Wastelands

One of the best examples of SL landscaping I've ever seen.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hambone%20Slash/231/133/76  Read more about 'Wastelands' here: http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/places-the-warden-post-at-malady-bog-and-the-wastelands/

Exploring Linden Realms

Here's my January column for AVENUE magazine.

Out of the blue at the very beginning of December (apparently it was available to premium users previously, but where Linden announced this I have no clue), came a potential new paint job for Second Life®.  Linden’s latest idea, ‘Linden Realms’, is “the Lab's first-ever game prototype… dodge rock monsters and fierce fireballs as you cross deadly, toxic rivers to complete quests and cash in your crystals for Linden Dollars.”  What’s notable is that (at the time of writing, at least) this venture is apparently so significant to LL that the Linden Realms logo currently displays on the SL home page with equal prominence to the regular SL logo, and over a full page Linden Realms poster.  The newcomer to www.secondlife.com is now shown our metaverse as consisting of cartoon style fairies, rocks and evergreens.  At the moment, this is the very first thing they see.  Not wanting to be part of that crowd that unleashes the hounds of blogosphere fury every time Linden have the audacity to do something to try to grow their business, however, I decided to give Linden Realms a go. 

Your clothing is still downloading... now available in Kindle format

Today, I converted my latest novel, 'Your clothing is still downloading', to ebook format via Smashwords.  It is available in all major ebook formats, including ePub and Kindle.

For a limited period, the smashwords ebooks for this title will be free.  I'm going to be increasing the cost to $0.99 at some point over the next few weeks to co-ordinate with the ebooks I'll be creating and selling via Amazon ($0.99 is the lowest price you can set for a book at Amazon, I've discovered today).  So, if you're an ebook reader, grab your copy ASAP!

Head over to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/125651 to get your copy.  You'll need to connect your Kindle to your computer in order to transfer the book (fiddly, I know; hence my decision to sort out distribution via Amazon).  Whilst you're there, check out my other titles, all of which are priced $0.99 (except for 'AFK', which is free).

Your clothing is still downloading... Chapter 11 reading

I've re-recorded and uploaded to YouTube the reading I did last night of chapter 11 of my new novel, 'Your clothing is still downloading', so if you missed it you can catch up here.  Why chapter 11?  It's a self-contained story in which Gerry, the main character in the novel, recalls the first time he met an SL lover in RL.  Enjoy!

Your clothing is still downloading (2012) by Huckleberry Hax

Did the internet, I asked myself, really expose hidden, but pre-existing identity?  Or did it create brand new identity that would never have happened without it?  Or was its ultimate function just to take whatever identity you'd managed to build and to tear it into tiny, unexaminable pieces?  Was Benjamin Burton just an evolution of his younger self – the guy I'd met at university who'd once told me he regarded marital fidelity as one of the most important pillars to the meaning of life – or was that man no longer in existence, replaced by a new human being who only happened to share a few of his memories?

What's a guy to do when his best friend asks him to impersonate him for an evening in Second Life?  What if the person he wants fooling is his wife?  And what if the impersonator has fallen in love with her before the week is over?

Your Clothing is Still Downloading is a Second Life novel from the author of AFK.

Available formats:

Print:	Paperback (231 Pages): £8.99
Online:	Issuu: Free	PDF: Free
ePub:	Smashwords: $0.99	Barnes & Noble: $0.99
	Kobo: $0.99	Sony: $0.99

Amazon Kindle: $0.99

Due to the way that Amazon operates in different countries, it's best if you obtain your copy of 'Your Clothing is Still Downloading' 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

Listen to Huck read chapter 11 here.

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Independent authors don't have large advertising budgets; feedback and ratings, therefore, are the most effective way to show that their work is being purchased and enjoyed. If you have enjoyed this novel, please consider leaving a rating or review at Amazon or whichever other service you obtained it from. It will take you five minutes and cost you nothing, but will help me enormously. Thank you :).

Connectives

As Michael Rosen is currently pointing out, ten and eleven year olds in the UK are currently entering into SATs revision.  I say 'entering into'... in fact, their whole educational life thus far has been in preparation for taking these tests.  'Literacy' has become about the analysis of short exerpts of other people's writing and the learning of rules and syntax.  And we wonder why people are scared of writing...

Here's a poem I wrote almost exactly a year ago.

Connectives
by Huckleberry Hax

He has homework about connectives.  *Connectives*.
He has to lay them out in a table.  Time connectives,
additional connectives. Causal connectives.  And I
have to bite my tongue so that I don't say, "What
the FUCK do they think they're doing?  Instead, I say to him,
"This is boring, right?" and he nods.  And shrugs, says,
"Still, it's got to be done."  I say, "When was the last time
you got to write a story?"  "Write a story?" he asks.
"A story," I repeat.  Just to write one out."  "Well,
we never get to do that," he replies, "not ever."  "Not
*ever*?"  "Not ever," he replies.  "Sometimes we get to
write a plan for one.  Or to describe a story character."

I despair.  I want to scream.  And he finishes his table
and starts work on the non-fiction paragraph they've
prepared with spaces for connectives to be inserted.
Literature will one day die because of the strangulation
of that which can be efficiently measured.  How's that for
a connective, you bastards?

(c) Huckleberry Hax
23/01/2011

Your Clothing is Still Downloading: Launch event

This Friday (20 Jan), I'll be making the PDF and Issu versions of 'Your Clothing is Still Downloading' available for free, and the paperback version available for purchase from lulu.com.  A Kindle version will follow.

To celebrate this, the launch of my sixth novel under the name Huckleberry Hax (and the fourth to be set in SL), I'll be holding an event at my venue, the Nancy Redgrave Building.  If you're free at 4pm SLT and fancy finding out about the novel, I'll be reading an excerpt from the book, a self contained chapter in which the protagonist recalls a real life meeting with his Second Life lover.

The Nancy Redgrave Building can be found here.

UPDATE

Thank you to all who came, listened to the end and gave such lovely feedback.  The novel is now online and can be found here.  I've also re-recorded the reading and posted it on YouTube.  Picture below by Taralyn Gravois.

A Modern Lover

I'll be reading 'A Modern Lover', a short story by D H Lawrence (which you can read online in advance here), on Saturday 14 January at 3pm at Nordan Art.  Hope to see you there, and be sure to spend a little time following the reading looking at some of the wonderful exhibits.  The current exhibition, which runs until 23 January, features work from Alizarin Goldflake, Piedra Lubitsch, Robin Moore, romy Nayar, Scottius Polke and Stephen Venkman.

UPDATE

This was a really great event, attended by more people than I'd expected.  At one point, the sim was full and people were unable to get in.  Thanks to everyone who supported the reading, and for your lovely feedback at the end.  Picture below from Flora's review.