Tag Archives: memoir

The story of a chess game

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Brian Bixby

Games are something like stories. In role-playing games, the connection is obvious, but it’s true even of board games. So I want to tell the story of one such game, a game of chess. I was on my high school’s … Continue reading →

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Death of a hat

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Brian Bixby

Besides visiting a fellow blogger, my partner E.J. and I spent several days last month in Normandy. Neither of us had been there before. Friends of ours own a pre-Revolutionary farmhouse that has come down through their family. Considering that … Continue reading →

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Inspiration in a letter from the past

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Just today I stumbled across a letter I had long forgotten, a letter I wrote my parents on their 39th wedding anniversary. That was over 23 years ago. They saved it.♥ There was one passage that explains a lot about … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Writing fiction | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

For love of maps

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Brian Bixby

I grew up a map fiend. No, this is not a statement of my spiritual status, but instead a proclamation of an abiding interest in maps. When I was a kid, we got many maps through National Geographic Magazine, which tended … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

How did the reading habits of your parents affect you?

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Brian Bixby

My parents were both firm advocates of education and voracious readers. My father liked the books he grew up with, and history books, while my mother was more inclined to British murder mysteries and American paperback novels. Initially, this affected … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Misadventures while nearsighted

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Brian Bixby

I’m nearsighted. Been that way for a long time. Don’t always have my eyes checked until I notice the prescription is off. So I tend to be cautious around things I haven’t really looked at. The cartoonist James Thurber (1894 … Continue reading →

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Abigail Lane begins her investigation of the Office, 1934

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Brian Bixby

An extract from the unpublished memoir of Abigail Lane, in response to a reader’s request. This memoir was found in a box in Miss Lane’s house in Connecticut when it was being demolished in 2008. Although I had offered him … Continue reading →

Posted in Dragon Lady, Writing fiction | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Abigail Lane: a biography

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Brian Bixby

As she has appeared in two stories on this blog, here is a brief biography of Abigail Lane, Practicing Magician, Office of Occult Affairs. Abigail Lane was born on November 18, 1851, the only daughter of an impoverished Connecticut cooper, … Continue reading →

Posted in Dragon Lady, History, Nightfeather, Writing fiction | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

A forgotten chapter in the history of the Sillyverse

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Brian Bixby

Frank Wilson (1886 – 1970), Chief of the Secret Service from 1937 to 1946, decided to write his memoirs in the aftermath of the JFK assassination. They were published as Special Agent: A Quarter Century with the Treasury Department and … Continue reading →

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Chapter 21 of Martha’s Children, and the college trip

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Brian Bixby

Detective Sherlock Kammen is willing to trail his boss to find out where Martha and her sorceress are. But how far will he go when the trail leads to one of Ned’s family members? Find out in “Happy in this, … Continue reading →

Posted in Martha's Children, Writing fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments