Where's There: Wilder Creek Castle

After years of reading about the places where John Bellairs lived and wrote about, we decided that for this round of Where’s There that we would investigate some of the locations in the towns where John lived but that he didn’t write about.

Make sense?

What's What: SPQR

Fleeing from The Bishop, Prospero finds traces of Roman influence in the stonework of the castle in the form of this abbreviation [The Dolphin Cross; Magic Mirrors; 226].

Interview: Nate Pedersen

When we contact people out of the blue for interviews you never know their response: “yes, I’d love to answer a few questions” verses “yeah, maybe” and then we never hear from ‘em again. Not so with Nate. Nate Pedersen is a Community Librarian with the Deschutes Public Library in Bend, Oregon. Besides being on the board of directors for the Deschutes County Historical Society and Museum he also works as a freelance journalist, with publications in a variety of newspapers and magazines. It was in some of his writings we found online that he indicated he held a special place for the books by John Bellairs and we asked him about that, about Oregon, and more.

What's What: PF Flyers

New-kid-in-school David Keller gets tripped by a bully wearing this brand of sneaker [The House where Nobody Lived; 29].

August #JOHNBELLAIRSMONTH We Must!

Writer, blogger, vlogger, and one-time Bellairsia interview subject Richard Denney has declared August 2014 as John Bellairs Month. To celebrate he's getting the word out a month early and inviting a host of others to write, blog, vlog, and tweet (and so on) about 1989's The Chessmen of Doom.

Review: Mummy "Puzzle Of The Will Was Thorny, And Obvious, Once It Was Explained"

Book review: The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt

Review: Curse "Terrifying showdown" but "Recognized...similarities [with Lewis]"

Book review: The Curse of the Blue Figurine

Review: Letter "Harrowing Moments Towards The End"

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

Review: Figure "Builds Tension Nicely And Draws The Reader Into The Action"

Book review: The Figure in the Shadows

Review: House "A Quick Read...I Found Myself Rooting For Lewis"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

What's What: Gutenberg Bible

Lewis Barnavelt finds a copy of this volume in his cousin’s library and believes, if sold, it would bring in a lot of money [The Vengeance of the Witch-finder; 127].

What’s What: Apostle Spoon

A wraith of Father Thomas Higgins leaves Johnny with this utensil, whose handle features St. Thomas, as a clue to the priest's whereabouts [The Secret of the Underground Room; 29].

Staging "Twelfth Night"

The third in a series of articles about Bellairs performing with the College of Saint Teresa Drama Department.

BiblioFile: The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (Bantam, 1980)

We’ve carried a lot of love for the Bantam Skylark paperback editions from the 1980s because that’s how a lot of fans first discovered John’s books. (Yeah, some of you had public or school libraries with the original Dial hardcovers on their shelves and you got the full Bellairs and Gorey experience....) In a word, the Bantams are colorful nostalgia trips that bring back lots of memories. (Never mind that “colorful nostalgia trips” may conjure thoughts of the 1960s…let us not be silly.)

Writing “Realistic” Magic

Ned Hayes is the author of two novels — Coeur d’Alene Waters, set in the Pacific Northwest — and Sinful Folk, a best-selling novel set in the Middle Ages. His newest project is a science-fiction novel about the War on Terror.