Food and dining in the Roman Empire and a pesto-like preparation, somewhat similar to pizza or focaccia. Maintaining a bread oven is labor-intensive and requires space, so apartment dwellers probably prepared their dough at home, then had it baked in a communal oven. Mills and commercial ovens, usually combined in a bakery complex, were considered so vital to the wellbeing of Rome that several religious festivals honored the deities who furthered these processes—and even the donkeys who toiled in the mills. Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, was seen as complementary to Ceres, the goddess of grain, and donkeys were garlanded and given a rest on the
Echoes of the Goddess book publication. The stories follow the fortunes of various characters living on a magic-ridden far future Earth in the age of chaotic miracles between the death of the world's latest divinity, the Goddess, and the birth of a new one. Among the protagonists are a wizard's shadow striving to become human, two fratricidal brother sorcerers engaged in a feud lasting centuries, a musician who becomes lord of death, a visionary boy priest, and a witch in love with a god. The collection was reviewed by Richard A. Lupoff in "Locus" no. 629, June 2013. Echoes of the Goddess Echoes of