Category Blog

My First Stint As a DM

My husband and I are trying our hands at DMing.  For those of you who aren't familiar, a Dungeon Master, or DM, runs a table top role playing game or a LARP.

Goodbye, Updike

I knew Fringe had to run a tribute to Updike when I broke the news to the editors and received this email in response: “Damn! No more girl-at-the-supermarket-has-nice-legs i’m-a-bastard-but-i-said-so-so-i’m-immune-from-criticism stories! Wait . . . . that’s probably not true at all.” Someone whose death could inspire such a sarcastic email surely deserved a deeper investigation, possibly from people who actually revered and were troubled by Updike (or Updick, as one ladies’ book club dubbed him many years ago). Sure, we’ve run a project trying to speed the demise of the all-white all-male canon , and personally, I’ve spent a fair amount of time being angry at the canon, and by extension Updike, Melville and Cormac McCarthy, but while I’m feeling generous toward the dead, I’ll say that it wasn’t Updike’s fault that people liked him, and his prolific output alone makes him worth emulating and eulogizing.I was surprised that when I heard the news about Updike, I felt a little sad. I only read his work when my MFA workshops forced me to. During our discussion of “Pigeon Feathers” I’m sure I used phrases like “hetero-patriarchal order,” which is one of my favorites to say aloud because it has so many syllables. But Updike had his finger on the pulse of a certain kind of life. Certain passages in “Pigeon Feathers” are stunning, and even if they’re tapping into the white hetero-patriarchal zeitgeist that our culture thrusts upon us, at least they tap into something real. For some time now, my anger at the canon has been receding and the likelihood that I’ll read a Rabbit novel has been rising. As one of my mentors might say, I’m lucky to have Updike to look forward to. And I’ll get right on it once I’m done with The Brief Wondrous Life […]

Introducing the Massive LARP Calendar

There's no single source of good LARP events on the web, in my experience.  Sure, Shade's LARP List has a lot of links, but many of them are dead or lead to groups that are no longer active. So I decided to start my own calendar of LARP events and conventions across the US, and to make it searchable via Google. But this behemoth is only as good as my information.

When the Game Carries Over

That in-game emotions sometimes spill over into the out of game world is one of the hazards of LARPing.  Say someone kills your character in-game, knowing that in doing so, they're causing your character to lose stats.  Would you bear them ill-will once the event is over? I always thought my answer would be no.  After all, it's the risk of conflict, penalty and the unknown plot point that makes LARP exciting.  But a few months ago I learned otherwise.

I Hate Rules

I love the idea behind LARP and tabletop role-playing -- that a group of people are getting together to collaboratively tell a story. But whenever someone explains the mechanics of a game to me, my eyes glaze over in seconds and I start thinking about what kind of hat my character would wear.

What is LARP?

I'm at work on a narrative nonfiction book about Live Action Role Play, also known as LARP. The book, tentatively titled Leaving Mundania, is the story of LARPers, self-described geeks who come from a variety of backgrounds and occupations.

News Shrink: Inside Blago’s Brain

It’s a story as old as politics: man is corrupted by power and implodes his career in spectacularly arrogant fashion. But not all corrupt politicians think like prostitutes.  The News Shrink cracks open Blagojevich's psyche.