About the Author: Marie Porter
Marie is an award winning cake artist based in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Known as much for her delicious and diverse flavor menu as for her sugar artistry, Marie's work has graced magazines and blogs around the world.
Having baked and designed for brides, celebrities, and even Klingons, Marie was proud to share her wealth of baking knowledge in her two cookbooks: "The Spirited Baker" and "Evil Cake Overlord". Marie also maintains a food & lifestyle blog, Celebration Generation.
After a morning spent running errands for their new home, Marie and Michael Porter's lives were turned upside down -along with the lives of thousands of others. On the afternoon of May 22, 2011, North Minneapolis was devastated by a tornado
Twisted recounts the Porters' first 11 months, post tornado. Rebuilding their house, working around the challenges presented by inadequate insurance coverage. Frustration at repeated bouts of incompetence and greed from their city officials. Dealing with issues such as loss of control, logistics, change, and over-stimulation, as two adults with Aspergers.
With the help of social media -- and the incredibly generous support of the geek community -- the Porters were able to emerge from the recovery marathon without too much of a hit to their sanity levels. New friends were made, new skills learned, and a "new" house emerged from the destruction. Twisted is a roller coaster of emotion, personal observations, rants, humor, social commentary, set backs and triumphs.
Subjects covered include: Opportunistic "Vultures", gawkers, new friendships, a bizarre gingerbread house, unique decisions made with the rebuild - including an internet-famous kitchen backsplash, "Tornado Claus", contractor drama, water balloons, DIY design and work, music, sensory overload, and details on how to cook jambalaya for almost 300 people, in the parking lot of a funeral home... should you ever find yourself in the position to do so!
"Twisted" also includes many Twitter "tweets" from along the way - real time thoughts and feelings on the whole ordeal.
