THURSDAY, October 31st: IT'S HALLOWEEEEEEN AT SEANCHAI!

Three, count'em, THREE great story sessions today full of stories perfect for the day.  Get your snack, your beverage of choice, get a sweater or someone to cuddle, cause THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!

@4PM - A Selection from THE REAPER MAN
Dubhna and Caledonia bring Terry Pratchett's ghoulish romp to life in an encore of their 2012 presentation.



Death has been told he has lost his job, because he has been showing disturbing indications of individuality. The Auditors, who appear as grey floating faceless figures, have therefore appealed to Azrael himself to banish Death and allow a new Death to take his place, who will emerge after a period of … readjustment. 

Death then becomes subject to his own death, he is given a lifespan, in the form of a timer, to live out as he sees fit. He and his horse, Binky, must come to live as mortals in the world. He takes on the identity of Bill Door, working on a certain Miss Flitworth's farm, and begins to learn what it is to be human, and to fear death. This is not to say he actually is human, or even resembles one. Meanwhile with no Death in the world strange things began to happen. 

@ 7PM - AMBROSE BIERCE: The Way of Ghosts

Ambrose Bierce is renowned for his ghost and war stories from the mid-1800's. He wrote from his own experiences, and those related to him by people he encountered in his travels. His end is as intriguing as his books. In 1913, he went on a tour of old Civil War battlegrounds and vanished without a trace. His disappearance remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

"The night was dark, with neither moon nor stars visible, and Orrin Brower had never dwelt thereabout, and knew nothing of the lay of the land..."  Shandon presents live in Voice. 


@9PM - SEANCHAI LATE NIGHT!

Shandon and Cale present Ghost stories from different regions of North America - snips and snippets of ghostly ans ghastly adventures  to finish off the spookiest day of the year.  Gather round the fire and huddle close - IT'S GHOST STORY TIME!

WEDNESDAY, October 30th @ 7PM:THE CASE OF FOUR AND TWENTY BLACK BIRDS

More Gaiman!  More Gaiman! Kayden brings us this short story for the season by award-winning author Neil Gaiman.  With any luck, Caledonia will join him and you'll get TWO - stay tuned!

His notable works include the comic book series "The Sandman" and novels "Stardust," "American Gods," " Coraline," and "The Graveyard Book." He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, "The Graveyard Book" (2008).

Presented Live in Voice.

TUESDAY, October 29th @7PM: Selections from THE GRAVEYARD BOOK

Caledonia shares a selection from one of her personal favorite books, by award-winning author Neil Gaiman.  Gaiman won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Newbery Medal recognizing year's best children's books, the first time both named the same work. The Graveyard Book also won the annual Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Convention and Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book selected by Locus magazine subscribers

It takes a graveyard to raise a child.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family.

Presented Live in Voice.

MONDAY, October 28th @ 7PM: More CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION

Gyro continues with selections fro his amazing library of classic Science Fiction, emerging with more jewels to share.

TODAY: "Stranger Station" by Damon Knight, 1956

Built near Saturn by aliens, Stranger Station is a point of contact between one of them and one of us.  Life at the station puts an unbearable psychic strain on the occupants.  Mere months of contact causes insanity.  Why do they come; why do we?  Now it's your turn to meet the alien.

Presented Live in Voice.

SUNDAY, October 27th from 10am - 5pm: BOOFEST!

BOOFest is back for a third year - gathering around the autumnal fire as the flames blaze and the leaves turn, and the chill in our bones is something more than the chill winds: the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, and we celebrate both as the wheel of the year comes 'round again!

Check out the stories and storytellers! Click Here

BOOFest benefits War Child North America, and is produced in partnership between Stories Unlimited! and Branwen Arts

Join us round the fire at "Here Be Pictsies" on Bran
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bran/78/141/24

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Starting next week, Seanchai Library will be testing some new session times in addition to our regular Mon - Thurs 7pm programming.   The first of these sessions will be Thursday, October 31st at 4pm, and a "Seanchai Late Night" will also launch that day at 9pm.  All times SLT.

If these sessions draw enough of a consistent audience, they may become part of the regular Seanchai schedule, just as Tea Time was added in 2012.

We are pretty confident about the 4pm session placement, though we might yet experiment.  We are still deciding which day of the week might be most auspicious for a late night story audience.  Are you on the West Coast of the Americas or in the Pacific? Would you be interested in such a session?  What Night?

Take our online survey found in the right-hand margin and let us know.  Poll Closes November 1st.

THIS WEEK at Seanchai Library

WELCOME TO THE SEANCHAI LIBRARY ON IMAGINATION ISLAND!
"We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life.

 CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF GREAT STORIES!

Events in the Seanchai Library this week - all stories told in open voice, all times SLT:

Monday, October 28th at 7 p.m. - More Classics of Science Fiction with Gyro Muggins

Tuesday, October 29th at 7 p.m. - Selections from The Graveyard Book with Caledonia Skytower

Wednesday, October 30th at 7 p.m. -  The Case of Four and Twenty Black Birds with Kayden Oconnell

 Thursday, October 31st  - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

                              at 4 p.m. - The Reaper Man -  with Dubhna Rhiadra & Caledonia Skytower
 
                              at 7 p.m. - Ambrose Bierce: The Ways of Ghosts -  with Shandon Loring 

                              at 9 p.m. - Seanchai Late Night  - Late night spooky stories!


And Join Us for these Outreach events:

 Sunday, October 27th 10am - 5pm - BOOFest at Bran!

Sunday, October 27th at 6 p.m. - MAGICLAND STORYTIME: Part 2 of "Bonfires and Broomsticks" with Caledonia Skytower


All stories in voice and take place at Seanchai Libray on Imagination Island, unless otherwise noted. Schedule subject to change, because that is just how life is sometimes.  

All sessions at the Seanchai Library are offered free to Second Life (c) Residents.  Guests are welcome to join us in donating to our September - October featured charity, Water for People (www.waterforpeople.org)  Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Want to get schedule information and reminders in-world? Feel free to join the Seanchai or Stories Unlimited! subscribers. They are located in the library, just run in and touch them.

THURSDAY October 24th at 7pm: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.

AND... a special review of Bradbury's latest work, "The Halloween Tree"!

ISBN: 978-0380729401

WEDNESDAY, October 23rd at 7:00pm: A Selection from DOLL BONES

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.  A doll that may be haunted leads the three friends on a thrilling adventure in this delightfully creepy novel from the New York Times bestselling co-creator of the Spiderwick Chronicles - Holly Black.

Caledonia Skytower, live in voice.

TUESDAY, October 22nd at 7pm: More SPOOKABLE IRVING

Derry Mc Mahon and Bear Silvershade bring us more from Washington Irving's "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.", commonly referred to as "The Sketch Book."  This collection of  34 essays and short stories was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820, and includes some of Irving's best-known stories: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Rip Van Winkle," and "The Spectre Bridegroom." It also marks Irving's first use of the pseudonym "Geoffrey Crayon," which he would continue to employ throughout his literary career.
Join Derry and Bear for "The Spectre Bridegroom," "The Mummy's Foot" and more spooky tales of the season from this notable American author.

Presented live in voice. 

MONDAY, October 21st at 7PM: More CLASSIC SCI-FI ADVENTURE

Gyro continues with selections fro his amazing library of classic Science Fiction, emerging with more jewels to share.

THIS WEEK: "Cabin Boy" ~ Tommy was not exactly a cabin boy, and even the space ship he served on was not exactly a space ship.  To a human being he would have looked like a six foot tall green egg.  From the works of author Damon Knight.

Live in Voice.

SUNDAY, October 20th at 1:30pm: TEA TIME at Baker Street!

Corwyn and Caledonia crack open yet another case from THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES!  Grabba a cuppa and join him at the fireside for another thrilling adventure.  THIS WEEK"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange."

 Holmes wakes Doctor Watson up early one winter morning to rush to a murder scene at the Abbey Grange near Chislehurst. Sir Eustace Brackenstall has been killed, apparently by burglars. Inspector Stanley Hopkins believes that it was the infamous Randall gang, a father and two sons, who have committed several other burglaries in the neighborhood.

Holmes and Watson arrive at Abbey Grange, where Lady Brackenstall is resting with a purple swelling over one eye, the result of a blow during the previous night's incident. There are also two red spots on her arm. Her maid, Theresa Wright, who has been with her mistress since she was born, later tells Holmes that Sir Eustace stabbed her with a hatpin.

A hat pin?!!!

Corwyn Allen and Caledonia Skytower, live in voice.

THIS WEEK at Seanchai Library

WELCOME TO THE SEANCHAI LIBRARY ON IMAGINATION ISLAND!
"We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life.

 CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF GREAT STORIES!

Events in the Seanchai Library this week - all stories told in open voice, all times SLT:

Sunday,  October 20th at 1:30pm - TEA TIME at Baker Street with Corwyn Allen & Caledonia Skytower

Monday, October 21st at 7 p.m. - Classics of Science Fiction with Gyro Muggins

Tuesday, October 22nd at 7 p.m. - More Spookable Irving: The Spectre Bridegrooom and Others  with Bear Silvershade and Derry McMahon

Wednesday, October 23rd at 7 p.m. -  Doll Bones with Caledonia Skytower

Thursday, October 24th at 7 p.m. - Something Wicked This Way Comes -  with Shandon Loring


And Join Us for these Outreach events:

 Sunday, October 27th 10am - 5pm - BOOFest at Bran!

Sunday, October 27th at 6 p.m. - MAGICLAND STORYTIME: Part 2 of "Bonfires and Broomsticks" with Caledonia Skytower


All stories in voice and take place at Seanchai Libray on Imagination Island, unless otherwise noted. Schedule subject to change, because that is just how life is sometimes.  

All sessions at the Seanchai Library are offered free to Second Life (c) Residents.  Guests are welcome to join us in donating to our September - October featured charity, Water for People (www.waterforpeople.org)  Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Want to get schedule information and reminders in-world? Feel free to join the Seanchai or Stories Unlimited! subscribers. They are located in the library, just run in and touch them.

THURSDAY October 17th at 7pm: 100 TWISTED LITTLE TALES OF TORMENT

We're pleased to have you tonight as our guest. Someone hardy enough to face challenges to the flesh. Someone fearless enough to endure assaults on the spirit. Or so you think. Tonight we present a pageant of physical and psychological tests whose tortures are so exquisite they'll seem.. enjoyable.

ISBN:9780760708552

TUESDAY, October 15th @ 7:00pm: HER OWN WORDS

A different kind of ghost story from our own Caledonia.  No rattling chains or glowing spectral figures.  Just words.  Ever been haunted by your own words?  What if you were haunted by them literally?  A woman is pursued by words she wrote over 30 years ago, and struggles with how to end being haunted by HER OWN WORDS

A new original short story by Caledonia Skytower (Judith Cullen) read live in voice.

Starting tomorrow, October 16th, this story will be part of author Lissa Bryan's Online Ghost Story Competition.  You can visit the "Ghostwriter" Ghost Story Contest Blog and vote for Cale's Story HER OWN WORDS if you like, or any of the other submissions.  The winning story will be announced on Halloween!

MONDAY, October 14th @ 7PM: CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION WITH GYRO

Gyro continues with selections fro his amazing library of classic Science Fiction, emerging with more jewels to share.

THIS WEEK: "Wait it Out" ~ Marooned on Pluto a doomed astronaut learns that the quick way out may be the slowest one of all. From "Tales of Known Space."

Live in Voice.

SUNDAY, October 13th at 6:00pm: MAGICLAND STORYTIME Bonfires and Broomsticks!

Caledonia returns to the Golden Horseshoe with more from beloved author Mary Norton's (The Borrowers Series) and her adventures with Miss Eglantine Price, Carey, Paul, and Charles.

A lucky circumstance brings the children back to Miss Price's care, but such disappointment!  She's given up magic all together! Or has she?  The bedknob is lurking about, and it may still be magic.  So too might there still be a spell of two to be cast by the enigmatic Miss Price!

Presented Live in Voice.

SUNDAY, October 13th at 1:30pm: TEA TIME at Baker Street!

Corwyn and Caledonia crack open yet another case from THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES!  Grabba a cuppa and join him at the fireside for another thrilling adventure.  THIS WEEK"The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarter."
:

Mr. Cyril Overton of Trinity College, Cambridge comes to Holmes seeking his help in Godfrey Staunton’s disappearance. Staunton is the key man on Overton’s rugby team, and they will never win the important match tomorrow against Oxford if Staunton cannot be found. Holmes has to admit that sport is outside his field, but he shows the same care he has shown to his other cases.

Presented Live in Voice.

THIS WEEK at Seanchai Library

WELCOME TO THE SEANCHAI LIBRARY ON IMAGINATION ISLAND!
"We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life.

 CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF GREAT STORIES!

Events in the Seanchai Library this week - all stories told in open voice, all times SLT:

Sunday,  October 13th at 1:30pm - TEA TIME at Baker Street with Corwyn Allen & Caledonia Skytower

Monday, October 14th at 7 p.m. - Classics of Science Fiction with Gyro Muggins

Tuesday, October 15th at 7 p.m. - The Letter  with Caledonia Skytower

Wednesday, October 16th at 7 p.m. -  TBA

Thursday, October 17th at 7 p.m. -  Twisted Little Tales of Torment -  with Shandon Loring


And Join Us for these Outreach events:

Sunday, October 13th at 6 p.m. - MAGICLAND STORYTIME: Part 1 of "Bonfires and Broomsticks" with Caledonia Skytower


All stories in voice and take place at Seanchai Libray on Imagination Island, unless otherwise noted. Schedule subject to change, because that is just how life is sometimes.  

All sessions at the Seanchai Library are offered free to Second Life (c) Residents.  Guests are welcome to join us in donating to our September - October featured charity, Water for People (www.waterforpeople.org)  Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Want to get schedule information and reminders in-world? Feel free to join the Seanchai or Stories Unlimited! subscribers. They are located in the library, just run in and touch them.

THURSDAY October 10th at 7pm: CREEPY LITTLE CREATURE STORIES

CREEPY LITTLE CREATURE STORIES
Very few things are more frightening than unearthly creatures conceived by the masterminds of supernatural fiction. Tonight's selections present a large scope of such macabre creatures.

ISBN:9781566199193

WEDNESDAY, October 9th at 7:00pm: BITS O'POE

What would the most notable month for scary and macabre stories be without the master himself?

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Caledonia reads some known, and not so well known stories from the works of Poe including "El Dorado", "The Valley of Unrest", "Hop-Frog", and more.  Ravens optional.  Presented Live in Voice.

TUESDAY, October 8th at 7:00pm: SPOOKABLE IRVING ~ Part 1

TONIGHT "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" aka the "Headless Horseman" 

The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells of Ichabod Crane, a sycophantic, lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head". 
Join us as Bear Silvershade and Derry McMahon read this favorite fall tale aloud (and no, it is not the same as the new tv show!) Live in Voice.

MONDAY, October 7th at 7:00pm: HAPPY HAUNTINGS!

Caledonia brings together the words of W.B.Yeats, Mark Twain, Neil Gaiman and more for an evening of haunting tales.

A British Commander makes war on the Abbey of the White Friars in Sligo, bringing about destruction to himself in measure to that which he doled out in The Curse of the Fires and the Shadows by W.B.Yeats.

 Mark Twain shares an unusual experience with a confused spirit in New York City in the delightfully haunting The Ghosty Story.  Neil Gaiman takes us deep into the heart of a graveyard where two children encounter The Indigo Man in "A New Friend" from The Graveyard Book.

Presented live in voice.

SUNDAY, October 6th at 1:30pm: TEA TIME at Baker Street

Corwyn and Caledonia crack open yet another case from THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES!  Grabba a cuppa and join him at the fireside for another thrilling adventure.  THIS WEEK (Really): "The Adventure of the Golden Pince Nez."

One wretched November night, Inspector Stanley Hopkins comes to see Holmes at 221B Baker Street to tell him of a murder that defies solution. The dead man is Willoughby Smith, secretary to Professor Coram, an old invalid. The murder happened at Yoxley Old Place near Chatham, Kent. The most perplexing thing about the case to Hopkins is that it is apparently motiveless. Willoughby Smith seems to have nothing untoward in his background, and not an enemy in the world. He was the third secretary to the professor, the former ones not having worked out. The murder weapon was a sealing-wax knife belonging to the professor.

Presented Live in Voice.

THIS WEEK at Seanchai Library

WELCOME TO THE SEANCHAI LIBRARY ON IMAGINATION ISLAND!
"We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life.

 CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF GREAT STORIES!

Events in the Seanchai Library this week - all stories told in open voice, all times SLT:

Sunday,  October 6th at 1:30pm - TEA TIME at Baker Street with Corwyn Allen & Caledonia Skytower

Monday, October 7th at 7 p.m. - Classics of Science Fiction with Gyro Muggins

Tuesday, October 8th at 7 p.m. - Spookable Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow  with Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade

Wednesday, October 9th at 7 p.m. -  Bits O' Poe  with Caledonia Skytower

Thursday, October 10th at 7 p.m. -  Creepy Little Creatures -  with Shandon Loring


And Join Us for these Outreach events:

Sunday, October 13th at 6 p.m. - MAGICLAND STORYTIME: Part 1 of "Bonfires and Broomsticks" with Caledonia Skytower


All stories in voice and take place at Seanchai Libray on Imagination Island, unless otherwise noted. Schedule subject to change, because that is just how life is sometimes.  

All sessions at the Seanchai Library are offered free to Second Life (c) Residents.  Guests are welcome to join us in donating to our September - October featured charity, Water for People (www.waterforpeople.org)  Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Want to get schedule information and reminders in-world? Feel free to join the Seanchai or Stories Unlimited! subscribers. They are located in the library, just run in and touch them.

THURSDAY October 3rd at 7pm: ABOMINATIONS

CREATURES, CRITTERS, AND GROTESQUE MONSTERS...

A bone-chilling glimpse of the evils lurking those shadowed-corners of life that are best left alone.


And so begins the traditional haunts and ghost story season. Please do join us... if you dare!


ISBN: 978-0-9801870-1-4

WEDNESDAY, October 2nd @ 7PM: CELTIC TALES for FALL

Caledonia digs deep into her files and pulls out some great Irish-Celtic Tales of spirits and mythical creature encounters of the mysterious kind.

A perfect start to our spookable month.

Stories of others and from Caledonia's own works, Live in Voice.