Recently I received  a press release for MJ Rose, where it stated that she was hold­ing a author event/reading at Sec­ond Life on Sept 25th (yes, it’s already passed) for her lat­est release, The Rein­car­na­tion­ist, which is described as equal parts “mod­ern day thriller, his­tor­i­cal fic­tion and love story.” MIRA, an imprint of Har­le­quin, LTD was pro­mot­ing her book at Sec­ond Life. I was like: Sec­ond Life? What is Sec­ond Life? So, I googled it.

secondlife-postcard.jpgSec­ond Life (SL) is a vir­tual online com­mu­nity launched and opened its doors to the pub­lic in 2003. The com­mu­nity boasts some 9 mil­lion res­i­dents. It is a com­mu­nity com­pletely imag­ined and cre­ated by it’s “res­i­dents” or members.  It seems that pub­lish­ers like Har­le­quin are look­ing for a more inno­v­a­tive way to con­nect tech savvy read­ers with their favorite authors in the vir­tual world–from all over the globe.  I think it’s rather neat.  I’m sorry I missed this opportunity. I wouldn’t be averse to meet­ing an author in a vir­tual online com­mu­nity set­ting if I’m never to have the chance oth­er­wise in real life. I think this would be a great oppor­tu­nity for read­ers and authors alike.

The basic mem­ber­ship for Sec­ond Life is free. You can grad­u­ate up in ser­vices for a fee(one of the things you can do is own an island for $/month). I joined up with the basic mem­ber­ship, dis­abled every­thing, just to have a look around. The pic is me (my avatar is so not cute) and I know I need to work on my hair and wardrobe. You can click to enlarge the post card of me in SL. You have to down­load the SL client (make sure to review the sys­tem requirements) and it doesn’t sup­port Win­dows Vista.  I did a quick search and found sev­eral book clubs, cafes and such to chat about books with other read­ers online.  I’m sure some­thing like this is won­der­ful for those who are already online gamers (who make up the major­ity of the res­i­dents at SL). I’m a new­bie to this stuff but I’m learning.

As for book events, I’ll be on the look out for them. In fact I just received an email from the Ban­tam Dell Café that Diana Gabal­don will be doing a live read­ing of her newest release, Lord John and the Broth­er­hood of the Blade (which I graded an A) on Thurs­day, Octo­ber 11 @ 6 PM SLT at the Amphithe­atre on Ban­tam Dell Island. I hope to be there if I can fig­ure out how every­thing works in this 3-D dig­i­tal world.

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