Read Linden's August update and you might just be forgiven for detecting the slightest hint of smugness in their comments on Second Life^® Profiles. “As always,” they assert, “we value your right to network under any identity you like... let your imagination run wild!” It's not exactly an open declaration of ideological distance from Google's recently criticised stance against the use of 'fake names' – it's more of a knowing wink, really – but given the many complaints thrown in Linden's direction over the last couple of years concerning all manner of perceived ideological departures, the opportunity to sneak in a subtle, “See? We're doing something right, aren't we?” must have seemed just too good to pass up on. Quite right too.

I have a Google+ account for my SL avatar. I'm half expecting it to be suspended any day now. The other half of me thinks this won't actually happen, the same way it hasn't actually happened for my Facebook account. Facebook have – apparently – a similar 'real names' policy, though quite how this applies to, for example, 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' (who I follow) I have no idea. Did HBO change a volunteer employee's name to Curb Enthusiasm (middle name Your)? I think not. It's all exceptionally confusing. And search the Google+ guidelines for a definitive no-you-may-not-use-an-online-identity-for-your-profile and you're unlikely to be satisfied (I say “you're unlikely” rather than “you won't” because Google policy statements on this issue appear about as stable as the world economy). The latest official comment (at the time of writing) reads, “It’s important to use your common name so that the people you want to connect with can find you. Your common name is the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you.” On the issue of pseudonyms, they add, “Put nicknames or pseudonyms in the Other Names field.” In other words, where everyone can see them. Kind of missing the point about pseudonyms, isn't it?

There's a certain phrase that tends to get wheeled out at about this stage in these sorts of conversations. You know the one I'm talking about. “If you've nothing to hide,” it begins and then tails off into one of a variety of finger-waging wisdom impartations like, “you've got nothing to fear” (true wisdom, by the way, never gets accompanied by a finger wag, which should be considered by law the grounds for instant dismissal of all implied knowledgeability). Of course you have something to fear; we all do. A visit to http://my.nameis.me should furnish you amply with all the reasons you could possibly need as to why human beings might want to use an alias online in terms of the avoidance of bad things happening. They range from bloggers in politically oppressive countries expressing the frustration of their daily lives to professionals in western democracies wanting to protect their professional integrity. The latter example might seem a little bit precious – kind of like wanting to have your ideal career and eat it. It's not just the tabloids that form judgements of people with responsibility, however: we're all guilty of this from time to time. In an incident that could have jumped straight from the pages of a scene from Friends, for example, I myself once made unfair critical judgements on a doctor's competence based on the fact that she addressed me in Klingon. A liking of Star Trek is one thing, I reasoned (I'm quite partial to a bit myself), even dressing up in the costumes is a bit of harmless fun; taking the time to learn the language, however, is a step too far for a person whose hands the life and death of people reside in. And I mentally wagged a finger at myself as I thought this. It would be wonderful if we lived in a society where every last feature of our personalities (non-harmful features, naturally) – no matter how distant from our own – was welcomed non-judgementally as part of the patchwork quilt of our uniqueness. But we don't.

Luckily for us, Linden appear to understand this. “We value your right to network under any identity you like.” All comments on the opportunistic promotion of SL Profiles aside (it's like Facebook, by the way, except with your SL friends and no annoying apps), they're right to focus on 'identity,' because actually anonymity isn't only about avoiding unpleasant consequences. I didn't join SL just because I wanted to see what I could get away with; I joined because I wanted to see what I could be in the metaverse and what that would feel like. You don't go rock climbing because there's a safety line, you go because you want to be the person who conquers the cliff.

A popular theory in Psychology – one I have some issues with – proposes that we all poses a number of masks that we wear in different social contexts. We wear a different mask at work from the one we wear at parties, which is different from the one we wear during visits to our parents at weekends. And so on. The problem I have with mask theory is the notion of concealment it implies, that personality presented in different social situations is primarily an act of some sort designed to prevent people from seeing 'the real us' in order to facilitate our acceptance. Without a doubt, we do mask from time to time – particularly when we find ourselves amongst people we haven't got to know yet and are trying to win our place within a group. But the working me is the working me and the party me (not one of my shiniest personalities, incidentally; if you should encounter me during a party, be warned I will probably cling to you all night so I don't have to talk to other people) is the party me. And the SL me is the SL me. For sure, concealment will happen every now and again but, first and foremost, these are all equally valid expressions of my identity. They're all the real me.

I'm Huckleberry Hax, by the way. Pleased to meet you. I'm not quite the same in SL as I am in RL, but don't worry – I'm not trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Huck wears clothes I wouldn't necessarily wear in RL; he has tattoos; he sometimes lives in a beach hut and occasionally makes 1960s era furniture because it reminds him of my childhood. He reads aloud his stories and poems every now and then, and people from time to time tell him they quite listening to him do this. Huck likes it a lot when people say things like that. In RL, I've never read aloud any of my literary creations in front of an audience because I'm basically too shy to do so and – yes – I have my RL professional identity to think about. But it's just possible now I might one day do that, and if it happens then I'll have SL to thank for enabling me. Even if I don't, I'll still be grateful that SL let me discover these aspects of my personality in the first place. The difference this policy makes, then, is that it's enabled me to explore completely new areas of my potential – of my identity – rather than being confined to the quarters of my existing 'real name' me.

The IT revolution, after all, was always meant to be about empowerment. On this issue, then, I permit Linden their smug little smile and hope – genuinely – that they feel proud.

AVENUE Magazine
Photography: AnnoughLykin

Guest blog post

2011-08-07T23:17:00.002+01:00

I've written a guest post on bullying in SL over at Nordanomjorden's Blog. Pass on the URL if you agree with what I've written.

Free Lindens? Thanks, but no thanks.

2011-08-03T00:01:00.000+01:00

A visit to a charming beach resort recently saw a mildly unpleasant exchange with the owner when his somethingorother script thing offered my companion free money. It was one of those random money givers you used to get all the time in the good old days of SL, when you weren't really living if your senses weren't being assailed by tat of some description on a minute-by-minute basis. And the amount was three Lindens.

By my calculation, three Lindens equals approximately just over one American cent. Not even a single British penny. Let me ask you something: if a complete stranger in real life walked up to you and pressed one cent into your hands, what exactly would your reaction be?

Of course, this is Second Life – not real life – and a penny buys you more in the virtual world than it does in the big outside. Why, a pair of jeans, for example, can be easily had for just two hundred Lindens – let's say the sort of jeans that might cost you $20 in real life. In this case, the 'real value' of our three Lindens rises to a staggering thirty cents! Still not very convincing in the stranger scenario, though, is it?

Oh yes, in the days when we were new and still sticking to that I'm-not-going-to-spend-any-money-on-Second-Life rule; in the days when we were willing to mop floors or clean windows or do whatever other pretend task was required of camp spots (because we had no virtual friends back then to feel humiliated in front of); in the days when all we wanted was to buy a hair style that didn't look like something had melted all over our heads then we took our two or three Lindens for the half hour of our time and we were thankful.

But then we discovered dignity. We decided it wasn't okay for our time to be owned so indifferently, and for such a pitifully small amount of money. In any case, by that time we'd pretty much become addicted to SL and found the funds to improve our inworld appearance elsewhere, like by cancelling our gym membership or through buying less vegetables.

Camp spots, of course, were – still are, in a few persistent cases – all about attracting people to a place. The more paid avatars you could have in your venue – so the logic went – the more popular it would appear and the more people might come check it out and maybe spend some real money. In return for a trifling expenditure, you got those valuable green dots on the map and a higher ranking in search. It didn't work as a strategy because most arrivals – on seeing that a place was only filled with campers – turned around and went back the way they came. Which brings us to the random money giver: same outlay, same penny-chasing newbies, same all-important little green dots, but no camping spots whatsoever to cause us veteran SL snobs to turn up our noses and leave.

Do I have a thing about random money givers? Not really. I'm pretty much neutral on the random money giver issue. I think it likely that orientation to this topic will be entirely dependent on who you are in SL and what sort of experience you've had therein. To the newbie chasing that hairstyle, it might indeed be glorious generosity. To an old hack like me, however, I can't deny that whiff, that hint, that soupçon of resentment aroused by the suspicion that someone might think I chose to visit a place just for the prospect of a measly couple of Lindens.

As for my innocent companion, she hadn't encountered random money givers before, was confused as to why it had been offered and promptly returned it to the person she was told had paid it. Amongst the comments subsequently made to me by the owner was that he'd never before encountered someone with such an “attitude problem” towards receiving free money: he was actually angry that his tiny gift had been turned down. He even threatened to ban us.

Is it really so unusual, so extraordinary an occurrence that someone might not consider 'free money' a significant improvement on their day? Is it really the supposition held by society that no gift of cash - no matter how small the amount, no matter how unknown the source is – should ever be turned down or questioned? In my flesh and blood life, I've turned down free things on many an occasion, as it happens. When UK supermarket Tesco briefly offered free tins of beans to its customers, for example, I didn't rush to the stores. It wasn't that I don't like beans or was suspicious of this strategy, it was simply that I didn't want to be part of a crowd who would drop everything for the sake of a few free tins of food which I didn't in any case need (I was perfectly happy with the idea that people for whom this would make a significant financial difference could stock up on the stuff unhindered by the likes of me, for whom it wouldn't). Did Tesco write to me demanding to know why their loyalty card database indicated I had not taken advantage of their generosity? They did not.

It was a bizarre few minutes of interaction at the beach: for all the immense work that had gone into creating a truly beautiful sim, the owner was prepared to eject precisely the sort of customer he wanted to attract just because they declined to accept his free tin of beans. It was a reminder that business and a short temper don't go well together, and that SL is truly an odd place to be sometimes. Also, however, it was funny. As anecdote material, it's added to that sense of actually having been somewhere – like the memory of the grumpy hotelier who moaned when you checked in late and requested a sandwich five minutes before the restaurant was due to close – and increased the sense of immersion, the fairy dust that makes SL real.

It occurs to me that there's the remote possibility this was actually his intent. If this is the case then I retract everything I've said above: you, sir, are a genius.

Nordan Art: A Retrospective 2010 to 2011

2011-07-23T23:51:00.002+01:00

Nordan Art, Flora Nordenskiold's wonderful gallery, is one year old today. I've been working with Flora for the past few weeks on a book celebrating the exhibits of the last 12 months. You can read it online - for free - at http://issuu.com/nordanart/docs/nordanartretrospective2010-2011

Kindle titles now updated.

2011-07-14T18:39:00.002+01:00

I've already tweeted about this but - what the hey - I think it's worthy of a blog post too. I recently discovered that the automatic ebook conversion software at www.smashwords.com - the 'meatgrinder' as it's so affectionately known - has been vastly, vastly improved. Previously, I'd uploaded there 'AFK' and 'The Day is Full of Birds' and then lost the will to draw air into my lungs following the endless attempts at conversion and understanding polite yet ultimately useless error messages that seemed to say something like, 'There's something wrong with your formatting. Please correct it.' Not any more! The new conversion process actually results in my Kindle versions looking the way I want them to and the improvement feedback - when it's necessary - is specific and informative.

The end result is, in a sudden flurry of unanticipated motivation, I've now converted the following titles to Kindle format: AFK (a much better conversion than was previously available and still free), The Day is Full of Birds (again, a much improved conversion and price reduced to $0.99), Be Right Back (previously unavailable in ebook format, a steal at $0.99) My Avatars and I (also previously unavailable in ebook format, also $0.99) and The Introspection of Imogen Card (previously unpublished anywhere, also $0.99). I should add that the conversion isn't just to Kindle format - there are also ePub versions of all five books that can be obtained from the same place at the same prices if you're of that orientation. That place being: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/huckleberryhax

So there you have it: five Hax novels for under four dollars in total. I feel delighted to have the ebook box finally ticked and - frankly - a little dirty for the sales pitch. Whilst you enjoy my carefully woven tales, do think of me in the shower, scrubbing at the stains that will not shift...

Happy Birthday Second Life

2011-06-25T17:42:00.007+01:00

Audioboo Listen to Huck reading this post

The significance of SL's eight birthday must surely be that we're now closer to the tenth birthday than the fifth. Last year, it would have been reasonable to look at the 'value added,' two years on from five, rather than get distracted too much by the monolith that is ten lurking on the other side of the visible horizon. But, with the passing of 'eight years old,' ten is now in sight and we can avert our gaze no longer. True, we might need a sturdy set of binoculars to spot it at this distance, but it's unmistakably there – a tiny little blob on the skyline, waiting for us with its smug arms folded and a fat cigar wedged between its grinning teeth.

Is there any point in speculating on the question, 'What will SL be like in two years' time?' Probably not. Personally, I think it likely it won't be a great deal different than it is today. This is not to detract from such developments as mesh, depth of field and shadows – and whatever two or three new enhancements are delivered by then (I'm counting on avatar physics being extended to male genitalia, myself) – these are all well and good, and I'm sure we'll all have much fun ignoring them completely whilst we continue to crucify Linden for its viewer strategy. But will my hours per evening spent in front of the computer feel qualitatively different then from the hours I spent back in 2007? I doubt it very much. If graphical complexity mattered that much to me, I'd have thrown my sculpted prim oar in years ago and gone and bought myself an X-Box.

Not that I'm saying it doesn't matter, of course. It matters a great deal, particularly to many of the newcomers to SL, who imagine it to be, I suppose, the peacetime equivalent of Call of Duty; a world where the dust of virtual warfare might well be settled, but you could still write your name in it with your finger if you chose to do so. The fact that every last texture in SL has to be downloaded from a distant server, rather than springing majestically into high definition action from the nearby cosiness of a hard drive, tends rather to be lost on gaming veterans and offers little compensation for the wheezy, delayed arrival of a brick texture that was not only late but had to sit down for a rest and a restorative cup of tea when it got here. And therein lies the problem: no advances in mesh or lighting or bouncy body parts can possibly lure to our world any person expecting the full-on graphic immediacy of modern 3D gaming. It's not Linden's fault that internet and server speeds aren't yet up to the standard required of such an experience, but this truth will be neither apparent nor of interest to the newcomer who drops by one day because they've “always been meaning to find out what this Second Life thing is all about” and ends up concluding that it “doesn't seem to work very well.”

Because the thing that would actually make SL feel different would be if more people were using it. By which I mean enough people that the words 'second life' no longer carry with them that conditioned response involving a badly concealed smirk and an almost irrepressible desire on my part to use the physical intervention of my fist with which to effect its removal. Accompanied, I hasten to add, by the slightly hysterically shrieked question, “If your real life is so fucking wonderful, why exactly do you piss away so much of it in front of the TV?” That's what really irritates me. If Barack Obama wanted to dress me down for a life less meaningfully lived then that would be fair play, but how exactly is a TV diet of 'Ugly Betty,' 'X Factor' and Channel Four's 'Embarrassing bodies' a safe platform from which to launch judgements upon the quality of my social interactions?

These, then, are the two elements of SL which probably won't have changed by June 2013: the non-users' bafflement over its appeal and our own general reluctance to defend it in any manner that roughly approximates 'assertive'. Whatever new embellishments come along between now and then, life inworld for most of us will be as much the guilty pleasure of a secret cigarette as it was when we first looked past the technological limitations and realised there was something to this virtual world. The visible hooks just aren't apparent to the rest of the human population: they weren't then; they're not now and they won't be in two years time. Unless...

Unless something unexpected happens. Because unexpected developments are how internet evolution occurs. These random mutations, these out-of-the-blue fluctuations in mainstream attentiveness are the stumbling, slightly drunken footsteps that have come to characterise the online 'march' of progress. If the right match is struck in the right place at the right time; if the right SL something manages to catch the interest of the general public, then it'll suddenly be big. It could be a YouTube video that just happens to use metaverse graphics. It could be a song that just happens to be about virtual relationships. It could be a novel that just happens to be set in SL.

Let's suppose its the latter. In fact, let's suppose it's one of my novels. Here's my plan: if you want SL to make it big in the future – and you do want SL to make it big in the future, don't you? - do your bit and buy my novels today. More importantly, buy extra copies to give to all your friends, not forgetting to prefix the giving of these generous gifts with the phrase, “I thought you might like a copy of that book that everyone's been talking about.”

You're welcome, Second Life. Many Happy Returns.

Poetry compilation now in hardback

2011-05-21T23:37:00.000+01:00

My poetry compilation, 'Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue,' is now available to buy in hardback as well as paperback. I got my test copy this morning and delighted doesn't even begin to describe how pleased I am with the quality of this book (I'm reasonably happy with the poems in it too). Should the urge grab you to obtain a copy for yourself, it can be bought here.

Audioboo recording

2011-05-20T01:38:00.001+01:00

I just discovered the amazing Audioboo site, where you can upload sound recordings. Follow the link and you'll be able to hear me reading the title poem to my 2010 compilation, 'Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue'. Expect more recordings in the weeks to come!

Audioboo / Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue

Fatal crosspost - a new SL novel.

2011-03-20T20:38:00.001Z

'Fatal Crosspost' will be a new novel set in SL and should hopefully please fans of AFK. I completed my story plan this morning (something of a novelty for me, but it seemed like a good idea after last year's NaNoWriMo stumble) and the word count has just turned 600. I'd like to get this completed by July, but might read early chapters along the way at my fortnightly event, 'A little bit of Huck' (every other Thursday, 3pm SLT) if there's demand. I'm feeling good about this one! Look out for a download in August.

The Introspection of Imogen Card (2010) by Huckleberry H. Hax

2011-02-24T20:17:00.006Z

Imogen had ended it with me the day after my birthday, when she'd discovered I was still a virgin. We'd been walking back from town and it had been different. We weren't holding hands any more. We weren't saying all that much to each other. We'd booked our place on the crossing just four hours earlier, and it had seemed at the time like we were planning some sort of impromptu honeymoon. There was no event or comment that seemed to mark any sort of turning point after the tickets were in our hands; there was no moment that I could look upon in retrospect as the instant where suddenly the chemistry dissolved. We just faded. We ran out of things to talk about.

A day trip to France goes wrong when a young man's ex disappears during a chanel crossing.

Available formats

Paperback: £5.99 Hard cover: £9.99 Ebook: $0.99
PDF: Free Online (Flash): Free

I would be delighted to hear your comments on 'The Introspection of Imogen Card', if you have read it. If you would like to give feedback, please leave it as a comment to this post (anonymous posting is enabled; you do not have to sign in to anything in order to leave a comment). Ratings/reviews on Smashwords and/or Lulu if you've bought ebook or print versions also help me enormously.

Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue (2011) by Huckleberry H. Hax

2011-01-18T17:46:00.002Z

Selected poems (2008 - 2010) by Second Life® writer, Huckleberry H. Hax.

Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue (enhanced) (mp3)

Available formats:

Paperback: £6.99 Hard cover: £10.99
PDF: Free Online (Flash): Free

I would be delighted to hear your comments on 'Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue', if you have read it. If you would like to give feedback or a review, please leave it as a comment to this post (anonymous posting is enabled; you do not have to sign in to anything in order to leave a comment). Ratings/reviews on Lulu if you've bought print versions also help me enormously.

Poem published in Urban District Writer

2010-11-16T19:41:00.001Z

One of my poems, "Phone", has been published in issue 11 of the poetry journal "Urban District Writer". A printed copy will cost you just £2. Follow the link for more information: URBAN DISTRICT WRITER: UDW #11 is available now!

Nano nogo

2010-11-13T11:34:00.001Z

It's time to face the music and go public... My 2010 nanowrimo is officially dead. For a variety of reasons - complete absence of plot being a not insignificant one of them - I haven't been able to progress this year's novel past a couple of thousand words. Well, four nanos in five years isn't too bad a track record, I suppose.

On the plus side, I now have a little time to spend on finishing off my poetry compilation, "Old friend, learn to look behind you in the coffee queue" in time for December. I'm also getting an edited version of "Beside an open window" ready to submit to a few agents (don't look for that one on the website - it's not been published online). And, over, the Christmas break, I plan on preparing more ebook versions of my novels (epub and kindle).

There will be more fiction from me soon, though. Over the summer, I wrote a 25,000 word novella called "The introspection of Imogen Card." It needs a little editing - which I've now started - but this won't take long. Before I publish it online, I'd really like to do an inworld readthrough. It probably wouldn't need much more than three or four hour-long sessions. Any venue owners interested?

Be Right Back (2008) by Huckleberry Hax

2010-10-29T19:46:00.001+01:00

Tuesday, 2 September. So I created a Second Life account today. Actually, I created two. First of all I created the identity 'Marcus Foible', but that was kind of done in haste. I spent about a minute on the decision. I thought, 'What the hell does it matter what I call myself in this place?' And then I was standing around in this place where they send you when you're new, looking at all the names above the heads of others, and I thought, 'Marcus? Marcus? Why the hell did I call myself Marcus?'

Autumn 2008: whilst the markets plunge and the US elects its new President, one man enters into a virtual world in a search for a real world killer.

Two books in one! 'Be Right Back' includes both parts of the Tsyin Tii saga previously published online separately - 'Be Right Back' and 'Just so that you know'.

Available formats

Paperback: £10.99 Hard cover: £14.99 Ebook: $0.99
PDF: Free Online (Flash): Free

I would be delighted to hear your comments on Be Right Back, if you have read it. If you would like to give feedback, please leave it as a comment to this post (anonymous posting is enabled; you do not have to sign in to anything in order to leave a comment). Ratings/reviews on Smashwords and/or Lulu if you've bought ebook or print versions also help me enormously.

Ex-lovers' vows

2010-10-25T23:50:00.000+01:00

I'm going to start posting some of my poems here. First off, here's one I wrote a week ago for the Blue Angel open mic (every Sunday, 5pm SLT at The Blue Angel Poets' Dive). Someone suggested today that these should form the blueprint for separation ceremonies...

Ex-lovers' vows
by Huckleberry Hax

Grief; yes.
Analysis; of course.
But the Escher path says only,
"It is. It is. Just accept it.

"Or don't. It's up to you.
Be warned, though: bitterness and regret never once
turned back time.
Except to eat up memories, turn them foul;
belch them back in your face, distorted."

So here is my pledge. Here are the promises
I will try hard to keep, however hard it may be.

I.
I will not say or do things that make you feel bad or guilty.
I will not weep in public. I will not spout vengeful poetry. Sympathy,
solicited, does not heal. Guilt resurrects nothing.
I will try to reflect, rather than ruminate.
You do not deserve to be hurt.

II.
I will not trawl back through previous conversations, quote your words,
question your consistency. Your feelings now require no justification. They are
as they are, and that is all that they can be. If I do look back,
I will try to do so in fondness only. We were good. For a while, we got it right.
I will take pleasure in recalling a thing done well.

III.
I will avoid making sweeping generalisations from us to my world at large.
You are not responsible for anything outside of you and I. My past loves
are *my* past loves. I will not be passive-aggresive. I will not put you into a box
and label it with a number, shelve you in the newest slot in the entrance to my house.
I will celebrate the memory of us. I will add you to the flavours of my life.

IV.
I will never regret the knowing of you, the loving of you.
You have enriched me; you have made me more complete.
You are part of me now, for the rest of my time.
And I am glad of that.

These are my vows.
In return,
permit me those odd moments
when I recall the touch of skin on skin
and think of what might have been.
Permit me to keep on loving you
for as long as the need is there.

(c) Huckleberry Hax
18/10/2010

Nanowrimo approaches

2010-10-17T01:13:00.001+01:00

November is getting close. This year's National Novel Writing Month effort will be a book titled 'Virtual'. Like all my previous Nanos, it will be set in Second Life. Now to figure out the plot...

Special offer on 'My Avatars and I'

2010-09-22T21:59:00.000+01:00

According to an email I got today, anyone who buys My Avatars and I in paperback from lulu.com before 16 October will get a 15% discount off the usual price of £8.99. Just enter in the code 'FALLREAD305' in the discount box when you get to the checkout to redeem the offer.

Ten conversations in Second Life®. Eight avatars. One woman, searching. But searching for who? And why? 'My Avatars and I' is a Second Life story about love, dedication and 1970s furniture...

My Avatars and I (2009) by Huckleberry Hax

2010-09-17T00:07:00.000+01:00

Frank Roasted: So wait, let me get this straight...
Frank Roasted: Bradley – you're a gay female in real life pretending to be male in order to attract a straight female...
Frank Roasted: Softly – you're a straight male in real life pretending to be a gay female in order to attract another gay female...
Frank Roasted: And Suzette – you're a gay male in real life pretending to be a straight female in order to attract a straight male.
Frank Roasted: Is that right?
Bradley Watson: Pretty much.
Suzette Waterchurch: Spot on.
Softly Spoken: Yeah. I guess.
Suzette Waterchurch: And you, Frank? What are you?
Frank Roasted: Me? I'm confused.

Ten conversations in Second Life®. Eight avatars. One woman, searching. But searching for whom? And why?

From the author of 'AFK', a Second Life story about love, dedication and 1970s furniture...

Available formats:

Paperback: £8.99 Hard cover: £13.99 Ebook: $0.99
PDF: Free Online (Flash): Free

I would be delighted to hear your comments on My Avatars and I, if you have read it. If you would like to give feedback, please leave it as a comment to this post (anonymous posting is enabled; you do not have to sign in to anything in order to leave a comment). Ratings/reviews on Smashwords and/or Lulu if you've bought ebook or print versions also help me enormously.

The Blue Angel is dead... Long live the Blue Angel!

2010-06-01T22:08:00.002+01:00

The Blue Angel Poets' Dive, SL's longest running literary venue (and one of my very favourite places to be in SL) is moving to a new location and new build.

Announced on 30 May by owner and SL poetess extraordinaire, Persephone Phoenix, the venue for the famed Sunday Open Mic event (5pm SLT) will be moving to Kolor, where a sumptuous new build has been constructed jointly by Nestra Careless, Kolor Fall and Nickola Martynov. The Open Mic will take place at the new venue from Sunday 6 June onwards.

The old Blue Angel, venue for many, many wonderful readings...

The new venue. And it can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kolor/17/137/1499

The Blue Angel Poets' Dive has been delivering literary events in SL since 2006. Long may it continue to do so.

Poets for Haiti - The loudness of tiny, inside noises

2010-01-24T23:30:00.001Z

A poem of mine - 'The loudness of tiny, inside noises' has been published in a compilation made to raise money for the Haiti disaster. 'Poets for Haiti' is part of the 'Giving Haiti a Second Life' event organised by Da Vinci Isle. You can buy it inworld for L$500. Details at http://www.davinciisle.org/index.php/giving-haiti-a-second-life-fundraiser.

Second Life® Behaviours: Attendance

2010-01-17T23:26:00.003Z

My first article on Virtual Writers World is about what people do when they attend SL events. Actually, it's a cunningly disguised extract from My Avatars and I, but then I'm ruthlessly self-promotional like that. Read the article here.

'Beside an Open Window' - read through at The Blue Angel

2010-01-09T23:20:00.006Z

I haven't published 'Beside an Open Window' online like my other books because I'm hoping to approach a publisher with it later in the year. Before that happens, however, I want to do at least one complete read through in SL (nothing brings typos to my attention better than a live reading). The first of these will be at the Blue Angel Poets' Dive and will start on Tuesday 12 January at 3:30pm SLT (and continue on each Tuesday thereafter at the same time until the read through is complete). If you would like to hear the story come along to listen. As an added incentive, I'll be offering a free, electronic version of the novel to anyone who attends all sessions (and can provide me with an email address to send it to).

'Beside an Open Window' is set 60 years into the future and looks at what the metaverse might look like then. The following is a small extract...

***

Jason went back to the bed, sat on the edge, picked up a booklet on the table that he hadn't noticed before. It had a white cover, blank but for the words 'Please read me, Mr Harlan' in large, black seriffed capitals.

He sighed, tried to break wind and failed. He opened the book and read.

Welcome to your new life in Twilight, Mr Harlan.

In a short while, someone will come to talk to you about where you are and what you're doing here. Please remain calm. There is no reason to become frightened or distressed.

The purpose of this booklet is to give you a basic understanding of your situation and some time by yourself to assimilate this information. Please do not worry: you are not alone. You are being monitored as you read this and if you should become distressed someone will come straight away to assist you. Please remain calm.

Please make sure you are comfortable. It might be a good idea to sit down whilst you read this. When you are ready to proceed to the next page, please-

Jason grunted impatiently and turned over.

If you have not already worked out where you are, then we are very sorry to have to inform you that you have passed away. In the physical world, you are now deceased.

What?

For some bizarre reason, Jason looked down at his cock again, stared at it, nestled snugly within those think, strangely mousey pubes. Dead? Impossible. He felt suddenly odd, but not the sort of odd he would have imagined. Moments like this merited big, fleshy thumps in the chest, he supposed, and a pow feeling in the gut, but he felt none of this. It was the absence of these symptoms which unnerved him. He knew that he felt scared, but the physiology was absent. A phantom emotion, like a phantom limb: it existed, he could feel it, but the flesh and blood was nowhere to be seen.

What? Dead? Bollocks. He read on.

The specific circumstances of your death were:

Road traffic accident 5 June 2039 @ 14:07

You will be given more information about this event in due course.

2039? That date was over a year from now. It had to be some sort of set up. He tried to remember how he'd come to be here, but everything was blurred and grey. A meeting, yesterday. In an office. He remembered a rubber plant. Perhaps it was some sort of reality TV stunt. Had he agreed to a charity deal? If he had, he wouldn't have agreed to memory-altering drugs. He remembered being somewhere with Rachel yesterday. Had they fallen out? Ordinarily, days out with Rachel ended up in places and situations very different to this... whatever this was.

Right now, you are probably doubting the validity of this information. This is perfectly normal. You are probably also having difficulty remembering events from the last week or so: this is due to a simulated unconsciousness we impose on activation of your brain scan so that we can monitor its function prior to inducing consciousness. The fog will lift over the next hour or so. You will start to remember things which would have stood out for you in your thoughts at the time of your last scan. For example, if you had been anxious about an upcoming flight (our clients often choose to backup before travelling on aircraft) it is probable that this would be one of the things you remember first, starting with a vague feeling of anxiety and gradually becoming a more detailed memory.

We can help you a little on this. On the next page is a video of your pre-scan meeting. When you turn the page it will play. It is likely that you will recall this event – as the memory comes back to you – as something which happened yesterday. Be aware, however, that it could be a considerable period of time since this event happened in real life, depending on the frequency with which you performed your backups.

Jason turned the page. The paper lacked texture, it felt like some kind of laminate surface. He smelled it, out of habit; Jason always smelled the pages of the books he was reading (his brother had told him once it was a form of glue sniffing). The paper smelled of nothing. There was no smell to the book, to the bed, to him, to the room.

The video was presented in a small window in the middle of the page, with a scroll bar across the bottom. The usual sort of thing. It played automatically. He saw himself from the view of a camera in a ceiling corner that was looking down on a small office with a desk and three chairs. Rachel was beside him. A man in a tweed jacket came in from behind and sat opposite, crossed his fingers on the desk, said, Yes, we have a slot in about an hour, actually. There's been a cancellation. That's just enough time to go through the literature with you. Can I get you a coffee first?

Aspie

2010-01-09T00:10:00.009Z

This week has been Autism Awareness Week at Tiatopia Island. The organiser of the event, Tia Macbain, contacted a number of SL poets - of which I was one - to ask for poems on the subject which would be displayed around the sim and used as the inspiration for a series of SL sculptures. My poem, 'Aspie' was interpreted by Misa Delight and you can see a couple of pictures of her beautiful sculpture below.

All poems submitted are to be compiled into an online publication. Details will follow when I have them.

The poem was inspired by the writings of the Autistic community on its desire not to be thought of as 'broken' (for example, see http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com). A very easy to read 'What if...?' article by Tony Attwood and Carol Grey was also very helpful, which can currently be found here.

The future of SL

2010-01-05T21:40:00.003Z

A discussion in the Linden blogs has generated some interesting ideas as to how SL could be improved over the next ten years. Worth taking a look. Check it out here.

Farewell Nancy

2009-12-26T21:56:00.002Z

One of my oldest SL friends, Nancy R, whom I met in SL whilst I was still writing 'AFK' (and who was also the first person to read it when it was finished) passed away this morning after an all-too-brief battle with cancer. Nancy really was one of the nicest people I've met in the metaverse and I can't quite believe I won't ever again enjoy her witty, easygoing conversation. I am shocked by the speed with which this kind and gentle person has been taken from us.

Rest in peace, Nancy. I'm grateful to have known you.

Poetry reading.

2009-12-14T21:13:00.003Z

I'm one of four poets reading at the Poet's Showcase at Twilght's Peace Galleries on Tuesday, 15 December at 4pm SLT. SLURL here.

Free homes for SL Premium members

2009-12-11T22:28:00.004Z

After all those what-would-it-take-to-get-you-to-become-a-subscriber surveys, it actually looks like Linden is going to offer some sort of an incentive for residents to upgrade from basic accounts - a free house on a 512m parcel, no less. The new policy, which is about to go into beta, imposes quite a number of restrictions on your use of the land (like not being able to change the house); even so, a free house is not to be scoffed at. Read more here.

PTSD awareness event

2009-12-04T09:34:00.003Z

Anya Ibor has asked me to mention her upcoming SL event on to raise awareness about PTSD. The 'Fearless Nation' event will take place at Aloha over 24 hours - starting 12AM SLT on 19 December - and include music, giveaways and a "From the Abyss" exhibition. For more details, contact Anya Ibor or Spirit Pleides inworld.

Nano 2009: Job done

2009-11-30T23:29:00.003Z

With final word count of 50,497, 'My Avatars and I' is finished. Watch this space for details of how to get hold of the PDF.

First prize for Cafe Huck at AWE

2009-11-02T00:39:00.008Z

My booth at the 2009 Autumn Writers' Exhibition has won the 'Best Display' award. Based on a cafe used in 'Be Right Back' and 'Just so That You Know', the display was one of 80 stalls put together for the annual event, which ran over October. Included in the display was a photo wall of people who stopped by for a chat; this started as a small idea and ended up becoming a mini project in its own right!

There's an article about the AWE in which my display gets a mention at Rez Libris magazine.

NaNoWriMo 2009 begins

2009-11-01T11:24:00.003Z

At 12am last night, work started on my NaNoWriMo 2009 project, 'My Avatars and I'. Set entirely in Second Life, this novel will update some of my SL thinking from AFK (which, unbelievably, is almost two years old now). At the time of writing (11:30am) I've already passed the 1,700 words mark (Nano novel writers should aim to hit 1,667 words per day), so it's profit from here on in today! See you on the other side.

Free NaNoWriMo progress spreadsheet

2009-10-24T11:15:00.004+01:00

As discussed in my NaNoWriMo workshops, I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my progress throughout November (see pic below). There was particular interest in this in last night's talk at Milkwood; as promised, I've uploaded the tool (empty of my data, but with all the formulae you need in place) here for free download.

Come check out Cafe Huck...

2009-10-20T23:44:00.005+01:00

My hut at the Autumn Writer's Exhibition this year is based on the cafe used in 'Be Right Back' and 'Just so That You Know'. Come check out some great exhibits - but hurry, it only runs until the end of October.

New (cheaper) print version of AFK

2009-10-18T19:00:00.003+01:00

I've been unhappy for a while now with the ISBN paperback of AFK I put together on lulu a while ago. It seemed like a wonderful idea at the time, but some sort of irregularity in the system somewhere has seen amazon.com prices as high as $30. Way too expensive. Not good at all.

I'll be replacing the 'pocket-sized' paperback version soon with a non-ISBN version that should keep a fixed price (probably of around about £8/$12). In the meantime, I've put together an even cheaper 'digest' version that exploits a larger page size, columns, a slightly reduced font size and an economy paper option that's available on lulu.com for books printed in the US. And it can be bought right now for just £3.25 ($5.20 approx). Click here to visit the lulu page for this product.

Since this is a US only product, readers from outside of the US should be aware that the cheapest postage option is about $10 (it's much cheaper if you live in the US).

Getting ready for NaNoWriMo 2009

2009-10-16T17:36:00.006+01:00

In the run up to National Novel Writing Month 2009, I've been asked to do a couple of workshops in Second Life about the business of putting down 50,000 words within the space of a single month. On Saturday 17 October I'll be speaking at Bookstacks at 4pm SLT and on Friday 23 October I'll be Speaking at Milk Wood at 2pm SLT.

As for my own NaNo plans, a novel provisionally titled 'My Avatars and I' is beginning to take shape in my head. Not much to say at this stage, other than it will be set entirely in SL and presented through SL dialogue.

National Novel Writing Month will take place in November.

Second draft finished

2009-10-10T22:05:00.003+01:00

And not a moment too soon. After nearly ten months of work, 'Beside an Open Window' is now ready for public consumption. At just over 80,000 words, it's the longest thing I've ever written. I won't be making this available as a PDF download, since I'm going to have a try at sending this to a publisher. I will, however, be making the entire novel available online in a non-downloadable format, hopefully within the next couple of days.

Blue Angel Landing issue 1

2009-10-09T00:02:00.002+01:00

We're getting perilously close to launching a print version of Blue Angel Landing (initially mentioned here). In the meantime - and courtesy of www.issuu.com - you can browse the electronic version right here. Flip forwards and backwards through the magazine using the arrows to the left and right of the pages and click on the magazine itself to view fullscreen.

Sounds of Poetry

2009-09-28T22:21:00.006+01:00

Last Monday was my first go at co-presenting the weekly 'Sounds of Poems' event held at Cookie. I presented with the very able Stosh Quartz and - organisational issues on my part aside - it was a very enjoyable evening. As usual, the event was filmed by Jilly Kidd, who has uploaded the edited highlights to YouTube (her many other videos can be found here). Part One includes a reading of a poem by my great great grandfather about the Suffragettes (he didn't approve, it appears).

Obama shelves Europe missile plan

2009-09-17T20:53:00.003+01:00

One of the topics discussed in The Day is Full of Birds is that of the missile shield being constructed by America, using European bases. In the book - which is set in an alternate world - this issue ends up pushing the planet into war. Today, President Obama announced the shelving of these European bases (in the Czech Republic and Poland). It's a major, major shift in policy, and one which will enrage many republican supporters (who previously insisted the shield had nothing to do with Russia, and are now - curiously - angered that pressure has been taken off Russia in this move). The missile shield is far from dead, but the move is an important step towards a better relationship with Russia. Only 14 months ago, I expressed my concern over the escalating tensions. How the world can change in a year.

First draft finished!

2009-09-15T21:57:00.003+01:00

The final words of the first draft of 'Beside an Open Window' fell happily onto the page at a Costa coffee shop on Sunday afternoon. Work has already started on the second draft, which as a quick read through with some alterations as I go to tighten up consistency. It should be done by the end of September, giving me a whole month to prepare for National Novel Writing Month 2009!

Stay tuned for details of reading dates.

Nearly there...

2009-09-07T08:40:00.002+01:00

'Beside an open window' is now at either 72,000 or 75,000 words (depending on which of my two versions of Open Office you believe). More importantly, the story is approaching its resolution and is likely to be finished by the end of September. Once that's done, I'll start work on a brand new metaverse fiction project that I've been turning over in my head for several months now. Stay tuned for an anouncement!

Hot boy interview

2009-08-19T21:37:00.003+01:00

I've been chosen (and interviewed) as the very first 'hot boy' at 'Super Gangster', a new SL blog. Yes.

SLCC 2009 - 25 free copies of AFK to be found

2009-08-12T00:06:00.004+01:00

The Second Life Community Convention 2009 will be starting on Thursday 13 August in San Francisco. To celebrate, I've had 25 special edition paperback copies of AFK printed up for the event, which will be free to whomsoever sees them first. The copies will be left to be discovered in random locations, so if you're a delegate and you see a copy unattended, grab it! The plan is to drop 10 copies on Thursday, 5 on Friday, 5 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday, so each new day of the conference will bring a fresh chance of finding a copy.

Have you found a copy? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Add a comment to this post to let us know who you are in SL (or RL if you prefer) and what the highlight of the conference was for you. Anonymous posting is currently turned on for this blog, so you don't have to be Blogger registered to leave a comment.

SLCC giveaway...

2009-07-30T12:32:00.002+01:00

The Second Life Community Convention 2009 will be starting on 13 August in San Francisco and I'm going to be giving away 25 printed copies of AFK. Stay tuned for details...

Blue Angel Landing launches

2009-07-21T07:49:00.012+01:00

Issue One of Blue Angel Landing, the SL poetry journal I've been working on with Persephone Phoenix and Shara Levanque, is now available. It's 44 pages of poetry performed at the Blue Angel Poets' Dive and quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I've ever produced. And I have two poems published this issue.

You can currently read them by visiting http://www.blueangellanding.com/ and flipping through the online Flash version. Persephone will be publishing an inworld version presently and we'll also be making a PDF version available. There's a print version on the way also, courtesy of http://www.lulu.com/

Interview at ArtsParks

2009-07-04T18:01:00.003+01:00

Thirza Ember has interviewed me for her arts blog, SL ArtsParks. Be cautioned, it's an addictive blog. And there's a link further down to the new Prisoner trailer...

Read the interview here.

Taking a break...

2009-06-25T23:00:00.004+01:00

'Beside an Open Window' stands at 50k. I'm taking a short break from writing it, just a few weeks off to prepare for the second half.

'At the beach' comes joint first in VE Day poetry competition.

2009-05-28T22:42:00.005+01:00

My poem, 'At the beach,' which was written about the Normandy landings in World War Two, has been awarded joint first prize in a VE Day poetry contest sponsored by TLE Educational Network. The contest received 26 submissions; 'At the beach' came joint first with "Blut Und Ehre" by Manx Wharton. Full details here.

Not only is it the first poetry competition I've ever won, it is also, in fact, the first poetry comeptition I've ever entered. All 26 entries have been published in a book available inworld (follow the link above for details).

At the beach

My body warmed by others packed tight, we sway together as we bounce
across waves, grey stones flicked from a distant shore.
Soaked by salt mist, dried by the wind;
sometimes we stumble; sometimes we touch the elbows of our friends, gently.
I think of seaside smells and try to find at least one in the air around me.
I try to find the sound of seagulls, but the birds are absent this morning.

These last few minutes of my life, I shall be certain to know them completely.
When my cheek ends up resting upon wet sand,
I will try to think of the waves washing up against my flesh
as water lapping over rocks, as it must.

The lifeguard's whistle blows, and we are jumping, splashing, wading.
Arms raised out of the water, we hold our spades above our heads.
We charge: golden sands and a pebble bank our objective.

Then, as I know it has to, the burning enters into me.
Once, twice, three times I am punctured, like a swift rap on the door;
punched, pierced by someone distant, who moves on.
My legs stop moving and my body begins to empty itself.
Just like that, it has happened. I stumble forward, my face smacks against the sea.

These last few seconds of my life, I shall be certain to know them completely.
Water is moving backwards and forwards through my hair, and I marvel
that waves still know how to work today. I breathe blood.
I find another to look at, we lock gazes for a few final seconds.
Our blood mixes in the waters between us.
I try to find the sound of seagulls, but the birds are absent this morning.

© Huckleberry Hax 2009

Update on 'Beside an Open Window'

2009-05-03T00:26:00.003+01:00

'Beside an Open Window,' my fifth novel, is now a few words short of 35,000 words long. Bearing in mind that I usually hate everything I've ever written by the time I cross the 30k mark, the fact that I'm enjoying writing this book as much as I am feels to me like a good omen. I'm going to take my time on this, and it's probably going to end up being quite a long novel too. As a bit of an experiment, however, I've started reading from it already inworld. On Thursdays, I'm reading for a whole hour at Milk Wood (see links on the right-hand-side panel) and I also usually read a ten minute extract each week at the Writers' Circle meeting in Cookie. Do feel free to come along and listen if you would like to. The feedback I've had so far has been wonderful, but I'm up for some 'critical bite' also, if anyone wants to offer it.

Off the Shelf

2009-04-01T00:29:00.004+01:00

I get a mention in the latest edition of Off the shelf, an audio podcast by Bookstacks managers Kghia Gherardi and Simeon Beresford. The episode features an excellent interview with Persephone Pheonix, with whom I am currently working on the Blue Angel Landing poetry anthology (together with Shara Levenque). We're hoping the anthology will be ready by mid-April to coincide with National Poetry Writing Month; it will feature poems which have been read aloud at the weekly Blue Angel open mic event.

The podcast is free to download, just click on the link above.

Great showing for 'Just so that you know' launch

2009-03-27T22:02:00.007Z

A big thanks to the twenty odd people who turned up last night to listen to the first part of 'Just so that you know'. For those of you who missed the launch event but wanted to come, here is a video of the entire reading, courtesy of SL machinimist Geo Meek!

Coming in one week: Just So That You Know

2009-03-20T00:21:00.004Z

Just so that you know, the sequel to Be right back, will launch at Milk Wood next Thursday, 26 March at 3pm SLT. What happens to Spencer on the platform in Le Havre? Who is Tsyin Tii and what happened to Sarah Cassidy? The truth - I promise you - is more terrible than you could imagine...

I will be reading an abridged version of the novel over the coming weeks at Milk Wood on Thursday evenings, so if you would like to hear the tale unfold, present yourself at 3pm sharp next Thursday for the first installment, and you'll be able to download to take away with you a shiny new PDF of the entire novel by the end of the session.

Adult content to be moved to new continent in SL

2009-03-15T11:27:00.002Z

Perhaps it's their attempt to do something about that 'snigger' element there is assigned to SL when it comes up in casual RL conversation ("Second Life? Isn't that where people, well, you know...?"). How Linden must hate the sniggering. So adult content (read 'sex clubs') is to be moved to a seperate continent. Already dubbed 'The Ghetto,' the proposed continent has - hardly a surprise - the stalwarts out in their fury (current number of replies to just the continent forum thread - there are other proposals too - is over 900). No, it won't mean you have to get rid of that refrigerator with the naughty poseballs you keep in your skybox; as far as Linden is concerned, this is all about visibility and therefore public acceptibility. Personally, I hate the sniggering too, but perhaps the problem lies with what makes people snigger, rather than the thing they think they're sniggering at.

Read the original blog post here. The discussion links are at the bottom of the post.

New look blog

2009-03-07T19:07:00.003Z

So I discovered third party Blogspot templates. Much messing about later, and here you have the final result, save for a few tweaks needed here and there (like why the comment boxes display in Spanish...). Hope you like it!

New novel in progress

2009-02-21T09:47:00.003Z

If you enjoyed The Day is Full of Birds you might be pleased to know I'm working on a new sci-fi metaverse novel. 'Beside an Open Window' is now about 10,000 words in and I'm planning on adding to this at a fairly leisurely pace over the remainder of February and March, doing a writing month in April and then finishing off over May and June. The novel is set 50 to 100 years into the future and looks at how the metaverse might have developed by then. As with Birds, the book is third person and follows a more traditional narrative fashion, rather than the mixture of narrative and SL dialogue employed by AFK and Be right back.

The Day is Full of Birds (2008) by Huckleberry H. Hax

2009-02-05T21:11:00.003Z

I can see the metaverse; I can perceive it... I see dust. I see shadows. I see things moved by the wind. I see the wrinkles around your mouth and eyes, George; I hear your breathing. I see the way your eyes move in time with the way your intonation goes up and down. And then, in an instant, I see only pixels again.

1989. Europe is poised on the brink of revolution; or is it? Two decades later, the consequences of one small event have turned a world on the brink of peace into a world that is hurtling towards war. Only Henry, a loner in both the real world and the online world he visits, has the power to roll everything back. As tensions between America and the Soviet Union escalate, Henry's worlds start to merge, taking him back towards a moment in his history he has spent most of his life trying to forget.

Available formats:

Paperback: £8.99 Hard cover: £13.99 Ebook: $0.99
PDF: Free Online (Flash): Free

I would be delighted to hear your comments on The Day is Full of Birds, if you have read it. If you would like to give feedback, please leave it as a comment to this post (anonymous posting is enabled; you do not have to sign in to anything in order to leave a comment). Ratings/reviews on Smashwords and/or Lulu if you've bought ebook or print versions also help me enormously.

'Be right back' launch event: 22/01/2009 @ 3pm SLT

2009-01-15T23:33:00.009Z

To celebrate the launch of 'Be right back' I'll be reading in voice a selection of extracts at Milk Wood on Thursday 22 January at 3pm SLT. 'Be right back' is a novel set partly in Second Life and partly in the real world. Come along to hear some of the musings of Texter Triste as he sits in Redclaw Station and watches the regulars, looking for clues...

Hard Luck stories

2009-01-03T02:41:00.003Z

We've rescheduled our hour of stories about 'Hard Luck', my fictional SL detective, to 3:30pm SLT on Tuesday 6 January at The Blue Angel. Hope to see you there.

Be right back - now available

2008-12-22T21:52:00.004Z

Be Right Back is my third metaverse novel, and you can now pick up your free PDF copy here. I hope to be doing readings (exerpts) in the new year, so watch out for dates. In the mean time, enjoy the story and have a happy holiday. :)

An hour of Hard Luck

2008-12-08T09:16:00.004Z

Having just put the finishing touches to a new Hard Luck story, 'Did Dandelion Dickens die?', and thereby bringing the total number of stories so far written about the Second Life detective to three, I thought it might be a good idea to package them up as a special Christmas reading event. The provisional details for 'An Hour of Hard Luck' are that it will take place at The Blue Angel on 16 December at 3:30pm SLT (but check here for confirmation closer to the date or join my inworld group for details to be sent to you) and will feature Persephone Phoenix reading 'If the right guy is listening' (which is written in the female voice) whilst I will read 'Protecting Blackberry Pie' and 'Did Dandelion Dickens die?' In truth, an hour might be stretching it a bit, but if 45 minutes sounds good to you, I might even find a private eye outfit to wear ;) Please note, this event has been postponed... a new date & time will be posted here ASAP.

Join my group

2008-12-08T09:06:00.003Z

In a moment of narcissistic madness, I have created a Second Life group for followers of my work. I will use the group to make announcements inworld about upcoming readings and new fiction 'releases'. The group is called 'Huck's news' and the best thing I can think to say about it is you get to have the tag 'What the Huck?' above your head when you're running it as your active group. Yes.

Interview in Role magazine

2008-12-01T22:32:00.004Z

I've been interviewed by Harriet Gausman for Role magazine, the first issue of which (December 2008) is now out. I'm really, really pleased with this, it's a six page piece and easily the best questions asked of me so far :)

Done and... done

2008-12-01T22:20:00.004Z

Just so that you know crossed the 50,000 word mark at about 10:30pm yesterday evening, thumbing its nose at the 90 minutes remaining for National Novel Writing Month 2008. God, this one has been hard. I haven't had the chance to review Be right back yet, and I need to take a few days to adjust to normal life again, but you can expect to see it in time for Christmas.

Number one download!

2008-11-28T07:59:00.005Z

According to Hastings Bournemouth this Wednesday at the weekly SL Writers' Circle event in Cookie, my short story 'Protecting Blackberry Pie' (featuring SL detective, Hard Luck) is currently the most downloaded title on the Writers' circle website. I'm a bit chuffed about this. Well, more than a bit, actually :) Thanks Bournemouth!

Farewell, Lively...

2008-11-20T21:13:00.004Z

In this post I mentioned the launch of Google Lively. If you haven't got around to sampling it and want to, you had better do so quick: as of 1 January, it will exist no more. See here for more information.

NaNoWriMo details

2008-11-08T10:11:00.003Z

I've updated my profile at www.nanowrimo.org. If you would like to read an extract from the novel I'm currently working on, head over to www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/204899. You can also become my writing buddy there. Sweet :)

One down, one to go

2008-11-01T10:48:00.003Z

Last night I put the final words to the first draft of 'Be right back'. I'm not planning on editing it heavily - it is as it is - but I would like to leave it to 'settle' for a couple of weeks before putting it online, so expect to see the PDF up mid to late November.

Today I start the second part of the story, a novel called 'Just so that you know', which will be my novel for NaNoWriMo this year.