Features

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Preserved: Fresh Salmon, Parts of My Body

Categories: Blog, Features

Anyone who reads my blog is probably aware that I have an unholy obsession with preserving foods, and that in 17 days I will undergo a life-changing operation, a double-mastectomy with reconstruction done on my healthy breasts. I’ve always cooked, and frankly eaten (hello, new 20-lb gut), to deal with stress, but lately, perhaps because I’m [...] Read More

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Charcuterie is Like Child Rearing…

Categories: Blog, Features

Some couples “practice” for children by getting a dog; my husband and I are evidently “practicing” with charcuterie (tr. “cooked flesh”), the art of making sausage, bacon, terrines, and cured meats. Like preparing for a child, charcuterie requires: a manual — an authoritative cookbook instead of a parenting tome items that the uninitiated would never have lying [...] Read More

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How to Read Twilight

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing, Features

Stephanie Meyer needs an editor. I contend that a writer gets one free "career" use of the term "smoldering eyes," but Meyer uses the verb at least five times, just in Twilight. (One of my close associates refers to this as "Cobalt Blue" writing) Don't get me started on her lazy and tedious obsession with gazes, eyes, and smiles. In a 498-page novel, there are 294 mentions of "eyes," at least 31 gazes, and 184 mentions of smiling characters. It's enough to make an MFA's eyes fill up with tears, as she... Read More

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I’m 27 and about to have a double mastectomy

Categories: Blog, Clips, Features

Even though I’m a healthy 27-year-old woman right now, I'm going to have both my breasts removed as a preventative measure because I’m a member of a very exclusive club: Like one out of 1,000 women, I have a genetic mutation that dramatically ups my chance of cancer. My gene — called the BRCA1 gene — gives me a 40 percent to 85 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, and a risk of ovarian cancer that is 30 percent to 70 percent higher than women who do not have this gene, according to... Read More

Celebrities: Gaming Nerds Like Us

Categories: Blog, Features, LARP

Gamers have officially entered America's zeitgeist. World of Warcraft had more than 11.5 million subcribers -- the same number as the total population of Cuba -- at the end of last year. It's old news that Ted Raimi of Superman and more importantly, Xena: Warrior Princess fame is set to direct a WoW movie.  But more and more celebrities are coming out of the closet as hardcore gamer geeks. This Daily Beast gallery (full disclosure: I contribute to the Beast's Cheat Sheet) of famous gamers has a few surprise appearances -- Dave Chappelle, Robin Williams, Curt Schilling -- as well as well-known gamers such as Vin Diesel and Elijah Wood. Read More

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I’m 27 and about to have a double mastectomy

Categories: Blog, Clips, Features
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Even though I’m a healthy 27-year-old woman right now, I'm going to have both my breasts removed as a preventative measure because I’m a member of a very exclusive club: Like one out of 1,000 women, I have a genetic mutation that dramatically ups my chance of cancer. My gene — called the BRCA1 gene — gives me a 40 percent to 85 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, and a risk of ovarian cancer that is 30 percent to 70 percent higher than women who do not have this gene, according to the Mayo Clinic.... Read More

Ethan Gilsdorf on Gamer Shame

Categories: Blog, LARP
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When I spoke to Ethan Gilsdorf about his new book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, we couldn't seem to get away from the idea of gamer shame. Basically, many gamers feel guilty and ashamed of their obsession with LARP, World of Warcraft, etc. In my own research on LARP, I've encountered a couple cases of gamer shame -- a long-time LARPer who hides his hobby from friends he's known for years, for fear of ridicule; a woman who doesn't want people at her office to find out about her weekends in the woods, because LARP is hard to explain and at first blush, sounds like a child-like past time; gamers who treat other forms of nerdularity -- massive multiplayer online games, Cosplay, and Rennaisance Faires -- with ridicule.... Read More

Lizzie Flashes: The Neighborhood

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing
Lizzie Flashes: The Neighborhood

My response to last week's "Restrained Impulse" exercise is below. I have to say, I'm not sure I hewed as close to the exercise as I could have. I wanted to present the story of a gang flunky who couldn't keep from laughing as a way of replicating Robert Hill Long's dynamic of a small girl who couldn't keep from dancing. A flaw in the story, I think, is that my main character doesn't have a strong relationship with a single person, as Long's girl does with her father. He also feels a little generic to me... Read More

Review: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing, LARP
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When I discovered that journalist Ethan Gilsdorf had written a book about gaming and fantasy culture, my first reaction was to curse his name for beating me to the punch. But if anything, Gilsdorf's Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks proves that the topic of why people chose to inhabit imaginary realms is so meaty that a single book couldn't possibly cover everything.... Read More

Lizzie Stark Flashes: The Restrained Impulse Exercise

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing
Lizzie Stark Flashes: The Restrained Impulse Exercise

I can't believe it's Wednesday already. This week's exercise is based on Robert Hill Long's "The Restraints," found on p. 131 of the book Flash Fiction, edited by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka.... Read More

Haute McNuggets

Categories: Blog, Clips
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Meet Erik Trinidad, the culinary wunderkind who turns Taco Bell burritos into ravioli, Subway sandwiches into Chinese stir-fry, and Boston Kremes into creme brulee. Daily Beast feature.... Read More

Lizzie Flashes: Daphne

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing
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Here's my response to last week's Meta Exercise. Since Julio Cortázar used a narrative piece of art, a novel, to construct his excellent short short. I thought I'd give myself a challenge and try to do the same thing with a less experiential sort of art, in this case, sculpture. Points to anyone who can identify the sculptor.... Read More

Lizzie Stark Flashes: The Meta Exercise

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing
Lizzie Stark Flashes: The Meta Exercise

Last week I neglected the blog due to a family emergency, but this week I'm back with a short-short exercise based on Julio Cortázar's "A Continuity of Parks," found on p. 137 of the book Flash Fiction, edited by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka.... Read More

Lizzie Stark Flashes: Soap

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing
Lizzie Stark Flashes: Soap

Imagine a bar of soap lying by the side of your sink. It's a flat, creamy beige block no bigger than a deck of cards, with edges that aren't quite plumb, smoothed by hand and water. You made it from skin-scarring lye and olive oil in the pot you use to make soup, carefully weighing the ingredients on a postal scale, and whirring them together with a hand blender, watching carefully for the signs of miraculous alchemy, the puddingy texture, the marks on the surface that stay turgid for a moment before vanishing. You poured the soap into a shoebox mold, and cured it in the open air for a month, to remove its green bite.... Read More

Putting Gender-Neutrality Into the Bible

Categories: Blog, Creative Writing

Glad to see this piece from the Associated Press pointing out that North America's top selling Bible, the New International Version will be updated to reflect changes in Biblical scholarship, including changes to some gender terms. The revision is scheduled to be published in 2011.... Read More