Links: DosankoDebbie, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Seth Godin, Carla Marina Marchese

DosankoDebbie's Etegami Notebook In the beloved Japanese tradition, Debbie's etegami are both gorgeous and charming. Seriously, click on that link and feast!

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman on North Korean Writers in a Land of the Rising Sun

Seth Godin on Choosing Your Own Category (Before They Choose for You)
P.S. This is why I maintain a website with an author bio. (Ayy, people come up with the nuttiest ideas. Now there's another novel...)

Watch this brief and well-done video about backyard beekeeper and honey sommelier Carla Marina Marchese.

P.S. Now that we're all educated about artisanal honey, the next step is providing quality transparency in beeswax. A lot of the beeswax out there is recycled (hives are often stocked with starter frames) and plumb packed with fungicides and such. None of it is labeled.

Links Noted: West Texas Mini Clips, Literal, San Miguel, Honey, Glass Future, David Abram, Berlinica, Viral History, Listen Well, Burro Hall

My various mini clips (videos) of West Texas
(several new ones posted, starring Charlie Angell)


For Literal Magazine Blog, Rose Mary Salum interviews Yrs Truly about my translation of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911. I'll be reading from and discussing this book in San Miguel de Allende for PEN / Sol Literary Magazine on February 22nd. More info about that event here.

Speaking of San Miguel de Allende, I'll be at the writer's conference the weekend of February 18 and 19 (with Margaret Atwood, Joy Harjo, Elena Poniatowska, Araceli Ardón, Michael K. Schuessler, and many more) and then teaching a two day Techniques of Fiction workshop February 20 and 21. More info here.

Watch the Future According to Corning Glass, the upstate NY glass co. Bizarrely but crisply narrated by a British actor (uh daye en tha fyu-cha)

Oh, you thought you were eating honey? Think again (ewww).

The Author's Guild Says Publishing's Eco-System on the Brink (Oh well!)

Lyn Buchanan sees a lot, tells a lot (seriously good interview)

Listen in to Margaret Dulaney's Listen Well

Eduardo Jimenez Mayo (are we cousins? could be!) and Chris N. Brown, editors of Three Messages and a Warning guest-blogging at Large-hearted Boy
P.S. My translation of Agustin Cadena's short story "Murrillo Park," in this collection, and I blogged for Large-hearted boy myself back in 2009. It was a most interesting musical exercise.

Texas State Drought Monitor Map
(ouch)


Photos of the Egyptian house on Casa Piedra Road (near Presidio TX)
P.S. You can really surf around in there, quite interesting. I like the star-gazing platform.

Newt Gingrich, Spicey Dude! Courtesy of Ken Ackerman's Viral History blog

David Abram on Storytelling and Wonder: On the Rejuvenation of Oral Culture

The Flower Girls: Mennonites in Mexico

Berlinica is now in the e-book game, check out their latest iBook
P.S. Read founder Eva Schweitzer's guest-blog post for Madam Mayo here.

Burro Halls Posts Even More More Pug Pix!
(It has yet to top this one, however).

HoneyBee News

Excellent new honey bee site. Watch the Bee Video News.

Hattie Ellis's Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee

New on my list of recommended literary travel memoirs is British journalist Hattie Ellis's elegantly written and deeply researched Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee. Travel on a spoon from Surrey to Sicily, and Paris parks to New York City rooftops--- and gain an all new appreciation of this nectar from heaven, and the reason why bees can tell us more about ourselves than any other creature. (Except, well, pugs. Had to get that in there.) More anon.