The House of Stories

1101 Star Park Circle, Coronado, California

Excerpt from the Journal of Caleb Wright, Investigative Journalist

March 3, 2024

I came here because of the stories.

Not the ones everyone knows—the ones about a little girl from Kansas, a cyclone, and a road paved in yellow brick. No, I came for the stories behind those stories. The ones whispered over drinks in bars, scrawled in the margins of forgotten books, buried in the archives of local newspapers. The ones that say L. Frank Baum’s house in Coronado does something to writers.

Some say it inspires them, fills their heads with such wondrous tales that they can do nothing but write, day and night, until their fingers cramp and their minds dissolve into static.

Others say it devours them.

Either way, I needed to know the truth.

I booked a stay for one week.

I should have stayed one night.