Been recovering from both the Pennwriters Conference and the request for a partial from an agent, which meant that last week was mostly recovering from putting together the package and getting things back to normal. Well, sort of. For this household, that is.

Realised that I'd love to do a seminar for the next Conference on Second Life and what it can do for writers - NOT the usual "Oh, you go and PROMOTE yourself!" type of hype that you get, frankly, from everyone under the sun, but telling them what you can do in SL that'll help you as a writer.

Such as?

How about:

Tonight I'm attending a poetry discussion of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" in SL. Sunday I went to a lecture on Irish and Scottish Folklore. I've gone to poetry readings and author interviews with big-name authors who could take questions from the virtual audience filled with people from around the world. I've visited a replica of King Tut's tomb and been able to zoom in on the ancient artifacts and studied them while a recorded voice gave me the history. I've gone to a Bhuddist Temple and meditated with other people. And I've gone to a Space Park and watched the stars fly by and orbited an asteroid with beautiful music in the background.

All of which I would find hard if not impossible to do without SL. Sure, I've seen the workshops for authors and I've attended a few meetings of critique groups and so forth in SL, but it really comes home to me when I visit places set up just for promoting books...

... and they're empty.

Why? Because, as another blog pointed out to me, authors selling to authors is just plain boring. And nonproductive. Yes, you have to do that 'orrible "networking" thang but you have to reach out beyond other authors and get into the public eye where they are. Which is not on another author's blog or website or SL sim where everyone has a book for sale and you're trying to sell to each other. Socializing outside of literary circles will, at least, give you a wider audience. So if you can't get out of the house to hang out in a mall or a coffee shop or a library... why not do it in SL?

And... it's good for the soul. As authors we tend to get too wrapped up in ourselves and not get OUT enough, either mentally or physically - thus the Wii Fit and the EA Active in our living room. Mentally it's great to wander around New Babbage as a clockwork dragon and go to a lecture on Charles Babbage or visit a Victorian sim where everyone has excellent manners or go play in a casino to recharge those mental batteries... and then off to a virtual library to see the 3-D displays or hang out in a pub with other virtual people chatting about pianos and how the construction's changed of these fine pieces over the centuries.

You can't get that anywhere else. And it's good for the soul to reach out and get new experiences even if it's "only" in a virtual sense.

'Nuff said.
 

One of the things that always irks me about my supposed-good education is that every once in a while I literally trip over a HUGE gap in my knowledge that must be filled.

Thus, Walt Whitman.

I've been spending a lot of time in the Victorian part of Second Life titled Caledon and tripped across the library that has a variety of projects going on - Little Dorrit is the basis of next month's Book Club and they just started a discussion on Folklore of the British Isles by a Canadian Professor who thrills with her voice.

And, Walt Whitman.

Specifically, "Leaves of Grass", 1855 edition which is to be the topic of discussion for the next few months every Tuesday evening at the Caledon Library. I attended my first meeting last week and was absolutely thrilled/enthralled/terrified at the depth of conversation going on about just the PREFACE to the book.

So I rushed out to me local bookstore and picked up a copy because while I may like ebooks there are just some things that demand paper copy.

Wow.

Just.. wow. I'm not even through the intro and I'm knocked back on me heels.

And a little ticked that while I've heard of the man I've never really read any of his works. Which punches a hole in my education, as I said before.

But now I'm hanging with peeps who are into it. Along with many other classics that I wouldn't ever dream of picking up and studying alone.

I *heart* Second Life.

and, hopefully, Whitman.
 

One of the hardest things to do is review a poetry book – unlike nonfiction and fiction you cannot simply dissect bad grammar or spelling or moan at the sentence fragments because sometimes good poetry has all of the above. Or none of the above. It is just that hard to decide what "works" and what does not; one of the reasons I don't usually review poetry books.

Here is the exception: Never-Never Land by Adele Ward. Put out recently by Bluechrome Publishing, this is the first of what I hope is a continuing series of poetry books from a British Poet Who Gets It. And by It, I mean the ability to communicate with the masses without having them roll their eyes or fall into a coma.

The settings for the poems range from Italy across Europe and back to London, where the author weaves flawless images in different languages and gives the reader the gift of travel; the pictures clear in the mind's eye. Some of these poems have already been award-winners; taking prizes from the BBC and an international poetry competition. Others have been read on the BBC and are now compiled into an easy-to-read, at hand copy for anyone looking for an excellent addition to their collection.

Be warned, however – keep a box of tissue at hand. "Third Child" will tear your heart out even if you have never had children. The rest of the poems will have you smiling, laughing and enjoying poetry as it was meant to be – a great adventure for the reader without leaving the chair. An enjoyable read and a book I intend to revisit again and again!