We lost a great lover and teller of stories, and a great friend and mentor, in April. Norma Vecellio Lugar, editor of Mountain Homes and senior editor of The Roanoker ( BRC 's sister magazines), passed away while undergoing treatment for a second bout of c...

When I was in college, majoring in English and writing for the school paper (the James Madison University Breeze ), my uncle picked up a magazine and showed it to me, a magazine he loved to read. I looked through its pages and thought, "those are the ki...