Interview: RoadVirusBus

We said recently in a more contemporary retelling of The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn, Anthony Monday would become a page in a mobile library. Or perhaps the navigator of such a contraption. Or would Mr. Beemis be the navigator, with Anthony more of an engineer? Anyway, this thought popped into mind because news had popped into our inbox that book fans Em and Sade (with Em a professed fan of John Bellairs, too) had done just that. Started a mobile library, that is.  It's called the Road Virus and specializes in fringe literature such as horror, sci-fi, fantasy, poetry, and more.  Em (a former librarian) and Sade (an author) were on the road at the time with Jolene Lenore (that's the bookmobile).  We finally caught up to the road-weary readers and they were very kind to provide some answers to our questions.

Something About #MailPouchBarns

Lewis Barnavelt spotted Mail Pouch brand tobacco signs on the sides of barns along the road between New Zebedee and Cristobal (The Specter from the Magician's Museum; 90). Between 1890 and 1992, the West Virginia Mail Pouch Chewing Tobacco Company paid farmers to allow advertisements to be painted on their barns within view of roadways; usually hand-painted in black or red with yellow or white capital lettering that read “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco Treat Yourself to the Best.” At the height of the program in the early 1960s, there were about 20,000 Mail Pouch barns spread across 22 states.