I have all the bad virtues!
+ the best of my summer reading ++ an excellent brunch menu +++ creating emotional tension in our scenes
hey-ho,
Not a newsflash, but I’m not as clever as I think I am. I get banging ideas about what I want to say here in the intro and one of three things happens:
I forget
I can’t decipher the mysterious note I’ve written to remind myself (…Lucille Ball, stumbling, shame… what does that even mean?)
I get back to the idea and discover it kind of sucks
This time I thought I’d share a podcast about the enneagram which I listened to and it turns out I exhibit all the “bad virtues” from every single number. Stubborn, ✅ Live in the future, ✅ Hold myself to impossible standards, ✅ Second guess myself, ✅ Think I’m right, ✅ Think I’m wrong, ✅ Constant internal critic, ✅ Want everyone to like me, ✅ and on, and on…
Sheesh! That was no fun…
Next, I thought I’d tell you about a major success! I got my 84 year old mother to accept this sleek walker! If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a minute, you know how resistant she’s been. But look! Cross your fingers she uses it faithfully.
And then, I realized what I want to say here is so small and simple. It’s been a wonderful summer for sunshine, good meals, trips to the coast and the forest, family and friend visits. But honestly, what I’ll remember is what feels most wonderful, when another living creature leans against your body, fully relaxed and trusting. Whether that’s my adorable baby cousin leaning against my stomach as I read books to her in the morning, or my daughter’s sweet puppy napping on my stomach, or Joel’s head in my lap when we watch Netflix. That’s what I want more of in my life. Trust and love. Love and trust. Surely that means I’ve got some of the “good virtues,” right?
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read:
What I read this summer:
I thought the most about the sophisticated arguments in MONSTERS. What does it mean to be an art consumer? How does our love of certain artists form our identity?
Was most riveted by THE GOD OF THE WOODS, such a compelling mystery! Definitely my favorite of the summer.
Tra-la-laed my way through ELIGIBLE, just a fun romp!
Laughed most with JAMES, the retelling of Huck Finn from the POV of escaped enslaved man, Jim.
Was enthralled and then ultimately disappointed with LONG ISLAND though I still enjoyed seeing Eilis again. The precursor, BROOKLYN, is a much more satisfying novel.
And if you’re in need of a tender and sophisticated read about family, love, and our responsibilities to people in our communities, about a moral universe, and paying back for the many kindnesses we all receive, read SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE.
I will say the most about THE SAFEKEEP, by Yael van der Wouden, as I just finished it and found myself struggling along in the first two thirds. The writing is incredibly sensual…lips that hurt after kissing, a bruise on a thigh that one cannot quite place, a tiny moment recounting a time when Isabel, the main character, was a child and had trouble falling asleep, her mother ran her finger over and over the slope of her daughter’s nose, whispering “alley oop,” until the girl feel asleep. There is something so intimate and lovely in that gesture
The novel seemed to be about sexual awakening. Isabel, a closed and cold women, paranoid and possessive, who believes she has never been wanted, despite her mother’s gesture and care (ally-oop), finds herself flayed by desire for her houseguest, Eva. For the first time in her life, she reaches for what she wants, only to be rebuffed.
She was not wanted. That was the long and the short of it. She had learned want, briefly and hungrily. A span of a day, two days. She had learned the shape of it, the quick taste of it. She had reached out foolishly and she was not wanted in return.
When the HUGE plot surprise arrives in the later third of the novel, the dial of my interest pitched high. The book became so complicated and moving. And so I wondered, why had van der Wouden withheld the motivation and history of Eva. Why not clue the reader in and lean heavily into suspense, rather than surprise?
My friend
and I made a BOOK BITE about the novel. Do check out the fun we’re having talking about books and food!If you’ve read THE SAFEKEEP I want to hear what you think. Also, share your fav summer book:
For our next zoom r.w.e. book group we will be discussing THE MOST by Jessica Anthony. It’s about a mother who begs off going to church with her family one Sunday morning. She chooses to go for a swim instead and then refuses to get out of the pool.
The book group is a perk for paid subscribers and let me tell you we are a lively bunch!
Go ahead, upgrade to paid and claim your spot. I hope to get to know you better!
Check my 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 be a friend to the newsletter.
write:
I’ve been having a bit of car time, driving around to visit family, listening to podcasts. Once again, I recommend The 7am Novelist, particularly this episode:
Of course we all hope to avoid writing flat stories and novels. A range in tension and emotion keeps the reader turning pages. Ann Hood introduces a super simple tool, a +/- scale she uses when revising her work. Hood takes a pencil to her printed manuscript and at the start and conclusion of each scene she marks either a plus or a minus to reflect whether the emotions are positive or negative. If the scene is a +/+, or a -/- the scene is flat.
For example, if the scene begins with a sad character staring out at the rain while her oatmeal goes cold, the start of the scene gets a minus. If by the end of the scene nothing has changed, it too gets a minus. (Oh my god! I have written so many scenes like that! Cringe! 😱) Scenes that begin and end in the same emotional range should be avoided. Each scene must have movement and hence EMOTIONAL TENSION! So, if your scenes are always -/- or +/+ your writing will be static, and — sad trombone sound— lead to a flat story.
Yes, of course there’s nuance in this trick. The minus can change to a super minus right, going from bad to worse? But for the sake of this drone’s eye revision, simply use the +/- scale.
After Hood has done this scene by scene, she also does it chapter by chapter. Then she must decide whether to cut scenes or rewrite. This feels like something we all should try.
Do give the podcast a listen, there are lots of smart ideas.
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eat:
On my flight home from the California, a woman in the boarding line wore a t-shirt that boasted, “You had me at day drinking!” I’ve been there. As a young woman I loved the bottomless mimosas at the fancy brunch spot in my town. What was better than brunch with pals, great food, then going home to have nap all afternoon?
Now I’d be useless after a mimosa! It’s plenty lovely enough to linger around the table in the sunshine with coffee and friends, lots of laughs, delicious food, and the bonus of having energy to hike, or SUP, or take a spin on my bike in the afternoon. Dry brunch! It’s been our thing.
For my husband’s birthday we had eleven around the table, and Milo the ball hoarder beneath the table! I made a delightful frittata - a portmanteau of two recipes which I think you should make tout de suite!
Pea & Ricotta Frittata
3-4T olive oil for greasing, sautéing, drizzling
1 sweet onion, chopped
1T minced garlic
1 bag frozen peas
½c chopped briny black olives, preferably oil-cured, pitted and broken into small pieces
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