Ancora Io (The Players)
(this is a continuation of a novel, Ancora Io, started here. The full text can be found here.)
The Players
Town Library
Betty:
Chief Librarian on the front line of the advance
of the new technologies. Loves books but has a dim view of writers. Within
Betty's Library, there is a writer's group, being managed by Thelma, Betty's
senior librarian. Free of effective curation the modern writer can be a
powerful force for change, good and evil.
Thelma:
2IC at the library, has a child at home, and is researching a library exhibit
about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. In charge of the Library's
Writers Group (but, then, perhaps that is going a little too far).
Monastery Library
Father
Luis: Librarian at the town's Monastery. Strongly adheres to wisdom of the
Church leaders who banned the Dewy System from his library. Betty had once whispered to Thelma that Father Luis had sought special dispensation from his silent order to
meet with her and the local Book Club, to keep the Order up to date with
Current Events.
The Future Library
Sara:
Baby sitter turned dragon-carer. Sarah had just dyed her hair black but really
wants to go red. Still in college and, recently, busted up with her boyfriend.
Thelma has dismissed rumors that Sarah only comes to the library to access the
free Wi-Fi.
Rodi:
Friend of Sara. Rodi is trying to get a job at the town library and works here
from time to time as a volunteer. Shy and retiring, Rodi does not identify immediately as male or female. Rodi has been reading "The Power of Positive
Thinking" for a while now and had updated the Library’s online
tracking register, which they had set up, to indicate that they had got to page
45.
The
Little Dragon: Vulnerable to her appetite, consuming more than she can
understand, susceptible to all those things that can destroy electronic
knowledge in a moment. But she is also vulnerable because, unlike Betty's
Library, there is no one to organize and curate the volumes she consumes. The
little dragon is the darling of youth, here represented by Sarah and Roddi.
Enthusiastic and kind, englamoured by the beauty of the beast, but all too well
aware of its vulnerabilities.
Library's Writers Group
Ged
Richards: a local farmer who knows a bit too much about books and writers and
publishers. He has unexpectedly inspired the Library's Writers Group to fill
pages with plots and characters.
Jess:
Preparing a complicated story about Bernice.
Ray:
A slight man who has been laid off from the town's co-operative shoe factory,
he is writing a spy story featuring mass murderers.
Maxwell:
Wants to write a best seller love story.
Annapurna:
Writing about a woman detective but wants to write about the threat of the
internet.
Jane:
Working on a vampire novel and dabbling in conspiracies. Nick is trying to save
her.
Nick:
Relatively new in town, same age as Emma and dressed in cute casual clothing.
He had just moved into an old place down near the lake. Suffering from amnesia
he also has trouble holding a pencil and cannot write. Jane is helping him.
Others
Emma:
Had some problems last book and is currently living with her sister in a
commune upstate.
Toni and Fred:
Run competing Diners
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