Our featured guests this year will be Huckleberry Hax and Singh Albatros.
Huckleberry Hax
Huckleberry Hax has been a resident of Second Life since 2007. During this time, he has published 16 books under his avatar name. These comprise ten novels, two novellas, two short story collections, a collection of his poems and a compilation of his articles about Second Life. His best known novel is ‘AFK,’ a story about a Second Life detective, which went on to spawn four sequels. Many of Huck’s stories are set in and around Second Life or other fictional virtual worlds.
Huck also takes photographs in Second Life and in the last few years has become interested in filming machinima. His first feature-length movie, STÖMOL – filmed entirely in Second Life – was released in 2020 and went on to win second place in the main competition at the 2020 SUPERNOVA digital animation film festival.
In addition, Huck’s collection of short stories about a group of metaversians who meet in real life every month to solve virtual world mysteries, The Avatar Dining Club Mysteries, has recently become a podcast series; episodes can be listened to here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAOWGvLs-WfiXPtKrO5pKPafEU5pgYxBL (and new episodes are released on Tuesdays).
Schedule at the Faire:
An Interview with Huckleberry Hax by Saffia Widdershins
Monday, 26 April 2:00 – 3:00pm
Saffia talks to Huckleberry about his work, and his life as a purely digital identity as a writer and machinima maker.
STÖMOL is a feature-length sci-fi machinima filmed entirely in Second Life®. STÖMOL is written, filmed and directed by Huckleberry Hax, who will be introducing the machinima. It was released in 2020 and went on to win second place in the main competition at the 2020 SUPERNOVA digital animation film festival.
Join us in Dragon’s Dreams on Líng xiāo lóng 灵霄龙
Saturday, 1 May 2:00 – 3:00m
Singh Albatros (in real life, Chris Mooney-Singh)
Australian-born, but based in Singapore, Chris lived for 20 years in India, Singapore, Malaysia and Melbourne, where he recently completed a PhD in Literary Studies and Creative Writing. Asia impacts in a major way on all his poetry, fiction and plays. Peruse the pages, read and listen to the stories and poems through his website, http://www.chrismooneysingh.com/
Chris writes:
You might like to also check out the links to my publications. In 2015 my verse novel was commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literature Awards (Unpub fiction category).
I am the co-founder of Poetry Slam in Singapore and Malaysia an organisation that curates the National Singapore Poetry Slam, the Singapore National Youth Poetry Slam League and Playright Fest. I have also had the unique privilege of performing poetry regularly before mass audiences of all ages and conducting cross-genre writing and performance classes for thousands of students.
In the late 80s and early 90s I wrote radio arts scripts and presented programmes for Radio National Australia, later doing voice-over work for Singapore advertising companies. More recently, I have returned to home-studio voice and musical composition.
In addition, my interest as a musician and composer with Western classical and popular training turned eventually toward Sikh sacred and Indian classical music. I spent several years learning these on-the-job in India, working for periods as a professional Sikh devotional singer-musician.
Journey to the West (and the East) – a presentation by Singh Albatros
Sunday 25 April 7:00 – 8:00pm
Journey with Singh Albatros (aka Chris Mooney-Singh) to learn about the famous late Ming dynasty allegorical novel Journey to the West by Wu Ch’êng-ên tracing the epic journey of monk Tripitaka and his protectors – Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy and Yulong, the magical horse as they go on a quest from China to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. Singh will also read from his own Singapore-based magic realist novel in progress, Ghosts on a Bumboat, which also draws on sources found in Journey to the West.
Chris Mooney-Singh is a published poet, fiction writer and new filmmaker who has been living in and writing from Asia for more than thirty years. Read more about his work here.
Dragon’s Dreams: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ling%20Xiao%20Long/161/75/62
Monday, 26 April 2:00 – 3:00pm
Saffia talks to Singh about his work, and his life and his explorations.
