 Two stories ("Balsamo's Mirror" and "Far Babylon") feature characters recognizable as real-life authors H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, though neither is actually named.In two of the stories ("Darius" and "The Huns") de Camp reuses the characters of Henri Michod, Virgil Hathaway and Charlie Catfish, who originally appeared in his early stories "The Hardwood Pile" (1940) and "The Reluctant Shaman" (1947), set in the fictional town of Gahato in upstate New York.A sixteenth story of Newbury, "The Ensorcelled ATM", authored by Michael F. Flynn, appeared in Harry Turtledove's 2005 tribute anthology honoring L. Sprague de Camp, "".