It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous 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 12th, 13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street

Caledonia Skytower, Kaydon Oconnell and Corwyn Allen continue reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, originally published in 1894, and which brings together twelve (or eleven in US editions of the volume) adventures featuring Holmes and Watson, as originally published in The Strand Magazine. This week: The Adventure of the Reigate Squire, first published in 1893.



“It was sometime before the health of my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes recovered from the strain caused by his immense exertions in the spring of ’87. The whole question of the Netherland-Sumatra Company and of the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertuis are too recent in the minds of the public, and are too intimately concerned with politics and finance to be fitting subjects for this series of sketches. “

So records John Watson in opening the narrative of one of Sherlock Holmes more unusual cases, in that it has come to be known by a number of titles: the one used here, and also The Adventure of the Reigate Squires (plural) and The Adventure of the Reigate Puzzle.

The main part of the story concerns Watson’s bid to help Holmes recuperate from the strains of the Netherland-Sumatra affair, by taking him to visit a friend’s estate in Reigate, Surrey. However, a burglary at the home of another local family, the Actons, coupled with a murder at the estate of yet another estate, that of the Cunninghams, and the long-standing enmity between these two families serves to draw Holmes and Watson into matters.

Monday July 13th, 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 continues reading the 2004 sequel, The Wizard of Karres, penned by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. So why not join Gyro as he once more traces the adventures of Captain Pausert and his companions, Goth and the Leewit, the Witches of Karres.

Tuesday July 14th, To Kill a Mockingbird

To mark the publication of Harper Lee‘s Go Set a Watchman, Caledonia Skytower, Kaydon Oconnell and Gyro Muggins read selected passages from Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning To Kill a Mockingbird.

Set across three years of America’s Great Depression (1933 through 35), the story revolves around issues of rape and racial inequality, but is renowned for its warmth and humour with the story’s Atticus Finch, father of the narrator in the piece, serving as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers.

Given that Watchman – which some describe as a”sequel” to Mockingbird, despite the fact the manuscript pre-existed the latter – offers a very different perspective on things, one which may well overturn feelings of warmth and support for Atticus Finch in the minds of some readers, this trip through Mockingbird is a timely reminder of things past.

Wednesday July 15th: 19:00: The Tail of Emily Windsnap Part 5

Faerie Maven-Pralou reads from Liz Kesseler’s series about a young girl who, having always lived on a boat but having been kept away from the water by her mother, finally gets to have swimming lessons. With them comes a remarkable discovery that leads her into another world…

Thursday July 16th

18:45: Prologue: Mythology as History

With Shandon Loring.

19:00: The Druid by Frank Delaney

He has been described as “the most eloquent man in the world”. In a career spanning three decades, BBC host and Booker Prize Judge Frank Delaney has interviewed more the 3,500 of the world’s most important writers. He’s also an author in his own right, earning top prizes and best-seller status in a wide variety of formats.

His latest project is collectively called The Storytellers, and presents a series of short stories that follow the tradition of the seanchai: providing a crisp, concise tales of the world, and which also include his own notes on the history and craft of storytelling and the creation of myths.

Shandon Loring continues a journey through The Storytellers, this week reading from The Sea-Folk, a tale of distant days along the coastline of Ireland, when who knew what creatures came ashore “in days so dark that their shadows had shadows?” Or observed humans from out in the tide? And who knows how they interacted with the people on the land?

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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 June / July is the The Xerces Society, at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programmes.

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