dashPunk

• Networking:
  Meet established authors and network with aspiring writers.  Join writing groups such as: Bookstacks, Written Word, Writers Guild, The Guild Of UK Writers, Third Life & Farpoint, Inksters. These groups have book and writing events weekly. You can join in a writing workshop, learn how to write poetry, listen to voice chats hosted by authors or participate in text chats. There are also some groups that put on writing contests.  Visit Book & Publishing Island to go to book conventions and hang out at Writer’s Block Café and Bar, a local hang out for writers. Check out the writer and publisher booths and find out about publishing your work with a Second Life publisher. To get there, sign up for Second Life and click this link here.
• Writing:
  Write for a Second Life magazine like Anon Literary. These magazines pay in SL money, but you can use this coin to pay rent on a space to advertise your work or so you can upload advertisements to post on writing billboards.  To visit the home of Anon Literary and submit your work, follow this link here
  
• Advertise:
  Advertise your work by renting a room or booth on book and publishing island or another place where readers and writers frequent.  You do have to pay a small fee to rent out the space, but your ad is there 24-7 for anyone who passes by to see and investigate.  Some of the writing groups allot their members a small space on their land to display their work.  There are also many author spaces that have libraries and wouldn’t might putting your book on their shelf.  Just don’t be afraid to ask!
• Meet An Author:
  Every other Sunday at 2pm at the Red Sky Club, there is a filmed tv show called Meet An Author.  This show features a new author every episode.  You can attend, ask the authors questions and even ask to be on the show yourself if you have a book or project to pitch.  You can watch previous shows here:  To attend, you can click on this link here: 
• Meet Fans, Host Events:
  Author events abound on Second Life.  If you are an established author or podcast author, the opportunities are limitless.  Host your own group, invite your fans to gatherings where they can meet you, or help host author events by offering to be on panels.

If you are interested in building your fan base, Second Life is a wonderful place to do it.  The next big author event on Second Life is March 7th & 8th.  This weekend Horror Fest is being hosted by Bookstacks and offers you the chance to see an online convention first hand.  Authors scheduled to appear are: Second Life regular Michael A. Stackpole, Mark Eller from The Hell Hole Tavern, and Emerian Rich (that’s me) author of Night’s Knights Vampire Podnovel.  To get more info about this convention, sign up for Second Life and then join the group Bookstacks.

Get started and sign up for Second Life here

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Recently I had a chance to try out the chat community imvu.  I thought I’d share my first impressions with the dashPunk Community.

As far as chatting systems go, this one holds it’s own with most.  It is reminiscent of the old Palace chat and Excite bubble chat.

The screen is comprised of two sections.  Your chat window and avatar display and then your buddy column that basically looks like Yahoo Messenger.

For those of you who can not get on Second Life because of graphic card or memory issues, this may be a good alternative for you.  The av’s are very 3D and there are excellent shopping opportunities for you to make your av exactly how you want it to be.  When you begin, you are given a choice of many different av styles and a room or apartment where your av can live and chat.  The homes are able to be rearranged by the owner and can be updated by shopping as well.

Shopping points can be earned in the beginning by completing newbie tasks.  Or you can join and spend real dollars to get points.

The down side to this chat is that if you are used to easy to maneuver real life like chats and games systems like Second Life, you will be extremely frustrated with the lack of mobility your av has.  You can not walk or explore the rooms without clicking on a space and waiting for a chair symbol to show.  Then you can click the chair and you will appear in that next spot as if by magic.  There are also some glitches in the system that for some reason move your av from your sitting spot to somewhere else and it’s hard to find where you landed as the screen stays focused on your previous spot.  The chat windows are very laggy like AOL dial-up where several lines of type will show at once.

As far as I could tell, the only way you can get to other rooms is being invited by someone in the room or clicking a CHAT NOW button that plops you into random rooms.  This makes it pretty easy to meet new people, but unfortunately the community goal seems to be about hooking up rather than networking or meeting friends. 

Nevertheless, it is free to try, so if you’re bored and would like to try something new, you can download the software at http://www.imvu.com

I have to thank imvu member Roger for teaching me some of the basics and hanging with me while I got the hang of it.

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