National Novel Writing Month: THE PREP

NANOWRIMO IS NIGH 

It's that time of the year again: where I participate in a crazy annual tradition known as NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH. 

I started this tradition in my freshman year of college with a story about the children of astronauts stranded on an alien planet. Since then, I've done the challenge every year except during my semester abroad in the United Kingdom.

90% of the stories I plan for NaNoWriMo are just for practice. Only two that I've done in the six years I've participated in are worth revisiting and revising. One of them, Displaced, is currently being rewritten and re-visioned as a webcomic.

THIS YEAR'S SAGA 

I wasn't certain I'd be able to participate this year, given personal circumstances, however I decided to do it to get back in the groove of things. That's the most important thing for me to do right now, and I have a great idea!

Or, at least, I think it is.

This year's NaNoWriMo novel is called Scrumptious! A retired superhero decides to pen a food memoir, and notes how food has changed his life and his superhero career. This story will include silly food recipes that are not in any way edible (yet so good!). 

Also inspired by epic meal time:

Be sure to add me as a writing buddy if you're also doing NaNoWriMo!

One Thing About Me

Happy October!

Project Updates for October

It's hard to believe that it's already October! Once a month I want to take the time to do a sort of "State of the Union" address, with progress on my original creative projects. Eventually I'll install a progress bar on the side of my blog a la Brandon Sanderson because I like graphs and stuff.

September Short Story: Dust

In an effort to produce more writing, I'll be posting some short stories that I work on in between novels. September's story is "Dust," a short story about a student who studies magical terraforming--and of his final exam in a howling dust storm.

Fantasy Worldbuilding: Drinking Songs

THERE'S WHISKEY IN THE JAR

I have to admit: I'm a fan of drinking songs in fantasy and science fiction. And not just drinking songs, but folk songs in general as a form of world-building in the genres.

Take a Break from Writing

 Writing During a Personal Crisis

In one of last week's posts I talked about what to do when you're not writing--when you're exhausted or have writer's block. I'm in agreement with the majority of writers who advise new writers to write constantly. How else are you going to finish your book? Don't talk. Just do. 

Disability in Epic Fantasy

Disability in Fantasy: Questions to Consider

Disabilities aren't too common in many epic fantasies and science fiction, though I see them often in the form of characters losing limbs (hands seem to be a common theme...looking at you, Star Wars). Here are some things to think about when creating your characters.

Resources for Flintlock/Gunpowder Fantasy

Writing Historical Epic Fantasy? 

It's one thing to write about how to do research, but it's hard enough to build a research library of your own while writing! Here are some resources I've been using. They're split into two camps: actual research and fiction.

Naturally, you will tailor your research to your world.

The links below use affiliate links, and if you are uncomfortable clicking on them be sure to check out this same Flintlock Fantasy list on Goodreads!

As I continue to do research I'll update this list and keep it pinned to the sidebar for reference.

Cultural Diversity in Epic Fantasy

So you want to include diversity in your story? 

**The book links referenced in this section uses Amazon Affiliate Links. By clicking on these links you help this blog make monies**

Great! I'm really glad you do, so let's get started.

What to Do When You're Not Writing

Have Writer's Block?

I've been writing for a long time. Everything from newspaper articles, to magazine editorials, silly fanfiction--all of those works have contributed to my writing style. Like everything else in life, I find that I can't keep my marathon-writing at full speed.

MAGIC!! 

I'll admit: I'm not an expert when it comes to creating magic systems. How can I be, when I'm not a published novelist (yet)? However, having spent a few years exploring and building my own magic system has given me some insight into the creation process. But Hanna, you may say, what do you know that none of the other thousands of articles on the Internet have told me?

Flintlock Fantasy: Why You Should Read (and Write) It

Flintlock? What's That? 

Traditional fantasy encompasses the usual tribe--elves, dwarves, orcs, hobbits--with a not-quite-so-historically-accurate medieval flavor of sweeping robes, majestic dresses, and a plague or two. Sound familiar? I'm sure a few stories have popped into your head already.

No offense, Cersei.

Catch Up Post: Luxurious Leg of Lamb and Tomato Chicken Mensaf

Have any of you watched that new cooking show on Netflix called "Cooked"?

It's just four episodes. Four episodes that explore the four elements of cooking (earth, fire, air and water). One of the things the host said reverberated within me: "you can eat whatever you want, however much you want...but only if you cook it."

Fatherly Fried Eggs

I'm always in search of new breakfast recipes. With a fresh supply of eggs every day, why shouldn't I?

"Distract the Dog" Grilled Chicken

This week's recipe,"Distract the Neighbors" grilled chicken, distracted the dog more than the neighbors.

Not like Indie needed an invitation.

So Many Recipes, So Little Time

I know, I know: there's been a lack of delectable recipes on this blog lately. It's that time of the year at work where eating junk food is easier than spending time cooking. Not that it's by choice, of course.

Lots of recipes from The Language of Baklava are in the to-cook list, and I'm hoping to get back to it this weekend before things get really crazy at work (And crazy it will become).

In the meantime, my wonderful sister (who lives in Portland) sent me a signed copy of Diana Abu-Jaber's newest memoir Life Without a Recipe! 

 

Super awesome! Along with Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl and other books, I have a small stack of books to read! 

 

Sentimental Hot Chocolate

As part of the extended short story "Native Foods," Diana lists a recipe for sentimental hot chocolate. Seemed like a good choice, especially considering whatever fresh hell awaited us for the next episode of Game of Thrones. I needed something sweet to end my weekend, and what better way to do that than whip up a pot of comforting hot chocolate?

Peaceful Lentil Soup and Comforting Velveeta Sandwiches

Honestly, I didn't know what would hit me with the Comforting Velveeta sandwiches recipe. I knew that when I read the short story that accompanied it, "Native Foods," that it was basically a grilled cheese sandwich.

Today, my day off, I decided to cook the Velveeta sandwiches and Peaceful Lentil Soup ("Rising an Arab Father in America") for dinner while Mom and Duncan were off at work.

Native Foods: Mensaf Leben

So far in this journey to cook my way through The Language of Baklava, this recipe has proved the most challenging. Not that the dish is difficult to prepare, but it requires a lot of time and someone to help you.

Webcomic Rec: Mare Internum

This weekend ended up being difficult to participate in the Language of Baklava challenge, as I worked through the weekend. However, fear not! I'm conspiring a huge meal for this weekend, and I can't wait to try it out!

Instead, this week I'll focus on a webcomic recommendation: Mare Internum by Der-Shing Helmer.

For those who loved The Martian, this webcomic is fantastic. The story explores the story of two Martian researchers, Mike and Rebekah, who discover an underwater sea in the planet Mars.

Webcomics are an endless source of fascination for me, as I absolutely LOVE how the Internet has changed the comics industry. Though thousands of webcomics exist, I end up only following a select few. I binged through the Mare Internum archive a few weeks ago, and loved it. Everything from the script, the artwork and the update schedule are fantastic. The only warning I give: the opening sequence begins with a character contemplating suicide, and the background of one of the characters is pretty dark.

Though, to be honest, I'm pretty much a sucker for beautiful artwork and outer space survival stories (along with a strong script and character backstory), so it's a no brainer that I'd love this comic. I love how it's a great mix of hard and soft sci fi (the creator has a background in biology), and can't wait to see where it goes! It's still ongoing and updates about 1-2 times a week, so hop on board!

Eventually I hope to create my own webcomic, so I love seeing how other people create their comics!

April Book Update!

From what little I've experienced of being a writer (albeit on the side, and whenever I can) is that experience provides so much of the details that make the writing come alive. This means that sometimes I do crazy things to be sure that I know what I'm talking about, even if the character I'm writing doesn't.

Even with my primary genres being epic fantasy and science fiction, I feel like experience is even more important. Details ground readers in a fantastic world otherwise foreign to them, and those details can come from anywhere. 

For those who don't know, I'm currently in the editing  process for the first book of my epic fantasy trilogy, currently named The Hymns of Creation. While I have other writing projects, this is my main project that I've worked on since high school. Wow! Over seven years old and still going!

Some examples:

• Traveled for four months in the United Kingdom (though for school, I applied much of the experience to fiction, mainly for anything I wrote that was located in London). 
• Learned how to discover my location using the stars (astronomy class, for a character who needed to discover his location and had nothing else). 
• Learning how to cook: there's nothing that brings a fantasy world to life better than sensory details. Thinking about how much goes into food, and what ingredients are available, actually help build the world by forcing you to think about what is available in a character's environment. 

What I'd love to do:

• Get in better shape and start hiking. A lot of epic fantasy includes characters traveling over long distances. How long would it take to travel someplace by foot? Hard to know unless you do it yourself.
• Visit the rice terraces in the Philippines not only because they look cool, but because of certain elements in the epic fantasy trilogy I'm currently writing. 
• Visit a vineyard and really interview a winemaker. Thanks to Dad, I've written a character whose profession is a winemaker. I've gotten in touch with someone from Clos des Amis, a local winemaker, to participate in the bottling process. Just waiting for a bottling collaboration on the weekend! 

Finding the time and energy to edit this book has been exhausting. It was hard to find time before Dad passed away, and without him it's even harder. But even through the exhaustion, and even through everything that has happened, clarity has arisen. I see the superfluous text, and I eliminate it. I begin to see how all of my experiences, as short as my life has been, can create something that speaks to others.

I lend my characters my practical experience, dressing them just a little with words and details to make those experiences reality. And yet I also lend them my grief, which breathes life into them in a way I never thought possible. All these details, of hiking and baking and wine-making, don't mean much without the emotional details. And through this writing, through this editing process, I hope to pour out every tumultuous emotion I've felt over the past few months into these characters. It is this process that is making this book so difficult to revise, but I believe that it will make it stronger.

Hot Lunch: Nostalgic Chicken Livers

Out of all of the random facts I know, there has always been one that's stuck with me: the invention of the fork allowed people to not touch their food. By dressing up meat and arranging it neatly on a plate, and by consuming it with cutlery, its true nature is hidden. We forget that it was an animal, or a plant in the ground, because we've made it look appealing. Cooking chicken livers reminded me strongly of that, as I went from this:

To this:

This element is touched upon in "Rising an Arab Father in America," when the father and his brothers attempt to kill a lamb, and their botched attempt results in no lamb shish kabobs for dinner. 

In the short story "Hot Lunch," the author recalls a time when she attended a Catholic school. A nun, upon learning that Diana's father is Jordanian, becomes attached to Diana because her family is from "the Holy Land." The nun is invited to the Abu-Jaber house and has a meal with them, excited all the while that she would be eating the same kind of food that Jesus would have eaten.

In addition to reminding me that how we prepare, cook and dress our food hides the fact that our food comes from an animal, this story reminds me of how people, upon learning that I am half-filipino, always ask, "well, then, you must know how to cook great food!"

Food associates closely with identity. Say lumpia, and you think Filipino. Look at pita bread, and we think Middle East. When we eat from other countries it's mostly for enjoyment. But sometimes, the food becomes a way for us to understand other people. Recreating these recipes brings Abu-Jaber's stories to another dimension. But how else can I understand her stories without eating the foods from her childhood, the food that Jesus could have possibly eaten? Without knowing what chicken livers taste like, how could I possibly understand why she describes them as "nostalgic"?

Most of us won't have to kill our own meat (however, I have done this with Rainbow Trout, which I shall write about later), but when you look down into that bloody bowl of  chicken livers and wonder how anyone could have possibly thought that this was a good idea, cooking reminds us that it is a process that takes time and energy.

So now I'm reminded that several chickens gave their lives for this hot lunch. How can I look at my chickens straight in the eyes again?

Be careful, Siopao, or else I'll turn you into a hot lunch!


Recipe:

• 1/4 cup of butter 
• 4 medium onions, thinly sliced 
• 1 pound of chicken livers 
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Abu-Jaber recommends singing softly to the chicken livers as they simmer, but in case you don't want to sing out loud you could listen to Egyptian singer Dina El Wedidi.

Easter Dinner: "Eat It Now" Lamb Shish Kabobs

As with all things in life, our Easter menu changed since last week. Instead of using the lentil soup recipe from The Language of  Baklava, we tried out a cream of asparagus soup recipe from Edible Ojai and Ventura County, since my mom doesn't like lentil soup. However, we went ahead with lamb shish kabobs, though I forgot to purchase the skewers, so we used a basket on the grill to cook the lamb.


Easter menu:

• Lamb chunks marinated in red wine, red vinegar, olive oil, fresh rosemary and oregano. 

• Cream of asparagus soup (recipe courtesy of the spring 2016 issue of edible Ojai and Ventura County)
• Freshly baked bread (pizza dough recipe doubled and allowed to rise over a full day)

 

• Dragon Fruit Sorbet for dessert (Brother Duncan's choice)

Wine from Brian's Cellar: 2005 Blair Fox Syrah; Paradise Road Vineyard Santa Barbara County

I had the pleasure of tasting at this vineyard three years ago, right around Christmas 2013 in the Los Olivos area.

Left to Right: Dad, me and sister Danica

 I had just come back from 4 months in the United Kingdom for a semester abroad, where they liked their cider, beer and ale more than wine. For our Christmas break Dad decided to take me, my sister and my Mom wine-tasting up in the Los Olivos area (yeah, where they filmed Sideways!).

"What a cool Dad!" Shannon, the tasting room attendant, said, upon hearing that my Dad was taking us on a wine-tasting tour.

Being the oenophile that he was, Dad always made sure that we knew about the wine we were tasting. And (to our dismay), he taught us how to spit out the wine so we could taste ALL the wine. We have several Blair Fox wines in Brian's Cellar, so we chose one for our Easter dinner. I'll talk about Dad's love of wine, and how he influenced my love of wine, in future blog posts.

Raising an Arab Father in America 

"Eat it Now" lamb shish kabobs refers to the first short story "Rising an Arab Father in America" in the memoir The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber. In this story the author's father, a Jordanian who moved to the States and married an American, attempts to rediscover his roots by attempting to cook lamb shish kabobs from scratch. Having read this story some years ago at Westmont, I remember having learned from this story that the lamb must be calm before it is killed, or else the meat spoils. The father, Bud, and his brothers learned that after living for so many years in America they had forgotten how to properly kill a lamb, and spoil the meat for the shish kabobs in the process of killing a lamb that the children fawn over. 

Reading it four years later, I realize how Abu-Jaber's stories relate to me, though I am Filipino-American rather than Arab-American. I remember Dad forgetting how to kill a fish properly after so many years away from the cabin in Wyoming, or how the Philippines had changed after twenty-one years for Mom. Time changes everything, and though Abu-Jaber's story illustrates an extreme, it is amazing to look back upon one's life and realize how easily you can forget how to do something that defined your childhood.

Next week: "Nostalgic Chicken Livers" and "Bud's Special Rice for Special Company" in the short Story Hot Lunch.     

Breakfast Pizza!

We have this tradition in my family to cook a homemade pizza every Friday night--and it's a pretty awesome tradition, in my opinion. Dad spent years perfecting his crust, and now it is time to start perfecting mine.

Yesterday I attempted a new recipe that utilized different ingredients available from our garden: parsley and fresh chicken eggs. But eggs on pizza??!!

Our chickens Lumpia, Siopao and Adobo. 

Seemed like a crazy idea at the time. Eggs on pizza is a suggestion from Edible Ojai and Ventura County--a quarterly cooking and gardening that I had the pleasure of writing for a single issue. Eggs seemed too bizarre, but after some thinking I realized that we were cooking the same kind of pizza each week: meat-lover's supreme. Nothing wrong with wall-to-wall pepperoni, of course, but life's too short to have the same thing over and over again. So out to the chicken coop and vegetable beds I went!

Pizza crust ingredients:

• 2 1/2-3 cups of flour 
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon sugar 
• 2 1/4 teaspoons of active yeast 

 Pizza toppings:

• Marinara sauce (growing San Marzano tomatoes for homemade sauce!) 
• Mozzarella (however much you want!) 
• Mushrooms 
• Onions 
• Bacon 
• Avocado (Fresh from Ojai orchards!) 
• Chopped parsley 
• 4 Ojai Day chicken eggs 

The most difficult part is cooking the eggs correctly without burning the pizza. Add the eggs after baking the pizza, keeping the oven warm to cook the eggs. The oven cooks the yolk evenly, so it's not runny inside. And voila! Only took a couple of hours!

 
With so many toppings this pizza ended up being very filling, yet so delicious. Next time I'll experiment with different kinds of soft cheeses for variety!

Wine-Stained Book: The Language of Baklava Challenge

I don't fancy myself a great cook. Sure, I'm a competent cook, but not a great cook.

It just so happened that my Dad was a great cook. One of his favorite past-times was watching cooking shows, movies about cooking, books about cooking, just about anything that had to do with food he loved to be a part of. He was all about the sizzling onions, watching the bread dough rise and experimenting with some darn recipe he found on the Internet. But who doesn't love good food?

My interests reside more in the literary realm, and it's harder for me to get as enthusiastic as cooking as he did. But there is something  to be said about how food described in a story breathes a higher level of  life into the author's world. Witches and wizards may cast imaginary spells, but butterbeer is something you can make and taste. The dystopian world of the Hunger Games seems too fantastic to be true, but the variety of District breads, laced with seaweed and dark ration grains, grounds the story to a reality the reader can easily access.

Though that's just fiction, such fiction grounded with such vivid sensory details is one of the keys to a great story. What better way to write with such vivid detail than to draw from your own life?

The Language of Baklava, a memoir by Diana Abu-Jaber, explores her childhood as an Arab-American through food. Each story contains one or two recipes, everything from shish kabob to baklava. After having read a few of her short stories, I mentioned the book to Dad as a way for me to read more fiction and have him cook the food. He loved the idea, but with a twist: he would read the book if I cooked the food. Well, I left him the book to think about the proposal. As per the family tradition, anything that we like likely has wine spilled on it, and lo and behold:

While he was reading it he ended up spilling wine on it. However, due to his passing in December, we never got to The Language of Baklava challenge.

So, I will attempt ("attempt" is the key word here) to cook one of the recipes associated with one short story a week. In the process I hope to learn a little more about cooking, and use it as an excuse to read through this book in its entirety.

First challenge (potential Easter meal?): Rising an Arab Father in America: "Eat it Now" Shish Kabob and peaceful vegetarian lentil soup.

The added challenged: pair the lamb shish kabobs with one of Dad's fancy wines from his infamous wine cellar for an Easter celebration.  

There's no guarantee that anything I cook will be amazing. After all, I'm only a competent cook. But let's see where this challenge will take us!