Welcome to my online journal, The Uplift Blog! I am Lizzy Loechel — and I am glad you are here.
What to expect: I will write about things that I find wonderful. Or things that uplift me anyway. Book reviews. Movie reviews. Lifestyle. Products I use. And just thoughts or insights of my own. Things that are curious.
When I was searching for a blog logo, I was drawn to images of birds flying. The power of the feather. Kind of reminds me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (book review on that is coming), but also makes me feel hopeful! Is hope a feeling? –>
My blog ‘Origin Story’
The story of how I made my way to Uplift is wonderful to me — and also not so fun.
The not fun part: My youngest brother John passed away almost 10 years ago from a brain tumor. Glioblastoma multiforme (the worst one). With a loved one thrown into that journey, I found that knowing more than I ever wanted to know about the disease is par for the course.
For a brain tumor, I think that the experience of the patient is quite different from family. The very organ that my brother needed to understand what was happening and respond WAS the one under attack. His self was destroyed week by week. During this stressful time, I had a weird thought: it would be amazing if doctors could transplant brain tissue like a kidney or a heart. That lead to my work in progress: a novel about animals ‘uplifted‘ into human-like intelligence — and to my introduction to the idea of uplift in fiction.
Uplift is a subgenre of Science Fiction, and I am both a fan and author of Speculative Fiction. Frankenstein is a classic example, but the Uplift series by David Brin served as a bit of a diving board for this exploration I am on.
More info on Uplift: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplift_(science_fiction)
Since then, my idea of Uplift has expanded into personal growth, our growth as a people and as a species, and our interactions with other species. The tiny strands of each feather weave together to create something strong enough to lift. I feel excited by the broad challenge to my mind. And I look forward to writing my thoughts down and sharing with you.
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