Tomorrow, Monday, I'll be hosting another Clubland Q&A live around the planet at 5pm US Eastern Time/2pm Pacific. Beyond the Americas, that's 10pm Monday Greenwich Mean Time, 11pm in Europe, midnight in Turkey, the wee small hours in most of Asia (sorry about that), a marginally less uncivilized hour of Tuesday morning in Oz, 11am in New Zealand and a little later in the rest of the Pacific. But we hope wherever you are you'll tune in, and I look forward to your company.
Meanwhile, welcome to Part Three of my serialization of A Christmas Carol, the latest in our series of audio adventures, Tales for Our Time.
This Charles Dickens classic was introduced to the world the week before Christmas 1843, and has never been out of print. In tonight's episode Ebenezer Scrooge comes face to spectral face with the first of the three ghosts:
"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?" asked Scrooge.
"I am!"
The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature.
"No. Your past."
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Three of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. Parts One and Two can be found here - and if you've only joined in recent days and missed our earlier serials (Conan Doyle's The Tragedy of the Korosko, H G Wells' The Time Machine, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, our Kipling short story "The Cat That Walked By Himself", and our Scott Fitzgerald double bill), you can find them all here. A Founding Member from our very first day, Jean-Paul Jean writes:
Your introduction is the better part of the program when the listener is already familiar with the story. The history of its creation is marvelous to learn.
Thank you, Jean-Paul. I enjoy doing those introductions. If you're a Club member who's yet to settle down with this latest radio serialization, you can find my Christmas Carol intro, along with the first episode, here.
If you're looking ahead to Yuletide and thinking your nearest and dearest might enjoy Tales for Our Time, we have a special limited-time offer Steyn Club Christmas Gift Membership that includes your choice of a book or CD set personally autographed by yours truly. We have fun in The Mark Steyn Club, and in return the Club helps support all our content - whether in print, audio or video - and keep it out there in the world for everyone. In return, membership confers, aside from Tales for Our Time and the autographed book or CDs, a few other benefits:
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books and other items - plus this year's Christmas specials;
~The opportunity to take part in our Clubland Q&A sessions (like tomorrow's, as referenced above);
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show and our other video content;
~My new quarterly newsletter The Clubbable Steyn;
~Our new series of video poetry;
~Advance booking for my live appearances around the world;
~Customized email alerts for new content in your areas of interest;
~and the opportunity to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the globe.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and, for a friend or family member, don't forget that new Christmas Gift Membership. And please join me tomorrow at 5pm US Eastern Time for our Clubland Q&A and later in the evening for Part Four of A Christmas Carol.
