The Fourth Annual International Conference on Popular Romance Studies: York #IASPR12
Not only was The Fourth Annual International Conference on Popular Romance Studies: The Pleasures of Romance the first academic conference I have ever attended, it was my very first paper presentation. After talking to a lot of people, I get the sense that most of them aren’t nearly so much fun. If you take a look […]
Flasher: The War on Error #sundaysilliness #200words
The two highly trained Navy Seals crouched on either side of the door. Moments earlier, they’d descended by rope from their stealth helicopter, rappelled over the compound wall, and made their silent way up to the third floor. Now they glanced at each other, embarrassed, as a woman’s moans echoed through the upper hallway beyond […]
Flasher: Dear Perplexed #sundaysilliness #100words
Dear Dr. Ruth, Since we inherited this antique four-poster bed from my crazy Uncle Cyrus, my husband has been acting strange. Our sex life was perfectly normal. Now, he’s insatiable and demanding. Tuesday, he woke me up, flipped me over and shouted, “Spread your legs, you wanton slut!” Yesterday, he grabbed my copy of March’s […]
Fixed in Amber
Malaga, June 21, 1990 The marine bows with stiff formality and releases his armful of red carnations onto the cafe’s stainless steel table. They blanket it, cascading over onto the pavement beneath. “Flores bonitas para una mujer bonita,” he says in broken Spanish. “It’s okay, I speak English.” “Pretty flowers for a pretty girl.” He’s […]
My Response: A Writer’s View
After attempting to edit an anthology myself and failing miserably, I have a deep appreciation and respect for anthology editors and the work they do to compile a cohesive yet varied collection of stories that will be salable and, to one extent or another, feature something to everyone’s taste. They often have to cull through […]
Dominion
This is my body, there are many like it, but this one is mine. First, let me say that by current reigning definitions of ‘feminism’, I’m not one. Mostly because, for fear of getting stuck in history, feminist theory often demands that its adherents pretend that it didn’t happen. That, somehow, we should all stop […]
My Response to ‘The Good Men’s Project: The Day I Went for an Abortion’
At the age of 10, I lived in Madrid. The first thing I remember about the event was watching my mother carry a basin-full of blood out of our housekeeper’s room. There was so much blood, and it scared me. The Spanish doctor came, and I heard he and my mother shouting at each other. […]
The Handmaid’s Tale Revisited: All our Dystopian Tomorrows @MargaretAtwood
I was 22 years old when I read Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.‘ I remember being angry for days after I read it. My father, who read it at the same time, laughed at me and told me to be a more critical reader. He said it was a novel that typified feminist hysteria. My […]
20,000 Bosnian Women Want to Know… @toddakin @RepPaulRyan
… why their mysterious feminine juices didn’t protect them from pregnancy, Mr. Akin. And you, Mr. Ryan. Yes, you. The man who solidly and passionately backed a bill that would deny women the right to an abortion in cases of rape. Let me tell you a story, both of you. Because perhaps you are too […]
The Sense of an Ending
I feel free to appropriate this title because, although it happens to be the title of Julian Barnes’ celebrated piece of literary fiction, he borrowed it from an older, and much wiser book by Frank Kermode: The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction. Despite the title, Kermode’s book isn’t really about […]