Chapter One: Avatars

Initializing World…

Connecting to region…

Precaching…

“Hi! My name is Fizzy Oceans – at least that’s my avatar’s name here in SL (Second Life). I’m an official SL greeter. Let me offer you this welcome package. I’ll just place it in your inventory, where you can read it later, at your convenience.”

“Where am I?”

“Ah! I see you don’t have an avatar yet. Or a name…”

“What’s an avatar? Am I going to need one?”

“Oh, yes, my friend. You certain… Continue

What’s new at Open Books in 2009?

Quite a lot, really… In January 2009, Open Books launched its Amazon Kindle series with the publication of two books by author David A. Ross - How High The Wall: A Novel and Good Morning Corfu: Living Abroad Against All Odds.

For those not in the know, Kindle is Amazon’s electronic reading device that enables cheap downloads of an ever-increasing number of titles. It also enables downloads of your favorite magazines. We at Open Books think Kindle is a fantasti… Continue

Hermes Hawthorne is fifteen and lives in Grassy Knoll. Caught spray-painting graffiti on the wall of a house in Green Meadows, a neighboring and only slightly more affluent subdivision, he is remanded to the treatment of a psychiatrist who diagnoses him with ADHD and prescribes Ritalin therapy. Such a punishment, however, does not console Frank Brickman, the angry homeowner whose house Hermes has defaced. Frank conspires to build a wall to separate the two subdivisions, but how high must a wall… Continue

What are the most essential elements of identity? Here are a few distinctions to help us understand the answer to a most complex question.

What I have: my house; my car; my clothes; my food; my jewellery; my furniture; my computer; my books; my guitar; my money.

Who I am: a body; a mind; emotions; a family member; a community member; a mortal man.

To further define our identity it might be helpful to clarify that which is not rightfully ours: family; friends; the earth.

We do not possess oth… Continue

The age-old vision of the artist or writer toiling away at his craft, alone and hungry and living in compromised conditions, is certainly an enduring one, and it is also one that most artists and writers readily reject if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, most developing artists must endure at least a period of abject poverty as they hone their craft and struggle for recognition. The public, rather than support society’s creative brain trust, customarily engages in mocking those who have not… Continue