A Chat With Marsha Warwillow On Bats, The Future Of Books & Magazines, Virtual Reality And More

Marsha, me and a precarious ledge

I’m stood on a ledge at the HQ of SL Goth magazine in Second Life. Next to me on the ledge is Marsha Warwillow, editor in chief of the magazine. Marsha is sporting a dress made by her friend Moeko, for the Lovecraft Festival. The tentacles and the fact that the ledge is rather high up make me somewhat uneasy, but Marsha assures me that she’s not a pusher.

I have talked with Marsha before, all the way back in January. Then Marsha had explained to me the history and concepts of SL Goth Magazine. The magazine is available inworld, via Issuu and they even have their own website. Marsha is a fan of magazines and writing and yet she’s fully aware of the changes in how media is being consumed.

Would you ever read a book in virtual reality? For instance… let’s say, you could open a book of the Hobbit, and then a virtual reading room that looks like a hobbit hole materializes around you?“, Marsha asks me.

This takes me by surprise, but yes, I probably would do that, although I confess to Marsha that I really do prefer books to book reader devices. I love the tactile nature of a book and dusty old book shops make me happy. Marsha informs me, somewhat mischievously, that a book scent spray is on the market to create the real book ambience.

Marsha Warwillow and I chat

Marsha continues with the book and virtual reality theme; “My focus is to.. have you heard Neil Gaiman’s talk, about how he quotes Douglas Adams on ‘Books are like sharks..they will survive because a shark is good at being a shark.’ I’m focusing on how to get magazines and books into virtual reality, outside of SL, in different environments, because I want them to survive, it can’t all be roller coasters and space games.

This bring me to a theme I’m fond of in Virtual Worlds, storytelling by voice. I ask Marsha if she is aware of the work Seanchai do.

Yes, I’ve been there a few times, I’m a fan!“, Marsha replies enthusiastically, “Recently I also went to the Chelsea Hotel, it was an open mic event.

The conversation then turns to bats, or more to the point, an event Marsha is involved with; The truth about Bats & Avies charity festival for Bat World Sanctuary October 15-31 2015. This is a charity event for the Bat World Sanctuary, as you may have guessed from the title of the linked post. I ask Marsha how this came about.

What happened with that was I wanted to do a charity event in October, because it really is an active month for the dark alternative community in Second Life,” Marsha explained, “I’ve been an admirer of Bat World, from Facebook – they are always posting cute photos of bats, and cartoons, and awareness vs. myths posters, and of course, goths love bats,” Marsha adds with a grin on her face. “So I asked Amanda Lollar, the Bat World president, if she would be interested in a fundraiser since they do other online programs like Amazon’s smile, and she agreed! So we have an official charity set for October.

This also explained the appearance of a mysterious cave whilst I was talking to Marsha! Marsha informed that it was a bat cave, not for the caped crusader!

Marsha Warwillow

I then asked Marsha what the September issue of SL Goth had in store for readers.

The theme is ‘The Winds of Change’ because September is when Fall blows in, storms, in the physical sense but also people go back to school, move to new places, go on new ventures. There will be a poem about passion, an article on the history of erotic dance in Second Life, a short story on nightmares, an article illustrating a metaphor of death and change, plus photography, some event highlights (shopping stuff) for the month.” Marsha informed me.

There will be a comic strip in September’s issue. a short one. My friend, Tara de Vries, who is now Editor of Bright Metallic… I am always complaining to her about how people want to box others into labels with subculture, and so she made a clever comic about it, quite funny.” Marsha added.

Abel Dreamscape

Marsha bemoans the issue of promoting Second Life beyond virtual world spheres.

There is a barrier with promoting SL I’ve found, out into the physical world. I see so much talent in people, ability to execute ideas, creative output, yet for some reason residents are marginalized.

This is an issue many people have encountered, the way Second Life is looked upon to those who don’t engage and yet even within Second Life we see groups who see other groups as being interlopers. There are no easy answers to this issue.

SL Goth sits in a corner of Morphe Inc. in Second Life and whilst I was stood on the ledge with Marsha, the owner of Morphe Inc. Abel Dreamscape, appeared from the shadows. Fortunately for me, he was friendly enough and seemed in good humour. Marsha and Abel seem to have a good relationship.

Then, the outside world called and Marhsa and I wrapped up our chat. The way we consume media is changing, people like Marsha are trying to find ways to face those changes and still bring stories and articles to people, it’s interesting to watch what’s happening and it’s good that people are still passionate about books and magazines as our experiences are set to become more immersive.

The only thing left for me to do is to work out how the bloody hell I get down from this ledge at SL Goth HQ!

SLURL To SL Goth Magazine : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Snow%20Crash/39/41/21

SL Goth Website : http://slgoth.net/

SL Goth Magazine at Issuu : http://issuu.com/slgoth

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