Celebrate! BRT was selected for the front-cover feature of a story on regional publications in early October’s Blue Ridge Business Journal, serving the large distribution area of the Roanoke Times.
 
We are a “niche” publication whose market niche is the reader who values culture. If you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains, you are in the Blue Ridge region. Many of our readers are not, and we offer them a hefty slice of our rich blue pie to savor whether they live in Seattle, St. Petersburg, or Santa Fe. BRT is for the winter armchair traveler as much as for the family in a van on a Virginia country side road, looking for a special place BRT has covered in an article, photo, or painting.
 
With this issue we begin a new regular feature: “Rt. 11—Mother Road of the Blue Ridge Region.” The first article in the series takes place in the Lexington area, in the Civil War. And one of the Linda Patrick paintings, “McCormick’s Mill,” also fits the theme. Each issue will feature a place, historic event, or story that ties into the Rt. 11 corridor. Get out your maps! Take little car trips along this route. Send us ideas.
 
Descriptions of holiday traditions in Botetourt County should draw you out in your car on a cold day. A Franklin County hunt, charms of a Montgomery County farm, Roanoke hotel life from the 1890’s, and a recipe to begin as soon as you read it, will make your November and December bright. Look for chickens in Rockbridge County, an Augusta County goat, Bedford boys sadly gone, a second marriage in Patrick County, and how a hurricane’s damage in Nelson County in 1969 gave birth to an artist. 
May your homes be warm, your families safe, your dreams rich, and your reading memorable. Listen for the whispers of the season. Treasure the language that weaves the culture together. Read. Write. Celebrate. Share. Pass the culture on through words.

 - Ibby Greer

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