Our Facebook presence will help members communicate with each other in a more social manner, in addition to keeping abreast of the workshop’s schedule and discussion topics.

Why not drop by and introduce yourself?

The Fair will host a diverse collection of Second Life merchants, all of whom work under the strict policy of producing original material and honouring all copyrights, trademarks, and protected properties of others.  That means no Superman costumes, no Coke ads, no ‘borrowed’ textures or prims (the building blocks of the virtual world).  Everything must be creator-owned and created from scratch.

Our workshop will be offering several pieces of fiction, art, clothing, costumes, and furniture.  All of which has been lovingly created without compromising the rights of others.

The fair was the brainchild of The Artist’s Voice, a group of merchants who have banded together to promote their own creative rights, as well as the rights of others…many of whom may not realize that their products, likenesses, or copyrights are being infringed upon.  Promoting a campaign of awareness over enforcement, The Artist’s Voice hopes to gain support from retailers and customers alike, to curb the rampant abuse of protected material throughout the virtual world.

Please join us in supporting this wonderful cause and enjoy some of the best shopping on the grid!

Both Nancy and Sherry are long-time members of the workshop and both are amazing artists, so when Nancy came to me and volunteered to come up with a logo, I jumped at the chance.

What you see to the left is the final incarnation of the logo, which was actually the seventh go around (hey, seven is a lucky number!).  Luckily for me, Nancy was an amazing sport about the whole thing and calmly accepted all of my suggestions for change.  She also added a whole lot of her own and I think her talent shines through!

Sherry’s contribution came in the form of the planetscape artwork.  Sherry is an amazing digital artist and her work perfectly captures the speculative theme of the workshop.

It didn’t start out so polished though…in fact, this was the first draft:

The foundation is there, but it’s not quite a finished logo either.  They grey was stolen from the original logo, but it looks drab and unappealing here.  The group name is lost in the border of the logo as well, which doesn’t help to link the two brand names.

Which brings us to the fifth iteration:

We’re much closer to the end product here.  The colour has been set and the artwork has been added, both of which make a world of difference.  The workshop’s name has also made it into the logo itself and is more prominent but, this time, it seems like it’s floating there…not really attached to anything.  There was also some concern over the font being used…

Which brings us to try number six:

This version sees a slight change in the boldness of the Quillian font (something that won’t make it to the final version) and adds a drop shadow to the smoke plume rising from the ink-well.

The font used for the workshop name (the same as the Quillian name) is too small and too elaborate to read easily, so it will be discarded in the final version in favour of a simpler font.

The whole process took awhile to work through, but Nancy did an amazing job!  Now, the name Quillian has a visual companion that really helps us brand the workshop and gives the whole membership an identity.

The group is well enough established now, with some quality work being done and with some writers on the verge of becoming ‘authors’, that I wanted a name that was both memorable and easy to say.  One contest later, and our winning name emerged…

The Quillians!

n. Quillian  A member of the Fantasy & Science-fiction Writer’s Workshop.

The winning name came from the mind of Chuck Heintzelman, one of our established members.  There were a few challengers, but I chose Chuck’s entry because it had that right ‘ring’ to it and it passed the ‘Google Test’.  Meaning, it was relatively unique and unused by rival workshops (because, Heaven forbid, there be confusion over what it meant to be a Quillian!).

So, from now on, you’re as likely to hear me call my workshop by the Quillian name as you are by its longer ‘birth’ name.  Which, I think, is just fine by me…

How to ThiNC

Yesterday, my new book, How to THiNC, A Guide to Creating & Publishing a THiNC Book, was released in Second Life. The big release was tied into the companion seminar to the book, which…hopefully…helped other writers with their own goal of self-publishing in Second Life.

This is a new foray for me…electronic publishing…but, if yesterday’s comments and sales turn out to be more than simple platitudes, then it will be a lasting one.

How to THiNC grew out of a need, both for myself and my workshop members, to learn the process of publishing in the virtual world.  THiNC is one of the few companies in Second Life to offer publishing tools, and really the only one who offers a first-life analogue (meaning their book looks and feels like a first-life book).

In teaching myself how to use the THiNC publishing system, I experimented with image sizes and resolutions, fonts and image-types, and word processors and graphics editors.  I certainly wasn’t an expert before I began this process, but I’d like to think I became one along the way.  That said, I’m sure that there is more I have to learn, and maybe even some things I got wrong, but the information in the book stands as a comprehensive overview of the whole process.

While I’m pleased at the reception the book has received, I’m very pleased with the turn-out at the seminar.  While we didn’t quite “crash-the-sim,” we certainly filled it.  The crowd wasn’t just members of my own workshop, either…the seminar drew in quite a few members of Third Life and FarPoint Media too.  I think there were even a few people there who were drawn in by word-of-mouth, and not any association to my group at all!

Over 75% of the people attending the seminar purchased my book.  To each of them, I say “Thank you.”  I hope that you find it useful in helping you to make your own books.

How to THiNC wasn’t supposed to be my first book to be published in Second Life.  That spot was meant to be reserved for Body Language.  Before I could publish Body Language, though, I had to learn the publishing process.  How to ThiNC grew out of that…  Now that it’s done though, my focus returns to my now-second book.  Hopefully you’ll see it in about four weeks from now!

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Oh, and the seminar has received its first review as well! Pamqui Vita wrote about the seminar and the book on his Spanish-language blog, Profesionales de la Información en Second Life.

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For those of you using Second Life who would like to find my workshop and my book, just follow the slurl to the F&SF Writer’s Workshop Storefront.  It will be on display from October 15th onwards…

As I mentioned before, Second Life (SL) is a virtual world that rivals our own in terms of the myriad possibilities open to us. Really, the only limit is your own imagination.

Many “residents” of SL are happy to call it a game. It certainly shares many traits with MMORPGs already cramming the interwebs that waste untold man-hours every day, but the differences are what I want to focus on.

See…unlike the people who joined SL to play a game…I joined the community to learn and teach. I didn’t know much about the “game” aspect of SL. All I knew is that real-world people were using the program to connect with other people like me. Those of us stuck in the small towns, or the big ones, for that matter. Those of us who would benefit from a more diverse community than our home towns allowed.

In my “first life,” I was only able to attend writing seminars at annual conventions. Professional, and local, workshops were out of the question as well. Using SL, however, I am able to bridge the gap between my office desk and the industry professionals who can help me the most.

When I heard from Mike Stackpole that he was developing a free, writer-based community using Second Life, I had to check it out. With thoughts of easy access to workshops, networking possibilities with other industry professionals, and potential new-media publishing possibilities, I signed onto SL for the first time and found that most of my expectations were met.

Setting aside the fact that I was blown away by the scope of SL, I found that it offered a lot of potential for advancement within my targeted field of writing. There were industry professionals, there were writing groups, there was lots of marketing being done, but there was also room for improvement.

Mike had been working hard, not just marketing, but publishing inside SL as well. He had also begun the early-days of community-building with the founding of Third Life Books alongside his friend Kat Klaybourne. The Third Life concept was to bring first-life people into SL for the purpose of making something bigger than either of those individually (first life+second life=third life).

Nearly a year has passed, since those very early days, and Third Life has grown into a fully realised community. Third Life Books has now expanded to include FarPoint Media, a group of first-rate podcasts, Third Life Interiors, offering furniture for your virtual home, and various resources for the newly-minted resident.

I am happy to say that I also play a role in this new community. Not content to wait around for things to happen, I took the initiative and, with Mike’s and Kat’s help, began to organise the Fantasy & Science-Fiction Writer’s Workshop. The workshop is a real-world tool for real-life writers to meet, network, discuss, learn, and teach. This is a group of serious writers who, for one reason or another, have found that using SL as a learning tool works for them.

In future posts, I hope to tell you more about Third Life Books, the F&SF Writer’s Workshop, and my experiences in Second Life. For now, if you’re interested, you can check out our workshop bio by using the link at the top of the page, or just clicking here.

So, rather than think of SL as a game, I suggest you think of it as a tool. As with all tools, what you do with it is up to you.

Second Life is a virtual world that, at it’s most basic, is a glorified chat program. It’s also so much more than that, though.

Last December, Michael Stackpole sent out an invitation for all his ‘followers’ to visit him in Second Life. With promises of writer’s workshops and industry connections, I thought I’d check it out. What I found actually amazed me.

I had heard about Second Life before but, even in my tech-savvy brain, I didn’t realise how advanced the interface had become. Assuming you have a decent enough computer, the virtual world of Second Life is pretty close to our ‘first life.’ If you can do it in the real world, you can do it (or a close approximation) in Second Life (yes, even that). Oh yeah, and you can fly too. How great is that?

Well, with a bit of a learning curve, I stepped into a new world and all of the sudden I saw the possibilities for myself. Instead of being stuck in a small, suburban city, the world became available to me. Writers from around the world could interact in real-time, sharing their work, offering critiques, marketing themselves, and even promoting their ‘real-life’ work. It is a very powerful tool.

If you’d like to join me in Second Life, you can download the viewer here. Once you’ve gone through a short tutorial on how to get dressed and move about etc… you’ll be able to visit the rest of the world. I suggest you begin your visit at Third Life Books by following this link and clicking on Teleport Now. This is a newbie-friendly area for writers and readers alike. It is also where I run my writing workshop (more on that later).

Second Life will take a bit to learn, and you’ll likely find yourself upgrading from the free service to the ‘micro-economy’ model before long. Doing so lets you buy some nicer clothes, a better body for your avatar, and some hair that actually blows in the wind instead of something that looks like it was made with plasticine, but all are worth it.

If you’re like me, you’ll be building stuff and meeting new people in no time. If you’re lucky, also like me, you may also find that someone special and get married in your Second Life. But that’s also a story for later…