Prim Perfect Jigsaw at Fantasy Faire: Sunset over Lotus Valley Dream

Lotus Valley Dream

It’s not just that it’s hard to let go of the wonderful Fantasy Faire this year (although that, too!).  Taking another jigsaw from there is a way of giving you a nudge (is that just a Brit thing? It’s like a firm hint!) that tonight will see the second of our two shows from Fantasy Faire on Designing Worlds – and more about that will follow later.

And that show will include a visit to the subject of today’s jigsaw – Lotus Valley Dream.  Sunset here was not a problem – the windlight setting was a permanent and beautiful sunset (a modified version of one of Bryn Oh’s settings, one of the creators, Marcus Inkpen, told me). The Explorers Club had a beautiful location – as you strolled out, you looked straight out over the road leading down to the setting sun, the beautiful buildings ahead, the lake (with its lotus and its dragon) glinting off to the right …

Is it possible to be nostalgic for something that’s only been gone a week? I think so.

Over 9,500,000 raised for Relay for Life …

Let’s do a jigsaw.

Sunset over Lotus Valley Dream, photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Now We are Six – Prim Perfect celebrates a birthday!

Our First Cover

Six years ago today, I was exhausted.  I had been up most of the night, laying out the very first edition of Prim Perfect. Most of the work (I can modestly say) I did myself.  I wrote the articles, I took the photos, I sold the ads and I laid out the pages – all forty eight of them. I had help from a reporter who wrote an article, and from a designer who created the front page and laid out a few internal pages.  The rest was me.

So I was exhausted, but I was also looking forward to the party to celebrate the launch.  It was to include a charity auction, and that evening we raised enough money to put the roof on a school in Lesotho thanks to the generosity of designers like Sue Stonebender and Baron Grayson whose faith in Prim Perfect ensured that it got off to a flying start – quite literally, as the prize item in the auction was one of Baron’s ships, suspended gracefully over the square on Venice Island, the single region owned by Melody Regent, who had also backed the magazine from the start.

But it didn’t stay just a magazine for long. Six months later came the TV show – MetaMakeover, which later became Designing Worlds.  And then there was The Primgraph, Quest for the Golden Prim, Metaverse Arts, Happy Hunting! and The Blackened Mirror. And there have been specials and guidebooks for events (such as Home and Garden Expos and the 2012 Fantasy Faire). There have been campaigns that we played a major part in – such as Step Up! against content theft and One Billion Rising.  There have been parties, hunts, events, games, a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and lot of friends and – considering everything – surprisingly little drama.

Prim Perfect: Issue 46 – March 2013 – cover

Six years later, we’re not having a party – but that doesn’t mean we see nothing to celebrate.  There’s a secret plan shortly to emerge, and we’re all hard at work on the new issue of Prim Perfect. We’ll probably party later in the month. We’re six now. I think we can party when we want to.

So today, on our sixth birthday, I want to say, quite simply, thank you to all the people who make Prim Perfect the prim perfection that it is – the people who have produced it over the years, the writers and photographers whose wonderful work fills the pages.  The advertisers whose support enables us to go on producing the magazine. The readers whose support and enthusiasm gives us some much pleasure and the willingness to go on, to improve and to always strive to be better.

Six years ago, I had a dream that here in this virtual world there could be a magazine for homes, for gardens, supporting designers and small businesses and nonprofits.  Six years later, I am so proud to be a part of Prim Perfect and all its associates, so lucky to have found such wonderful people to share my vision, and so privileged to have been able to create a voice that can speak for what I believe.

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News of funding initiatives for Second Life related projects

There’s good and bad news from people who are looking to raise money for virtual-world related projects through Kickstarter-style projects.

Bobbekins eBook

Firstly, the good news is that the Wall Street Journal has picked up on Tony Dyson and Chantal Harvey’s project, the new range of eBooks for Children, the BobbeKins – which I wrote about here: Supporting BobbekinWorld – a new case use for Second Life.

The article focuses on Tony’s server choice and while it’s a great plug for the product too, it’s a real shame there’s no link to Netdreamer Publications (see? that’s how you do it, WSJ!) or to the Indiegogo initiative to raise funds.  I’m all for built in redundancy, me (as regular readers may have noticed) but hopefully the article will lead to people following through to find out more.

At the time of writing, they have raised $744 of the $15000 they are hoping for, with 48 days left.  You can see more – including a great video – on the Indiegogo page. And here’s wishing them every luck with it!

Another initiative is coming to its end, and, sadly, seems unlikely to raise its funding – a real shame, I think, as it’s an interesting project.  Well, it inspired me to relaunch The Quest for the Golden Prim, and Darren Greene, who is behind it, has been of great help to us in thinking through the technical side.

Splintered Rock

He has been raising funds for his own webcomic, Splintered Rock, and using Kickstarter to raise £350 (US$545 approx) to enable him to work on a second chapter, as I wrote about here: Be part of the adventure of Splintered Rock.  So far, it’s raised £170 (Around $264) so, with two days to go, he still needs to raise just over half.

I hope he makes it. I’d love to find out What Happens Next in his story!

At some point, I’m going to look at these kind of projects in some detail, perhaps a Prim Perfect article.  What do people think?  What’s been their experience?

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Weave a tale of fantastic landscapes for the Fantasy Faire / Prim Perfect Short Story Competition

Magnificat By Alia Baroque
Photo By Beq Janus

This year Fantasy Faire has been not only a beautiful place to visit, but also a hugely evocative one, stirring the imagination and leading many of us to reflect on what stories could be told about these lovely and mysterious lands.

Once the stores are packed away and the crowds have departed … what beings take possession of the glass lantern city high in the mountains that shines in Titan’s Hollow? What languid aristocrats return to their faded palaces along the canal of Magnificat to watch the little boats sail out eternally toward the sunset? What troglodytes or dwarves emerge, grumbling, from the lower depths of The DragonSpire to reclaim their caves? What heroes push their way through the blood-red roses of Crimson Fields, their eyes fixed on the looming Dark Tower ahead? And so for all the regions, each with their special tales to tell.

The Lanterns of Titans’ Hollow

We are sure that, as you visited the Faire, some of those questions occurred to you. These may be stories connected with the mythos of the Faire that the organisers suggested – but it may be that a region captured your imagination and you found yourself envisaging a very different tale. And we are sure that, like so many of us, you just wished these amazing locations could be on the grid forever so that you could have your own little piece of the Fairelands.

Well, the magnificent structures of the Fairelands will soon be gone, but the Fairelands team – together with Prim Perfect – have come up with a way to make the magic continue.

Lotus Valley Dream

We are holding a short story contest for the best stories written about the Fairelands of 2013. The top entries will be published in the summer issue of Prim Perfect magazine, coming out in early August 2013.

You story can focus on one region – Evensong Woods, or Lotus Valley Dream, for example – and ignore all the others. Or you might use the juxtaposition of two regions, or even draw on more of the Fairelands, as a whole vast realm, perhaps surrounding an inland sea. It’s up to you.

And your story can be sad or happy, wise or witty. It can make us laugh, cry, gasp, nod with agreement … or do all of these things by turns.

Dragon over Lumenaria

While we don’t need long passages of description, the setting of the story should be clear. If it makes us ask, “Now – is this Ravenshard or Lumenaria?” it won’t be working for us.

Your story should be between one and three thousand words in total. While we love the idea of longer works (wouldn’t it be amazing to read a fantasy novel set in the Fairelands?), for this competition we want something that stands alone and that can be read as a complete piece.

We also want something that is completely your own work and written for this competition. You will retain the copyright, but in submitting the story you give us permission to publish the story in electronic format in Prim Perfect and on websites and social media sites belonging to Prim Perfect and Fantasy Faire.

Ravenshard

The deadline for submission is May 31.

Send your story in plain text or in .RTF or Word doc format to: fantasyfaireshortstory@gmail.com

We will acknowledge receipt (although it may take a little time).

Results (and winning entries) will appear in the August issue of Prim Perfect magazine.

The Valley of Ish’Nar

JUDGES:
The judging panel will consist of:
Zander Greene and Elizabeth Tinsley from the Fantasy Faire
Saffia Widdershins, Honour Macmillan and Aisling Sinclair from Prim Perfect
Ceejay Writer, Editor in Chief at Penny Gaff Publications
Judi Newall, Librarian

If you want inspiration for your story once the regions have closed, we suggest you refresh your memory at the Flickr stream.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Tinkling the Ivories through The Looking Glass

The Looking Glass

One reason why I’ve been a little quiet on the blog over the last few weeks is that I’ve been preparing my study for the arrival of my new computer (I reached Cro Magnon layers of crud in the clear out) and also preparing for the launch of the new issue of Prim Perfect.

As the latter included a visit to one of my favourite places, The Looking Glass, designed by Marcus Inkpen and Sharni Azalee, I am definitely not complaining. And visiting it on the shiny new machine will be rather exciting too.

But today’s jigsaw shows the fruits of my exploration with the old machine – in the shade of the glorious broken bridge, I found an old piano and settled down to play and then noticed, behind me, two rather impressive dwellings.

The Looking Glass is like that!

Tinkling the Ivories at The Looking Glass

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Gayhaven Parish

Gayhaven Parish

Today’s jigsaw once more comes from Honour McMillan’s excellent blog, Honour’s Post Menopausal View (of Second Life).  This jigsaw is the fruits of a visit to Gayhaven Parish – you can read about it on Honour’s blog.

She also talks about her tired eyes from writing and editing Because she’s been working hard on the new issue of Prim Perfect, which will be out shortly – with an exciting review of the world of art in Second Life.

But – there’s still time to do a jigsaw!

Grayhaven Parish, photograph by Honour McMillan

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: A House in Cloud Party

A Home in Cloud Party

All right – perhaps today’s jigsaw isn’t the most exciting of images – and I could have chosen one with islands floating in the sky. But I liked the colours and simplicity of this – and the way the owner has started to customise it.

This is an example of the free house (and the land it sits on) that you’ll get if you complete the tutorials that teach you the basics of how to use Cloud Party – movement, camera, navigation and simple building (well, more manipulation of objects).  One you know all that, you can move around and customise your home. There’s free furniture to help in your inventory, and more can be bought in the marketplace – I bought a free plant pack and started planting bamboo around my home.

Like Gertrude Stein’s Cleveland, there isn’t a lot of there there yet, but in giving people the chance to nest and put down roots, I think Cloud Party have made a shrewd mood.  Would Second Life have had a higher retention rate if they had made an initial investment in something like the Linden Homes? If, to get your initial free 512 (back in the day), instead of having to compete with land bots and insanely high land prices, they had simply handed people the keys and said, “Here’s your first home”?  And what if they’d done that for all accounts, free and premium?

Cloud Party are already letting people replace the provided homes with ones of their own choice.  Could it be a winner?

A Home in Cloud Party, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Do you have springtime news for Prim Perfect?

News story submission form

This is your chance to submit news for Prim Perfect’s March issue which will be out shortly – and at the moment we are looking for news stories to feature in our popular News from the Grid feature.

If you have a news story to share about your store or your sim, you can use the special Prim Perfect news service, to submit your news story directly to the magazine.

All you have to do is to go to www.primperfect.net/news_form.html and complete the simple form. If you want an image included, send it to primperfect@gmail.com.

To appear in our next edition, we must receive your news story by 12 noon SLT, Thursday 14th March.

The news story might also appear on this blog, especially if the story concerns, for example, the kind of time-defined event we like to cover – a special store promotion, or a charity concert.

So what are you waiting for? Send your news to us – and see it in print very soon!

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Travelling in the Duchy of the Coeurs

Travelling in the Duchy

Today’s jigsaw returns us to the Duchy of the Coeurs, which we featured on this week’s Designing Worlds – and it’s very appropriate to feature a carriage as the Coeurs has one of the best transport systems in all Second Life both for residents and visitors.

If you are a visitor, you will find frequent carriage stops throughout the regions. When you summon a carriage, instead of – somewhat unrealistically – rezzing before your eyes, the horse and carriage come along the road and pause at the stop for you to embark. You are offered a wide choice of destinations too, based not upon region names (which might not mean too much to the visitor, but on themes instead such as romance, or shopping.

If you are a resident in the Duchy, you can actually summon a carriage to come to your door and take you where you wish …. and again it will come up as though from the stable or, indeed, a nearby inn.

And then there are the rivers and canals …

But before you pay a visit, let’s do a jigsaw!

Travelling in the Duchy – photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Flying Free on Araxes

Flying on Araxes

Well, yes, it’s another Araxes picture.  But I’ve discovered that it really does make the most awesome location for photos.

Here. for example, is flying in the deserts – which could – with a few adjustments – make the cover of a scifi franchise tie-in novel.

The skin I’m wearing comes from Alpha Tribe* – Honour McMillan introduced me to them, and they are beautiful, detailed, and perfect for the Farscape look that I was after.  The craft I’m flying is adorable – it comes from  DME Gadgets Factory in Port Caledon, and it’s created by DarlingMonster Ember.

So here’s the jigsaw …

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

*Be warned – the link takes you in underwater at Alpha Tribe  – you need to climb into the sky to find the skins.

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