Have you got what it takes to become a Gridnaut?

A gridnaut is an avatar who crosses over from one virtual world to another. The idea of moving between virtual worlds (not regions) is one used in both AFK and The Day is Full of Birds (probably time for me to start using some new ideas, then). Linden and IBM have been very vocal about their collaboration on a project to enable this, and recently a group of keen researchers made the first teleport from Second Life to another virtual world. Read more about the project here.

Protecting Blackberry Pie

Over the last few weeks I've been putting together a few short stories about the adventures of a Second Life detective called Hard Luck. Fans of AFK will probably like these. The first story, 'Protecting Blackberry Pie', was debuted yesterday in a reading at The Waterstage in Cookie. You can download the story from this page on the Written Word website (scroll down the web page about halfway for the link and a very cool graphic image by Hastings Bournemouth).

AFK gets an ISBN

It's astonishing how easily pleased I am. The addition of a bar code and a 13 digit number (978-1-4092-0664-4, to be precise) to the back cover of AFK has me positively beaming. To celebrate, I've gone through AFK with a magnifying glass to get rid of all those pesky typos I discovered *after* I originally published it at www.lulu.com (Solange, please note - I've sorted out the whole lose/loose thing too; thank you for drawing my attention to that). Version 1.1 of the paperback version is launched today (I'll update the free PDF version soon also); it's available now from lulu, but in six weeks or so, it should be available from Amazon. Yes!! Be certain I will let you know, the *exact* moment that that happens :)

Click here to check out AFK's page at www.lulu.com.

Look Lively, Linden

In the alternate world of The Day is Full of Birds, we learn that the metaverse there was started in a product called 'Parallel Life', which went "bankrupt when Virtuosoft had launched its new, competitor product. [This] had been the pioneer platform that had started the whole thing off, and the big boys at Virtuosoft had seized upon the inevitable slowing of momentum that had left residents frustrated and angry, and waiting for a competitor."

I've been convinced for some time now that the metaverse *must* be something that the likes of Microsoft and Google are watching very closely. And so, two days ago, Google launched it's new online world, Lively. In no time at all, the new CEO at Linden had written to Second Life residents this letter, promising big improvements to stability and an entirely redesigned viewer. He promises that there are big things to come in the metaverse over the next few years, and I think he might be right...

Reading at Milk Wood

I've been asked to read aloud The Day is Full of Birds at Milk Wood, home to the Guild of UK Writers in Second Life. It's a very beautiful setting, managed by Harriet Gausman; the stone circle, where readings take place, creates one of the best atmospheres I've encountered in SL.

If you would like to come along and listen, I'll be reading on Thursdays at 3pm SLT. If you follow this link you will be taken in SL to Milk Wood.

Tensions escalate over anti-missile shield

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 pushes the planet into war. The missile shield issue is real and it continues to cause the relationship between east and west to deteriorate. Read about the latest escalation here.