Ancient Grains Archive

A List Of Pop-Culture Items I Have Been Irrationally Afraid Of

“Guilty Conscience,” Eminem – I was afraid of cursing. Technically that’s an understatement because at the time I was afraid of almost everything, but I was especially afraid of cursing. The first time I heard this song, in the summer of 2000 (kids who are afraid of cursing are not the kind who ...Read More

The Gifts of the Giving Tree

Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy. And everyday the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest. He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches and eat apples. And the apples stained his mouth a strange color and it wasn't green and ...Read More

Literary Airlines

Jane Air  "Thanks for flying Jane Air. Are you escaping for business or for pleasure? Will you be stowing any wives today?" King LearJet "Welcome to LearJet. Are you traveling alone, or like two birds i'the cage?" The Quiet American Airlines "One has to take sides, if one is to remain human. Your side is just past ...Read More

A Second Female Author Talks About Sexism and Self-Promotion

When Sarah Rees Brennan asked me to write a companion essay to her piece on the many issues women face in self-promotion, I had just returned from a trip to Austin, Texas, where I was promoting my most recent novel, Inheritance, at the Austin Teen ...Read More

A Female Author Talks About Sexism and Self-Promotion

I am going to say "bitch" a lot. I do not like or use the word much, but I'm going to be talking a lot about reaction to female creators, and this is the only way I know how to discuss the experience of getting that word over and over again, until ...Read More

A Partial But By No Means Exhaustive List of Pigs, Dogs and Swans in the Works of P.G. Wodehouse

Previously: A Partial But By No Means Exhaustive List of Egg References in the Works of P.G. Wodehouse "'Talking of being eaten by dogs, there’s a dachshund at Brinkley who when you first meet him will give you the impression that he plans to convert you into a light snack between his regular ...Read More

Sad Limericks

A Successful Poet Is Selling Poetry He has really nailed it this time, he is fairly sure. No matter what the workshop junkies said about his old “limpdick collection.” Forget all those auto-rejections from Poetry magazine. (Nearby, Pike Place salesman smack halibuts down on ice.) He’s got a whole new approach this ...Read More

Please Stop Buying Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

We need to have a serious conversation about this. I only want to help you. I also get a lot of emails from Feel the Burn-ers asking me how to cook meat, because I eat a ton of meat, and seem like someone who knows how to cook it (you are ...Read More