Hey all. I know I haven’t had a lot of material for you over the past few months. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing at all. One thing I’ve been writing is a piece of serial fiction for a private newsletter that I call The Economancer. Now, thanks to the generous permission of that newsletter, I’ll be able to share The Economancer with all of you in weekly serial format – my own little penny dreadful. Hope you enjoy.
You probably don’t think of New York City as a place for magic.
Or maybe you do. You’ve been primed by tv and movies where if anything weird happens, it happens in the Big Apple – Dr. Strange, Men In Black, The Avengers, Ghostbusters – everything from aliens to ghosts to giant lizards.
(Though I have to ask: who starts a whole business just to “bust” ghosts? Sure, some ghosts are trouble, but most are just minding their own business. I mean, you’ve been here all this time, and I bet you never even noticed Phil in elevator shaft A1! Are you gonna bust ghosts just for being ghosts? That’s vitalist!)
But I’m not talking about magic in movies or TV. I’m talking about the real stuff.
Oh, the real stuff doesn’t actually exist? Tell that to the guy I know who took a little walk through all those winding little streets and alleys around Grand Central, took the turns in just the right order, and found himself in 1956.
But even if you know about the real stuff, I bet you didn’t think an office was a place for the real stuff. You probably imagine it’s all botanicas up in Washington Heights with candles and herbs and statues, or hippies in Central Park playing drums and dancing on a Full Moon.
Which is honestly just ignorant. I mean, what do you think the bull at Wall Street is for? The sacred geometry of the City focuses no less than seven ley lines into the Empire State Building, and you think it’s an accident?
I’m sorry. I ramble. My point is, there’s no place better than an office to do my kind of magic.
I’m an economancer. And these are my stories.
Say hello to Phil.
Next time: No, Seriously, What’s An Economancer?