As editor of a literary journal myself, I don’t get terribly bothered by rejections; I know how subjective, and sometimes downright irrational, editors’ choices can be.  (I’ve made more than a few crazy decisions myself!)  But I knew back in March, and even more so now, that writers of all genres should have the chance to find out about Second Life’s writing resources and community.  So when The Writer said an article about Second Life didn’t fit their editorial needs, I knew they were behind the curve of the 21st century.

A group of writers meeting recently at Story Mountain Center for Writers in Second Life with novelist Michelle Richmond (The Year of Fog and No One You Know)

In fact, I felt so strongly about spreading the word to other writers, that when the article was rejected, I decided to try a different approach — and this blog was born.  I also kept a keen eye on The Writer to see how long it would take them to catch up.

It took until the January 2009 issue, in which they published about 10 inches of copy titled “Second Life Explores Books Virtually,” as part of the monthly “Take Note” column.

But even though I’m glad this most-hallowed of writers’ magazine has finally revamped its “editorial needs” regarding Second Life, I’m still a bit disappointed in its lukewarm assessment: Book promotions in Second Life “are still infrequent,” the column concludes, and in the future, “writers may find themselves touring a virtual world.” (Emphases are mine.)

Hah!! There are so many author and writing events in Second Life each day, you’d have to retire from work and all other pursuits to attend them all!  Just the nickle tour of the writing landscape in Second Life reveals these activities:

• Second Life Cable Network (SLCN.TV) carries two regular shows (broadcast inworld and on the Internet) in which authors (including New York Times bestselling authors) are interviewed in front of a live audience in Second Life:  Authors in Your Pocket (with authors like Emily Giffin, Kristin Hannah, Tasha Alexander, Mary B. Morrison, Robert Gregory Browne) and Meet an Author  (with authors such as Paddy O’Reilly, Isabel Losada, David Boop, Michelle Richmond).
• Athena Isle Writers group meets regularly for informal discussions with published authors such as L.A. Banks, Michelle Richmond, Sarah Susanka,  Roberta Isleib, Michelle Gagnon.
• Novelists Michael A. Stackpole (Secret Atlas, Cartomancy, Star Trek novelizations), Paul Levinson (The Plot to Save Socrates, The Silk Code), and Jane Watson (Hindustan Contessa) are just a few authors who have established offices/bookstores in Second Life where they have regular office hours.
• Warren Adler (author of War of the Roses and many other novels) and Amazon.com teamed up in Second Life this year to provide a series of talks about the future of literary short fiction.  Adler announced the winners of his short story contest at one of those talks.
• Novelist and comic book author Warren Ellis, the award-winning creator of graphic novels such as Planetary, Transmetropolitan, and Fell, and author of the “underground classic” Crooked Little Vein, has just been hired by Reuters to write a weekly column for the Reuters Second Life News Center, starting in January.

Now that’s just the teeniest, tiniest tip of the iceberg of what I know — and I’m still discovering new people and activities in the Second Life writing community all the time.

I have personally met and had one-on-one chats with more published authors since entering SL in February 2008 than in the previous five decades of my life combined!

The one thing I haven’t yet discovered in Second Life (if you know about it, please tell me!!) is a central information source for writer-related events.  So I’m starting one right now!  I’ve collected all of the ongoing events I know about and put them on this Google calendar, which is freely available to the public:

The calendar will appear as a permanent sidebar on this blog, so you can always see it no matter what page of my blog you’re viewing.  You’ll also find the calendar on the Internet at this link.

Now for the fine-print (but in regular-size font):

• This calendar is nowhere near complete!!!  I’m extending an invitation to anyone who hosts or sponsors an event to add it to this calendar by emailing me or giving me a notecard inworld (my SL name is Alas Zerbino).
• If you host or sponsor regular writers’ activities, write to me about getting direct access to the calendar so you can add your events yourself!
• This is a totally unofficial calendar unconnected with any of the people, organizations, or places listed.  If something’s incorrect, if you don’t want your events to be included on it, etc., etc., just let me know!  My goal is to serve the writing community in Second Life, not to piss anyone off!!
• This calendar is not connected in any way, shape, or form with Second Life© or Linden Lab, the company that owns SL.

Within a short time, I will also create a feed from this Google calendar into a display at my homebase in SL, Story Mountain Center for Writers, where anyone can view it inworld at any time.

I also invite all of those interested in writing resources and opportunities in Second Life to spread the word about this calendar and let me know of other resources like this!

Oh — one last thing:  Despite their somewhat Luddite-like (”luddistic”?) approach to Second Life, The Writer magazine has always been, and remains, the one trade journal I read religiously — and will continue to!  I highly recommend it to all writers.

Second Life offers a whole new way of networking with other writers!

I nailed that dang word to the top of my list way back in the 1980s when business networking became the “in” thing. Suddenly, every business and professional group in the world was sponsoring “networking” sessions, which mostly involved walking around a big room full of people, handing out your business card to every warm body that passed by, and trying to look friendly, brilliant, experienced, top-of-the-food-chain, and approachable—all at the same time.  I was a small-business owner then, and “networking” was touted as the method by which small businesses became big ones.

As an introvert (and a not very driven businesswoman), I despised networking.  I grew to hate the word itself and excommunicated it from my vocabulary, where it lay lonely and outcast until its meaning morphed (for me) into computer networking, which meant access to the Great Information Source in the Cybersky (GISC)!  (All hail . . . or bow . . . or whatever you do in the presence of your self-created deities . . .)

Even so, the technical connotation of networking was the only one I’d acknowledge without a grimace.  But funny how the universe loves to slap us in the face with our prejudices!

Back in February of this year, by way of the computer network, I “accidentally” stumbled onto what became a paradise of fun and new experiences in the virtual world of Second Life.

Surprises awaited me ’round every corner:  using a toilet-paper gun to shoot rolls of TP, riding a “dancing cow,” drifting through the sky inside a big soap bubble! But what most surprised me about Second Life was what happened outside of it!

Little did I know that by wading into the shallows of Second Life, I would soon end up surfing the wild waters of the movement known as (pause for a gag) “social networking.”

Once in Second Life, I began to meet other writers—the famous, the infamous, and the vast unpublished.  Conversations, workshops, readings, classes, and meetings sprouted like, er, a “network.”  And among the many things I learned was how essential it is for writers to get connected to the Web-world via things like blogging and “Twittering” and joining Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like.

At a round-table discussion with author & marketing expert Elizabeth Yarnell (back right) at the Story Mountain Center for Writers in Second Life

Since these activities all involved my approved form of networking (i.e., prowling the streets and alleys of the Internet), I jumped right onto that bandwagon (or maybe “spaceship” is the better term??!!).

• From meeting Elizabeth Yarnell, author and Recipes for Publicity blogger, I learned that, as a writer, I absolutely had to start a blog.
• From author Aliza “Cybergrrl” Sherman, the famous Web pioneer, I learned about “social media” and Twitter.
• I met blogging and Facebook guru Teddy Gross, who taught me the basics of setting up a blog and convinced me to look at Facebook.

In less time than it takes to say “networking,” I had:

• Joined four “social media” sites and five “micro-blogging” sites!
• Begun posting regularly on five blogs!
• Registered at four or five “lifestream” or “social media aggregator” services!
• Joined three networks of blogs!

And it wasn’t until I’d was over my head in the social media waters that I learned I was now a more-or-less official “social networker” a la “Web 2.0.”

I was utterly and completely shocked!!

When I stopped to look, though, I could see those connecting threads weaving hither, thither, and yon, in circles and spirals and parabolas, until they connected up into a stunningly beautiful . . . yes, network! A network of friends, colleagues, peers, mentors, and playmates.

I was networking — and having a fabulous time doing it!

And all because of that initial curiosity about how to hold distance training programs using a funny Internet-based service called Second Life (see my earlier post on how that came about).

Once a network starts growing, I’ve learned, it finds the most interesting avenues to follow. So I shouldn’t have been suprised when I opened the latest issue of The Writer magazine (of which I’ve been a devoted reader since the mid-1960s, including during my anti-network years) and discovered in it an article by Beth Groundwater, a writer of mystery novels whom I met at an Athena Isle Writers meeting in Second Life. Beth had impressed me with her warmth, understanding, humor, and incredible support for us less-advanced writers, so I quickly turned to her article in The Writer.

But it took me a while to read further than the title—mainly because I was laughing so hard.  The article was published in the “Breakthrough” section where successful writers share how they made it.  The title?  Don’t laugh, this is for real:  “Networking, and more networking, did the trick”!

And what’s even funnier:  I agree wholeheartedly with what Beth says in that article!  (Also check out her article “Top Ten Rules for Networking as a Writer” on her website.) To make it as a writer in today’s market, networking is an absolutely essential key. I just thank the Great Information Source in the Cybersky (GISC) for sending me into Second Life, where I could slip unknowingly through the backdoor of the realm of social networking.

I’d love to hear from you now:

• Do you agree that networking is an essential tool, or do you think the whole trend is hogwash?
• How do you network (if you do, that is)?
• Have you had an experience when a decision or activity took you in a totally unforeseen direction?
• What do you think about the network of connections among people in general?

P.S. You can see how deep I am into Web 2.0 social networking by scanning the list of “Additional Blogs I’m On” and “Where to Find Me Online” in the sidebars at the right.  And do come find me on any of these.  I’d love to connect with you.

I’ve recently become the primary moderator for the weekly Second Life meetings of the Athena Isle Writers Group. Thanks to an awesome author/networker/Second Lifer-er Cybergrrl Oh (Aliza Sherman in First Life), the group attracts writing experts and successful published authors of the caliber of best-selling cookbook authors Elizabeth Yarnell and Janet and Greta Podleski, mystery writers Roberta Isleib and Beth Groundwater, and novelists Michelle Richmond and Michelle Gagnon.

When Cybergrrl offered to transfer this task to me, I thought, Hey, no problem. Long ago in First Life, I worked as the book editor of a newspaper and interviewed quite a few well-known authors. So even though I still get star-struck in the presence of acclaimed writers, I’ve learned how to hide it!

Well, you can toss those thoughts into the “famous last words” bin!

I quickly discovered that the hardest part of this job was not:

• A) coming up with intriguing questions for our guests,
• B) keeping to the schedule, or even
• C) ensuring the speaker had a glass of water.

No, the hardest part is . . . well, let me paint the picture for you. It’s just a few minutes before the meeting is to begin, and I’m greeting our guest, Famous Author:

ME: Hi, Famous Author! So glad you could come speak to us.

FAMOUS AUTHOR AS HER/HIS NEW AVATAR: Is someone there? Where are you?

ME: I’m standing behind you—just turn around.

FA: I don’t know how to turn around.

ME: Uh, sorry . . . I forgot you just arrived in Second Life like 5 minutes ago. You gotta use your arrow keys.

FA: Where are the arrow keys? I don’t see anything that looks like arrows on my screen.

ME: Ummm, the, uh, ones on your keyboard—on your computer.

• Conversation pauses as FA’s avatar begins moving back and forward, bumping into me, the tree, the sign with her photo on it, and finally falling into the canal.

ME: Oops, sorry.

• FA drags her avatar up out of the water, looking pretty grim.

ME: I wasn’t very clear, was I? The up and down arrow keys move you forward and backward; it’s the right/left keys that turn you around. (If an avatar could blush, mine would be a brilliant red by this time!)

• By now we’re standing in front of the Story Mountain Lodge, inside of which the Athena Isle Writers are gathering. I explain that we have to go inside, and begin walking. I click open the lodge’s door and waddle in. (Your basic SL walk is fondly known as the “duck waddle.”) FA hesitates, so she gets to the door just in time for it to slam shut.

FA (bumping into the closed door): How do I get in there? The door just shut in my face!

ME (blushing deep burgundy under my calm avatar skin): Just touch the door and it’ll open.

• Long pause; I consider going back out to fetch her.

FA: And just how do I make my arm move so it’ll touch the door?

ME (thinking this person’s gonna hate me forever for being so stupid): I’m so sorry—in SL “touching” something means you click your mouse on it.

FA (zig-zagging through the now-open door, only running into the walls and door jamb three times): Thanks for sharing. I hope this gets easier . . .

• And so we continue for the next few minutes. I remember to add key descriptors like “that table to the right of your avatar” instead of saying something dumb like “that table.” I apologize for being such a “newbie” host and explain it’s not my intention to be so rude. We go over a couple of things and then it’s time to sit down at the round-table.

ME: Have a seat now, FA.

FA: At the table?

ME: Yes—that table to the right of your avatar. (see?? I’m learning!!)

• FA’s avatar walks toward the table, bumps into it, then is suddenly standing in the middle of it, her avatar body cut in half by the table top. The others around her are “LOL‘ing” (avatar talk for “laughing out loud,” in case you didn’t know). I glance at FA’s avatar’s face, and despite the impossibility of it, I’m certain I see her skin turning red. I apologize profusely once again, and offer further assistance.

Umm, just how does one “take a seat” at the table?

ME: Oh, just click on the empty chair.

• FA’s avatar proceeds to zig-zag all over the room now, and I realize she’s trying to position herself next to the chair, as you would in First Life. By now my First Life self is sweating and shaking, and giving thanks to the heavens that we’re using text chat so no one can hear my shame-filled, shaky voice.

Uh, FA, I forgot to say that you don’t have to be near the chair—just click on it.

• FA does as I suggest, but by the time she’s right-clicked on the empty chair and chosen “Sit Here” from the menu that appears, another avatar has entered the room and sat down on the aforementioned chair. Hence, FA is suddenly sitting—rather suggestively, I might note, my heart sinking—on a strange avatar’s lap.
  By the time I’ve assured FA that sort of thing happens all the time in SL (which it does—or at least to me!), other more-together members of the group have taken over and guided FA through the process of taking a seat in Second Life.

  
  

  I hurriedly sit down myself and mentally review all my previous communications with her, hoping and praying that I never told her my First Life name, but realizing that I definitely did and feeling quite confident that she’ll remember my name with great disgust for the rest of her life, which means that because of the small-world of publishing, I can now kiss my own barely launched writing career goodbye.

  Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. What’s more, the truly awesome authors who have graciously braved the steep (but fast) initial learning curve in SL to share their insights with us have been exceedingly kind about my own steep (but much slower) learning curve on how to coach a guest on the basics of Second Life. The ones I’ve assisted so far have acclimated themselves quickly and seemed to have a good time. (See what last week’s guest, Elizabeth Yarnell, had to say about her experience on SL.) And the chance to meet and learn from so many experts in the field is unparalleled.

  But I have to admit that this has been one of the oddest things I’ve had to do to in Second Life—teach acclaimed writers,who I hold in awe and who by rights should be teaching ME, how to do things like sit down, turn around, and avoid walking through a table.