Sweet greetings!

Happy Pi Day!

IMAGE: This mathematically delectable dessert was created by the PBS News Hour's Facebook friend and birthday girl Kay Sweet in 2015 (find out what was so special about Pi Day 2015). By now the pie's all gone, but we still can savor it in our hearts.

Honoring K9 veterans

Today is National K9 Veterans Day in the United States. It's an annual observance on March 13, the anniversary of the date in 1942, when the Army started training for its War Dog Program.

Go to Military Working Dog Adoptions for more information on giving one of these retired veterans a forever home.

This is the header for the National K9 Veterans Day Facebook Page, by graphic designer Chris Crawford.

Chris Crawford, the designer of the National K9 Veterans Day Facebook group's composite illustration, added these notes about her illustration:

"The dogs depicted are the Belgian Malinois, Doberman, mixed breed, Labrador, and Husky and, of course, the German Shepherd in silhouette at the bottom. 

The breeds are commonly used working dogs. German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois are the most common working breeds now and in the past. The Doberman was used extensively In WW2, particularly in the Marine Corps, and the Husky and other northern breeds were used to carry equipment and pull sleds in WW2 and during the Cold War. 

The mixed breed dog in the center is Stubby, of WWI fame, but he's representing all the mixed breeds and unusual breeds used by the armed forces and civilian agencies."

I thought I should finish off this post with my all-time favorite tribute to Military Working Dogs and their handlers, by Josh Tannehill. You've seen it on this blog before, but it bears re-posting!

Image created by Josh Tannehill.

These magnificent animals have no choice in whether they will defend our country and our troops--but they give the full measure of their devotion and provide an important force-multiplying factor. We owe it to them to honor them, and make sure they are well cared for throughout their lives.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Tails of a Foster Mom for the "Honor our Veterans" adoption poster-image, to the National K9 Veterans Day Facebook Page and graphic designer Chris Crawford, for the inspirational composite image with the silhouette, and I am deeply appreciative to Josh Tannehill for the "I am the Sheepdog" image. 

How to stay creative

The Artdog Quote of the Week

Angelou had good reason to know this truth. Like love, like generosity, like any attitude, discipline, or craft that you practice, the more you practice it, the richer your store.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Brain Pickings, via The Fox is Black, for this image and Maya Angelou quote, featuring artwork by Lisa Congdon.

Our history goes way back--but also forward

The Artdog Image of Interest

I love the vision implied in the illustration that is today's Image of Interest. Women's History Month calls us to look at our journey: where we have been, certainly. What we have done, and how we have made progress, most definitely.

But the arc of history is long, and it has not finished its trajectory. We build on gains our mothers made. Our mothers built upon the work of our grandmothers. The line goes back, and back, and back. But it also goes forward. God willing, to our daughters, and granddaughters, and on.

We strive for ourselves but also for them. What new stones will they lay, what new bridges will they build, and what new vistas will they explore? It's up to us to make sure they have the tools, the material, and the vision to keep moving forward.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution (some really good material on that site, for those interested!), a project of Clio Visualizing History. I hope you'll take a long look and explore both! Unfortunately, I couldn't find an illustrator credit.

Becoming Weird Sisters Publishing

Gigi Sherrell Norwood

Regular readers of this blog (if you are one, THANK YOU!!) may recall that I've published at least one guest-post by my sister, Gigi Sherrell Norwood (Orchestra Dreams). 

What you may not know is that she is herself a talented writer, and she's also the widow of science fiction writer Warren C. Norwood.

Yes, we're kind of a cottage industry all in the family (and that's not even counting the emerging editorial expertise of my son and frequent sf convention companion Tyrell Gephardt). 

It was perhaps inevitable that we'd do the writing/publishing equivalent of saying, "Hey! Let's put on a show!" (note: Gigi has a BFA in theatre).

The result is Weird Sisters Publishing LLC, a small press publishing enterprise registered (as of February) and operating out of Kansas. As you might guess from our name, Gigi's studies included an emphasis in Shakespeare. And, we must face it, we've never exactly been conventional. 

"Weird Sisters" just kind of fit.

We're starting our enterprise with my debut novel, What's Bred in the Bone, to be released in May, as well as an urban fantasy novella by Gigi, titled Deep Ellum Pawn, later in the summer. 

We hope to follow that soon with more of my XK9 novels, and six of the novels in Warren's catalogue, the rights to which have reverted to his estate (AKA Gigi). We plan new covers, and a full range of formats. 

Gigi also is in possession of two unpublished novels by Warren, and we are in pursuit of other titles whose ownership is less clear.

Gigi has several other novels in her backlist, not written in collaboration with Warren (she collaborated on some of the Time Police series with him, as did Mel Odom). 

We're not currently seeking submissions for Weird Sisters Publishing, but that might change in the future. We plan to focus on character-driven science fiction, urban fantasy, and related works.

IMAGES: Gigi provided the photo of herself. It is used with her permission. Cover art for What's Bred in the Bone is ©2019 by Jody A. Lee, and is used with her permission.

How quotes about women in the arts . . . mostly weren't.

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

In recognition of Women's History Month, I thought I'd focus on quotes about women in the arts as this month's theme.

Yeah, try Googling that phrase under "images." The quote that seemed to come back with just incredible frequency was this one:

Um, EXCUSE ME, but what does that have to do with Women in the Arts?

One image that came up near the top of the search results is a poster visible on the Tate website (but not available for reposting) about the very tongue-in-cheek "advantages" of being a woman artist in 1988. "Advantage" #1, "Working without the pressure of success," gives a taste of how the list is oriented.

Then compare a couple of other quotes that came up several times:

Okay, that's fairly hopeful, if dated, but then there's this:

Well, as they used to say, ain't that a kick in the head? I don't think either gender comes off looking too good, in Beecham's estimation. In the age of Harvey Weinstein, however, it's hard to say he was inaccurate about the existence of "unscrupulous men."

Number one that came up was from an article about conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, and it's not exactly a paean of optimism, either:

I . . . sorry. After spending a stimulating month of February reading engrossing fiction by women such as Becky Chambers, Diana Wynne Jones, Martha Wells, Jennifer Foehner Wells, and Nnedi Okorafor, and having recently delighted in the artwork of Simini Blocker, Karen Ann Hollingsworth, and Jody A. Lee, not to mention amazing new artwork being produced (but not yet posted online) by Lucy A. Synk, I actually felt pretty good about women in the arts.

I genuinely thought I'd find a more optimistic range of quotes. Frankly, sisters, we owe ourselves a better set of quotes. What's on offer is pathetic.

Are things perfect? No. Humans aren't, so human things won't be. But things don't have to be uniformly bleak. Women in ALL of the arts are doing amazing things. If no one else is talking about it, then we ought to begin.

IMAGES: The Helen Rowland quote about bachelors is from Quote HD. So is the Hedy Lamarr quote. The Thomas Beecham quote is courtesy of Quotefancy. The "Rules you live by" quote-image comes from a thoughtful essay by Lauren C. Byrd on her "Make Art History" blog.

Signs and signals of Jim Crow

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest 

All too many Americans can remember a time--not so long ago, and not so far away as to give us any comfort--when signs like these were posted to keep them out.

When public spaces like these were all too common.

When people accepted this as "normal." Even as "right."

Photo by Dorothea Lange, taken June, 1937 in Leland, Mississippi.

We live today in an era of rising white supremacy groups. They would tear down the all-too-fragile gains we've made for equity, civil rights, and justice for all.

We must be vigilant. We must call out hate and bigotry wherever we see it. We must not let this kind of intolerance rise again.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Tes Blendspace for the composite of segregationist signs; to Georgetown Law's article "The Jim Crow South," for both the Imperial Laundry sign and the photo of "white" and "black" water fountains; and to DayOnePatch for the "No Spanish or Mexicans" sign. I also appreciate WGCU (Ft. Myers, FL PBS & NPR) for the photo of the segregated Ft. Myers bus,  as well as an interesting interview with one of the Americans mentioned above, whose memories of the Jim Crow era are all too fresh; and the Wikimedia Commons for the 1937 Dorothea Lange photo of the Rex Theatre for Colored People in Leland, MS. For more such photos, visit the Library of Congress page on photos of signs enforcing racial discrimination.