ANitLO Reading & Schedule Tips

[Max Magee]

Hi all!

TL;DR: Read the chapter on the day of its title (October 1st on October 1st). Start Tues or Wed. Look for two more invites from Karen. I'll send a discussion prompt email thread for each day at the end of that day (midnight or later so there's no chance of a spoiler). No more emails to the Canary-Trainers list. Hooray!

Long version:

As we discussed in the virtual meeting and Cauldron Club event yesterday (I'm sorry if we missed you/you missed us), we'll be starting our reading journey, reading one chapter a day in October (with the short preface to be read either on Wed 10/1 or Tues 9/30, your choice) of Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October (1993, William Morrow and Co.).

As in previous years, if you're new to this project, you might enjoy trying to read one chapter a day, but I will warn you, particularly toward the 2/3 mark, the chapters can sometimes get to be pretty beefy (20 pages or more) and you may need to set aside additional reading time—or you'll find yourself squeezed, if you're anything like me.

That said, I'll do my best to warn folks when that is coming up and to give you some advance notice. If you'd like to look ahead for yourself without spoilers, I put together a spreadsheet to help understand the reading velocity at various points. What it shows is that after an average of 4-5 pages for the first half of the book, it takes a sharp incline, as I mentioned above and ends with an average reading pace of 8.75 pages per day.

This year, our reading schedule means that we have an extremely light weekend reading schedule for the weekend of the 11/12th (you'll see), so we've made the decision to read ahead on that weekend (basically, allowing spoilers for the following week 13-17th to be discussed ON that Sunday in advance). Please be careful with email subject lines (and first sentence or two of your messages in case they are previewed in the email client), but we shouldn't have any problems. Also, it's an almost 40 year old book now, so really I don't even think of those as spoilers.

Here's a calendar with some of the extra-heavy days during the week (20+ pages a night) this year and where those fall.

By the time we get to the end of October, you should buckle up for the finale, so I'm not too concerned about that, but the 19th-24th, there's some pretty good chunks. I'd recommend planning for that with either more time to read (there are a couple of 20ish and 25 page days there).

Also, we've agreed to hold two more video chats, the next on Sunday, October 12th at 2pm Central time, where we will discuss spoilery material including the next five days' reading, including up to the October 17th chapter, so be prepared (we'll warn you again in the invitation).

We'll hold a final wrap-up on Saturday, November 1st at 2pm Central.

Keep your eyes peeled, as Karen will send out invitations to register for those meetings soon (she was just waiting on me to send this email).

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the first few chapters this week! Look for story discussion prompts at midnight (or slightly thereafter) of the following day (you'll receive them with an email titled something like ANitLO '25 - Oct. 1, so feel free to filter those into a folder or mark them important and high-priority or whatever you feel like doing.

As I mentioned in the Zoom meeting, if you signed up for the Zoom, I'll keep your email in the distribution list (and folks who are replying to the initial prompt should reply-all to make sure everyone gets your message), but I won't send any more messages to the Canary-Trainers list, so please let me know if you want to keep getting these messages (if you haven't already—Erica, Josie, Randi, Lynda, and Linda and Jon I already have you included).

I'll also put in a plug for a different book and podcast if you've read this far...I guess as your reward: Bad Women: The Ripper Retold, a historical perspective on the (mostly) women whose lives and reputations are often misunderstood and mischaracterized (usually as prostitutes), that tells the actual circumstances of their lives and how they came to be associated with "Jack the Ripper," who was never actually proven to be one individual or to exist at all. The author and host of the podcast, Hallie Rubenhold, also wrote the book that became the podcast, The Five: The Untold Story of the Women who were Killed by Jack the Ripper. The podcast has almost nothing to do with ANitLO, as ANitLO is a fantasy, loosely inspired by historical events.

Max

On Mon, Sep 8, 2025 at 9:28 AM Max Magee <maxp...@gmail.com> wrote:

I tried to come up with a clever title for this email. I hope you enjoyed it.

TL;DR: We're kicking off this year's October read-along of A Night in the Lonesome October on Sunday, September 28th at 2pm Central Time (to last about an hour).

Brew your favorite autumnal tea to drink (this is a crossover event with the Cauldron Club Brew & Book a.k.a. The Tea Brokers of Mincing Lane). This will be a virtual meeting to chat, meet new folks, and to decide on how folks would like to interact with the book club this year.

I've got a couple of items up my sleeve that are new and fun this year.

That's right, it's time for us to gather to communally—yet remotely—read A Night in the Lonesome October (ANitLO) by Roger Zelazny. From the blurb:

Boldly original and wildly entertaining, A Night in the Lonesome October is a darkly sparkling gem, an amalgam of horror, humor, mystery, and fantasy. First published in 1993, it was Zelazny’s last book prior to his untimely death. Many consider it the best of the fantasy master’s novels. It has inspired many fans to read it every year in October, a chapter a day,

Sherlockians, in particular, will be entertained by the take on The Great Detective and his "rotund companion."

This year our night sky will experience full moons on October 7th and November 5th (which is the closest they've been in concordance with the book since 2020, when they were perfectly aligned), so it's ripe for the reading.

In previous years, I've posted (scheduled a post to be sent after midnight my time, actually) a kickoff email each day of October with some thoughts, research, and observations—particularly about strategies to optimize your enjoyment, based on my own previous experiences. I was considering posting a couple of leading questions and topics this year instead, to let others lead the discussion. I may copy snippets of previous year's articles in response to questions or when appropriate.

Karen Ellery, who maintains our ANitLO website (https://www.anitlo.com/) says we should advertise our whiz-bang guest reader: Harry Turtledove has expressed interest in reading/emailing along this year. I've enjoyed reading his posts on Bluesky and for some reason I thought he would be interested—he replied that he would, as his schedule permits.

Please let me know if you'd rather not receive additional information or emails about this (even if it's just not going to work for you this year) and I'll do my best to respect your wishes and remove you from future mailings.

Why am I sending this out so early? Well, I want you to be prepared for October AND this is the perfect time to reserve your copy of the book from the library, order it from your favorite local bookstore or see if you can score a cheap-o paperback from Half-Price Books!

More information will be sent out about the live video chat opportunity as we get closer to October.

Max