CM finally blogs again!
Posted by CM under Real Life on Fri 22 Jun 2007
kay. So I haven’t blogged in something like a month. You’re all wondering what I’ve been doing, right?
The answer is: Not much. And boy, does it feel good. I visited some friends. I’ve been cooking dinner (something I did almost never last year), and rediscovering that oh, yes, I enjoy cooking. I really enjoy cooking. And I enjoy being cooked for. Two days ago, I made a kind of fettucine: ribbons of carrots and zucchini (use a vegetable peeler), lightly blanched and tossed with black pepper fettucine (you want about 3 parts vegetable to 1 part pasta), with olive oil and roasted garlic and a twitch of basil and salt and pepper, and topped with mounds of freshly grated romano. The great thing about this dish is that it leaves leftovers: bits of carrot and zucchini that can’t be peeled into ribbons without slicing your hands, and about half the clove of roasted garlic. So on the next day, you chop those into bits and fry them in olive oil along with a little of the sopressata you got for sandwiches on your road trip, and then add enough egg to make a brilliant frittata. When you have time to cook, one meal slides into the next which slides into the next, without ever invoking that curse word: Leftovers.
All this makes me think about food, and the surprising fact that although I love to eat, in my current WIP, my characters never eat together. This is extremely bizarre to me. Food is love; I could never love an anorexic man. If I can’t eat with him, drink with him, and make food with him, I doubt I could ever really love him. But the truth of the matter is that there are very few times when our characters would ever make food together, if we’re writing in historical times. Someone else always did all the work.
And then that makes me think of all the novels I have stuck in my head. Somewhere in my head, there’s a romance novel where one of the main characters is a chef–an absolutely hyper French-trained chef–the kind you always hear bursting into tears when the souffle falls. And that is going to be a novel about food and sin and gluttony and indulgence.
But speaking of gluttony and indulgence: I had one good writing day this last month, and that’s about it! What is up with that?
So what do you do, when you’re not doing anything?
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I tend to write well when I’m under pressure. Isn’t there a major project you could start? Besides a book, I mean.
Alice
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:03 am
I’m actually not so worried about not doing anything right now. I kind of need it after last year. In another month or so, I’m starting another major piece of work. I’m supremely unmotivated to push myself now. I believe strongly in the power of vacations and in doing nothing.
June 24th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Good point. Pushing when the well is low just empties you out.
Alice
June 24th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I change diapers (almost done with that. .. we’re potty training and into pullups and big boy underwear, but sometimes we “forget”. . .argh), I do laundry (mounds and mounds of it. . .mostly little boy clothes that are filthy and teenage girl clothes that I’m not sure are even dirty), dishes, I cook (lots of hotdogs and mac&cheese these days, wish the boys had more developed palates. . . it’s a myth saying that they’ll eat what you put in front of them…it worked until they were 2-2 1/2 yo. . .then came the dreaded word. . .yucky!), I read (very little and in tiny spurts), and did I mention laundry????
June 24th, 2007 at 8:15 am
I have to say that I am supremely in awe of those of you who have children. Writing with children is, as far as I can tell, a near-impossibility.
June 25th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Glad to have you back in the blog world. I pretty much just sit and stare into space with a blank look in my eyes and day dream about my characters when I do nothing. Oh I get up, open the frige, take out what ever excuse for food I want to eat. Usually it’s cottage cheese or string cheese. I should try the cooking thing some time. That would totally surprise the crap out of everyone here. It’s not that I’m a bad cook or don’t like cooking, it’s the fact that the only thing these people usually see is me sitting in my chair typing merrily away on my computer.