Something About Monarchs

Crown dependency.

Saint Michael’s Fundraising Event This Weekend! Five Fab Finds!

Saint Michael’s Parish will host a fundraising rummage sale this Saturday, April 3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Father Kahl Liberius says he expects a great turnout, insofar the weather cooperates, because parishioners have cleaned out the deepest, dankest corners of the church basement and scoured the building from altar to vestry all in the name of Saint Zita, patroness of housekeepers (“and this weekend, spring cleaning,” adds lay leader Wayne Spiggot).

All money raised stays with the church to help with operating costs and summer youth activities.  The church invites everyone from the community to come to the church and checkout some of the amazing items on sale, both donated by members of the congregation and those found in the church basement.  What great finds did parishioners find?  Here are five guaranteed to be popular!

Hitting the Roof: 7 Ceilings as Seen by Johnny Dixon

Professor Childermass has often told Johnny Dixon to keep his chin up.  But when Johnny does, what does he see?  There is not always a lot to examine but whatever it is can often be better than nothing!

What seven ceilings has Johnny examined?

Something About Puffin Paperbacks in the 1990s

Auk words.

Something About Ethan Allen

He's got the way to sell me chairs.

Something About Dr. Nesheim

Can't you see we're searching, searching.

Something About Louis Sockalexis

Play ball!

Survey: Your Favorite Johnny Dixon Book?

Here's your chance to vote for your favorite book in the Johnny Dixon series.

Alert: New Titles from SF Gateway

We suppose we knew this was eventually going to happen, and it appears it did while we away last month. British publisher SF Gateway released the final four books in the Johnny Dixon series for those readers who a) live outside the United States and Canada and b) prefer electronic books. Much like American publisher eReads released the four Strickland-involved Dixon books earlier this year, SF Gateway has done the same – keeping with their traditional yellow covers, of course.  The first eight books were released by SF Gateway late last year.

BiblioFile: eReads and Counting Words

Bellairsia gets read by John's American fans, sure, but we've also gotten some attention in France, the Netherlands, Italy, and even South Korea (안녕하세요 환영). Another country is Singapore, where Kwan Hon Luen chimes in with occasional comments and reviews.

Time Capsule: 1692

June 7, 1692: Today's the day when a 7.5 Magnitude earthquake struck Port Royal, Jamaica, the unofficial capital city and one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the West Indies. It was known both as the "storehouse and treasury of the West Indies" and "one of the wickedest places on earth". The earthquake caused most of the city to sink below sea level and about 2,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and the following tsunami.

And Friendship Shall Combine

Every once in a while a fan asks what would happen if there was a crossover and Lewis, Anthony, and Johnny teamed-up. Jason wrote into our mailing list recently and put a different spin on the question, wondering if the books would have been even more successful had Bellairs only wrote one single series, instead of three separate ones?

Forgetting Any Other Book But This

Those sites that allow readers to recall hazy memories of books are always interesting. If anything it gives us the chance to welcome them to Bellairsia and experience John’s (and Brad’s) work again.

Hannah Duston, Badass of the Week

Long-time fans will recognize the name Hannah Duston from John’s stories as she is memorialized in Johnny Dixon’s adopted home of Duston Heights. Stephan Kinsella reminds us of her story:

Despite what Riverdale Elementary School’s annual First-Grade Thanksgiving Day Class Play might have you believe, early Colonial America wasn’t all one giant super happy mecha fun time made out of maize, delicious roasted turkey breast, and Pocahontas teaching John Smith the meaning of friendship and cooperation by baking pumpkin pies and putting out on the Sabbath.

Goreyana Presents John Bellairs

The Goreyana blog is a great source for information about collecting the artwork of Edward Gorey and we’re pleased to see author Irwin Terry will begin a series of posts about the artwork created for the books written by John Bellairs and those completed and continued by Brad Strickland.

Youth That He Cannot Endure In His Age

Ann Downer-Hazell recently shared some thoughts on John's books, which have become part of her evening reading ritual:

Time Capsule: 1997

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since we first heard the strange tale of Jarmyn Thanatos and his desire to live forever. Thanatos was the spellbinder as seen in The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder, Brad Strickland’s second “solo” book in the Johnny Dixon series, where Johnny’s friend Fergie finds the last book in the library and sets forth a strange chain of events revealing charmin’ Jarmyn's (as we've taken to calling him) sinister secret for getting younger as the decades pass.

Book Alert: Puffin Reprints

Puffin is re-releasing ten titles by John Bellairs and Brad Strickland in August. While the cover art is identical to previous paperback releases (done by Bart Goldman, Brett Helquist, Paul Zelinsky, and even Edward Gorey), the books all share a new, uniform style. Titles include the classics (and some surprises):

• The Curse of the Blue Figurine
• The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie
• The Figure in the Shadows
• The House with a Clock in Its Walls
• The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
• The Mansion in the Mist
• The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt
• The Specter from the Magician's Museum
• The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull
• The Trolley to Yesterday