This week’s Community Spotlight shines on a fantastic opportunity for all of our story-tellers and role-players. Beginning July 8th and going till September, Write About Dragons will be hosting an online creative writing class featuring the recorded lectures of Brandon Sanderson.  This is a free class offered by Scott Ashton and is dedicated to the craft and arcanum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. If you’ve always dreamed of being able to create fantastic worlds and write compelling stories about magic and adventure, then definitely check out Write About Dragons!

If you are interested in participating, you can register at http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/home/2013-summer-class/

This week’s Community Spotlight shines on Poet’s Circle and their SotA Minecraft project; Blocks of the Avatar. I spoke with Holt Ironfell, the talented Bard whom some may know from his Stones Remix or perhaps his Tale of the Underworld. He had this to say about his latest creative project.

Why Minecraft?

I felt that a Minecraft server would help bring the Community together surrounding a game that could be closely related to the one Lord British and his team are busy creating for us. We have a long time to wait for something we are very excited about, and it can be frustrating to only have the forums and chat to hang out on. So I welcome everyone to Blocks of the Avatar, to come and help build New Britannia, block by block, chunk by chunk, and maybe, with a little luck and some teamwork, we can translate some of our Minecraft creations into helpful Unity assets and help the Devs see their own creations from a different angle.

When can I PLAY?

You must SUBSCRIBE TO THE POETS’ CIRCLE NEWSLETTER in order to receive updates about the server. We will send out an email when the server opens, at the end of June/beginning of July, and if you APPLY TO BE WHITELISTED at holt.ironfell@gmail.com you will be able to connect to the Minecraft Server and play at that time! Include your SotA forum name, and your Minecraft username.

Can you tell us a bit about Poet’s Circle:

Part of the reason that Poets’ Circle exists is to bring together people who are Creative in real life and who want to role play as Bards, Artisans, Patrons or Critics in Shroud of the Avatar. We want to enrich the lore and heighten immersion. “Enemies of Boredom” is a good catchphrase, and the guild motto is Wax Poetica. Holt Ironfell is a very old Master Bard from shrouded origins (an outlaw in his home world, much like Iolo in Ultima V) who now brings his story to New Britannia. Many of my stories have to do with the great characters I meet along the way — of whom I am sure there shall be plenty, in SotA!