04/22/23:
Biggest news for the Sunklands blog in the last decade is the creation of *37* “photo-novels” in what I call the Collagesity series, beginning with “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter”. A 38th is surely on the way. You can follow all the action under the VIRTUAL header of the blog here!
https://bakerbloch.com/virtual/
NOTE: This interview is from 2020 and will be updated soon.Thanks for reading!
Q AND A ABOUT THE SUNKLANDS BLOG
Q: Is this blog solely about the game Second Life?
A: No. It is about my explorations and hiking in Real Life as well. See REALITY module of blog for more!
Q: Is Collagesity a real place?
A: Real in a virtual sense! The latest link to a location is here:
NEW LINK SOON!
(06/01/23 NOTE: my newest virtual village is called Constantynople, not Collagesity, w/ a corresponding decrease in collages)
You have to have the Second Life viewer downloaded onto your computer, which you can find here:
Q: How long have you been involved in Second Life? Collagesity? Blogging?
A: About 12 years for both Second life and blogging, with linked origins through the old Baker Blinker Blog started in 2008 and translated to the current Sunklands blog in 2012. Collagesity has been around since 2014, but older virtual towns of my concoction existed before that, beginning with 2010’s Pietmond (NOT Piedmont). Pietmond changed to New Pietmond changed to VWX Town changed to Collagesity. And here we are.
Q: I am looking at the VIRTUAL page and remain confused. What is the different between blog posts collected as books and blog posts collected as photo-novels?
A: Older blog posts, starting in 2008 again, are collected or *archived*, in correct chronological order, through “books”. Starting in late 2015, books changed over into “novels”, or what I eventually called “photo-novels” because the photos and the writing were mutually dependent. Also characters became much more numerous and started interacting with each other in more complicated and novelistic ways. Before this, in what are now the books, we only have core characters like Baker Bloch, Baker Blinker, Hucka Doobie, Karoz Blogger, and several others. These posts remain more descriptive, illustrating, for example, the building of virtual towns and their various structures. The last book is “BOOK XIV: COLLAGESITY 2015 LATER”. The first (photo-)novel is “COLLAGESITY 2015-2016 WINTER”.
Q: Why do you call all your novels COLLAGESITY something or another?
A: Names of the photo-novels come from my primary virtual location, which has remained Collagesity through this time period (2014-), along with the general time I wrote them. I tend to produce about 5 photo-novels a year now.
(06/01/23 NOTE: all novels since XXI have had Sunklands in the name, not Collagesity)
Q: What do you mean by increased complexity for characters in the shift from books to these photo-novels?
A: Characters tend to interact with each other in a more Real Life way. For example, 2 primary characters from the books, Baker Blinker and Karoz Blogger, begin a love interest relationship in the exact middle of the 1st photo-novel – again “COLLAGSITY 2015-2016 WINTER.” The ability of characters to bond in this way represents an important difference between the old and new.
Q: Who is the primary protagonist for the Collagesity photo-novels? Are they multiple? And do characters carry over from one novel to the next, or is there a complete new set for each?
A: No, many characters jump from one photo-novel to the next to the next. I would identify Baker Bloch as the main protagonist for the Collagesity photo-novels overall. He is kind of me in virtual reality, or who I most “look out the eyes of.” But a core of characters has been identified now, which includes Baker Blinker, a feminine counterpart of Baker Bloch (but *not* his girlfriend!). Then there’s Hucka Doobie, a half bee person who acts as the blog spiritual guru. Those are what you could call the original 3 protagonists. They appear in almost every Collagesity photo-novel. They could “come in” and make comments in any situation, for example. They are kind of omnipresent I guess you could put it.
Q: What is the different between the male Baker (Bloch) and the female Baker (Blinker), then?
A: Both have been around almost since the beginning, with Baker Blinker’s origin preceding Baker Bloch’s by about a month. You see their original stories unfold in BOOK I, especially Chapter 1 (of 8) of that book. Again, book is different from photo-novel. There’s a rise in frequency from one to the other.
A snapshot version of these base or core characters can be found here:
Q: I also see that COLLAGES represent a header, with links to pictures of your (?) collages within and also stabs at interpretations. How does COLLAGES interact with VIRTUAL and REALITY in terms of headers? And with SYNCS, the remaining one? This is confusing!
A: Collages are certainly separate from VIRTUAL, and I created them primarily in MS Paint since I tend to work so fast — need a simple, quick program. There are well over 200 collages featured in this header, with works beginning in 2004, or about 4 years before I became active in Second Life and blogging. They are also collected in series, starting with the 20 collages of the Greenup series from 2004. During what could be called the photo-novel era, collages have become fewer and further apart, and the series idea seems to have also correspondingly disappeared. The photo-writing has displaced the creative energy of the collages for the most part, although collages are still produced now and then, usually in direct context to what is happening in the novels.
Same goes for SYNCS, which are collages formed in the audio-visual realm. These predate even the regular, 2-d collages of COLLAGES (proper). That’s a whole ‘nother topic, though.
Q: Enlighten us!
A: More information about my involvement with these audio-visual collages starting with the cult classic “Dark Side of the Rainbow” can be found in an interview here. I am baker b. of course.
https://bakerblinker.wordpress.com/interviews/bakerb/
An additional, follow-up interview from 2015 is here:
https://bakerbloch.com/syncs/baker-b-interview-2015/
Q: Much to absorb! Thanks for answering our questions, baker b.
A: You’re welcome baker b.!
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THANKS FOR DROPPING IN!
Sunklands 
nice to read that
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