SPICY CRANBERRY RELISH
I’ve been going through my mother’s old recipe box. Remember those? Most of our mothers and grandmothers had them–a green metal box that held index-sized recipe cards, with alphabet tabs. Recipes used to be passed around among friends and family, so many of the cards had titles like “Marie’s Breakfast Casserole” or “Tillie’s Cheese Dip.”
So this little, plain green box suddenly becomes a memory box. Out pour my aunts, my grandmother, my mother’s friends and neighbors. There were recipes for things I hadn’t eaten in years, but with them came the recollection, not only of the food, but of the occasion. Oh, that cheese dip we always had at my parent’s New Year’s Day open house. Oh, we always had that seafood gumbo for my dad’s birthday…
(There were an astounding number of dip recipes, by the way. My parents’ generation must have partied more than we do.)
Many of the cards were typed–my mother was a very good typist. Later ones were handwritten, some just scrawled notes as Mom’s handwriting deteriorated.
I’ve been thinking a good deal about our loss of physical references. Letters, diaries, recipes, things that are passed on and that give us a sense of connectedness with not only friends and families but with previous generations. If my mother kept a recipe box, I clipped recipes from newspapers and magazines and stuck them in a much less organized ring binder. But they are there, if you sort through them; a catalog of the stages of my life.
Now, I no longer take the daily paper, and the thing I miss most is the Wednesday food section. I don’t have time to read cooking magazines. I look up recipes on the Internet. My daughter and I email each other recipe links. I bookmark the ones I like in my browser. Convenient, yes, but somehow not the same. I suspect this is a generational lament, and that perhaps my daughter will never look nostalgically through my ragged collection of recipes.
My bonus prize, other than some lovely memories, for looking through my mother’s box was finding my own cranberry relish recipe. I’d mentioned this a few weeks ago on Facebook and several people commented that they’d like to have the recipe. It was clipped, eons ago, from Gourmet Magazine (in my previous life when I used to actually COOK things from Gourmet Magazine…) but I’d lost the recipe and had been making it from memory for years. I wasn’t sure I trusted my recollection enough to write down the proportions for someone else.
But there it was, on a battered card, typed on my mother’s typewriter. And so I’ll pass it on to you, to keep in whatever form you prefer.
Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!
SPICY CRANBERRY RELISH
(I double the recipe. It keeps really well in the fridge, and is great with all sorts of things, especially on leftover turkey and ham sandwiches.)
1 12 oz package fresh cranberries, picked over and rinsed
1 small fresh jalepeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine (wear rubber gloves)
Rind of one orange, julienned
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp salt
In a stainless saucepan, combine ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer, covered, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cranberries begin to pop. Let cool and chill for 2 hours or overnight.
(Confession–I eat it right out of the pan.)
LONDON–ST. PANCRAS
Apologies for not having posted more from this visit to London. It’s been such a blur I’ve had a hard time remembering what I’ve done the day before, much less managing to write it down in either the blog or the trusty trip journal I like to keep.
I can blame at least part of the failure-to-post on the Droid. This was my first trip overseas with my Android phone, having switched from a Blackberry after my visit to London last February. I’d loved uploading photos to Facebook from the Blackberry, so it was quite a shock to learn I’d used almost the entire data package I’d bought for the trip my first two hours in London. Needless to say that nixed posting pics from the phone. I learned, however, that I can take pictures with the phone, then turn on data roaming, email the pics to myself, then turn the data roaming off again and post the pictures from my laptop.
Hence my little pictorial essay from yesterday’s visit to St. Pancras Station (and no, spellcheck, I do NOT mean St. Pancreas!) although I do miss the fun of immediate sharing.
Yesterday afternoon I paid a quick call at my UK publisher, Pan Macmillan, in New Wharf Road, which is just round the corner from King’s Cross. So, a perfect opportunity to make what has become my ritual visit to St. Pancras. Since I was there last, the restoration scaffolding has come down, the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel is open, and while I haven’t been in to have a look myself, I highly recommend their website for lovely pictures of the station–much better than mine–as well as some interesting history.
I was on a mission to buy my favorite tea at the Peyton and Byrne shop in the station’s lower concourse, but they were OUT of loose tea! Any sort of loose tea! No idea when they might have it again. Sigh.
But my disappointment was somewhat alleviated by the live music performances in the concourse, part of an ongoing series called The Station Sessions. First, a girl called Lexy, who I thought was very good, then a singer named Charlie Simpson who used to be in a band called Busted. As I couldn’t see much over the crowd, I went upstairs and watched from the upper concourse railing for a while, but was not too thrilled with the view of the the tops of the band’s heads and sound muffled by the glass railing.
So I abandoned the bands for the last part of the ritual pilgrimage, the glass of champagne at Searcy’s, the champagne bar on the station’s upper level. I sipped, watched two Eurostar trains pull out, and dreamed of the Orient Express . . .
Oh, and a room at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel wouldn’t be half bad, either.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING
DEBORAH CROMBIE: The first time I had Sticky Toffee Pudding was in London, at the Oriel Brasserie in Sloane Square. A very English desert for such a French restaurant, but oh, my, I was hooked. They served it warm (as it should be) with a swirl of toffee sauce and a dollop of creme fraiche (and I still think the slight tanginess of the creme fraiche makes the perfect foil for the sweet, steamed cake.)
Alas, the Oriel took the Sticky Toffee off the menu, and now the Oriel itself is gone, a victim of redevelopment. I’ve had many Sticky Toffees since, but am still looking for one to compare.
Nor have I made it, as the recipes always seemed a bit overwhelming, but here is one that I’m definitely going to try, from the gloriously English Nigella Lawson. Apologies for the metric measurements, but if you go to the recipe on Nigella’s web page, there’s a handy conversion table. (Oh, and muscovado sugar is dark, raw sugar, so a good US equivalent would probably be Succanat.)
Enjoy!
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE:
- 100g dark muscovado sugar
- 175g self-raising flour
- 125ml full-fat milk
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 50g unsalted butter, melted
- 200g chopped, rolled dates
FOR THE SAUCE:
- 200g dark muscovado sugar
- Approx. 25g unsalted butter in little blobs
- 500ml boiling water
Method
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 and butter a 11/2-litre capacity pudding dish.
- Combine the 100g dark muscovado sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring – just with a wooden spoon – to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared pudding dish. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look very full: it will do by the time it cooks.
- Sprinkle over the 200g dark muscovado sugar and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water (yes really!) and transfer to the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, though you might find the pudding needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it’s cooked; underneath, the butter, dark muscovado sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche, double or single cream as you wish.
Jungle Red Writers–SMOKE-FREE FICTION
Saturday, October 1, 2011
SMOKE-FREE FICTION
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Whenever I go to England, I realize I live a very insulated, smoke-free life at home in Texas. I am a non-smoker. No one smokes in my family (my husband quit a year ago, thank goodness, and even when he smoked, he never smoked in the house, in the car, or in public places.) No one is ever allowed, on pain of death, to smoke in my car, and when I go out it’s usually to smoke-free shops and restaurants.
So it’s always a bit of shock to be thrown into the midst of very public London, where people smoke on the streets, and there is a whole new culture of pavement-smoking outside restaurants, pubs, and clubs. Suddenly I have to remind myself that at least some characters in my books should smoke. This is not so much a matter of approval or disapproval, but simply that as a non-smoker, smoking doesn’t occur to me.
While certainly bad for one’s health, smoking has always provided a nice “bit of business”, both on the page and screen. It’s something for your characters to do while they have a conversation (other than drink endless cups of tea.) It can convey an emotional state such as agitation or nonchalance, or give subtle insights into character (I’ve loved Sergeant Hathaway’s attempts to give up smoking in the recent episodes of Lewis), class, or background. (Think James Bond here…) Camel or Silk Cut? Does the smoker carelessly put out the stubs in old cups of coffee, or tamp them out and tuck them away in a plastic baggie?
And with many of the popular retro shows like Mad Men, or The Hour (I’ve yet to see if they will smoke on Pan Am, but am horrified to remember that people actually used to smoke on airplanes!) smoking is once again being shown in a glamorous light (excuse the pun.)
As a reader, I like to play a little guessing game about whether or not the writer is a smoker–if almost every character in a novel smokes, I’m inclined to think the writer (I could name a few) does, too. But at the moment, I’m halfway through Felix Francis’s new novel, Gamble, and I’ve just realized that not a single character has been seen smoking. I’d be willing to bet (excuse another pun) that Felix Francis does not.
So what about you, Jungle Reds? Do your characters indulge? And should they?
JAN BROGAN: I think the characters should smoke if you think that’s part of who they are. I had a teenager in Teaser smoking because I thought that’s what she’d be doing and I wanted my reporter Hallie Ahern to show she had good getting-people-to-talk skills by allowing the young girl to smoke in her car even though it was driving her out of her mind.
I’m thinking of setting my next novel in southern France, where at least half the French characters must smoke.
DEBS: Yes, the French and the Italians are all big smokers, but the red wine and olive oil probably keep them from getting cancer . . .
HALLIE EPHRON: I’m writing a novel in which the main character’s dysfunctional alcoholic mother smokes. As Jan says, it’s essential to the character.
It’s pretty astounding how much public has changed about smoking. My husband brought home a “Rugged Men” magazine from the 50s. It’s a real period piece, soft porn and enlightening article, like “Let’s Get Rid of the Girls Who Shake Their Cans” by Dunwoodie Hall. In it there’s an article that dismisses the “health scares” of smoking and concludes, “Thus, it can literally be said, ‘Smoke–And live longer!’”
ROSEMARY HARRIS: I’ve had a few characters smoke, but no main characters. If they’re going to die, I’d rather kill them off in my own way.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Huh!Not to give anything way, but you’ve made me realize that the people in my books who smoke–are the bad guys!
(I tried smoking in college. Once. ONCE! My best friend Hallie (a different Hallie!) and I shopped for the coolest package. Montclair, navy blue with a gold crest. I took one puff at age 17, choked, tipped over the ashtray onto my bedspread, burned a hole in the blanket and that was the end of that.)
The good part about people smoking in books–it give them something to do, you know? And it can be very dramatic, a la Bette Davis.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve just realized that I’ve had exactly one smoker in 
my books – and that was because it was necessary for the plot. I’m like you, Deb, never smoked, no one in my family or circle of friends smoke, so it rarely crosses my mind. Since smokers tend to fall into a few distinct groups nowadays, I think having a cigarette-user makes more of a statement about the character than it once might have. We have the 80-year-old Dan Drapers and Joan Holloways who haven’t died off yet. Young people still light up for the same reasons they always did – smoking is way down in high schools but on the upswing on college campuses. And increasingly cigarette smoking is a class marker, with a sharp divide in smoking rates between socioeconomic and education levels.
This has definitely given me food for thought! I’m going to go back over my current work-in-progress and see who might profitably be made a nicotine fiend.
DEBS: Interesting, Julia. Yes, there are beginning to be class issues associated with smoking, but one can’t make blanket assumptions. My husband fought a forty-year battle with nicotine addiction–and I do mean BATTLE. We learned some very interesting things when he was finally able to quit (we certainly hope for good.) One is that there are take-it-or-leave-it smokers. I was one. I smoked in my teens and gave it up at twenty without a bit of bother. And there are some for whom nicotine addiction is worse, and harder to kick, than heroin. It apparently has to do with the difference in the chemical receptors in people’s brains. The same seems to be true for alcohol addiction, except that the take-it-or-leave-it percentage is much greater for alcohol than for nicotine. It’s much, much easier to be a social or occasional drinker than an occasional smoker.
So all food for thought, and for creating interesting characters.
Jungle Red Writers-A CONVERSATION ON WRITING WITH LOUISE PENNY
Friday, September 30, 2011
A CONVERSATION ON WRITING WITH LOUISE PENNY
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Louise Penny and I have been friends since her publisher sent me the galley of her first book, Still Life. I thought it was the best thing I’d read in years, and that she would be a shining star in the literary firmament. (Turns out I was right, wasn’t I?) There’s nothing Louise and I like better than a chance to have a good old writerly natter. The last time we had a chance to do this in person, we were in London. We met Ann Cleeves at Le Pain Quotidien in Notting Hill, and lunch turned into a long afternoon chat about writing and books. Then Louise and I walked across Hyde Park on a perfect autumn afternoon and sorted out the state of the world.
So today, we thought it would be fun to have the sort of conversation we’d have in person, and to invite you to join in.
DEBS: First of all, congratulations on Trick of the Light. It’s a brilliant book, I think perhaps the best of the series so far, which is saying quite a lot. The reviews, the awards, and the sales have been fabulous. Are you feeling a little overwhelmed by all this?
LOUISE PENNY: You are just so kind to say that, my friend. Thank you! Especially coming from you, whom I not only adore but admire as a writer – and aspire to. Thank you. You know, I think a lot of people assume writers are nasty to each other, and some are – but our reality is that your success helps me and my success helps you, and we’re just happy for each other. Thrilled, in fact. I know far more writers of crime fiction who are genuinely happy for the success of others, than are not. This is quite a difficult field, so why make it worse by trying to bring others down? I try to stay away from people, other writers or otherwise, who are just nasty. Which is why I so adore you, Debs. you’re the anti-nasty.
But, back to me, me, me.
It’s a funny sort of feeling. Wonderful, exhilarating. The dream come true. People are buying the book, coming to events, writing me. But suddenly so much more is being asked of me. More events and interviews. And I’m not sure I have that much more to give. I think it helps that this isn’t my first book but my seventh and so the success hasn’t been like a tornado, out of nowhere, but a sort of lovely, slower, sunrise. But it’s still easy to be dazzled by it, and thrown off a little. It’s so hard, don’t you find, talking about this without sounding like some spoiled little girl, burdened with success. And it’s not a burden, but it is more draining. It’s hard to explain this sort of contradiction. I love the success – completely. I love that people are reading the book and come to events, and am genuinely grateful.
But I also get run down fairly quickly. Tired. But it’s not just the tour. What comes with this are a lot more discussions with the publisher, strategizing for what to do next, interviews. And suddenly the requests for personal appearances skyrocket. And I haven’t, in the past, been very good about saying no thank you. I’m getting much, much better. But I feel horrible doing that. When the first couple of books came out I was the one begging for bookstores and libraries to pay attention, to invite me. I don’t want to become that writer who’s too big to visit a smaller library or bookstore -after all, they were the ones who created my success. Do you find the same thing? If we say yes to everything we have nothing left for writing, or our families and friends. But what to agree to and what not to? How do you handle it?
DEBS: I don’t think I handle it very well, but I have become better at saying “no” over the years. You’re on a punishing book tour schedule at the moment. It’s always wonderful to talk about a new book, and to hear reader’s reactions. But do you sometimes feel a sense of displacement? Because by the time a book is published, we, as writers, are usually well into, if not finished, with the next book. So we’ve been living in our imaginations in a new and different story for a good while. Do you have any special way of pulling yourself back into the just-published book, so that it has immediacy for you?
LOUISE: Oh, I love talking about this! Before Still Life (my first book) was even bought by a publisher I went to listen to a crime writer talk and he described being interviewed and asked about characters from an earlier book, and he said he sat there, stumped. None of it sounded familiar. The audience of other crime writers roared with laughter and recognition. I sat there, confounded. How could that be? How could you possibly forget characters or events from a book, since I had Still Life practically memorized.
But now I understand. I’ve just spend almost a year thinking about, living with and in, writing, considering and editing Book 8. It was all consuming. I was rushing to finish it before going out on this book tour for the very reasons you describe. I knew if I spent six weeks back in the characters and events of A TRICK OF THE LIGHT, I’d ‘lose the plot’ as it were, of book 8. I managed to finish the book and turn it in. But leaving it behind was a wrench. I felt like a cargo ship, one of those old, barnacled vessels that had to make a turn and wasn’t doing it very quickly or very elegantly. Luckily, for the past couple of tours I’ve started with a five hour train trip from Montreal to Toronto. I take the book that’s just being published with me, of course, and spend the trip finding readings for the tour and scanning it. Remembering
themes and phrases and characters. And just getting myself back into that story. What’s been sort of fun, and very challenging, on this tour is that I’ve done a couple One Book, One Community events. This is where an entire city (or in one case, a whole Canadian province) chooses to read a single book – and then the campaign ends with the author visit. One place chose Still Life and the other chose Bury Your Dead. So I’ve found myself discussing three books – while still trying to disengage from Book 8. No wonder so many writers are nuts. I honestly think that as long as we show up to events clothed and sober, we’re doing well.
DEBS: I know exactly what you mean. This week’s panel at the Henley Literary Festival and the BBC Radio interview will be the first time I’ve really spoken in public about No Mark Upon Her, which I finished last November! So I’ll be reading a galley on the plane to London, trying to drop myself back into the story and the characters and the place. I’m looking forward to it, too. Going back to a book is like meeting old friends, and it also really gets the gears going for the book-in-progress. Do you find that as well?
LOUISE: Great way of putting it. Meeting old friends. A year or so ago, when reading from Still Life for the first time in years I actually started crying. I think it was partly the pleasure of meeting those old friends – but also all the memories of that time, when Still Life first came out and I held my first book in my hands – that unimaginable time – all overwhelmed me. The problem I have, though, is when or if people ask why I did something in a book that is three or four or five years old. I can’t explain why I chose the clothes I’m wearing – to explain something that I’m sure made literary sense at the time, many years later, is very difficult. I end up sounding kinda moronic. Do you find yourself in that position – explaining something from years ago?
DEBS: We’ve talked here on Jungle Red earlier in the week about writing mementos–I tend to save little physical things that remind me of a particular book. (Right now I’m looking at the painted enamel canal-ware mug I bought when I was writing Water Like a Stone, now holding pens on my desk.) Do you keep any physical touchstones that connect you with your books?
LOUISE: I don’t. But I love the idea. Most of the things that remind me of writing a particular book I end up eating. Different sorts of pastries accompany me through different books. For the latest book it was these very thin cinnamon and raisin bagels, toasted. With a bowl of cafe au lait. Whenever I smell cinnamon now I’m immediately back in the living room, in front of the fireplace, writing. What I do have, though, is a playlist. I never listen to music while actually writing, but music really inspires my writing. I listen to it a whole lot while driving or walking – it opens something inside me. And each book has a different sound track. On flights I stare out the window and play the different sound tracks. On the ipod I have them all listed. And again, I’m transported. Do you find music plays a part for you? I’m really curious to know if you have any thing you do that allows you to get ever deeper into a character or a theme.
DEBS: I’m laughing out loud here. Your books always make me want to eat!!!! I dream of the food at the bistro!
And I love the idea of soundtracks. Could you give us just a little hint about what you’ve listened to for different books?
I’m not as good at listening to music as I should be, especially since two of the previous books and the one in progress center on music–opera in Leave the Grave Green, Gregorian Chant in A Finer End, and the main character in the b-in-p is a rock guitarist. I did listen to chant for at least a year while writing A Finer End–and I love the idea of your new book (more on that in a bit.) But at the moment I’m exploring all kinds of music that I’m not very familiar with, and loving it, but I hadn’t really thought of making a soundtrack. Hmmm.
LOUISE: I’d forgotten you’d also explored Gregorian Chants. How wonderful. I knew we were sisters of the soul. My sound tracks are real mix ups of all sorts of music. Lots of Celtic – some classical, some classic rock like don McLean, some rap – I love Eminem, though I suspect he’d be humiliated to know a middle aged white Canadian woman was listening to him. Alicia Keyes, Ali in the Jungle, Lux Aeterna, Foo fighters. All a bit of a smush up.
DEBS: Have you found a way to integrate the private writer, the person who sits for hours struggling to get a sentence just right, wearing old sweats (in my case), and drinking endless cups of tea (although I imagine you drinking cafe au lait from the bistro) with the public writer, who is (more or less) well-groomed, articulate, and who must talk about a book as if it appeared full-blown, a WHOLE thing, not an amorphous jumble of ideas stuck together with terror, prayer, and the occasional
blinding burst of delight?
LOUISE: Oh, I do adore you – what a perfect description of the writing life. Old sweats, stained with bits of food and dribbled coffee or tea, fighting to keep terror at bay and sometimes, sometimes, standing up and feeling that wings have somehow sprouted. Elevated, miraculously, beyond anything I’d planned to write. Yes – that’s me. And the real me. The touring me is also a facet, but much smaller. My preference is always to be at home, with Michael. Quietly. Not even answering the phone. A perfect day for me is one without other people. I’d make a great hermit. But not, I think, eventually a happy hermit. Meeting people, and having to go on tour, is probably a blessing.
I’ve been thinking about this and realize what I like and what I don’t. I like doing the events. Standing in front of the room and talking with people about the book and the series. I like signing books and chatting with readers. I don’t like a different hotel room every night. I don’t like crappy hotel rooms. I don’t like the travel itself. And while I know people are doing it to be kind and hospitable, and that it’s part of the job for me – I honestly don’t like the social side – the dinners I’m invited to. I’d rather order room service, conserve my energy, and use what I have for the event.
DEBS: One of my guilty pleasures is room service in a nice hotel room when I’m tour. Like you, I love the events and signings, but they’re draining, so I tend to be very protective of that little bit of down time. I very seldom even turn on the television or talk on the phone. And I have my little hotel-room-as-sanctuary rituals; the careful unpacking, the book and reading glasses by the bed, sometimes even a little scented travel candle. It’s a way to make it seem like the space belongs to me, and it’s very centering after a day of throwing everything outward.
LOUISE: I’m quite anti-social. Always have been. But, oddly, I actually like people. But it can get overwhelming. I have to say, when I speak, I sure admit the terror and the muddle and my confusion and my crappy first drafts – and all my insecurities. you do too, I know. You’re very open with your readers. Were you always?
DEBS: I’ve never forgotten how kind people were to me when I first started writing, and how overcome I was when I met REAL writers for the first time and they were not only nice to me, they seemed just like ordinary people. Which of course we all are, but I think we’re also a little split. It’s a funny job, isn’t it? It requires a capacity–actually a very deep need, I think–for time spent alone. But on the other hand, I like people. I’m very social, I like interacting with readers and other writers. And if I didn’t like people I doubt I’d enjoy writing about them as much as I do.
And speaking of the next book, I think you’re finished, or almost finished, with the new Gamache novel. Can you tell us anything about it?
LOUISE: Dear Lord, woman, you’re dragging me baaaaack. Bitch.Actually, as you know better than most, we never really leave any of the books behind, and certainly not the latest. Yes – book 8 is actually called The Beautiful Mystery and it’s set in a remote monastery in Quebec, where the monks have taken a vow of silence but have become, unexpectedly, world famous for their recording of Gregorian Chants. It’s such fun to see Gamache and Beauvoir in that setting, with men who barely speak. It becomes, really, an exploration of voice and communication – and all the ways we
express ourselves, with and without words.
DEBS: I LOVE this!!! (You knew I would!) And what a challenge this will be for Jean Guy. I can’t wait to read it. And the one that’s gestating now. But I suspect if I join the “write faster, writer faster” chorus, you’ll hit me over the head with something.
LOUISE: But it will be edible. A croissant, perhaps. Killed by a croissant – death where is thy sting? Love the travel candle idea, thank you. I’m very scent oriented. And I just heard from Michael that your latest book has just arrived at our home – and I’m dying to get back there….a huge treat to look forward to at the end of the
tour.
DEBS: Louise will be checking in to Jungle Red today to answer questions and respond to comments, although honestly with her tour schedule I’m not sure how she’s managing that! But do say “hi” to Louise if you have the chance. It’s been such a treat to have her on Jungle Red!
Jungle Red Writers-THRILLS, CHILLS (AND WINE) WITH SOPHIE HANNAH
Thursday, September 29, 2011
THRILLS, CHILLS (AND WINE) WITH SOPHIE HANNAH
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’ve just done a panel called “Crime and Wine” at the Henley Literary Festival with the delightful Sophie Hannah.
I’m thrilled to be back in Henley, where I’ve set my latest book, and on a panel with Sophie, as I am a huge fan. Sophie has just come back from a grueling tour for her new book, just out in the US, The Cradle in the Grave, so we were both a bit jet-lagged, but we had a great time. (And yes, we did get to drink the wine.)
The Cradle and the Grave is Sophie’s fifth psychological thriller to feature detectives Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer.
TV producer Fliss Benson receives an anonymous card at work. The card has sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four – numbers that mean nothing to her.
On the same day, Fliss finds out she’s going to be working on a documentary about miscarriages of justice involving cot death mothers wrongly accused of murder. The documentary will focus on three women: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard and Rachel Hines. All three women are now free, and the doctor who did her best to send them to prison for life, child protection zealot Dr Judith Duffy, is under investigation for misconduct.
For reasons she has shared with nobody, this is the last project Fliss wants to be working on. And then Helen Yardley is found dead at her home, and in her pocket is a card with sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four…
Intriguing? The Guardian says, ““This book’s triumph is that it is not just a perfectly executed psychological thriller, but a pertinent meditation on society itself.” -The Guardian
DEBS: Was this your first US tour? And if so, did you enjoy it?
SOPHIE HANNAH: No, it was my fourth or fifth US tour – I can’t even remember which, I’ve been doing this for so long! I tend to use Bouchercons as a way of counting. So, I’ve been to Bouchercons in Baltimore, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and now St Louis – so this is my fourth US tour. Oh, no, fifth! Because once I also came out to America in the summer. (As you can see, I’m still a bit jet-lagged!) Yes, I have loved all my tours and all my events – great fun! – apart from one bookstore, where the staff were unbelievably rude to me.
DEBS: What about Bouchercon? Did you enjoy it, or were you too jet-lagged? Bouchercon is exhausting under the best of circumstances.
SOPHIE: I loved Bouchercon – it’s always one of the highlights of my annual tour. It’s wonderful to meet so many people who really know about crime fiction – fellow experts! And lots of friends, and I always make new friends too. Also, I enjoyed my panel on ‘The Troubled Protagonist’ – it gave me an opportunity to point out that you can’t divide fictional or real people into troubled and non-troubled. It’s a totally false distinction. Everyone has their problems!
DEBS: You’ve written very well received comic novels, award-winning poetry that is studied in schools, and books for children. Did you always want to write crime fiction? Who were your influences?
SOPHIE: Yes, I always wanted to be a mystery writer! It’s far and away my favourite genre. My influences at a young age were Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell, then, slightly later, Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky. Then, later still, Val McDermid and Minette Walters…I am an avid crime fiction reader. I also still write poetry, though, and short stories, and I have plans to write all kinds of other things. Not instead of crime fiction – as well.
DEBS: You were a Fellow Commoner at Cambridge, a Fellow at Oxford, and are now a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. Can you explain to American reader what these terms mean?
SOPHIE: All these titles are just, basically, fancy ways of saying ‘Writer in Residence’! No responsibilities, nothing I don’t want to do, no teaching – I’m just attached to the college; I’m the writer that belongs to that college. At Lucy Cavendish, I help to organise a fiction prize, and to programme and run the annual literature festival, Women’s Word (it’s a women-only college).
DEBS: (I want to be a Fellow . . . you have my dream life. ) All your crime novels, like mine, are series novels. Are there non-series crime stories you want to tell, or do you feel that the series novels, as they tell such complex stories from so many viewpoints, give you enough scope?
SOPHIE: I do feel there’s plenty of scope in my series novels, yes, since each one is mainly narrated by a protagonist who is unique to that novel, so every book feels very fresh and unique to me. It’s only my police characters that return. However, there’s an idea I have for a novel which I think could be brilliant, and it simply won’t work as a series Simon-Waterhouse-and-Charlie-Zailer novel. So, yes, I will one day write a standalone. Definitely. Also, I think an author should always surprise his/her readers. And I’m too interested in writing itself, the possibilities that are out there, to restrict myself to a series indefinitely. Having said that, I have no plans to stop writing about Simon and Charlie, as I adore them, so will probably mix series and standalone – and maybe even start a new series (assuming I don’t drop dead from exhaustion before doing all this!)
DEBS: The Zailer/Waterhouse books are being adapted for British television. Can you tell us about that? Will we see them in the US?
SOPHIE: Yes, they’ll come to the US eventually! The first one (The Wrong Mother/The Point of Rescue) was broadcast in the UK in May, and the next one (The Dead Lie Down/The Other Half Lives) is being made now and will be on next March. They did a fantastic job! Stars Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd were superb as Simon and Charlie.
DEBS: I can’t wait to see them! But why do the books have different titles in the US and the UK? I really like the UK titles.
SOPHIE: My US publishers think my English titles are too subtle! Hence the latest book: A Room Swept White in the UK, The Cradle in the Grave in America – only the American title makes it clear the book involves some dead babies! Actually, I love having two titles for each book – makes me feel doubly productive, when I look at a list of my output!
DEBS: I adore Simon and Charlie, too, and I can’t wait to read it–although I might have to buy the UK version as I’m here and have the choice. Love the title … it’s brilliant. Thanks for dropping in, and for those of you who haven’t read Sophie, I’ll just say you must–smart, funny, dark, um (a bit) twisted, and completely addictive.
You can learn more about Sophie at http://www.sophiehannah.com/, and she’ll be dropping in to chat on Jungle Red. Enjoy!
Jungle Red Writers ENTER THE DRAGON
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
ENTER THE DRAGON
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’ve been fortunate enough to know Crescent Dragonwagon (if you’re curious about the name–and who wouldn’t be–you can read about it HERE) for almost twenty years. She was, once upon a time, the best of all innkeepers at a magical place called Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which is where we met, but in the years since our paths have crossed in several strange and interesting ways.
Crescent now lives in Vermont, and I’ll let her describe herself for you, as I couldn’t do it better. “Your basic ultra-prolific trans-genre’d writer (novels, children’s books, cookbooks/culinary memoir, poetry) who also leads workships in which participants go from I’ve-always-wanted-to-write-BUT into fearless action. Plus, makes one hell of a rockin’ cornbread. It’s dragonisma!”
And she is brilliant at all those things. I’ve been cooking from Crescent’s Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread Book almost as long as I’ve known her. It’s my favorite cookbook, and I’ve given it to everyone I know who cooks. (And some who don’t, in hopes that they will.) So I think we’ll start with the cookbooks, and expand from there.
DEBS: Can you tell us about the new cookbook coming out this year?
CRESCENT DRAGONWAGON: Bean by Bean will be out in mid-December. What’s it about? On the one hand, cassoulet… Dahl… Chili Mole… Elsie’s Cuban black bean soup… Senegalese peanut butter stew… vegetable-bean hash with poached eggs… Peter Rabbit’s Salad… Three Sisters Salad with Green Beans, Fresh Corn, & Zucchini Ribbons…socca… Peanut-Butter Banana Cream Pie…
On the other hand, much more.
Deb, my deep fondness for beans has its roots in my early days as a home cook and a young, newly-on-my-own frequently impoverished freelance writer.
That there could be an ingredient which was so inexpensive yet so reliably satisfying, and so amenable to diverse incarnations — soup, chili, salad, side-dish, even dessert — was a great discovery for me. Not only could I eat well for not too much money, I could entertain and feed others, which as you know, is something I’ve always loved doing. Eventually a skinny little cookbook, my second, grew out of -it. It was Workman Publishing’s first cookbook. It was called The Bean Book, had a spiral binding, and retailed for $2.45. This was 1972. I was 20 when it came out.
Fast forward 39 years (and they did fast-forward). Along the way I became, among other things, an ardent gardener (legumes are the one agricultural plant family which actually enriches, rather than depletes, the soil in which it grows), a vegetarian (protein!), an innkeeper in a part of the country which reveres beans and cornbread. I also kept growing as a cook and a traveler; Indian, Asian, African & European winds blew through my kitchen.
Bean by Bean is a cornucopia of all this: as with all my cookbooks, they’re seasoned with lore, how-to, anecdotes, silliness (the sidebar ‘Beans That Aren’t” includes not only coffee, chocolate, and vanilla beans, but Mr. Bean and jelly-beans), memoir… and recipes. Also as always: I fall in love with the ingredient or dish I’m focused on, and just keep on discovering and reinventing. Beans are generous, as a plant and as an ingredient (I just roasted a few pounds of them from my own garden, with garlic and tomato, and froze them last night, for the winter). I hope to infuse those who read and cook from the book with this sense of generous possibility.
And it’s with Workman, who did the first one so long ago.
DEBS: The soups from the Soup and Bread Book that are the staples in our house are the bean ones! Especially the Black-eyed Pea Soup. Fabulous. And the Skillet Sizzled Cornbread. Oh. My. The best ever. But before I get out my cast iron skillet, let’s talk about the new children’s book. I’ve had a peek at the illustrations, and they are gorgeous!
CRESCENT: “My little one/lay down your head/ it’s time for rest/ it’s time for bed… You tell me,/ ‘I’m not sleepy now’./ ‘Just try,’ I say, You ask me how… ” So begins All the Awake Animals, in which a mother tells her child, animal by animal and letter by letter, how every creature is getting sleepier… or is already asleep. “Baby bison is bedded down by the barn, beside her brother… Cat’s curled up on a crimson couch cushion…” It ends with another small, rhymed exchange between mother and now-very-sleepy child. I’ve seen the rough sketches, by David McPhail, and they are luscious, gorgeous, perfect, warm, cozy, but with just a little mystery…
This is my first picture book in nearly a decade, so I’m thrilled. It’s also my first ever with Little, Brown.
DEBS: AND can you tell at least a bit about Fearless, as I think our readers will love it. We have a lot of aspiring writers who read the blog.
CRESCENT: Basically, participants discover — experientially, as they write over the weekend; not just abstractly — how to use uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, anxiety, uncertainty as forces to power creation, rather than stop it.
As Jerri Farris, who’s taken Fearless twice, said, “Now I laugh at my limitations on the way to work. ”
DEBS: HERE is a link to a wonderful pictorial essay on Facebook that explains the genesis of Fearless Writing. (I’m not actually sure I want to share this, as I think anyone who reads it will want to sign up. Then Fearless will be booked up for the next decade, and there won’t be any room for me . . .)
For more about Crescent and her work, there are two wonderful blogs:
Nothing is Wasted on the Writer: Living, loving, writing, reading, thinking. Listening, tasting, sniffing. Cozying up to mystery at midlife. I think we’re all part of the narrative life tells itself.
And:
Deep Feast: writing the world through food: if you want answers to the big questions (identity, life, love, death), start by talking to your dinner. Oh, yeah: recipes, too.
I’m addicted to both. Hope you all will be, too!
LONDON CALLING
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
LONDON CALLING
DEBORAH CROMBIE: As you read this, I will be back in lovely London, staying in my favorite little hideaway hotel in South Kensington, trying to recover from jet lag before going on to events in Henley on Wednesday. In the midst of my usual frantic packing and last minute prep (does everyone else do that, or is it just me?) I was trying to organize my thoughts about what I needed to do the following week, when I will be back in London and doing some much-needed research for the book-in-progress. And I wondered what I might bring back with me that will keep me feeling connected to this particular book over the next few months.
Because it occurred to me that over the years, and the books, I have begun to collect what I think of as “writing momentos.” Not that I haven’t collected enough British things over the years! (We’re not even counting the London Transport posters, or the teapots, or my photographer friend Steve Ullathorne’s London prints. Or the generic things like handmade journals from Portobello Market , jewelry, hats, gloves, scarves . . .)
But rather things that are specific to a particular book. Touchstones. (On Friday, Louise Penny has some interesting things to say about how she stays connected to her books.)
There is the painted enamel canal-ware mug that I bought at the Canal Museum in London when I was writing Water Like a Stone. It now holds pencils and pens on my desk.
A scrap of framed chant manuscript, from A Finer End. A (rather cat-hairy) purple tartan blanket from the Scottish book, Now May You Weep. AND, although the bottles of scotch bought while writing the book have long since disappeared (mostly drunk by other people) I still keep a bottle of good scotch to remind me of those wonderful visits to the Highland distilleries.
From No Mark Upon Her and my time spent in Henley, I have a Leander pink hippo mug, and a Leander wooly hat, which I actually wore out sculling on the Thames. (But that’s another story.)
So what do I want to bring back this time, to keep me centered in the current book?
A vintage Fender Stratocaster. Preferably Fiesta Red.
Somehow, I doubt that is going to happen. Sigh.
What about you, Jungle Reds and dear readers? Do you need things that physically tie you to your books?
FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES
Monday, September 26, 2011
FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES
DEBORAH CROMBIE: On Sunday night, September 25th, a new series, Pan Am, premieres on ABC. Set in 1963, it stars Christina Ricci, and “follows the lives of stewardesses circa 1963 and their bouts with passion, jealousy and espionage at 30,000 feet.” (I’m quoting the show’s Facebook page.) “Stewardesses,” mind you, not “flight attendants.” Remember them? If you don’t, the show will bring it all back, especially those adorable sky-blue uniforms and the little pill-box hats. And girdles. They had to wear girdles!
It all sounds like complete fluff–super soapy Mad Men in the Sky–but the show is directed by Thomas Schlamme of The West Wing, and written by Jack Orman of ER. Not only that, but for all you former ER fans, this season will feature a four-episode guest arc with Goran Visnjic (Dr. Luka Kovak). Be still my heart.
But pitter-patter aside, all this retro-sixties air travel glamor started me thinking about the way we used to dress for plane flights. Can you imagine that we used to actually “dress up” to get on a plane? (My first plane flight, for the record, was circa 1966–a Dallas to Houston hop on a prop plane for my brother’s wedding, on which I disgraced myself by having to use the sick bag. Remember those? These days I am, fortunately, a much better flyer.) Even in the mid-seventies, when I made a number of trips to Europe with my parents, we took our in-flight ensembles very seriously. My mother was horrified at the thought of not being well-turned out on a plane.
These days, I’d wear pajamas on a transatlantic flight if I could get away with it.
I’ll have to watch the first episode of Pan Am a few weeks after the premiere, as on Sunday night I will be boarding an American Airlines 767 flight to London. Ten hours of scrunched up economy, bad food, and circulating viruses. Glamor, indeed. I’ll take my own blanket as I’m not sure AA is still giving them out in Economy even on transatlantic flights. (Business Class is my idea of heaven…)
What about you, Jungle Reds? Do you miss the days of glamor in the skies, when air travel was an adventure rather than a trial?
JAN BROGAN: I still can’t believe I used to smoke cigarettes on an airplane. But while I miss leg room – and will pay extra for it -have to point out that air travel is also way more affordable. No matter how much glamor there may or may not have been (wasn’t most of it in our heads anyway, because the experience was rare?,) you were always cooped up on an airplane for an ungodly amount of time. At least now it costs less.
But of course, I suffered from a really bad plane phobia for a long time and now I don’t. So for me, personally, there’s been a lot of progress in air travel.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, it used to be such fun! My sister and I would fly to see my father (When I was maybe, 10? And Nina 7), and instantly scoop up all the little salt and pepper shakers from the dinner tray. Remember? They had real food! And we thought those little bottles of alcohol were SO exotic. We dressed up, of course.
And I adored the flight attendants, and wanted to be a “stewardess” for such a long time. I mean–they were gorgeous, had those cool uniforms, and were so worldly, and seemed to be in charge.
Now I make sure I have a shawl and flat shoes and non-smelly food. And I still am impressed by the flight attendants. They are so patient, and so brave.
RHYS BOWEN: I remember the first time I flew to Australia the plane made about six stops along the way and at each one we had to get out and go into a lounge. And every segment they served another meal and more alcohol. My husband John was an airline sales manager so we got to travel first class everywhere, but had to dress accordingly–me in suit and high heels, the kids as if going to church. I liked getting dressed up. I liked the glamor of flying. I liked the linen table cloths and the caviar (sigh). And friends coming up to the plane door to see us off and my kids sitting up with the pilot and helping to fly the plane. When John was laid off reality struck and the kids stared in horror. “You mean we have to fly economy?” they asked. It’s been going downhill ever since.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Rhys, that makes me laugh. “You mean we have to fly economy?” And also helps put in perspective my nostalgia for flying in the pre-deregulation days. Yes, it WAS nicer, and people did dress up instead of wearing pajama pants and flip-flops, and you actually looked forward to the “jet set” experience…but I wasn’t the one paying for the tickets back then.
Hank, my mother had a whole collection of those china salt-and-pepper shakers! When I think of the glamor of air travel, I think of my mom back then – a slim, stylish officer’s wife in a miniskirt and long red hair. (I quickly add she’s still slim and stylish.) Even back in a time when there were porters and skycaps all over, my mother perfected the art of packing for a week in a single Samsonite Fashionaire.
ROSEMARY HARRIS: We didn’t fly anywhere when I was a kid – it was more like piling into the Chevy and driving to upstate NY. How glamorous you all were! Don’t remember my first flights – probably Freddie Laker to Europe. Anyone remember him? I’m sure I wore jeans and wanted to look adventurous. Nowadays i try for Kate Moss chic – black, denim, shawl, slipons, large carryon. I think it works, although I suppose there’s always the chance I think I look like Kate Moss and I really look like a bag lady.
In the 80s I didn’t pinch the salt and pepper shakers but I had a pretty large collection of those cloth napkins with the hole in them (so men could attach them to their shirt buttons.)
It is nice to fly first class or business – and I upgrade whenever I can – but I’m a pretty good traveler and don’t really care, particularly if my husband is with me. What I do confess to loving is Priority Access. Not having to wait in line is such a good thing!
LUCY BURDETTE: Ha, ha, you girls make me laugh. Hank, you’d be the best stewardess ever. And Ro, you couldn’t look like a bag lady if you tried! We didn’t fly when I was young either, we drove everywhere in a station wagon with no AC, two German shepherds, and a pop-up trailer towed behind. The only flight I can remember really loving was an accidental upgrade to first class years ago from Hawaii to New York. It was one of those planes where the seats reclined completely into a real bed. Heaven. We took a bike trip in Hungary this summer and I lobbied hard for an upgrade–told my sister-in-law we were doing that so she could pile on.
“I’m not that big,” she said. “I don’t need that much room.”
I’m not that big either, and I’m here to say that has nothing to do with it! Being treated like a reasonable human is what I crave. And I DO look like a bag lady when I travel–it’s all about comfort and as close to PJ’s as I can get:).
DEBS: I lost my Priority Access this last year–missed it by 500 miles. Didn’t have immediate trips planned so didn’t want to pay the ridiculous fee to re-up. I am SO regretting that . . .
What about you, readers? Do you still like flying the friendly skies?
Oh, and be sure to come back, as we have a great week! We have the multi-talented Crescent Dragonwagon to tell us about Fearless Writing, and cooking; thriller writer Sophie Hannah; and on Friday, Louise Penny!
Labels: Christina Ricci, Dr. Luka Kovac, ER, Goran Visnjic, Jack Orman, Louise Penny, Pan Am TV series, Sophie Hannah, The West Wing, Thomas Schlamme
Remembering 9-11
On the tenth anniversary of this tragic day, we all have our memories, our stories. None of us will ever forget exactly where we were or what we were doing when the unimaginable became real, and our world changed forever.
Today we remember. We mourn. We pay tribute to the fallen, and to those who displayed such tremendous courage in the rescue efforts that followed the collapse of the Twin Towers.
Nor should we forget the often unsung heroes, the hundreds of canine seach-and-rescue teams who came from all over the country, risking their lives, working beyond exhaustion, until all hope of recovering victims was gone.
We remember. And we thank you.
