We’re back with Byte-Size Blair, our weekly wrap-up of all things social media. If you’re not already following us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest, give us a look.
Wow! We can’t believe it’s almost July. The end of June has brought with it big thunderstorms and a nice little cool snap (which is now, sadly, over), as well as some of our favorite posts of the summer so far!
1. 
Blair employee Artie suggested a great post last week, one to celebrate the 109th anniversary of Moonlight Graham’s brief career as a professional baseball player. There’s a whole lot more to the story and you can read about it here. In the photo above, see Artie celebrate Moonlight’s anniversary his own way, by reading Chasing Moonlight at SEA-TAC on his way home from an Alaskan vacation. Welcome back to the sticky Southern summer, Artie!
2. In other news from our beloved backlist, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break was just named one of SIBA’s Lady Banks’ favorite Proustian books of the summer. What does that mean? You’ll have to read to find out. And once you do, you can find a good porch chair, a cold glass of tea, and revisit Minotaur, which has recently received quite a bit of love as one of Telegraph’s 10 Best Food & Drink Books of All Time.
3. We pinned this great video from our friends over at Our State Magazine about two buddies in search of all of Stone Mountain Park’s historic stills. With over 150 discovered, no wonder Wilkes County is sometimes called the moonshine capital of the world. Although Virginia’s often the focus of many moonshine myths and legends, we know more than a few from our native state.
4. Our #FridayFollow this week was also an announcement for a great new program from NC LIVE. Now through the end of the year, NC LIVE’s Homegrown Initiative will provide state libraries with access to e-books published by North Carolina presses, John F. Blair among them. We thought it was a great time to celebrate our friends and neighbors on social media.
5. Last but not least, Steve Almond, who wrote Lookout Books’ distributed title God Bless America and contributed a story in their Astoria to Zion, recently had a great post up on AWP’s Writer’s Notebook. We thought we’d post our tweet about it instead of our tumble because Steve Almond also recently relented and got a Twitter account and the world needs to know!
We’ll see you next week for more Byte-Size Blair, and for now, enjoy this picture of our president’s husband and their adorable golden Carmen (with a stylish summer buzz cut), taking a break on the Mountain-to-Sea trail last month.
John F. Blair, Publisher 