Edition 6 2025, June
This time, it's not about the turtle. Not directly. This time, it's about Evelyn Carmichael. And a boathouse. And a question no one likes to ask: How many coincidences does it take before you can call it a pattern? Weeks after the disappearance of Stanley Carmichael, the not-so-seaworthy mayor of Pittsfield, and the equally mysterious “absence” of a librarian in Salisbury, we are hearing new, shocking developments.
The Great Scan – Concord 2006 was just the beginning A child. A missing man. A gap in reality. A region full of unanswered questions. “Anyone who thinks children just imagine things like this has never seen the statistics.” (Source: Internal correspondence, Archive of Truth, #Doc84-X) In recent months, there have been increasing reports of children between the ages of nine and twelve seeing things that are supposedly not there. A girl in Chelmsford heard voices coming from the radio – which wasn't even turned on.
What drives FBI Director Anthony Gray? From the outside, Anthony Gray seems like the epitome of discipline. He has shaped the work of the FBI for almost three decades, most recently as Assistant Director in Boston. Within the agency, he is known as “Stone Face,” and in press briefings he always appears controlled, matter-of-fact, and determined. But if you look closer, you see a man who protects more than just the integrity of his institution.
When characters refuse to follow the plot – and why that's a good thing. JC Spark on creative loss of control, literary Valkyries, and a Julia who just wanted to be different. If you want to be in control when you write, you shouldn't invent characters. Or at least not characters like Julia. Many people imagine writing to be like directing a film: you give instructions, assign roles, control the scene. At first, you think you have everything under control. Character profile, backstory, arc. And then it happens: a character does something completely unexpected – and it fits. The character stops, turns around, and simply goes in a different direction. And you follow them because you sense that this is the right path.
The audiobook of Dire Contact With the release of the English audiobook, Dire Contact is now available in three formats and two languages. The story of missing people, mysterious memories, and the boundaries of reality and perception is now not only accessible internationally – it has also been given an audio dimension that allows the characters to appear in a new light (or sound?). We listened for you.
Excerpt from the "Almost Comprehensive Guide to Theoretical Mishaps, Temporal Oddities and Other Slightly Inconvenient Phenomena", 2nd edition, revised but not necessarily improved. Continuum noun | /kənˈtɪn.ju.əm/ A seamless progression in which things are apparently connected, even if they pretend otherwise. Often used in physics, philosophy, and interdimensional rescue missions. Warning: Continuums may appear fractured when observed from inside. Side effects may include déjà vu, regret, and the sudden realization that causality is optional.
I don't mean “true” in the sense of verifiably correct – that's bureaucracy. I mean “true” as in something inside me nods quietly as I read. A nod that doesn't always know why it nods. It just does. An inner “yes,” sometimes tentative, sometimes with a fist on the table. Not because it's “true” in a verifiable sense. But because it feels real. Alive.
The fine art of the picaresque novel: How Barry Hughart showed me that absurd humour is a world view Some books you read. Others... transport you. Barry Hughart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox series does both – and then does things for which there is no verb in any language. Hughart himself called his genre ‘A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was’ – and that's exactly where the magic lies.