Emilie Richards's Blog, page 128

Book Groups and Reader Questions: Whose Life Do We Want to Discuss?

Several weeks ago my editor made a simple, logical request.  Please come up with reader discussion questions for the back of my next novel, One Mountain Away, which debuts in August.  One Mountain Away is the first book in a new series, Goddesses Anonymous, and centers around issues readers might want to talk about in their book clubs, or even simply think about after they finish the last page.

I always provide discussion questions on my website.  Click on any book cover on my book page and you'll see a tab for "reading guide" with ten questions.  This time, though, I began to consider all the possibilities.  As one of my Facebook readers pointed out, there's more than one type of book club.  There's the club where the book is completely peripheral to chatting and eating.  There's the academic club where more analysis is better.  There's the in-between club with an interesting discussion that still leaves time for catching up with friends.

Authors love book clubs of any kind.  After all, each one involves members purchasing our novels and reading them.  What's not to love about that?  But thinking about the variety this week, I questioned my own questions.  So I asked my Facebook readers this:  "Do you like questions that ask you to relate the book to your own life and experience? Or questions purely about the story/characters?"

My educational and work background (pre-novelist) is in counseling.  So for me, a good question asks the reader to relate something in the book to events in her own life.  It's a little like group therapy.  "Jennifer's having problems with her mother this week.  Has anybody here had the same issues?  How did that make you feel?"  Readers, of course, are not counselees, but all of us have lives outside the book club.  And this is a good way to voluntarily share experiences in a non-threatening environment.

For more academically oriented clubs, though, delving into the personal might seem beside the point.  After all, who cares if anybody had the same problem as Jennifer?  It's all about how well the author portrays Jennifer's struggles, her language, theme, ability to plot and draw memorable characters.

My Facebook readers split evenly down the middle.  One pointed out that if she couldn't relate the book to her own life, she'd missed out.  Another said any group of women will relate the book to themselves whether I ask them to or not.  Others thought the questions should be more about me and my thought processes while writing. 

Of course my solution was to give readers some of both, so that's what I did.  The bonus of doing this exercise?  I was reminded that One Mountain Away has lots to discuss, and lots of ways to relate the story to our lives or the lives of women we know and love.  By the time I'd finished my list, I was glad all over again, that I had written it.

CHUSday and a Pro Gives Us Tips

Today Mollie Cox Bryan, author of Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies (which Wanda covets) and Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cookbook, is joining us to share some of her kitchen tips. Mrs. Rowe's is a wonderful Southern-style restaurant in Staunton, VA, that I visit every time I'm down that way, so it was a treat for me when Mollie contacted me and asked if I would read her first mystery, Scrapbook of Secrets, and give her a cover quote.

First Mollie's kitchen tips, then some info on her upcoming novel.  And finally, CHU business, including next month's wrap-up of the silly kitchen gadget and autographed novel giveaway.

As Mollie told me, most of these tips have to do with stretching the dollar, but they were all brand new to me and helpful–can't wait to try the pizza tip. Take it away, Mollie. 

To reheat left over pizza, place in a non-stick skillet until it's warm. This keeps the crust from getting soggy.
If you buy cake frosting in a can from the grocery store, place it in a mixing bowl and beat it with your mixer. It will double in size.
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that have been refrigerated, place them in the microwave along with a cup of water. This will help keep the moisture in and it heats faster.
Store open chunks of cheese by wrapping them in aluminum foil. It stays fresher, longer.
Tear apart your bananas (from the bunch) if you don't want them to ripen too fast.

Mollie's novel, Scrapbook of Secrets, A Cumberland Creek Mystery, (Kensington) will be published February 2012. It's available for pre-order on Amazon and we'll do a real interview with her once it's out.

Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mom in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can't help but feel that something's missing. But she finds solace in a local "crop circle" of scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands, demanding children, and occasional fantasies of their former single lives. And when the quiet idyll of their small town is shattered by a young mother's suicide, they band together to find out what went wrong…Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker who left behind more than a few secrets – and perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through Maggie Rae's mysteriously discarded scrapbooks, Annie and her "crop" sisters begin to suspect that her suicide may have been murder. It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath the town's beguilingly calm facade – like a killer with unfinished business…

Thanks for visiting, Mollie.  I can attest this is one group of feisty women and a fun read, even for those who don't scrapbook.

Now quickly, some CHU biz.  Don't forget, just a few more days to try a new recipe from an "old" cookbook for this month's giveaway, an autographed novel and the Piggy Wiggy Little Whisk–which I'll be sorry to say goodbye to since Piggy herself is awfully cute.  Official rules are here.  This is a no-brainer.  Take a cookbook you haven't used in ages (or forever) and try a new recipe.  Then tell us the name of the book and the recipe itself and whether you liked it or not.  Easy, right?  Then random.org will choose one submission to win.

December will be the final month, and because it is, let's broaden the rules.  If you make anything new, a Christmas cookie recipe, a quick supper dish after a long day of shopping, then tell us what you made and where you got the recipe.  The recipe can be from a well-loved cookbook, the Internet, your next-door neighbor.  As long as it's new to you.  Of course I'll trust you on that.

Next week  I'll announce the final prize.  Remember, in December EVERYBODY who's entered since we began the giveaway in August is eligible to win, and not with just one entry per person, but one entry per recipe.  So cook your heart out and let us know.

Sunday Poetry: Stained by her Girlhood's Gravy

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here.

Did you have enough of family this week?  If you live in the U.S., did you spend the Thanksgiving holiday with relatives you rarely see and who are determined each year to prove you have nothing in common?  Did you roll your eyes over old stories you tired of hearing years ago?  Did you wish for prime rib or lasagna instead of dried-out turkey, complete, as always, with soggy cornbread stuffing?

Or instead, did you glory in the moments, even imperfect ones, that you spent together?  Did you wish that loved ones who have since passed on were there to tell the old tales?  Because while you still remember those stories well, they aren't the same in memory as they were when spoken around the table?  Did a newcomer bring something jazzy and refreshingly different to the feast and you wished the lumpy mashed sweet potatoes hadn't disappeared to make room for it? 

Holidays with family. Pulitzer Prize winning novelist John Updike says it so beautifully in Relatives, brought to us here by The Writer's Almanac.  We parry, we embrace, we part, and at the next holiday, we drift back together, sometimes from guilt, more often from instinct.  In the end, family remembers us when we were in diapers or despair, and loves us anyway.  Family moves swiftly beyond boundaries.  People we hardly remember feel such a part of us they don't hesitate to tell the sad truths along with the glorious possibilities. 

"To love one's self is to love them all."

Remember there are no quizzes here, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share.  Absolutely no dissecting allowed.  Just come along for the "read."  What line, word or thought will you carry with you this week?  If you'd like to tell us where the poem took you?  We'll listen.

 

Raise The Song Of Harvest Home

O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness! ~ William Shakespeare

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?" ~Erma Bombeck

"Be with family, be with friends, laugh and eat 'til supper ends. When its over, this mom wishes, everyone will help with dishes." ~Emilie Richards

Happy Thanksgiving

CHUsday and the Cooking is Easy

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, I know there's lots of cooking going on out there this week.  In fact some of you have already cooked and eaten your holiday feasts.  But for those of us who still have cooking to do, I asked my Facebook Page friends to help today.  They came up with great tips for all of us.  And the more hands in the kitchen, the better, right? 

Patty: Got baked on, burned on gunk in a pot or dish? Fill with hot water.  Add a dryer sheet (used one will work) and soak for several hours. The "stuff" just floats off!

Cindy: When you line baking sheets with foil for easy clean up, don't forget to spray the foil with Pam!

Also from Cindy:  I buy large packages of ground beef and brown it all at once. Then I freeze it by the lb (about 3 cups per lb) in ziploc bags. Just thaw in the microwave for fast, ready to use ground beef.

Karen: I bought some inexpensive measuring cups to use as scoops inside my cannisters of flour and sugar. It makes it so much easier to measure ingredients quickly and not have extra things to wash. I put the 1/2 cup in the flour and a 1/4 cup in the sugar.

Susan: When cooking almost anything, always add cold to hot. If you're making soups or gravies, the temperature variations often cause separation of liquids, fats, and solids (flour, etc.). I'm from Louisiana, so I make gumbo, couvion, and all types of soups and stews. My grandmother always told me to boil the liquids, then add cooler to warmer, rather than the other way around. I just spoke with my mom, and she reminded me that one of the exceptions would be when making custard.

Also from Susan: Use a small ice cream scoop for cookie dough.

Joan: My mother-in-law gave me some decorative tins many years ago. I keep cinnamon in one and cocoa powder in the other. I also keep a tablespoon in my flour to measure for gravy.  It just stays there with the sifter. I keep a few pieces of rice or popcorn in my salt shakers to absorb any moisture.

Laura: When making a cake that you want to take out of the pan, put waxed paper inside the pan first, then spray with cooking oil. For round pans, I lay the pan on the waxed paper, trace it, then cut the pattern out so it fits in the pan. After baking, the cake pops right out, with no broken corners!

Thanks to everyone who helped this week.  Great ideas, and great cooks, I bet.  Next week a few tips from a published cookbook author and mystery writer, Mollie Cox Bryan.

CHUSDAY ALERT:  This is a perfect week to enter our November giveaway.  I bet you've looked up a new recipe in an old cookbook and used it for the holiday, right?   Just tell us what you tried, where you found it, and whether you liked it.  Giveaway rules here and the silly kitchen gadget this month is the Piggy Wiggy Little Egg Whisk.  Can you afford NOT to enter for a chance to win Piggy Wiggy?

Happy Thanksgiving and happy cooking to all!

Sunday Poetry: With Starry Silences

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here.

Searching for  Thanksgiving poems to share with you, I discarded a number.  Some wandered through territory I didn't want to travel.  Others made me wonder whether the poet was grateful for anything and if not, why?  Many were simple rhyming prayers to use at the Thanksgiving table.

This poem seemed just right.  There are so many gorgeous images in A List of Praises by Anne Porter, brought to us here by Poets.org.  Have you ever given praise with the "rasp and sizzle of crickets?"  If not, maybe you will the next time crickets sing for you. 

In what ways will you give praise?

Among many other blessings, I'm thankful for the chance each Sunday to find and share a special poem with you.  This blog has opened a new world to me.  Since the first Sunday Poetry post I've read hundreds of poems, probably as many as in my entire life up until that point.  I've discovered new poets with gifts of insight and the ability to move their readers to new paths. I've discovered I appreciate the work they do far more than I believed.

Thank you for sharing this space with me, for reading and thinking about the poems here and for occasionally sharing your own reactions.

Reality Shows: The Art of Entertainment?

Get out your #2 pencils, class. Pop quiz today.

What television network began in 1984, envisioning itself as a commercial alternative to PBS?
What television network commissioned double Emmy winner Horatio Hornblower and produced outstanding classics such as as Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and The Great Gatsby?
What television network claims that last year, their most watched series was a reality show titled Storage Wars, in which teams of bidders attempt to score big in the high stakes world of storage auctions?

If you marked A&E on questions 1-3, you've earned a night in front of the television watching classic entertainment like Gene Simmons Family Jewels about rock star Simmons and his Playmate wife and family, or Hoarders, which highlights the inner challenges of people-who-collect-too-much.

Unfortunately that last show hits home for me. This week as I recovered from some bug or other, I began condensing my hoarded four foot stack of quilt magazines into several three ring binders. As I ripped and clipped and suffered accordingly, I surfed a million cable channels, settling on Flip This House. More astonishing than the show were commercials for the other shows now airing on A&E.

A&E is no longer the Arts and Entertainment Network.  These days it's the Art of Entertainment Network.  In a quest to interest younger viewers, A&E now specializes in "reality" programming.  After all, the world needs more televised screaming matches and fewer Emmy winning classics. 

As an entertainer myself, I'm trying to analyze the appeal of some of the most "colorful" shows in the A&E fall lineup.  After all, this stuff sells, right?  So in no particular order, and with an invitation to add your own analysis under comments:

American Hoggers : real-life series that follows the Campbell family and their struggle to rescue Texas residents and ranches from the devastating chaos caused by millions of invasive wild boars.  To be followed soon by Lady Hoggers .  From the clip I viewed, the show features lots of squealing and shouting.  At least on the show I was "rooting" for the hogs.

Analysis: These are difficult times, and many of us feel under attack by forces we can't control.  Watching strong, earthy men and flashy young women take matters into their own hands makes us believe our world can still be set to rights.

Billy The Exterminator : Billy runs Vexcon, one of Louisiana's busiest pest removal companies, with the help of his brother Ricky, his father Bill Sr., and his sassy mom Donnie who runs the office.  The ad shows a man face-up with millions of creepy crawlies covering him.

Analysis: See American Hoggers.

Monster-In-Laws : A&E Network shines a light on married couples dealing with meddling in-laws as they try to make peace with the help of an unconventional, no-nonsense relationship expert. 

Analysis: Family life is messy, but no matter how bad yours gets, watching shows like this help you see that things could be worse.  These hateful, rotten people could be your in-laws.  And if they can be set on the road to recovery, then maybe your own family's not hopeless.  OTOH, if they look good to you and their unhappy home looks like an oasis, then it's clear you need immediate Intervention. (There's a show for that on A&E, too.)

Parking Wars: In the trenches with the men and women of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and Detroit Municipal Parking Department as they ticket, boot, tow and impound the cars of problem parkers, with unexpected and outrageous results.

Analysis: This one's the toughest to understand.  On one hand, Parking Wars is about the law prevailing, despite total disregard by citizens who believe they're too good to obey it.  Haven't we all wished a cop would pull over a crazy driver?  On the other hand, we've all probably parked illegally.  So I think this show's about ambivalence.  We want the bad guys to get caught and the not-so-bad guys to get away. And we want to decide who's who. Kind of  like watching politicians debate.

If you love these shows or others like them, please don't feel belittled.  Remember, this week I was riveted in front of Flip This House while Armando Montelongo shouted at contractors and a family's dream disintegrated into foreclosure.  There's something about other people's problems that make us feel better about our own.  It's human and perplexing. 

And that puts the "reality" in "reality television."

CHUsday Tips to Take You Back to the Kitchen

This week while leafing through old magazines, I found a tip I can't believe I've never tried.  It's so obvious and simple.  Chop onions, peppers, celery, or carrots and freeze on a cookie sheet, then pop the frozen veggies into plastic bags.  When an ingredient is needed for a recipe, break off a chunk.

Well, of course.  Celery regularly wilts in my fridge.  Why haven't I done this before?   I freeze peppers when I harvest too many, why not the extras from the grocery store?  I've taken this to heart and plan to fill my freezer.

Reading that tip reminded me of a trick I began when my children were young.  In a large plastic freezer container I freeze vegetable scraps I don't plan to use, celery leaves, asparagus and mushroom stalks, along with cooked veggies we didn't eat or the water I cooked them in.  Once my container is full I plop the contents into my Dutch over, add water to the top and simmer.  When everything is nicely stewed,  I strain and freeze the broth in small containers or ice cube trays.  Finally I pop the frozen broth into plastic bags and use it in soup or other recipes.  Vegetable broth is expensive at the grocery store, and no matter what vegetables I use, this free version tastes better. 

Oh, and I compost whatever's left of those veggies at the end.  Can we say earth friendly?

Along the same lines?  If I buy a rotisserie chicken, I use the bones to make broth, strain and freeze it.  It's surprisingly good since the chicken is usually seasoned and the  flavor clings to the bones.

Need more hints?  I found this wonderful page of tips on the Internet at Nigella.com.  With just a quick glance I learned a better way to handle a fresh bag of lemons or limes, and a great counterintuitive tip on removing the smell of garlic or onions from my hands after slicing.  I bet you'll find something to help you in the kitchen, too. 

We started CHU with such enthusiasm, and many of you dug out the sadly orphaned cookbooks on your shelves to try a new recipe.  I've succeeded in using four previously untried cookbooks, with more to go.  But as we've continued, submissions have been fewer.  This means, of course, that November will be a GREAT month to enter the giveaway, because you have an even better chance of winning the Piggy Wiggy Little Whisk and an autographed novel. 

Remember, too, that even if you don't win in November, every time you enter you're in the running for the prize at the end of the year.  Thanksgiving's on the way.  Why not pull out an old cookbook and try something different for the family feast, or something better to do with your leftovers?  Just tell us about the cookbook, the recipe and your thoughts about both. 

This week I asked my Facebook fans and Twitter followers to tell me their kitchen tips, and I'm already trying one of them.  So next week, their contributions.  In the meantime, please feel free to tell us your tips by commenting here. 

And don't forget.  Exhume that cookbook and START YOUR OVENS.

Sunday Poetry: With Unseen Ropes

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here.

Despite a four hour debacle last week, which ended in triumph when a CVS pharmacist squatted beside a chair in the storeroom and gave me a hard-won flu shot, I still came down with the flu on Tuesday, or at least some distant cousin.  One of my Facebook buddies commiserated and told me her own bout with this bug lasted five days.  I'm counting down and should be bright-eyed by the time this poem posts.

However, in celebration (?) of this all too frequent occurrence in all our lives, I looked for an appropriate poem and found a new poet to love.

Descent by Romanian poet Marin Sorescu  so accurately captures the way I feel.  You've been here, too, right?  "You look like the bell the peasants take down before their exodus. . ."  Uh huh. 

Wikipedia reports that Sorescu became so popular in his native country that his readings were held in football stadiums. He died at age sixty, a loss for us all.

Remember there are no quizzes here, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share.  Absolutely no dissecting allowed.  Just come along for the "read."  What line, word or thought will you carry with you this week?  If you'd like to tell us where the poem took you?  We'll listen.

The Write Way: Back Story, Front Story, and Nothing In Between

Picture this:  You've splurged on a hefty hardcover you know you'll spend weeks reading.  You've given the bookstore your hard-earned cash because you expect the author to keep his/her unspoken promise.  Within these pages a story will unfold,one so riveting that by the time you finish, your life  will be transformed–or at least during the hours you and the book kept company.

Instead, the author chooses to begin well before important action takes place, and the first one hundred pages are simply a family or character history.  You feel cheated, almost as if you have to pass a test to get to the good part.

Remember "Do-Re-Mi" from the Sound of Music?  Julie Andrews assures us: "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start."  Maybe that's true when you're learning how to sing, but not so much when you're writing a novel.

Last Friday I defined back story as "all those things that happened before the book begins."  I speculated there are three instances when including back story might be important.

To explain vital parts of a character's personality
To explain motivation for actions in the front story (the story that's unfolding in the present.)
To set up important plot points

Deciding what back story to include is only half the writing battle.  The other half is how to include it.

Flashbacks are probably the most common way.  A flashback can be this simple:

"He remembered another night when she had worn this dress.  She'd come downstairs, long legs appearing first, then the ruffled hem, then the nipped-in waist.  That had been the best part of the evening, because as usual, a fight had begun before they walked out the front door."

Flashbacks can also be lengthy.  Instead of a character's thoughts, we "relive" the past as if it were happening again.  The author uses a transition to take us into the past and suddenly the characters are younger, and the reader is revisiting a moment in a character's life that will provide that reader with new insights and understanding.  Diane Chamberlain uses this to great effect in her novel The Midwife's Confession, using entire chapters of flashback so skillfully, we don't feel disoriented.

Another oft-employed method is to use written material such as a journal or letters.  I used this device in Whiskey Island and again in The Parting Glass, the sequel.  Whiskey Island begins with a journal entry from a priest in 1880, a journal which is discovered later in the novel and vital for explaining an incident that still affects the present day characters.  

For The Parting Glass I used letters written by the same priest's sister.  Quite honestly they were less effective than the journal.  I included the letters to connect the style of the two books, but their content wasn't as important, and the way they were mistakenly set into the book was confusing.

See, I never said this was easy.

Dreams are another possibility, but usually not a good one.  Ever watch someone's eyes glaze when you tell them about a dream from the night before?  Enough said. 

Sandwiching the book between a prologue and epilogue in the present is another method, which in the hands of a master, can be powerful, but is most often annoying. Who are these people and why do we care?

A story within the story is another way to show back story.  I used this device in Fox River by including a "novel" the heroine's mother was writing.  At first the "extra" novel seems like nothing more an interesting historical diversion, a chance for me to show off what I'd learned about fox hunting.  By the end of the book, the reader realizes Maisy's novel is anything but a diversion.  I hate to say more.  I want you to read it.

So many decisions, so many good ways and not-so-good ways to accomplish a task.  Welcome to the world of a novelist.  Remember, if you're not sure something you're doing is working, try a different method and compare.  Still not happy?  Try yet another.  Your job is to write the best book you can, and sometimes trial and error is the only way to make sure you do.