GoSpeed Racer On Her Published Novels

By Bixyl Shuftan

Many longtime residents know GoSpeed Racer (GoSpeed Rasere) as a DJ for many of Bay City's events and the owner of the KONA Internat radio station, as well as for being "Cleverly Named" after a character in cartoons. But she's also a published writer. She has written three novels inspired by Second Life, under her real life name R. Jacques. The third was just recently published on Amazon. I recently went to interview her about them.

We met up at her place near KONA Stream Studios. "Welcome," she greeted, "It's three levels, an underground, the surface, and my private studio up in the sky." I noticed a statue on the grounds which looked like the one on her cover in the third book, and made a note to bring it up later. We walked inside and sat down.

"So to begin with," I asked, "what gave you the idea for the stories?" "Several things," GoSpeed answered, "I've always been a science fiction fan. In Second Life I've been exposed to so many other people's imagination. Especially potent was their roleplay experiences. Many roleplay groups have forums packed full of storylines generated in SL." When I asked which ones were her favorites, she responded, "Oh, I never participated. I don't have the time or motivation to get so deeply involved. Bedsides, being 'GoSpeed' is enough for me to begin with (smile). Like many of us, my SL avatar is a character of our own making which only partially represents our true selves."

I then asked when did she start writing her first book. As it turned out, she had earlier projects before her published works, "I did start a short story back in 2009, but I never finished. Fast-forward to 2015 and my favorite podcaster/author did a two-part podcast about writing novels. It was then I decided to take the plunge and begin writing. I wrote a 20,000 word short space opera novel. It's pretty rough, I must admit. But I plan to revise and release it one day.

Her attention turned to her first published novel, Raser's War, "My first released novel I began in 2016. It was an origin story of sorts about GoSpeed and how she and her fellow NPCs in a futuristic virtual world gained their independence, but in the process, lose their innocence. Some 500 years in the future, mankind is at peace. That also implies life can be a bit boring of course, so many people seek entertainment and fulfillment in virtual space. GoSpeed is a virtaul resident of one world, Simvie Loko. Her kind, the NPCs, serve human users. As you may know, Utopias are never perfect. And humans plan a rebellion against authority, a world-ruling artificial intelligence named Gaiana. Gaiana hates dissent, so he sends forces into Simvie Loko to root out the rebels. The rebels fight back, and GoSpeed is recruited to fight with the rebels."

On the cover of her second book, We Built This City, Bay City is prominently featured on the cover. "It is a continuation of GoSpeed's journey," she called it, "The new world she lives in has less meaning. Her life on the island is not what she wants, so she goes to Bay City to find a new life. The story is much darker as GoSpeed loses her way and gets involved in activities she'd never dream of doing in her past life: PTSD, Loss of a relationship, losing her place in society.

"We Built This City is the most Second Life relatable of the three stories. I included (with their permission) many residents of Bay City, (such as) Marianne McCann, Uccello Poultry, Pygar Bu, Thomas Hooker." I asked what the residents thought of their cameos. Racer answered, "Oh, they loved them! Oh, there is one caveat I used when writing about SL avatars. The basic premise behind 21st Century avatars in a 25th century simulation was that they were modeled after social media found in Internet archives. You may recall news stories about how it is possible to recreat personalities based on social media postings? Say you have hundreds or thousands of pictures, blog posts, etc... You could come up with a personality. Using that as a premise, the characters I wrote tended to deviate to a degree compared to how they act now." Some had comparable roles, such as Marianne's counterpart being the city's mayor and that of blogger Uccello being a TV journalist.

This time, the main antagonist is a criminal organization. "There is a neighboring city that was sourced from a late 1940s noire themed game (like L.A. Noire) run by the mafia," GoSpeed explained, "Angel City, a pseudo Los Angeles, actually." There's also more than just the mafia separating the two communities, "As you can imagine, there would be a clash of cultures and values between a mid 20th century people and a mid 21st century group." Among the characters are a couple whom had been cryogenicaly frozen in the 21st Century whose minds are uploaded into the virtual world to inhabit avatars.

Recently published this month was her third book, The Bounding Main. "The third novel wraps up a few storylines and opens up the world of Simvie Loko to new lands," GoSpeed explained, "The first novel was about a loss of innocence. The second was the fall from grace. The thrid ias about forgiveness and starting anew. To get into the meat of the story, a new civilization is detected in a region of Simvie Loko that was off-limits. GoSpeed joins a joint expedition between Angel City and the ordinary citizens. They venture south to contact these new countries, and of course, things wind up being more complicated than they imagined."

I brought to her attention the statue on the cover, which was like the one in her yard. "Yes, a Roman centurion," she told me, then smiled, "which is relevant to the storyline. There are 'Romans' in the story." But these weren't exactly what we usually think of, "NPCs (aka Citizens) are from the 25th century. 49ers, residents of Angel City, are 20th century relics. The new countries they discover are from different parts of history, and alternate history to be precise. Remember the Star Trek episode with the planet that had 20th century Romans? Kinda like that."

I then asked if she was planning another book in the series. "This particualr series is finished," GoSpeed answered, "but there are other contemporary stories in Simvie Loko I can write about. I plan to write an anthology of short stories about various characters and locales in the world, like, the founding of Bay City, the first days of Angel City's arrival and the chaos that followed. You can only put so much in a novel. I want to give a few characters their due. It's also a form of world building too."

"After my anthology I plan to write about some of the characters leaving the virtual world and inhabiting android bodies. Two of them, Abba and Ravishal were sent to Mars to finish the job Abba started decades before. Her origin is alluded to in the first novel." So some of the virtual characters do end up in the real world, "Space is very harsh to human bodies. So, why not send androids with human personalities? ... To quote Elton John, Mars is cold as hell. Plus the radiation is pretty harsh too."

GoSpeed hoped that her novels would inspire others in Second Life to start writing, "There is a VAST amount of creativity here and so many stories that can be told. If I can self publish, then anyone so inclined can." She mentioned Book Island, saying aspiring writers could head there and share excerpts, "You can read them aloud or have the hostess, Selina Greene read them in voice chat. I shared scenes here and there as I wrote them. It is nice and informative to hear your writing read."

GoSpeed's novels can be purchased through Amazon on her page there (link) and Smashwords (link). On Saturday March 30, there will be a discussion about The Bounding Main at Book Island at Noon SL time.

Bixyl Shuftan

Published Author Writes Novel of Crime and Mystery In a Virtual World

By Bixyl Shuftan

There was a book published in April this year, "Femme Fatale Online," written by Eugene Rodgers, that would be of interest to some in Second Life. The story takes place partly in a virtual world much like Second Life. A man named Rick goes by the name Issac in the world, and befriends a beautiful lady avatar named Joan. Joan arranges for Rick to get a job in real life with Molcom, a large corporation that's made breakthroughs that could potentially lead to practical nuclear fusion power. She lures Rick, who is married in real life, into a virtual romance. Then she blackmails him by threatening to mail recordings of the tryst, ordering him to commit industrial espionage. As time goes on, she threatens to harm he and his family as well. He realizes he has to find out who she is, and comes up with a list of suspects he has to narrow down before he's discovered.

Rodgers contacted me, and corresponding with him I found he had been going by the name Adolphe Menjou inworld years earlier.  He also had a couple alts, "my book's hero, Rick Collins," and "Joan d'Arc, the book's villain." But unfortunately, a problem came up, "when I returned to SL last year after a hiatus, Adolphe had become a white cloud and I couldn't revive him." So he got another account, Isaacasimov1 Resident, whom still has "off-the-shelf" looks, "I ... did nothing with it since all my inworld time was with Rick or Joan."

We met up at "Rick's Ranch," the place he called his inworld home. He apologized for some slow responses early on, "I'm a bit rusty on the controls, plus I'm a crappy typist." I brought up by the rezz date on his first account that he had been in Second Life for over ten years. "Technically, yes," he answered, "But I left dfor several years and came back last year. ... The place has sue changed. All my friends are gone." I asked why he left for a while. He responded, "Started writing the book! My first attempt at fiction, so it took a long, hard time." I asked him where he got the idea for the plot. He told me, "I started to write the book as nonfiction. I wanted to show what life was like in a huge corporation. But I decided fiction would have a greater impact. I was in Second Life and thought of the idea for the book. So besides corporate life, I could also show readers what a virtual world is like. Most people have no idea what corporate life is like or what a virtual world is."

Following up his comment about corporate life, I brought up, "I recall you saying, 'One character proposes what he calls the 3B’s of business success — backstabbing, butt kissing, and bull throwing.' Was he being a pessimist, or being accurate in your opinion?" Rodgers/Issac answered, "Accurate! The original nonfiction idea would have been mostly about the 3B's, 'The 3B Approach to Business Success,' my idea of a tongue in cheek title.But in the book I would have used a less delicate word than 'bullthrowing'." I asked if there were any references to "Dilbert," a daily comic strip by Scott Adams about an office cubicle worker dealing with a dimwitted boss and less than sympathetic coworkers. "No references," he answered, "but it's very much like Dilbert. I tried sending a message to Scott Adams, but couldn't get through. He once worked for a corporation."

I brought up Second Life once more, "How did you find your experience here?" "Loved it!" he told me enthusiastically, "Especially meeting people from all over the world. And the anonymity allows people to open up. I really got to know some friends well. One person I never got to know at all. And she was mean, but interesting. She became the villain, Joan, in my book." I asked if the characters from the business were based on anyone or completely made up. "Fictional," he responded, "but everything that happens in the book is a disguised version of what actually happened to colleagues or myself. The corporation, Molcom, is a composite of several huge corporations."

I asked if the fictional virtual world was almost like Second Life. He answered, "Yes, but technologically much more advanced. For example, I had to invent a way to make AVS perfect reproductions so the blackmail would work. So Rick's AV would look exactly likehim and the videos of his romancing Joan would seem real. ... the basic AV there is like AVs here. You can make them look like whatever you want. In my fictional world, you have to spend a lot of money to make a perfect AV.  I think I saw once where someone took photos you sent in and made a realistic AV from them." Of nonhuman avatars, Rodgers/Isaac told me he didn't come up how those came about or their use in his story.

Of the plot in the story in which Joan blackmails Rick and he has to try and figure out who she is to stop her, I asked how does he come up with a list of suspects. Rodgers/Isaac answered, "Various ways, careful observation and deduction. He realizes she must live in the Pittsburgh area and works for Molcom. He actively seeks some clues, interviewing a person in the virtual world, PP, who's a friend of Joan, eavesdropping on her meeting with friends on a beach." How Rick finds out, he wouldn't say, "You don't know until the last few pages that he succeeds. I tried to write a page turner. I also inject suspense by having a real-life sexy woman try to seduce him. You don't know until near the end whether she succeeds (either). Sex sells!"

Rodgers/Isaac felt virtual reality would soon skyrocket in use among the general public, " I'm going by news stories I've read. The investment community seems to expect virtual reality to take off soon. As you know, you can already buy limited versions. When that happens, goodbye SL! Unless Linden Labs gets into virtual reality." When I brought up Sansar and it's low numbers, he responded, " ... I don't think Linden Lab is very business savvy. Second Life isn't what it was years ago when I ws active. Some people think Facebook stole its thunder. Maybe it's the proliferation of social media.  I don't know. I know when I came back all my friends were gone and my old haunts were deserted or almost so." He wondered if the enthusiasm was gone, though seemed to feel more optimistic when I mentioned the Relay for Life, "If my book sells well, maybe more people will become interested in Second Life. ... If you're keeping busy, then I guess SL still has some excitement left."

Rodgers has published some books before, "'Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd's First Expedition to Antarctica,' which is still in print after 27 years, and 'Flying High: The Story of Boeing and the Jetliner Industry.'" He told me the books sold well, "especially the Byrd book. ... On the basis of the Byrd book, I became a technical advisor to a woman who did a book that came out in January called 'The Stowaway' about a member of the Byrd expedition. I understand it's doing well." Transitioning from nonfiction to fiction, "I find fiction to be much different from nonfiction, a big surprise to me."

Besides having published three books, Rodgers is a retired public relations writer for several large corporations and managed public relations for the Westinghouse R&D Center. He was named Virginia author of the year in 1991 by the Virginia College Store’s Association for the first printing of "Beyond the Barrier." He is married with a grown son and daughter.

For more information on "Femme Fatale Online," check out it's Facebook page at : facebook.com/rodgersmystery .

Bixyl Shuftan

Where Are They Now? Netera Landar

By Bixyl Shuftan

Netera Landar, a published writer under her real life name, Denise Flescher, was known for hosting weekly interviews and discussions at her "Netera's Coffee Lounge," and wrote for the Newser from 2011 to early 2012. So what has been going on with her since? I contacted her, and we agreed to meet up for a chat about what she's been doing since.

Netera and I met up at her home by the shore. She told me she had just gotten the place yesterday. Beforehand, she had been living with friends for a few months. Then for a month, she'd been living at a place for about 590L a month, "Just a hundred and ten more here."

Taking to Netera, she explained that after her time with the Newser she worked at Metaverse for a while, covering the music and art scenes. She then founded "Unforgetable" Magazine, and blog. There, she specialized in covering musicians and writers. Second Life, she explained, has lots of talent, and wanted to tell about the special people there. One interview she did, she needed five sittings to make sure she had a good tape. She was also a contributing writer for the Bowler Business Review. While writing for the BBR, she ran into graphic artist Eleanor Medier while at a Chicago 1920s sim to study roleplaying. When the BBR folded, Eleanor would go on to create the Sim Street Journal. Netera also worked with Eleanor at Music Matters magazine

Netera continues to be hard at work on her writing, "I work a lot with GottaWrite," she told of her own blog GottaWriteNetwork. There, she does a number of book and author reviews. As of now, she has a list of 45 books yet to review, "Six just for Penguin. I love reading cozy mysteries, women amateur sleuths." She told of liking Southern settings the best, "crazy and wonderful attitude." The blog does bring in a little ad money for a supplemental income, "I'm doing pretty well in content, authors waiting to be interviewed." She was currently going through a few books, including "Spinning in Her Grave."

Netera finished her third novel, "Deadly Reservations," which she describes as a "paranormal mystery." In the story, a detective and a psychic investigate a businessman controlling a small town. In truth, the businessman is actually a fallen angel, and the psychic eventually comes to discover she herself is more than human. The fiction is out in hardcover, a paperback edition for $14.95, and kindle version for $9.95. She did some research before writing certain scenes, including talking with a homicide investigator and someone with the FBI. After coming to Second Life, she ended up having to redo her work. Still, she had fun writing it. She originally wrote it four years ago, "Took me that long to publish it due to the stinking economy." She did both real life and virtual readings of segments of the story, taking it to Horrorfest at Park Ridge Illinois.

Netera described herself as "doing so many different things, it's crazy" at times. In real life she had recently taken up knitting, in addition to continue to write for a community newspaper in the Chicago suburbs since 1985. She has had to adapt to the changing economy, having to sell her old house and move to a smaller one. She has a daughter, now 22.

In both her writing and in other things, Netera is staying busy.

(story edited for corrections)

Bixyl Shuftan

Grease Coakes Latest Book: College in Cleveland

By Grey Lupindo

         Grease Coakes has done what most of us only dream about---he’s published multiple books.   That feat alone is challenging, but Grease has published in two categories, children’s fiction and adult fiction.  His books are about the Griffin family, who are griffins, and the unusual world they inhabit.

            Grease is a long-time SL resident and news reporter for SL Newser.   He’s been on a temporary leave of absence while he’s been working on his book series and other RL projects.   College in Cleveland, which is available as a Kindle book, came out in late December.   The book is described on Amazon this way:    “Glenda Baker, a 19 year old griffin woman, goes to college as a freshman in a world where there's no humans.  She's different as she's colored pink due to her having a white griffin father and a red griffin mother.  ...   She sometimes sees future events.  Follow in Glenda's paw prints and see a different world as she experiences college.“

       I met up with Grease in the SL Newser conference room a few weeks ago, and we talked about his latest book. 

Grey Lupindo:   So tell me about this book.  What has been the response?

Grease Coakes:   Well, my friend Amehana saw it as a journey for the young Glenda Baker, who turns into Glenda Griffin later.   ....  It's more like a prequel.  Ginny Griffin  [the character in his first book]  was more like a springboard for the furry alternate universe.

Grey Lupindo:   Amazon mentioned a "mature theme" or words to that effect.  What does that involve?

Grease Coakes: I think stories aimed at adults have a wider audience.   I'm walking more in that direction with Glenda as the main character now.

Grey Lupindo: Does she encounter sex or violence?

Grease Coakes:   Yes, she does.  Sexual themes and bloodshed.   I can say one character does get it for the bad things he did and is doing.   But the main villain is forced into a “do or die” situation, so he's not a villain just to be a villain.   He actually has a reason to do what he does.

 Grey Lupindo:  It must be really hard to promote an e-book. You can't have a signing, for example. Or can you?

Grease Coakes: I know Jackson Arthur from Book Island.   He knows how to promote through Twitter. And my friend Amehana Ishtari can help as well. So I'm not alone.  I can ask for help.   In the mean time I can start on the next chapter of the series. ^.^

Grey Lupindo: That's great.  I'm so impressed that you've written so much. I'm still one of those "drafts in the drawer" writers.   What's your secret for being able to juggle two lives AND write?

 Grease Coakes:  I haven't been in Second Life much lately.  But I do have a routine.  I do my best to write even on days when I work in RL.  A few hours a day gets it done over time.

Grey Lupindo:  You mentioned Book Island and Jackson Arthur. Has that been helpful to you as a writer?

Grease Coakes: Yes, being around writers has been helpful. The micro fiction meetings and his book biz were always fun to go to.  It helped to talk ideas out and hear his ideas and stories.   And I shared my ideas and plots.  Being around like minded people helped to push me to keep writing and not stop.

Grey Lupindo:  I've been involved in a couple of writers groups due to living in a couple of different places.  One was great.  One, not so much.

Grease Coakes:  Oh?  What set apart the good writing group from the not so great one?

Grey Lupindo:  Motivation is hard to keep going.  The good group focused much more on challenges...so many pages per day, per month, etc.   They had mini-contests to help develop writing skills.

 Grease Coakes: That sounds like a fun group to be in.

Grey Lupindo: Yes, I miss them.    But tell me about your plans for your next book.

 Grease Coakes: Basically the next one is summer in Cleveland.  It's about the characters having fun and having a summer job.  Recurring characters come back, and it shows the underground rave scene.  In RL I went to clubs.   So I'll have fun writing about electronic dance music before it became mainstream, like it is now.

 Grey Lupindo:  Neat.  What's the conflict in that one?   Or is that still a work in progress?

Grease Coakes: There will be a conflict or two.

Grey Lupindo: Will Glenda be the main character?

 Grease Coakes:  Yes.  She and her roommate get a summer job through a new character, Glenda's mother.  But I can say Glenda sometimes has the strange curse or gift of seeing future events.  Ginny isn't born yet.

Grey Lupindo:  So you're staying in the prequel mode?

Grease Coakes: Yes, eventually the prequels will lead up to Ginny being born.  Well, it's at the start of the story so I’m not giving anything away.   Glenda gives birth to a perfect hybrid griffin which can fly and is strong.  Most of the time griffins are only one or the other.  So at age 15 she legally lets this married couple in Italy have her son for $150,000.

Grey Lupindo:  Why would she do that?

Grease Coakes:  So her college education is paid for and more.   The reverse could have happened --  she would have been stuck with a child and no money.

Grey Lupindo:  Because she's so young?

 Grease Coakes:  Yes, it's either she gives up her child for adoption or she faces poverty.   Her father is dead so only her mother supports her.

Grey Lupindo: That's a hard decision she has to make.   Speaking from a mother's point of view.

Grease Coakes: I'll take your word for it.  ^.^   But I would imagine it would be hard.

Grey Lupindo:  It's impressive that you have developed a character that you can continue to grow.

Grease Coakes: Oh, thank you.

Grey Lupindo: When do you expect this one to be out?

Grease Coakes: Maybe in a few months  if I write a few pages every day.  But "College in Cleveland" just came out so don't rush me. 

Grease Coakes: *GIGGLES* :)~~~~

Grey Lupindo:  LOL.   I can't finish anything, but I expect others to!

 Grease Coakes: Haha

 Grease Coakes: I have the stories in my mind. Someone will die in the third book.

 Grey Lupindo: Now that’s a teaser our readers will love!  Should readers know anything about griffins before they read the book?

Grease Coakes:  Hmmmm.   Something to think about that I read from Wikipedia is that the griffin's enemy is the horse.   Glenda's rival will be as smart as her and stronger.  Glenda can’t just outthink her.

Grey Lupindo:  Yes, the rivals must be strong to make the character better.

Grease Coakes:  Sure, if nothing happened to the character --  if he or she passed every challenge easily -- not many people would want to read about him or her.

       If you enjoy alternative worlds, fantasy, and furries, you’ll want to read Grease Coakes’ latest book, College in Cleveland.  Find it on Amazon under his RL name, John Krauss, at  http://www.amazon.com/College-Cleveland-Glenda-Baker-book-ebook/dp/B00HOWGH1S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Grey Lupindo

Grease Coakes to Have Second Children's Book Published

By Grey Lupindo

          SL Newser reporter Grease Coakes will soon have his second real-life book published.   “Ginny Griffin and Friends” is a sequel to his first children’s book, “Ginny Griffin’s First Day of School”, which was published last year by lulu.com.  I met with Grease at a local restaurant recently to chat about his newest book.   The following is an edited version of our discussion.

Grey Lupindo: What's the title of this one?

Grease Coakes:  “Ginny Griffin and Friends”...[It’s] the sequel to "Ginny Griffin's First Day of School" and is a direct tie to the first book.

Grey Lupindo:   It should be easy for readers to find it.

Grease Coakes:  It's a little longer than the previous book.  Someone who read the book compared it to Encyclopedia Brown, but I don't think of Ginny that way.

Grey Lupindo:  I'm afraid I haven't read the Brown series, although I've heard of it.

Grease Coakes:    Encyclopedia Brown is a detective, but that's not really Ginny's style.   She's more like the girl next door with a big heart.

Grey Lupindo:  Sounds like they might have meant it as a compliment.

Grease Coakes:   The person said it was a good book so it was a compliment.   Maybe she happened to read a bunch of Encyclopedia Brown as a kid.

Grey Lupindo: Probably so.  What happens in this book?

 Grease Coakes:  Well, without giving too much away... If you read the first book, Julie Unicorn was a mean girl.   So when Ginny sees her crying and running out of art class, she gets concerned that no one is giving Julie a second chance.  No one else is willing to forgive Julie because she did some really bad things.  There's a reason she turned to the dark side in the previous book, but I won't say what.

 Grey Lupindo:   Mysterious.....I like that.

Grease Coakes:   Ginny risks all by trying to be Julie’s friend.  As a result Ginny is alienated throughout a lot of the book.  Oh-- I can say there is a cool action scene, but I won't say where in the book.

Grey Lupindo:  Let's give readers a hint. Is it a chase?  A fight?

Grease Coakes:  A fight.  Most children see a school fight so I don't think this will be anything new.  But one of my co-workers called me a terrible person for having a fight in a children's book.

Grey Lupindo:  If they aren't armed, it will be tamer than real-life.

Grease Coakes (laughing):  No, they aren't armed, but I dunno if it's tame.

Grey Lupindo: Kids see a lot in real-life.   We adults don't like to admit that.

Grease Coakes: Yeah, kids are growing up faster now a days and are exposed to more.

Grey Lupindo: Books are a good way for kids to work through the scary RL stuff.

Grease Coakes: Oh sure, especially when the characters are children.  They relate to children more than adults.  They see adults as mean people who forgot what it's like to be a kid.

Grey Lupindo: Can you tell me a little about Ginny’s world?

Grease Coakes:  The world of Ginny Griffin is different than the world we have in real life.  After their World War 2 they decide to stop putting money into war.   In the 1960's solar power is invented and widespread.  I can say that this book shows more of that technology.  More money is being spent on science and education.

Grey Lupindo:  Very forward thinking of them.

Grease Coakes:  Politicians aren't corrupt.   They actually do their job.  Bad things still happen, but it's not as bad our world.

Grey Lupindo:  Where do we sign up to move there?

Grease Coakes laughs.:   You can read my book to travel there for a while.  

Grey Lupindo:(smile)

Grease Coakes:   But a neat part of the book is that I cross over another story into this children's book.

Grey Lupindo:  What do you mean by "cross over another story"?

Grease Coakes:   Well, Rio the Otter happened to buy my writing skills at a tail sale around the same time I started writing this sequel.    He said he wanted a summer beach story.

Grey Lupindo:  Were you able to combine both story lines?

Grease Coakes nods:   Rio shows up in the book, and he meets with Ginny and Phil, her father.  I won't say how or why they meet though.  But what Phil shows to Rio is pretty amazing as he works for a tech firm.

Grey Lupindo: Cool!  So how do readers find your book?

 Grease Coakes:   I just got the cover picture last night so it's not ready yet.   But when it's ready it will be on www.lulu.com. 

Grey Lupindo: Will it be out in time for Christmas sales?

Grease Coakes:  Oh yeah, it shouldn't be long. 

    

         Grease and I continued to chat for a few more minutes about writing and Second Life.   He gave me a short excerpt from the newest Ginny Griffin book.   Like his first book, this one is set in the colorful town of Spoonville.  He has created an imaginative world where the art teacher, Ms. Harriet Hotchkiss, is a cobalt blue peacock and the children, like Harry Hyena, are animals.   But  real-life children will soon realize that the fictional children face a lot of the same issues and obstacles that they do.  They should be able to relate to the characters as they are entertained by the imaginary world.   

        “Ginny Griffin and Friends” by real-life author John Krauss will be available soon in the children’s book section of lulu.com.    

Grey Lupindo