A Regular Picture Palace Drama: Rivers of London

Today's post comes from a place of exhaustion, as I spent the last few days prepping for a BMDS cast party which came off last night. I'm so tired my eyelids have filed for divorce. However! I've never let that stop me before.

The bright eyed and bushy tailed among you - fiends that you are - will have noticed that Chaosium's Rivers of London features my work in its latest, In Liberty's Shadow. I just got my author's copy this week. God bless international shipping!

Some snippets for those of you who like snippets.

The title is borrowed from M.R. James' short story Haunted Doll's House, which is one of my favorite pieces of fiction. The story, as you might have guessed, is about a haunted doll's house which reenacts a hideous incident, and one of the characters says about it: 

... was I going to tell customers: ‘I’m selling you a regular picture-palace-dramar in reel life of the olden time, billed to perform regular at one o’clock a.m.’? Why, what would you ’ave said yourself? And next thing you know, two Justices of the Peace in the back parlour, and pore Mr and Mrs Chittenden off in a spring cart to the County Asylum and everyone in the street saying, ‘Ah, I thought it ’ud come to that. Look at the way the man drank!’—and me next door, or next door but one, to a total abstainer, as you know. Well, there was my position.

The scenario as published isn't exactly how I wrote it, but I'm not complaining. Editors do as editors must. However, it does give me an opportunity to publish here what wasn't published there, and as I'm in need of material, and as my eyeballs keep quivering in their sockets, time to data mine the lost and forgotten:

Cecil B. DeMille

Film director, producer, and one of the leading lights of Hollywood in the age of silent movies and early sound pictures, DeMille is best remembered for his spectacle films. Thousands of extras, purpose-built elaborate sets, and as much nudity as he could plausibly get away with were his hallmarks. 

The Ten Commandments, one of his best-remembered pictures and the second highest grossing film of 1923, featured—among other things—an Exodus set featuring a recreation in wood and plaster of the wonders of Egypt, pharaohs, sphynxes and all, put together by over 1,600 workers. It was left to rot and vanished under the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in Santa Barbara; parts of it were rediscovered by archaeologists in the 2010s. 

Tom Mix

Thomas Hezekiah Mix was a genuine son of the West, an expert rider and pistolero, who made it big in Hollywood. In his day, he was one of the most famous and prolific Hollywood stars, appearing in hundreds of films, most of which are now lost. Radio, comic books, merchandise; Mix was a brand before anyone really understood what brands were. He had his own set, Mixville, complete with an Old West main street built especially for his pictures, and he performed most of his own stunt work. He was King of the Cowboys; the image of the wild and woolly West.

Deck of Cards

[note: as written, the gun store owner has magical interests and is also planning on writing a book about Montana gunslingers. That's how she knows about the Buntline's true worth and is also why she's very interested in anything to do with Montana gunslingers like Yestler. The deck of cards, along with other items, is at the gun store. It's intended to be a hint as to the gun store owner's true talents.]

This last item rests in a padlocked metal box welded to the bottom of the cabinet. An Art Deco pack made in the 1920s, it has strong vestigia (icy cold, wet, yelling; no roll required) and is haunted ... by a pale-faced man with a crooked smile and a hole in the back of his head. Whenever anyone uses the cards, shuffles them, or otherwise touches them, this man’s reflection appears in every reflective surface—mirrors, sunglasses, and similar—in the room.

According to Celia’s files, the cards were owned by Roger “Smiles” Miller, a 1930s-era Montana bootlegger turned bank robber who nearly made the FBI’s most wanted list. He was sought by FBI Special Agent R.D. Brown who pursued him across the state, through neighbouring Wyoming, and into Colorado. Smiles died under mysterious circumstances in Colorado, and the investigation ended. 

Culver City

[note: the home of Arrowsmith.]

Culver City is a relatively small township (less than 40,000 people) within the greater Los Angeles area. It’s the home of Sony Picture Studios—formerly MGM Studios—and the former home of RKO, Desilu Productions, and a whole host of others. This is where they shot King Kong, E.T., Hogan’s Heroes, and Jeopardy. Howard Hughes made airplanes here. The city has almost as many parks as it has people, is as pedestrian-friendly as it’s possible to get in a car-happy state, and is stuffed to bursting with art galleries, upscale restaurants, museums, and theatres. The Culver Hotel, a wedge-shaped 1924 landmark —which has hosted Reagan, Clark Gable, and the Munchkins of Oz in its time —is one of the city’s links with its storied past. Symantec and Apple Inc are headquartered in Culver City, along with NPR West and cannabis company MedMen. 

Tucked away in very private offices on Venice Boulevard is Arrowsmith, the film preservation corporation. Every once in a while, Arrowsmith hosts a film festival, funds a scholarship, or produces a play at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Nothing too flashy, just enough to keep up appearances. Ask the average Culver City resident, and they’ve probably never even heard of Arrowsmith. Ask the people in the know—city officials or the establishment—and they’ve nothing but good to say about the company.  Arrowsmith is a pillar of the community, above reproach.

Even from the street outside, a successful Sense Vestigia roll notices that there’s something potent inside Arrowsmith’s offices, but it’s not clear where. A successful Science (Engineering), Research, or Social skill roll obtains the building’s floorplans. Studying them notices that the film vault is remarkably over-engineered, even given California’s long history of earthquakes. It’s practically apocalypse-proof. Clean room conditions, museum quality protection, water-free fire suppression, security cameras throughout. There’s also private screening rooms, sufficient to show six films at once. Only Arrowsmith shareholders are allowed to use these private facilities.

The investigators may try to bluff their way into the building (a successful Hard Social roll) or break in (a successful Hard Locksmith or Stealth roll). Anyone who succeeds at the Hard Social roll is given the guided tour; they are shown almost everything except the film preservation vaults. Proprietary technology, they are told, is used to preserve Arrowsmith’s collection, and that technology must be protected at all costs. 

The floors are patrolled nightly by robot security guards whose programming instructs them to alert outside security at the first sign of trouble. Anyone who breaks in and trips robot security protocols—a failed Stealth or Locksmith roll, or frying the robots’ circuits with magic—will have about ten minutes before human security turns up in force. Armed guards—former military with combat service, provided by Silence Security—arrive with orders to forcibly remove any intruders and to prevent any damage to the film vault by whatever means necessary.

All of this top-notch security is because Arrowsmith preserves films ... It’s an incredibly difficult process, transcribing magical films onto ordinary film nitrate ... The process hasn’t gotten any easier with time, and digital preservation is a no-go. Arrowsmith has preserved every single film ... and only ever allows these films to be seen by Arrowsmith shareholders in the building’s screening rooms. Any attempt to secretly record these films and show them outside the building is punishable by loss of the defaulter’s Arrowsmith share. To date, nobody’s ever risked it, though there have been complaints from shareholders outside the US that travelling to Los Angeles is highly inconvenient. Some shareholders have asked for alternate venues; Hong Kong and Cannes have both been suggested. Discussions are ongoing, but Arrowsmith’s Board is, at best, unwilling to be persuaded. 

Investigators who try to hack Arrowsmith’s computer archive find it remarkably difficult. The company polices everything from scrap paper (which is shredded and incinerated on site) to individual computer use, including phones and portable tech. Any mobile device or laptop capable of connecting to the internet is not allowed in ... However, a successful Hard Computer Use roll gets into Arrowsmith’s system and discovers a peculiar list of film titles in its archive. The directors, actors, and crew are all familiar names ... but a lot of the titles aren’t; even those that are have the wrong cast and crew. One or two of the unrecognised ones might have previously been lost films—as in, they did exist once, but nobody has a copy now—but this many? Where did they all come from? 

Aldo Munoz

A bit of dialogue:

“Hell, it’s not just the boss men—I’ve heard talent, juicers, even the fucking crafties want a piece. Not because anyone in video fucking village has a hope in hell but because they all know, if they help the bosses get hold of the thing, it’s guaranteed job-for-life shit.” 

GM note: the “blow-out” was the Buntline theft. Talent = anyone on camera. Juicers = electricians. Crafty = works in craft services. Video village = the area in which viewing monitors are placed for the director and other production personnel, usually too full of people hanging round, hence village.

Operation Moses

Some unsung genius within the ASU came up with what ought to have been a simple scheme: make the enemy come to us by offering them what they want. A genuine magic item, up for auction. That should bring the pigs running to the trough, at which point they have a date with a sausage grinder. That is Operation Moses.

Which wasn’t a completely awful idea, but secrecy was the key and the ASU isn’t as good at keeping secrets as it thinks it is. That’s why everyone from Los Serpientes to those upstanding librarians out in New York know the ASU’s behind the auction. And no so-called leech is going to attend that auction in person, not when they can send a proxy—unless they’re desperate, of course.

That’s problem number one. Problem number two is that nobody within the ASU appreciated just how valuable the thing they’d gotten a hold of was. They were expecting perhaps half-a-dozen seekers into the mystery, and now all of Hollywood’s abuzz. Many ASU members in California work in the business—the talent, juicers, crafties, and video villagers Aldo mentioned. They all know how much the bosses want this thing. Some of them are wondering whether their devotion to the cause outweighs their desire for a rich and easy life.  

The City of the Pharaoh

[note: this scene assumed an auction would take place, which no longer appears in the narrative.]

Providing it takes place, the investigators may try to attend the auction, either to gather information or—if they haven’t managed to retrieve the Buntline—because they think it’s there. Then again, they may have some other reason to visit DeMille’s lost set.

The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, now a public park, are a unique ecosystem—a mix of uplands with sandy dunes, and wetlands with marshes and mud flats. The dunes are constantly monitored by conservationists, ecologists, and state-funded parks workers.

Back in the day when DeMille built his Exodus set—employing, among many others, Yestler—he buried the set after filming completed, to prevent anyone else from ever using it. This Lost City of DeMille was eventually rediscovered in the 1980s, and parts of it are on display in the Dunes Centre, a natural history museum dedicated to the park and its past. The vast majority is still out there, where DeMille entombed it.

The ASU plans to hold the auction at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, 5.5 miles (almost 9 km) of open beach and the only part of the park open for off-highway vehicle use. It’s also available for camping, which is why the ASU chose it; they’re conducting their auction in plain sight by pretending to be a group of campers.

If the auction goes ahead, it’s well attended, but not by the kind of people the ASU hoped to attract. Instead, it’s dozens of studio hangers-on, C- and D-list celebrities, influencers, bloggers, or crystal-gazing wackos, along with one or two who have links to magically-backed groups—pretty much all people who are not themselves talented. The ASU had hoped to get some useful intel, but even that’s going to be difficult with so many people here ...

The ASU auction is being handled by Thom Reich, a reality TV auctioneer who’s appeared on an A&E Network show. He’s not an ASU member, and hasn’t any idea what’s going on. He figures someone’s got hidden cameras out there somewhere and plays it as if he’s being filmed. His salt-and-pepper hair and Vegas charm is barely familiar to anyone who watches a lot of reality TV. Otherwise, he’s another well-tanned face in a town that’s full of ‘em. 

A handful of ASU intelligence gatherers move through the crowd, taking names and pictures. From the ASU’s perspective, the whole thing’s a bust. They’re not going to catch a leech, nor are they likely to get any useful intel ...

As the auction reaches its peak, any sensitive investigator—i.e., anyone with the Magic and/or Sense Vestigia skill, or a member of the demi-monde brave enough to risk attending—feels a peculiar kind of tension building. Something’s out there; something big. Then a susurrus begins to pick up, a wordless noise that gets louder and louder, as if hundreds of people just out of sight are chattering amongst themselves. Just as the noise drowns out Thom Reich’s patter, someone bellows “Go!”

That’s the cue for the lights, and every other electronic device, to go dead, their chips turned to dust in a heartbeat. Most of the vehicles will be completely inoperable. 

What happened was this: inadvertently, the ASU brought Cecil B. DeMille, the cast of The Ten Commandments, and the Exodus set itself back from the past, for one night only. The thing is, movies were very different before sound. There was no “quiet on the set.” So long as you weren’t in shot, it didn’t matter if you were talking. The actors could be mid-scene while the carpenters and set painters were still working on the scenery a few feet away—as long as the camera couldn’t see them, it was all good. “Go!” was DeMille signalling to the cast that they should start acting ...

Half a dozen bystanders take this as their cue to rush the truck and steal the Buntline. This isn’t an organized theft, just good old-fashioned opportunism. One of the [Chasers]—if present—may also have a crack at it, and will probably succeed ... The ASU goes into meltdown since all the notes they were taking vanished thanks to their now-dead cameras and tablets. A few of the C- and D-lists have hysterics and demand people pay attention to their needs ...

Cue a chase, Pink Panther-style, as everyone tries to get away from the scene of the crime. Park rangers show up after a while to take care of the crowd ... So long as nobody gets jittery, there will be no gunplay, but if some careless idiot looses a shot there will be return fire—not just from the hired guards but also from several in the crowd who brought their legally acquired weapons along. 

Of which there are many. This is California, after all.

That's it for this week. See you around!

The Incident (Night's Black Agents)

I’m working on some pieces for Pelgrane’s Page XX and in one of them I posit a potential inciting incident that happens offstage, for plot purposes. 

Let’s bring that inciting incident onstage and explore it a little. 

The Incident takes place at Vostochny Cosmodrome, which I’ve discussed before. It involves a member of Russia’s Space Force and a meteor strike at Vostochny.  

Russia’s had a Space Force since 1992, roughly speaking, but it’s been through some reorganization initiatives since its founding. As of time of writing, it’s a new beast, courtesy of a merger between the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces in 2015. Its big thing is missile attacks; in the event of a missile attack, when everyone else is putting heads between legs and kissing things goodbye, its role is to keep leadership informed of the attacks’ progress.  

My fictional member of the Space Force was put in charge of an investigation into a meteor strike at Vostochny while it was still under construction, which was at the time believed to be a potential missile attack. Fortunately for everyone the Russians decided it wasn’t a missile strike, but the damage put Vostochny’s schedule back by several months.  

At least, meteor strike was the publicly announced reason for the explosion at Vostochny. Whether that story has any factual basis is, at best, murky. It’s not as if there are many journalists at the closed town of Tsiolkovsky, which is the only urban development nearby. 

Soon after the investigation my fictional member of the Space Force defected to the West, where he became part of a different story. 

This is the story of The Incident. 

25 May 2014 

In the early hours of the morning of the 25th a small explosion damaged part of Vostochny. While accidents, explosive or otherwise, are not uncommon at Vostochny, this incident caused great concern at the highest level of government. Not only did it mean delays for Vostochny’s construction schedule, it also brought something called Operation Eternity to an abrupt end.  

Western intelligence agencies do not know what Operation Eternity is. The explosion was the first indication that there was such an operation. The only reason anyone outside Russia knows about it now is because of the defection of the Space Force officer in charge of the investigation, and that person’s abrupt disappearance from the public stage created more questions than answers.  

The only narrative available is that being pushed by the Russians, which is that a meteor strike at Vostochny caused damage to the Cosmodrome but was not, ultimately, significant enough to cause anything more than a delay to the planned construction schedule. 

The miraculous coincidence of a meteor strike happening to hit a Cosmodrome has not been remarked on. What little evidence is available suggests the meteor was no more than 2-4 m diameter. 

The only thing known about Operation Eternity is that it was being backed by tech billionaire Mikhail Mordashov, who was understandably upset that Eternity was blown up. At the time of the incident Mordashov was living in Monaco; since those carefree pre-Ukraine days are over, Mordashov's current location is a closely guarded secret.

The exact nature of the Incident will depend on the kind of campaign you're running, which can be divided up into Damned, Supernatural, Mutant and Alien.

Damned. Their markers are holy symbols and spiritualism, their emphasis is seduction.

Eternity was trying to create the perfect human, by infusing embryos with angelic properties. The Cosmodrome was used because it was secure and had special equipment for examining biological specimens. This equipment was installed at Mordashov's direction and involved special materials sourced by Mordashov. Wouldn't you know it; some of those materials were demonically tainted, hence the explosion. Nobody's sure what happened to the experimental subject. Unless the Space Force investigating officer knows - but they dropped off the radar shortly after defecting ...

Supernatural. Their markers are strange superstitions, their emphasis hunger. 

Eternity was trying to use ley lines and direct magical power to improve the capacity of the Cosmodrome's launches. Mordashov had a particular interest in some of the satellite payloads meant to be launched from Vostochny and wanted an absolute guarantee of success. Except the so-called experts he brought on board to achieve this flubbed the incantations, attracting a heavenly body - the meteor - to earth, rather than guarantee successful spaceflight. Nobody knows what that heavenly body really is, except possibly the Space Force investigating officer ... 

Mutant. Their markers are medical symptoms; their emphasis is infection. 

Eternity was meant to improve the human condition through technological advancement, using material sourced from space - first hinted at through specimens retrieved from orbit in the 1970s - to supercharge the human embryo. Specifically Mordashov's embryos; the billionare has 100 kids and counting. He's still hoping for the superchild, but whatever it was Eternity was working on is out of reach. Unless the Space Force investigating officer knows where it is ... 

Alien. Their markers are various uncanny effects; their emphasis is invasion.

Mordashov knows there are aliens out there. He's seen them. They inspired Eternity, which was meant to establish contact. Except something went very wrong with Mordashov's attempts, hence the explosion at Vostochny. That earned Mordashov a very black mark in the Kremlin's book of naughty billionaires, and if anyone knows why Mordashov is still alive it's that pesky Space Force investigating officer, but nobody knows where they are ...

That's it for this week. Enjoy!

Hidden Libraries (Bookhounds)

This week’s post is inspired by recent announcements concerning a hidden medieval library discovered it Romania.  

Briefly: the library was discovered in a tower of the Church of St. Margaret in Mediaș, a 15th-century Gothic structure built by the Transylvanian Saxons. It includes hundreds of documents, books and registers, some of which go back as far as the 13th century. It was probably deliberately hidden during a time of upheaval and is remarkably well-preserved.  

There’s all kinds of articles about it but, if you want more information, it can be had here.  

OK, let’s turn this into a Bookhounds seed.  

What are the basic elements? A lost library, meticulously catalogued by its long-forgotten owner, which has recently been discovered. It was hidden during a time of upheaval, possibly religious, to preserve it. 

The events that best fit that pattern in an English timeline are the English Reformation and the Civil War 1642-51. 

The Reformation destroys the Catholic Church in England, replacing it with Protestantism and in the process scattering Church holdings far and wide. It inspires, among other things, many a tale of priest’s holes and other hiding places for Catholics and their goods. It used to be you couldn’t have a decent ghost story in English literature, or a murder mystery in a stately home, without someone mentioning the long-forgotten priest’s hole hidden somewhere in the walls of the family manor.  

Sourced from Harvington Hall

Sometimes these treasures are protected. E.G. Swain’s ghost tales set in East Anglia feature at least two tales of spectral figures guarding Church relics, who go to some trouble to move those same relics when it looks as if Swain’s Protestant Vicar, Mr. Batchel, is about to get too close to the secret. M.R. James features several similar tales, one of the best of which is probably O Whistle! In which a Templar secret is unwittingly discovered by an academic on holiday. However, for my money the best of all is Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book, in which an academic discovers ‘a large folio, bound, perhaps, late in the seventeenth century,’ filled with collected scraps and illuminated manuscript pages from other books. This is probably the closest to the Romanian story, though the Canon’s Scrap-Book is considerably smaller than the Romanian hoard.  

The Civil War has the added historical bonus of providing romance and a definite termination point to the ownership of this fictional library. Point being that many old Catholic families were scattered or destroyed during the War, which means that you, as Keeper, can trace a definite timeline for the history of this hidden treasure. First kept by the Catholic Church, then moved in a hurry to the family manor of [whoever it may be] to preserve it from Protestant hands, then lost to memory when the last living [whoever] gets killed in the war or dies in exile waiting for the restoration of Charles II. The secret then lies dormant for several hundred years before being rediscovered in the modern era. 

Why rediscovered, though? Could be all kinds of reasons, but let’s say for the sake of the narrative that the manor’s been bought by a new, foreign owner, who has all sorts of modern views about plumbing, electrics and so forth. They wanted to redo the place so it was a bit less like an ivy-clad shithole .. beg pardon, so it was less authentic.  

That’s the kind of owner who could be conveniently off-site when the library is rediscovered. Allowing the Hounds access. 

From all that we get:

The Howling Library

The Buckinghamshire manor Dorney Hall was, at one time, owned by the de la Roche family, but the last of that name died at Chalgrove Field and the Hall has been in the hands of an increasingly impoverished cadet branch of the family ever since. The Rochedales finally decided to offload their white elephant and sold it to an American, Norwell Cupman, who made his fortune in automobiles. The Cupman Comet is an up-and-comer in the racing world and the Cupman Coupe is a solid, commercial brand. 

Cupman wanted Dorney Hall but he wants it to be a little less drafty and damp, so he brought on board an architect, Ernest Brenchley, to do the place up. Brenchley is well known to the Hounds; he's a buyer of Italian incunabula and, depending on your plotline, might have Arabesque, Sordid, or Technicolor flaws.

Cupman is in New York this month so what he doesn't know won't hurt him.  However, he's due to visit the works in a few weeks so time is of the essence. All the more so when Brenchley finds the old priest's hole in a forgotten corner of Dorney Hall.

This, the Hounds can discover after some research, may well be the infamous Howling Library of Dorney Hall. Allegedly salted away by the de la Roche, whose Catholic connections are well known. Rumor has inflated the size of the collection over the years, and its contents, but it could include almost anything from a Necronomicon to an incomplete version of Monstres and Their Kynde, with particular attention paid to something called the de la Roche Changeling. Or perhaps that's just an old wives tale, but there's definitely papers up there and if Cupman ever finds out about them he'll probably give them to Cambridge or some rot. Denying hard-working Hounds a profit.

Option One: Rival Shenanigans. This is actually a scheme cooked up by the Hounds' rivals, who suborned Brenchley with a promise of incunabula. The idea is to get the Hounds to swallow this hook and take on board some cunningly faked-up manuscripts, and then reveal the fraud just as the Hounds are about to make a profitable sale. This will cause a Reversal. Anything supernatural about the Library is a fiction put about by the rivals, who have some magickal skills and use them to fake up a haunting.

Option Two: Mutton Dressed as Lamb. Well, it looked promising. It could still be promising, with a little help from a forger. But the best stuff has gone to the worms; insects got into the Library and snaffled the manuscripts, over the years. Peculiar little things, too, all legs and plump white bodies. Brenchley's looking a little ill, but that may be because he had to make promises to Elihort to keep body and soul together ...

Option Three: The Changeling. Apparently, there's one de la Roche still living, technically speaking, and the Changeling's been standing guard over the Howling Library these many centuries. Hence the name Howling Library; the Changeling's peculiar cry in stormy weather chills the blood. However, there's a near-complete copy of Monstres at stake, with illuminated pages. If the Hounds can figure out a way of keeping the Changeling off their backs, the prize is there for the taking. 

That's it for this week! Enjoy!  

Toronto Book Haul (Plus Charity)

Yes, I love Toronto.  

I now have a new hotel standard. If your hotel sells me ice cream in waffle cones right as I walk in the door, five stars, no notes, better than the Ritz. If it does not, I do not wish to know you, sir. Good Behavior on Queen West, for all your Dragon Poop needs! 

Separate but related: the UK gets on its knees and prays every night for a train service that’s half as good as Canada’s. Oddly, being a comedy club nut, I heard a lot of complaints from the comedians about this same service. You people are spoilt. Spoilt! Trains that leave on time! Clean trains! Announcements that can be understood! Enough staff to keep the service running smoothly! No squabbling with other passengers about the assigned seating! Subways that aren’t packed like sardines in a tin and smell just exactly like sardines in a tin! LUXURIES. God alone knows how Canada manages it when the UK, not even a fifth the size, falls on its face every ten seconds and then complains that its face hurts. One of the great mysteries of the universe. 

In other news, Toronto sells books! Boy howdy, does it ever. SO MANY. 

Special shout out to Little Ghost Books out on Dundas. If you love horror and you are in Toronto, make this your first stop. Possibly your only stop. Don’t wait till you’re dead to enjoy this indie store! The living are welcome! Plus, they publish their own stuff. Who does that, in this day and age? When monsters beyond reckoning roam the wastelands, seeking prey? Truly, a bookstore to be relished, supported, loved! 

Now … 

Technically this one's not Toronto so I'll deal with it first. I saw friends of mine in Kingston (hi Max! hi Tasch!) and we spent some time at Nexus. I dunno how often any of you are going down to Kingston, but when you do, drop in to Nexus. Well worth a gamer's time. This one's a 5E reprint of a lot of scenarios I already have (Barrier Peaks. Tsojcanth, Star Falls, Pharaoh) and some I didn't have. Plus, the central conceit of the Staircase is a lot of fun! 

Toronto from here on out.

Fearful Passages is one of the few holes in my CoC collection. Filled! Plus, WoD Tokyo added to my Wraith collection. Both bought at Sword and Board up on Bloor. A lot of places lurk on Bloor. Like trolls under a bridge. Scheming.  

OK, if you’ve been paying any kind of attention you know by now that Lafcadio Hearn is my weak spot and I couldn’t resist these two. You may be wondering about the Ghost Stories For Christmas. I didn’t know about this, but apparently there’s a Canadian company that puts one of these out every year and the store had a stack of ‘em. Disappearance and Reappearance is one of my all-time favorite James stories, and I picked up the Blackwood on a whim because, well, Blackwood. Bought at David Mason Books, which I highly recommend to antiquarian bookstore lovers but! Be Warned! They don’t open on the weekend. Also, they have a cat. Big fat floof, friendly. Answers to Henry, unless my memory fails me. 

Another haul from Bloor Street, this time Monkey’s Paw. Not as big or as fun-filled as David Mason, but it does have one spectacular gimmick: the Random Book Machine, aka BiblioMat. For one small token you too can get a random book on any topic. In my case this was the My Language Is Me, which may or may not last long on my bookshelf, but I’m not sorry I got it.  

Video sourced from Dezi

The G-String Murders is a lot of fun to read.  Gypsy Rose Lee, for those not familiar, was a burlesque artist of great fame, way back in the day, and the reason for picking up books like this is, she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to burlesque theatre. Plotting murders, not so much, but then I didn’t care about the murders. I cared about the way theatres were run, about the showbusiness angle, and that I got, in spades. Great for those of you working on 1930s period pieces. 

You know who you are … 

Randalls Round! Highly recommended Jamesian collection of short horror, from the British Library’s capacious vaults. Bought at Indigo in the Mall on Queen. 

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, an impulse purchase from AnimeXtreme, which I only know exists because I wanted pork buns from Mother’s Dumplings. The buns were great! As is the book. If you’re ever in the area, Kensington Market is also worth a look.  

A Real Emergency, another impulse purchase, this time from Peter Pan which is five seconds’ walk from my hotel. [Ordinarily I'd link but I'm honestly not sure which link to use and one of them seems to be hors de combat.] I dunno that I’d recommend Peter Pan, honestly. It felt a bit gimmicky, the kind of place you take a date but not the kind of place you go to every week. But the book is fun. If you want to know about a thing, ask the person who’s been there and done it. Not a million miles away from the G-String Murders, honestly. The subject matter’s miles apart, but the idea was to find out about a subject from someone who knows it inside and out. Mission accomplished. 

Finally, the haul from Little Ghost! Some of these were bought for nieces, but Alley, Julie Chan Is Dead, Birthday and Your Flight Has Been Cancelled are all mine, mine! Shopping here was a great experience. I even went back for a second run! Either I’m insane or they are. Highly recommended stop for book lovers of all ages. The coffee’s not bad either! 

Now, I mentioned Storm Crow last post, and a certain Cthulhu Tiki. Yes, I did go to the Crow. What I did not realize, because not Canadian nor from Toronto, is that the Pride celebrations were kicking off right next door. Literally. As in the street was shut and there was a vendor’s market. On account of this, Storm Crow cut down on its menu options, to ensure that the crowd rush didn’t cause a problem. One of the casualties was the Cthulhu Tiki. Weeping, lamentations, rending of garments.  

No Tiki for me. [In hindsight, I ought to have asked if I could buy the Tiki mug, which I see you can do for $10.] No random dice roll for meals either. That said, I’d highly recommend the Crow to visitors. Not just because of the theme – though the theme is fun – but because the food and drink are actually good. You go round Toronto for a while, and you notice the pub grub menu options are broadly the same across the board. There is always Mac and Cheese. It’s a Toronto Law. But there’s a difference between Mac & Cheese done right and served with style, and Mac & Cheese plopped on a plate for consumption. The Crow does it right.  

In short: yes, fun, would do again, probably will do again, not sure when.  

That’s it for this week! Enjoy. 

EXCEPT NOT QUITE!!!

OK, I'm doing a thing. A charity thing. I help out Big Brothers Big Sisters Bermuda - it's a kid's charity, if you're not familiar. I'm their secretary. 

This coming Sunday I shall be doing a challenge for charity, How Much Will You Pay To See Me Do ... and the goal is to raise at least $1500. 

Pics and videos will be posted here when available!

So, if you're feeling generous, please donate via the link below. How much would you pay to see me ...

Link here!