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.
As always, all times SLT / PDT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday November 9th
13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Hound of the Baskervilles – conclusion
Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell invite you to join them as they return to what is quite possibly the most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works, and present their fourth reading from The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The third full-length novel written about Sherlock Holmes, this is likely to be the one Holmesian story which – at least in outline – known to most, whether or not they have actually read any of Homes’ adventures.
But do they know it as it was originally written? Over the decades the story has been adapted for film and television more than 20 times, starting as early as 1914/15 with the 4-part series, Der Hund von Baskerville, and continuing on through to Paul McGuigan’s The Hounds of Baskerville, featured in the BBC’s brilliant Sherlock series.
All of these adaptations have offered their own take on the tale. Some – such as McGuigan’s, have simply taken the outline of the story and used it to weave a unique tale of their own; others have stayed true to the basics of the story whilst also adding their own twists and turns quite outside of Conan Doyle’s plot in order to keep their offering fresh and exciting to an audience.
So why not join Cale, Corwyn and Kayden as they bring this gripping tale to Conan Doyle’s original conclusion?
18:00 Magicland Sorytime
Join Caledonia Skytower at Magicland Park. as she pays the first of the week’s visits to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped (see below for more).
Monday November 10th, 19:00: The Witches of Karres
There’s an old saying that no good deed ever goes unpunished. Such is the case for Captain Pausert, inexperienced space trader, skipper (and sole crew member) of the old Venture. After rescuing three young girls enslaved on the planet Porlumma, he found himself plunged in intrigue, adventure and pursuit by forces from all sides, few of them with his best interests at heart, and all of which draw him into further adventures that might just have had him wishing for the simpler days of space trading…
Join Gyro Muggins as he pays a final visit to this rip-roaring mix of space opera, fantasy and hard science-fiction which started with James H. Schmitz’s The Witches of Karres, first published in 1949 prior to being expanded into a full-length novel. In time, the story was followed by two further volumes, The Wizard of Karres (2004), by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer, and The Sorceress of Karres (2010), again by Flint and Freer, all of which a rich well of adventures and tales.
Tuesday November 11th,19:00 Poetry of the Great War
The Seanchai Library staff gather to honour Armistice Day and Veteran’s Day.
Wednesday November 12th, 19:00: Kidnapped
Caledonia Skytower continues reading from one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s most well-known works. First published in serial form in the magazine Young Folks
between May and July 1886, Kidnapped is perhaps best summarised by simply giving the story its original full title:
Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson
When first published, due in part to its title, the book was at first thought to have been autobiographical, and David Balfour a real person. This impression was added to by the fact that several of the characters – including the Alan Breck Stewart mentioned in the title – were real people, while a part of the story involves matters related to the very real Appin Murder, which followed the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The novel has also drawn strong comparisons with the true-life story of James Annesley, which also influenced Sir Walter Scott in writing his Guy Mannering.
Thursday November 13th
19:00: Don’t Open This Book!
With Shandon Loring.
21:00 Seanchai Late Night
With Finn Zeddmore.
09:00 The Last Mermaid
“Shana Abé has entranced countless readers with her passion-filled novels of adventure, intrigue, and romance. Now the author of The Secret Swan delivers a gift from the sea: three hauntingly beautiful tales connected by a legend, a locket, and a love beyond time.
“531 a.d.: The tiny island of Kell is said to be enchanted, inhabited by an extraordinary creature who comforts shipwrecked sailors passing into the next world. Prince Aedan of the Isles believes in no such nonsense—until he awakens on Kell itself and meets the sensuous siren who rescued him from the sea.
“1721: Ronan MacMhuirich, Earl of Kell, is the target of an unlikely assassin: Leila, a mysterious woman from an exotic land. But his irresistibly beautiful would-be slayer is in just as much danger as Ronan when she falls for this man with a magic of his own.
“2004: What do you do when you inherit a Scottish island you never knew existed—and find yourself pursued by a handsome stranger who wants to buy it from you? That’s what happens to Ruri Kell when she accepts Iain MacInnes’s invitation to visit her birthright, and listens to a proposition as sinfully tempting as everything else about him.
Three seductive love stories, three passionate couples, all linked by one of the most romantic myths of all.”
10:00: Beat to Quarters
June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua, Captain Horatio Hornblower commands the 36-gun HMS Lydia, sailing under unusual orders from the Admiralty: to ally His Majesty’s Navy with an insane Spanish landowner against the Spanish colonial government and find a water route across the Central American isthmus.
Nor is that all; Hornblower also has orders to locate the Natividad, a Spanish 50-gun ship of the line and either “take, sink or destroy” her. His orders make it perfectly clear that the Admiralty will not accept any failure in the mission, informing Hornblower that a court-martial awaits him should he be unsuccessful.
For Hornblower, the orders are tough enough; but matters are barely improved when, with his wife far away in England, he finds himself distracted by the presence aboard ship of Lady Barbara Wellesley, a passenger he is obliged to allow onto the Lydia at Panama.
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 November – December is Heifer International, which is working with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth.
Related Links
. . . the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon a winter’s night.
Caledonia Skytower hops back to Seanchai Library’s HQ in Second Life to conclude her reading of this seasonal classic, an adaptation of the George Seaton / Valentine Davies Christmas classic film of the same name, telling the story of how Kris Kringle is hired by Macy’s to become their “Santa Claus”.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 