Saturday 28 February 2015

REVEALED: Blue and black dress was white and gold all along

Image: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/white-gold-taylor-swift-kim-5240816
In a shocking twist to the weekend’s viral obsession over the colours of a seemingly innocent dress, it’s been revealed that the whole thing was a scam orchestrated by the illuminati.

A mystery source has revealed that the photograph of a dress which appeared to some viewers to be white and gold and to others to be blue and black was the latest in a series of manoeuvres by our secret overlords designed to make us feel helpless about absolutely everything.

“Primarily, this is done through the news media,” the unnamed person said. “Stories giving completely contrasting 'factual' accounts about an issue are carefully timed to a Fibonacci sequence, leaving viewers unable to reach an informed conclusion.  The end result is that people fall back on what they want to be true and cite articles consistent with this view to back up their arguments.  It’s a hi-tech version of ‘divide and rule’: everyone’s so busy arguing with each other that no-one notices the secret power hierarchy and what it’s up to.”

And the dress?  It was white and gold all along.  Knowing that the seemingly innocent initial post would go viral and that the vast majority of people would see the colours as they really were, illuminati puppet-masters then 3D printed a blue and black version of the dress to be modelled for the media.  “All they want is confusion,” said the secret source.  “A population that can’t even agree on what colours they are looking at is ready to be led by the nostrils into anything.  You probably didn’t even notice that the footage of the blue and black dress was actually shot in Second Life.  That’s how gullible you are.”

In other news unlikely to be read, reports that the blue and black dress was white and gold all along have been found to be untrue.

Leka

After a big event, it's always nice to escape to the countryside for some new air and a change of head space.  I've come to Leka, the latest simscape by Kate Bergdorf and which opens tomorrow.

As always, it's Kate's use of open space which is the first thing that impresses itself on me when I arrive.  The landing point is a small bike hire shop and you walk out onto a huge, open jetty.  The size of interiors in SL seems to be steadily shrinking whilst the big outdoors reclaims its majesty.  Increasingly, I find myself waiting for the Oculus Rift.



There are several fields of long grasses.  A walk along a cliff-top path leads to the space pictured above, which also includes a small wooden performance area.  Everything is very carefully placed.  Kate has arranged builds for SL creators that include Ionic, Apple Fall, Post, Culprit and The Domineaux Effect.



What I like most about this place is the slight edge of decay. I enjoy seeing and touching faded wood and gently rusting metal.  I enjoy this most when these old things are framed by plants and sunlight and soil.  It is a counterbalance between energy and entropy.  Leka, which Kate explained to me is a Swedish word for 'play', is a very sensory environment.  I can almost smell it.  My favourite spot is in the greenhouse next to the potting shed.  It evokes memories of long-ago visits to an elderly friend I once had in Cornwall.



There's a beach at the western edge of the island, where a windswept fence struggles to separate sand and sea.




And, of course, there are horses.

AFK #4 launched!

Thank you so much to all who turned up for the book launch - I was unable to keep count once I started reading, but I think we had close on 30 listeners at one point.  I'm pretty sure this is the largest SL audience I've attracted for a launch event.  And thanks again to Canary Beck for providing the venue and her amazing work on the book cover.

Thursday 26 February 2015

AFK, in Pursuit of Avengement (2015) by Huckleberry Hax

The door opened, quickly.  He was actually quite an attractive man.  He was slim and muscular, he had a square jaw and delicate fingers.  He was wearing a nearly open dressing gown.  "Hello, Mica," I said.  "My name is Thursday."  I pushed the Taser into his abdomen and sent him jerking to the ground.

THE VIRTUAL WORLD IS CHANGING.

And Definitely Thursday is struggling to keep up.  Once upon a time she tracked down metaverse cheats; now her job is to find the online criminals who would use the virtual world to con, rape and murder.

'AFK, in Pursuit of Avengement' is the latest entry by Huckleberry Hax to the 'AFK' series. See also 'AFK', 'AFK, Again' and 'AFK, Indefinitely'.



Available formats:

Print: Paperback (300 Pages): £8.99
  

Online: Issuu: Free


Amazon Kindle: $0.99

Due to the way that Amazon operates in different countries, it's best if you obtain your copy of 'AFK, in Pursuit of Avengement' from your 'local' Amazon website.

UK: amazon.co.uk USA: amazon.com France: amazon.fr Spain: amazon.es
Canada: amazon.ca Germany: amazon.de Italy: amazon.it Japan: amazon.co.jp




ePub: $0.99

'AFK, in Pursuit of Avengement' will be available from a number of different ePub retailers:

SmashwordsBarnes & Noble (TBC)Kobo (TBC)Blio (TBC)


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Thursday 19 February 2015

Book Launch: AFK, in Pursuit of Avengement - 26 Feb @ 3pm SLT



I'll be launching  the fourth novel in the 'AFK' series - 'AFK, in Pursuit of Avengement' - at Harvey's Bar, Basilique, on Thursday 26 February at 3pm SLT (the SLURL will drop you down just outside of it).  Please join me there if you would like to find out more about the latest entry in this story.  I'll be reading an excerpt in voice, and if you're a fan of the series up to now you might be interested in knowing this will be the section of the book which explains the twist at the end of 'AFK, indefinitely'.  I'll also be talking about a little experiment I want to run.

The book is currently in its third edit and looking likely to end up a little shy of 70,000 words - the longest by far in the series to date.  I'm confident that it will be finished by the weekend and ready for Kindle users to download by the 26th.

Hope to see you there!

Thursday 5 February 2015

The Tenth Novel...

My thanks to the incredibly talented Canary Beck for taking my cover photo and turning into the best-looking cover any of my novels have ever had.  Just take a look at it.  Seriously.  That's one of my books, that is.

AFK, in pursuit of Avengement is the fourth novel in the AFK series (and my tenth writing as Huck) and picks up the action from the unexpected ending at the end of book 3, AFK, Indefinitely.

The novel will launch in a couple of weeks in print and Kindle formats, with an ePub edition following soon after.  There will be an inworld launch event, the details of which will be posted here soon.

If you haven't read books 1 to 3, the first novel, AFK can be read here - and is a free Kindle download at Amazon.

Stay tuned!