A Storyteller's Notebook: April 2018

This Month Featuring: This Year's Literary Festival at Fantasy Faire

The Fantasy Faire Literary Festival ("LitFest") makes every effort to be a comprehensive literature event, and succeeds to a great degree.  A part of the mega-RFL fundraising event, Fantasy Faire, LitFest made its debut in 2015 and has celebrated the works of Terry Pratchett, William Shakespeare and J.R.R. Tolkien along side of authors with unique Second Life connections.  The ten day event provides a broad array of opportunities for those who love stories and literature: writing, author talks, open mics, discussions, storytelling, and a special day to celebrate the impact that George R. R. Martin has had on the contemporary literary world.

Summing up 49 individual events over ten days, and over 60 hours of programming is daunting. But the Halls of Story (the LitFest homebase region http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Halls%20of%20Story/121/117/87) will be brimming with them from April 19th to the 29th.  The entire Faire, including LitFest, benefits the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.  You can get more detailed information on the Fantasy Faire Literary Festival Schedule page.  

Interested in writing?  Before we review some of the things that you can attend at LitFest, let's talk about the one thing that you can be a direct part of: The Region Tours and Writing Challenge.  LitFest invites you to put your Fantasy Faire experience into words.  The Faire is brimming with stories: breathtaking builds and fantastical creations designed to touch your heart and soul.  What stories do they inspire in you: poetry? prose?

Daily tours led by Saffia Widdershins leave from The Halls of Story at 5pm slt.  But you can explore and write anytime of the day.  Tips and hints notecards are available at the LitFest landing area, and enthusiastic wordsmiths are encouraged to not be limited by the notecards or the tour destinations.  The Worldlings on FaireLand Junction?  The bright shores of The Story Well or Astrid's Nemeton?  Or perhaps a chance encounter with other Fairelanders excites your muse.   All submitted works will be considered.  Be sure to review the "How to Submit" information at the LitFest landing area.

Interested in Authors and their works?  In addition to an array of writing talent sourced from the SL grid, fantasy authors  Tom Lloyd (http://TomLloyd.co.uk) and Danie Ware (http://danieware.com) will be guests of the Faire, stopping to engage in conversations about their work and writing in general with David Abbott on Tuesday, April 24th and Thursday, April 26th respectively (see schedule for time).

Tom Lloyd is the author of the Twilight Reign series of novels (The Stormcaller, The Twilight Herald, The Grave Thief, The Ragged Man, The Dusk Watchman) and its companion collection of short stories, The God Tattoo; the Empire of a Hundred Houses novels 

(Moon’s Artifice and Old Man’s Ghosts); and his latest series, The God Fragments (Stranger of Tempest, Honour Under Moonlight, Princess of Blood, The Man With One Name). Lloyd is also the author of the stand-alone novella Fear the Reaper, published by Kristell Ink.

Self-affirmed child of the Seventies, author Danie Ware lead a diverse life that included a bit of writing when she went to work for London cult retailer Forbidden Planet in 2001. After a bout of "live intervening," she took up her pen again in 2008 when her Ecko series was published by Titan Books and available to buy from Amazon.  Publisher's Weekly said of her work Ecko Rising, "...Ware has a deep knowledge of science fiction and fantasy, and she hurls it all into this engrossing but sometimes derivative mix of high-tech street fighting and epic quest." Her new book, Children of Artifice, will be available from FoxSpirit Books later this year.

If you are a fan of George R.R. Martin, you will not want to miss the conversation with Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García, owners of Westeros.org, the oldest "A Song of Ice and Fire" fansite. They are also the co-authors of "The World of Ice and Fire" together with George R.R. Martin himself. It is just one of the events on Wednesday, April 25th .on George R.R, Martin Day.

Well known writer CeeJay Writer and storyteller Madafo Lloyd Wilson are just a few of the other anticipated presenters.

Interested in readings and storytelling?  Seanchai Library will be bringing their entire week's programming over to the Faire, as will the equally long-lived Written Word group.  So from the X-Files to Sounds of Poems, open mics of prose and poetry, there's plenty of literary listening to be had at LitFest, including a special dramatic reading by myself (Caledonia Skytower) and Zander Greene from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and two (count'em TWO) Shakespeare productions by the Faire Lands Players.

As a side note, this is also the first year for a secondary stage (more than LitFest, and less than the Big Dance Show Mainstage).  You can find out more about the offerings there by looking for "Arts & Entertainment" under the event tab on the website.

I first encountered Fantasy Faire through Draxtor Despres' Worldmaker machinima series, where I was struck by this quote from the interview with Faire Executive Zander Greene, “We can put you into the story.  The medium isn’t real.  The experience it creates in me is what’s real.”  Step into a rich world overflowing with stories, when the faire lands open in the morning on April 19th, and enjoy ten days of fantastic celebration, in support of Relay for Life.

 More in depth information on all of these events can be found at https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/literary-festival-2018/

 Visit the 2018 LitFest on Designer Elicio Ember's vibrant Halls of Story region (sponsored by his Cerridwen's Cauldron) http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Halls%20of%20Story/121/117/87

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Know of a cool spoken word venue or project?  Send me a notecard (Caledonia Skytower) with the basics and a landmark, and I will be happy to check them out as a possible feature.

 This Month's Quote:  “Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” ~ Terry Pratchett