Researching the PMLA Again

Not too long ago we found ourselves with access to JSTOR and we thought, on a whim, we might finally nail down the long-running PMLA question.

Interview: Justin Glanville

We were both surprised and excited to read comments last year from Justin Glanville praising the work of John Bellairs and his ability to create a sense of place. Glanville and fellow world-builder Christine Borne are the founders and creative force behind the series, Welcome to Munchen, Minnesota! And it’s pronounced as if you were munchin’. We corresponded with Justin earlier this year about writing with a sense of place in mind, as well as to expand on his previous comments highlighting Duston Heights, Hoosac, and New Zebedee. As has been said: location, location, location!

Where's There: Winnekenni Castle

(The fourth in a series about places or things John Bellairs didn't write about in towns where he lived.)

For the final installment in this series we're going back to Duston Heights. And Haverhill. And castles.

Where's There: Sugar Loaf

(The third in a series about places or things John Bellairs didn't write about in towns where he lived.)

When it comes to the three cities that John Bellairs created for his books, it’s easy to understand how New Zebedee and Duston Heights came about, what with his close association to his native Michigan and later home in Massachusetts. How Hoosac, Minnesota fits into the equation is often forgotten or perhaps not known. For two years in the early 1960s John taught at the now-defunct College of Saint Teresa in Winona, a city in southeast Minnesota. It may not have been his favorite place (consider he was coming to rural Minnesota after years of living and working in Chicago’s Hyde Park area) but we’re glad he was there if only for it to help foster some Fidgettine inspiration. But more on Saint Fidgeta later.

Staging "Electra"

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

Obscure Horror Cinema: Once Upon A Midnight Scary

The Obscure Horror Cinema blog features that late-1970s made-for-television adaptation, Once Upon a Midnight Scary:

And Ghosts Did Shriek and Squeal About The Streets

Some numbers this Halloween season --

Keeping Haverhill On The Map

Not that we thought Haverhill, Massachusetts - where John lived between 1970 and his death in 1991 - had fallen off the map, this article from the Haverhill Gazette gives a bit of history on how the town was once home to shoemakers (and/or cordwainers) and how things went downhill. But with the help of people such as Tom Bergeron, Andre Dubus III, and Erin Erler the city is keeping itself in the public eye.

Where's There: Tilton's Tower

(The second in a series about places or things John Bellairs didn't write about in towns where he lived.)

When John Bellairs began a story in the early 1980s that would go on to become 1983’s The Curse of the Blue Figurine he made yet another shift in geographic location. Three books, three different states: his native Michigan in The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (1976); southeast Minnesota for The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (1978); and now New England, specifically northeast Massachusetts. While the location may have changed, there was still something sinister afoot and a kind of magic to be harvested.

Renowned Be Thy Grave

Author/blogger J.W. Ocker wrote The New England Grimpendium (2010) and The New York Grimpendium (2012), each a travelogue of his experiences exploring macabre sites, attractions, and artifacts in those regions. His blog features odd things he's seen and this week he showcased something he found in Haverhill:

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.