John Bellairs Fandæmonium

Interview: Deborah Nourse Lattimore

2011-09-15T03:32:00.002-05:00

Deborah Nourse Lattimore has been writing and illustrating books for young readers since 1986, including such titles as Cinderhazel, Zekmet the Stone Carver, and The Dragon’s Robe which was nominated for the Caldecott medal. To date she has almost 40 books published, as well as numerous magazine illustrations and articles, and, to top that, teaches at Otis College of Art and Design in the Marina del Rey area of Los Angeles. Deborah also happens to be an avid John Bellairs fan. We spoke with her about some of her upcoming projects as well as her appreciation for the works of John Bellairs. Enjoy.

Q: You’ve mentioned that you have some new material your agent is in the process of shopping around. Would you care to talk a little bit about that?

My new agent and I are just getting to know each other's tastes and inclinations and I'm lucky to have her in my life. My work goes from art and archaeology to slapstick and my agent has one new manuscript, a folk-tale with a crazy character in it, another manuscript which is just plain silly/funny, and a third manuscript which is all about archaeology. Other than that, I am working on several new manuscripts simultaneously, which is the way I've always worked.

Q: If readers would like to experience some of your work, where would you suggest they start?

A: What a nice question! I would suggest they begin with my book The Flame of Peace. I had a hard time finding a publisher who thought that the Aztecs would make a great picture book and when I landed at Harper & Row, I was thrilled. For my sillier side of life, I would suggest The Lady with the Ship on Her Head. And for my art at its most intense, I suggest The Dragon's Robe and The Sailor Who Captured the Sea.

Q: How did you first discover John Bellairs and what was that experience like?

A: It seems to me that I was drifting through the Beverly Hills Library, one of my favorite spots on earth, when I found The Curse of the Blue Figurine and I had to read anything with Edward Gorey's art on the cover. I can't tell you how simply fantastic it was to get into the Gothic, close-quarters feel of Bellairs' work. I was "caught" completely.

Q: What speaks to you about his stories?

A: There are a lot of things which speak to me in John Bellairs' books. For one thing, the main character is a loner, most of the time, even though he has a good friend. He is also awkward, slightly nervous, smart, good and valiant. I love these characters. I was an eccentric kid, too, and when I started reading about Johnny and Lewis and Tony, well, I suddenly felt as if I'd come home. I feel as if I know those towns, know the streets, the street-lights, the haunted parts of the cities; it's almost as if I lived there myself. When I get in bed at night and I need a friend and a familiar place to live for a little while, I get out my John Bellairs stories and I feel good again. And in today's economy, having a safe place to go is hard to come by.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine, Bruce Coville, who also loves John Bellairs' books, and he was surprised at how I felt "safe" inside these books. Bruce wondered how I could feel safe in a story where the characters are always in such peril, really awful situations. And I think the answer is this: danger is always part of life, crazy danger, psychological or financial or volatile situations, but engaging in the adventure the way Bellairs's characters do is a Great Ride, and, after all, they are unusual characters, too, aren't they? They are all extraordinarily brave, are they not? Isn't that wonderful?! I think so. Furthermore,the perils they face are usually supernatural and just by the sheer un-real-ness of it all I do not feel as if I were ever going to be in danger of finding myself stuck there.

Q: Would you happen to have a fond memory involving his stories you’d like to share?

A: Whenever I travel on a book or some other business trip, I pack a magazine, several books, and always a Bellairs novel. And what do I read? Bellairs. I was in a hotel in the Persian Gulf when all the hotel doors were locked because a small up-rising was going on outside. The phone lines were cut. But, I had a clean bed, a jug of water, and I most certainly had my Bellairs. All was fine. And, in one hour, the locks were lifted, and an Arab ran down the hallways of the hotel calling out that the Emir had put down the uprising. I stayed in bed and read. Thank you, John Bellairs.

Q: What is your favorite book of his and why?

A: Actually, I do not have a favorite. I have reread all of his books countless times. Right now I am reading about that weird creature under the bridge and so far, Lewis and Rose Rita are in the secret passageway overhearing the Capernaum Magicians talking about how to go about controlling the evil forces in town. That creepy experience they had out at the farm with that hole in the ground and then the weird beasty thing slowly approaching them really gets to me all over again, as if I'd never read it before. Isn't it great?!

Q: Do you have a favorite character?

A: I used to think John Dixon was the best but now I am loving Lewis again. I wish we had more Tony Mondays, too. Sometimes I think the smaller characters are pretty cool, like the slightly incompetent witch here and there, or the weird people who work at hotels or gas stations. I love them all.

Q: In your reading, have you found any other authors who remind you in some ways of John Bellairs?

A: Sorry, but there just isn't anybody like Bellairs. Strickland has done a great job of continuing the books and I am so glad he has. Thanks to the publishers, too. There just don't seem to be many Gothic middle grades like Bellairs out there. I do like AVI, and M. Mahy, and definitely Betty Ren Wright.

Q: In this fast paced, high-tech world of ours, do you still think John’s work has a valid place?

A: I happen to think we need John Bellairs' books now more than ever before. He captures a time and a place which is vanishing. It wasn't perfect; Tony Monday's parents have bad fights, Lewis and Johnny are missing parents, evil lurks everywhere. But the atmosphere of the clock on the mantel, a grandmother who cooks good, reliable meals, a grouchy but faithful professorial friend, a witch who loves all things purple and calls her best friend MushBrush, old radio shows, old opera houses, a car called a Muggins Simoon (really!?), tombs and churches and rhymes that seem to make no sense at all. These stories are self-contained, self-reliant and their inner workings coupled with the bravery of a young and slightly eccentric or lonely kid create a time and place, and space, which I hope will never disappear. I think everything going at Warp Speed would be awful. And don't get me wrong about computers being better than typewriters, but really!, going fast at everything does notinsure a careful read or study, or that information will be absorbed equally fast simply because it is delivered in a nanosecond. On the contrary, taking one's time to read and reread is what makes a reader fulfilled, satisfied, thrilled and happy, if you will.

Q: To a younger person who has never heard of John Bellairs how would you go about recommending his books?

A: I would probably start with one of Bellairs' weird rhymes, then talk about underground chambers, some very pale mask-like face flitting down a street in a faraway town called Duston Heights, a tomb with a slightly open door and then stop for a few seconds and smile. I'd suggest that there is a mystery afoot and, gosh! - I really hope it gets solved before it's too late!

Or, you could just read one or two paragraphs aloud from just about any of his books. Pick two readings that end with the main characters looking at each other, gulping hard, wondering what to do next and then let the young reader see where those paragraphs are on a page. Then walk away, leaving the book on a table.

Thank you for asking me about John Bellairs' books. When he passed away, I was thunder-struck. It felt as if I knew him, I'd lost a friend. I have the feeling that he was a complicated guy but then, aren't we all? And then, gosh, when I heard that his son had passed away, too, I was very, very sad. I hope his widow is all right. Publishing is a hard business. The contracts come and then, if the book isn't what is right on the market, the publisher can pull that book back and dump it at deep discounts, leaving the author high and dry. It's lucky any good books get in print at all. And the ones already in print need to stay available. Three cheers for John Bellairs' books! Hip Hip!

Discovering Hoosac, the hometown of Anthony Monday

2011-09-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

by Ben McLeod (Jun. 21, 2008)

When I was about nine or ten years old, in the very early 1980's, I checked out the Winona Public Library's copy of The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. I probably took it back into the stacks, which is where I liked to curl up with creepy finds. But before you write this off as another fan's first-time discovery of Mr. Bellairs work, let me explain. I felt like Bastian in Michael Ende's The Neverending Story because as Anthony Monday wandered around the Hoosac Public Library, I began to think it was strangely familiar. As I read further and the novel's description of Hoosac developed, I came to realize that it was, in fact, Winona, Minnesota under a different name.

I cannot describe to you the frisson of reading a book about a mysterious library and a treasure hidden within while sitting in the very library being described. As I read more of the Anthony Monday books certain particulars made it very, very clear that Hoosac was in fact Winona. When I tried to point out to parents and librarians that these books were about our town, I was met with disinterested disbelief. Adults simply assumed that I was projecting myself onto the characters of the books.

Later, as I grew up I tried to find out what I could about the author. In those pre-internet days I couldn't dig up very much beyond the facts that Mr. Bellairs had lived most of his life in Michigan, and had set many of his stories there. I felt frustrated and stymied that I could find no discernible connection to what I knew to be true: Hoosac was Winona.

I went on to read almost all of his books, and wrote my own first novel at 19, where I referred to my home town as Hoosac throughout. My subsequent novels have all been deeply indebted to Mr. Bellairs – I have always tried to write the sort of thing I would have been excited to find on the shelf, just as excited as I was by The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn.

But I had never been able to find a connection until I found the Bellairsia site. The detailed (if not always flattering) description of Mr. Bellairs time teaching at St. Teresa's College was like the lifting of an ancient weight off my shoulders. Finally! Here was the connection I always knew had to exist! I can't blame anyone for not being crazy about living in Winona – it's not exactly Manhattan, although it is growing and has a rapidly developing cultural scene. I couldn't wait to get out when I was a young man in the 1990's, so I can't begin to imagine how much more isolated and provincial it might have seemed to a newcomer in 1960.

I live in Chicago now (where I worked for some time at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Hyde Park, another of Bellairs' haunts) but I get back to Winona/Hoosac on a fairly regular basis. In a curious parallel, when I lived for a time slightly downriver from Winona in La Crosse, Wisconsin, still in adolescence, I became semi-obsessed with Stephen King and Peter Straub's novel The Talisman, which I checked out from the La Crosse Public Library. Many years later they wrote a sequel to that book entitled Black House, which for no reason I've yet discovered, was set in a thinly disguised La Crosse. In that novel, Hoosac nee Winona is known as Great Bluff, and is a haunted region....

Highway 61 is apparently some inspiring, if creepy territory.

Thanks for the great site. I'm foreseeing some re-readings in my future!

Looking Back - John Bellairs and Me

2011-08-10T15:14:00.000-05:00

by Steve Ericson (1998)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

Hopping back onto my trolley to yesterday, I visit a boy in the Sixth grade. A boy who was mad at the world, bitter, shy, withdrawn, and with nothing in the world to call his own. When I was in the Sixth Grade at Mountview Middle School, I was a little punk who had never yearned to pick up a book and read. I had little to no imagination, and no passion in my life. One day along came a Reading Teacher who thought it would be a nice change of pace to stop working on Fridays and read to us. The first book she produced, and for good reason, was The House with A Clock In Its Walls by some guy named Bellairs. She explained up front to us that it was a mystery, which turned me off right away. The thought of mystery evoked images of a whodunnit, and those never excited me. She also told us that the author, John Bellairs, was coming to visit our school in a few months. I thought little of it.

But she started reading, and what I was hearing really made me perk up. It was more than mystery, it was supernatural! It was magic! There were wizards and evil plots and armageddon! All these things that I loved at the time [ being the morbid little psychopath I was :) ] She read a chapter or two a week, and it started to get on my nerves because I was so hungry for more. I ran to the library one day and combed it for that book, but it was not in at the moment, so I settled on taking out another Bellairs book called The Curse of The Blue Figurine. I was not as excited about this one as I was with the one in class, but I picked it up and read it out of boredom, and as soon as I was into the second paragraph, I was gripped by something I had never felt before; true excitement! Every sentence propelled me to read the next, and before I knew it, I had polished off that book in a matter of hours. For me, that was incredible!

It wasn't long before I conned my parents into taking me to a bookstore and I literally cleaned off the shelves; every book by John Bellairs went into the pile, and every cent of it was leeched from my parents, who did not seem to mind because I was actually enthusiastic over reading. :)

I brought the books into school and read them at lunch, during study halls, recess, and even in class when I had the chance. My Reading teacher noted this and she was very happy with me for getting involved, and she encouraged me a lot.

By the time John Bellairs came to my school, I was a wreck. I had polished off almost every one of his books that were available at the time, and John had become my hero! I went up the school library with the rest of my class and got to see John face to face, sitting right there, not more than 5 minutes from my very home!!

I choked up.

I was already an extremely shy and quiet individual, and I was double shy when faced by Bellairs. I pushed my books at him and he signed them, I was about to turn and leave when my teacher stated to him how involved I was in his works. He smiled and told me that he was very happy and he shook my hand. I left without saying a word. What could I have said? I still don't know!

I hated myself for not saying anything when I left school that day, so I cam up with a plan; I would write to him! That's exactly what I did, I sent a letter to his publisher with a forward request and told him that I had met him but I had not had the chance to talk to him. I told him what I had read and how much I loved it. I told him that I also wanted to be a writer and be like him someday. I also asked for advice on writing.

I had never been so shocked in my entire life as when I came home from school a few months later and found a postcard in my mailbox. It was addressed to me and it had the same signiture as the ones in my books. It was just a plain white postcard, but it was the short reply on it that made it so valuable! This man, who had written a slew of books, and was always in the process of writing more, took time out to read and respond to MY letter, just a punkass 6th Grader! He told me to let my imagination run wild because there were no secret formulas for writing!

Over the rest of my Jr. High Days, I wrote back and forth with him. I wrote long 3 page letters, and he sent me 2 or 3 lined postcards. But I didn't mind, I was being acknowledged by my hero!

At the time, there was a small homey bookstore just 5 houses down the street from me, so I walked there almost daily and got to know the ladies that worked there. They were involved with the school and knew all about John. I would have them check weekly to see if any new Bellairs books were coming out, and when there was, I had my order placed immediately. I didn't care if they were hardcover and costed 12 bucks, I was going to get Bellairs books the second they popped out of the press!

Nothing, believe me, NOTHING, could describe the feeling I had when I was walking to that bookstore to pick up the books when they came in. It was like a high! Anticipation, butterflies, excitement, the works! And after I had picked it up, I would RUN home with it and leap up onto my top bunk and start reading it. I usually finished it within a day or two, and then I had to wait all over again for another one.

Every kid should have that experience! The excitement! The anticipation! The goose pimples! Everything that comes along with discovering something so great that it yours and yours only! Reading Bellairs was like hopping into these adventures myself, and I thirsted for it more than I did air and water!

When I got to high school, things changed. I did not stop liking John's books, but I got swept up into a more mature enviornment, and I just didn't have time for any of it. When a new book came out, I would hop right at it, but it wasn't the same. Especially since the books were coming out less and less.

One day I picked up one of his books out of boredom and read it, and a fire sparked back up inside of me. I also had heard that a new one, (Chessmen I think) was due out. I scribbled out a letter to John and I dropped it off on my way to the bookstore, which had moved to the center of town.

Perhaps the most shocking day of my life. I got to the bookstore and asked the lady to look up the book and order it, and she noncalauntly mentioned that John had died of a heart attack just days before! He was supposed to visit Mt. View again the day after it happened.

Just minutes after I sent him a letter I found out he had died. I left the store, climbed in my mom's car, and cried.

I got his last few books and read them religiously, knowing that they were his last works. I re-read all of his books time and time again, remembeing how they had originally made me feel. They were a warm old friend, and a great comfort to me. John had departed, but he left a part of himself behind in his books. I always beleived that. John Bellairs lived on, in the meaning that he would still be heard all around the world by children and parents alike, getting his stories out, and nurturing imaginations.

Then came Brad Strickland . . .

John Bellairs influenced me, as a person, a lot more than I care to admit. It was from reading his books that I figured out what I wanted to do with my life: Be a writer. I wanted to inspire people just as much as John had inspired me. I wanted to give people the same feeling that I had gotten from John. I dreamed of becoming a writer, and I still do. To this day I still want to write, and I do write (I'm just not very good at finishing what I start).

He indirectly showed me how to put my heart and soul into writing. He wrote with such passion, such heart, that it was hard for me as an emotional person to miss. I didn't want to be a stiff writer only writing a story, I wanted to spill my life and blood out onto that page like he did!

When I first encountered John Bellairs, my imagination was stranded only on sinister, dark depressing things, thereafter, it flourished out into a million story ideas and daydreams that made my life bearable in rough times. John transformed me from a hardass cynic into a dreamer, which is, IMO, the best thing that could have happened to me.

I owe all my creativity to John. I owe a lot more to John. And while I cannot look him face to face and say 'Thank you. . .', I can...by discussing him, reading him, and writing for others like he wrote for me. John, thanks a million, bud. We miss you dearly.

The Name, the Book, and the Spell

2011-07-10T15:13:00.000-05:00

by Jack Bellairs (Nov. 28, 1998)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

Sometime in the mid-seventies I was rummaging through a discount book bin at the K-Mart in Mishawaka, Indiana. Being a natural tightwad, I seldom pay full price for a book if it can be located any other way! So here I was checking out the books when my eyes fell upon a familiar name -- Bellairs. Bellairs? I had often fantasized about being a popular author but this was the first time I had seen my name in print on a book. A second look told me the author was John Bellairs. Although my name is not John (having the actual birth name of Jack), I still felt a sense of identity with the writer. Picking up the book in my hands, the first thing I did was turn to the flyleaf to find out who this writer was. After reading that information, I glanced again at the cover. An intriguing title, The Face in the Frost, caught my attention, then I read the short blurb about the tale - Prospero, Roger Bacon, two kingdoms, magic and wizardry, talking mirrors and scary cellars! I bought the book for around $1.98!

I read the story in a short time. Having gone through Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and C.S. Lewis's science fiction trilogy and the Narnia Chronicles, (plus most of his overtly Christian works), I knew I had found a writer who appeared to be in the same class as Tolkien and Lewis. And besides, this newly discovered (by me at least) writer's name was Bellairs!

At the time I was unaware that John Bellairs had gone on to writing for young readers but I wanted to find anything I could that he had written. I mentioned this happened in Mishawaka, Indiana, and I should explain that Mishawaka is a "Sister City" of South Bend, Indiana, which, of course, is home to Notre Dame University, John's alma mater. I scoured the card catalogs of the Mishawaka Public Library, the South Bend Library and even that of Notre Dame and came across the two other books that John had written, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies (which, as Brad Strickland says, is a collection of "witty essays and parodies that gently explored odd corners of [John's] Catholic faith"), and The Pedant and the Shuffly. It was only after going through these three books that I discovered John was writing for young readers. Pretty much in the chronological order of printing, I have enjoyed each one from The House With a Clock in Its Walls right up through the ones that Brad Strickland has completed and/or written after John's untimely death.

I will return to the Bellairs canon later, but first let me take a personal detour. As I mentioned I first became fascinated by the name of the author. For many years my oldest brother, Edward, has been our family historian/genealogist and I, too, have done considerable work in tracking down members of our family tree. Let's face it, we all like to think we're related to somebody famous and I had to ask myself if it were possible that John Bellairs and I, Jack Bellairs, could be related. He was born and raised in Marshall, Michigan. I was born and raised in Rochester, Michigan, a small town about 100 miles east of Marshall. My father came from Nottingham, England, in 1920 and settled in Rochester, Michigan. When I moved to the South Bend/Mishawaka area, I found three Bellairs families. These families traced their roots back to two brothers, William and John Henry Bellairs, who had come to America in the mid 1800s, both born in Lincolnshire, England. William Bellairs sailed to America in 1845, followed by his brother, John Henry, in 1850. Both settled in the general northern Indiana, south central Michigan area. William Bellairs was 25 when he arrived here and was not married, however John Henry was already married and had 3 children when he arrived 5 years later. I have been able to trace the descendents of those 3 children of John Henry Bellairs. If my information is accurate, it would appear that the writer John Bellairs is a descendent of this John Henry Bellairs.

I cannot say with one hundred per cent certainty that John and I are related, but the probability appears high that we are. I would not be so presumptuous as to claim relationship simply because John won fame as a writer. As a matter of fact I, too, am a writer, and have had some success and publication including a weekly column in the Mishawaka Enterprise, reviewing books for the South Bend Tribune and a weekly church letter. I am presently working on a book of my collected poetry, plus finishing a book, The Baptiscopalian Letters, (a humorous and sometimes-irreverent story of the merger of a Baptist and an Episcopalian church). My branch of the Bellairs clan have been able to trace our line to one William Bellairs who, at the young age of 12 in 1844, left his native Lincolnshire and went to Nottingham, never to return home. In work that I have done in tracing our family tree, I found that all branches of the Bellairs that I have come across in America (including my own and the descendents of both William and John Henry) trace their roots back to a small area in Lincolnshire, England, of the mid 1800s. It is highly likely, again not a one hundred per cent certainty that my ancestor who left Lincolnshire for Nottingham in 1844 is a nephew of the 2 brothers who came to America in 1845 and 1850 respectively.

John and I had contact 4 or 5 times through the years. I wrote to him in, I would believe, about 1979 or 1980. He returned a letter including his phone number and we talked by phone a couple times after that. In the spring of 1981, I attended a conference in Concord, Massachusetts. I called John hoping we could get together but he had some matters that precluded a personal visit. Shortly after my return to Mishawaka, I received a package of family genealogical information from John plus a very warm note as follows:

May 29, 1981

Dear Jack,
Enclosed are the genealogical things I mentioned. It was good to talk to you the other night. I wish I could have invited you over, or have come to visit you in Concord, but it just wasn't possible. Hope I can see you (with or without my wife) out in Mishawaka some day. And please do call next time you're in the area. One more note: James Bellairs, the one who fought in the Civil War, is my great-grandfather. My grandfather was Henry M. Bellairs, a train engineer for the now-defunct Detroit, Toledo, and Milwaukee (the old D.T. and M.). He died of stomach cancer about six years before I was born.

Sorry for the poor quality of the Xeroxed materials. Take care, and I hope to see you someday.

Best,
John Bellairs

It goes without saying, of course, that this short note is among my most treasured possessions! Whether we are related or not, the fact remains that John Bellairs was a great writer. Having read all the books, indeed having re-read some of them several times, I am continually amazed at the depth of his knowledge in several areas. His attention to minute historical details, his ability to recall childhood scenes and emotions, his vast lore of magic and wizardry, his superb talent for blending horror and humor - all point to a first class mind. One cannot overlook the fact that John must have been totally committed to the writing process. Many great books have never seen the light of day, nor have a space on the bookshelf, because the writer never takes pen in hand and writes! While reading through one of Brad Strickland's pieces, I noted that John was always writing and rewriting, one trait that separates a good from a great writer.

I find that I have some ambivalence when selecting favorites, e.g., characters, books, stories. Professor Roderick Childermass is by far my favorite character. Perhaps because I taught in a small college as adjunct faculty for seven years and like to think of myself as somewhat of a curmudgeon I am drawn to this rotten tempered but kindly old man. (Although I hasten to add I do not have a rotten temper!) However the Lewis Barnavelt series is my favorite of the 3 series most likely because of its setting in Michigan, my state of birth and childhood. Whenever John mentions a real place (the Upper Peninsula, Petosky, Traverse City, the thick forests of the Lower Peninsula) I can identify because I have been there. Also as a young boy I was overweight and can relate to so many of the emotions Lewis displays.

Occasionally authors have a greater following in death than in life. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien have attained that status. So too, it would seem, has John Bellairs. That is one reason I am not reticent to mention these three men in the same breath. Although John was not an overtly Christian writer as was Lewis and, to a lesser degree, Tolkien, his religion comes through quite strong in his books. Father Higgins, the Catholic Church, parochial schools, the prayers, holy water and the tiny slivers from the true cross - these all point to a man who knew his religion very well. Some Christians may be bothered by John's use of magic, wizardry and witchcraft. But I think we must remember that he was writing stories, entertaining and scary ones at that. In the stories John wrote, goodness always prevails. In this respect he parallels the works of Lewis and Tolkien. C.S. Lewis maintains that all good comes from God. Thus, whether it is Mrs. Zimmermann swinging her magic umbrella to ward off evil or Professor Childermass using Holy Water to repel a ghostly specter, can we not say that it is a triumph of Good over Evil no matter the avenue? That is why I believe that in the broad genre of Fantasy, whenever I think of trilogies, there are 3 great ones that have been written, Lewis's science fiction trilogy, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and John Bellairs's original three Barnavelt books, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, The Figure in the Shadows, and The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring.

Many years ago I became captivated by a name on a book cover and read that book with great delight. From that point on I have been under the spell of this man who was able to conjure up wizards, witches, magic umbrellas, dark scary cellars, talking mirrors, time travel and a multitude of adventures - all through the words he put on paper.

Bellairs vs. Stine: no contest

2011-06-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

by David Bass (Feb. 24, 1998)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

It was about 1993 when I first started to read John Bellairs' books. My brother had a job at the local library so he did a lot of shelving of books, and that is how he came across this edition that was named The House With a Clock in Its Walls. He took it home and read it all the way through. He said later, "I thought it was the best book I had ever read!" Then the book came into my hands. I read it and (like my brother) thought it was great. The weird thing was that I was actually enjoying reading his books. Most of the time when I read books they were for school. But this one was truly interesting and fun to read. I went back to the library and got another: The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb. I loved the way Bellairs used everyday teens and kids that got wound up in these kinds of mysteries. After that I checked out more of them: The Mansion in the Mist and The Eyes of the Killer Robot. I really was enjoying them. My parents were glad to see that I was reading and (because of John) how I was using most of my time studying John's books. I really enjoy reading his books. Of course, I was sad to learn that John had passed away in 1991, but then I learned that Brad Strickland was taking over the books. At that time it was only about 1994 and Brad was only completing Bellairs' books, but I hoped that he would continue the Bellairs tradition and keep on writing them and he did.

I had read almost every John Bellairs book that he ever wrote (except for the adult ones) and I loved them all. Then I got tired of checking them out of the library because I wanted a collection that I could pass down through my family, so I took it upon myself to collect all the John Bellairs books. When I went to the bookstore I saw that almost all of the books were by (gag) R.L. Stine. But then my eye caught the scary and spooky drawings of Edward Gorey. I pulled the book down and looked at it. It was The Hand of the Necromancer. I had never heard of it before, but then I saw that it was by Brad Strickland. I was so happy that I bought the book then and there. I also saw that the bookstore carried The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie. I read The Hand of the Necromancer and I loved it almost as much as the true Bellairs books. It was great. Brad did a magnificent job with it. I went back to the book store and searched for all the John Bellairs books I could find. Unfortunately, they were almost all out of print (all the hardbacks, that is). But that didn't stop me. I ordered the ones I could. By this time I had The Hand of the Necromancer, The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie and The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder. I loved all of these books, but I really wanted to get my hands on the rare editions (I am happy to say that today I have almost every one of the fine John Bellairs books). Then it struck me to try searching for books on the Internet . . . I found them all.

By 1996 I was a true Bellairs fan. I loved his works and Brad Strickland's . . . R.L. Stine is no match for the brains and the writings of Bellairs. I am glad to say that I have never opened an R.L Stine book. The covers are enough for me. I truly like the Edward Gorey drawings on almost all the Dial hardbacks. Then my brother and I learned HTML and we went full force with a new idea . . . a John Bellairs web site. We sat down and started to work on a small, but interesting site called First Edition Bellairs. We scanned in all the book fronts and graphics. I am glad to say that the site has come along way. However, the real inspiration for the site was . . . guess what . . . The Compleat Bellairs which is also a GREAT Internet destination. As I learned more about John and his works the site came along. At this point in time the site looks great, but I owe it all to the real master, and I cannot wait until the next Bellairs book comes out. The Specter from the Magician's Museum sounds great. Even though I am only 12 years old, I would like to call myself a very loyal fan.

I also enjoy reading J.R.R Tolkien's books because he is a genius just like John and Brad. You know, with all this expertise I am thinking about majoring in literature and becoming a writer just like John. He was the real inspiration in my life. His books made me read. The Bellairs editions are now in an honored place on the bookshelf of my bedroom and I love reading them over and over. Well, I know all this is a lot of stuff to put into your head, but if there is one thing that I want to make clear it is that (like Jonathan Abucejo said) if you have not read one of the Bellairs books, try it sometime. I think if you're like me (and all the Bellairs fans) you'll love them . . . more then R.L. Stine, anyway.

So, that's my testimony. How'd I do, John? :-)

My Tribute to John Bellairs

2011-05-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

by Jeremy Schrag (1997)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

For those who have not had the opportunity to read a book by John Bellairs, he was an author primarily of novels for young adults. His novels, always insightful, were always entertaining with their mysterious themes and chilling stories.

I have never, unfortunately, had the pleasure of meeting this wonderful author, but his work has deeply affected my life. When I first noticed at about ten years old The Mummy, The Will, And The Crypt sitting by itself on a shelf at the library in Swift Current; I thought to myself, "That looks like a scary book. I'd better not read it." But something in the title and cover art intrigued me, and I ended up changing my mind. Before I knew it,I was sitting at home with my eyes glued to its pages; I couldn't put it down for the life of me.

The book kept me looking over my shoulder for a few days for fear of running into a mummy or two, but after reading this book I became a fanatic for the work of Mr. Bellairs. I had been a bookworm since I was old enough to read, and I now started to frequent the library in earnest. I read every single Bellairs book I could get my hands on, checking out dozens of other books at the same time. My love for books started to become an obsession, and my imagination got so much exercise I was able to create whole worlds in my mind by the time I was eleven.

My longing for the newest Bellairs book was a constant companion, but a welcome one. His books have always been able to blend together wonderful stories with the hopes and fears of every young person born on this planet. At that age (or at this age for that matter), I was a very lonely person who was always wondering if he fit in with the others his age; and John Bellairs understood how I felt. Somehow, an author I had never met could identify with my situation; and when I thought of this I wasn't quite so lonely.

When I learned of Mr. Bellairs' death, I felt as if I had been hit by a truck. I found it impossible to face the fact that there would be no more stories of Johnny Dixon, Anthony Monday, or Lewis Barnavelt; but I felt strangely calm, as if he hadn't really gone. Sure enough, a few months later, I saw something that made my lifetime. It was a new book by John Bellairs, but there was an unfamiliar name underneath his. "Who is this Brad Strickland?" I thought to myself as I warily checked out the new book. I was worried and concerned that this new author would somehow mess things up by not being true to the original characters, but I was determined to give the book a chance.

My fears were unfounded. The new book sucked me into its pages just as readily as The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt had several years earlier. I tried hard to find places where Mr. Strickland's work contrasted with my favorite author's, but it was impossible. And when The Hand of the Necromancer appeared, I couldn't see the difference. It was like John Bellairs had written it himself.

One of the things I have struggled with in my work as an author is wondering whether or not I can make it as an author. But there is one line that always helps me whenever I need cheering up:

There is one big rule in life:

the things you worry about never happen,

and the things that happen are never the ones you expect.

-- John Bellairs

Itinerary: Bellairs Walk, Marshall

2011-04-20T03:00:00.000-05:00

by Leah Adams (July 29, 2005)
(Originally published at the LiveJournal)

Wednesday, I got to fulfill one of my lifelong childhood dreams. This was more important to me than going to New Orleans. For those that know me, that’s pretty damned important. This was like my own personal Mecca. I got to go to Marshall, Michigan.

I’ve been stationed in Fort Wayne, Indiana for my job. When I found out that I was going to be coming over here, I got on some lists and inquired as to what I might find here and in the surrounding area. A woman responded to let me know that Marshall was only about 90 miles away from Fort Wayne. I instantly got overly excited by that and started making plans to go to Marshall the instant that I got to here, knowing that I would probably be working pretty much non-stop when I got here.

I didn’t have to work too late on Tuesday, so I got to sleep at about 1:00AM so that I could be somewhat well rested before the trip. But I couldn’t sleep very well, I was too excited. I got up at 4:30AM and started my day. I had a very good breakfast at the hotel and set off at about 8:00AM so that I wouldn’t get there before everything opened.

The drive was very nice and peaceful. The first billboard that I saw that advertised something for Marshall hit me like a ton of bricks. It was about 25 miles outside of Marshall itself. I actually started crying from joy and the thrill that I was actually getting to go to the town that I had wanted to go to for so long.

When I got about a mile or two outside of town, I hit an area that was lined with trees. There were so many of them that it felt like a tunnel. I imagined what it would be like at night, and saw the inspiration that Mr. Bellairs had for the chase on the road in the middle of the night in The House With a Clock In It’s Walls. It would be very eerie to see that at night and more than a little scary.

When I actually got into town I stopped at the Kid’s Place, the bookstore run by Miss Ann La Pietra that used to be a drug store and was the possible site of “Heemsoth’s Rexall Store in The House With a Clock In It’s Walls and the other books in that series.

Miss La Pietra was a wonderful woman full of knowledge about Mr. Bellairs and his books. She had actually had the great fortune to have known him. I don’t know why that surprised me, they lived in the same town and he dedicated one of his books to her and her store, but it did. She told me that everyone in town knew who the bully Tarby was based on, and who some of the other characters had been based on. Lewis was based on Mr. Bellairs himself, which didn’t surprise me at all.

I got my copy of the John Bellairs Walk information from her and was on my way. My first stop was at the Lund Memorial Library, the setting for the library in the Anthony Monday books. It looked like it had been closed down for awhile, but I was able to get some really good pictures of it anyway. I’ve never personally read the Anthony Monday books, so I can’t really compare it to the one in the books.

My second stop was the most important one to me. The Cronin House, which was the basis of the house in the Lewis Barnavelt books. I’ve read The House With a Clock In It’s Walls an untold number of times, and I read it at least once a year. That book is the reason that I have to have cider and cake donuts every year for Halloween.

The house is almost exactly like I expected it to be. It looks almost exactly like the house on the frontispiece of The House With a Clock In It’s Walls. About the only differences were the color, the Cronin House was white, and the number of stories. The Cronin house has two, where the Izzard house has three. Oh, and there was no metal fence whose gate was held shut with a shoestring. Personally, I was in awe. I looked next door, and here was this smaller house, which had to be the basis for Mrs. Zimmerman’s house. Between them was a driveway. When I saw the driveway, I thought to myself, “Here’s were Mrs. Zimmerman, Uncle Jonathon Lewis and Rose Rita burned the Izzards’ papers while they had cider and donuts so many years ago.” Yes, major nerd moment. I took the route that had been marked out on the map and ended up behind the Cronin House. There was that huge yard. (The front yard wasn’t too shabby itself.) I could just imagine Uncle Jonathon out in the backyard making the moon disappear; Lewis, Mrs. Zimmerman and Tarby listening to the worms move underground, Uncle Jonathon and Mrs. Zimmerman arguing about whether the sound of water that they were hearing was the sound of a stream or just a regular water line, and Lewis finding out about the cat that had been lovingly buried in the yard with a metal bucket of shells.

I also got to see the American Museum of Magic, open by special appointment and run by a gentleman that lives in Indiana. It was the basis of the museum in the Lewis Barnavelt series, and once again, it looked just like I’d imagined it, except maybe a little lighter in brightness.

Michigan Avenue was a stop in and of itself. It’s called Main Street in the “New Zebedee, Michigan” books. Again, just like I imagined it, except for fewer antique shops.

I got to walk past the building that housed the Opera House. A real opera house that is the basis for the one in the Lewis Barnavelt series. It’s still closed and run down, even after so many years. But the owners are slowly building it back up, and if I recall correctly, they own one of the shops on the ground floor below it.

The Sherman & Brundage Law Offices sits on the site of Elk’s Cigar Store, which was run by John Bellairs’ father until 1965. It was the basis for “Monday’s Cigar Store” which was run by Anthony Monday’s father. I doubt that it looked anything like either Mr. Bellairs’ father’s store or Anthony Monday’s father’s store, considering that it’s now a law office.

Then there is the Brooks Fountain, which is in all of the “New Zebedee” books. That was also just how I pictured it.

St. Mary’s Church and School was next. It was the basis of “St. Michael’s Church” in The Curse of the Blue Figurine and also where Mr. Bellairs went to school. It’s a beautiful building, and they are doing work on it right now, repainting it.

The Octagon House was after that, and is the basis for the Winterborn Mansion in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. It is a beautiful building with the main part in the shape of an octagon with another portion behind the main part which is about as big as the main part itself.

I also got to see the house that belonged to John Bellairs’ grandparents, the Bellairs family home and Marshall Middle School, which he attended. Incidentally, Marshall High School’s 50th year anniversary for the class of 1955 is this year. That was the year that Mr. Bellairs graduated.

On the stop was also the old Masonic Temple, which is now a general office building and has been since 1987. It was in The Figure in the Shadows. It’s right across the street from the middle school that Mr. Bellairs attended.

I saw the G.A.R. Hall, “mentioned frequently in the Lewis Barnavelt books as a kind of eastern boundary to ‘New Zebedee’s Main Street.’”

I also saw the site of the Iron Bridge, which is in The House With a Clock In It’s Walls and The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge. If the bridge used to be iron, it’s now just a regular bridge.

The only thing that I didn’t get to see was the Oakridge Cemetery, which is basis of the cemetery in New Zebedee. I’m going to have to go back and see if I can find it.

Overall, I was very impressed, and now I have a concrete picture of what the places in his books look like, with the minor changes that he made to them added in of course.

Just a note, they are going to be having a walking tour of historic homes in Marshall in September. There are dozens of places, both homes and businesses, of historic value in Marshall. One of the houses that they are going to have on this walk is the Cronin House. I do hope that I am still here so that I can run up to that and actually look at the inside of the house.

If you are in the are you definitely need to go on this walk. It is well worth the time and effort. It’s an interesting walk and gives you a peak into the mind and life of John Bellairs. It also goes through some beautiful areas of town and you get to see not only the places featured in his books, but other beautiful houses as well.

I forgot about old sidewalks in Midwestern towns. Usually they have been there for about 100 years, and the trees that are growing next to them have pushed them up so that they are a hazard to walk on. I had reminded myself to be careful and watch where I walked, right before I got distracted by this really pretty house and tripped on a small bump, sending myself flying about three feet, skinning my knees and the top of my right foot, and ruining a pair of pants in the process. It still hurts to bend my right knee, which is still swollen.

The Magical Mystery Muse

2011-04-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

by John Hammink, North Karelia, Finland (Dec. 29, 1996)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

It was one of those long, hot, boring summers after elementary school. Having just refused another neighborhood baseball game, the book, lying torn and dusty in a cool corner of the basement, caught my eye. Crumbling pages, tattered, a little moldy, like Uncle Jonathan's copies of the John L. Stoddard lectures. I picked up the book and began perusing Edward Gorey's creepy cover art. "...the year was 1948..." I found myself suddenly plunged into a tale of a boy like myself: traveling to a new town to live with an uncle whom he'd never met, the boy himself shy, geeky and unable to keep new friends. The poker game in the front parlor with Mrs. Zimmerman had me as full of anticipation just after I walked in the front door of that humongous house. I was as anxious to explore the rest of the novel as Lewis was to explore the mansion. I related to the downsides of Lewis's life as well---the boredom with most of his peers, rejection by the hooting, hollering athletic boys, Tarby and his associated foolishness and popularity. (And who can forget the scene where Lewis goes to Tarby's nuclear-family zoo of a house!)

It was a natural transition, then, from the commonplace to the supernatural: raising the Izard(s) from the crypt, experiencing Jonathan's magic, and listening to the ticking of the clock in the walls. And the final encounter! I could see Edward Gorey's version of the rotting Izards, the Omega, and the Hand of Glory. And with the humor that was as interwoven into the horror and cozy familiarity of the tale, it made me happy to know that there was such a writer as Bellairs around. I was both dazzled and (I admit) envious of his talent (even at that age!).

Of course, then, there was so much to do. By that summer (1979) Bellairs was well into his second series. I devoured the Lewis-Rose Rita trilogy like a pack of hyenas on a fleshy dead zebra. I then began to work my way through the Anthony Monday stories, all the way up to The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. I couldn't put a single book down for a minute. After reading The Figure in the Shadows in one sitting, I always got a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach at the smell of wet ashes, and an almost paranoid disdain for amulets. And The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring has left me with an inspiration toward the ambiguities and mysteries of sifting through a deceased person's belongings (in a piece I'm writing now, the protagonist becomes obsessed with a person's life whom he only knows through the belongings, which he volunteers to liquidate. In so doing, he finds an anomaly and creates, for himself, a philosophical crisis).

I went back and read the hilariously horrifying The Face in the Frost. And even more to the beginning: The Pedant and the Shuffly and St. Fidgeta and other Parodies. And, over time, all of the Anthony Monday stories and most of the Johnny Dixon series as well, as they were being written.

While adolescence, for me, had all of it's ordinary twists and turns, usually bordering on the mundane, John Bellairs's influence on that part of my life was inestimable. The novels, in time, took on a pattern with the protagonist usually an adolescent who made a mystical goof, who, usually with the help of friends, or someone older, eventually comes to terms with it. But there was always something new around each turn. Elements of science fiction in The Eyes of the Killer Robot; time travel in The Trolley to Yesterday; gothic horror in The Doom of the Haunted Opera; even some delicious philosophical crisis sprinkled here and there. (I think Robert M. Pirsig, another one of my favorite authors, would love these books). What Bellairs seemingly hadn't done before he always approached with the ease of a child picking up a new toy and the grace of a dancer gliding through the movements to the exact beat of the dance. One enters Bellairs's novels right from the front door, hangs out in the comfy living room for a while, with Uncle Jonathon's meerschaum pipesmoke curling to cozy embers and a cup of hot chocolate. Of course, before one realizes it, one finds oneself thrown headfirst into the labyrinthine plot, chasing ancient spells and spectral visions, fighting it out with the hideous forces of evil.

John Bellairs was one of those truly amazing writers by whose pen the ordinary place was transformed into the setting for the mysterious. I moved to Michigan myself in 1988, sometimes dreaming of where Uncle Jonathan was or where Mrs. Zimmerman was, by now, buried. Curiously enough, right in Ypsilanti, my college town, there were two old houses that could have been the setting for The House with a Clock in its Walls: an old green mansion with a cupola and a space for a fountain behind (the backyard was donated to the Boys and Girls club in the early sixties) and a small, pointy bungalow almost directly adjacent, with flecks of purple paint sloppily covered by newer, fresher coats. Of course, I also took a trip to the real New Zebedee (known to ordinary mortals as Marshall, Michigan) and saw the the real haunted opera, the house with a clock, the fountain. I met a bartender who was an old classmate of John's. Before he sent me off in the direction of John's old house, he showed me a senior yearbook picture. There was Lewis, (and Anthony Monday and Johnny Dixon) all grown up!

The year of that trip was 1991. Of course, everyone moves on, in some way, to somwehere. I, later, having developed a taste for the mystery out of the corner of my eye, took to Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) and Umberto Eco (Focault's Pendulum), both wonderful follow-up writers to the craving that Bellairs tantalized. I grew up at 26, moved to Finland, and became a writer and editor, chasing old legends here. That's life. Even Lewis and Rose Rita grew up and grew older. I believe, If I can even approach the harmonic resonance of horror, humor and allegory that John Bellairs started and Brad Strickland continues, and the boring adolescent baseball games and nerdiness, insatiable wonder at the darkness, and the frightening calm that lies out of the corner of perception, then my muse has taken me somewhere.

The Boy, the Book, and the Magician

2011-03-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

by Jonathan Abucejo (Feb. 24, 1996)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

Sounds like the name of a new novel coming out by John Bellairs, doesn't it? The title has all the classic Bellairs elements: a grouping of three items; one being an object (usually magical in origin) and another a supernatural being of some sort (recall The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt or The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring). However, the title refers to myself. I was (and many ways, still am) that "boy"; the "book" happened to be The House With the Clock in Its Walls; and the "magician" was a master storyteller, spawning adventures akin to a wizard casting a fantastic, arcane spell... yes, the magician was John Bellairs.

I was in sixth grade, and had just entered public school for the first time. I had attended a private school of sorts before that (an interesting experience to say the least). Nevertheless, one fancy I did carry over from my previous schooling was "looking forward to Library Day". I was enthralled at the notion of checking out new things to read, and opening the proverbial doors to other worlds which books had to offer. I remember always walking past the "B" section of the paperback aisles marked "juvenile", and my eyes were always drawn to the one book on the top shelf in particular. It wasn't just the cover...it was the face on it. And a strange one at that: a human-seeming greenish face superimposed on what looked to be the face of a great, grand clock face of sorts. The clock face was then juxtaposed with the form of an eerie, dark mansion. The face on the clock was sinister, foreboding...almost as if it were related to "The Wizard" from the classic film version of first Oz book. It seemed to be staring the solitary figure of a boy, a dwarf in comparison. Altogether, the cover gave me the chills, and I took great lengths to always look away from it, as if I were staring into the eyes of the devil himself. I must add that I was always facinated by the supernatural, always wanting to believe in ghosts, goblins and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night; unfortunately, my sense of imagination always got the better of me and I tended to chicken out when confronted with something even remotely scary! Anyways, I quickly tried to find another book just to shake off that shivery, spooky fear. Each succesive Library Day would come and go, and I would always follow the same pattern.

It wasn't until about the middle of the school year when I finally gathered enough gumption to grab the book and page through it. When I opened it, I was immediately captivated by the interesting, linear artwork. I read the first few pages about a boy named Lewis on his way to meet his uncle for the first time, and could readily identify with his situation. He, like myself, was apprehensive in starting fresh in a new different environment (in his case, New Zebedee; in mine, public school). I closed the book, and quickly rushed to the library counter to have the book stamped (which I don't think they do anymore!) and checked out. Upon my arrival at home, I believe I went to my room and read the book from start to finish. Lewis Barnavelt was a very likable character, one that you could relate to, in his attempts at finding new friends. The magical element turned out to be icing on the cake. And who would not want a relative like Uncle Jonathan? "This," I said to myself, "is the best book I've ever read." I shook my head in disbelief, thinking about all the times I had passed the book up in the past!

The following Library Day I asked the school librarian if there were any other books by John Bellairs. To my joy, she pointed me to the rest of the trilogy (The Figure in the Shadows and The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring) and to a hardback, The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. I checked those out as well, and enjoyed reading them as much as I did the first book. In fact, so paranoid was my imagination from finishing The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring that the haunting visage of a robed spirit would always seem to appear in the corner of my eye for weeks on end. I was frightened, yes. Yet, it certainly was a delicious fright!

I continued reading John Bellairs's books from junior high school to senior school, up until the present day. And here I am in college, majoring in (who'lda thunk it?) Children's Literature and Child Social and Creative Development (an interdisciplinary major, and preparation for Elementary Education....the University of Pittsburgh's has an odd Teaching program!). Five years ago, upon learning about John Bellairs' death by my local librarian and friend Miss Jones, I was terribly grief-stricken. My heart sank...what would become of that giddy anticipation I had when reading the typical short biography at the end of every recent book: "A resident of Haverhill, Massachusetts, Mr. Bellairs is currently at work on another chilling tale...."

All despair was at once abolished when I later held The Ghost in the Mirror in my hands. I loved it...the long-awaited return of Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmermann! Thank heavens for Brad Strickland! From the front page I had found that he had "completed" the book; I wasn't too sure what "all" he had completed...to be quite honest, I couldn't really tell from the style where John Bellairs stopped and Brad Strickland began! The same went with each successive, "completed" book: The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder, The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie, and The Doom of the Haunted Opera. I felt content and very pleased with Brad Strickland's work (which I thought to be merely a few chapters, here and there, towards the end....how very wrong I turned out to be in many cases!); Mr. Strickland certainly took up the mantle and turned out to be the best-qualified for the position! It was almost as if Mr. Bellairs had not passed away at all...

The Compleat Bellairs started out as a Topic of Interest project for my Educational Psychology class taught by one Heather Simpson-Labuda, to be due at the end of the semester (Spring '96)...originally a few pages dealing with plot synopses and character sketches, nothing more. However, as my knowledge of programming grew, so too did my need to expand the site into something so much more. By a fluke of sorts, I managed to stumble upon the forthcoming title of a new Bellairs book...The Hand of the Necromancer...and Brad Strickland's e-mail address! He is one of the most warm, friendly, personable, agreeable fellows I've ever had the pleasure to correspond with, and I owe a GREAT deal of thanks to his kind comments, suggestions and contributions.

Finally, to the dedicated reader, I hope you have as much fun with The Compleat Bellairs as I had in creating it! I ask of only one, simple favor...please, if you haven't already, pick up a John Bellairs book!

The Magic of John Bellairs

2011-02-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

by Brad Strickland (Feb. 9, 1996)
(Originally published at the compleatbellairs.com)

Several centuries (or so) ago, in a country whose name doesn't matter, there was a tall, skinny, straggly-bearded old wizard named Prospero, and not the one you're thinking of, either."

John Bellairs' wonderful opening to his unique, funny, scary fantasy novel The Face in the Frost captivated me immediately the first time I read it, back in the early seventies. As the plot unfolds, Roger Bacon joins Prospero (Bacon is on the lam from a magical mistake in England that left all the beaches littered with broken glass). Just in time, too, for an old nemesis of Prospero's, a magician who studied under Michael Scott with him, has mastered a deadly magic that threatens to engulf all the world. . . .

The novel swept me up right away. It is loony and horrifying, witty and atmospheric. When at last the tale brought Prospero and Roger back from a terrifying quest, home to a woodsy cottage with a snarfling metal hippopotamus on the roof and a smart-alec magic mirror in the bedroom, I could only shake my head in wonder and rueful envy of a writer whose first novel could be that good.

And before long, I had read everything available by Bellairs: the Lewis Barnavelt/Rose Rita Pottinger trilogy, beginning with The House with a Clock in its Walls, the Anthony Monday books from The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn on, and the Johnny Dixon series, starting with The Curse of the Blue Figurine. In these books for younger readers, Bellairs found his true niche. All are different, and yet all share similarities.

The Lewis/Rose Rita books take place in New Zebedee, Michigan, a town not as imaginary as it first appears. If you go to the very real town of Marshall, Michigan, where John Bellairs was born on January 17, 1938, you'll find yourself spang in the middle of New Zebedee. Thanks to the hospitality of bookstore owners Ann and Tony LaPietra, I've had the privilege of exploring the real house with a clock in its walls, the Cronin mansion, from ground floor up to the tower roof. I've seen the circular fountain with the wonderful color-changing lights. I've even climbed up decaying stairs to the abandoned Eagle Opera House, which still has posters and playbills on the walls from turn-of- the-century performances of Peck's Bad Boy and East Lynne. I've walked the streets and marveled at what John Bellairs left out of his books: the Honolulu House, an elaborate mansion built in the 1830's that is admirably suited for the torrid summers of Oahu but that might fall a tad short during a cold Michigan winter; the Museum of Magic, with memorabilia of America's greatest conjurors; and a certain barrel-arched bridge under whose shadows spooky things must assuredly skulk. And although I have not visited Winona, Minnesota, the original of Hoosac in the Anthony Monday books, or Haverhill, Massachusetts, the real-life model for Duston Heights, I'm sure they would seem just as familiar.

Surely a key to Bellairs' success as a writer is the utter familiarity, the sense of comfy realism about his places and his people. Into these ordinary lives and homes the uncanny, the eerie, the supernatural, intrudes; and the struggle of everyday, likeable people against powerful evil forces forms the central conflict of most of the Bellairs books. In his dry, unsentimental humor he is a lot like a James Thurber without the vinegar, a small-town boy who remembers what boyish joys and worries were really like. And yet he doesn't hesitate to free the nightmare, to let it ride and romp and threaten--for terror, too, is a part of young lives. However, although most of his best work is gothic, Bellairs was also a versatile writer who toyed with other elements of the fantastic. The supernatural does not really take center stage in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn, for example, and in The Trolley to Yesterday and The Eyes of the Killer Robot, Bellairs uses science-fiction elements as well as magical ones. But most of all, and best of all, he had a fabulous knack of mingling humor with horror.

John Bellairs often remarked that things which terrified him as a boy of ten -- whispering ghosts, magical incantations in a graveyard at midnight, ancient evils loosed on an unsuspecting world -- still thrilled and chilled him as an adult. You can trust a John Bellairs book to tell the truth about the way young folks feel, because he has a strong and vivid memory of how he felt as a young person.

As John Bellairs always said in closing his letters--

Cheers!

Interview: Jonathan Abucejo

2011-01-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

To kick-off our fandæmonium project we thought we’d take a step back into the Dullard's Bane archives and our interview with one of the Internet’s first fans of all things Bellairsia – Jonathan Abucejo, the founder of the Compleat Bellairs website. Our interview from March 2001 with the “Defender of the Faith” touches on some of the creation and upkeep of the website as well as its many influences.

Q: Were you born in the United States? How would you say your Filipino ancestry has influence who you are today?

A: Yep, I was born and raised near Denver, Colorado, in a small--at the time--town known as Broomfield. When I was 13, we moved to Monroeville, Pennsylvania (about 15 minutes from Pittsburgh), as jobs for my parents were easier to find over there. Our parents raised us Catholic, but sent us to public schools. Growing up Filipino instilled in us (my siblings and I) a sense of deep respect towards our elders, especially our parents, and a strong sense of family.

Q: Would you mind explaining for us briefly the inception of The Compleat Bellairs site?

A: Well, it started off as a college web project, in lieu of a "final paper" for one of my Elementary Education classes at the University of Pittsburgh. From there, it whirl-winded into the behemoth that it is today.

Q: When did you realize that you had a site that was going to be more than a mere college assignment and that you would be maintaining it, what is it, 5 years later?

A: From the tremendous response in the form of fan mail! In fact, it was the large amounts of letters (e-mail and snail-wise) requesting that the URL be shortened and quicker to get to that prompted me to register its own domain name.

Q: Speaking of which, where did the name “The Compleat Bellairs” come from (spelling, etc.)?

A: If I'm not mistaken, there used to be an old documentary dedicated to the Beatles entitled, "The Compleat Beatles". I liked the name, the spelling, and the name recognition. At the time, there were no John Bellairs sites to be found... and "the Compleat Bellairs" seemed to fit.

Q: What were the early days of CB like?

A: Content-wise, great! Look and design... well, it left a lot to be desired. It was one of my first websites, so I really didn't know what I was doing. I still don't--I've got a lot to learn-- but it looks a lot better than its original form!

Q: What type of art and what artists have influenced and inspired you?

A: I like all kinds of styles and artists, from classic to modern, and it's a pretty eclectic mix: Edward Gorey, M.C. Escher, Norman Rockwell, Salvador Dali, Chris Van Allsburg, Wayne Douglas Barlowe, Kit Williams (remember that treasure hunt book, "Masquerade"?), Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Japanese manga & anime, modern comic books... the list goes on and on and on...

Q: We hear of writer’s block. Is there such a thing as web builder’s block, and if so, have you ever experienced it?

A: All the time. That's pretty apparent in the many still unfinished sections in the site. With the Compleat Bellairs, the way it's set up now, it calls for a different look and feel for nearly every page. It's tough trying not to repeat yourself design-wise.

Q: With all the time, effort, and frustration that has undoubtedly gone into building the CB site, how would you say this has effected your appreciation for the works of Bellairs & Strickland?

A: It's taught me to become a better reader, definitely. There would be many fans who would bring up a particular point in one of the Bellairs books, and I'd be like "...hmm. I didn't catch that." Getting other viewpoints on the books, most I wouldn't even fathom unless brought to my attention, is something I find incredibly interesting!

Q: With the rapidly changing face of technology, where do you see The Compleat Bellairs in the next few years?

A: Hopefully, still up! I'd love it to be twice... or THRICE...the size it is now, chock full of great Bellairs-inspired content. I only wish I had more time to devote to everyone's contributions. I'm in the process of getting cloned soon, so that should help immensely.

Q: Any CB projects slated for the near future you wouldn’t mind letting us in on?

A: A section of facts and references with each page headed by a cool, neo-cyber-looking Macromedia Flash animation based on my favorite creepy scenes from the Bellairs books

Q: What has been one of your biggest honors while functioning as Webmaster on CB?

A: I've two, actually: first, getting in contact with Brad Strickland (and a few years later, meeting him in person!) and second, getting in contact with Bellairs artist Marilyn Fitschen and receiving art from her! Such an honor on both accounts!

Q: Any other interesting or amusing anecdotes you wouldn’t mind sharing with us about your Bellairs related experience?

A: I can't think of anything amusing off the top of my head, but I have to admit, those initial contacts with Brad Strickland were pretty embarrassing... "Uh, hi... I did a search for your name using Altavista...are you the Brad Strickland, who wrote those um, Bellairs books?"

Q: What kind of response, e-mail or otherwise, do you receive on your site?

A: Tons! I get e-mails from around the world... it's pretty amazing to see the Bellairs influence in far-off places such as Japan! I get quite a number of regular postal letters as well, usually from elementary school children who think I'm John Bellairs. I set them straight...unfortunately, with the sad news of his passing a decade back.

Q: Okay, you’re stranded on a desert island and can only have one Bellairs book with you. Which would you pick? And as far as we know The Compleat Works of John Bellairs has never been published.

A: That's a tough one. I couldn't decide amongst all the spooky adventures, as after a reading of one, I'd go crazy thinking about the continuity of the other stories! So, I'd have to settle on one of his early stand-alone books. I'm probably going to get a lot of boos and hisses on this, but I'd have to pick St. Fidgeta & Other Parodies, because of the combination of wacky illustrations and in-your-face satire. The little vignettes found in the book are stuff I could read over and over without getting bored on that aforementioned desert isle.