In the Mansion of Madness comes out this month. It’s a branching narrative with multiple endings sort of book. You’re a Closer, who works for the Night Office, which is the secret organization tasked with keeping the world safe from things that go bump in the night. Naturally, these things are drawn from the core monster narrative of 20th century American horror fiction. All of which is to say that it may walk like a Cthulhu-headed duck and talk like one, but it’s not quite the duck you know. It’s the duck I know.

In the Mansion of Madness: Indiebound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

I have plans in this space, and they will unfold over the course of this year. In the meantime, you should try to see if you can survive the Mansion Job. In addition to this book, there’s also a Night Office-themed reading journal. It looks like this:

And it has pages like this:

It’s an uncomplicated reading journal, but it’s themed as if it is a piece of Night Office paraphernalia. Night Office field operatives run the risk of going insane quite often, and usually from reading book they shouldn’t. The SPELL journal provides you a way to craft warding sigils after you finish a text, thereby reducing the risk of being driven insane or being co-opted by space jellies.

Night Office SPELL Journal: Indiebound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Listening: I blew through Watchmen last month when it came out, and have been enjoying the soundtrack, which is by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This has led me to revisit their other soundtrack work (Bird Box, Waves, Ghosts, and so on).

Playing: Expansions for Wingspan, Terraforming Mars, and Root have come out. I’ve been enjoying the first two quite a bit, and Turmoil for Terraforming Mars has re-invigorated play quite a bit. Root just arrived, and so I expect I’ll be trying to figure out the Crows and Moles here in the next few weeks.