It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.
Monday, April 29th 19:00: Paper Mage
Gyro Muggins reads Leah R. Cutter’s 2003 début novel.
Set in the Tang Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (about the time of Charlemagne in Europe), the novel tells us of the adventures of Xiao Yen, a young woman training to become a paper mage, a sorcerer with the power to endow folded creations with the semblance of life.
Because her gifts are in demand for the protection they can offer, Xiao Yen must leave behind her beloved family and their village home and embark on a dangerous mission when she is hired to protect a caravan. Yet even as she departs, she has no idea that this looming adventure will shape the very woman she is to become.
The story follows two timelines, alternating chapters between the caravan journey, where one of her fellow travellers is a goddess who charges her with a dangerous quest, and the story of her childhood training, when she lay caught between her aunt’s plans and her mother’s plans to have her married off.
Tuesday, April 30th 19:00: TBA
Check the Seanchai Library website for updates.
Wednesday, May 1st 19:00: Kaleidoscope
When a brilliant young violinist dies in a horrific accident, Madame Karitska has only to hold the victim’s instrument in her hands to perceive the shocking truth. But when an insecure wife asks whether her husband will abandon her to join a sinister cult, Madame Karitska–as wise as she is lovely–chooses not to reveal all that she foresees. And when an attaché case is suddenly dropped into her lap by a man fleeing a crowded subway, she knows it’s time to consult her good friend Detective-Lieutenant Pruden.
A nine-year-old accused of murder, a man dying a slow death by witchcraft– for the hunted and the haunted, Madame Karitska’s shabby downtown apartment becomes a haven, where brilliant patterns of violence, greed, passion, and strange obsessions mix and disintegrate with stunning, kaleidoscopic beauty.
With Caledonia Skytower.
Thursday, May 2nd
19:00: Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Cave Girl
Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones was not overly courageous. He had been reared among surroundings of culture plus and ultra-intellectuality in the exclusive Back Bay home of his ancestors. He had been taught to look with contempt upon all that savored of muscular superiority, such things were gross, brutal, primitive. It had been a giant intellect only that he had craved, he and a fond mother, and their wishes had been fulfilled. At twenty-one Waldo was an animated encyclopedia, and about as muscular as a real one.
And so we are introduced to Mr. Smith-Jones, the unlikely hero of this novel, set within Burrough’s Lost World series. Swept overboard during a during a South Seas voyage intended to ease his ill-health, Waldo finds himself carried ashore on a primitive jungle island, where all his book learning can’t help him survive, particularly in the face of the terrifying ape-like throwbacks to mankind’s early evolutionary history who live on the island, and from whom he continually flees.
And then he encounters – rescues, even, albeit mistakenly – Nadara, the titular cave girl. Regarding him a hero, she teaches him the arts of survival and her primitive language, taking him back to her tribe – who turn out to be Paleolithic cave people. If he is to stay among them, Waldo must prove his worth by fighting the strongest. He opts to flee instead.
However, as he spend more time in the jungle, gaining in strength thanks to Nadara’s teachings, he finds himself unable to put her out of his mind. So much so that when a ship finds the island, he refuses passage aboard her. Instead, more sure of himself than at any point in his life, he sets out to find the cave girl who believes he saved her.
With Shandon Loring. (Also in Kitely grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).
The Virtual Ability community in Second Life is hosting its eighth annual Mental Health Symposium on Friday, April 26, 2019. The theme for this years even is Mental Health in the 21st Century: Digital Destruction or Support? It features an international group of presenters will offer a wide interpretation of the theme, based on their interests and academic backgrounds.
Virtual Ability Inc (VAI) and the Virtual Ability community hosts this annual Symposium to share information about mental health and mental disabilities with the general population. Within this cross-disability community are people who deal with a variety of mental health issues. So, not only is this an opportunity for community members to learn more about topics related to mental health from experts they probably would not have an opportunity to otherwise meet, it also allows the general public to attend a professional conference for free.
08:30-09:30: Evelyn McElhinney is a Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University (Scotland) – The importance of positive health assets from participation in 3D social virtual world communities to living and coping with long term conditions in the physical world.
10:00-10:30: Antonius (Tony) J. van Rooij is Project Leader for Gaming, Gambling and Media Literacy at the Trimbos Instituut, the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht – Gaming, problem gaming, and gaming addiction in the Netherlands: An introduction.
10:45-11:45: Panel discussion – Life in a Digital Environment – with Michelle Colder Carras, Antonius (Tony) J. van Rooij, Nicholas (Nick) Bowman.
Noon-12:45: Nicholas Bowman is an associate professor at the Interaction Lab of the Department of Communication Studies, West Virginia University, US – How do I relate to me? The emotional demands of our online personae.
13:00-13:45: Michelle Colder Carras a public mental health researcher and informaticist – Video games, social interactions, and mental health: benefits and problems.
14:00-15:30: Kevin Holloway is the Director of Training and Education at the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda – Virtual World Training for Mental Health Providers.
16:00-17:00: Fatemeh Rezaee is a Ph.D candidate at Seoul National University – Designed Addiction.
17:00-17:45: casual mixer – an opportunity to chat about the symposium.
The Symposium takes place in Virtual Ability’s Sojourner Auditorium, on Virtual Ability island.
About Virtual Ability
Virtual Ability, Inc. is a non-profit corporation, chartered in the state of Colorado, USA. We are a non-profit tax exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. This means that for US citizens, contributions made are deductible as a charitable donation for federal income tax purposes.
For further information on the board of directors, please visit the Virtual Ability About Us page.
For those wishing to keep up with Virtual Ability news and updates when on the move, you can follow them on Twitter.
As a part of the Fantasy Faire LitFest, one day at Fantasy Faire is set aside to mark the life and works of popular writers of fantasy and science fiction. The roll call for this event so far reads:
2015: Terry Pratchett.
2016: William Shakespeare (marking the 400th anniversary since his death).
2017: J.R.R. Tolkien.
2018: G.R.R. Martin.
On Wednesday, April 24th 2019, the Fantasy Faire LitFest is celebrating the life and work of American speculative fiction icon, Ursula K. Le Guin, who sadly passed away in January 2018.
Ursula K. Le Guin by Eileen Gunn
Regarded as one of America’s foremost writers of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish Universe, and her Earthsea fantasy series, Le Guin’s career spanned 60 years. During that time, she produced more than twenty novels, over a hundred short stories and many volumes of poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children’s books.
Her first published novel came in 1966, with Rocannon’s World, after she had faced around a decade of having her work rejected by publishers. This novel formed the founding volume of her Hainish Cycle, the fourth volume of which, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), propelled her in the mainstream of science fiction, garnering her a Hugo and a Nebula award in the process – the first of many awards she was to receive throughout her writing career.
The Left Hand of Darkness laid down many of the defining traits found within Le Guin’s works, which often include themes of cultural anthropology, Jungian archetypes, philosophical Taoism, gender and sexuality, moral development, political development and systems, and general sociology, psychology, or philosophy.
Today, Le Guin is rightly regarded as a writer who did much to bring fantasy and science fiction forward as accepted literary genres, and her work, ides and style influencing many authors in both fields who followed her.
Ursula K. Le Guin day will be marked by a series of special events, comprising:
09:00-10:00 SLT: Exploring Le Guin: A Brief Tour and Discussion: a “tour” of Le Guin’s lands, via favourite passages from her books – suggestions invited. Moderated by Aoife Lorefield.
10:00-11:00 SLT: Aoife Lorefield Shares Readings from Ursula K. Le Guin.
15:00-17:00 SLT: A Wizard in Earthsea Party: The LitFest Ball.
And while discussing matters literary, don’t forget to cast your vote for this year’s King, Queen and Chancellor for Fantasy Faire 2019!
This fun (and fund-raising) activity lets Fantasy Faire visitors vote for the fictional characters (human in the case of King and Queen, strictly non-human in the case of Chancellor) they’d liked to see “crowned” at this year’s Faire. Voting is via donations to L$ Fantasy Faire, and this year’s nominees (selected by popular demand) are:
To vote for your favourite in each category, visit the voting board on The Celestial Plain. Here you can cast your vote via a donation to RFL of SL. Just right-click on the donation boards beneath the nominee(s) for whom you’d like to vote, and enter an amount of your choice to donate.
Voting for your choice of king, chancellor and queen – uright-click on the RFL donation kiosks, not the nominee images!
You can pay as much or as little as you want but the more you pay, the more chance your candidate has of becoming King, Queen or Chancellor, as the winners will be based on the highest amounts raised for the nominees in each group. You can also vote as often as you like, as this is a fun activity to help raise funds for Fantasy Faire and the KNH Hope Hostel.
Voting will close at 16:00 SLT on Sunday April 29th, and the results will be announced at the end of the Live Auction.
This week, Seanchai Library joins with Fantasy Faire to present stories of fantasy and science fiction throughout the week and the Fantasy Faire LitFest. Join them at the LitFest region of Trollhaugen.
Monday 22nd 19:00: Selections from the Works of Ursula Le Guin
Gyro Muggins presents selected excerpts from two different works by the late author Ursula Le Guin: Left Hand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven.
Published in 1969 as a part of the Hainish Cycle,Left Hand of Darkness established Le Guin’s status as a major author of science fiction. The novel follows the story of Genly Ai, a native of Earth and the envoy of the Ekumen, a confederation of planets that includes Earth. He is sent to the planet Gethen (also know as Winter), to persuade the nation states of that world to join the Ekumen, but he is stymied by his lack of understanding of Gethenian culture: the people there are ambisexual, with no fixed sex, something that plays a powerful role in the culture of Gethen, which Ai finds hard to understand. And then there is the intrigue he finds…
Originally published in serial form by Amazing Stories in 1971, The Lathe of Heaven is set in Portland, Oregon in the year 2002. Now a city of three million inhabitants and continuous rain, in a United States now an impoverished nation, as is much of the world, thanks to the impact of global warming. For Portland, this means the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor, or protein deprivation. Within this environment, a battle of wits ensues between a psychiatrist and a patient with psychic dream powers.
Tuesday, April 22nd 19:00: Nothing But Trolls!
From Neil Gaiman to J.K. Rowling, as well as more traditional adventures, Caledonia Skytower presents a troll’s eye perspective
Wednesday, April 23rd 19:00: Celebrating Ursula K Le Guin
Seanchai Library joins Litfest’s celebration of the life and works of Ursula K. Le Guin.
Thursday, April 24th: 19:00: Halloween in April – X-Files: The House On Hickory Hill
With Shandon Loring and Calaedonia Skytower. (Also in Kitely grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).
SL photography is a popular subject – as any casual glance through Flickr with the search tags of “virtual worlds”, “SL” “Second Life” and similar will reveal. There are many styles and subject matter of SL photography to be sure, but it not unreasonable to say that fantasy art is one of the more popular fields of endeavour, be it through avatar studies or the recording of the many fantasy environments that have graced the platform over the years.
It’s therefore fitting that Fantasy Faire embraces this wellspring of individual creativity each year by offering Second Life photographers and artists the opportunity to display their work. And one again, Fantasy Faire 2019 offers two gallery spaces where art can be appreciated.
The first can be found at Fairelands Junction, and is itself in two parts: the image gallery, located in the ruined structure that houses the Fairelands portals, and the Worldlings display, located in the rock formation upon which the ruins sit. The second gallery can be found within the Genesia Arts and Performance region.
Forty 2D artists are presented within both the gallery spaces, and as with previous years, the focus for art is on avatars and fantasy, with the official blog noting:
The galleries focus on various fantasy avatars within Second Life, celebrating the freedom from the mundane, showing how in here you can be whatever you wish to be, your true self.
The focus continues to be variety in fantasy forms, inspiration in character creation and talent in photographic arts.
Fantasy Faire 2019: The Call of the Forest by Aleriah
A full list of the artists participating in the exhibition can be found in the link above, so I won’t repeat the list here. However, what I will say is that the art is remarkable for its richness of imagination and presentation. Many pieces are obviously influenced by popular fantasy genres – there are a number that clearly draw from the Likes of J.R.R. Tolkien and G.R.R. Martin, for example. This isn’t a critique, as it is always interesting to see people put their own slant on popular fantasy; but for me the magic of many of the pieces is in their depiction of settings entirely born from the imaginations of their creators – such as with The Call of the Forest, by Aleriah (shown above).
The art at Genesia is displayed within yet another remarkable region setting by Haveit Neox & Lilia Artis, as the Art and Performance region at this years Faire. This stands as a work of art in of itself, and should be explored for its incredible creativity, both above and below the water, and the way it offers a link to past Fantasy Faires in its overall design.
The gallery space for Genesia sits on the outer path of the region, with art displayed on rock walls or held aloft by elephants and stork-like birds, the path leading the way around to the main performance area.
Meanwhile, the 3D Worldlings art can be found, as noted, in Faireland Junction. Described as the “Fairelands That Could Be”, the Worldings are seven realms-as-dioramas suggesting possible Fairelands as imagined by their creators: Kerryth Tarantal, Faust Steamer, Colemarie Soleil, Bonny Greenwood, Ameshin Yossarian, Bee Dumpling and Beryl.
Fantasy Faire 2019: Worlding by Faust Steamer
These dioramas – at least one of which is interactive – offer windows into the imaginations of the Fairelands (and region) creators behind them. Whether any of them might be expanded out to become a full Fairelands setting in the future is open to question; but I admit, I wouldn’t mind seeing Faust Steamer’s idea (above) fleshed out and given form!
Fantasy Faire 2019: Wrong Direction by Sugarfairy88
I often am prone to comment with these art exhibitions that when it comes to the 2D art – and allowing for the subject being that of fantasy avatars – it’s a shame that the net isn’t cast a little wider to more generally encompass fantasy settings in Second Life; there are, after all, a fair few. There is also as vast catalogue of images of past Fantasy Faires – so it would be nice to see some broader celebration of fantasy art that can be created within SL beyond a purely avatar focus.
Nevertheless, given how easily an art exhibition can be overlooked with so much else occurring at Fantasy Faire, I do very much recommend that anyone who enjoys Second Life art and photography stop by the galleries at Fairelands Junction and Genesia.
Note that SLurl to the Fairelands are listed at the end of this article, rather than being embedded in the text.
The largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, Fantasy Faire 2019, opened its gates to fairelanders at 13:00 SLT on Thursday, April 18th, and will remain open through until Sunday, May 5th, 2019 inclusive. Formal events will run from April 18th through until Monday, April 29th, after which the regions will be open to viewing, photography and shopping until May 5th – although there could be some special surprises during those final days!
This year the Faire is spread across 16 regions (including the entertainment and Quest regions), and as always, there is a packed programme of activities and events. As always, the regions offer richly imaginative environment in which to spend time, some of which are wholly new to the fairelands, while others offer echoes of past Fairelands – as is only fitting, given the theme for this year is The Builders.
Take Faireholm, the build by Kayle Matzerath, for example. A marvellous city where colour reigns and the light of the Sun is paid tribute in a harmonious setting that focuses on the great castle. Bright and gay, its winding streets are a joy to wander – and they carry within them a strong echo of the much-loved Luminaria, Kayle’s build from Fantasy Faire 2013 (and now, as Meauxle Bureaux, the home of the Linden Department of Public Works Moles – see Among the Moles of Lumenaria).
Similarly, Alia Baroque’s Midas, whilst an entirely unique build, carries within its motifs memories of The Golden Delta from 2016, while the tall buildings, all be they of an entirely different architectural heritage, bring to mind the those of The Rose (2017), and the terraced green lawns offer a soft whisper of 2014’s Magnificat. More Whispers of the past can be found in the colours and tones of The Shrine Tree, by Marcus Inkpen and Sharni Azalee, which bring to mind the colours of 2017’s Dawn’s Promise. Thus, a visit to this year’s Fairelands carries with it the sweet fragrance of past travels.
But so to does it hold places that are wholly new to eye and memory. Take Tensor’s Flying Market, a remarkable souq-like bazaar, held aloft by great engines that power mighty propellers, perhaps drawing their power from the crystals embedded in the base of the great platform on which the market resides. But as high has Tensor’s Flying Market may well float, it still sits beneath the quite stunning bulk of Trollhaugen’s carven mountain, home to this year’s LitFest (see my preview of that event for more).
Trollhaugen is just one of the six events regions within this year’s Fairelands, as detailed at the end of this article in the links. One of these – Genesia, by Haveit Neox & Lilia Artis is another setting that maintains a link with Fairelands of the past through its design that extends both above and bloew the waves of Linden water. Joining this year’s Faire, and building on 2018 is Urafiki,by Eclair Martinek and Grace Loudon, home to this year’s One Team Initiative, while the dragon-borne party ship, Fairechylde, will be docked at The Celestial Plain by Syn Beresford, home to this year’s live music and DJ entertainment.
And, of course, no Fantasy Faire would be complete without the Fairelands Junction, another fabulous design by Saiyge Lotus. As ever the junction provides the logical starting-point for explorations, containing as it does portals to all the other regions, as well as the remembrance wall, and The Worldlings – windows onto the Fairelands That Could Be.
You can find the background notes on all the 2018 Fairelands regions here, or by visiting their individual pages on the Fantasy Faire website.
The KNH Hope Hostel
In 2018, Fantasy Faire took to its heart a special project initiated by the American Cancer Society: the Kenyatta National Hospital Hope Hostel. The first ACS Hope Lodge to be established outside the United States, and in a country where cancer mortality is almost 80%, this centre will serve more than 1,000 cancer patients annually, providing free temporary housing and integrated hospital services, such as post-operative care and pain management. Allowing them to access care and support in a manner they might not otherwise be able to receive.
You can read more about the KNH Hope Hostel project in Fantasy Faire 2018: supporting the KNH Hope Hostel, and in my more recent update from December 2018. However, the impact fund-raising efforts at Fantasy Faire have had on this ground-braking project – and on the ACS management team – cannot be over-stated. In fact, the funds raised by Fantasy Faire in 2018 became the focal point of far wider efforts to support the Hope Hostel project, as Kristen Solt, Managing Director of the American Cancer Society’s Global Health Initiatives Programme indicated in an open letter to all Fairelanders:
Such a groundbreaking project called for an innovative approach to fundraising … and for the first time, we would ask a Relay For Life team to focus on a specific project. That team was Fantasy Faire and in 2018 you answered the call by raising $50,000 dollars. We were all energised by your success!
It also inspired others around the world to join in the effort. This enabled us to expand our goals for the project. We nearly doubled the number of beds in the hostel, allowing for thousands more patients to access this home away from home. With your help, our Kenyan partners will begin construction in July on the KNH Hope Hostel.
As Kirsten goes on to note, the money raised by Fantasy Faire 2018 and Second Life Relayers has already made a lasting difference to many cancer sufferers and their families in Kenya:
Thanks in large part to Relayers in Second Life, we’ve been able to launch the Patient Navigator program at KNH which in the last year has given FOUR THOUSAND Kenyans access to better information and assistance. Think about that number for a moment: four thousand people! Ask yourself how many family members they each have. How many friends and loved ones? There are tens of thousands of people in Kenya today whose lives are already better because of you.
Further thanks to Fantasy Faire and all Fairelander has also been offered by Dr. Esther Munyoro, head of the Pain and Palliative Care Unit at Kenyatta National Hospital, by way of a video message.
Hence why, this year, Fantasy Faire will again support the KNH Hope Hostel.
Role-Play and Table-Top Gaming
2019 will once again there will be numerous opportunities for role-play within the Fairelands. Three groups are offering themed role-play, weaving tales and offering anyone with an interest with the chance to participate.
The Bubo Owls: lost children with few memories of their former homes and how they got to the Fairelands who have taken up residence in Tensor’s Flying Market, and unwitting “middle men” in a three-way war.
In addition, the NeoVictoria Project will be holding a series of out-of-character events where visitors can talk about players from the NeoVictoria community about the project, the story-world and how to get involved. There will even be a stage where folks can practice role-playing. See the Meet’n’Greet schedule for more.
Those interested in role-play can also attend a series of role-play classes taking place at Bayounimba.
2019 will also see the return of table-top gaming, an activity added to Fantasy Faire in 2018. Catch the full schedule if you’re interested in joining in.
Keep abreast of all things Fantasy Faire – music, auctions, literary, performance, and of course the infamous Jail and Bail rounds – through the Fantasy Faire Website, the Fantasy Faire 2019 events calendar and Fantasy Faire radio.
Gyro Muggins reads Leah R. Cutter’s 2003 début novel.
When a brilliant young violinist dies in a horrific accident, Madame Karitska has only to hold the victim’s instrument in her hands to perceive the shocking truth. But when an insecure wife asks whether her husband will abandon her to join a sinister cult, Madame Karitska–as wise as she is lovely–chooses not to reveal all that she foresees. And when an attaché case is suddenly dropped into her lap by a man fleeing a crowded subway, she knows it’s time to consult her good friend Detective-Lieutenant Pruden.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 