Have you heard of interactive fiction? Years ago it started with those old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novels where the authors had written multiple endings and paths to get through the story depending on which choice the reader made at the end of each chapter. It was very cool because you could get a different story each time you read it.
Now, in the Twenty-first Century, we have things like SecondLife and OpenSimulator which allow us to build actual avatars (characters) and wander around a fictional world. A new kind of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure in digital worlds.
This week, my good friend Nara Malone has introduced one step higher in interactive fiction. She’s asked me and several other authors to write OpenSim stories so readers can come visit, wander through our worlds, and get a story along with the adventure. You can visit Tina Glasneck’s suspense tale Letter to Charlie that takes you through Greyville Writer’s Colony, drop by Shara Lanel’s Good Karma Tarot shop, or trip across worlds (grids) to Nara Malone’s Blue Harbor. And if you like your stories a little more sensual and romantic, follow my Incubus Dream through Cloudburst, Colorado and beyond.
How do you do this? Nara has a gift for teaching others and she’s posted a great article of how to get started. It says it’s for authors, but anyone can use the information therein to visit the Metaverse and Greyville. Greyville is where you start all the stories. Once you log in, just find the park with all the books in it and you’re off. Shara Lanel wrote a blog post on her experience and what you can expect. We’ll all be around at one time or another, time zones permitting, to answer questions or tell you the tricks we’ve learned putting this together.
We hope to see you there.
For those already familiar with SecondLife and the Metaverse, you can tromp on over to Nara’s Nook and see for yourself at: world.narasnook.com:8900
Passionate Reads 
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