BROKEN ROSE --Residents of Second Life who enjoy role-playing in 19th Century themed communities are now able to add The Connolly Telegraph to their news sources.

The Connolly Telegraph is a blog authored by Zoe Connolly. In it, Connolly reports on the daily happenings and highlights of life in Caledon, New Babbage, Steelhead City, the Tombstone sims, Yankton, and Deadwood.

Connolly writes about the places she visits and in which she lives. Initially drawn to an exploration of the Victorian steampunk sims of Caledon and Babbage from reading Natalia Zelmanov’s blog, Connolly found herself moving in. At present she has a flat in Babbage Canals as well as a reservation in the soon-to-be-released Caledon sim, Regency. She plans to put up a lighthouse in Regency.

Explorations continued and Connolly discovered the Wild West sims of Tombstone and later Deadwood. These sims are set in the same time (19th Century) as the Victorian steampunk sims, with a different surrounding environment.

“While on a visit to Deadwood it dawned on me that there were so many people like me that enjoy 19th Century life in SL,” Connolly said. “So as a blogger, I pondered this for a few days, thinking of creating a new blog that covered this area of SL. Soon after, The Connolly Telegraph was born, with the vision to unite the 19th Century SL citizens while still retaining the unique character and atmosphere of these varied and interesting places.”

Connolly is the blog's sole writer, but hopes that more reporters will assist in covering the news as the number of 19th Century sims increase. “I’m looking for people who are willing to write about their experiences or observations in one or more of the sims. They can post as little as once a week or as often as once or twice a day.”

Tombstone Library, home to assistant librarian JJ Drinkwater, is another Connolly creation. The Library is housed on the second floor of The Connolly Telegraph building. Drinkwater serves as unofficial advisor on the project.

Connolly discussed her technique for gathering fresh material on the 19th Century sims. “I monitor several Victorian steampunk blogs through Google Reader. Other than that, I search Google, Technorati and good old fashioned blogroll investigating. I check links from my own blog. I have several blogrolls that link to over 500 SL-related Web pages.”

The Tombstone Sun-Review, a subunit of the Connolly Telegraph, is a blog related only to the Tombstone, Arizona sims. It is housed in a building in Tombstone with the sign, The Tombstone Epitaph. Connolly hopes to move the Telegraph into Victorian style buildings in the near future.

Connolly’s first blog was “The Insatiable Zoe Connolly,” begun in March 2007. It is a mix of tales of her travels along with photographs.

The SL Bloggers group, spearheaded by Connolly, plans to hold a Second Life Bloggers Convention in February 2008. More information will be posted on the blog.

The Connolly Telegraph can be found at http://theconnollytelegraph.blogspot.com/