archangel969

That would be great! Also love to hear about the books you published! I have mainly published 4 novels in RL and also have done interviews (interviewed people and being interviewed 🙂, but would like to keep that seperate from SL. I know there are different opinions about seperating or mixing RL en SL, but it's everybody's own choice. I will contact you, thanks!

Hi, I will contact you all in the coming week(s) or days, depends on how the preperation goes. What I wanted to add that I Have a RL body that lives in The Netherlands and that body lives in the Dutch Time, wich is: Central European Time (CET). It's a bit of a puzzle, caus in SL I want to hold on the SL time (convenient for events etc.), but the difference is enourmous. In The Netherlands it is 9 hours later. So 4 PM PST is in my place: one o'clock in the morning :-).

What a great responses! My aim is to show with this blog series and eventually the book, that SecondLife residents have a warm heart and live a passionate life. I came to this idea because I hear so many people say about secondlife that the contacts there are cold and shallow. I will prove otherwise! My name is: Angelus van Engelen inworld and: archangel969

Glad you would like to be interviewed! It could take a bit time (have to make some preparations), but I will contact you. What times (SL time) are you available mostly?

I am of course :-). Can I contact you inworld? It could take a bit time (have to make some preparations), but I will interview you then in your own environment where you are at home. What times (SL time) are you available mostly?

As some of you know: I am a bit of a hermit. Most of the time I am writing in my home at Regal (Sweet Grass community). But now I am going to leave my house to travel around SL! Why? I am planning to write a book (consisting of a series of blogs) about you, my fellow residents! I will travel around SL and visit people who would like to be interviewed. I have 2 main questions: 1. Please show me your house and: 2. What is your dearest passion? That can ben ANYTHING. Cars, a new found love, flowers, designing. They only thing is that it MUST be your dearest passion. But the most important question is: are there residents who like to cooperate with this project and like te be interviewed? And a secondary question: are there residents who have allready published a book inworld? I also love to hear from your experiences. Well, I am hoping At least a few of you think this is a good idea :-). Otherwise I will return to my villa and be the happy hermit as I always was ;-).

As a novelist I do not read so many books because I am writing myself 😀 Mostly I am reading books to review, or to study for writing. But the books I AM reading for pleasure are mostly rare old books who are adventurous and have something odd or remarkable. Just as I love odd and remarkable people LOL. Recently I read: Vathek by William Beckford, an old gothic novel. I LOVE gothic stories, and Another country from James Baldwin. I love his work! He was not only a leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, he fought for equal rights voor black people but also for gay people. And WE from Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's a dystopian novel, written in 1924, BEFORE 1984 from George Orwell (1948), but even more chilling. Zamyatin wrote this political critical book despite the fact that it was very dangerous to publish this kind of books during the Soviet regime.

Dancing on the volcano

Oh well, 'it's the season to play a christmas angel dangling in the sky above Sweet Grass/Regal.

Hello, I am Angelus van Engelen, a Dutch writer (in RL and in SL) and I live in Sweet Grass/Regal in a rented villa with a nice garden. I made the story of my avatar like this: Angelus travelled from the Netherlands to Villa Rudolfo and took the furniture from the fin de siècle legacy of his great-grandfather. He was also a writer and secretly gay. His great-grandsun Angelus has furnished villa Rudolfo with the furniture from the legacy and his own purchases. In the house there is little library, a William Blake room, a Yukio Mishima room and a Lewis Caroll-Alice's tea party at the gazebo. The park has a fountain, a 'tombe for all residents who are no longer with us,' an orange grove, a nightingale tub and a butterfly gate (wich is closed for ages). There are books scattered around in the park and there are portraits of writers (Edgar Alle Poe, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde etc.) in the villa. The books and portraits have voices. Click on them to hear them. From time to time he would like to invite other SL writers or lovers of literature in his salon. Angelus is mostely well dressed, kind and well mannered. But he also has an animal and wild side. He knows the language of several animals. His spirit animal is an owl.

I have experienced here that making friends is very much like in RL. People are people. Of course in SL it is easier to hop from one contact to another without really investing seriously in a friendship. But there ARE people, also in SL, who are serieus about friendship en relationship (in SL). For me it is easy: I have enough imagination to do things by myself and don't need many contacts. But I HAVE met people in SL who are now friends. One of the I have met in RL. The keyword here is often: shared interests. We are both Dutch writers and have set up a writers group in RL now. It is funny that for us SL en RL are mixed together in a very pleasant way. The second keyword is: investing. Invest in friendship. That sounds obvious, but that's just the thing that is missing in many contacts in SL when I read the forum about friendship. It's also the other way around: when you feel someone doesn't make time for you and isn't really interested, that person is not the right one to be called a friend. The 3rd important keyword is: relax. If someone doesn't live up to your expectations, if someone is an *****, is rude, let that person be. There are others who will be worthy of your attention. I see in these forums here a lot of very nice, helpfull and thougtfull people. For me, when I have a bad experience with someone in SL, I sometimes come here and I see: SL is not entierly full of assholes ;-).

We are animal. Horses in the snow.

Well, it's winter all over in Secondlife, but in paradise it's summer endlessly.

This is my avatar Angelus van Engelen with his soulbrother and spirit animal. It's in his house villa Rudolfo in Sweet Grass/regal. A few months ago he had a make-over from an old system avatar to a mesh body and head (Catwa head, Belleza Jake body, Stray dog Javier skin) that I could shape to my old looks. I had great help from many of you here on the forum that I appreciate a lot! Because I'm a writer I must have a story. So does my avatar. He is a (Dutch) writer also and lives in the villa with furniture of his great grandfather (also a writer and secretely gay) surrounded by a beautiful garden. He is a bit of a hermit, but sometimes he goes to book readings or even a wild party. He is very friendly, mostly well dressed, but he also has a dark and wild and secret side. Maybe his spirit animal knows more?

The owls are not what they seem.

I realize this is an old post, but I so understand this problem. For a month or so suddenly these ugly poisonos neo coloured green parcel border indicater lines appeared next to my backgarden. It is such a nice spot because there you can watch the sun go down and the moon come up. I don't understand why this sort of indicater lines can't be made invisible because they ruining the view for anyone who live in the neighbourhood.

Oscar Wilde! That's one of my favoriete authors. I have a portrait of him hanging in my hallway, next to James Baldwin. They seem very different (in time and genre) but I love to look for similarities that are not obvious. Then you get an interesting mix. And well, as a novelist you are used to creating worlds with a specific tone of voice. It's not someting i do on purpose, it just comes naturally. In SL I see many residents doing the same and that warms my heart. It's such a creative place. In creating 'worlds' or a place with a specific atmosphere you need to choose what is the 'dominant characteristic'. In the case of my SL home I knew it was 'late romantic/fin de sciecle. But you don't have to be that precise (I have Bauhaus furniture that is NOT late romantic at all), otherwise it would be a museum and not a home where you actual live. I even made a music mixtape for the villa and the gardens with late romantic music and sounds from the villa (birds, the fountain, grandfathers clock ticking). Just today I made a mixcloud account for my SL character and uploaded the music:

Untill a few days I had a classic system avatar. It's not that I didn't wanted to change. I was just too busy with other things. And I was also a bit taken aback by the amount of work. Also: I didn't know what to choose and how to do it. So I asked a question on this forum. I was pleased with all the kind and helpfull answers! You as members of this community are really precious. Here is how I look today. Not as flawless and spectacular as most of you. But it feels good. It's like I am back from a wonderfull and refreshing holiday.

Great how you experiment and choose a specific style, body etc depending on the character. I absolutelly love the world you are creating with it.

Yes, this is Catwa Skell! Was a good match. Still my own skin, but I saw very good skins at Stray Dog (has they closed their spot on Marketplace?).

I would like to thank you all for your help, kind words and support! My avatar looks totally refreshed, but on the other hand still feels like me! That second aspect is very important: that your apprearance feels right! To show the difference (and resemblence in style) I share an old picture of myself in my hallway (with a portait of a beloved writer on the backgroud: Mary 'Frankenstein' Shelly and the absinth table on the left). I pasted my new head on the old picture. I am pleased so far. Not totally finished yet, but I resume working on your avatar it's an ungoing journey.

Thank you Marianne Little for your advise. I saw the pictues and love the style!

Thank you for your kind words, Madison Talon!

Gorgeous head! Well, exept demo's I didn't buy enything yet. So maybe I'll try this one.