Category Features

Go Buy Nordic Larp Right Now

Have you ever wanted to larp in a real submarine? What about an abandoned nuclear reactor? Or maybe you’re interested in fighting a giant dragon that actually breathes real fire? ZOMG! You can find out what it feels like and…

A Year Later

A year ago today, I cut off my healthy breasts to reduce my astronomical chances of developing breast cancer. The months leading up to the operation were brutal, to say the least. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m really glad I did it.

Charcuterie is Like Child Rearing…

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…

How to Read Twilight

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It's enough to make an MFA's eyes fill up with tears, as she collapses sobbing into her unpublished, but smoldering, manuscript.

Of course, my husband and I are reading the book aloud to each other anyway. While individually, our tastes skew to concept sci-fi and literary fiction, our collective taste tends toward middle-brow genre novels featuring vampires, medieval fantasy, or other stuff written for teenagers.