Category Archives: Miscellanea

Miscellanea Jones

Once upon a time, when Yours Truly was a much smaller bit of miscellany, she became enchanted with the notion of keeping a diary.

And lo, one Christmas morning there it was, complete with lock and teeny-weeny key, and a page for each day of the year.  Every one of them.

Every single one.

Had Miss Miscellanea been a different sort of child, she may well have filled those pages calmly and diligently each day, with thoughts and reflections suitable to her age, and taking up exactly the same amount of space on the page, day after day.  But alas, she was not that kind of child.

Then, as now, she sometimes had a great deal to say, and at others very little at all, but the parameters provided by the diary would not allow for this.  And she was not — yet — the type of person who would feel comfortable (nay, rejoice!) in lining through an upcoming date to give herself more room to write (what if she needed that space for an unexpected excitement?  And of course going back to an earlier, unused page was unthinkable).

No, it was somehow important to her that each of those identically-sized pages bear a true report of that very day’s occurrences.  The result of this concern was page upon page of entries reading “Not much happened today,” generally penned in one sitting long after the fact.

On those occasions when she did, in fact, have something to air out, the intervening entries might be further reduced, to page upon page of “Ditto yesterday,” as though the many days between the few significant events would not have occurred at all without this token and ignoble acknowledgement.

The discovery of a “blank book,” a junior-high language arts assignment, was a revelation.  No dates!  Not even lines!  A beautifully bound, hardcover book, all ready to be filled, a line or a paragraph or several pages at a time, as current activity warranted.  A life-changing discovery.

Now, here we are, these many (many) years later, facing the digital approximation of those early volumes.  No longer tormented by a an indelibly dated page — and having given up her addiction to daily posts and the weird pleasure that derives from seeing all those hyperlinks lit up in the calendar archives — Misc. Jones celebrates the virtual return of the blank book.

Still, some days a great deal to say, others very little at all, but all offered in hopes that something will eventually emerge and take shape, free of constraints and that teeny-weeny key.

Valued Guests:

As we have increased our efforts in seeking out more family members to assist with Serial Jones, a strange thing has happened.  There are Joneses everywhere.  It seems the world is overrun with Joneses.

And they have taken many forms.

Here’s another one now:

The Coasters, 1965

Sigh.

Love that Lanky Jones.  (Oh, to be a damsel.)  There’s a rumor afloat that we’ll someday have a visit here at Serial Jones, but we’ll believe that when we see it.

(Note to Self:  Whenever possible, prepare post BEFORE engaging in techno-hell.)

Miscellanea Jones

More soon.  -MJ

Over the next few days, you may begin to see some strange things here at the mag.

Serial Jones is a family business, after all, and like many such businesses, extended family members are, on occasion, called in to help.  Being a magazine, a variety of content is what we’re after, and what better source of varied content than from our own crew of eccentrics?

We hope soon to welcome Urania Jones, astrologer extraordinaire, and dear Uncle Mercurio, with his host of unexpected treasures.

Cousin Jock has promised a sports article.  Kookie, our photography intern, can be rather unpredictable though she does from time to time manage to capture exactly what we need.

Lanky Jones is a busy, busy fellow but will stop in when he’s able.  Or so he claims.  We can’t ever be too sure.

As you can imagine, characters such as these have a way of attracting others, but we don’t mind.  You might say we have a jones for them.

Miscellanea Jones

Miscellanea Jones

This hasn’t exactly gone as planned.

I was perfectly content, living quietly behind the scenes while The Author wrote and wrote, day after day.

Until one day the indefatigable SJ suggested that perhaps it was not entirely necessary to publish daily.  Or, more precisely, that we need not publish fiction daily.  In fact, he proposed that we take a break from publishing fiction at all.

Having gotten myself into a very happy habit of that very practice, this has caused me no little consternation.

The notion of Serial Jones being anything less than a daily publisher was not (at the time) acceptable.  (We have since come around.)  But nonfiction?

Life is change, as they say.  Thus our first year in publishing (we can’t believe it, either) concludes, Ourobouros-like, with a beginning.

With the help of a few newcomers, we welcome you to Serial Jones, the… um… magazine.  Or something like that.

For starters, let’s get some visuals.  Here’s your first peek:

Serial Jones: World Headquarters

Who knows what awaits?

Welcome, again, to the ever-changing world of Serial Jones.