Articles written by Mark Zeiger

How To Guides |
Community

About me - Mark Zeiger

I live with my family in a little log cabin in the forest at the edge of Lynn Canal in Southeast Alaska. I began writing as soon as I learned to read and write. I especially like to write dark fiction. I have had a couple of stories purchased for publication,

+ more bio information

RSS Feed

Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: My first tattoo: 1 of 46

Jimmy Buffett recorded a song with an unusual title. He told a story explaining it. He related a family gathering at which a young woman rationalized at length her choice to tattoo a large portion of her back. As she concluded, the group's matriarch spoke up, pronouncing the tattoo "a permanent reminder of a momentary feelin...
Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Thoughts on what could have been: 2 of 47

Grandma gave us a story before going away to a place in her mind where we could not follow; where Grandpa couldn't go, though he loved her dearly. The story concerns her mother. Maud, as she was known, loved a young man who went to work in a distant town. He wrote to her faithfully, it's believed, but someone intercepted his...
Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: Learning to cook: 2 of 31

To my parental pride and gustatory delight, my 15-year old daughter has taken an interest in cooking. Encouraging this pursuit in no way contradicts my efforts to nurture her independence or her liberation from traditional female roles. On the contrary, I believe everyone should learn to cook. An individual's independence an...
Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: My freshman year in college: 2 of 16

I met my wife the first night of our freshman year in college. I wouldn't figure this out until a couple of years later. I don't mean that I would later realize that she would be my wife, I mean that I wouldn't know till then that I had met her that night. Our first days of college involved a lot of orientation activities, m...
Home & Garden > Vegetables, Herbs & Fruits How to grow chives: 1 of 8

Fresh chives make a welcome addition to just about any dish! Cutting up a few chive leaves with scissors over a salad, pot of soup, or omelet adds a pleasant, savory, mild onion flavor. Chives can be found growing wild in many places, and are very easy . . . perhaps too easy . . . to grow in your garden! Chive, allium schoen...
Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: How I learned to live on less: 9 of 37

My Dad is a minister. In followed his calling he felt particularly led to serve small, poor churches. He served them in every sense of the word, not just through preaching, counseling, calling on the sick and the elderly, but by using his considerable and varied skills and talents to maintain the church, its properties, and ...
Politics, News & Issues > Environmental Awareness Green books: Reviews of four books tackling green issues: 1 of 4

"Green writing," is becoming increasingly popular. Public awareness of our environment, and our impact upon it, is growing steadily, and authors with many points of view are providing educational and entertaining reading to encourage that growth. Ecological writing takes many different forms. Four such books that have caught...
Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: Buying my first house: 9 of 33

I have always been fascinated by "moments," those instances in life where we face something that will have great impact on our lives. Most of the time we don't know that life will become entangled with this thing at that particular moment. We may see a person who will later become our spouse. We might hear of a tropical stor...
Celebrations & Holidays > Christmas How the image of Santa Claus has changed in the 20th century: 3 of 11

Santa Claus! The name conjures so many images. For Americans, a common perception of Santa Claus solidified during the 20th century. As the United States' influence on world culture increased, this image spread across the globe. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, lived in the third century A.D. Legends grew around him, and soon a...
Food & Drink > Cooking (Other) Tips for cooking on a woodstove: 2 of 6

Cooking on a woodstove isn't difficult. Here are a few key tips that will hopefully improve your experience, especially if you don't have a real wood-fired cook stove. You can cook on the top of your wood stove if it has a flat surface large enough for a pot or skillet that heats directly from the stove. Virtually all wood s...