Lizzie Stark

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

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

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

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

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

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. A Daily Beast feature.... Read More

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

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

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

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