Portfolio
A sample of fiction and essays published by Lori DeBoer.
Science & Technical Writing
“New Treatments Offer Hope to Patients with Seizures,” Mayo Clinic Physician’s Referral Newsletter
By Lori DeBoer Mayo Clinic physicians have access to some of the most innovative and successful treatments available for patients with seizure disorders, ranging from nerve stimulation to surgery. Many seizure disorders are subtle and are more difficult to diagnose...“New Blastocyst Transfer Procedure Lowers Risk of Multiple Births,” Mayo Clinic Physician’s Referral Newsletter
By Lori DeBoer The Mayo Clinic Scottsdale’s Center for Reproductive Medicine has put a new twist on an invitro fertilization procedure by thawing fertilized eggs and successfully bringing them to the blastocyst stage before transferring them to a patient’s uterus. The...“Dynamic Drive Scheme Developed,” ALCOM Update
By Lori DeBoer Cholesteric reflective displays can now be addressed in a fraction of the time that it used to take because of a new dynamic drive developed by ALCOM researchers at the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University. The new drive scheme addresses...“Laparoscopy Surgery Proves Helpful in Curing Endometrial Cancer,” Mayo Clinic Physician’s Referral Newsletter
By Lori DeBoer Having followed the case histories of more than 80 patients with endometrial cancer, a Mayo Clinic Scottsdale researcher has announced that laparoscopic surgery produces the same cure rates as more traditional surgery methods and is easier on patients....“Newspaper Display Prototype Announced,” ALCOM Update
By Lori DeBoer Technology that could alter the business of putting ink on paper was announced at the SID ’95 meeting in Orlando in May. The electronic documument viewer prototype uses reflective cholesteric liquid crystals being developed in the ALCOMM Center....“The Valley’s Highways Pick Up Speed,” Phoenix Magazine
By Lori DeBoer In the rush to break the Valley’s traffic gridlock, the road to success may be paved with electronic sensors, magnetic tape and microchips. Smart highways and smart cars–or Intelligent Transportation Systems–are the stuff of Jules...“ITS in Phoenix Shines Bright,” ITS World
By Lori DeBoer With Arizona’s population growth three times the national average and roads strained to their utmost, implementation of ITS to help alleviate traffic congestion has picked up speed. In 1996, Phoenix was one of four metropolitan areas selected by the...“Sedona Conference Ponders Technology Gains,” Community College Times
By Lori DeBoer From a $40 Harvard MBA to a huge galactic university, participants in the second annual Sedona Conference last month envisioned a host of possibilities for technology’s impact on higher education. Gathered in Sedona, Ariz., a town best known for its...Newspaper & Magazine Articles
“Food Fighter,” Boulderite Magazine
By Lori DeBoer Boulder’s Robyn O’Brien, dubbed “food’s Erin Brockov- ich,” is taking on the big boys of the food industry. After her youngest had a life-threatening allergic reaction, she wondered if America’s children were allergic to food or what was being...
“Kid Warrior,” Boulderite Magazine
Boulder’s 15-year-old Xuihtezcatl Roske-Martinez just may be one of the most influential environmental activists in the world. By Lori DeBoer When asked about when he first became interested in saving the planet, 15-year-old Xuihtezcatl Roske-Martinez shrugs. It’s...“Summer Sips,” Fort Collins Magazine
By Lori DeBoer Where winter wanted straight spirits and bitters, summer sips require a lighter flair and a touch of the traditional, say Fort Collins’ mixmasters. Think sparkling spritzes, low-alcohol sessions, party punches and cool classics. Here’s what is setting...“Lines in the Sand: Future Growth at Turning Point,” Arizona Business Magazine
by Lori DeBoer It may not seem like it is in the best interest of developers to help curb the Valley’s runaway growth, but one group of real estate players believes otherwise. Valley Partnership—founded in 1987 as an advocate of responsible development for commercial,...“Arcology Professor Paolo Soleri,” Phoenix Magazine
by Lori DeBoer Perched on the edge of a basalt canyon cut by the Agua Fria River, Arcosanti presents a startling sight at the end of a rutted gravel road. The buildings shrug off geometric uniformity. Bathroom-sized concrete cubes with round windows jut from exterior...“Taliesen West: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Desert Dream,” Arizona Highroads
by Lori DeBoer Eleven of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings are listed by The Architectural Record as among the top 100 significant in the world, but Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, was the architect’s favorite. During his tenure at his school and winter...“Glass Act,” America West Airlines Magazine
by Lori DeBoer Popping the cork on a bottle of bubbly is a time-honored way of ringing in the New Year, but those with some special training take the tradition one spectacular step further: They sever the bottle’s stem with a saber. This chic champagne trick...“Torch Song,” Valley Guide Quarterly
By Lori DeBoer Glass blowing is not for sissies. Flames flare against the charred wooden paddles that shield Scottsdale artist Newt Grover from the heat of the molten glass he twirls on the end of a long metal pipe. Sweat streams from his face. The glass glows...“A Love-ly Work of Art,” Phoenix Magazine
By Lori DeBoer Been looking for love in all the wrong places? Well, there’s a whole lotta love these days at the Civic Center Mall in Scottsdale. The newly-acquired “Love” sculpture, towering 12-feet high and made of metal, can make anyone swoon. Artist Robert Indiana...“Sedona Charms Visitors with Red Rock Vistas, Heartfelt Art and Decadent Dining,” Arizona Highways
By Lori DeBoer Sometimes a town charms a visitor so thoroughly that an otherwise level-headed tourist becomes a wistful interloper; given to sighing and memorizing street maps like love poems. I succumbed to such a spell during a summer weekend I spent in the comely...
“Yoga Guru,” Thunderbird Alumni Magazine
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“A Modern Beacon of Justice,” Arizona Attorney Magazine
By Lori DeBoer This article was originally published in the October 2000 edition of Arizona Attorney as “Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Building and Courthouse: A Modern Beacon of Justice.” You can read the whole story by clicking HERE. When you...
“Staying Afloat,” Black Enterprise
“Staying Afloat: Strategies for Surviving a Cash Flow Crisis,” was published in the May 1, 2000, edition of Black Enterprise. You can read the article...
“La Grande Orange: Here Comes the Neighborhood,” Arizona Food and Lifestyles
by Lori DeBoer Originally published in Arizona Food & Lifestyles, April/May 2003, pp 20-22. La Grande Orange rises out from the intersection of 40th Street and Campbell like an oasis in the desert. You might mistake it for a mirage in an urban landscape more given...
“Swing King: The Legend of Frankie Manning,” American Visions Magazine
“Swing King: The Legend of Frankie Manning,” was published in American Visions Magazine in October/November 2000.
“Sustainability Tax,” Boulder Weekly
By Lori DeBoer I interviewed a number of folks for an article, “Sustainability tax: Boulder County proposes a new levy aimed at boosting local agriculture,” which appeared in the May 22, 2014 edition. You can read the article HERE....Essays
“To Hear Her Story Told,” Pithead Chapel
By Lori DeBoer When my son was a toddler, I spent a week in the summer writing program offered by Naropa University. My group was instructed by Bobbie Louise Hawkins, esteemed poet and essayist. I wrote an essay under her direction but it was a little far afoot,...
“The Roots of Creative Nonfiction,” Creative Nonfiction Special Issue
by Lori DeBoer This essay originally appeared in a special edition of the literary magazine Creative Nonfiction, A Million Little Choices: The ABCS of CNF A sixteen-year-old boy, lousy with lust and a certain lassitude, falls in with a fast crowd and, one evening,...
“Childish Things” Published in Mamaphonic Anthology
Read an excerpt: “I correspond with some members of a group of people afflicted with PPH. One woman lives on a ranch in some Western state, more than an hour’s drive from a doctor, longer from a hospital. She blew a hole in her heart giving birth. The baby is...
The “Deceitful Guiles” of Moll Flanders: A Post-Structuralist Mauling
Essay by Lori DeBoer The famous Moll Flanders seems the most slippery sort of literary character, somehow eluding exposure since she first introduced her “own History” in 1722 under an assumed name in Daniel Defoe’s manuscript. The alias is necessary, she...
Conversion/Deconversion as a Narrative Strategy in Janette Turner Hospital’s Borderline
Essay by Lori DeBoer Janette Turner Hospital’s Borderline opens with a border crossing scene in which a man unnerved about sneaking a bottle of whiskey into Canada commits an act of far greater consequence than bootlegging. He scoops up a Salvadoran refugee, who has...Short Stories
“Twenty-Five Random Things About Me” Nominated for a Pushcart Prize
By Lori DeBoer I feel very grateful to have my short story “Twenty-Five Random Things About Me” nominated by the editors and staff of The Saranac Review for the Pushcart Prize. The story was published in the October 2018 issue. The Pushcart Prize is an...
“All the Love in the World,” Shortlisted for the Bellevue Literary Prize, Available on Wattpad
By Lori DeBoer Wattpad has been getting a lot of buzz lately for its ability to reach more readers, which is why I’m pleased to announce that my short story, “All the Love in the World,” is now available there. The short story was shortlisted for...
“Twenty-Five Random Things About Me” is Finalist in Glimmer Train Fiction Open
By Lori DeBoer I was visiting Manitou Springs once with a friend when we happened upon a shrine tucked away near an abandoned spring. It was dedicated to a teenager who had been killed by a transient. I could not get this girl’s story out of my head. How could...
“All the Love in the World,” Bellevue Literary Review
This short story was shortlisted for the 2013 Bellevue Literary Prize, judged by Jane Smiley, and published in the April 2013 issue of the Bellevue Literary Review. It was inspired by my father, Eldon Rohlk, who had Alzheimer’s Disease and was a farmer in Iowa. ...