afternoon tea

Janet's apartment is a studio, but it takes the casual visitor a moment to realize that; she's set up almost-ceiling-high bookshelves to create the semblance of internal walls, partitioning off a closet-sized "bedroom" from the only slightly larger "living room" next to the kitchen. They've had full meetings here before, but not often; the abridged space can seat twelve people, but not comfortably.

When Greg arrives, stamping snow off his boots in the hallway, Tara's already ensconced on the couch with her hands wrapped around a mug of tea. "Todd can't make it," Janet says apologetically as she stands aside to let Greg in. "He called about a half-hour ago."

dramatis personae

CALVINS <constantreaders@losersclub.com>

The original five:
* Michael Copeland <michael.copeland@gmail.com>. Forty-six. Prior to January 1, 2009, he was the head of the Tet Corporation department referred to officially as Research & Analysis, and unofficially as the Calvins.
* Andrea Faber Wilkes <afaber@hotmail.com>. In her late fifties; vaguely grandmotherly, vaguely Angela Lansbury.
* Janet Creeque <greenkirtle@gmail.com>. Mid-thirties, the youngest of the original five. Wrote her senior thesis on intertextuality in the works of Stephen King.
* Neil Harkham <nhark395@aol.com>. Retired professor of English literature, in his sixties. Was Janet's advisor in college.
* Greg Toman <admin1@losersclub.com>. Forty-eight. King's Number One Fan. In his misspent youth he was editor/collator of the Stephen King fanzine The Losers' Club, which was how he and Copeland first met; it has since morphed into an online discussion board that he used to co-moderate before joining the Calvins. When the Calvins were disbanded, he started up the new mailing list for Project Renegade.

From the new cadre:
* Jason Parker <parkerboy@gmail.com>. Thirty. Thinks Stephen King is a hack, hates his writing style, is nonetheless one of the most dedicated of the new cadre. Became aware that King's stories were true as a result of an encounter with one of his supernatural terrors.
* Zee Hayden <zeenotzed@gmail.com>. Twenty-eight. Grad student in folklore, fond of Campbellian archetypes and Russian Formalism.
* Tara Wilson <priatoigan@gmail.com> (also <tarantula@hotmail.com>). Thirty-two. Has a tattoo of the word delah in the script of Gilead.
* Todd Penfield <mosaicmaker@gmail.com>. Twenty-five. Discovered the Dark Tower series in the course of writing a research paper on deconstruction of the King Arthur canon in contemporary fantasy.
* Ethan Yadlow <mightydwarf@gmail.com>. Nineteen. College senior majoring in English Lit with an emphasis in poetry. Has worked for the Calvins as an intern on summer and winter vacations.