When We're Tempted to Eat Our Words

While those of us in the US are so full of food we can't see straight (leftovers anyone??) by all means let's talk about MOAR FOOD. I have a great love of all things food. As a result, 0f all the things I miss about living aboard a boat a real kitchen is top of the list. Sure I have a galley - a two burner propane cooktop, a tiny propane oven, even a broiler that does a decent job toasting bread. But I miss the real thing - a four (or more) burner stove that puts out some serious BTUs. Propane burns cool. Well. Cooler than other methods common in the US. That makes it hard to get caramelization or a good sear on anything. I know. First world problems, right? It's possible I also really, really miss a dishwasher, too. Usually right about the third time in a day my sink is stacked full of dishes. Despite my whine about dishes, I do like to cook. It may be a thing passed down from the southern family.

Occasionally, food makes it into stories. It's either the bridge that allows people to find common ground, or it's the rocky crevasse no one can cross (remember the chilled monkey brains in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Serious crevasse.)

So what book filled with food makes me hungry when I read it?

Sunshine. Robin McKinley.

Sunshine works at the family diner. The bakery is her domain. She regularly serves up Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Your Head. All sorts of bars, pies, deaths by chocolate (a few she considers trying are vampire inspired - deathly dark exterior, pierce it with a fork and raspberry sauce gushes forth - though she hasn't yet because she figures she'd have a few of the more sensitive customers fainting). She's also one of my people because she's a tea drinker. And she knows how to get the tea stains out of her favorite cups without bleach.

Sunshine's great need to feed people and to care about people via the food she offers is a great contrast to the fact that she spends most of the book being hunted by a vampire who bears a strong resemblance (in my imagination, anyway) to Jabba the Hut. She allies with another vampire to defend herself - that alliance is first cemented by her offer of food. No, no. Not her blood - a raw steak. She feeds the fanged dude a bloody, raw steak. Then, you know, magic. Lots and lots of uncanny magic. Not that the bloody steak thing is what makes me grab a bag of cookies when I sit down to read that book...it's Sunshine's bakery goods. Gotta have tea and cookies (preferably really spicy gingersnaps) to read. Moral imperative.

So hey. When you come visit, what shall I make? Chocolate Lava Cake? Mandarin Orange Delight? Chocolate Pecan Carrot Cake? Cherry Ring? Ah. Why is it an either/or question. Gotcha. No problem. What would you make if I were lucky enough to visit you?

Brief Thoughts on Appetite-Whetting Fiction

Today I'm in the kitchen doing all sorts of things-- if you've read my books it probably does not surprise you that I'm into food and I'm the primary cook in the house.  I remember when I read The Omnivore's Dilemma, one "rule" he puts in there to maximize your "healthy" eating is, "you can eat anything that you make from scratch", and I though, "this does not limit me much".    In fact, I'll cop that I'm something of a food snob.  

I've made a point of including food in all my work, because food is culture, food is worldbuilding.  I've made a point of highlighting how Druthal has many different regional cuisines.  

But what books have gotten my appetite going?

I'll have to confess, it doesn't happen very often.  See above: something of a food snob.  At least, it doesn't happen with fiction.  Foodie memoirs, like Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential or Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones and Butter?  Yeah, those got me inspired to go down to the kitchen and getting to work.

I can think of one example though.  While I'm a food snob, my snobbery leans toward rustic simplicity.  There's a passage in David Eddings's Polgara the Sorceress, the second sort-of-prequel to the Belgariad, where Polgara decides that Faldor's Farm (where the Belgariad begins) is the place she's going to settle down for a bit to raise Garion, and thus she's going to take over the kitchen.  The former head of the kitchen was an incompetent drunk, and Polgara has to "audition" to take over with minimal time and mostly force of personality (which Polgara has in spades).  So she whips together a vegetable stew and biscuits, which the farmhands-- having not had a decent-tasting meal in months-- eagerly consume every last drop of.  

I felt like going down to the kitchen and making a stew after that.

All right, I've got a full day of kitchen ahead of me now, so I'm off.  Hope your days are filled with joy and delicious things.

Do It, Baby - Make Me Hungry!

Yes, Yes - the blog header says we're Science Fiction and Fantasy authors, but *some* of us (cough), write in other genres. Like me, with my contemporary, erotic romances. When this week's topic, What Novels Made You Literally Hungry, came up (appropriate enough, with this being the week of U.S. Thanksgiving, the holiday of gluttony), I immediately thought of my own book, RUBY.

I wrote this book at the urging of a friend, in fact, who really wanted me to write a story where food and sex intertwine. This one juxtaposes a self-disciplined, driven woman in the fashion industry who watches every calorie she eats with a New Orleans chef and owner of a five-star restaurant. He courts her with food - and all kinds of sensual indulgences.

Danielle Sosna has no problem denying herself in order to achieve her goals—after all, that attitude landed her a dream job at Vogue Paris. But in New Orleans for one last assignment before heading overseas, she’s faced with the most decadent of temptations. Seductive Cajun chef Bobby Prejean takes Dani’s strength of will as a challenge, and offers her a night of wild indulgence—if she will agree to obey his every command.

Dani can’t resist Prejean’s invitation to join him in a world of carnal desire, complete with fetish costumes and masks. Determined to keep her emotional distance, she gives Prejean everything but her name. A night becomes a week, as she spends Mardi Gras suspended in the delicious space where pleasure meets pain.

Too late, she realizes the cloak of anonymity has not protected her—and that chasing her dream might come at the expense of her heart.

I'll tell you what - WRITING this book made me hungry! Any time a new reader picks up this story, I get messages, cursing me for making them hungry. One blogger, the fantastically creative Elisabeth Lane at Cooking Up Romance, even recreated one of Bobby Prejean's recipes that he feeds Dani.

In an interesting coincidence (maybe not - holiday of gluttony and all...), another of Bobby's recipes will be featured at Pearl's Inner Goddess Forum. She's doing a series on Feisty Foodies: Recipes and Reads from Romance Authors, which will include Bobby's Gingerbread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.

It's a funny thing, and a conversation Elisabeth and I have had, that romance books tend to be much better for food inspiration than SFF, in general. She thinks this is because SFF characters spend so much time running around, questing and eating field rations. She has a point there.

However, one in-genre author who does *fantastically* at this is Jennifer Estep in her Elemental Assassins urban fantasy series. Her heroine, Gin Blanco, is an assassin, yes - but also owns a barbeque restaurant. Throughout each story, Gin - who cooks when under stress - serves up the greasiest, sweetest and unhealthiest home-cooking you've ever read. With all the characters forever in danger of death, this works out for them, but if you plan on living to old age, watch the cravings this addictive series induces!

Total autobuy series for me, book #14, BITTER BITE, comes out in February! Yes, I've totally preordered mine. With the holiday time-off coming, you all have time to catch-up on this action- and food-packed series. It reads super-fast. You can do it.

My Culinary Obsessions

So, last week I talked about how drawing maps and doing worldbuilding is my non-writing artistic outlet.  But, to a large degree, that's still about writing.
Of course, it's all about writing, even this one.
 Because my other artistic outlet is cooking.  I love to cook, and I'm strangely obsessive about doing things from scratch.  And to some degree, that comes from writing and worldbuilding.  I like to think about where food comes from, what it means to the people, and how disparate flavors can help define a culture.
And today I have a special project!  Today I'll be taking blackberries and a whole variety of nuts, seeds, spices and dried chiles and making a glorious molé de zarzamoras.  And, of course, beyond that, I intend to get some writing in.  But as you can imagine, this is a project that's going to take up a good chunk of my day.
But once it's done, oh, it'll be something quite special. 
And then I'll go down into the word mines.  See you in there.
One more thing: as I've updated my website, I've created an Appearances page listing where I'll be in 2015.  There's only a few listed for now, but that will probably increase as the year goes on.