I was noodling around on Facebook today when I saw a link to an article from the Associated Press, “Only black reporters allowed in Georgia mayoral race event.” The AP is one of the less biased sources of news out there, possibly because it’s the source for many other news media, so I’m inclined to take the piece at face value. So here’s what happened: Last night, a bunch of people (all black, from the way the article reads) went…
The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center has a video on their Facebook page of my great-grandmother, Pearl (Hopper) Martin, explaining how to make a spring tonic as part of a JFG tea commercial. As she explains in the video, After a cold winter, spring was the time to renew the spirit and tone up the system with a tonic, and the mountain people used to use tea for that. I don’t have the recipe; it wasn’t passed down to me….
It’s fairly common knowledge among my readers that I write under multiple pen names. What isn’t so common knowledge is that some of my stories across those pen names share the same story world, in this case the Sunshine Walkingstick Series (Celia Roman) and the Cullowhee Witches Series (Lucy Varna). The Cullowhee Witches Series came first and began life as the Witches of Cullowhee Series, which never generated much enthusiasm. I rebranded the covers for both books and republished them…
A few days ago, we received word that Richard, my editor, placed second in the Appalachian Narratives for Our Time essay contest judged by Appalachian author Silas House. His essay is entitled “From Moonshiner to Lawyer” and discusses the challenges of growing up within a moonshining family. Richard is an extraordinarily good story teller. I bugged him for years to start a blog sharing some of the stories he’s gathered over his life. A few months ago, he finally did….
February’s reading was slim, much like the month itself. I did read a few really great novels and some excellent short stories, so let’s dive right in. I finally (!) finished reading the January/February 2016 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Yes, it took me around three years to finish it, mostly because I kept setting it aside and forgetting about it, or getting distracted by other stories. I used to spend a ton of time with my grandmothers. Some…
Over the past few months, I’ve sneaked in some time to watch a few TV shows of the unusual sort, beginning way back in November. Here are the ones I liked the best, plus some shows I’ve already watched and some I’m looking forward to watching. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a Netflix original, was based on the old Archie comic book series. Netflix excels at transforming comic books into really awesome shows, and Sabrina is no exception. It’s a…
On 9 February 2014, I published my first novel, The Prophecy, under the pen name Lucy Varna. I’ve talked endlessly (ok, a lot) about the process I underwent to go from being a published author of non-fiction to being a published author of fiction, so I won’t repeat all that here. Even in blog posts, I hate repeating myself. What I never imagined half a decade ago is that I would go on to achieve so much in such a…
The year in books is off to a slow if interesting start, beginning with some short stories. “The Endless Lives of Kama” by William Delman at Daily Science Fiction explores the consequences of prescience. It can be enjoyed with or without pondering the deeper layers within the story, but those who enjoy oracle type stories will surely delve more deeply. “ILU-486” by Amanda Ching is predicated on the notion that there is a war on women coming from the right. Don’t…
Futurity recently published an article by Angie Hunt called “The case for teaching students to question ‘classic literature’” which discusses research by Jeanne Dyches into the way literature is selected and taught in high school classrooms. Dyches’ research involved asking a high school literature class to “[review] more than a century’s worth of national studies on the titles most commonly taught, national and local standards for recommended readings, as well as local and state curriculum policies.” Her “findings” include an increase…
A few weeks ago, I decided to write a completely new short story just for my monthly newsletter subscribers, a Dark Fantasy taken from a list of ideas I compiled last year when I was working on stories for Dreaming of a Dark Christmas. (That’s on sale for $.99 (US) right now, so if you haven’t read it, hop on over and pick up a copy.) The story is about a mischievous imp who, inspired by the hymn “Joy to…