I have written extensively for Gender Focus<\/a>, Hardcore Droid<\/a>, and MOGUL<\/a>.<\/p>\n I’m also co-writing a science fiction story about Ladies in Space<\/a> with my good friend Katie Li<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an icebreaker moment. A pleasant person seeks to know me better. They ask me where I\u2019m from, which is apparently a casual, normal thing to ask someone. And instead of the name of a town or some other succinct answer to the question posed before me, they get a non sequitur about my father. My father the Marine. This conversation fills me with a very specific type of anxiety.<\/p>\n I\u2019m from everywhere. I\u2019m from nowhere. Do they think I\u2019m showing off? It\u2019s entirely too complicated. It\u2019s altogether more information about me than they wanted, I\u2019m sure. Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I couldn\u2019t write. I felt trapped, breathing that same hot air in my apartment, sun beating down into my front room. I packed up my journal and went for a walk, sucking cool harbor breezes into my lungs to purify my sticky, humid mind.<\/p>\n Boston is having a spectacular weather day. It\u2019s bright and sun-shiny, puffy white clouds, like the city is mocking my sour mood. I hit the Greenway, head nodding along to My Chemical Romance. \u201cI am not afraid to keep on living; I am not afraid to walk this world alone.\u201d People never say anything to me when I walk down the street with tears streaming down my face. It\u2019s just as well. I don\u2019t really want to hear anything they could possibly tell me. Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n My spouse and I are seeking permanent birth control, and the entire process has been difficult. At this point, we are sick to death of unsolicited advice on the subject (Pro-tip: If someone you don\u2019t know says they\u2019re not judging you, they are judging you.<\/em>) Everyone\u2019s heart is in the right place, I can only assume. People think they are telling us new information that will keep us from making what they perceive to be a mistake. I get that they\u2019re trying to help. But we continually find ourselves defending this very personal decision to total strangers. So to keep myself from screaming, I\u2019m going to outline why the condescension disguised as concern is totally unfounded. Trust us. We\u2019ve thought it through. Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Depending on which boots he is wearing and how long it has been since his last hair cut, my husband is around six feet tall. In our pre-furniture weeks as newlyweds his poor feet stretched over the bottom edge of a queen-sized air mattress. After a few paydays of saving, our first major purchase as husband and wife was a king-sized bed. I watched him assemble it with his bare hands and new tools. We picked out a striped bedspread for our first piece of linen. We splurged on Egyptian cotton sheets and declared this bed to be more comfortable than a cloud made of butter stuffed with baby kittens. Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I must sound like a broken record. I know people must get sick of hearing it, because I get sick of saying it, but we live in a rape culture. […] This latest wave of frustration was set in motion by a post on CampusBasement.com entitled \u201c10 Ways to Fool a Sorority Girl Into Bed.\u201d The post has since been taken down, but lives on forever in screenshots (and our nightmares).\u00a0Read More>><\/a><\/p>\n This Halloween my husband and I stayed in and cuddled up with Funfetti cupcakes and a movie. We capped off our week-long 90\u2019s Halloween movie marathon with a favorite from my childhood, The Nightmare Before Christmas<\/i>. I\u2019ve probably seen this film a hundred times. I know all of the songs by heart. I remember watching it on VHS when it first came out, which is making me feel increasingly old. But as is the case with several things from my childhood, some of the nostalgia wears thin when subjected to critical analysis. Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you know your way around an Internet meme, you’ve probably heard of the online cooking show Epic Meal Time<\/em><\/a>, a Food Network\u2013meets\u2013Jackass<\/em> celebration of heart-clogging lowbrow cuisine. Each Tuesday, its rowdy Canadian creators cook up something both imaginative (Chili Four Loko, for instance), gross (meat salad), or, more likely, both (the Thanksgiving episode found them taking Turducken a few carnivorous steps further, stuffing five different game birds into a pig). Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This essay was one of several that received an honorable mention in FFRF\u2019s 2009 college essay competition and a prize of $250, including $50 donated by Don and Dorea Schramm.<\/p>\n Pascal\u2019s wager is essentially the idea that believing in God is the safest bet. If there is no god and no afterlife, it won\u2019t matter who is right. But if there is a god and an afterlife, devout worshipers stand to be rewarded. Therefore, according to the wager, one has everything to gain and nothing to lose by worshiping God (even just in case). Read More>><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing samples. I have written extensively for Gender Focus, Hardcore Droid, and MOGUL. I’m also co-writing a science fiction story about Ladies in Space with my good friend Katie Li. Other writing: Where Are You From? Uproot Magazine, August 2018 … <\/p>\nOther writing:<\/h3>\n
Where Are You From?
\n<\/em><\/h5>\nUproot Magazine, August 2018
\n<\/em><\/h5>\nMaybe<\/h5>\n
Extract(s) | Lit House Press, September 2014<\/em><\/h5>\n
The Soapbox: Your Arguments Against Our Permanent Birth Control Are BS<\/h5>\n
The Frisky (Cross posted from Gender Focus), February 2013<\/em><\/h5>\n
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Of Beds and Bugs<\/h5>\n
Katherine Press, February 2012<\/em><\/h5>\n
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I’m Sick of Being Sick of Rape Culture<\/h5>\n
Women, Action, and the Media, December, 2011<\/em><\/h5>\n
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Animated Children\u2019s Films: Nightmare Revisited<\/h5>\n
Bitch Flicks, November 30, 2011<\/em><\/h5>\n
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Pork Underbelly: The Sexual Politics of (Lots and Lots of) Meat<\/h5>\nBitch Magazine, Issue 51, Summer 2011 <\/em><\/address>\n
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Living Beyond God<\/h5>\nFreethought Today \u00b7 Vol. 26 No. 8 October 2009<\/em><\/address>\n