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 October 20th, 13:30: Tea Time at Baker Street
Caledonia and Corwyn bring us another installment in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s volume of stories The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
Inspector Stanley Hopkins, who sought Holmes’ help in The Adventure of the Pince-nez once more appeals to the Great Detective for assistance. Sir Eustace Brackenstall, late of the Abbey Grange near Chislehurst, has been most foully murdered – and Hopkins believes it is the handiwork of the infamous Randall Gang, a family of burglars thought to be responsible for a number of robberies in the area.
Brackenstall had not been the most likeable of individuals in life; prone to heavy drinking and violence – Hopkins reports him as having once poured petroleum onto his wife’s dog and set the poor beast alight. Nevertheless, he has been murdered, and Hopkins would like Holmes’ input on the matter.
Travelling to Abbey Grange withe the Inspector, Homes and Watson meet with Brackenstall’s wife and examine the scene of the crime. Other than the fact the robbers departed with very little, everything appears to be much as Hopkins has told them and Lady Brackenstall described when they interviewed her. Clearly annoyed at being called to attend what appears to be an open-and-shut case, Holmes departs for London with Watson. However, during their journey, Holmes has a change of mind and hauls Watson off the train at a suburban station with the announcement that they are returning to Chislehurst – and thus they delve deeper into The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.
Monday October 21st 19:00: Classics of Science Fiction
With Gyro Muggins.
Tuesday October 22nd, 19:00: Spookable Irving: The Spectre of the Bridegroom and Others
Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade return once more to deliver-up more tales from the pen of Washington Irving.
In The Sprectre of the Bridegroom, another tale from Irving’s The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, and written while he was travelling in Europe, we have a ghost story of sorts, laced with satire and rib-poking at the aristocracy, particularly one Baron Von Landshort, his relatives and – to a point – his daughter and only child, one so accomplished in the arts, Irving notes with tongue firmly in cheek, that she “could sign her own name without missing a letter, and so legibly, that her aunts could read it without spectacles.”
The Baron has arranged for his daughter to be wed to the Count Von Altenburg, whom neither have ever met. The Baron therefore arranges a banquet at his castle for the Count, but on the day on which it is to take place, the Count is mortally wounded in an altercation. Before dying, he beseeches a friend to carry word to the Baron and daughter why he could not keep his promised appointment. So begins a love / ghost story of a most unusual kind and with more than one little twist.
Wednesday October 23rd, 19:00: Doll Bones
Long-time friends Zach, Poppy and Alice like nothing more than playing with their action figure toys, using them to create their own world of fantasy, adventure and heroism. Unfortunately, twelve-year-old Zach’s father is not of the same opinion, and throws out all of his son’s toys, declaring the boy is “too old” for them.
Embarrassed and upset, Zach determines he must stop seeing Poppy and Alice completely. Something, however, has other ideas about this, and one night the two girls pay Zach a visit and tell him of a series of mysterious and frightening occurrences. Between them, the three youngsters are charged with a task they must complete – or face being cursed for all eternity …
Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads from Holly (The Spiderwick Chronicles) Black’s latest novel.
Thursday October 24th, 19:00 Something Wicked This Way Comes
With Halloween almost upon us, Shandon Loring brings us one of the classic modern tales of fantasy and horror, penned by the great Ray Bradbury himself, and inspired by events from Bradbury’s own childhood which spurred him on to become a writer.
At the age of twelve, Bradbury visited a carnival and encountered a magician, “Mr. Electro”, who commanded Bradbury to “live forever” and to embrace life, while also proclaiming him to be the reincarnation of a friend lost in the Great War. Such was the impact of “Mr. Electro” that the young Bradbury started writing “non-stop”.
Then, in 1955, Bradbury suggested to his friend, the actor, dancer and director Gene Kelly, that they collaborate on a film together, with Bradbury writing and Kelly directing.
Bradbury used a 1948 short he’d written about “Mr. Electro”, The Black Ferris and expanded it into a full-length film treatment. When the film idea failed, Bradbury revisited the treatment and developed it into Something Wicked…, with the benign “Mr. Electro” being replaced by the far more sinister “Mr. Dark”, himself inspired by Bradbury’s own earlier creation, The Illustrated Man. Thus a classic was born, one which did go on to grace the silver screen some twenty years after its original publication, adapted by Bradbury himself.
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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 and October is Water for People. Have questions? IM or note card Caledonia Skytower.
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