Bonus Post: Bringing Home the Bacon Keeps Bringing Home the Bacon

Learned that my Appalachian short story "Bringing Home the Bacon" was taught this semester at West Virginia University in Morgantown. Not a literature class, mind you -- a computer science course to teach students how to develop video games!

I don't know about you, but the wild and varied components of this situation delight and entice me. Picture some brilliant free-thinking young person who wants to develop video games. This individual is a computer science major at the state's premiere university. 

Interject my little tale about a middle-aged mountain woman who likely does not read or write, who instructs a young person on the finer points of hog butchering. 

Now, blend those two things together. Modern technology meets ancient tradition. Science fiction meets mountain culture. Who woulda thunk, I ask ya?

This little story was selected and honored by the West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State University for preserving traditional folklore. And in almost the same breath, was chosen to help video gaming programmers. Now THAT is a versatile tale!

When our stories were first accepted for publication in "Fed From the Blade," I whined to my dear friend Marion Kee "Your poem about Bill Withers will be taught and beloved in classrooms for generations to come, while my story will be read, grimaced over, shuddered about, then set aside and ne'er thought of again. You will go down in history!"

I may not go down in history, but hey, my story was taught in one classroom! And who knows, maybe it will inspire some bizarre video game -- although we both know that isn't going to happen. 

The Universe is so clever!

I love the Universe. ~~GH