Filed under: News and developments by Digado

Victorian England. Fresh from a six-month sojourn in Italy, Lady Julia returns home to Sussex to find her father’s estate crowded with family and friends–but dark deeds are afoot at the deconsecrated abbey, and a murderer roams the ancient cloisters.

This is the start of the adventures in a new book by the British author Author Deanna Raybourn. She is promoting her newest novel ‘Silent in the Sanctuary’ in Second Life. Apart from making a few appearances and virtual book readings, the book will be promoted with literary gatherings, interactive environments taken straight from the book, a fashion contest and a Victorian plot to discover. The promotion goes both ways however, as the launch of the book is tied to the selling of in-world Victorian Products, to dress up your avatar in quality Victorian Fashion

TheSlAgency - the company responsible for building and marketing the sim - will really try to engage the user by interactive story telling. What better way to test the potential of this strategy in Virtual Worlds than starting with the story itself. No half-baked stories made to connect several pillars within a brand or product in a little tale, but a setting, a cast, and a plot, provided by a professional writer. A writer (Deanna Raybourn) who received critical acclaim and for the way she portrays Victorian Romance and mystery ever since she publishes ‘Silent in the Sanctuary’ predecessor ‘Silent in the Grave’.

Victorian Styled places such as Caledon VictoriaCity are quite popular within the Virtual World. At least enough to attract a lot more attention than any normal book reading would receive. The highlight of the promotional campaign will be the ‘Grand Victorian Costume Ball’ the 24th of January, at the ACTIV8 III complex. I really think TheSLAgency did a good job - but personally, I would like to see this go one step further.

I would love to see ’slurls’ (hyperlinks to locations within Second Life) marked on the pages of the book where you can actually visit, see or hear certain things as described on paper. Interactivity between print and and 3d. This would really add value, and unique content to your novel. Of course as it is there are still some practical issues, but I do think this kind of ‘3d pictures’ will be an idea worth exploring for future fiction writers.

Posted on: January 12, 2008 | Share on: