Monthly Archives: June 2012

When in Doubt, Post a Cat Picture

Posted on June 30, 2012 by

Well, I have spent the past two hours hunting through the internet’s weirdest news looking for inspiration for this week’s blog post and… This must have been a sensible week. Ok, there are the usual crop of dumb criminals but … Continue reading →


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Blogging the Magna Carta #20

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

by Phyllis Irene Radford During the five or more years leading up to the Magna Carta, England was entrenched in a civil war; the barons against their king.  During war in medieval times the taking of hostages was an honorable … Continue reading →


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Ray Bradbury and the Joy of Being a Writer

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

by Nancy Jane Moore When I read obituaries of interesting people, I go looking for their work. I discovered the folklorist/anthropologist Americo Paredes this way — read his great work, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, and kicked myself for not … Continue reading →


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Posted in Books and Reading, Writers on Writing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Practical Meerkat Returns: On Self-Rising Characters

Posted on June 27, 2012 by

by Laura Anne Gilman This essay comes off a comment I made on Facebook: A secondary character who wasn’t in the outline has just developed a very real voice/personality. I hate (love) it when they do that… And then someone … Continue reading →


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Posted in Book View Cafe | 10 Comments

Hand-me-down People—Writing and Activism

Posted on June 27, 2012 by

I’m taking a break from my series of posts to ponder a problem that has grown progressively worse in the last several decades. Way back at the dawn of time—or at least at the dawn of my sojourn as a … Continue reading →


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Posted in Community, Faith and Religion, Writers on Writing, Writing life | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

BVC Eats: A Matter of Timing

Posted on June 26, 2012 by

In a recent cyber-conversation on the BVC listserve, I said that I was trained in the timing of pulling a party together by my parents, but specifically by my father, the Field Marshall of Hospitality.  When preparing for a party, … Continue reading →


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Posted in Food and Cooking | 3 Comments

Weird Science: The Generic Human Being

Posted on June 26, 2012 by

Back in March of last year, National Geographic created an image of the averagest human face. They came up with this ghostly image made out of 7,000 tiny human figures, each representing a million people. Check out the National Geographic … Continue reading →


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BVC Eats: Damn Yankee Chicken Pot Pie

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

by Phyllis Irene Radford DAMN YANKEE CHICKEN PIE In 1939 my Aunt Bec (Bessie) made the long and perilous train journey from rural Alabama to New England.  She needed to check out my newborn eldest brother to make certain he … Continue reading →


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Getting Back on the Horse

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

This is not actually about me falling off a horse. It’s about a horse who was hurt, who went through a long(ish) rehab, and whom I finally had to approach with intent to, well, get back on. It started last … Continue reading →


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Posted in Animals, Blogs, Book View Cafe, horses | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Comfort Reads

Posted on June 24, 2012 by

          “Oh, that’s my comfort read!” I think it’s safe to say that everybody knows what is meant—the books we turn to for rereads, always knowing exactly what we’ll get. The anticipation of the expected comfort—the … Continue reading →


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Posted in Books and Reading, Exactly What I Wanted | Tagged , , , | 64 Comments