These last couple of days, I've been rushing around, picking up prim and searching for a new home in SL. I figured it was too good to be true, having a home in SL for over two years when change is the constant norm.
The first four months I was in SL, I hunted for an underwater home. It made sense to me since I had a series of selkie, mermaid, and dolphin shapeshifter romances just released, plus mermaids are typically friendly.
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| Me in my office inside the old villa. I do admit I miss that house. It was gorgeous. |
Since I was having no luck on the underwater search for a merhome, I settled on a lovely Lake Como styled villa where I stayed for several months before privacy (and other issues) caused me to renew my search for a little place under the sea.
While scouting for mermaid hangouts that might like to hear me read from my new books, I saw that there was a nightclub for mermaids having a ballroom tails night (yep, only in SL, lol) and the women there were very friendly and we chatted long into the wee hours. (Remember, SL is like one big graphically cool 3D chatroom).
I think it was about a month or two later that I learned the ladies I met were all living in the same sim, Tokara, and invited me to join them there—under the sea! I got myself moved into my first merhouse, and happily said buh-bye to the sim where I'd been renting the villa.
I learned there was also a mall in the adjacent sim owned by the same wonderful owner of the residential sim where I now lived, and quickly grabbed a spot where I could give away freebies and set up book readings and tarot readings and of course, posters of all my published ebooks. Those were good days. Eventually, the Tokara mall closed and I had to pull my prim and relocate my bookshop. However, my merhome under the sea remained...yet all things must come to an end.
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| The Tiki Bar at Trilla's Treasure Estates. Trilla's house is in the background. |
You wouldn't think you could get so attached to a virtual place, but having had to delete the MMC website, SL, Twitter, and finally the last bastion, the MMC blog, these last couple of months—and now my merhome away from home...it's been sad. All my friends there have scattered and although I hope we stay in touch, I know how life is, both in RL and SL.
Linden Labs charges an exorbitant amount of money to own a homestead sim, hell—any sim at all, which is why my idea of having my own Mermaid Isle based on my books was soon snuffed out when I learned it costs more than a car payment PER MONTH to own an island SIM. That's insane!
Even a "homestead" sim costs over $100USD a month to maintain. Unreal is right!
Anyway, the friend who owned the sim couldn't keep up the pace with the constant tier dues and such to Linden Labs, the creator of Second Life. So the sim closed for good today.
While I'm a bit sad though, I'm also happy to say I did find a new place and the merhome I recently had custom built by Serafin Galli fits perfect into the underwater area there. I hope to hold (by invitation only) readings from my books and also tarot reading parties at my new place.
There will be drawings throughout Saturday and Sunday, so join up, the contest ends Sunday night at 10pm edt, August 12, 2012. There is no cost to join my SL group, but you do have to have an SL account. The gift cards are for stores located in SL and are virtual items with only Linden value.
Not into SL? You can still win a prize and here's how: leave a comment on this blog post and tell me who is your favorite Olympic athlete from the London 2012 Summer Games, and you'll be entered to win the mermaid cameo pin pictured below.
Contest ends, Sunday, August 12, 2012 at midnight and the winner will be announced next week. You must have a valid email address and be over 18 years of age to enter. Void where prohibited. Odds of winning are subject to the number of entries. Good Luck!
