Originals Fair
Coming up next week, The Quillians will be proud participants of the I (Love) Originals Fair in Second Life.
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!
The Quillian Logo
When I first blogged about The Quillians, we only had a name. Now, thanks to Nancy Waldman and Sherry Ramsey we have a logo to go along with it!
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.
Introducing…The Quillians
A couple of years ago, I started up a little writer’s workshop on Second Life. I thought it was important to have a place for emerging writers to go, even if they didn’t have a local writer’s group (as was my case). So was The Fantasy & Science-fiction Writer’s Workshop born. And ever since, I’ve found that name a mouthful!
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…
Wind River
Since its inception, the F&SF Writer’s Workshop has met somewhere near the home of Third Life Books in Second Life. Now, the fine folks at Third Life have sold off their land, moved onto their own island getaway, and rebranded themselves.
We are excited that our own workshop is making the jump with them and will, starting tonight, be meeting in our very own building in the Wind River Territory of Second Life!
I hope that this is just the first step in expanding our own brand, attracting new members and diversifying our offerings both in Second Life and out.
Hint Fiction, short and sweet
A few weeks ago, Mike Stackpole sent along a link to a new anthology that was being put together by Robert Swartwood for Hint Fiction. He challenged the writers in our group to see how many of us could make our way into the book. And who am I to turn down a challenge?
Hint Fiction is a story that is 25 words or less that “hints” at a far greater story than what is written in words. This forces the reader to become a part of the story by “filling in the blanks.” It’s not as easy as it seems at first, but it is very fun to write!
I’m sending in three submissions for the anthology, and I recommend to anyone who is interested, to do the same. I recommend reading last year’s winners and the background information offered on the page before you write, however, to make sure you understand the concepts involved.
www.robertswartwood.com – Hint Fiction
Reconstruction underway
My site was recently attacked by a virus of some type and was flagged and locked out by Google. It took some doing, on both my own part, and on the part of my wonderful host, KatAlley (who worked their butts off to help fix the problem), but I think we knocked it out for good. Unfortunately, I also lost some of my posts in the process (mainly YouTube links, I think)…
The virus apparently took hold because I wasn’t up-to-date on my Wordpress install, so that was the first thing updated. Of course, once I did that, I found that my theme no longer worked…so that’s gone too.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I hope to reconstruct much of what is missing (unless it’s just a meaningless link to YouTube) and choose a new theme to replace this ugly white default that Wordpress insist on pushing on us.
The virus is gone…no worries there…but I’m not. I’ll return stronger and better than ever, promise!
