It doesn’t happen everyday to be rewarded for a “literary debut” in Second Life: it happened to me sometimes ago, thanks to a literary contest of Edizioni Volando for short novel and poetry in “avatarian” style that don’t exceed10,000 characters for stories and 3,000 for poems. A contest that, in addition to a good prize money (5 thousand Linden dollars to the winner, runner-up at 3 000, 2 000 thousand to the third and the Special Jury Prize), provided for the publication and distribution “in world” of the texts selected for final, held on the evening of July 3 2012 at the new headquarters of Edizioni Volando at Plusia Ars Island.

Surprisingly(mine for first), my short novel “Con gli occhi di un avatar” (“With the eyes of an avatar”) wasjudged the best among the seven proposed in the final, ahead of the novel “Nel rifugio degli homeless” (“In the shelter of the homeless”), of Mo Werefox and of the tale “Come bolle di sapone” (“Like soap bubbles”), of Aruna Gelles. Thejury prize went instead to the poem “E mi travolse” (“It overwhelmed me”), of Marco Rejkus. I will nottell you of the evening, very pleasant and full of audience, questions and conversation among the authors, the publisher, Volando Amat, the presenter of the event, Giovanna Delphin, the audienceintervened and the friendly owner of Plusia Ars Island (which I suggest you go visit). Iwill not speak not beause the event has passed, but because, like others that I had the opportunity to participate, as the evening special (hosted always at Plusia Ars Island on July 5) of Scienza on the road (project carried out more than two years from Talete Flanagan) dedicated to the discovery of the Higgs’ boson, an event in Second Life makes sense not so much for the record that can describe it through other media “off-world”, but because you have taken part, sharing it with its promoters and the audience.

Ialso had a confirmation on 11 July (while at the same time at the MIC - Imagin@rium was inaugurateda new exhibition of reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines made ​​by our friend Snieper Siemens, again SL seems everything but dead), when I went to Italian Mood to attend the presentation of new work by an old friend of Mondivirtuali, MinDBlind Setsuzko, the machinima “MinDBlind around the worlds” (that you can see here or in our video gallery), thenending up with talking (in voice, as in the other two occasions) with MinDBlind and “presenter” of the evening, Marjorie Fargis (and with Stregavento Nguya and Jos Bookmite aka Mr. “Wolf”) of a series of arguments that the strict scope of virtual worlds have expanded up to the present situation of Italian cinema and in particular animated film.

Evenif you do not talk about it, of course, to the evening at Edizioni Volando was very nice as the others, even because as I said I did not expect such a success that spurs me to think of new developments. Incidentally “Con gli occhi di un avatar”, that if you want you can buy for only 100 Lindens at Plus Ars Island or at other stores at Marietta-Edizioni Volando, Solaris Island Pyramid Cafe and Little Dreams, is constructed asa series of memories that my avatar related in first person and that revolve around meetings that actually took place in Second Life during my / his youth with people who for various reasons both my character and his manipulator behind the screen captivated.

So I am thinking on the one hand to complete the cast of characters that in these years I was able to meet the metaverse, the other to go deeper into each of them and reveal a bit more of the adventures and relationships that occurred in SL between Lukemary Slade and each of them.
It seems that even Lukemary Slade, after all, has decided to follow in the footsteps of his creator who writes professionally for years, however, trying to always find a reason of interest for himself and his readers in every text, newspaper article or financial analysis. For nowI can only hope that you enjoy my first efforts and convince my publisher to bet on me again so ... buy, read and reviewed, maybe on Mondivirtuali's group on Facebook, “Con gli occhi di un avatar”. But above allparticipate in the “live” events in Second Life, I highly recommend!