Here is a link to the latest Steampunk Adventures Magazine:

Second Life does still provide a platform for people to create their own Steampunk fantasy.   Here are a few pictures of my Steampunk Tours from this summer.

Le Boheme – Victorian, Gothic, Vampire , and Steampunk designs.   Prefabs, houses, mansions, furniture and art.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Asunder/179/58/64

La Boheme is a great site with a couple of Steampunk Themed Stores including Wretched Dollies featured below.

This beautiful sim also features Victorian themed homes for rent such as this one below:

Wretched Dollies
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Asunder/230/40/73

Wretched Dollies features fashions and accessories for men and women who are seeking the perfect outfit in a Steampunk Theme.

Mieville
Shopping, shops, retail, commercial, residential, housing, rentals, Victorian Steampunk shops and residences
Quaint & Curious Contraptions
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mieville%20Doyle/234/79/26

This sim is referred to as “a steampunk area spread over eight full regions, each named after a popular Victorian novelist. As well as shops and residences, Residents can visit some beautiful parkland, ports, and the impressive Mieville Magical Academy.

Stormy’s Golden Oriole and Steampunk
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mieville%20Doyle/168/58/33

Dirty Lynx
The long established apparel brand. Fantasy, Goth, Grunge, Steam apparel. Avatars for sale, Armors, Victorian dresses, baggy pants, skins, sculpted jackets, Devices and gadgets.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bytegang/131/199/28

Julia’s Collection
Creating furniture that is unique with a whimsical touch.
Designs are inspired by Steampunk, Victorian, fantasy and grunge elements, infused to make your home flabbergasting.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gear%20Jammer/49/42/27

Illustrated below is an art exhibition by  Talullah Winterwolf on the Gear Jammer Sim:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gear%20Jammer/61/146/32

Grimm Brothers   Everything here is “delicious!” it’s like wearable art!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Clematis%20Island/176/26/22

I am exhausted! Grim Brothers is a great place to stop..for today!

New Babbage
NeoVictorian
Mythopoeia
LPP Neo
Caledon
Armada Breakaway
Mieville
Rossers Landing
Tangier East
and
Steelhead Port Harbor

What follows is a photo essay of my journey through each of these sites, with a slurl to each and a bit of a background on each.  As I chronicled my journey through Caledon with my last posting I will only add an additional photo or two and a slurl to Steam Sky City.  We will start there:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Steam%20SkyCity/108/33/76

Here is the SLURL to New Babbage:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/160/48/106

In front of the Men’s Outfitter’s Store Pearsed and Cut:

More information on New Babbage can be found on this Second Life Wikia: http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/New_Babbage .

More photos of New Babbage:

This picture clearly illustrates the industrial environment of New Babbage:

A picture outside of the T a T Store (Victorian Fashions) in Port Babbage:

(excuse me while I do a bit of shopping)

An airship that hovers over Port Babbage:

Tangiers East:

One of the first places you will land at Tangiers East is their Sky Mall:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Karamoon%202/82/79/1001

Of course I had to shop a bit:

MAB and Company; Builds, flora and fauna:

A memorial to fallen Second Lifers:

According to a notecard received at the NeoVictoria Sim the creator intended to do the following:

Much of this lore had its base in the tales of pre-Christian Scandinavia and the Celtic peoples. I began thinking …what would the Earth be like if some of the Norsk deities of old had not faded, but were living and breathing and politicking with humans still? Svartálfheim in ascendancy?
Neo Victoria is a role play sim located at the following SLURL:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Machinima/250/142/700

Next I moved on to the beautiful Mythopoeia sim and the Curious Prim Store:

According to Wikipedia Mythopoeia is:

Mythopoeia (also mythopoesis, after Hellenistic Greek μυθοποιία, μυθοποίησις “myth-making”) is a narrative genre in modern literature and film where a fictional mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction. This meaning of the wordmythopoeia follows its use by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction.
Some of the merchandise in Curious Prim Store:

Rosser’s Landing is home to The Riot Act a Steampunk inspired nightclub in Second Life.

I won’t write too much about Rosser’s Landing as I have written about this sim in the past:

There are several more sims I would like to write about in the future so consider this posting …

To Be Continued!

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http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Oxbridge%20Village/188/56/26

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Caledon Oxbridge University

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Oxbridge/178/74/27

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Caledon Victoria city

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/105/106/23

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Caledon South End

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The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference is starting today and I mention it here because they have this fabulous Steampunk Build where participants enter the conference!

This is one of the most fabulous conferences and events in virtual worlds to date.  If you want more information on the conference you can view the schedule here http://conf.vwbpe.org/index.php/VWBPE/11/schedConf/schedule.  The conference starts today at 2PM with the opening keynote lead by Botgirl Questi.   If you are en educator or just curious about Virtual Worlds I suggest you attend this conference.  This is the third annual VWBPE conference for me and reflecting back it was my first conference that really sparked my interest in virtual worlds and their application to education.   It’s not too late, you can still attend the conference.  If you don’t have a Second Life avatar you can create one at www.secondlife.com or read about it here:  http://www.vwbpe.org/

In the meantime, however, if you are reading this because you are interested in Steampunk check out these pictures:

We started out with  a plan to do a nice little online and Second Life magazine that would promote the Steampunk Adventures store in Second Life.  But with this team  that narrow of a focus would be, in my opinion, a waste of some really great talent.

Before starting the magazine I knew that some of my friends in Second Life were really good writers, had a passion for writing, and would be an asset to the magazine, that is how our new focus started.  This change meant that we would expand our vision beyond the boundaries of Second Life, that we would encourage and support new writers who just needed a venue to promote their work, and that we would need to put into place a long term plan for sustaining Steampunk Adventures.

We started to explore all the various avenues to promote what we were doing, what is required of being a full fledged literary magazine, writing competitions, and reorganizing the focus and organization of the magazine. This new focus allowed me to realize that I could achieve a long time goal and that is to publish a book.  With the help and collaboration of the people I work with on Steampunk Adventures we can possibly publish an anthology by the end of this year!   I have had the good fortune to have been able to put together a team who have been as committed to Steampunk Adventures as I am and who have pushed this magazine forward in spite of the various personal live challenges and changes I have faced over the last six months..I think we are through the worst of those and we can work together to realize this vision. I want to express my special appreciation to Kitsuko Pelazzi and Gordon Soleil for their steady focus and diligent work on Steampunk Adventures.

We are encouraging submissions of participant’s best work in various writing competitions. The winners will see their work published in the anthology and  receive a free copy of the anthology. We currently have a writing competition in place in which writers are encouraged to give a Steampunk twist to their favorite Grimm Brothers tale, submissions are due March 1. See the website for complete details:  http://steampunkadventuressl.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/steampunk-writing-competition/

For the long term we plan the following:

Complete Guidelines

1. Submit one previously unpublished story of up to 8,000 words or three (3) previously unpublished poems to Steampunk Adventures. Please send each entry separately and clearly mark whether it is a poetry or fiction entry.

Email entries  to:

steampunkadventurers@gmail.com

Be sure and use a coversheet with the following information:

Your name/pen name

Name of Story (which should also be on each page of your story/poetry submissions)

How to contact you:  at least an email address

Entries will not be accepted until February 1, 2011.   Final Deadline for Entries will be July 31, 2011.  Submissions will be electronic via email to steampunkadventurers@gmail.com

Winners will be announced in October 2011 and winning entries including honorable mentions and the “best of”  staff writing with plans to  published in the December/January issue, a chapbook and/or ebook in December/January.   This anthology will also include the “Best of” Steampunk Adventures for the year.

Writers associated with the judges or Steampunk Adventures are not eligible to submit work to the contest.

Prizes and categories will be awarded as follows:

First Prize Short Story:          50.00

Second Prize Short story:          35.00

Third Prize Short Story:          15.00

Honorable Mention no dollar prize but possible publication in the anthology.

Poetry:

First Prize Poetry:             50.00

Second Prize Poetry:            35.00

Third Prize Short Poetry:        15.00

Honorable Mention no dollar prize but possible publication in the anthology.

All entries must be the original creation of the submitting author. All rights to the entries must be owned by the author and shall remain the property of the author. The author gives permission to Steampunk Adventures/Cathy Anderson. to publish and display the entry on the Web and/or eBook form if the entry is selected as a winner or finalist. Winners will be contacted within 45 days of the deadline date.

Copyright
Authors retain all rights to their story but grant Steampunk Adventures/Cathy Anderson the right to compile their story into an anthology.  Steampunk Adventures is then responsible for the distribution of the anthology.  Steampunk Adventures is granted the right to publish the winning stories on its websites and post the names of contest winners as well as the titles to the stories. Author warrants that the story is completely theirs and does not infringe on the rights of any other entity and is responsible for any plagiarism or other unauthorized use.

Simultaneous Submission

Authors may submit stories that have been submitted elsewhere at other times. Author should ensure that their submissions elsewhere will not jeopardize Steampunk Adventures’ right to publish the story in an anthology if it is the winning story. (ensure that other contests also allow the authors to retain full rights to their story and allow simultaneous submission.)

Multiple Submissions

Authors may submit more than one story or poetry submission.

The submissions will be judged by the Steampunk Adventures Team, staff submissions are not allowed to the competition.

For further information on submissions to the magazine  please see the Steampunk Adventures Blog:

http://steampunkadventuressl.wordpress.com/submission-guidelines/

If you want to learn more about Steampunk and the themes associate with this genre I encourage you to check out the following website:  http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1249132-SteamPunk-A-List-of-Themes

I have participated in other hunts on the grid and Steam is the best.  Why? Well the gears always seem to be hidden just right so as to challenge you but not so deeply hidden that you give up.  I am already up to gear 20 and so far I have had fun, found some great stores and good finds, which I will picture in my next blog.

In addition to finding some great “stuff” in Second Life you will also find some great stores, art, and sims.  Participating in a hunt is a great way for a newby to experience Second Life.  If you are not in Second Life participating in this hunt or any other way is a fun way to outfit your avatar, your Linden Lab home, and experience Second Life in a guided way.

Madhattery, pictured above, is one of those fabulous stores that is not only a store with great merchandise but also the store itself is also a work of art.  One of those places I am glad to have visited in Second Life but wouldn’t have otherwise found without the experience of the Steam Hunt.

Clothing in Second Life:

At Fang and Claw the first stop on the Steam Hunt:

If you would like to learn more about Steam the Hunt you can read more about it on their blog which is located here.

If you want to learn more about hunts in Second Life you can find information here at the Second Life hunts blog.