61 Comments

Joyce, you are so much a part of BACKSTORY SERIAL....you ARE the backstory! The photos you send us of "house cows!" The ideas for knitting patterns! Just the odd fact of a JOYCE VANCE existing on this planet is an inspiration to Mary, Jen and me!

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Alright, my SubStack is lighting up about Backstory Serial. I may be an old male, but I love a good read and can’t turn down Joyce’s recommendation. Since I now look forward to posts about her chickens, I’m all in when it comes to a story with a pet cow. I just subscribed. Oh, and thanks for that other stuff: sticking it to Trump!

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E. Jean Carroll, it turns out YOU had the biggest nuclear button of all the tyrants! Brava!

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I couldn’t agree more. You’ve inspired us too E. Jean.

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Funny thing, at first glance I thought the woman in the middle was Joyce, and not only because she was holding a bird -- a parrot, not a hen, but you know . . .

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The yarn shop and the pet cow were the hooks for me!

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I just want to say thank you E. Jean Carroll. Thank you (you, and all of us, know why).

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Ms. Joyce Vance: I could be a fan of the pet cow.

Circa 1957, when I was a 9-year-old boy, in then rural Orange County, California, St Pius V Parish (Buena Park, under Fr. Cass) held an auction that included a cow, whom I'll personalize with the name, Bessie.

Bessie's eyes were adorable, and this 9-year-old boy asked Mom and Dad what would become of Bessie, and I was upset with the answer, because Bessie had endeared herself to me.

So, yes, I'll be a fan of the pet-cow. Name her!

I love Pickles and the hens and chicks, whose pictures cheer me every day!

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I'm really going to need a house cow after this! This is one of my favorite videos of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_hbqty9UI Except that I would be saying, okay, c'mon in, do you need a little snack?

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Love the video! 😂

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The best video short ever.

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You make me yearn for a chicken coop and a few other creatures.

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The cow is key, Armand!

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Armand our cows name was Beauty, a wonderful, gentle big Holstein. She gave us calves and a lot of milk.

I am so looking forward to reading this book. A beautiful setting with a cow. Perfect!

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This looks like a fun project. I have just one comment about the pets. As someone who has dedicated my life to animals, and dogs in particular, I am _truly_ hoping the dog who looks like a Poodle mix is a rescue. He looks like he could possibly be a Bernese Mt Dog mixed with a small Poodle. Why a rescue? Because there is _no such thing_ as a responsible breeder of these mixes (or any mixes). Currently, the BMDCA and other BMD rescues are swamped with hundreds of Berners being dumped by puppy mills who have been using them to produce these mixes. Hundreds per week. These dogs require longtime fostering, because they have never been exposed to the world outside of the mill where they had litter after litter. Newer rescues of Poodle mix dogs, popularly called "doodles" are also swamped with dogs being used and tossed aside for this fad. I know this is way off topic, but I just had to say it. If anyone wants to get a Poodle mix, please, please, rescue one, do _not_ support the puppy mills and for-profit breeders of these dogs. Never buy a puppy online or from a pet store. The same goes with any purebreds who come from for-profit breeders, of course. Responsible breeders can be found through national and regional breed clubs.

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I subscribed immediately seeing as I subscribe to and follow the three contributors. I am addicted to novels and some nonfiction (legal and politics). This is going to be fun.

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Thank you, Patricia!

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I, too, fell in love with YA novels while teaching British Lit in high school - my granddaughter was/is an avid reader (now at Penn State in architecture!) and was always asking for the next good book/series. Have you read any of the Fablehaven series? Lots of good series by that author - all fun stuff. Also, National Geographic has an Explorer Academy series which my youngest grandson (8 1/2) loves. Another really good series is by Lisa Scottoline, called the Viral Series. As an aside, btw, I truly appreciate your voice on all things legal re: the unprecedented (I hate that word now) times we are going through. Ever since the first time I saw you way back in the early days of the 2x-impeached ex, I have appreciated your clear-eyed view and drop everything when you come on MSNBC. Keep it up! Oh, and I love the chickens!

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So fun we're thinking the same way. I recently started the romance/comedy-of-manners thing. Just reread Madame Bovary and finished Emma just last night. Great experience to read these again, 40 years later! And there are some wonderful readers on Audible. (Just be careful of the "abridged.")

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Just settled next on The Razor's Edge to break up the feast and help me keep my appreciation fresh for the Period, get the male "existential" side for balance. Rereading all the many books so many years later has its own, greater, reward. I not only see how the book has "aged" but how I've grown. I also see and appreciate so much more in the writing, things I'd not noticed, couldn't yet notice. Oh joy!

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Oh my! I’ve now decided on George Elliot’s Middlemarch read to me by Juliet Stevenson. I need to continue with her voice (combined with Elliot’s power!) right now. I remember loving Daniel Deronda when I was 19 or so but don’t recall giving Middlemarch its due. Btw I love seeing what everyone’s reading here. Thank you Joyce!

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Thank you Joyce always enjoy reading your articles, opinions. Yes we are in this together.👏👏❤️❤️

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You guys make me feel so lazy 😜❤️🙌🏼

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Can’t wait to read it!!

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You're gonna eat it up, Michelle!

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I’m so happy to see the collaboration of such smart, brave and compassionate women! 😊❤️

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Well I super loved the first episode. Cannot wait for all the rest! ❤️

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Perfect. These three women are people i always like to hear from .

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Ok. I’m in. It will be my first romance novel.

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What a wonderful idea and project, including to use Substack. I wish them success.

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A reader like Juliet Stevenson makes that Period come alive with her perfect diction. You can feel the class differences even more acutely.

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Enjoy what your head and heart desires. I have little romance left in my memory bank so it is always welcomed to hear there is still romance out there, if only in books.

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I absolutely love what Mary, E. Jean and Jen are doing with this serialized novel and it pairs quite nicely with the other novel I'm reading, Lucy Jane Bledsoe's excellent A Thin Bright Line. It's a lesbian love story set during the height of the Cold War and Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s and 60s and the origins of climate research.

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