A New Look, Readings and RFL

I mentioned last week that I had some pictures taken by Heather Hill, and right over there is the first of them. When I first started in the business, the only authors who needed pictures were the ones with big hardback books. Now everyone seems to want them. I guess it’s a mark of how much more visual our society has become—which some would see as code-wording for “less literate.” I really don’t think that’s the case, it’s just a shifting of taste and as long as I have a brilliant photographer making me look sharp, I’m good with it.

On Thursday evening, at 6 PM Pacific time, I’ll be doing a reading of my new story, Chance Corrigan and the Tick-tock King of the Nile in Second Life. Second Life, as I’ve mentioned before, is free, graphically-based chat software which supports voice-chat. I’ve been using it for over two years now for readings, classes and just chatting with folks during my weekly Office Hours.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the software, and registered with Second Life, you can click this link to be teleported to where the reading will take place. That same link will bring you to where I have office hours. There you can ask questions about writing, and get my take on issues facing writers each Wednesday evening. (Though not this week, since it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I’ll be out listening to music.)

I noted above that Second Life is free. This is true, but it does have its own economy. You can purchase game dollars to spend on all sorts of stuff. I mention this because the reading on Thursday is part of our effort to raise money in conjunction with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Second Life has been very supportive of RFL. Last year we were part of the effort which raised over a quarter of a million dollars for cancer research. It was during RFL last year that I lost my very good friend Dave Arneson to cancer, bringing home both the tragedy of the illness, and the need to fund research.

Last Saturday I did one reading as part of the Bookstacks organization’s Horrorfest. Instead of taking tips, I put out an RFL kiosk for donations. During the reading we raised about 3,000 game dollars, which boils down to about $12 US—25 game dollars is about a dime. As with that reading, the reading on Thursday will be to raise money for cancer research.

And to forestall questions in the comments section, no, I won’t be recording the reading to an MP3 file. The story contract actually prohibits that for a year after the story is published. The only way you’ll hear it is to come to the reading.

During the RFL season, I’ll also be doing two other things:

Classes: By request I will be offering the same classes I do at Origins, Gencon and DragonCon as fundraisers for RFL. The classes will cost 2,000 game dollars (or $8 US, which is what you’d pay at the convention). First one up will be my 21 Days to a Novel class on April 17, at 3 PM Pacific time. It will run two hours.

Readings from At The Queen’s Command: I’m really excited about this prospect. I will be reading from my new novel, At the Queen’s Command, on a series of Friday evenings. The first is April 9, the second is April 23. And here’s the deal. I will stay and read as long as folks want to stay and donate. You’ll get about four chapters an hour. There’s 71 chapters in the book, and RFL runs through early July. In about 25 hours I figure we can get through the entire thing, all 192,000 words.

For RFL we’ll have a lot more stuff going on in Second Life, including auctions for things that you can use in the game or have fun with in your every day life, like autographed books and the chance to enjoy literary immortality as a character in a story. Not only is it for a good cause, but it’s also great fun.