{"id":1275,"date":"2021-02-27T14:48:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T19:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2021-02-27T21:29:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T02:29:18","slug":"life-on-the-second-life-book-club-2242021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicolewillson.com\/blog\/life-on-the-second-life-book-club-2242021\/","title":{"rendered":"Life on the Second Life Book Club, 2\/24\/2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So late last year, my publisher\u2019s publicist (heh, that\u2019s fun to say) contacted me with a very interesting offer: I\u2019d been invited along with two other Parliament House authors to appear on the Second Life Book Club in February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d heard of Second Life<\/a>, a huge online virtual world,\u00a0<\/span>but had never tried it myself. I knew nothing of the book club, but after looking at the videos that host Bernhard Drax (aka Draxtor Despres) sent us, I knew this was going to be a good time, and probably unlike any other appearance I\u2019ll ever make as a writer.\u00a0The book club has only been running since April 2020 but in that time Drax has hosted some really big names: Larry Niven, Matt Ruff, Cory Doctorow, and LL McKinney, for example.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In December, Drax hosted an onboarding session where he walked me through the set and the controls. Because we\u2019d be appearing as avatars, he asked me to send him ideas for how I wanted my avatar to look. I decided I wanted to resemble Ada Oliver, the antagonist of Tidepool<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Who am I kidding? I\u2019d dress like that\u00a0all the time if I could get away with it and afford all that vintage goodness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I attended the SLBC\u2019s Year End Hang Out<\/a>\u00a0and was surprised when Drax called on me to talk to everyone a little about myself and my writing. But it was a great group of people, and I felt pretty confident about February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the day of the Parliament House panel, I appeared with E.M. Wright (Sedition<\/i><\/a>) and Sean Gibson (The Part About the Dragon Was Mostly True<\/i><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I’m my antagonist, E.M. is dressed like her MC (right down to one cybernetic arm), and Sean is a big rock creature. SLers created a female rock girlfriend in the audience for him. Hee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You probably can\u2019t see it (I didn\u2019t until Bill sent me screenshots), but those green statues on the table were little Cthulhus. I\u2019m pretty sure they were there as a nod to Tidepool<\/i>. Cthulhu does not show up in Tidepool<\/em>, but he wouldn’t feel out of place there either.<\/p>\n

Something else the SLBC did I thought was amazingly cool: a Lord Below reading an excerpt from Tidepool<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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at 12pm Pacific \/ 8pm GMT = @parliamentbooks<\/a> authors [@Gibknight<\/a> @EMWrightWrites<\/a> + @insomnicole<\/a> on the @SecondLife<\/a> Book Club >>> fantasy, steampunk AND of course COMSIC HORROR = we may even get a reading from a Lord …. don’t be late >>> https:\/\/t.co\/p5ANX9KoGe<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/jtNiUZsgQO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 draxtor\u2122 (@draxtor) February 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n