Words: Short and Long Form Fiction

I assume you spent some time outdoors on this fine late Spring day? I had the leaded glass windows in the Estate Library open all day yesterday to give the place a good airing and naturally ended up having a fire going in the Robert Graves Memorial Reading Room as the temperature was fairly chilly . . . → Read More: Words: Short and Long Form Fiction

Words: Urban Fantasies

It is no less or more rationale to believe in ghosts and other things that go bump in the night that it is to believe in an Old Man who allowed His Son to be killed for our sins. (My sins are my own business and no one else’s! Now pass that bottle along.) Urban . . . → Read More: Words: Urban Fantasies

In the Library. With a Candlestick.

A tragic tale of one of the Estate Librarians. The final lines are a true groaner.

We are immersed in mystery around here. Not just the hidden doors, secret rooms and unexpectedly extensible corridors — a lot of our denizens and visitors are mysteries as well. Some of them get clearer as they age, like . . . → Read More: In the Library. With a Candlestick.

James Stoddard’s Evenmere series

This was first printed on Sleeping Hedgehog which you really should visit.

I just got chased out of the kitchen by Mrs. Ware who apparently has a large catering order being assembled by her staff for The School of Imagination who are hosting a seminar on the Evenmere novels this afternoon.

Oh you haven’t heard . . . → Read More: James Stoddard’s Evenmere series

Charles de Lint’s The Little Country: An Appreciation

This post is reprinted from Sleeping Hedgehog, our sister publication.

She knew this music-knew it down to the very core of her being-but she had never heard it before. Unfamiliar, it had still always been there inside her, waiting to be woken. It grew from the core of mystery that gives a secret its special . . . → Read More: Charles de Lint’s The Little Country: An Appreciation

Elizabethan history meets the Fae

My it’s nasty outside the Library windows here at the Estate right now with a cold, hard rain and gusty winds making for a perfect evening for reading by the fire.

So I have an excellent reading suggestion that will provide you with many a night of reading pleasure when the weather where you . . . → Read More: Elizabethan history meets the Fae

Favourite Folk Songs

Like all story tellers, we ask questions here of the folks that we come in contact with. And the answers we get are often both entertaining and surprising. A few years ago, we published this article based on a series of question and answer sessions in the Pub.

First up is Kage Baker with . . . → Read More: Favourite Folk Songs

Brian Froud’s Faerieland series

They had the freedom to write whatever they chose, just as I’d had the freedom to paint what I chose; yet we’d agreed on a central premise: a recognition that Faerie, inextricably bound as it is to nature and natural forces, is gravely threatened by the ecological crises that human beings have brought to our . . . → Read More: Brian Froud’s Faerieland series

Charles de Lint’s Tamson House

Reprinted from Sleeping Hedgehog which you really should visit as there’s list of cool material over there.

Sara Kendell once read somewhere that the tale of the world is like a tree. The tale, she understood, did not so much mean the niggling occurrences of daily life. Rather it encompassed the grand stories that caused . . . → Read More: Charles de Lint’s Tamson House

May Day!

Hmmm… Must be May Day as the may Pole is up in the Courtyard… Hardly anyone’s laying about reading or drinking Ola Dubh ale from the Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland to stay warm… And more than one of the Several Annies has gotten a stern warning from Mrs. Ware about taking proper precautions if they’re . . . → Read More: May Day!