The Raconteur's Commonplace Book

***"And when I asked why he supposed I might be able to do the impossible, he said, 'Because I believe you are special.'"*
Liao to Lucy on Blister, *Bluecrowne*, p. 133
*This article is on a subject existing outside the universe of the Greenglass House series.***

## Publication order

### Followed by

none

*****T********he Raconteur's Commonplace Book*** is a prequel book in the Greenglass House series. It was written by Kate Milford and illustrated by Nicole Wong, and published by Clarion Books in 2021.

## Publisher's Summary

In this standalone mystery set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Greenglass House by an Edgar Award—winning author, a group of strangers trapped in an otherworldly inn slowly reveal their secrets, proving that nothing is what it seems and there's always more than one side to the story.

The rain hasn't stopped for a week, and the twelve guests of the Blue Vein Tavern are trapped by flooded roads and the rising Skidwrack River. Among them are a ship's captain, tattooed twins, a musician, and a young girl traveling on her own. To pass the time, they begin to tell stories—each a different type of folklore—that eventually reveal more about their own secrets than they intended. As the rain continues to pour down—an uncanny, unnatural amount of rain—the guests begin to realize that the entire city is in danger, and not just from the flood. But they have only their stories, and one another, to save them. Will it be enough?

## Plot

The rain was still coming down, and the Skidwrack had flooded all the roads, trapping the inhabitants of the Blue Vein Tavern in. They had food and warmth, and though the old ship captain Frost disagreed, Mr. Haypotten was unconcerned, believing that the water would never come past the blue step to the tavern. Jessamy offered sherry to the room, and Negret and Reever Colophon declined, but Al Tesserian accepted. Tesserian provided cards for the covers of the book Negret was binding.

Petra chose one of Mrs. Haypotten's music boxes to dance with Maisie. Maisie was a girl who had been traveling to meet her aunt, who was probably gone now. The music box played "Riverward", at which Sullivan stumbled, his first misstep ever, as he left the room. Madame Grisaille hummed along, and Maisie had previously declared that she was a dancer, but wasn't dancing because she had secrets, which could not be hidden when one danced. Madame Grisaille danced with Maisie, and Maisie realized her secret. The old lady took out a different music box, which played an achingly lovely tune that surprised Negret and Jessamy, elsewhere in the house. Sorcha, the maid and firekeeper, who was in love with Negret, was also in the inn; as well as the one-eyed traveling merchant Antony Masseter who was always up late, the Haypottens' neighbor Phineas Amalgam who had gotten stuck there when he stopped by, and the artisan printmaker Gregory Sangwin, who had come on Amalgam's recommendation, and who carved little animals, most of which he gave to Maisie.

### The Game of Maps: Phineas Amalgam

On the seventh day, Phineas, a folklorist, suggested that they tell stories to pass the time. At Petra's request, he told as tory about a house in the pines, Fellwool House. It was an old, enchanted house, and in the tale, a blue-eyed peddler challenged a boy called Pantin to spend a night in the house. He sent Pantin on a treasure hunt: find an adit-gate, something which had something different from its insides inside of it. The peddler would pay Pantin for the keyhole from that cabinet, and so Pantin entered Fellwool House. Pantin found that all the doors in the house led to somewhere that they shouldn't, but he could find no keyhole on them, so he continued looking. Pantin passed through many rooms, and found that similar doors led to other similar doors in the house, and also that if he listened at the door, he could often guess where it led, because each room sounded different. Pantin saw a room with a bright glowing light and wanted in, and though the house would not let him, he kept trying. Eventually the house sent him into a room with four suits of armor that kept trying to kill him, but could only move when he wasn't looking right at them. Pantin then got into the map room, which was the most malicious of all the rooms, and kept trying to kill him with its maps, which you could enter the place they showed, where there were often monsters. Pantin then realized that a map legend could also be a key, and took one of the maps, knowing then that it was the adit-gate he was to find. Pantin exited the house and gave it to the peddler.

### The Whalebone Spring: Reever Colophon

The inhabitants of the Blue Vein Tavern discussed whether the peddler in the story had been a villain. Reever told a tale, asking the others to decide whether the peddlers were villains or not. In Reever's tale, four peddlers, Lung, a clock seller; Bone, a tinsmith; Blister, a fire expert; and Nerve, a catalog merchant, came to a town that was presumably Nagspeake. Then, a ship brought news of incoming invaders who were terrible. Each peddler tried to sell their things to the city's inhabitants so they could defend themselves, but in the end, Nerve's suggestion won out: making the city into a trap. The four peddlers worked together to construct it and defend the city, but in the end they had to make the device's mainspring out of a different material that was planned, and at the arranged time, the city's trap did not spring. The invaders conquered the city, but were not stopped. At the end, Maisie wondered if Nagspeake was the city that was a trap. Jessamy refused to tell the next story, so Negret went next instead.

### The Devil and the Scavenger: Negret Colophon

The Devil walked down the road and came to a crossroads, where there was a scavenger, a highly ranked peddler. He examined the scavenger's wagon, and the scavenger, a girl, knowing who he was, offered him things made from dead martyrs and saints, but the Devil was not interested. The Devil found a pastern bone that intrigued him, and the scavenger charged a tooth, but he suggested that they play for it. The scavenger made the Devil guess what it was for in sixty seconds, but the Devil listed things that could be made from it and was incorrect, and ran out of time. The scavenger took two of the Devil's teeth as payment, using one to replace the one she'd lost, and the other she was not sure, but appreciated the Devil's ideas. The Devil, beaten, left. At the end of the tale, Maisie, Negret, and Phineas Amalgam discussed stories of the Devil making bets. Maisie, noticing Jessamy's fake cheerfulness and recalling something she'd said earlier, knew her secret. Mrs. Haypotten volunteered to go next, wanting to tell a cheerful story.

### The Queen of Fog: Mrs. Haypotten

Queen Maisie lived in a happy kingdom with her aunt, Lady Dorcas. One day, she and her pet donkey, Fred-Morty-Tucker, went out to collect shells (Phineas Amalgam demanded to know about how there was no rain and the sand was never too hot). She met someone by the sea, who (as suggested by Sorcha) turned out to be the washerwoman Bean-Knee (this meant terrible things could happen and the happy party Mrs. Haypotten had planned to tell about now would not go as planned, but Maisie wanted this to happen). Bean-Knee was obligated to tell Queen Maisie what she was washing, and as it turned out, Lady Dorcas was planning to murder Queen Maisie after throwing her a surprise birthday party, and take the queen's crown. Bean-Knee provided Queen Maisie with a bottle of fog to help her, and sent her on her way. The birthday party went as planned and all the guests were happy, and Lady Dorcas sent Queen Maisie to bed at the end. She put on her ripped nightgown and stuffed the bed with pillows. After Lady Dorcas stabbed the fake queen, Queen Maisie emerged from behind the curtains with the fog swirling around her. She told Lady Dorcas to come with her in the fog or go to the sea, and Lady Dorcas jumped to the sea, where the golevants ate her. The queen lived and was a good queen of the land. Maisie declared that she had liked that story, and Madame Grisaille complimented Mrs. Haypotten and Sorcha both on their telling, and volunteered to tell the next tale.

### The Roamer in the Nettles: Madame Grisaille

A boy called Pantin lived in a red house in whose yard there was a secret grave of a roamer-hero. One day, a thief called Trigemine came, pretending to be a peddler. He looked in Pantin's house and the neighbors' in the hopes of finding something valuable, but he did not. However, he noticed the nettles in the garden and presumed that there was a body buried there, who probably had with them the box he was looking for. The thief gave drinks to the neighbors to drug them asleep, but Pantin was not allowed any, so he was awake to look down from his window and see that the thief was digging someone up. He consulted his friend, the old iron gargoyle Troublewit, who told him what was going on. They planned to raise up the hero's bones to scare away the thief, and the old iron did so. The iron hero confronted the thief, then somehow took possession of its own body. The thief was scared away, and the hero thanked Pantin and Troublewit and was allowed to keep the iron parts of his body to continue roaming for some time. After the tale, Madame Grisaille apologized to Masseter for the peddler being bad. Petra suggested that Sangwin tell a particular tale, and he did.

### The Hollow-Ware Man: Gregory Sangwin

Sangwin began the tale, which was structured as many rhyming verses. Every autumn, the hollow-ware man, a peddler who sells nice and often miraculous things, comes out of the hollow-way, a place that nearby people avoid because bad things can happen. One day a blue-eyed man came in search of a box, and the townspeople sent him after the hollow-ware man who had only just left. The man came back with his box, and without an eye, which had been the strange payment for the box. After Sangwin's tale, the guests decided that peddlers should not charge eyes. Sullivan volunteered to tell a less grim tale.

### The Coldway: Sullivan

The Coldway forms under the island district of Flotilla when the Skidwrack River freezes in the winter. Legend goes that there is a caldnicker, a serpent creature that sleeps on the riverbed, and that in the winter, the caldnicker's dreams are born into the icy Coldway. One day, a girl called Mair set out to map the Coldway, since it was different every year. She almost fell through the ice, but was saved by a boy who called himself Hale, and she realized that he was one of the caldnicker's dreams. Mair and Hale fell in love, but they knew that when winter ended and the Coldway melted, Hale would be gone. Mair wanted to try to swim down to the caldnicker in the hopes of saving Hale, but Hale, worrying about what could happen, prevented her. They decided to try another way, and the cartographer's apprentice suggested vaporizing Hale and then freezing him again. Mair and Hale tried it, and they succeeded.

Captain Frost said that he was surprised Sullivan hadn't told a tale of the seiche, legendary, beautiful creatures who live in the river. Seiche girls sometimes leave the river, but unless a human takes their place in it they cannot stay, and the Skidwrack rises after them until they return or someone sacrifices themselves for them. The guests wondered if Sullivan was a seiche boy, and Frost tried to throw him into the flood to stop it, but Sullivan admitted that he was a seiche, but his sacrifice had been made a long time ago. A girl, he said, had sacrificed herself for him, warned the others of predators, and stumbled away. Masseter was not sure what story he would tell, and no one else had a request. Jessamy and Sorcha went to the attic, and Sorcha provided Jessamy with a pair of gloves.

Sullivan and Captain Frost stood outside at the flood's edge, and talked to each other. Sullivan wanted atonement, he said, and Captain Frost understood; as a ship captain, he had seen others die too. Madame Grisaille made an iron structure to protect them from the rain, then went back inside and played music on a music box. Madame Grisaille, Reever, Negret, and Maisie danced to the tune, and when Sorcha arrived, Madame Grisaille stepped out so she could dance with Negret. Jessamy listened, then left, and sat with Amalgam, Sangwin, Tesserian, and Masseter. She could play all instruments, she said, then insisted that she wanted to waste some time, then left. The men wondered why Petra kept asking for certain tales. Sullivan and Captain Frost came inside, and Petra went to bed. Negret thanked Sorcha for the dance, and she took Maisie to bed. Reever, Negret, and Madame Grisaille decided that they were on Petra's side if there ever was a confrontation. Negret went upstairs, looking for things in the bookcase. Masseter later came down and examined the music boxes.

In the morning, it was still raining. Sorcha went to get something for Maisie to do, and gave Negret some paper for his next bookbinding. Sorcha then brought paper scraps downstairs and she and Maisie made spills in the fire that worked beautifully. Maisie then worked on a card castle with Tesserian, adding more cards and placing little animals that Sangwin had carved for her on it. The guests began to reconvene, and Captain Frost volunteered to tell the next story.

### The Storm Bottle: Captain Frost

Melusine and Lowe, the children of the captain of the ship called the *Fate* often argued about omens; since they'd been raised differently, they disagreed about what was a good omen and a bad one, and what to do about it. They both agreed, however, that breaking Garvett's storm bottle was bad luck, because Garvett would be furious. It could predict the weather, but Lowe was so curious about what was in it that he kept finding it no matter where Garvett hid it, and one day he broke it. Lowe decided to make a new one, now that he knew what was in it, but soon found that they were out of camphor. Lowe used hard snow to fill the bottle Melusine found, but soon the hard snow climbed up the walls of the bottle. Melusine and Lowe did not know what it meant, but they looked around and realized that something was wrong: the sea was red, there was no one on the boat but them, and that there was another xebec approaching them, a ghost ship. Lowe sent a rocket to contact them, then declared that they probably needed to be led to a harbor. Lucy steered the *Fate* until they reached the harbor, and the xebec followed. When they reached the harbor, the xebec disappeared, and the *Fate*'s crew returned. The steward came back from where he'd been, and Melusine declared that she would not help Lowe take the blame.

### The Ferryman: Al Tesserian

Tesserian volunteered to tell a story about a ferryman on the Skidwrack River. Rivers, he said, were miraculous, and sometimes by getting a Ferryman to take you, you could get to places that could not be reached otherwise. Isaac Knickpointe was a Ferryman who usually would take passengers across the Skidwrack at the Tailrace, where the other side was somehow miraculous and unpredictable. Knickpointe did not want his passengers to have to pay, however, so he had a system where they could earn a token by solving a riddle. One day a boy wanted to cross, and after answering the first one asked for more riddles as he rode, getting frustrated as he answered them all easily. The boy, Caster, then asked for more, admitting that he hadn't needed to cross, only wanted riddles. The Ferryman obliged, giving him ones that did not have answers, which made Cas happier, then suggested that Cas tell them. Cas arrived often to help tell riddles, and one day Knickpointe gave him a hat that read "First Mate", to Cas's delight. After the tale, the guests worried about the flooding Skidwrack. Sorcha volunteered to tell a story, and Petra mentioned reckoning. The guests discussed this form of near-impossible calculation, and Sorcha told a tale about fire-kenning, reckoning with fire.

### The Reckoning: Sorcha

John Ustion was a fire-savvy shopkeeper. One day a customer came, who had been referred to him by Alphonsus Lung, as Lung himself would not do what the customer wanted. Ustion was confused, as that barely ever happened, but soon realized that the customer had not wanted a regular timepiece. The customer explained what John Ustion suspected: he wanted something that could not only do reckonings, but take him to when and where they specified. John Ustion could not trust the customer to possess this, so he sent him away, and Ustion was one of many customers who, realizing this was possible, began to work on it after the customer left. He chose to use wheat-fire for the *fire-kenia* mechanism and began to design it, but it didn't work. He kept trying, but also kept putting it off, feeling that maybe it was a bad idea. Eventually he put it away in a cabinet, and later told his granddaughter to get rid of it, but when one day she finally went to do it, she found it gone, and supposed that he'd thrown it away and forgot.

### The Particular: Marcus Haypotten

Mr. Haypotten volunteered to tell a story of a relic. He told of Hugo Bankcliff, a boy who had lived in London and worked as a linklighter (link-boy) before moving to Nagspeake. Hugo and his friend learned from a boy named Pete that Deacon and Morvengarde sold fog, after which Hugo, homesick, saved up enough money to order it. The next Friday, it came, in a bottle with directions to unscrew the lid to let it out, and screw the lid back on to return it. Hugo let the fog out that night before calling it back, then, worrying about what damage it could do if he did so again, went to take it out to one of the Skidwrack River's inlets. However, a sailor intentionally bumped into him, broke the jar, and the fog seeped out. Hugo, after trying unsuccessfully to patch it, went to a Deacon and Morvengarde office, but they would not give him another container. Hugo and the clerk reached a standoff, the clerk thinking that they should not give him a new box because it wasn't Deacon and Morvengarde's fault. She threatened to call Morvengarde, and Hugo threatened to let the fog continue to ruin her office. Eventually she sent him to Feretory Street, where he found a reliquary maker, Gaz. Gaz's apprentice, Edita, and Hugo decided on a wardian case, and Hugo called back the fog. He gave the broken glass as payment, and every once in a while the particular is let out.

The guests talked about reliquaries. Mr. Haypotten mentioned that there was a reliquary somewhere at the inn, which had been made by Blaise Forel, who was a High Walker like Negret and Reever and was now missing. Forel had come often, and the reliquary he'd made was missing. Maisie recalled seeing Negret searching, and went to get something that she had found. It was indeed Forel's book, in which he had told his fortune. Negret and Reever were very pleased to have the book. Negret suggested that Maisie tell a tale, and she agreed.

### The Three Kings: Maisie Cerrajero

One day, three kings, the King of Finding Things, the King of Opening Things, and the King of Tying Things went on a journey. They found an island and passed through a garden maze, where, in a tower, they discovered their little sister, the Knave of Taking Things, who'd been sent away for stealing. The knave promised that she would never take things again, so the kings went to rescue her. They passed through a number of hardships to reach her, and brought the knave safely home. She did what she'd said, and was called the Knave of Building Castles of Cards, because she built castles of cards while she waited for her siblings to come home.

Maisie insisted that people really were sent away for taking things. Phineas Amalgam suggested that perhaps Maisie had left out too much in her tale. Masseter explained what he thought: that the knave had been left at home to keep her safe, and she'd taken things to know about their journeys and to prove that she was able to handle them. The knave, he presumed, had gotten hurt and was sent away for her own safety, and wasn't really a villain. Maisie knew that he'd known all this before asking her, and Masseter explained that he was very good at seeing patterns. He volunteered to tell the next tale.

### The Gardener of Meteorites: Antony Masseter

Once, there was a boy called Foulk who could see the patterns, and things that did not follow a pattern tortured him. He loved a girl called Jacinda who had a garden with meteorites in it. One day, he went out walking and found a puddle that did not reflect what it was around it, but instead a crossroads. Morvengarde arrived, told the boy about the Roaming World, and gave him a loupe with which he could see weyward light: worden and ferly that discern special people. Morvengarde invited Foulk to notify him if he found any relics or reliquaries, and left. Foulk used his loupe often, and one day he saw an immense amount of ferly in Jacinda's garden. He wrote to Morvengarde, who sent Seleucia Deacon to look at the meteorites, but she and the man with her left quickly. Jacinda soon disappeared, and Foulk began to suspect that Jacinda had been the source and they had taken her. Foulk left town, and eventually was made to work for Deacon and Morvengarde. He was charged with something special: a device that could manipulate time. He planned to one day go back to rescue Jacinda, but he couldn't yet, and for a long time he did horrible things for Morvengarde. He regretted it as he did it, but he didn't stop. Just as he was beginning to plan the reckonings to go back, Aniline Deacon inherited Seleucia's stock and gave him an assignment. He knew that he was dead if he failed it, so he tried, but the time device was broken. He was not killed, instead told to rebuild it, and he started to work.

Masseter said that each of them in the room had worden or ferly, or both. Maisie especially, he said, something that shocked the girl. However, it was a surprise to him how much weyward light was there, and he thought it was because of Petra, who had been controlling the telling of the tales to include many of one-eyed peddlers. Petra admitted that she had done reckonings after years of work, and this was the kairos moment for her and Masseter. Petra began her tale.

### The Summons of the Bone: Petra

One day, the Skidwrack River flooded, and one by one, all of Nell's family was killed, leaving only fifteen-year-old Nell. Thinking of folklore she knew, she killed a cat, and set its bones into the river. A man in black came, and told her that because of orphan magic she could float upriver and stop the water's rising. Nell did what he said, and floated upriver, but a one-eyed man took her out of the river. He offered to go instead of her, and go he did, but it turned out that he climbed out of the river later, and didn't stop the river, having lied to keep the magic bone.

Petra looked at Masseter, who took out a green lens that had been hiding his cold blue eye. She confronted him about having lied and destroyed her town. He took something out of his pocket: a box, which had been bought for an eye, full of John Ustion's gears, with a keyway from Fellwool House, and a small cat-bone spring. Petra revealed that she had the winder he wanted, from the music box, and Masseter lunged at her. However, the nails in the floor reached up and grabbed him. Petra explained what she wanted: that he help her stop the flood this time, and then he could have the winder. Petra, Masseter, and Sullivan left the inn and floated up the river. Maisie was distressed, so Jessamy told a story to comfort her.

### The Crossroads: Jessamy Butcher

Masseter, Petra, and Sullivan will reach the head of the river. Deep in middle country, they will meet the Devil, and Petra will challenge him to a contest of dancing. Petra dance to the song the Devil cannot play and dance with all her soul and no secrets, which the Devil cannot do. Petra will be declared the winner.

Maisie announced that she was hungry, and was given the cake she wanted. She destroyed the card castle she and Tesserian had made, and the cards danced through the air. The remaining inhabitants of the inn danced and laughed. Outside, though they did not notice, the floods began to recede.

## Appearances

Characters

* Al Tesserian
* Conflagrationeers
* Foulk Trigemine
* Frost
* Gregory Sangwin
* Grisaille
* Haypotten
* Headcutters
* High Walkers
* Jessamy Butcher
* Maisie Cerrajero
* Marcus Haypotten
* Negret Colophon
* Petronella
* Phineas Amalgam
* Reever Colophon
* Roamers
* Seiche
* Sorcha
* Sullivan

Mentioned characters

* Alphonsus Lung
* Aniline Deacon
* Bean-Knee
* Blaise Forel
* Caldnicker
* Caldnicker's dreams
* Carol
* Carrick Bend
* Cartographer's apprentice
* Cassiterides Bone
* Caster
* Confraternity of Yankee Peddlers
* Cook
* Deacon and Morvengarde
* Domanova
* Dorcas
* Edita Skellandotter
* Ferryman
* Fred-Morty-Tucker
* Garvett
* Gaz
* Ghosts
* Golevants
* Hale
* Hollow-ware man
* Hugo Bankcliff
* Ignis Blister
* Isaac Knickpointe
* Jacinda
* Jalap
* John Deadlock
* John Ustion
* Joy
* King of Finding Things
* King of Opening Things
* King of Tying Things
* Liao Bluecrowne
* Lucy Bluecrowne
* Mair
* Morvengarde
* Octavian Deacon
* Oronti
* Pantin
* Poppy
* Richard Bluecrowne
* Santat
* Seleucia Deacon
* The Devil
* The scavenger
* Tulip
* Wooll
* Xiaoming

Objects

* Adit-gate
* Bonelights
* Ghost ship
* *Inferus*
* Kairos mechanism
* *Left-Handed Fate*
* Loupe
* Old iron
* Storm bottle

Culture

* Fierekenia
* Orphan magic
* Riverward
* Song that beats the Devil

Locations

* Crossroads
* Nagspeake
	+ Bayside Quarter
	+ Belowground Transit System
	+ Blue Vein Tavern
	+ Fellwool Street
		- Fellwool House
	+ Hollow-way
	+ Limen Docks
	+ Magothy Bay
	+ Morrawhick Point
	+ Printer's Quarter
		- Feretory Street
	+ Quayside Harbors
	+ Shantytown
	+ Skidwrack River
		- Tailrace
		- The Coldway
	+ Trystero Wharf
	+ Whilforber Hill
		- Ferrous Sanctus Monastery

## History

### *Greenglass House*

Georgie Moselle packed a copy of *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* when coming to stay at Greenglass House. When Milo accidentally dropped her luggage onto the ground, he unintentionally grabbed her book, which he noted was red and had a bent cover, when he assisted her in the cleanup. Milo realized he was still holding it, but while welcoming more guests, he dropped it outside. Milo went back outside, found the book and retrieved it, and went to return it to Georgie. However, Georgie assured him that he could borrow it and read it. Milo read a few pages, liked it, and continued to read. Mrs. Pine saw Milo reading it and recalled reading it and liking it when she was his age. Milo staying up reading until past midnight, at which point he fell asleep in his chair. When Meddy woke him in the morning, he took the book to his room, put it on his desk with the nautical chart, and went to sleep.

When Milo and Meddy were creating their Odd Trails campaign, Milo chose a name for his character from *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*. He decided on Negret, after Negret Colophon. When Milo went to his room to get the nautical chart, he could tell someone had been in his room because the book was not lined up as neatly as he'd left it. After returning from the Emporium, Milo read more of the book, noting that he was up to the fourth story, about Nell.

Milo suggested that the guests, who were snowed in, tell stories to get to know each other better. He wanted to get them talking so he could learn about them, and gave the excuse that he was reading *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* and the characters in the book had done just that. Mrs. Hereward said that some people thought that the writer of *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* had modeled it after a book by Charles Dickens, *The Holly-Tree Inn*. When Mrs. Hereward began her story with "Listen", Milo noted that some stories in *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* began that way.

When Mrs. Hereward talked about Julian's relics, Milo recalled the story about Nell from *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* and the mention of relics. Milo read *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* again that night, reading about the Devil and the scavenger. Mr. Vinge told Milo about the seiche, since Milo was reading *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*, and Milo recalled reading a story about the seiche, which he'd thought creepy. Milo later went back to the book and began to read the story again, but was interrupted by Meddy, so he put it into his rucksack.

Georgie said that there had been a clue about the Belowground Transit System in *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*. Milo went to give it back to her, but he admitted that he liked it and wanted to finish it, so Georgie let him keep it, instructing him to pass it on when he was done with it.

### *Ghosts of Greenglass House*

After being told about the derrotero, Milo remembered the story "The Game of Maps" in *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*. He got out the book from the other favorite books on his desk, and reread the story he'd recalled. Milo then put the book back and went downstairs. Milo mentioned the book when attempting to get the guests to tell stories, and Lucky had read it as well as Georgie.

Milo prepared to go adventuring, and put the book into his rucksack. When he needed to find a name for his new Odd Trails character, he went to look in the book again, as he had gotten the name for his previous character, Negret, from there. However, he grabbed the English-Mandarin dictionary instead, and used that. He later asked for stories to be told again, referencing the book, which Marzana knew and liked.

## Physical characteristics

Milo's copy of *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* is a slim paperback book with a plain red cover.

## Trivia

* Kate Milford changed the order of the stories in the book from the way Milo read them to the way they are read in the book for non-Nagspeake residents. In the version Milo read in *Greenglass House*, The Game of Maps was the 1st story, but The Particular was either 2nd or 3rd instead of 11th, and The Summons of the Bone was 4th instead of 14th. The Roamer in the Nettles and The Coldway came sometime after The Summons of the Bone, instead of before.
* *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* is set around 1930.
* *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* was inspired by Charles Dickens' *The Holly-Tree Inn.*
* *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* has 18 chapters.
* *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* is the only book in the Greenglass House series without a frontispiece.
* *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book* is decorated with compasses, lines, and swirls.
* The book title and the chapter titles are set in the font Ulsteros.
* Kate Milford originally planned to self-publish the book, before Clarion Books accepted it.

## Gallery

**Take a look at our **gallery for The Raconteur's Commonplace Book****.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*
2. ↑ *Greenglass House*
4. ↑ https://www.whatfontis.com/
5. ↑ https://stonesoup.com/post/interview-with-author-kate-milford/