In my 32nd year, I learned three great secrets. The first had to do with how magic controls the weather.  The second involved the existence of a centuries-old organization that uses its influence to shape the fate of mankind.  As to the third and final secret, that one is too great to tell you now. You must be patient and wait. 
 

   Most of you are probably familiar with the fact that San Francisco is a foggy city. What few people know is the real reason for the fog. San Francisco’s weather, despite what the nightly news may say, is actually controlled by a powerful spell.  It conjures up the cool, wet fog to keep people from seeing what is really going on around them.

   The land was enchanted long ago to allow for the fog to be summoned on command, moving in like a swift white carpet, muffling sounds and distorting the images human eyes can see. The fog tumbles across the hills and mountains like a great grey-white wave, pressing and pressing inward until it erases San Francisco from view.  On those days and nights, when most can see barely more than the hand in front of their face, the city’s Others: fairies, witches, vampires and werewolves can meet and attend to their business. In the darkness of night, the light muted, the air wet and grey, it can be difficult to know if what you are seeing is real.
 

   For the Others, there can be no trace of them or their activities left behind. The fog is their eraser, the privacy screen cast up to shield humans from an unsettling truth: they are not alone in this world, and they are not in control.  

   Besides its reputation for fog, San Francisco is known for its colorful population. It’s no accident that so many outlandish people live here.  The city is home to an enormous population of Others, alive and undead. That the beat poets, the free speech movement, the summer of love, the sexual revolution, and the gay rights movement originated in San Francisco, is no coincidence. Amidst the tattooed, pierced and corseted, the Others are free live to their lives. Teaming with sexuality, creativity, a thirst for rebellion and expression San Francisco makes it easy to seem “normal.”

   In San Francisco, it is easy to hide in plain sight.