Online Schedule
Monday-Sunday, 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood, Second Life®
500 Word Snatch
Does the thought of writing a full length novel fill you with dread? It’s easy to feel despondent when you consider the commitment and time required – particularly when you’re juggling a family and a full time job – but the truth is you can make a long story short by taking small disciplined steps every day. As Jack London said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club”.
The Challenge: Write 500 words a day, for a full year (come rain or shine) – if you’ve completed NaNoWriMo you’ll find this very easy. 500 Word Snatch is ideal if you have a long-term goal, or need sustained support and encouragement, and we’ll be there to rally you, every step of the way.
We hold regular Word Snatch meets at Milk Wood at 4pm GMT/8am PST on Monday – Sunday, There’s also an additional sprint hosted on Book Island on Sunday at 8pm GMT/12 noon PST.
Saturdays, 5pm GMT
Stone Circle, Milk Wood, Second Life®
Fox Rocks Poets (currently on hiatus)
Fox Rocks is a strong group of wild but supportive poets (strong like rocks and wild like foxes) meeting every Saturday at 9am SLT at the Stone Circle in Milk Wood.
We cheer one another on, but we do more than that. We’re a serious writing group looking to improve our skills.
We use games to loosen up, presentations to listen up, and the critique process to make our input even more helpful.
We provide guidelines to keep the criticism on point and constructive. Because critiques take thought to offer and to absorb, we go slow, each of us focusing on one poem to improve and present each month.
Held throughout April
Milk Wood Campground, Second Life®
Poem-a-Day (PAD)
Held in April during National Poetry Month.
The Challenge: write a poem every day for the month of April. At the end you’ll have 30 poems to edit, polish, and prepare for publication.
For each day of April (at 4pm GMT) we will have word prompts and poetic forms to help inspire you. At our writers’ meet-ups you can discuss prompts and forms, share the process with fellow poets, and be cheered on. You can also deposit your poem in the repository for others to read later. Our annual PAD Competition will be later in the year. That gives you time to polish those words and make your poems as tight and professional as possible.
Held throughout November
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood, Second Life®
Moxie Madness: Super-Charged Writing Month
Held every November at Milk Wood. Your challenge is to write a novel in 30 days (although smaller goals are also accepted). We provide a wealth of support in the form of daily write-ins, resources, and a selection of workshops/seminars from successful authors.
We’re in the process of creating a dedicated forum for participants, but don’t anticipate it going live until the new year. Until then, feel free to use our Discord server or our Facebook group to discuss the challenge with your fellow Moxies, or better yet, come join our daily meets at the writing sim. This year we’re using TrackBear to help us keep track and we encourage you to join the Moxie leaderboard on there if you need more impetus (see blog post for more details).
held throughout april & july
Milk Wood Campground, Second Life®
Camp Moxie (April and July)
Camp Moxie is a more relaxed version of the November novel writing event. We have Camp sessions in both April and July, and we welcome word-count goals between 5,000 and 25,000 for any type of writing project. You might want to use the time to edit your Moxie novel from November, or plan for next year’s challenge. Some of our participants use the time to delve into research. The choice is yours.
Virtual Social
Accessing Our Events
Our main online writers’ space is in the form of a 3D digital community where avatar versions of ourselves move, communicate, and socialise using mouse, microphone, and keyboard controls. We find this type of virtual environment ideal for busy writers as it enables them to attend live events without the need for travel. The writer is able to meet with group members, write, promote his work, meet with publishing professionals, and other authors all from the comfort of an armchair.
‘Milk Wood, a home for writers in Second Life®, was undoubtedly named for the small Welsh fishing village immortalized by Dylan Thomas in his radio play, Under Milk Wood. Our virtual Milk Wood shares the craggy charm, crashing waves, stone cottages and Medieval churches of Dylan’s romantic childhood reminiscence. And like Dylan’s Milk Wood, ours is populated with villagers who share a keen ear for language and a passion for telling stories. Second Life® attracts artists since it is a place that both nourishes and challenges the imagination. Milk Wood does both these things for writers.’
Upcoming Online Workshops
Upcoming workshops for Moxie Madness, our super-charged writing challenge. All events are held at our Forest Coffee Bar in Second Life®.
1 Nov, 2024 at 3pm
Write What Haunts You
Friday 1st November, 2024
8am PT / 11am ET / 3pm GMT
People have themes that fascinate them, which they come back to again and again. These themes influence what books they read, movies they watch, topics of conversations with friends, the kinds of vacations they take, the artwork they are drawn to, their daydreams, and their nightmares. In this workshop, Robinette will show you how you can access these ideas so you stay excited and motivated for 30 days and 50,000 words.
Robinette Waterson
Robinette Waterson is a writer of Victorian steampunk erotica, historical novels, and assorted ephemera. In Second Life®, Robinette role plays in historical sims, generally playing a strong-minded woman with a zest for life.
5 Nov, 2024 at 4pm
Memoir: Interrogating the Past
Tuesday 5th November, 2024
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Although memoir tells stories in the first person through the lens of the author’s personal experience, it’s not really about the writer. Find out what memoir is really about. This workshop will discuss types of memoir, why we write memoir, character and time in memoir, and perhaps, some legal and ethical considerations.
Patricia Averbach
Patricia Averbach is the author of three novels and a small poetry collection. Her newest novel, Dreams of Drowning (Bedazzled Ink, 2024) was a finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award and Chanticleer’s Somerset Award for Literary Fiction. Previous work includes Resurrecting Rain (Golden Antelope Press, 2020) which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her debut novel, Painting Bridges (Bottom Dog Press, 2013). Her poetry chapbook, Missing Persons (Ward Wood Publishing, 2014) won the London based Lumen/Camden Prize and was cited by Times of London Literary Supplement as one of the best small collections of 2014. Her work has appeared in Lilith Magazine and the anthology 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium. To learn more, visit her website at: http://www.patriciaaverbach.com
7 Nov, 2024 at 4pm
Do I know you?
Thursday 7th November, 2024
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Do I know you? Do I really?
Join novelist Colin Bell as he leads a creative workshop encouraging writers to experiment and play with characterisation. During the session he will consider some of the characters in his own work. Would he recognise them at a party, down a dark alley, or as a stranger on a train?
We will also do some writing exercises to see how these ideas could work for us. Whatever your level, you can improve how you present your characters. If I know you then I might remember you too!
Colin Bell
Television producer-director Colin Bell’s poetry collection, Remembering Blue (2019) and his novels, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer of Love (2013) and Blue Notes, Still Frames (2016) are published by Ward Wood Publishing. His third novel, Over the Hills is a Long Way Off, will also be published by Ward Wood.
His poetry has been published by Acumen, Cinnamon Press, Frogmore Press, Shot Glass Journal, Soaring Penguin Press, The Fib Review, and a number of anthologies in the US and UK. Several of his fibs have been set to music as the song cycle, Fibonacci Poems (2017) for tenor voice and piano by American composer Tim Risher. In 2020 he was made Musepie Press’ Featured International Poet and his Fibonacci poetry has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
A Producer-director of arts documentaries and then Executive Producer, Music and Arts, he has made arts programmes for ITV, BBC, Channel Four, and for broadcasters in the USA (WNET and Disney), in Japan (NHK) and Germany (WDR).
Colin Bell’s website: https://wolfiewolfgang.com/
8 Nov, 2024 at 4pm
Finding Your Historical Fiction Voice
Friday 8th November, 2024
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Finding your historical fiction voice
• Are you a “wouldst thou” or a “would you”?
• Do you feel that writing the fourteenth century in modern vernacular is justifiable?
• Should someone have told Shakespeare that Ancient Rome didn’t have striking clocks?
• Is it important that the reader finds out the complete process of making a toga from shearing the sheep to the exact type of seashell needed to make the dye?
In this not-totally-serious talk, we shall look at what readers want from a good historical novel, and what jars their senses. We shall examine things like vocabulary pitfalls and the eternal conundrum of pleasing the history buff while not overloading the story with our research!
We shall do this in a spirit of kindness – especially towards me – and collaboration by looking at all the things I got wrong! Our one aim is to open up a way forward for anyone who wants to write historical fiction.
Fiona Forsyth
Fiona Forsyth has loved the ancient world since reading her first Greek myth, Theseus and the Minotaur. After reading Classics at Oxford, she taught at a British boys’ school for twenty-five years, but then her family moved to Qatar. There wasn’t much call for Latin teachers, so she became a prison visitor, animal rescuer and writer of historical novels and poetry. Now she is back in the UK, and a full-time author.
23 Nov, 2024 at 4pm
Discovering Your Characters
Saturday 23rd November, 2024
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Did you ever want to start your novel with a full description of your character? Where did he come from? What does he look like? What is motivating him? What is his goal? What are his strengths and weaknesses? How does he treat his mother?
Well, don’t. Don’t ever begin a novel that way.
Writing a character should be like meeting someone on a street corner and then working up to becoming friends. Developing a character takes time, pages, and chapters. Let’s talk about character building, from the ground up, one scene at a time. You don’t know anything about this person until they tell you or you watch them engage with others. Neither should your reader.
Susan Agatha Davis
Retired criminal attorney and author of six crime novels – and more in the works. Susan is also a former journalist and newspaper editor, and a published poet. She is a mother, grandmother, and veteran.
24 Nov, 2024 at 4pm
Maintaining a #WritersLife like a boss, even when life takes a detour
Sunday 24th November, 2024
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Keeping your writer’s life active even when your personal life spins out of control. How to maintain a healthy work-life-writing balance without burning out.
Emerian Rich
Author, artist, voice actress, and editor, Emerian Rich is best known for being the Horror Hostess of HorrorAddicts.net, an internationally acclaimed podcast, now in its 19th season. She runs HorrorAddicts.net Press and has major roles in two non-fiction magazines. She is the author of the Night’s Knights vampire series, has been published in over 40 fiction anthologies, has 90+ nonfiction credits, and writes romance under the name Emmy Z. Madrigal. Find out more at http://emzbox.com
Previous Seminars and Workshops
3 Nov, 2022 at 3pm
Getting published, keeping your feet on the ground
Thursday 3rd November, 2022
8am PT / 11am ET / 3pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Finn brings to the table her experiences on being published by a small indie press. She doesn’t have have any sure-fire tips, she’s still utterly bewildered by marketing, but she can tell you what she’s learned. Now, if anyone can tell her how TikTok and Instagram works, she’d be grateful!
Fiona Forsyth
Fiona Forsyth has loved the ancient world since reading her first Greek myth, Theseus and the Minotaur. After reading Classics at Oxford, she taught at a British boys’ school for twenty-five years, but then her family moved to Qatar. There wasn’t much call for Latin teachers, so she became a prison visitor, animal rescuer and writer of historical novels and poetry. Now she is back in the UK, and a full-time author.
8 Nov, 2021 at 4pm
Finding a Path to Publication
Monday 8th November, 2021
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Not every writer wants to publish, but there are several good options for those who do. Learn how to get your novel or short story collection into print and how to avoid the pitfalls along the path to publication. This workshop is geared for fiction writers but may also be useful to anyone who’s written a memoir or a collection of essays.
Patricia Averbach
Patricia Averbach, a native Clevelander, is the former director of The Chautauqua Writers Center in Chautauqua, New York. Her debut novel, Painting Bridges, (Bottom Dog Press, 2013) was praised by Michelle Ross, book critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as “an introspective, intelligent and moving novel.” Her second novel, Resurrecting Rain (Golden Antelope Press, 2020) won a Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association and was a semi-finalist for a Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award under the title New Moon Rising. Her poetry chapbook, Missing Persons, (Ward Wood Publishing, 2013) won the London based Lumen/Camden prize and was cited by Times of London Literary Supplement (November, 2014) as one of the best small collections of the year.
4 Nov, 2021 at 3pm
Rose-Coloured Glasses or the Unvarnished Truth – What Do We Owe History?
Thursday 4th November, 2021
8am PT / 11am ET / 3pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
A discussion, with no definitive answers offered, on how we portray the past in our fiction: given that we can never truly know the world about which we write, how do we justify our work?
Fiona Forsyth
Fiona Forsyth has loved the ancient world since reading her first Greek myth, Theseus and the Minotaur. After reading Classics at Oxford, she taught at a British boys’ school for twenty-five years, but then her family moved to Qatar. There wasn’t much call for Latin teachers, so she became a prison visitor, animal rescuer and writer of historical novels and poetry. Now she is back in the UK, and a full-time author.
5 Nov, 2021 at 3pm
Show or Tell?
Friday 5th November, 2021
8am PT / 11am ET / 3pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
There is an interesting debate raging on social media between authors who insist on showing instead of telling and authors who believe that telling is just as good. In order to understand the discussion, we first need to understand the difference.
Susan will discuss what the phrase ‘show not tell’ actually means, when and where to use each and how to prevent showing from being overdone and distracting from the plot.
Susan Agatha Davis
Retired criminal attorney and author of six crime novels – and more in the works. Susan is also a former journalist and newspaper editor, and a published poet. She is a mother, grandmother, and veteran.
15 Nov, 2021 at 4pm
As if you were there
Monday 15th November, 2021
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Create a world that comes to life on the page. Come to Colin Bell’s session with a pencil and paper and try out some techniques for creating a vivid sense of place in your fiction.
Colin Bell
Television producer-director Colin Bell’s poetry collection, Remembering Blue (2019) and his novels, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer of Love (2013) and Blue Notes, Still Frames (2016) are published by Ward Wood Publishing. His third novel, Over the Hills is a Long Way Off, will also be published by Ward Wood.
His poetry has been published by Acumen, Cinnamon Press, Frogmore Press, Shot Glass Journal, Soaring Penguin Press, The Fib Review, and a number of anthologies in the US and UK. Several of his fibs have been set to music as the song cycle, Fibonacci Poems (2017) for tenor voice and piano by American composer Tim Risher. In 2020 he was made Musepie Press’ Featured International Poet and his Fibonacci poetry has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
A Producer-director of arts documentaries and then Executive Producer, Music and Arts, he has made arts programmes for ITV, BBC, Channel Four, and for broadcasters in the USA (WNET and Disney), in Japan (NHK) and Germany (WDR).
Colin Bell’s website: https://wolfiewolfgang.com/
23 Oct, 2020 at 4pm
Writing Through Covid-19 Constrictions
Friday 23rd October, 2020
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Feeling uninspired, cramped or constrained by Covid-19 restrictions? If so, you’re not alone. Many writers have found it difficult to focus on their writing projects during the upheaval and uncertainty that the coronavirus has caused during 2020. In this workshop, we’re going to turn the tables. You’ll learn how to use some of the restrictions you’ve been experiencing to jump-start your writing. You’ll receive writing prompts and some tips designed to get you and your writing process moving again — and keep you moving. No matter what new manner of craziness pops up in the world.
The hand’s-on workshop will run for 90 minutes. Be prepared to write!
All writers are welcome, no matter which genre or form you write in. You can interpret the prompts however you wish. Wild creativity is always welcome.
Barbara Jacksha
23 Oct, 2020 at 4pm
World Building 101
Friday 23rd October, 2020
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
World building can be a nerve-wracking exercise. Cultures of the current era, ruins of bygone times, and characters swirl together to make a stinking peat bog of your mind. How do you keep everything from boiling over like some Shakespearean witch’s cauldron?
Take a deep breath and sip that brew slowly. Mind the eyeball floating to the side. World building is fun and can be profitable if you’ve a mind to go in that direction. Join Doyle for World Building 101. Bring your own black cats and broomsticks.
Doyle Slen
Hailing from the swamps of central Xanth (Florida) where he lives with his servitor band of goblins (wife and kids) and pet beagle-pig. He whiles away the day dreaming of world domination. He’s an avid table top roleplayer and war gamer, finding ADnD in 1983 as well as such games as Panzer Blitz, Arctic Storm, and Gamma World.
R.E. Howard, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Weis, Mary Shelley, Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, Robert Jordin, George R. R. Martin, Lynn Abbey, and too many more have been influences.
When not dreaming of world domination, he scribbles furiously to translate the world he began building in 1983 into print. Now with a handy multi-volume guide for his future subjects (currently standing at nine books), he continues to expand on it daily to keep his characters busy.
31 Oct, 2020 at 8pm
How to be a NaNoWriMo Pantser
Saturday 31st October, 2020
1pm PT / 4pm ET / 8pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
It’s National Novel Writing Month again! This year, those helpful folks at NaNoWriMo have identified three categories of wrimo writing: the Planners, the Plansters and the Pantsers. Huck is very definitely a Pantser!
Essentially recycling his ‘Cube of Nano’ yearly talk yet again, just with a fresh coat of new nomenclature, Huck will be sharing his six top tips for delivering your 50,000 words by the end of November.
Join us for an hour in voice on 31st October at 1pm PT/SLT. Please come voice-enabled so you can hear Huck talk.
Huckleberry Hax
Huckleberry Hax writes virtual reality novels, many of which are set in Second Life® (the best known of which is ‘AFK’). He also films machinima and in 2020 released his first Second Life® feature-length movie. This was also created through a Pantser approach. He has completed NaNoWriMo nine times.
13 Nov, 2020 at 4pm
Top 10 Author Mistakes
Friday 13th November, 2020
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Join Emerian Rich from HorrorAddicts.net Press as she reveals the top 10 mistakes authors make when submitting. Why might they be rejected, and how can you get yourself on the shortlist?
Emerian Rich
Author, artist, voice actress, and editor, Emerian Rich is best known for being the Horror Hostess of HorrorAddicts.net, an internationally acclaimed podcast, now in its 19th season. She runs HorrorAddicts.net Press and has major roles in two non-fiction magazines. She is the author of the Night’s Knights vampire series, has been published in over 40 fiction anthologies, has 90+ nonfiction credits, and writes romance under the name Emmy Z. Madrigal. Find out more at http://emzbox.com.
6 Nov, 2019 at 4pm
The Art of Annoying Librarians: Research for Novelists
Wednesday 6th November, 2019
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
What goes into researching an historical novel? How do you find out about all those annoying corners of life not covered by the textbooks? Is the internet to be trusted? When did people start wearing underpants? Is research more fun than anything else? Join Fiona Forsyth at 4pm to discuss the perils and pitfalls of writing historical novels.
Fiona Forsyth
Fiona Forsyth is author of a series set in first century BCE Rome. The first novel “Rome’s End” has just been published. Fiona spent 25 years teaching Latin and Greek at a boys’ British public school, so now is especially enjoying researching stuff because it’s fun, as opposed to “it’s on the exam syllabus”. Ancient Rome has always been an interest, mainly because the Romans were so fascinatingly horrible.
11 Nov, 2019 at 4pm
Descriptor Overflow, and Reining It In
Monday 11th November, 2019
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Would descriptors be poetic if a rhythm they did bring, and were tightened up and bundled with colored ribbon and white string?
Giving consideration to a free-flowing way to choose, and select, and utilize the words that best describe a character to bring him, or her, to life.
Giving thought to examples of overkill, and of keeping it simple.
Giving free rein to intuition, and then to reining it in.
Luna Branwen
Luna Branwen is a life-long, avid reader and writer; a poetry enthusiast, a lover of language, of words, and of story! With a background in humanities and anthropology, and a student of creative writing, she finds that Second Life® has provided mirrors, windows, and doors for exploring imagination and story, and for taking poetry fully to heart and rejoicing in it!
21 Nov, 2019 at 4pm
Say what? Dialogue Basics
Thursday 21st November, 2019
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Forest Coffee Bar, Milk Wood
Say what? A quick course on dialogue basics. Learn to use dialogue to reveal character, develop relationships and to find meaning in the silence between the lines. It’s not what you say, but how you say it.
Patricia Averbach
Patricia Averbach, is the former director of The Chautauqua Writers Center in Chautauqua, New York. Her debut novel, Painting Bridges, (Bottom Dog Press, 2013) was praised by Michelle Ross, book critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as “an introspective, intelligent and moving novel.” Her poetry chapbook, Missing Persons, (Ward Wood Publishing, 2013) was cited by Times of London Literary Supplement (November, 2014) as one of the best small collections of the year. Her second novel, Resurrecting Rain, is scheduled for released by Golden Antelope Press February, 2020.
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