“Just take a bite.” She appraised him suspiciously, then dropped her jaw like a snake and bit into the pitaya’s flesh. “What is this?” she mumbled around ravenous bites. “It’s called a pitaya. Tons of vitamin C and calcium. Our scientists blended in genes from a legume to—.” A wet mouthful of pulp flew across... Continue Reading →
Sci-Fi Strikes Back: How Genre Fiction Can Combat Scientific Censorship
No longer content to misshelve his favorite fictions in the non-fiction section of our national discourse, our new Librarian in Chief now wants to ban the entire 500 class of the Dewey decimal system: science. Last week the Trump administration issued a so-called “gag order” banning federal science institutions—including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Agriculture, and Department of... Continue Reading →
Cultivating Plots: How to Grow your Series
After a wild winter here in the mid-Atlantic, spring has finally arrived. Daffodils bob on the highway medians, the famous local cherry trees cast pink carpets under my feet when I run, and my Laddie gulps allergy pills with his morning coffee. I can’t wait to get my hands in the soil, but for the... Continue Reading →
T5W: Best Suggested Books I Loved
It's been a while since my last T5W! I almost missed this one, but tweets from a few of my favorite book bloggers inspired/shamed me into last-minute participation. Not surprisingly, the people closest to me are devoted bibliophiles. I've read many, many books on their recommendations. The following are just a few enduring favorites I've discovered... Continue Reading →
The Literature Museum: Sci-Fi and Sexism
“Think of it as the literature museum,” my father told me when I was fifteen. I was a dually-enrolled high school student at the local college, and frustrated with some of the ideas I encountered in the curriculum’s so-called classic novels. Dad, a veteran English major himself, helped me contextualize the antiquated stories by likening... Continue Reading →
Recent Reads: The Maddaddam Trilogy
After several weeks of compulsive reading, I just finished the Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy. Few series are engrossing enough to compel me to read all of them in succession, but this one joins The Warlord Chronicles and The Hunger Games trilogies on my short list of exceptions. Even if dystopian fiction isn't your thing, it's... Continue Reading →