I saw a tweet from Canary Beck the other day about a forthcoming book from Huckleberry Hax. This may well sound like the start of a work of fiction, but I promise you it’s not because Canary has now blogged : Second Life Is A Place We Visit (2015) By Huckleberry Hax. One of the reasons Canary has been tweeting about this is explained in her blog post :
Huckleberry Hax has published a new book and it’s now available for download. I’m especially happy that Huck asked me to design the book cover typography for this work, a second time! And as a bonus, the cover image – taken by Huck – is a scene from my beach at Basilique!
However what is the book about? Whereas Canary explains it very well I think it’s only fair to turn to the author for some explanation :
Huckleberry Hax has been writing about the virtual world of Second Life® for eight years. This volume collects together 42 of these articles, including his monthly column for over two years at the celebrated AVENUE SL lifestyle magazine.
This is a work of non fiction, even if it is virtual world based. However what Canary’s tweeting (no pun intended) has also opened my eyes to is the fact that Huckleberry Hax also writes fiction, and a lot of that fiction is based upon Second Life.
Huckleberry Hax has been writing stories based in virtual worlds going back as far as 2007 and to be honest I’m a bit miffed I’ve only just found out about this as I find this concept fascinating. AFK appears to have started it all :
A Second Life® detective reflects on cases and confessions, on love, on anger, on understanding Second Life as perhaps the greatest liberator there has ever been, and on falling for the oldest trick in the book, just the same…
At least three sequels have been spawned from that story. However Huckleberry hasn’t just settled for that series and another amongst his virtual reality novels is Beside An Open Window :
The day after after his girlfriend persuaded him to get a brain scan with her, Jason Harlan wakes up in the metaverse to discover he’s been dead for thirty years. But where exactly is Rachel Petstoof, now that her own death has triggered his activation? And who has the millions that Jason managed to accrue in his singing career? And what happened to him in the two years between his scan and the car crash in which he died?
There are more novels, some unrelated to virtual worlds, Huckleberry also writes poetry and produces photography. This is an angle of virtual worlds that doesn’t seem to get explored often, the ability to entwine it with the real world in with poetry, art and literature.
Huckleberry’s work comes in a variety of formats, you can order some of his work in paperback, hardback, PDF and more. Some of the work is available for free, although if you enjoy his work I’d encourage you to share a little financial love with him if you can.
For more about Huckleberry Hax’s work go here : https://huckleberryhax.wordpress.com/