Ancient Veterinary Magic
In an article for The Smithsonian, John Last examines veterinary care of the middle ages, which relied on superstition and magic as much as...
The Conflicting Origins of Utah’s Kay’s Cross
On the outskirts of Kaysville, Utah, stands a crude, 20-foot cement and stone cross marked with a large letter K. Known to locals as Kay’s...
The First Named Author is a Woman
The first author to be named in all recorded history is a woman: Enheduanna, a Mesopotamian poet, princess, and priestess. Enheduanna is relatively unknown,...
What’s Your Unsolved Mystery?
This week's Write the Book prompt was suggested by guest Rebecca Valley, author of the chapbook The Salvageman and Curious Cases: True Crime for Kids -...
Halloween in Ancient Scotland
An article on The Scotsman shares ancient Celtic customs and concepts for the holiday. "Modern customs like carving pumpkins or ‘trick-or-treating’ that we see...
Mr. Trick and Mrs. Treat
What could you conjure with characters named Mr. Trick and Mrs. Treat?
In April 1849, Mr. Trick and his family emigrated from England to the...
Who Lit the Fires of Devil’s Night?
Another story about Halloween traditions, this one a bit less savory than bonfires and fortune-telling games.
As recently as the late 1980s, Halloween Eve in...
More Halloween Traditions for Your Fictional Parties
Halloween today is different than when most of us were young, when packs of elementary and middle school kids wandered neighborhoods with only minimal...
This AI Can Let You Speak to the Dead
New technology could soon allow us to talk to digital replicas of our deceased friends and family members. HereAfter AI conducts interviews with the...
A Secret Language of Women
In 19th-century China, women in the county of Jiangyong in Hunan Province developed their own way of writing, and researchers are still trying to...
