the SIMMER blog

words on waiting, part two

Guess what! Waiting's a big topic, and we didn't exhaust it in just one post over on the Backspace blog, STET! I had a lot to say on the topic of "what silence means" when you're waiting for an agent to get back to you: you can read it here.

words on waiting, part one

The internet is both good and bad for writers -- good as a resource, bad as a procrastination tool that keeps us from actually writing -- but all in all, it's a wonderful way to connect with other writers, wherever they might physically be. Backspace is a great writers' community and their blog, STET!, offers informed advice on a wide variety of writing topics.

Naturally, I especially consider the advice here "informed" when it quotes, y'know, me.

Here's a link to The Waiting Diaries, Part I, with thoughts from agents and writers (including yours truly) on how to handle the waiting inherent in the process of seeking publication.

a(mazon) nice surprise!

All right, my faithful friends and blog readers... we're quite a ways out from the official release date of my debut novel, but I was just idly poking around on the interwebs yesterday and suddenly ran across this gem:

The Kitchen Daughter is available for pre-order on Amazon!

This means, too, that the release date is pretty firm: April 12, 2011. Right between my parents' anniversary and my dad's birthday, so it's going to be a heck of a festive week for the McHenrys.

Can't wait! But have to! But can't!

So much more excitement to come...

 

when dinner is a slice of life

Like much of the East Coast and on over toward the Mississippi, New York has been dealing with a heck of a heat wave. Last week we cleared a hundred. And it was humid. I mostly sat around trying not to use electricity and hoping the air conditioning was up to the task.

Is it any wonder I didn't want to turn on the stove?

And so, sometimes, instead of being cooked, dinner is sliced.

Raw zucchini. Salted and rested. Drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil. With a little parmesan on top.

 
  
(If you want to use the same basic idea for something more substantive and less fussy, here's the recipe that first inspired me to eat thinly-sliced raw zucchini: zucchini carpaccio salad at Smitten Kitchen.)

Oh. And something else that didn't require heating up the kitchen at all:

 

a new stage!

Just a brief little note to say: wow! We've reached a new stage in bookness. Yesterday, The Kitchen Daughter went into production. What that means is this: I stop messing with the file. Now, other people take charge of the file. Professional people. And the next time I see the pages, they'll be marked up with all sorts of copy edits. Also, they'll be pages. Paper. Not the file.

In one sense, it's nothing new. The book has been in this "almost done" stage for months, and it's still... almost done.

In another sense, this is all new. All different. We're moving to the printed page, people.

And I'm so very excited.

dinner party advice in tufts magazine

Insider note: this is total do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do advice, since as any regular reader knows, I have a tendency to go MASSIVELY overboard in preparing for and conducting dinner parties. I'm aware of this. I know that normal people don't have to make a rule about not letting your number of dishes exceed the number of people present. The first step is admitting you have a problem, which is why my Twitter profile fully discloses that I'm a "dinner party overdoer from way back."

But! I've also been through enough of them (dinner parties, that is) that I know what leads to them going horribly wrong, and what to do to minimize the chances of that horribleness.

So, without further ado: I'm in Tufts Magazine (go Jumbos!) this month talking about my practical approach to tackling dinner party prep, whether it's your first or hundred-and-first time at the rodeo.

Click to check it out:

It's Just a Dinner Party

the cooking channel: everything old is new again

And here's that other link I was talking about. I've been watching a good deal of brand-new network The Cooking Channel since its debut, so I wrote up a review. Short version: I love it, but probably not for the reason network honchos were hoping.

Take a gander at the whole review over at Intrepid Media:

channeling the cooking channel

writer holiday at writer unboxed

So, did you take yesterday off? Me too! Except that I did write this piece for Writer Unboxed, about how important it is to take a day (or more) off every now and again for the sake of your writing. Check it out by clicking below:

writer takes a holiday

(Actually, I had another piece online yesterday too, which you'll hear more about tomorrow.)