It’s time to kick-off a week of story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.
Sunday, July 17th
13:30: Tea Time at Baker Street
Tea-time at Baker Street returns for the summer, featuring a new location – 221B Baker Street at the University of Washington in Second Life, and a return to His Last Bow. 
A 1917 anthology of previously published Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the volume originally comprised seven stories published by The Strand Magazine between 1908 and 1917. However, later editions of the book saw an eighth story included, The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, originally published in 1892. This week sees Holmes and Watson engaged upon The Adventure of the Red Circle.
Mrs. Warren, a landlady, visits 221B Baker Street with what she feels is a worrying situation. She has recently rented out a room to a young bearded man who speaks accented English. He paid twice the going rate for the room – but on the condition he has it on his own terms.
However, after going out on the evening he rented the room, only to return well after everyone else in the house had gone to bed, the young man has not been seen since. He appears to be in the room, but all communications – such as requests for The Daily Gazette newspaper to be placed outside the room each morning – have been via written notes. Holmes quickly deduces that whoever is occupying the room, it is not the man who first rented it and that the key to the mystery lies within the Gazette’s agony column.
The game is then well and truly afoot when Mrs. Warren returns with news that her husband had been kidnapped, only to be dumped unharmed at the roadside. Realising that the kidnapping is a case of mistaken identity, Holmes insists he and Watson visit Mrs. Warren’s house to determine the identity of the secret lodger …
18:00 Magicland Storytime: The Legends of Opening Day at Disneyland
With Caledonia Skytower.
Monday July 18th To the Vanishing Point
Gyro Muggins returns with his Monday Night treat of sci-fi, starting with Alan Dean Foster’s To the Vanishing Point.
When Frank Sonderberg insists his family make their annual vacation a road trip, his wife and kids are less than impressed. When he pulls over to the side of the road to pick up a beautiful young hitch-hiker apparently stranded in the desert, his wife definitely isn’t impressed.
But no sooner has the young woman, calling herself Mouse, boarded their motor-home than reality changes – and not necessarily for the better. Mouse, it turns out, is an alien on a mission and in picking her up, the family is inextricably joined with her in that mission. The universe, with all its many realities, is coming apart because the Spinner, the creator of those realities, has a headache. Mouse has the cure, but in order to give it, she must reach the Vanishing Point – and she need the Sonderbergs to get her there.
Tuesday July 19th, 19:00: Blueberry Summers: Growing Up at the Lake
Kayden Oconnell reads from Curtiss Anderson’s classic coming of age memoirs.
Born in 1928 in Minneapolis, Curtiss Anderson grew up in an extended family of Norwegian-Americans, among whom the highlight of the year was time spent among the lakes of northern Minnesota.
For young Curtiss, growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, these were especially idyllic years. Time spent in the farmhouse among this extended family presented an opportunity for him to escape the strained and troubled relationship he had with his parents and enjoy the company of others, aunts and uncles, the loving care offered by family friends Leigh and Clara, the companionship of the family dogs – and the chances to experience young love of his own.
Through the tales he relates of these summers, so Anderson also explores the notes and letters he wrote as a boy, carefully produced on a hand-me-down typewriter. Missives and notes which, although he never realised it at the time, were in fact his first forays into what would blossom in his adult life into a distinguished career as a writer, editor and publisher.
Wednesday July 20th 19:00: Ollie’s Odyssey
Caledonia Skytower reads William Joyce’s children’s tale about Oswald (or Ollie, or Oz), a stuffed rabbit and favourite of young Billy. Oz goes everywhere with Billy, until one day, he is accidentally left under a table during a wedding, and is kidnapped by the wicked Zozo.
An unwanted amusement park prize, Zozo hates all toys that are favourites; so much so that he doesn’t just want them lost – he wants them forgotten by everyone – and he has gathered other embittered toys to his cause.
Now Oz must work to not only rescue himself and get back to Billy, he must ensure all the other “lost” toys reach safety.
Thursday, July 21st 19:00: Kolchak: the Night Stalker
A supernatural thriller with Shandon Loring
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 July-August is WildAid: seeking to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes by reducing demand through public awareness campaigns and providing comprehensive marine protection.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 