A Writer Afoot

There’s just something so elemental about going outside and picking a handful of strawberries and tomatoes.  I also harvested a couple of raspberries. 

It’s not quite the garden I hoped for this summer, but it’s a start.

The Door to Happiness by ToniVC

I’ve been trying for ages to figure out how to upload photos to the header on this page.  You may not have noticed that the image changes, but I really like it, and it’s fun to play with, and as you know, play is very important to the life of a writer  everybody.   I didn’t know you had to have an ftp client to upload ftp stuff. 

Anyway, two kindly fellows helped me out and now I’ll be adding little slices of photo for your amusement.  (You should have seen me dancing around my office when the first of my photos actually loaded.)

Son is safely ensconsed in an East Village sublet.  CR and I are getting things together to spend 4th of July in Michigan, to celebrate his first year as a US citizen.  

I have a couple of real blogs ready to go up in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, I’ve been twittering and facebooking.  Oh, and I did post a blog on writing over at Writer Unboxed last week, on The Three P’s of Writing. 

All is well. Are you all planning vacations and holidays, too?

Book passed muster (in fact, she said, “I love it even more than Lost Recipe”).  I have a cover but can’t show you yet.  I’m madly in love with it.

In the early am, I’m off to help my son move from California back to NY.  We’re flying the cats coach.  Gotta love a kid who wants to do that.  

Am bringing the baby notebook and will post trip reports.  You know I’m happy when I’m on the road.  I’ll try to bring you back something good.

I’ve spent the past few weeks going through the new book (formerly 100 Breakfasts now officially titled THE SECRET OF EVERYTHING).  Ed and agents came back with suggestions and I had some thing I knew I wanted to smooth and fix, too.  

I wish I could say I had a process I use, over and over again, to rewrite a book, but I don’t.  Different books require different fixes–tweaking a character’s arc in one book, smoothing a bumpy or unrealistic plot in another; adding or taking away elements, shifting a time line.  Uncovering a secret.

This is the point when I remember all the stages of the book, from the first glimmerings of the idea, through the development and writing and drafting, now to the deep polish and smoothing.  It’s a lot of work, writing a book! I always end up with a big box of materials, research and backstory and draft upon draft upon draft. I wish I was a less messy writer, but I do require many drafts, often up to 20 or even 30 , though not 30 whole drafts.  Some scenes emerge whole and clean.  Some are elusive and take many rewrites to show themselves.  Some are raw and need toning down.  Whatever.  It’s a lot of words. A lot of attention. 

At this point, what surprises me is how often changing three sentences can shift the meaning of an entire thread.  It’s a lot of tweaking. Starting on the first page and combing through carefully, checking for tangles, for dropped details or threads, for repetition and banality and the Words of the Book, which are the words I have overused to the point of absurdity in a particular manuscript.  (The words this time? Crisp, pelt, and pirate. Make of that what you will.)

I’m always hoping to find a grace note, though happily, I found one early for SECRET, which I hope you will enjoy as much as I do.  In THE LOST RECIPE FOR EVERYTHING, the grace note is when Julian smells his mother’s perfume in the air–which I can tell you without giving anything away because you have to read the whole book to understand the significance.  A movie example I love is in Titanic, when the old woman finally died, but finds herself on the beautiful, significant staircase of the great ship, dancing with her beloved.  It’s the thing that doesn’t have to be there, but offers so much more emotional pleasure for the reader.  In commercial fiction, it is often a symbol of life returning to order.  In literary fiction, it can embody the theme.

Sometimes, the muses are kind and drop something in my lap, as they did with this book, when I wrote the last scene, completely exhausted and ready to send my child out into the world so I could sleep. (It is part of my process that I don’t write the last scene of a book until I have completely written and rewritten and rewritten the entire book, so I often write it the day before mailing.)  The grace note simply arrived, sweet and real and true.

Because there is so much food in this book, as with Lost Recipe, I had a lot of last minute food testing to do. How, for example to poach an egg.  Have you ever done this?  It’s hard!  I used almost a dozen eggs to figure it out–but that happily gave me a new scene that brings a character alive.  I had to try Hollandaise, too, but that was pretty easy in comparison.  (And yummy, though by the time I finished the testing, I was tested out and the dogs lucked out.)

I’ve been up working on the last couple of scenes this morning and will take the dogs for a walk, make a couple of more passes, then email it off again into the world.  It will be coming your way at the turn of the new year. 

Wish me luck in finishing up today!

Chive blossoms are such a beautiful color.  My mother used to make chive blossom vinegar and set the jars along the window sill.  A dazzlement.  This morning, to celebrate the sunshine, I made some too.  And put it in my window.

I taped another radio essay last week.  It went live this morning and you can hear it here:

http://krccnews.org/rccnews/citizen-report-joan-i/2009/06/11/6111

I’m sure everyone in the world has thought of doing this but me–but you know how it is when you discover something stunningly simple and delicious:   Hey-sanna, Ho-sanna, Sanna-sanna hey!*  I’ve been grilling lemons with chicken breasts and it is amazingly delcious. And easy. 

Chicken breasts with Grilled Lemons and Sauteed Spinach
Serves 4

Olive Oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 whole lemons, sliced; save the ends
Thyme
Rosemary
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper

4 cups fresh baby spinach, picked over and thick stems removed

Open the chicken breast into butterflies and sprinkle one side with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Cover the bottom of a very large cast iron skillet with olive oil and let it get hot over medium high heat.  Arrange sliced lemons on the bottom of the pan and place the chicken breasts, seasoned side down, on top of them. Turn the heat down to medium, and cook for about five minutes.  Using a fork to lift breasts one at a time, move the lemon slices out gently and turn the breasts over, arranging the lemon slices on top.  Cook another five or six minutes, then remove lemons and set them aside, turn breasts over again to get some color.  Push the breasts close together and add the fresh spinach a little at a time to wilt in the mingled fats and seasonings of the pan until wilted, squeezing the lemon ends over the leaves.

Serve with white or basamati rice (this is not as good with brown rice), and serve with lemons.  With a fork, smear the grilled lemon flesh over the chicken and marvel. 

Now tell me, I’m I the only person who never realized how great grilled citrus would be? I can’t wait to try grapefruits with….fish, maybe? Grilled strawberries served with cheese and white wine. 

 
*Jesus Christ Superstar.  And if you’re too young to know it, please don’t tell me.

Working on the header images today, so forgive me if things come up too small or weird or distorted or blank. 

Anyone who has read here for any length of time knows that I have bear worries when I hike.  I even have dreams about them sometimes, but I’m not willing to give up hiking. 

Today, to celebrate my birthday, Christopher Robin arranged a surprise: he took me to the zoo for a “Grizzly Bear Encounter.”   We went behind the scenes, into the back rooms, and even into the enclosure to learn more about grizzlies. 

The best part was feeding a grizzly bear through a grate, looking at his giant head and incredible paws and realizing they’re like dogs, kind of.  Savage dogs. Dogs that weigh 600 pounds, but definitely dog-like in aspect and attitudes.  They’re curious. They’re smart.  They’re not particularly friendly if they don’t feel like it and they will definitely kill you for food if they are hungry, but for some reason, looking into those giant faces made me GET it on some deep level.  

I also realized it is completely silly NOT to carry bear spray when I hike in the deep woods by myself.  The trainers told me that. And they never, ever go into the enclosures with the bears. That says something, don’t you think?

It’s equally silly to demonize wildlife and make it into something Disney-esque.  I can be at peace with bears if I know and understand what they are.  Can we have a cheer for CR for understanding that and giving me such a cool birthday present?  For a YouTube video, check this out: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLRW3wGs4v0

Met a friend for tea the other day and this vase was on the table.  Kept playing with the way it looked.  Just for fun.