[Check out the introduction of the Tour d'Store]
Visited Pandemonium Books and Games in Cambridge, Mass, for a signing on Friday night. The store focuses on science fiction and fantasy books, as well as a ton of gaming supplies – the manager told me some folks come in just to drop $500 on dice.
Founded 1989 - 20th Anniversary coming up! It also has the distinction as the last sci-fi bookstore in Massachusetts. Favorite Section I believe that if I knew the secret handshake they would have taken me to the weapons room to sell me a crossbow or halberd (17 dexterity points or over) Mascot a charming demon named Loot. Loot's a green devil wielding a skull-topped staff and a ray gun, fashioned after a 16th century woodcutting of the demon Astaroth. He looked a little like Stitch but that's just between us.
Haunted?
The manager said no, but I went to the basement, and there was a pack of men of various ages competing in a Magic the Gathering tournament. Individually I don't think they would bring much harm but collectively they could tear you apart like a post-hibernation wolverine in heat who was tormented in her youth for owning a twenty-sided-die.
Got sidetracked with the owner discussing the inappropriateness of the 826 Valencia store in San Francisco being devoted to pirates, as any pirates truly should have been East Coast. I brought up Sir Francis Drake, known to maintain a presence in the Pacific, and he retorted with the quote "he was a privateer. Always a privateer, never a pirate." Words to live by.
The rest of the Tour d'Store
(You can see a Google Map of the trip.)