Fantasy Follies Getting Closer!!

Good morning!

Today I want to wax poetic about my magazine. Okay, maybe not poetic, but I wanted to share these snapshots I took of our Fantasy Follies office, now that it's done. The one to the left is me toiling away by candlelight, I know you can't really see me, but trust me, that mass of black hair is me. Well, my avatar anyway.

Here's a better one of me. I think I was working on the Editor's note. It's a nice desk. A "partner's desk"

design, made of warm woods, with working drawers and everything. Not sure if you can make out the plate of gingerbread cookies and steaming mug of coffee there in front of me. On Chate's side of the desk is a goblet of eggnog. I think she'll like that when she gets back in-world.

Swinging around, I took a shot of our seating area. Also well stocked with cookies. Can you tell I like cookies? This furniture was made by my in-world partner, Fiona, with the exception of the large round table. That was made by Dalimar. You can't see the five or six ferns, or the cool printing press our friend and business partner Aly made. The sim of Elf Harbour is massive. There is a nautical theme, complete with a swamp, docks, a harbour masters house, a variety of monkeys scattered about and a sharp-toothed alligator.

Anyway, back to the magazine. At first, I wanted to release it Jan 1st. But that's not going to be possible. Most of my "help" has had to pull back, because of the holidays and health issues; so I'm on my own for a little while. This is going to affect how much gets done and likewise, when it gets done. In the next couple of days, I need to finish up two articles and prep two fiction pieces; one by Chate and one by Meadow. I also need to get the script to give the mag and prep the distribution box, drop a note to the owner of the magazine shop that will be carrying it, as well as the other folks I'd like to see house the boxes, finalize the contest, come up with a release announcement, finalize the ad rates, and last but not least figure out the damn printing press.... damn... maybe a Feb 1 release is more likely. Betty warned me that I might have to publish bi-monthly while I'm my only staff.

Sigh. Enough from me for now. Back to work!

Holiday Cheer!

Hello there!

How was your holidays?

It seems we had a whole lot of build up here as well as lots of happiness.

I was worried this Christmas would be disappointing to the boys; with money being so tight around here since I stepped down at work. Their lists were shorter than previous years, but still.

I had far too little sleep, only getting about 4 or 5 hours a night, but in the end... it turned out all right. Jimmy ended up walking across town to be home in time for Christmas morning, which was so touching I got all choked up. He actually woke me up, not the two youngest!

Despite the fact that the gift pile was smaller and not so spread out this year, they did alright. They each got at least one thing off their list, so it wasn't a complete failure. But I did learn the value of sticking to my plan of getting one gift per month, instead of all at once. No, that's not what we did this year, but that was my plan.

We had lots of food, we were all together and the boys, all three of them, seemed happy with what they got.

Yep, it could have been worse.

Second Life has been busy, what with holiday dances and whatnot. The picture up top was a small corner of the Bubbling Cauldron from last night's Victorian Ball. Betty and I decorated, according to the "vision" I had. I hosted and she was the Guide, joining two more folks to the Charn family. There has been my birthday party, the Yule ball, dances on top of dances...you get the idea.

And soon, on Jan 2 as a matter of fact, will be the Grand Re-Opening of Elf Harbour. Our friend and business partner, Aly, bought the sim and has done a lot of hard work to make it a memorable RP sim, over which our shop floats at something like 3000 meteres above "ground" level. Our store is huge. Absofragginhuge! On the ground, she has a swamp like area, a lighthouse, docks and other elements that make it seem more like the harbour it was always supposed to be. There are swampy trees, an alligator and a variety of monkeys hidden all over the sim. She even has a Harbour Masters house, a Main Hall and a couple of smaller buildings that I think she might rent out. All of the buildings look like something straight out of Rivendell in LOTR! They truly are stunning. In the main hall, on the main floor, there is a pub, complete with guard beagle, Talitha, where one can sit and have a drink. (Yes, we really hold the drink and have the action). There is a dance ball and a wickedly brilliant anchor chandelier. Upstairs, Aly has taken one wing for her office, and I have taken the other wing for my Fantasy Follies office.

This photo does not do it justice. It doesn't convey the calm classiness the room has, the movement of the potted ferns, it doesn't communicate how much I love this room. But it is where I like to go to work on the magazine. Aly has some great music in the stream, very calming. Which is good, because sometimes it drives me crazy! Especially trying to get content from iPages into Gimp, so I can save ads and stories as a texture, otherwise SL won't upload it. Stupid, I know. But we work with what we have. I wanted to get the magazine done for Jan 1, but I don't think that's going to happen now. The holidays have been too busy and I'm doing a lot of it myself. I need to find someone that can take the text and pages and put them into the format I need, then send it back to me; because that's where all my time is being taken up. Betty is right, unless I find some reliable help, I'm only going to be able to put the mag out bi-monthly.

Ah well, whining to you isn't getting it done any faster.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!