It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library SL.
As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday April 6th,13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: His Last Bow
Tea-time at Baker Street sees as Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell reading stories from His Last Bow.
A 1917 anthology of previously published Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow originally comprised seven stories published byThe Strand Magazine between 1908 and 1917, but an eighth was added to later editions.
And so it is that we come to Holmes’ final adventure before retirement proper and beekeeping beckon, in the titular story of this volume of Doyle’s works.
The year is 1914, and Britain stands on the brink of war. In England, Von Bork, a German agent, has been gathering a vast amount of military intelligence over a period of four years. With his family already safely returned to Germany, he is now awaiting the arrival of his star agent with one more piece of information prior to making his own return home where he is assured he will be greeted as a hero.
His informant, an Irish-American by the name of Altamont who has been working for Von Bork for two years, duly arrives at his home that night, bearing the precious information. With their agreed exchange made, Von Bork takes the package Altamont present to him, the final piece of military intelligence Von Bork desires: the Admiralty’s latest signal codes. Could it be that all of Britain’s military secrets are about to be laid bare to a country that will likely be her greatest enemy come the outbreak of war in Europe?
Find out more by joining Caledonia, Corwyn and Kayden!
Monday April 7th, 19:00: From an Alien Point of View
When humans interact with aliens who are actually alien, we run into the fact that we’re as weird to them as they are to us. This can cause the most remarkable misunderstandings…. More thought-provoking sci-fi from the collection of Gyro Muggins.
Tuesday April 8th, 19:00: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Faery Maven Pralou concludes Catherynne M. Valente’s tale about twelve-year-old September. Living in Omaha, she has a very ordinary life until her father goes to war and her mother goes. leaving her at home on her own.
One day, she is visited by a Green Wind who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland, where the new Marquess, of about the same age as September, is unpredictable and fickle.
This Green Wind tells September that only she can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t, then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. And so begins an extraordinary adventure, which sees September travelling through Fairyland, accompanied by a book-loving dragon, and a boy named Saturday …
Wednesday April 9th, 19:00: Tír na nÓg
Tír na nÓg (“Land of the Young”) is, in Irish folklore and mythology, one of the names of the “otherworld”, in part a supernatural realm of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy. It is also the title of the first volume of Marni L.B. Troop’s The Heart of Ireland Journals.
In looks, the Faerie are folk little different to humans, other than their pointed ears, although they are vastly different in other ways, and Casey is a princess among them.
She is horrified when a stranger from Iberia arrives on the shores of Ireland, home of the Faerie, believing them to be the gods of his people, but the kings of the Faerie respond to his overtures by having him slaughtered.
Thus the Faerie kings bring down the vengeance of the Iberian people upon their own folk, and war comes to their land. Caught in the middle, and herself in love with an Iberian called Amergin, Casey tries to find a way to bring peace between the two peoples so that they might live together. Unfortunately for her and her beloved, things do not go as she had hoped.
Join Caladonia as she continues reading this intriguing faerie tale.
Thursday April 10th
16:00 The Ballad of Donny Granger
The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One is the first full-length illustrated novel from the mind Stephanie Mesler, also known in Second Life as Freda Frostbite. Want to know more? Then join Freda at the Seanchai library!
19:00: Geraint, Son of Erbin, Part 2
One of the Three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion, the other two being The Lady of the Well (or Lady of the Fountain) and Peredur son of Efrawg, both of which have featured at Seanchai library. All three are version of Arthurian tales that also appear in the work of Chrétien de Troyes.
Geraint, son of Erbin is analogous to de Troyes’ 12th-century poem Erec and Enide. It tells of Geriant’s courtship of, and marriage to, Enid. A knight of Arthur’s court, Geraint is derided behind his back as having gone soft after his marriage. Enid become distressed on hearing what is being said, and Geriant mistakes her upset in not being a true wife of a knight as meaning she has been unfaithful to him. Not trusting to leave her at court, he command her to join him on a dangerous journey …
Join Shandon Loring to learn the rest of the tale.
21:00: Seanchai Late Night
Details still TBA, so please check with the Seanchai Library blog as the week progresses.
—–
Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for March and April is Project Children: building true and lasting peace in Northern Ireland one child at a time.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 