You would think that closing in on a hundred and fifty pieces of published short fiction would make me good at writing intros, biographies, and other chatter about who I am and what I'm doing here. Instead it's made me acutely aware of how difficult I find this sort of thing--while pointing out over and over again that it's necessary.

So. Hi. I'm Marissa Lingen. Most of what I've published to date is short science fiction and fantasy stories, but I'm also working on essays and novels at the moment. Most of what goes here is going to be book reviews and thoughts about writing, but I don't promise I won't wander off into other topics like food, travel, mythology, history, science. I like Moomins, tisane, gelato, sagas, hiking, cold places, dogs, hospitable spaces, soil ecology. I read basically all genres, and I'll talk about any of them without much provocation. I like talking about the specifics of other things better than I like talking about the generalities of me. Which is very Minnesotan, but so am I.

![The Reader at Snæfellsjökull.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSdospXeyxdX2FB7dKecZXmzmgETLGsTeXYCZ9dSfKQBG/The%20Reader%20at%20Sn%C3%A6fellsj%C3%B6kull.jpg)
<sup>Me at Snæfellsjökull in Iceland, last week. Photo by @tcpolymath.</sup>