What's Food Got to Do With It?

I can be easily distracted. I searched foodnetwork.com for a chicken and rice dish and ended up drooling over a Paula Deen recipe promising to produce the best chocolate gooey butter cookies ever. Then I read the reviews from people who actually made the cookie. Some agreed it was the best chocolate cookie they'd ever eaten. They loved the rich chocolate flavor and the soft, gooey centers. Others claimed the cookie was too soft, too bland, too ordinary, a waste of cream cheese.

I'm going to give you the recipe, but I want you to keep the opposing cookie reviews in mind when you face publication. Some readers will give your absolutely delicious work rave reviews. Others may think your writing is flat, uninspired, ordinary.

To encourage yourself, go to Amazon.com and read customer reviews of your favorite books. It's amazing, isn't it, how some folks don't get what you get? They're just at a different place, and that's okay. Negative (and positive) reviews may have more to do with the reader's experience and personal tastes than with your writing. People are different, and it takes some of us a long time to come to that understanding.

Our family has traditional dishes we prepare for holidays. I could be offended because my son-in-law passes on my mother's ambrosia salad. He doesn't like coconut. But when my mother-in-law's coconut cream pie is served, I'm happy to know I'll get dibs on his slice. He's still the best of dads and a beloved elementary school principal. His dislike for that one food ingredient doesn't effect his job performance. Though I enjoy coconut in family recipes, you can have my Almond Joy. I don't like coconut that compact. Readers, like eaters, can also be fickle.

Our preferences determine what we read and write. Our readers have preferences. I once worked with a young woman who read horror, watched horror movies, and became very animated as she talked about what she'd read and the movie she'd just seen. She and I got along, even though I don't read or watch anything scary, vulgar, explicit, graphic, or violent. I prefer gentle reads. I like to see character development. But that's just me. That's my preference. Remember the movie, Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? I saw the movie based on Oprah's rave reviews. She loved the movie, and I was disappointed. Why did every other word have to be the F word? Couldn't the story be told without profanity?

You don't have to please everybody with your writing, though you do have to please the person who wants to help you put your work in print. An editor who read a first chapter of a children's book for me as a paid critique said I couldn't say my main character's mother lit a cigarette. I could say she smelled like smoke, but showing someone in the act of lighting up wasn't something she wanted to see presented to impressionable young readers. One publishing house, one editor, one opinion. But if that one editor had shown interest in my whole manuscript, you'd better believe my main character's mother would have quit smoking or at least crushed her cigarette before the chapter began.

Say what you must, but stay within editorial guidelines. Also, try to stay away from too many of those best ever chocolate comforts that serve to both celebrate and console. You don't necessarily need to console yourself with chocolate, though it works for me.

~ ~ ~

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies
from http://www.foodnetwork.com/

1 8 oz. brick cream cheese, room temp.

1 stick butter, room temp.

1 egg

1 t. vanilla extract

1 18 0z. box moist chocolate cake mix

confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon-sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.
~~~

Some reviewers of the recipe said they also used cake mixes other than chocolate. This recipe reminds me of a bar cookie I used to make. I don't bake much any more because my doctor has gotten a little snooty about my cholesterol.

Cream Cheese Cookies

Mix 1 pkg. lemon cake mix, 1 egg, and 1 stick butter and pat into a large rectangular cake pan. Top with the following filling: 1 pound box powdered sugar, 1 egg, and 8 oz. cream cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

~~~

When you get through drooling over the recipes, back to work. And it's okay to have your main character's mother eat something calorie-packed and gooey in the first chapter, I think. But in this age of health consciousness, I could be wrong.

Back in the Saddle

This handsome reclining man is my husband. For years, he was an avid bicycle rider. He doesn't ride as often now, but this particular day when he came upstairs and got in this horizontal position, he confided, "I'm thinking about riding."

This, dear hearts, is the difference between thinking and doing. You know how sometimes we think about writing? I've been thinking about working on that young adult novel I started eons ago. And lately with a writers workshop a week away, I've been thinking about looking over the rough draft of a manuscript I want to take to get some help on. Will I think about or write, think about or edit? Hmm. I probably need to think about that. But I can guarantee which action is more profitable. By the way, the snoozing man did ride later that day, after cutting a few Z's.

What are you thinking about working on? And when will you do it? Take a nap if you must. Clears the head.

Team Work

If you've had trouble writing by yourself--and it is such a lonely job, isn't it?--consider team writing. I've just finished Dixie Cash's I Gave You My Heart, but You Sold it Online. Dixie Cash is the pen name for sisters Pamela Cumbie and Jeffery McClanahan. http://www.dixie-cash.com/. Those girls know Texas!

One of the devotionals I turn to from time to time, God Calling, was edited by A. J. Russell but written anonymously by "two poor, brave women [who] were courageously fighting against sickness and penury. . .facing a hopeless future" when they heard God's encouraging promises spoken to their hearts. They wrote together and have blessed many. (Quote from the introduction, "The Two Listeners")

Brock and Bodie Thoene are a husband and wife team who write historical fiction (http://www.thoenebooks.com/). Dave and Neta Jackson publish historical novels for young readers (http://www.trailblazersbooks.com/). Albert Hackett and wife Frances Goodrich have been described as one of the top husband wife writing teams in cinema.

I like the description about writing alone Ashton Applewhite shares in "About Me" on her blog, http://www.sowhenareyougoingtoretire.com/: "In the past, I've banged my head against the keyboard in solitude. . ." Isn't that the truth? In her book in progress, Applewhite is networking. Sounds like a good idea.

Just a thought. If you can't stand the idea of someone else taking your characters down a road you never intended, then you might find a quiet place you can write together independently, you on your work in progress, she on hers. That might work. Then you can share your work with your partner for critique and brainstorming.
11/10/08

Reason Enough

When I told my friend Barbara I'd just ordered Mary Pipher's book, Writing to Change the World, she asked, "You want to change the world?" Is there any better reason to write than to find some dark corner and turn on the light?

I turn to the written word for encouragement, comfort, education, advice. I am swayed by the words I read, so I know my words can sway others. I want to leave a little kindness when I'm gone -- and maybe a smile, maybe an "ah-ha" moment. I want others to know they are valuable, that their lives are purposeful. I can do that with the written word. And hugs. But those are best delivered in person.

I don't have to write volumes for my words to find their mark or to be effective. "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver" (Proverbs 25:11). This is true for words aptly written.

Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." May my writing endeavors be from a heart of love.

11/29/08

Writers and Publishing, a Response to An Interview with Markus Zusak

"Being a writer, I think, has nothing to do with being published--in a lot of ways." Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief

In the following clip, Markus Zusak discusses his motivation for writing The Book Thief and talks about the act of writing. He says if he knew he'd never publish or make a cent on his next work, he'd write anyway. Isn't that the truth? We write because we have to write. We can't help it. Give us a used envelope, a 3x5 card, the edge of a newspaper article, a napkin, a scrap of toilet paper. Where there is a pen and a fleeting thought, we'll find a way to record workable ideas to flesh out later. Now if we could only find a way to keep up with all those scraps of paper.

The Other Shack

On a recent trip to the Ozarks, my husband and I took a walking trail along Mill Creek near Jasper, Arkansas, to visit a home built in the 1800's and rebuilt using the same wood in 1930.

It had rained recently and the not quite half-mile trail was muddy and sometimes slippery, but we enjoyed the walk to get there.

While visiting friends the day before in southeast Missouri, my friend Gayle asked if I'd read The Shack. No, I hadn't heard of it. Her Sunday School class had read the book together. She thought the book was "a little strange." She wanted me to take the book and let her know what I thought of it.

The first thing I did was read the reviews on the back cover. A well-known recording artist read the book with his wife, and cried. Another reviewer said, "If you read one work of fiction this year, let this be it."

I showed my husband the front cover. "Look at this. The #1 New York Times Bestseller. Over three million copies in print."

"This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!" Eugene Peterson.

I must have missed it. The Shack was difficult for me to read. In fact, I couldn't get through it. I had trouble getting started. As a writer, I wondered how the book got published. If Wm.Paul Young had been in our writers group, someone would have suggested he cut much of the first matter, start in the middle of action with a good hook. Show, don't tell. I kept trying to read as we traveled. If my friend hadn't asked me what I thought of the book, I wouldn't have stayed with it as long as I did.

I found an interview with the author on Youtube. He wrote the book for his children, he said, as "a metaphor for the place we get hurt and stuck." Maybe I just don't get metaphors.

This week I visited my friend Betty and noticed a copy of The Shack open on the table by the sofa where we sat. "Oh, The Shack," I said. "What do you think?"

"Have you read this?" she asked. "Ive been trying to read it for about a month, and I'm on page 100. This is just so disturbing," she said.

I know. I made my way to page 122 before passing it on to my granddaughter, an avid reader, at her request. This child who read the Twilight series in record time is still working on getting through The Shack.

Not everyone will like what we write, but some will. This is an encouragement to keep writing.

Dressed for Success, in Flannel

This morning I finally figured out why I do most of my writing in my pajamas. On my best writing days, I wake with a word or thought in my head that begs to be committed to paper. I know how fleeting good ideas are, so first things first. Whether I wake at 4 a.m. or sleep in till 7, I stumble to the computer to capture those words in print before they vanish. No trip by the bathroom or to the kitchen to make coffee.

I try to flesh out the idea as fully as possible. If I don't, what seemed so brilliant when I woke is a muddle by 8:30. Perhaps the fuzziness is because of my age or my hormones or the fact I drink too much caffeine or still eat sugar. As long as an idea is flowing, I keep writing. I'm usually through by 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 -- and still wearing my pajamas. Then I'll break, have something to eat during the transition, take a shower, tackle other things. I have been known to write till 3:00, then put myself in high gear to get myself and the house presentable before my husband comes home from work. I'm often trying to make it to the post office before they close at 4:30.

My writing days aren't always like this. I have been known to write in regular street clothes. But not often.

When my kids were young, there were no computers, just quills to write with and candles for light. (I hope you know I'm joking.) My mind worked better then, I think. I can't really remember. Single words and phrases jotted on paper made sense then. Now, when a brilliant idea strikes when I'm away from home, I'll jot a note or two on the back of a gasoline receipt or the edge of an envelope. When I find the notes buried in my purse days later, I generally have no idea what they mean. What seemed like the outline for an article on parenting jotted in the car now makes no sense. For example:

• Preface: Diane.
• young mom's in gr.
• Siolder women. (Soilder women? Sc: older women? I can't read my own writing.)
• HS teach you.
• This is something.

When I jotted those notes, I was certain I had a best seller. Now, I'm not so certain. Hey, if you can get a book on parenting out of that, this outline is yours. But you might want to change back into your pajamas.

In Defense of Blogging

A few weeks ago I had lunch with writer friends. While we were waiting for our orders, "Nancy" asked what I’d been writing.

"Blogs," I told her.

"Oh. Well, that’s nice," she said. Then later, half-way through her sandwich, she said she never had time to read blogs and certainly had no time to write them. How could she possibly write something every day? That would be too much pressure. Had my one-word answer put pressure on her?

Then this past week I attended a writers’ group meeting where the topic for discussion was blogging. One woman said, "I don’t see the point of blogs. Why spend time writing something that maybe only ten people might read when you could spend the same effort on an article for a magazine that might have a circulation of several thousands?"

Good questions. My thoughts, for what they’re worth:

I have a friend who writes romance novels. I know a man whose wife writes westerns. I watch made-for-TV movies. My husband prefers reruns of Seinfeld. Some people read blogs. Others don’t. Different strokes for different folks.

The rule for blogging is to make entries on a regular basis. Some people blog daily, some weekly. Some of us break that rule by writing when the Spirit moves us. I blog when I have something to say. I can do that because I’m over 50. You can get away with a lot if you’re ancient.

Writing regularly, like in a blog, is a good discipline. It’s evident I’m discipline-challenged, but I’m working on it. I love to write. Blogging gives opportunity for writing.

In Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg tells about one writing practice she followed. She’d set up a table, someone would give her a topic, and she’d write a page for a dollar. Some of what she wrote she thought was very good, but she let the writing go. There were more words, she said, where those came from. Blogging is good writing practice. Words held on to have little influence. The more practice we have in letting our words go, the easier it is to overcome self-consciousness and seek print publication.

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but often when I get on the internet, I end up at sites and have no idea how I got there. Many of those sites are blogs. One blogger last posted in 2005. I didn’t even know about blogs in 2005. The photos on the site were beautiful, his words inspirational, words sitting in cyberspace four years waiting for someone to take a stroll down a side-street off the super highway. Surely I’m not the only person in the past four years who found his piece of the internet. If I write from my heart and ten people read it, if one is encouraged, then I’m gratified. I understand regular posts produce regular readers. I get that. But that’s not why I write. I write because I have to write. I’m a writer. A blog gives me a place to do that.

I have three blogs. The first I started because I attended some meetings where a leader was publicly criticized by people who weren’t even there. I felt the need to speak up to let those who were interested know what happened from the perspective of someone who had been there. I started this blog because I have a heart to encourage writers. My third blog is somewhat unfocused. I need to work on that.

The woman at the writers’ group who questioned the value of blogs made me consider I could have more influence if I sought publication in periodicals. I agree I need to more actively seek print publication. And I will, thanks to her encouragement.

The New Pup

Having a dog is a distraction.

My husband called at 7:15 a.m. from India. Had I fed the dog?

The dog. Oh. I tiptoed past Annie's crate, peering in her direction while whispering into the phone. "She's still asleep." I knew once I let her out, that's all I'd get done.

Sure, maybe a person can write with a pup nipping at her ankles, eating her baby airplane plants, making a game of shredding her paper trash, but I find that distracting. I've been at the computer for a little over an hour, just like old times, and frankly, it feels good to be back in the saddle. I'm hesitant to leave the computer to take on my new business of dog sitting.

"She'll need to go out soon," my husband said.

"I'll go up and shower while she's sleeping, then take her out," I promised. And I will. But just let me write one more paragraph. It may be the only paragraph I'll get to finish today.

Sitting Still Long Enough to Read

How do you choose a novel? By recommendation? By author? By genre? By cover?



During my last trip to the library, a book propped up at the end of shelf caught my eye. Our librarians tease patrons like that. I took Kelly Simmons' novel, Standing Still, off the shelf and flipped it over to read the back cover. That's my normal routine if I'm not looking for a particular title or author: spine, front cover, back cover, front inside blurb, info. about the author. Then I crack the book open and read a random paragraph or two somewhere from the middle of the book. If the plot seems intriguing and I haven't been offended by that point, I give the book a try. Unlike many readers who will complete a book regardless, if I see the story isn't going anywhere once I start reading, I'll abandon it and look for another good read.

Standing Still may be the first novel I've brought home without checking the inside cover or cracking the book open. Those few paragraphs on the back thoroughly hooked me. "There is a man in my daughter's room. . . I don't dare cast my eyes in my daughter's direction, don't want to point her out to him. . . He stares at me. I stare back. . . He scoops her up. . . 'Take me,' I say. 'Take me instead.' I'm ashamed to admit I wasn't completely relieved when he did."

I offered the book to my husband and asked him to read the back matter. "Wow," he said as he finished. My response, too. I knew I had a delicious few hours ahead when I finally made opportunity to read.

This morning when I moved the book to dust the table supporting it, I read the inside front cover. Whoa. Wait a minute. The main character is a woman? Where did I get the idea the first person story teller would be a man? I opened the book in the middle and read a paragraph or two. She is having conversations with someone she refers to as capital H "He." Oh. This is a Christian novel? She's dialoging with God?

I looked at the front cover again. How did I miss the drawing of a woman sitting on a sofa? (And as I read the book later, I wondered how the illustrator missed the color of the main character's night gown -- unless the illustrator is color blind and can't tell pink from green.) I flipped the book open again. On page 184, I read this dialog: "'I hate you,' I say. He laughs and gets off the bed. . . . The deadbolt locks and the Cutlass beckons. I don't see Him after that, but I imagine Him on the phone, talking to His boss, filling him in. . . " Oh. She has given her kidnapper the only name she has and honors him with a capitalization.

Compare the excerpt from the back matter above with the first few sentences of the inside blurb: "Journalist and suburban mom Claire Cooper suffers from panic disorder. Most of her anxieties seem irrational, nothing that can't be fixed with the help of some Xanax. But late one stormy summer night. . . " The first person excerpt is much more intriguing. If I had read "Claire Cooper suffers from panic disorder" as my introduction to the novel, my response would have been, "So?"

As a writer, I've been reminded of a few things.

1. Librarians are our friends. If they like a book, they'll let you know in some way that hey, this is a good read. Maybe they'll pull the book out so you can skip step 1, read the spine, and see the front cover.
   


2. A good first sentence is valuable. "There is a man in my daughter's room." I am a mother. I feel Claire's panic. I catch my breath. I can't exhale till I finish several paragraphs.



3. It is perfectly acceptable to bend the rules. Capital H He makes sense here just as putting some dialog in italics does in The Last Time They Met, by Anita Shreve. I loved the quirkiness of Shreve's book, and my writing partner hated it.



4. And of course, you can't tell a book by its cover or its back cover or its blurb or a few paragraphs mid-way through. To know what's in a book, you have to actually read it -- which I plan to do, as soon as I wash the dishes, pick up the mess I made last night when I decided to clean out a closet in the living room, write a few letters, finish this post, go to the grocery store, cook supper. You know, daily things.

Standing Still has given me reason to pause. Why did I assume the main character is a man? And why haven't I read the book yet if the excerpt seemed so intriguing? Pondering these questions with novel in hand, the answer to the last question surfaces. Ah. The back cover is the color of chocolate. That's what makes Claire Cooper's story a treat I want to savor.