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, or at their Kitely Homeworld.

Sunday November 16th

Having solved the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Watson are taking a well-earned end-of-year break to recharge their mental faculties and (hopefully) enjoy some festive faire. They’ll be returning to Seanchai Library in the New Year, doubtless with a tale yet to be heard within the Library’s hallowed walls.

Monday November 17th, 19:00: Witches, Magic and Other Strange Things



Gyro Muggins returns with new tales to tell.

Tuesday November 18th,19:00: The Thanksgiving Visitor

First published in 1967 in McCalls magazine, and then printed in book form the following year by Random House, The Thanksgiving Dinner is a further tale by Truman Capote focusing on a young boy called Buddy.

It forms one of three semi-autobiographical short stories written by Capote focused on Buddy, and which also feature Buddy’s older cousin, “Sook”, his best friend, said to be based on Capote’s older cousin, Nanny Rumbley Faulk. As such, it sits between A Christmas Memory (originally published in 1956) and One Christmas, (originally published in 1982).

All three stories in the series received a mix critical response when they first appeared, with one member of his own family stating, after reading a Thanksgiving Dinner, that Capote had “invented” a trouble childhood, although he and Buddy share much in common – both suffered their parent’s divorce, both were sent to Alabama to be raised by relatives. Others have accused Captoe of “romanticising” his past. Nevertheless as works of fiction, they offer a trio of intriguing tales, with The Thanksgiving Dinner carrying a particular message on the the subject of harassment and revenge. Read by Faerie Maven-Pralou.

Wednesday November 19th, 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 20th

09:00 The Last Mermaid

Shandon Loring resumes reading from Shana Abé’s novel containing three haunting and seductive loves stories which reach beyond time, featuring one of the more romantic legends of the sea – mermaids -, with all three stories connected by a locket as they span the ages.

“531 AD: 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.

21:00 Seanchai Late Night

With Finn Zeddmore.

Saturday November 22nd, Seanchai Kitely

09:00 Tales from the Sea

I believe that Shandon Loring will be returning to Seanchai Kitely with further tales from the sea and featuring mermaids – check back with the Seanchai blog for details in the week!

10:00: Beat to Quarters

Caledonia Skytower continues reading this tale from C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series.

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.



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