Thanks to everyone who came to meet me and buy books at the West Virginia Book Festival last Saturday. I had a blast and I hope you all did as well. Here’s this next week in Pandemonium:

Oct. 21, 1949—Fieldhand Solomon Jones and Stranger Julian Maplethorpe appear before the House of Unamerican Activities Committee, the only two Pandemonians to answer for possible communist ties before the infamous committee. Jones is convicted, while Maplethorpe is acquitted, a result largely attributed to his family connections.

Oct. 22, 1844—After the Great Disappointment, Stranger Pastor Harvey Longfellow publicly comments that the Millerites were welcome at his church, causing the Witch population to fear the Strangers will outnumber them. Satanic High Priest Beauregard Davis responds to this panic by assuring his flock that any Millerites who come to one of Longfellow’s services will “merely be setting themselves up for another disappointment.”

Oct. 23, 4003 B.C.—The date for the creation of the universe based on Stranger Pastor Robert Winthrop’s reckoning in the 17^th Century. Winthrop came to this number by taking the calculations of James Usher and simply subtracting a year, just to make a point.

Oct. 24, 1910—Dravidius Ravenwood, a Pandemonian Witch, successfully goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Many consider this attempt a failure, however, as though Ravenwood did go over the falls in a barrel, he did not survive the attempt.

Oct. 25, 1964—A charter plane en route to Pandemonium Airport, which is a few runways on the coast, crashes and skids into the Atlantic Ocean, killing the pilot and two passengers. Evangelical Christians blame the presence of the Witches until a subsequent autopsy determines the pilot was drunk.

Oct. 26, 1890—In preparation of writing her investigative report Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases, Ida B. Wells visits Pandemonium, the site of multiple lynchings during the Jim Crow era. Far from hiding this grim part of local history, several Witches actually approach Wells and brag about their participation in many such lynchings.

Oct. 27, 1840—The Witch and Stranger mayors of Pandemonium unite in an order expelling all Mormons from the city of Pandemonium. At the time there were no Mormons in Pandemonium, nor are there any there today really, but the mayors and city council wanted to be sure. The expulsion order remains on the books today, though no one has attempted to enforce it.