Review: Treasure "Great Mystery With Realistic Characters"

Book review: The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn

Memoriam: Tom Deitz

Author Tom Deitz died April 27 from from heart complications.  He was 57.

His best known work was Windmaster’s Bane (1986), a fantasy novel that chronicled the adventures of a young Georgia man named David Sullivan. Deitz went on to have 18 more novels published, many featuring the Sullivan protagonist, as well as the Soulsmith Trilogy, comprising of the books Soulsmith, Dreambuilder, and Wordwright. 

An assistant professor of English at Gainesville State College, in 2007 Deitz was the recipient of the Phoenix Award, given to one who has done much in the name of Southern Fandom.

The Gainesville Times discusses his memorial service held at GSC on Sunday, May 3:

It was not your typical memorial service, but probably one that Deitz would have wanted.

Brad Strickland, a longtime friend, colleague and fellow fantasy writer, put on a blue flowery shirt that he said he wore a couple years ago at a faculty picnic. "Tom came up to me and said, ‘Professor Strickland, that is a cool shirt. Only you’re not cool enough to wear it,’" Strickland said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

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Gorey Exhibition Shows Combination of Humor and Macabre

The work of Edward Gorey, artist, author and award-winning costume designer, is celebrated in “Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey” at the Brandywine River Museum in suburban Philadelphia. The first traveling exhibition of Gorey’s work, it features 180 drawings, sketches, notebooks and other items. From the Gaea News:

Wondering, Wandering Young Adults

A recent post from John Hornor, writing about his:

...unapologetic love for John Bellairs books. Bellairs was really a precursor to all these magical orphan YA novels you see coming out, the Potter books, the Lemony Snicket. Bellairs, to me, established a tone remarkable for its clarity and quirky characters decades before J.K. Rowling cobbled together Hogwarts from the stones of previous fantastic worlds.

Review: House "Believable And Very Human Characters...Adds Inventive Comical Flourishes"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

Review: Letter "An Entertaining and Suspenseful Read"

Book review: The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

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:

Memoriam: George Kell

George Kell, a former third baseman who played for, among other teams, the Detroit Tigers from 1947 to 1952, has died. He was 86.

Shortly after arriving in New Zebedee in 1948, Lewis and his uncle Jonathan discuss Tiger baseball and whether Lewis knows Kell’s batting average that year.

The Runaway Star

The Richard Curtis Agency has negotiated with Lyron Bennett of Sourcebooks Jabberwocky for The Runaway Star, a children’s science fiction series, by Brad Strickland.

Time Capsule: March 8, 1959

March 8, 1959: Tonight’s the night John Bellairs made his television debut – live from Washington D.C. Fifty years ago tonight Bellairs, along with three other students, represented Notre Dame on the G.E. College Bowl program. In a battle of the wits with Georgetown University, these other Four Horsemen from Notre Dame buzzed in their answers but it was Bellairs who made the night memorable.

The Curse of the Blue Figurine Chronology (Part I)

Several years ago, probably as we were putting The Dullard’s Bane version of this website to pasture, I got the wild idea to go through the Johnny Dixon series and identify all the passages of time. When Bellairs noted the date, or a day or week or month passed, I scribbled down the particulars. Part of this was to gauge just how much of Johnny’s life was crammed into the “early 1950s” – the generic setting Bellairs used, and Strickland inherited. Also, if the events had happened chronologically, what year would it have been by the end of The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost? A case of too much time on someone’s hands? Maybe. Anyway, here’s when the initial chapters of The Curse of the Blue Figurine occurred:

Why You Should Never Laugh at a Berserker

Ever wonder why the Lewis Chessmen – specifically the rooks – look the way they do? The Comann Eachdraidh Uig tells the story:

In This Distracted Globe...

Seeing some of Thomas Doyle’s globes reminded us Bellairs’s characters were often fond of the little worlds within globes (and I think we've touched on this before.) Still, be careful you not walk in on the group from 'The Reprisal' (shown here).

To Dim His Hand of Glory

We once read that someone became interested in the works of John L. Stoddard after reading The House with a Clock in its Walls. That made us wonder how much of John’s work has inspired younger readers to explore the works of the different authors that John (and later Brad) mentions throughout his fiction.

Review: Treasure "Wouldn’t Recommend If You’ve Never Read Bellairs Before – At Least Not At First"

Book review: The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn