What would it take for a girl to get her name on a plaque around here?

Angie Spoto
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

When I walk through a new city, especially a historical city like York, I’m reminded of the crazy (sad? disappointing? enraging?) fact I learned this year: the city of Edinburgh has more statues of dogs than women.

Yikes.

York seems to be just as dominated by male statues and plaques about historical figures (which I always stop to read, even if it’s inconvenient to do so; I blame my parents for this — thanks for ‘dragging’ me to historical stuff all my life, Mom and Dad!) BUT there is one particularly cool figure of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, that I’ve already made a pseudo-spiritual connection with.

This statue sits on the corner of a street with two of my favourite shops in York — The Minister Gate Bookshop and Cocoa & Sweet.

Case in point.

You’d think Cocoa & Sweet — a gorgeous old-fashioned candy shop with probably the most beautiful window display in all of York — would only sell candy but that’s not true — they have an amazing selection of cards and art prints and little notebooks.

Being the clever writer I am, I forgot to bring a notebook with me to York. But I found a set of three beautiful bizarre nautical-themed notebooks at Cocoa & Sweet. What’s amazing is that each notebook is different on the inside — one is lined, one is blank, and one has graph paper. Wow.

Mission accomplished before noon, I spent the rest of the day wandering around the York Minister and missing my little dog Watson. I wrote some poetry, too.

Yarn around the Minster.
I miss my pup.

I thought perhaps I’d feel up to working on my novel, The Grief Nurse, but I was feeling a bit burned out. I spent the week overhauling the plot. Basically, I wrote each existing chapter onto notecards (colour-coded, of course, by POV character) and then wrote new notecards for the bits I haven’t written — most of the second and third acts.

I haven’t decided if the fact that my novel takes up most of the hallway is overwhelming or exciting…

In other news, I’ve been consuming some pretty awesome new media lately. Firstly, Netflix’s series GLOW. If you never thought you’d fall in love with a show about wrestling, you’re wrong.

I’ve also started the new podcast Secret Feminist Agenda. The guest speakers are women who put feminist theory into practice in small and awesome ways.

Thanks for reading!

A.

Angie Spoto

Written by

Fantasy fiction writer. Poet. Nascent front end web developer. www.angiespoto.com @Angie_Spoto

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