The US Represented Weekly Update

Hello USR members and guests,

It’s been an eventful week, and we’re pleased that our readership continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Hopefully, this is because we do our best to maintain quality standards. For instance, in Eric Stephenson’s “Conspiracy Therapy,” a patient shares a vision of reality with his therapist characterized by paranoia and high strangeness. Additionally, Eric’s “Harmony in the Night” explores the transformation in a woman’s life resulting from a cocaine injection gone very wrong. Mark has taken on the challenge of publishing a short story every week this year. The stories are published on Sundays, and so far, Eric is 20 for 20 on his 52-week adventure. He’s published several other pieces for USR along the way, too. You can find Mark’s USR writings by clicking on the following link: Eric’s writings.

Colette Fontenot’s “The Secrets of the Feathered Serpent” explores various mysteries surrounding the ancient multicultural city of Teotihuacan. The article also discusses new technology that points to surprising discoveries below the city’s surface. In “Language: My Lost-and-Found Love,” Damian Bedford speaks of how recovering his love of reading and writing might have saved his life. Magnolia Cook’s “Cheating the System” explains what can happen when the established American education network does not represent everyone in society. Jake Douglas’s “The Tanka People: Fish out of Water” examines a Chinese subculture that literally lives at sea, but this lifestyle isn’t as romantic as some might imagine it to be. Janelle Watson’s “Veganism in the Holy Land” notes that, when it comes to dietary habits and the treatment of animals, “Israel could become the first cruelty-free nation in the world. Although Americans flinch at the idea of giving up animal products, the Israeli population seems to be embracing the idea with ease.”

In this week’s installment of Emily Badovinac’s novel, Deep Red, Chapter VII, Marlo realizes that, while she may be imprisoned in Haven, her mind is still free . . . with the exception of the voice. We’ve been running Deep Red as a serial publication for several weeks, now. We publish a chapter every Friday, and our readership is loving it. To offer a brief summary of the novel, Marlo Cayce has lived in the human world for over eight years, but one irresponsible and tragic night brings her back into the fold of the Otherworld. Within the ripples of Otherworld politics, Marlo must discover what and who she is, and what she stands for, before she is swallowed up and separated from humans forever. Just click on the following link to access the full menu of chapters: Emily Badovinac’s Deep Red. We think you’ll enjoy Emily’s work. You’ll only need half your seat because you’ll be sitting on the edge the whole time. Riveting!

We also included a a fine passage from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Jake Barnes, who was wounded permanently in World War I, tries to maintain as best he can as an expatriate. Jake’s experiences ring as true today as they did in the 1920s. Finally, in “Morocco’s Struggle for Gender Equality,” Erin Nace explores recently enacted Moroccan laws that “provide women with more control in terms of their marriages, including minimum marriage age, polygamy, and divorce. Still, it might take a full generation for the changes to be fully absorbed and accepted by Moroccan culture because of a number of complicated social dynamics.”

As always, thank you for spending time with us here at US Represented, and keep being who you are. We’ll talk to you soon.

Best!
The USR Staff