It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in voice, brought to Second Life and Kitely by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. and Seanchai Kitely.
As always, all times SLT / PDT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday September 28th
We’re approaching that time of year when, as the sunlight fades into night and ghosts, ghouls, witches, warlocks and more roam abroad; a time when wolves may howl, owls may hoot mysteriously, the wind might moan dreadfully; a time when we anxiously await the solemn knocking on the door – even if it is the neighbourhood kids ready with a magical chant of “trick or treat!” waiting for us to open the door on them… And so it is that Seanchai get us into the mood for darker nights and darker tales right from the start this week…
09:00: Seanchai Kitely – Nocturnes
Nocturnes marks Irish author John Connolly’s first anthology of short stories involving lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts, a latter-day grim reaper and vampiric wives – and much more besides.
Echoing genre masters such as M R James, Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, Connolly delves into our darkest fears through a series of tales including The Underbury Witches, in which two detectives are faced with the ultimate in female evil and The Ritual of the Bones, where a boy at a boarding school who comes to face the dark side of the British class system. There are even two novella’s included in the volume, The Reflecting Eye, which sees the return of Connolly’s private detective hero, Charlie Parker, and the initial story within the book, The Cancer Cowboy, charting the progress of a modern-day grim reaper, a complex individual attempting to understand exactly who or what he is, and why he must be so.
Join Shandon Loring at the Kitely Homeworld as he opens the pages of Nocturnes and brings forth a rich tale or two from within its dark depths.
13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell invite you to join them as they turn the lights down low, stoke the fire against the surrounding darkness as bring us what is quite possibly the most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works.
The third full-length novel written about Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles is likely to be a tale – at least in outline – unfamiliar to a very few. Adapted more than 20 times for film and television down the decades, starting with the 1914/15 4-part series, Der Hund von Baskerville, in addition to be adapted for radio, the story has likely reached a huge audience down the years.
But how many are familiar with the original? Adaptations, after all, pick and choose elements of a story they wish to take, some add their own twists and turns quite outside of Conan Doyle’s plot in order to keep their offering fresh and exciting to an audience. Others – such as Paul McGuigan’s The Hounds of Baskerville, featured in the BBC’s brilliant Sherlock series – draw inspiration from this tale of dark happenings at Baskerville Hall, ancient curses and more, but take their story in wholly different directions to those imagined by Conan Doyle.
So why not join Cale, Corwyn and Kayden as they commence reading the original, first published in 1902, and discover just how Sir Arther Conan Doyle unfolded this apparently supernatural tale of giant hounds and murder, and the pivotal role played by John Watson himself?
Monday September 29th, 19:00: the Weirdness of John Waters
Crap Mariner delves into to life and work of American director, screenwriter, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, John Waters. Crap sheds his own unique light on the man, which he promises will highlight “…all the weirdness without the truly icky parts.”
Drop-in to Seanchai Library on Imagination island to find out more!
Tuesday September 30th, Irish Ghost Stories
With Caledonia Skytower and friends.
Wednesday October 1st, 19:00: Bellwether
Constance Elaine Trimmer “Connie” Willis is an American science fiction writer. She is one of the most honored science fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s. Her books have between them won 11 Hugo awards, seven Nebula awards and four Locus awards, making her the recipient of more major science-fiction awards than any other author.
Bellwether, published in 1996, was a Nebula ward nominee, brings together pop culture, love, chaos theory and a study of human behaviour. Dr. Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation, a company keen to find a means of predicting how fads happen so they might create one themselves and profit from it. Also working for HiTek, Dr. Bennet O’Reilly is studying monkey group behaviour and chaos theory. When a misdelivered package brings the two together, coupled with a series of unfortunate events, they engage upon a joint project involving a flock of sheep. Even so, more setbacks, disappointments and surprises are likely to arise before the answers to their questions are found…
Thursday October 2nd
19:00: Beneath the Surface
With Shandon Loring.
21:00 Seanchai Late Night
With Finn Zeddmore
Saturday October 4th: Seanchai Kitely
09:00: More Nocturnes
Shandon Loring again delves into the pages of John Connolly’s anthology of dark tales to bring another of these chilling tales to life – a perfect start to the weekend!
10:00: The Graveyard Book
Join Caledonia Skytower as she presents Neil Gaiman’s 2009 Newbery Medal winning children’s fantasy novel, simultaneously published in Britain and America during 2008, which also collected the annual Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Convention and the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book selected by Locus magazine subscribers.
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family . . .
Again, please note both of these sessions are at Seanchai’s Kitely homeworld, as indicated in the title link, above.
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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 September-October is Reading is Fundamental: seeking motivate young children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 