cook for me and I love you
+ folk wisdom, wise books, and lots of limes
Collioure, France
Dear Ones,
Notice in the picture below that I’m not the only writer photographing the two wonderful chefs from the Come to Your Senses Writing Retreat in Collioure, France, where I’ve just finished teaching. The clamor to photo them was like being in front of the Mona Lisa!
Writing is work. Telling your stories (whether writing memoir or fiction one delves deep into one’s own personal crap!) makes one (ahem, me) needy for care and food. These two, Helen and Kirsten, provided: love notes in our lunch pails which bore quotes from the likes of Virginia Woolf, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”, two gorgeous meals each day, chock full of glorious produce from le marché, and folk wisdom!
Yes, folk wisdom! Such as:
Holding a lime in your armpit cures a hangover! Yes, an entire lime. I saw at least one participant partaking in this cure, so there you go.
If you see a Magpie (looks like a blue jay, but black and white) alone in the world, you must say, “Hello Mr. Magpie, how’s your wife and children?” If you fail to do this, you will have a terrible day.
You must never, ever cross your cutlery or basically your life will be ruined.
My life was made so much richer by spending a week with writers outside of my regular world. Should you have the chance to participate in a retreat, a weekend workshop, something that pulls you away from your daily responsibilities and allows you to focus on your creative self, you will be all the better for it.
Should you have folk wisdom to share, do let me know in the comments below!
read:
I’m having a little bump in my personal life, as we all do. If you are struggling just now, please know I am here beside you. I tell you this not to be mysterious, but because I wonder if you have books you turn to when you struggle? (If so, please tell me in the comments.) I decided to reread, WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE, by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner. If you aren't familiar with the book, published in 2004, there is a lot of talk of god and faith. I don’t know where you land on that, but I will tell you I love that Kushner says he believes the way god shows up for anyone suffering is in the bodies of the people who arrive to listen and simply say, “That must be hard.” The people who bring a meal, provide an ear, and neither judge nor try to fix. That is the kind of person I strive to be in the world and the kind of people I want around me. Kushner, who lost his son to a degenerative disease, offers solace through storytelling to remind us that something will come for each of us. Remember to rely upon your community, and remember to show up for others. It’s a quick read that I recommend.
***Thank you to everyone who sent novella suggestions. ICYMI, I’m planning on teaching an online class on the short novel in the fall. A sort of take-apart-the-clock look at some favorite novellas, asking how the writers did it. The class will have a component of generative writing and culminate in a bit of workshopping for the last two weeks. Let me know if you have interest and I’ll put you on the list.
I've made a read.write.eat. Bookshop Store, where you will find many of the books I've recommended in the newsletter. Buying books from my shop is a way you can support my newsletter.
write:
Along with Kushner, I’m reading Baxter! As in Charles Baxter, one of my supervisors from grad school, whom I adore as a writer and a person. I’m reading, WONDERLANDS, Essays on the Life of Literature, and I’m loving it. Really, I don’t even want to say anything other than, if you take your writing seriously, you should read this book. You will learn a shit-ton about how inventories can save you when you feel inertia in your work, about characters, rhyming action and images, about profluence, and about bad workshops. If you’ve not read, BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE, you should also read that, along with Charlie’s fiction. I love GRYPHON, and FEAST OF LOVE.
In case you’re interested, I’m teaching a class over at Grub St. on how to use what we learn from our reading to strengthen our own work.
E Annie Proulx said, "You should write because you love the ship of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write."
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I have a sort-of-prompt for you. In his book, Baxter talks about narrative urgency. Specifically, how do we make our stories do more than just lie there? How do we “increase the voltage of your narrative.” Baxter has a list of questions, which I will share, but only opaquely because I want you to read his book and incorporate the full impact of his ideas in your writing.
Excellent questions to up the voltage:
1. Where is Captain Happen? This is the character who has no filter, who gets things going with outlandish, no apologies behavior. “Captain Happen is bad news, and bad news for the characters is good news for the story.”
2. Where is the one way gate? That is, where is the thing which once it has been done can never be undone? Once a character has passed through a one way gate, they can never return to where/who they were.
3. Where is the clock? How long do the characters have to do what needs doing in the narrative? If time is unlimited, narrative urgency has leaked away.
4. Where is the time bomb? This is the indication that something is going to happen that will change everything. It does not have to be violent, but it must have consequence. Think of the confession of an affair, an unwanted pregnancy, a tumor. I have a story in my book-in-progress in which a teenage boy is hiding a street kid in his closet, certainly a time bomb for his mother.
I plan on applying all four questions to my work in revision. I want people to rush to turn the page. Please do, find Baxter’s book at the library or go ahead and buy it. You won’t be disappointed.
Big thanks to everyone who has bought me a coffee. I’m grateful you enjoy my newsletter, and that you took time to drop me a note and offer support. Yay! Cute button below for anyone who'd like to join in
eat:
Gambas (shrimp) in Collioure are huge and delicious. I’ll be dreaming of them at home for sure. I have a recipe below to try and keep the vacation vibe alive.
Once you remove the lime from your armpit, give the skin a little scrub and then make this delightful, easy, and swift summer recipe.
Lime-Glazed Shrimp
¼ cup honey
Zest and juice from 2 lime + more sliced to pass at the table
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-4 minced garlic cloves
½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
24 peeled, deveined large shrimp
Soak 8 wooden skewers in water at least 30 minutes. Heat broiler. In a small saucepan, combine honey, lime zest and juice, oil, garlic, red-pepper flakes, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until flavors blend and the glaze thickens, about 5 minutes. Taste and correct as needed. Skewer shrimp. Place on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush with glaze. Broil 3 minutes, flip, brush with glaze, and cook until shrimp are opaque and glaze is beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes more.
These would also be great on the grill.
What would read.write.eat. be without a little bit of Stanley Hugo, a serious French hound with whom I’ve become acquainted! (I miss Stanley so much!)
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Please, remember to tell your people you love them, and take good care of your skin.
xN
I love Pema Chodron’s When Things Fall Apart, among other books, it helped shepherd me through a dark time.