Today's interviewee qualifies as as an Internet Friend for me--we've never met IRL but I like her style, plus she has been really kind to me about letting me know about writing opportunities for moms. She is, like I am, a writer-mom, mom-writer, writer and mom. You can read more about tangled relationship in this nicely-written piece she did for the Rumpus, where she is the assistant books editor. She writes a regular column for Mom.me (where she got me my gig--thanks Lyz!) and has been featured in the Toast, the Hairpin and Motherlode at the New York Times. You can follow her on Twitter hereand learn even more about her here.

Why Lyz and not Liz?
I was born an Elizabeth and for a long time my family called me Boo, because my parents maintained that I looked like Boo Boo from Yogi Bear, which is weird because at no point in my life have I ever been covered in fur. Needless to say, when I was in sixth grade my friends caught on and I got mocked a lot, even though I was homeschooled. Kids are mean whether you are in public school or homeschool. So, I rebranded. At first I wanted to change my name to Cordelia Lavender, but no one would go along. So, I changed from Liz to Lyz. Subtle but effective. It killed my mom and she spent many years complaining about it. When I went to college, I thought Lyz was stupid, but I had worked so hard to be Lyz that I couldn't admit it to my family. So, I tried putting Liz on all my college stuff. But when my mom helped me move into my dorm she saw Liz on all the signs and gave the Residence Hall staff a lecture. I said nothing, because I'm the worst. After that, I've just kind of leaned into it. I'm hoping one day I can just drop the last name and join the ranks of the one-named stars like Cher, Madonna, Prince and Zulkey.

You write about science a good deal, in a fun "Hey what's up with that?" voice. How did you get into that beat? Completely accidentally! I used to think I would be a doctor. So I spent a lot of my formative years reading medical textbooks and memorizing the names of bones. No one in my family is in the medical profession and as a homeschooled child, left to her own devices, my scientific investigations involved a lot of Mary Shelly and stumbling onto the medical writing of DaVinci and all those medieval doctors who were like, "Sick? Let's suck the devil out of your blood with leaches!" As a result, I wasn't right for proper science, but I've always in my writing been drawn back to that place where our bodies and mythologies collide. When Jane Marie went to launch Millihelen at Jezebel she reached out to me and we came up with the "What's Up With" idea. I love the idea of taking something complex and tracing the ways that it impacts our lives in sometimes devastating ways. We love to think in 2016 that we have it all figured out, but so much of science is mystery. I am so sad that the Milli is no longer around. I'd love to do another column like that one day. Maybe the science of motherhood, which would be so fun, but so fraught.

What do you miss most about life pre-kids, if you remember that at all?
I don't remember it. I feel like my house was cleaner and I read more books and I was thinner. But I'm not sure. I do miss the moments of guiltless quiet, when I would just stare out of my favorite staring window and drink coffee and imagine new lives for my neighbors. I know I did that a lot. I don't do it now, because there is always something else to do. But I'm sure I will do it again, in those years right before I die. This answer got bleak.

When your kids get old enough to know you as an individual separate from the woman who washes their clothes and feeds them, what do you hope they know you for best?
I am such a flawed person in so many ways and no one is more aware of your flaws than your children. I just hope that in the end, they think of me as the person who accepts all of who they are, no matter what that is. And that they know me as someone who was always looking for magic.

Which of your pieces that you wrote got the nastiest feedback?
Two years ago, a piece I wrote on my blog was syndicated on the Huffington Post and when it went up I got so many people emailing me telling me I was the worst mother in the whole world and that my children and husband would leave me. One woman emailed to say that she prayed my kids would die of cancer early. A prominent blogger at the time posted it and wrote some really nasty things about me and all her followers attacked me for months. That has all abated, but every few months, I still get email about the same article. I've gotten much more intense negative feedback for articles, but it all died off quickly. This article though, it just won't quit attracting crazies.

What are your methods for organizing and curating your ideas?
I'm not an organized person in my head. So, that manifests in my writing life, which is also cluttered. I keep physical journals that are just books and books of marginalia, to-do lists, notes and ideas. I also have a word document that I update frequently with ideas and pitches. I go back to it at the beginning of each month and update it. I also have a great writing partner I bounce ideas off of and I'm always testing out ideas with people I talk to, but secretly. Usually if you can have a good conversation about a topic, it's worth investigating.

How much do you read other parenting pieces/sites? (I confess I actually don't follow them that much myself, I think because I like to pretend nobody else has my ideas.)
What I read changes a lot over the years, but I do try to see what other people are talking about and interested in. I feel like my parenting writing is a conversation, so I like to see what other people are saying, but so much of parenting writing right now feels like "I like to do this crazy thing with my kids don't judge me" kind of click-thirsty writing and it kills me. The sites I love the most are the ones that combine humor and insight with parenting--I love all the parenting writing on The Cut and I love reading Vela Mag and Brain, Child. Lynn Strong had a great essay in Guernica about running and motherhood that I read recently and loved.

Which of your kids' books or toys are your least favorite?
So, a friend of ours who is married to a therapist who does music therapy gave my daughter a tiny accordion, which sounds charming, but it is so goddamn annoying. Mostly because adults play it and don't know when to stop. I also hate the TV to book genre of kids books, like Dora or Barbie and the mermaids. I don't ever want to look at my kid and say, "These book choices are garbage!" But I kind of feel that way especially when I have to read Dora and the fucking magic ring over and over.

You wrote for the NYT about giving up the ghost when it comes to cloth diapering. Are there any other examples of a type of mom you thought you'd be that it turns out you are not?
Yeah, I thought I'd be a "good food" mom. I love cooking and food is such a huge part of my identity, but my second child is a terrible eater and has been small for a long time and slipping down the growth chart. And one time, I went to the doctor and she was asking me "Does he eat any protein?" And I said, "No. He likes those yogurt tubes, but I don't give them to him because they have so much sugar!" And I was so smug about it. But she just leveled with me, "If he eats it, give it to him." And that's when I realized that I was holding onto something so tightly that I couldn't actually see who my kids were through that. I hope that who my kids are is always preserved over who I think they should be.

What are your major writing goals (in terms of projects you'd like to pull of, venues you'd like to publish in, etc?)
I'm finishing up a book of essays about faith, family and feminism with my agent now and I really want someone to buy that and publish it. That would be fantastic. After that, I want to write a book about murder, Kansas and the recession (all a true story) and a book about the role of church in our lives (I'll throw some murder in there too). And I have half of a pretty fantastic mystery novel written. So mostly books. And if Terry Tempest Williams would respond to my love letters, I'd appreciate that as well.

You've been writing online for a long time now, like I have. How has your relationship to writing online and garnering/interacting with readers changed, if at all, since you first started?
I used to just put my whole self into it. I'd respond to all the comments, engage with readers who emailed, reply to every tweet. But it's exhausting and time consuming and draining. Now, I reply only to positive emails (or if I can think of something funny to say in response to a negative email, I'll write that because I'm awful). I also used to be a content machine, just writing and writing anything and everything, I've pulled back from that as well. It's the same as with interacting with people. I was throwing all of myself into too much. And at some point I realized if I wasn't writing for laughs, magic or mystery it wasn't worth all the effort. Now, I try to focus my energies on things that I really love or really make me laugh. I'm not ashamed of it though. I mean, I cringe sometimes when an old post for a sketchy site resurfaces, but I'll never be ashamed of young, scrappy, hungry, blogging Lyz.

I have a friend who maintains a carefully curated alternate life wherein she lives in a different state, is married to a different man, and has a different career. Do you ever ponder your alternate life, and what does it look like?
Always. I never dreamed of the domestic life and that is what I have and I love the monumental absurdity and the deep depths of feeling that are contained herein. But I do sometimes wonder what would it have been like if I never married, moved to the big city. Or if I been a lawyer like I thought I was going to be in college. But every life, even the imaginary ones have trouble, and ultimately, who you are will out. So, I think every possible road of my life, somehow ends up with me in in front of a computer telling stories. So, I don't feel any longing to be anywhere else than where I am. Although, I do wish the police would let me solve crimes for them. That would be ideal.

How does it feel to be the 416th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
A dream come true.