• kitchenwitchery

    The bit at the bottom

    I love cooking. Baking, too, though I’m told by professional chefs that these are two very different skill-sets. The former involves creativity and experimentation, the latter is science and beauty. Yet to me, both activities are kitchen witchery.

    There’s something magical about cooking and baking. You take ingredients from all parts of the planet, combine them skillfully, add heat or cold or motion — and ta da! A dish appears. You can transform the remnants of meat sticking to the bottom of a hot pan into a smooth and silky sauce. Combine cornstarch, vanilla, butter, sugar, eggs and milk in a pot and the concoction will transmogrify into a thick and delicious pudding. Pour heavy cream into a cold stainless steel bowl, whip it into shape and the liquid becomes a delectable, fluffy cloud.

    Serving food to others is also an enchanting experience. Friends and family, why, they already adore you. But wake ’em up with the smell of freshly baked bread or cinnamon rolls, and love will fill their hearts. Hand ’em a mug of steaming tea or coffee or cocoa on an frigid winter’s day, and you’ll warm their bodies. Sit ’em down over a holiday table, and the food you serve will not only feed their stomachs, it’ll create traditions and memories.

    The best part of edible alchemy occurs when no one is looking, for that’s when I revel in the secrets of cookery. Inside the kitchen, I make music out of banging pots and clinking silverware. I use the colors and shapes of ingredients to create art on a plate. With herbs, spices and salts, I intensify the flavors of food. And before any meal is served, I take a moment to enjoy the bit at the bottom: the gritty, chocolate brownie batter; the smooth, warm comfort of custard; the last dollop of creamy mashed potatoes still sticking to the wooden spoon. That tasty morsel is all mine.

    (Photo by Humusak2. Used with permission.)

  • raven and books stamp

    10 books that stayed with me

    My friend Dawn Staszak, author of “A Guru in the Office” and “A Guru in the Nursery,” recently challenged me to create a list of the 10 books that have stayed with me over the years. Here’s what I came up with on the fly:

    1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
    2. Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
    3. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
    4. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
    5. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
    6. A Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton
    7. Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled by Harlan Ellison
    8. The Corpse Had A Familiar Face by Edna Buchanan
    9. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
    10. A Drink Before The War by Dennis Lehane

    What’s on your list?

  • Cemetery seraphim

    Quote of the day

    “And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands? He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.” –Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451”

  • Laptop and notepad

    Supporting writers and artists just makes cents

    A couple of people have asked about the new button at the bottom of each blog post. Most readers recognize the social media buttons and the email/print buttons, but what the heck is this one?:

    Centup
    That button is for CentUp, a service that allows readers to toss a few pennies into the digital hats of their favorite cyberbuskers. Best of all, half of each donation goes to a charitable organization. Learn more here:


    CentUp.org from CentUp on Vimeo.

    Interested in helping your favorite content creators? Sign up here and receive your first 100 cents free. Then, just click on the CentUp link whenever you see it on a particularly good blog post or podcast. Here are some links to get you started:

    The Weeklings
    The Second City Network
    Travel Geekery
    Zulkey

  • Chapter 1

    How to become a more disciplined writer

    At work, I’m on constant deadline. In the rare moments when I’m between breaking news events, I spend my time searching social media, contacting sources and checking out the competition for the next big story. I simply don’t have the time to dawdle.

    When I attempt to write fiction, however, procrastination can sometimes get in the way of productivity. Making stuff up is far more challenging than sharing facts and quotes. There are no looming deadlines forcing me to buckle down. And, frequently, the fear of sucking whirls like a fog through my Nauru-sized imagination.

    To prevent the blank page from mocking me into writer’s block, I simply buckle down and get to work. Here’s how:

    Look for inspiration

    * Read, in your preferred genre and outside of it. Learn how to become a better writer by reading authors who have serious talent.

    * Carry a notebook at all times to store random titles, story ideas, characters and bits of dialogue.

    * Subscribe to The Written Word, a free service that sends a writing- or publishing-related quote to your e-mail box.

    * Subscribe to The 10th Muse. This mailing list offers one or two writing prompts a week, perfect for inspiring your latest journal entry or freewriting session.

    * Speaking of freewriting, give it a try. Sometimes you just need to warm up a bit before diving into your latest writing project. There are plenty of great websites and books offering writing prompts, but I highly recommend “The Amazing Story Generator” by Jay Sacher.

    Eliminate distractions

    * Turn off your phone. Seriously. Don’t just put it on vibrate. Turn it off.

    * While you’re at it, shut down the Internet, too. Email, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, these sites are awesome …and total time-sucks. An easy way to hinder your access is to download and use Freedom.

    * Avoid people who do not support your writing. If you grant access to these folks, they will poison your muse.

    Develop a writing routine

    * Timed pop-up reminders encourage me to stand every 30 minutes and stretch. Computer reminders point out upcoming appointments/events. I even have a reminder to alert me to the fact that my tea has finished brewing. Consider setting reminders on your computer to work on your latest project.

    * Try the 100-word challenge. Every day, vow to write 100 words, no less. This practice not only encourages you to develop a daily writing habit, it builds up your confidence and your portfolio. Inevitably, you’ll write more than 100 words; the first 100 will simply clear out the dust bunnies in your brain.

    * If you have a superstition that works for you, indulge yourself. Doing so will put you in a focused frame of mind to create. When I write nonfiction, I do so in my home office. I generally prefer to work in silence. I drink hot tea or pop. When writing fiction, I prefer to work away from my desk. I often listen to playlists specifically designed for the project at hand. And I drink iced chai lattes.

    * Set self-imposed deadlines. I will finish my novel by the end of the year. I will blog five days a week. I will participate in National Novel Writing Month and pen 1,500 words a day for 30 days. Give yourself a goal and start working towards it.

    * Know when to stop. I like to kill off random characters or leave them in a jam at the end of a chapter. That way I have something interesting to ponder for the rest of the day/night. I also like to end my daily writing effort in the middle of a sentence. Sounds odd, but it works.

    Lastly, consider these sage words by John Gardner: “The real message is, write in any way that works for you: write in a tuxedo or in the shower with a raincoat or in a cave deep in the woods.”

    Just write!