Category: Events

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in voice, brought to Second Life and InWorldz by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library.

As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday, April 19th

13:30: Tea Time at Baker Street

Caledonia, Kaydon and Corwyn accept a further invitation from Holmes and Watson to join them in the parlour at 221B Baker Street for a retelling of The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, which first saw print in March, 1892 in The Strand Magazine, and was later included in the volume of tales The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Early on a morning in 1889, Dr Watson attends an injury sustained by a Mr. Victor Hatherley. The injury turns out to be the stump of a severed thumb, and Hatherley, a consultant hydraulics engineer, has a very disturbing tale to tell about how he came to be sans one pollex. Having treated the young man, Watson insists Hatherley relate his tale to Holmes, making this one of two cases Watson himself referred to the Great Detective.

Once before Holmes, the young engineer relates how he was hired by a Colonel Lysander to examine the hydraulic press Lysander has in his possession, apparently for making bricks from fuller’s earth. However, Lysander not only offers Hatherley the outrageous fee of fifty guineas (about £4,000 or almost $6,000 today) for doing so, but insists on a curious amount of secrecy, including transporting the engineer to the press the previous night in such a way that he would be uncertain as to its actual location. Things get stranger still when a woman at the house warns him to run away – and Hatherley eventually does find himself fleeing for his life from Lysander before the night is through, losing his thumb in the process.

So, what is the secret of the hydraulic press? What use could it be put to that would cause one man to contempt the murder of another? Sherlock Holmes has the answer!

18:00: Magicland Park SL: The Real Winnie: A One-of-a-Kind Bear

We all know AA Milne’s classic character, Winnie the Pooh. But did we all know he was inspired in part by a real bear called Winnie?

“Winnipeg” (shortened to “Winnie”) was the name veterinarian Harry Colebourn gave to a black bear cub he purchased while en route to an Army training centre near Quebec in 1914.

A Lieutenant in the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (CAVC), Colebourn found his bear unofficially adopted by the CAVC’s mascot, travelling with them to London, where he remained in the care of London Zoo while Colebourn and his regiment went to France. 

It was at London Zoo, where Winnie remained, that she became adored by one young Christopher Robin Milne, thus helping inspire the tales of Winnie the Pooh and the 100 Acre Wood.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads from Val Shushkewich’s book  relating the story of the real Winnie in a special encore reading.

Monday April 20th, 19:00: The Wizard of Karres

Gyro Muggins returns to the universe created by James H. Schmitz and given form through his 1949 novel, The Witches of Karres, as he opens the pages of the 2004 sequel, The Wizard of Karres, penned by by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer, which reunites the reader with some familiar characters.

For Captain Pausert, it would seem that the old saying that no good deed ever goes unpunished should perhaps become the family motto. As a “reward” for thwarting the plans of the space pirates and eliminating the threat of the Worm World, Pausert is given the  secret mission of stopping the nanite plague, a self-aware disease that lay waste to entire planets worlds.

Only someone has once convinced the Imperial Navy, unaware of his true mission, that Pausert is actually a wanted man. so it is that the Navy set out to hunt him down – and almost succeed, managing to cripple his ship. When Pausert discovers his funding has also been cut-off, leaving him without the means to get his ship repaired, he and his companions, Goth and the Leewit, the Witches of Karres, are forced to go undercover – and join a travelling circus.

After all, the show – and the mission – must go on, and thus the adventures continue.

Tuesday April 21st

18:00 SLT – VCARA Conference 2015

Caledonia Skytower from Seanchai Library is one of the two keynote speakers at the 2015 VCARA (Virtual Centre for Archives & Records Administration) Conference organised ans hosted by the San José State University School of Information in Second Life.

Find out more about the conference here.

19:10: Caitlin and Elizabth

With Shandon Loring.

Wednesday April 22nd

06:00: WASP, Where is Thy Sting?

Freda Frostbite and Trolly Trollop return to the thoughts and writings of Florence King.

WASP, Where is Thy Sting? was first published as a series of magazine essays in the 1970s prior to becoming a book in its own right, is a study by Ms. King focusing on the subject of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (the WASPs) of the title.

While biased towards her own background as a member of an Anglo-Southron Washington DC family, and perhaps slightly dated today, the book explores the various varieties of Protestantism in the United States, which have often been based on social background and ethnicity far more than specific doctrinal differences, and can still resonate with readers today, as one reviewer notes:

After the various ethnic studies which began showing up through the ’60s and ’70s, Miss King decided that WASPs, as an ethnic group, needed to be delineated and explained to everyone else. Overall, she does a decent job. Yes, this is a humorous book, but there are too many parallels to people I’ve known and grown up with to doubt her accuracy. And there are plenty of Miss King’s delicious aphorisms (referring to many WASP womens’ idea of fashion as “Calamity Jane Eyre Chic” is a good example). There are many such quotable bits throughout the book.

19:00: Christie’s Detectives

Join Caledonia Skytower as she presents short stories featuring Agatha Christe’s beloved detectives: Parker Pyne, Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot.

Thursday April 23rd, 19:00: The Lost Race

With Shandon Loring.

Saturday April 25th, 12:00 Noon:  Seanchai Inworldz: Inkheart

Shandon Loring opens the covers of Cornelia Funke’s young adult novel, Inkheart, the first novel in what would become the Inkheart trilogy.

The books chronicle the adventures of 12-year-old Meggie, whose life changes dramatically in Inkheart when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud, as they have the “Silvertongue”.

Mo reveals that he once accidentally brought four characters to life from a story, once of whom is Dustfinger, and the villain Capricorn. while Meggie’s mother, vanished into the “Inkworld” after she and Mo had a bitter exchange.

Now Dustfinger has returned with a warning: Capricorn and his followers have also returned, and are seeking Mo and his daughter, and Mo’s copy of of Inkheart, with the intent of having Mo bring forth a monster known as “The Shadow” out of the book. With Dustfinger in their company, Mo and Meggie flee to Northern Italy and the home of Meggie’s Aunt Elinor, with Capricorn and his minions in pursuit.

Seanchai library, InWorldz are located in the ground the Community Library in InWorldz (https://inworldz/region/Sendalonde/217/144/28).

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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 April / May is Habitat for Humanity, with a vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live – a safe and clean place to call home.

Related Links

• Seanchai Library (SL) blog
• Seanchai Library (SL) SLurl
• Seanchai Library in this blog

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.

As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday, April 12th, 13:30: Tea Time with Kipling

In the beginning were the words, and the words were with Rudyard Kipling.

Well, OK, not quite that beginning, given I’ve referring to 1902, and the first appearance of Kipling’s Just So tales. But given this is a delightful collection of fantastical pourquoi or origin stories, telling of how certain things came to be, then I think you’ll get my drift.

Now regarded as some of his best-known stories, and an ever popular read for adults with young children, the stories gathered under the enfolding title, were originally little vignettes written and told for the express amusement of Kipling’s first daughter.

Join Caledonia Skytower and John Moreland as read from this wonderful collection. You might just finding out out How the Camel Got His Hump or perhaps How the Armadillo Happened or even – How the Elephant got his Trunk!

Monday April 13th, 19:00: Jack of Shadows Concludes

Gyro Muggins concludes Roger Zelazny’s 1971 novel which mixes science-fiction and fantasy, the title of which is an homage to Jack Vance.

The story takes place on a tidally locked planet – that is, one whose rotation about its axis precisely matches its orbit around its parent body, thus the same face is always presented to the parent body (just like our own Moon always presents the same face towards Earth). Given that the parent object in this case is the planet’s Sun, it means that one side of the planet exists in perpetual daylight – and is the seat of science; while the other lingers in perpetual night – and has become the seat of magic.

It is from the latter that the protagonist of the story – Shadowjack – comes. Even among his own kind, he is unusual, for the manner in which he draws upon his power; something which can, in the right circumstances make him exceptionally potent. However, when placed in either complete light or complete darkness, he is almost powerless. Jack’s only friend, Morningstar is doomed to what is effectively eternal punishment unless Jack can cross between the two realms of light and dark, combining his abilities with the power of science. Thus Jack must risk being lost in total light or total darkness in order to rescue Morningstar. And if he fails, who might rescue him?

Tuesday April 14th, 19:00: A Walk in the Woods Concludes

By his own admission, Bill Bryson isn’t the world’s greatest adventurer. This being the case, you’d think he’d have serious misgivings about undertaking this particular “walk in the woods”, as he disarmingly calls it: taking the 3,500 kilometre (2,200 mile) Appalachian Trail – a journey which would take five months to complete.

Travelling with his good friend “Stephen Katz”, the book is both a humorous guide to the trail and a set of serious and insightful comments / discussion on the trail’s history as it winds its way from Georgia (where Bryson was living at the time the book was written in 1998), to Maine. These discussions cover a broad range of subject including the sociology, ecology, trees, plants, animals and people of the states through which the trail passes (Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine).

Join Kayden Oconnell as he completes his retracing Bryson’s footsteps through the pages of this classic.

Wednesday April 15th

06:00: Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady

Freda Frostbite and Trolly Trollop open the pages of Florence King’s 1985 classic memoir.

The book opens by relating a tale of King’s Granny determining that the American side of her family (King’s father was English), had once owned land in Virginia awarded to them by royal grant on the basis of having read some of William Thackeray’s 1852 novel, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.

From there it progresses through stories of her upbringing in a still racially-segregated Washington DC during the 1930s and 1940s, her time at college and onward into her adult life which was, in part, shaped by her bisexuality, and her leaning towards her own sex as partners.

Told with verve and flourish, wit and style, Confessions of a Failed South Lady may well be embellished in places, it may be slightly outrageous or dark in others; but it also deals with deeper issues, such as that of femininity, and matters of sexuality and family. Thus it presents a prefect blend of  humour and insight that make it a delight to read.

To quote from the cover: “Florence may have been a disappointment to her Granny, whose dream of rearing a Perfect Southern Lady would never be quite fulfilled. But after all, as Florence reminds us, ‘no matter which sex I went to bed with, I never smoked on the street’.”

19:00: Christie’s Detectives

Join Caledonia Skytower as she presents short stories featuring Agatha Christe’s beloved detectives: Parker Pyne, Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot.

Thursday April 16th

19:00: Silver Birch, Blood Moon

Shandon Loring continues through another anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. In Silver Birch, Blood Moon, they bring together 21 tales by some of today’s leading writers in a volume focused taking cherished tales of childhood and re-imagining them into sophisticated, seductive, fairy tales for adults. The stories gathered within the covers of this anthology include:

• The tale of a jealous prince who plots the destruction of his hated brother’s wedding by inventing a “magic” suit of clothing visible only to the pure at heart
• The story of a young girl’s strange fairy tale obsession which results in a brutal murder
• The tragic tale of an embittered mother, who must care for her dying son as he is trapped within a thicket guarding a sleeping beauty
• The revelation of what happens when a group of violent outcasts within a desolate industrial wasteland attempt to lay the myths of one Millennium to rest, only to give terrifying birth to those of the next.

Join Shandon Loring as he opens the pages of this latest collection from Datlow and Windling, and see if it is one of these stories or something else contained within the volume which falls under his gaze…

21:00 Seanchai Late Night

Details TBA – check the Seanchai blog for more.

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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 April / May is Habitat for Humanity, with a vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live – a safe and clean place to call home.

Related Links

• Seanchai Library (SL) blog
• Seanchai Library (SL) SLurl
• Seanchai Library in this blog