Monday, June 8, 2009

Second Life: A Place for Readers and Writers to Mingle


This is a picture of an author salon I attended last month in Second Life. You can just see me back in the corner on the left near the Soul of a Highlander poster. What is Second Life, you ask? It's a virtual world where you can do almost anything you do in "real" life. Most exciting, in my opinion, are the opportunities it presents to meet other readers and our favorite authors.

Getting started in Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) is relatively easy. You download it to your computer and create an account. It's free, and I haven't had any problems with viruses. You choose a generic avatar then, once you're in-world, you can get clothes, accessories, tattoos, basically anything you desire to personalize your avatar. You can also stick with the newbie avatar until you feel ready to "get a makeover". I just got mine yesterday. :0) The currency in Second Life is called Linden dollars, but there are many free items out there, so don't feel like you have to purchase Linden dollars right away.

Yesterday yours truly, along with two of my colleagues and friends, Melissa Mayhue (http://www.melissamayhue.com/) and Elaine Levine (http://www.elainelevine.com/), were interviewed in Second Life at a show for readers called Off the Shelf. You can listen to the interview here if you're interested: http://www.archive.org/details/OffTheShelf-Episode0007 . The Off the Shelf gang is an active group of readers who have interests that span the genres. They hang out at Bookstacks.

Another great way to mingle with authors is at author salons hosted by Melissa and Elaine. In fact, there's a salon this Wednesday with talented author/agent Lucienne Diver. It starts at 7 pm mountain time. It will be held at Melissa's booth. If you'd like to attend, get your account set-up, come into Second Life Wednesday night a little before 7 pm then send me an email or a message in Second Life with your SL name, and I'll teleport you to Melissa's booth.

You can also send me a message when you join Second Life. My in-world name is TJ Capelo. I can send you landmarks to my favorite reader and author places. Feel free to send me an email at Tiffany@TiffanyJames.net if you have questions.

Happy Monday, and I'll see you in Second Life!

10 comments:

Helen Hardt said...

Tiffany, this is all so foreign to me. I downloaded everything but now have no idea what to do, LOL. I'll have to talk to you, Melissa, and Elaine sometime at a CRW meeting.

Chiron said...

Hmm. Okay, I'm downloading and installing now. My Second Life name is Chiron Jules.

I'll look for you. Hopefully it won't be too strange since I was a mod for EA's The Sims Online.

See in SL!

Smiles,
Chiron
The Write Soul: www.chironokeefe.blogspot.com

Elaine Levine said...

Hi Tiff! We do have fun in SL, don't we? It's a great environment to meet up with folks. Our next author salon will be on June 17 (not this weds!). We're really looking forward to hosting Lucienne. We'll be having Deidre Knight at our August salon, too, so put that on your calendars. I love seeing authors take the plunge and discover new ways of reaching out to readers!

Dina said...

That looks so cool!

Lynnette Labelle said...

That's really neat. And I thought playing Yoville on Facebook was fun.

If you write romance, you might be interested in a contest I'm hosting on my blog right now. Check it out at: http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com

Lynnette Labelle

Tiffany James said...

Helen,

It felt very foreign to me for the first month or so. Then, all of a sudden, a few days ago it just clicked for me. Now I'm almost addicted. :) If you have any questions, you can always talk to me or Elaine or Melissa.

Maybe we should have a Second Life training workshop? :0)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tiffany

Tiffany James said...

Chiron,

I just accepted your friendship request in Second Life! I've never done the Sims thing, but I'll bet Second Life is similar.

Hope to see you soon in the virtual world!

Tiffany

Tiffany James said...

Elaine,

Oh, shoot! You're right - the salon is next week.

I agree. It's fun to watch our friends and colleagues jump on board. :0)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tiff

Tiffany James said...

Dina,

It is cool - albeit a bit strange at first.

Great to *see* you today and congrats on winning Roz's book. :0)

Tiffany

Tiffany James said...

Lynnette,

Great to *see* you here at Armchair Heroines. Second Life is great fun. :0)

I checked out your contest, and it looks intriguing. I'm not in the crit group market right now, but I'll send out a notice to my fellow authors.

Tiffany