Thus, 2023 is nearly over. A year of AI, global conflict, global warming, cost-of-living crisis, crashing crypto, exploding rockets, and populist politics. Will 2024 be any better? God I hope so. Thank goodness for Second Life and the little bubble of tranquillity it provides.
Meanwhile, here’s a list of the things I got up to during the last twelve months.
Published Love is a Corrupted Data Stream. I’m really proud of this science fiction novel, which takes place in the virtual world of ‘Pink Dawn’ (where people can upload their brain scans after they die to live on in a digital afterlife). I think it contains some good futurist thinking combined with some important psychology. It took a while for me to finish it, but I think that this was time well-spent.
In case you’re interested, the Pink Dawn series currently consists of two main novels – Thank You For Afterlifing With Us and Love is a Corrupted Data Stream – and a third, prequel novel, Virtual Thursday. Virtual Thursday acts as a bridge between the AFK series and the Pink Dawn series.
Did my first ever inworld signing event. This was a fun evening: two, hour-long signing sessions where attendees got a free PDF copy of Love is a Corrupted Data Stream with a handwritten dedication and signature emailed to them. I want to repeat this for future publications.
Published STÖMOL: The Screenplay. This was a fun publication to put together, celebrating the third anniversary of my first feature-length machinima movie, STÖMOL. It consists of the main movie screenplay and a transcript of my interview with Ivar Zeile, founder of the SUPERNOVA Digital Film Festival, where STÖMOL took second place in 2020.
Attended special screenings of my movies. Speaking of STÖMOL, I was delighted to be invited to special screenings of both STÖMOL and its sequel, WAARHEID, at the Teatro de la Vida at The Aztlan Garibaldi Zócalo. In each case, after the movie had played, Caitlin Tobias and I (and, for WAARHEID, we were joined by Avajean Westland) sat for a question and answer panel, and then posed for photos with attendees. Fabulous evenings. If you have a cinema and would like do do a special screening of either of my movies, and would like a guest appearance by cast members, do let me know!
Along similar lines, I was honoured that WAARHEID was chosen to be the first ever movie to play at the brand new official Second Life Cinema in June.
Filmed and released a new poetry miniseries set in the world of STÖMOL and WAARHEID. Poems from The Edges is a five episode series of short video poems set over the same two-minute period in ‘The Edges,’ a location used extensively in both movies.
Released four new Avatar Dining Club Mysteries podcast episodes. I love creating these stories. A particular pleasure this year was getting to premiere one of them in voice at the 2023 Fantasy Faire – in particular, getting to witness the response to the ‘reveal’ at the end.
In case you missed them, the new episodes were:
- Episode 11: The Cathedral Photograph
- Episode 12: The Slow Dance
- Episode 13: The Leaked Secret
- Episode 14: The Director’s Explosion
Entered a sculpture into the fifth and final round of GBTH x Rachel Breaker: GBTH x Rachel Breaker EPILOGUE. My piece was titled Over and Over and Over Again.
Exhibited at Second Life’s 20th birthday extravaganza, SL20B. My exhibition, titled WAARHEID: TRUTH IS A DESTINATION, was a huge concrete building which featured an extension of a bespoke set used in the movie.
I’m particularly proud of that QR code on the front of the building, by the way, built entirely out of primitives and fully functioning (it linked to the movie on YouTube). That alone took three evenings to construct.
At a much smaller level, the event was also personally noteworthy in that I gave away my first ever piece of Second Life apparel: a WAARHEID-themed top. Yes. I’ve had people asking me to release it in my Marketplace store since the event, and will probably do this in 2024.
Created two ‘moving greetings cards’ machinima videos for Christmas: The Frozen Lake and The Toyshop.
Built a hotel. Yes, really. My next machinima project is going to be a series of episodes called Hotel Victoria following the story of a janitor alone by himself during the Covid lockdown in the hotel he works in. The challenge for this project was to build all my own sets for this: so… I’ve been building a hotel. Work began on this early in 2023 and is still ongoing, but I’m hoping to start filming around about February 2024. Below are a few images from the build – a couple of these have been released as teasers on my Flickr, and the other two are exclusive to this post.
Incidentally, if you’re interested in following more closely the progress of this build, I post regular video updates on my Patreon (for ‘Huck fan’ level and above, at £2 per month).
Plans for 2024
Commence filming for Hotel Victoria. Ideally, I’d like to have completed at least three episodes by the end of the year.
Expand the Pink Dawn universe. This is also partially an achievement of 2023. In November, for National Novel Writing Month, I decided to explore Pink Dawn in a little more detail before continuing Thursday’s story from the end of Love is a Corrupted Data Stream. I wrote two long short stories (each about 20,000 words long), one titled In Death, Life Found You’ and the other called Avadroid. A third story – working title, Advice – is also currently in development (about 2,000 words written so far) and I have an idea for a fourth. None of these stories require knowledge of any of the existing Pink Dawn novels, so I might seek to get these published in a science fiction magazine.
Create at least two more episodes of The Avatar Dining Club Mysteries. One of these is currently half written. The second is just an idea at this stage (but it’s a doozy).
Resume work on the STOMOL and WAARHEID graphic novels. This is a project that I wanted to do this year, but it ended up getting put aside.
Publish the WAARHEID screenplay. I’d like to get this done by December 2024, to coincide with the movie’s second anniversary.
Release some more items on my Marketplace store. I have quite a few bits and pieces queued up to be packaged and put onto the shelves, including the generic version of my 8-track player (the freebie WAARHEID tie-in version of this can still be obtained here), my WAARHEID-themed ‘MY PIXELS. NOT YOURS.’ crop top (previously given away free at SL20B), a horrendous/gorgeous (you decide) Formica-finished kitchen table and a new, all-concrete brutalist home to live in called ‘The Kingfisher.’
Update my Second Life profile. Seriously, I really need to do this. It’s been the same for years.
Happy New Year
As we all enter the next rotation of our beautiful planet around its sun, take a moment to consider what you know, what you think you know and what you believe. Take a moment to consider what things are important to you and exactly why they’re important to you. What does it mean to consider something? The word consider is thought to derive from the Latin considerare, an assimilation of con (with) and sideris (stars): to truly consider something, then, you have to look upon it from a distance – i.e., ‘with the stars’ – you have to be prepared to step outside your own perspective and context, and try to see the whole picture.
That’s all from me for 2023. I wish you all a peaceful 2024.
What the Huck? 
All the best for 2024 Huck! ♥
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And to you, Bou :)
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Happy New Year for you and yours!
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Happy new year Orca!
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