The Story Behind ... One for the Road

One for the Road is about Suzanne Martin, a photojournalist who starts a vineyard after her husband dies in a car wreck. The story follows Suzanne as she builds a new life on an abandoned farm near Cobalt Mills, Virginia. Suzanne quickly learns that not everyone is happy with her new venture, particularly the owners of a larger vineyard up the road. As strange incidents on the farm grow dangerous, she must take matters into her own hands or risk losing everything.

One for the Road is the first novel I completed. It took me a long time to work through the middle of the story. I credit the Anne Lamott book Bird by Bird for giving me the encouragement to keep writing.

The idea for the book came after my husband and I took several wine tasting trips and decided to look into starting our own vineyard. (I'm told many people come back from wine-tasting trips with this fantasy.) We spent months researching possible locations, viticulture and wine making. We eventually realized that taking on the triple business of farming (growing and harvesting the grapes), manufacturing (making and bottling the wine), and retail (running the tasting room) was more than we could manage.

We made the right decision, but I was still intrigued by the idea. That’s when I decided to write a novel about a woman who takes on the challenge of starting a vineyard. I used everything I’d learned in our research to help Suzanne start her new life, a life that grows and changes throughout the story just like her fledgling grapevines.

About the Books

Chasing Leaves

Yesterday I went to a luncheon and the parting gift was a violet. It was meant to symbolize the power of one generation giving back to its community for the benefit of the next generation. Legend has it that planting a violet leaf in potting soil will cause a new plant to grow.

Writing a novel produces some spare leaves for planting, too. They're the tangents snipped off in editing, the ideas that don’t fit the plot, and the characters who fall away.  Some of these leaves wilt and die, while others are reborn in new plots and new relationships. With luck, they blossom into something lovely.

Memorial Day Weekend Menu

We’re invited to a picnic on Saturday and hosting one on Sunday. For Saturday, I’ll bake and take brownies using the recipe I tried last week. My husband said they were the best brownies ever and asked for a repeat. With luck my neighbor’s kids will like them as much as he did!

On Sunday, we’re hosting our in-laws at our house. I’m still tinkering with the menu:

Appetizers:      

• Spinach dip with toasted pita triangles: a standard spinach dip recipe – an old standby
• Crudités with ranch dip: the kids love celery, carrots, and cauliflower smothered with ranch dip

Main Meal:      

• Baby back ribs: This is a good choice for my in-laws because they’re particular about food being well-done (as in cremated). Rather than gnaw our way through burgers as tough as hockey pucks or sausage that doubles as beef jerky, I’ll simmer the ribs in beer (a pilsner) for an hour until they’re fully cooked and then throw them on the grill and baste them with barbecue sauce to finish them off.
• Pasta salad: This is also a good choice for my in-laws because my mother-in-law doesn’t eat mayonnaise, which knocks most of the traditional picnic salad choices off the menu. I’ll toss the pasta salad together using baby bow-tie noodles, sliced grape tomatoes, diced cucumber, a little sweet onion, sliced black olives, diced pepperoni, and diced green pepper. I’ll add salt and pepper and Newman’s Own Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing to hold it all together.
• Baked beans: I have a great recipe for homemade baked beans, but I usually go with Bush’s. They compare to homemade and are easier to deal with.
• Green lettuce salad: I like Bibb lettuce, tomato, green pepper and cucumber. Not sure about dressing yet.

Dessert:           

Strawberry shortcake: Strawberries are in high season. I’ll bake (or buy?) a vanilla pound cake and slice it, then add sugar-coated fresh strawberry slices and whipped cream.

Beverages:

• Chateau St. Michelle Riesling
• Sam Adams Summer Ale
• Iced Tea
• Water

                                   

My garage is clean thanks to freshman speech

This morning my husband thanked me, unsolicited, for launching the Great Garage Clean-Up of 2011. Last weekend we swapped out winter sleds for summer bikes, rock salt for weed-and-feed, and swept out the road cinders and dead bugs that accumulated over the long winter.

The toughest task was tackling his toolboxes – five of them – and organizing the tools. When we were done, he was amazed to find he had three full sets of the same kind of sockets. I was not so amazed, but I ended the day happy because if I need a screwdriver or hammer I know where to look.

I was thinking about the clean-up on my drive to work this morning. Several (okay, many) years ago I enrolled in a tiny liberal arts college in Nebraska. It was my first semester and I had freshman speech. A young classmate told us that she intended to be a housewife and hadn’t planned to go to college. But when her husband returned from the first Gulf War he decided to get a degree. As a married student he had the option of getting a nicer dorm – an apartment, really – if his wife went to college with him. So they both enrolled.

One day, this young woman stood in front of the class, as nervous as the rest of us, and delivered a five-minute instructional speech on how to clean a house. She said she didn’t feel like she had much to contribute, but that housecleaning was something she knew how to do well. Her instructions went something like this:

1. Start small. Start with the smallest room in your house and clean it. The sense of accomplishment will help you move on to the next smallest room.
2. Start high. Start by dusting off the highest points of the room – the light fixtures, ceiling fan blades, etc. Then move down to the next highest thing, like window sills and counters. Do the floors last so you pick up all the dirt that fell from the higher spots.
3. Pick a corner and work your way out of it. Instead of being overwhelmed by clutter (say in a basement storage area) start in one corner of the room and work on only those items in that corner. Once it’s clean, move to the next section of the wall. Work your way around the room and at the end everything will have its place.

It’s hard to believe it’s been so long since I sat in that classroom. I transferred to another school after my first semester and lost touch with the people I’d met. But I think about the young woman from my freshman speech class every so often. I wonder if she graduated, if she stayed married, if she had children, if she started a career or made a career at home. I wonder if she remembers the speech she gave – the simple speech that’s helped me clean my rooms, organize my husband’s tools, and keep things neat around the house for the past twenty years.

More on the Blogger vs. Tumblr switch

I created my Blogger site a few weeks ago. Until then I used a Tumblr blog exclusively. I switched because I wanted a blog that doubled as a website. Blogger’s templates fit the bill. At the time, I thought I might eliminate my Tumblr blog entirely, but I’ve decided against it. Here’s why:

Mobile

Tumblr is easier to update on the go. I use an iPad with the free Tumblr app, which is fast and nearly fool-proof.

Followers

Tumblr’s interface is more elegant when it comes to following and being followed.

Dashboard

The dashboard is well-designed so it’s easy to see what other people post. Blogger's feeds aren’t as visually compelling. I scroll through the posts on my Tumblr dashboard for enjoyment, whereas scrolling through my Blogger feed can be a chore.

Feeds

Tumblr accepts my Blogger feed (but not vice-versa, or at least not easily – it involved widget-creation and signing up for more free services, etc.). It also sends my posts to Twitter when they’re created, with no time lag.

In Blogger’s defense, it offers features that I prefer, namely the ability to look more like a traditional website and great usage stats. I’ve tried more than thirty of Tumblr’s templates and I haven’t found one that consistently looks as clean as my Blogger site.

For now, I plan to keep both blogs active. I’ll use Tumblr for speedy on-the-go and photo posts and Blogger for more substantial entries.  

The Lowly Sloppy Joe

Last night I made sloppy joes for dinner (gourmet, I know). It's a fast standby on a busy night (dance class, a Brownie meeting and grocery shopping).

I'm assuming everyone in America knows how to make sloppy joes, but just in case I thought I'd share the unofficial down-home recipe here:

• Dice half of a big sweet onion and half of a green pepper.
• Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan on medium-high.
• Sauté the onion and green pepper pieces in the oil for three minutes or until they begin to soften.
• Throw in a diced clove of garlic and sauté for 30 seconds more.
• Add one pound of lean ground beef.
• Break the beef apart as you brown it (drain the beef if it's fatty).
• After the beef is browned, stir in ketchup to taste (usually five ounces).
• Stir in a tablespoon of spicy brown mustard.
• Cover and simmer for at least fifteen minutes (longer is better if you have time)

Serve on Pennsylvania Dutch potato rolls.

Side dish? Chips, of course.

The best part? Hearing Adam Sandler's Lunch Lady Land in your head as you cook!

"Sloppy Joe, Slop Sloppy Joe..."

Baking Brownies

Last night I baked a big tray of brownies using the recipe from the Baker's Chocolate website. They came out pretty good ... very rich with all of those eggs. They aren't overly sweet, so they would go perfectly with homemade vanilla-bean ice cream and hot fudge. Since we were short on both ice cream and hot fudge, we settled for big glasses of cold white skim milk instead. Ooh la la!

An Old Fashioned Love Story

Today I had lunch with a wonderful woman who is brimming with life and energy. As she sipped a cool glass of pinot grigio, she told me the story of how she met her husband, who passed away several years ago. I thought you might enjoy the story, too. (I’ve changed their names for privacy’s sake.)

June was attending an all-girls junior college in New England, where she’d spent two of the best years of her life. She’d made what would become lifelong friends, and met many nice boys, mostly on blind dates arranged by her friends. As graduation neared, she was preparing to head back to the small Pennsylvania steel town where she’d grown up.

Several months before, her mother had called to say that June’s aunt wanted June to meet a young man named Joe who was coming back from the war. June’s mother told her to expect his call.

“It was 1946,” June said, “So the war was ending and the soldiers were coming home. My mother called me several more times to see if Joe had called, but I hadn’t heard a word. To be quite honest I’d been on so many blind dates that I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go on any more.”

“As it turned out, he took his good old time,” June said, laughing. “Apparently he was seeing another girl and calling me wasn’t on the top of his mind. I only had a few more weeks of college left when he finally called.”

June agreed to go on a date with Joe. He arranged to take the train from Boston to her small school and then take her to dinner and a concert.

“I was so naïve,” June said. “I didn’t even know what the Boston Pops were. I kept wondering why on earth he would want to take me to the symphony on our first date. But I agreed to meet him anyway.”

June prepared for her date and went down the stairs to the common area in the college’s main hall. Her roommate and several other young women accompanied her, curious about what her date would look like.

The girls hid behind the tall velvet curtains that surrounded the oval room and carefully peeked out.

“He wore his uniform,” June said. “He was so tall and handsome standing there. He was smoking a cigarette and I could see his reflection in the tall mirrors on the wall. I was so glad I’d decided to go on one more blind date. The other girls all wanted to know where I met him. We were all atwitter back behind that curtain.”

June and Joe took the train to Boston and had a wonderful dinner that lasted for hours. They never made it to the concert, but instead spent the evening getting to know one another and sharing stories about the small towns they came from in Pennsylvania.

“I almost missed curfew,” June laughed. “The headmistress at my school had arranged for me to stay in a hotel room in Boston so I wouldn’t have to travel back late on the train. I had to call her from the hotel to check in before midnight. I barely made it!”

By the time Joe dropped June off at the hotel, they were well on their way to a marriage that would last more than fifty years.

[Que the "awe" :) ]

Game of Thrones

We reinstated HBO in anticipation of the new season of Trueblood next month. We decided to check out Game of Thrones. It's looking promising. I like shows (and books) set in the period of knights and nobles. I can only imagine how frightening the long nights of winter must have been.

Brewfest at the PA Renaissance Faire

Last night I went to the second session of the Annual Mount Hope Brewfest on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Renessaince Faire. There were 30 breweries sampling their creations. They ranged from fantastic to really bad. Fortunately there were more on the fantastic side of the equation.

My favorites were ...

Intercourse Brewing Company
Bube's Brewery
Appalachian Brewing Company
Boaks Beer
JoBoys Brew Pub
DuClaw Brewing Company

I also have to give a shout out to the Swashbuckler Brewing Company, which is the Faire's own microbrewery.

Looking forward to 2012,

Liv James, author of The Trouble With Green

White Nights

I love this time of year. The long days of summer mean more sunlit hours to spend outside, or at least looking wistfully outside from my office window. And for me, more light means more energy … and time … to get stuff done.

A few years ago I went to Russia, arriving in St. Petersburg on June 21^st, which is, of course, the longest day of the year.

I was fortunate to experience the phenomenon they call White Nights without having to experience the opposite, winter solstice. I’ll never forget riding through the beautiful city on a river boat at 11:00 at night with the sun shining bright.

What I remember most, however, is that I had so much energy. It was the middle of the night and I had zero desire to go to sleep. I imagine that would catch up with you at some point, but for the three days I spent in St. Petersburg sleep seemed like a completely unnecessary nuisance.

The Falls Trail

Yesterday we hiked the Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen State Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. It's one gorgeous place to spend Mother's Day (if you like hiking). More than 20 waterfalls cascade over giant boulders that were pushed precariously into place during the ice age. The stream that feeds them slips down through an old-growth forest that is as beautiful as any you're likely to see in the U.S.

The trail itself is about four miles long, depending on whether you do the full trail or a portion of it. It hugs the sides of the mountain down one side and up the other in a v-shape. Portions of it are steep, but manageable if you're in decent shape.

I like to go there to clear my head and to disconnect - cell phone service is sparse to non-existent along the trail.

Beef Carbonnade with Chocolate Stout

I took the day off yesterday because the kids didn't have school. The weather was just about as fine as it gets in the great northeast - sunny, no humidity, 70 degrees. That adds up to a good deal all around.

I started the day catching up on housework (yawn, I know, but when I have a Friday off I try to cram all the chores in so I have rest of the weekend to play and/or write). By 10:30 I'd logged a two mile walk around our hilly neighborhood. Later, I checked my email to get back to the fine folks who are taking advantage of the Mother's Day Weekend coupon for The Trouble With Green (thank you!). That was followed by laundry, groceries, a little bit of kid-taxi service, and then ... and then ... I made my husband's favorite meal: beef carbonnade.

It's his favorite because it's made from his three favorite foods: beef, bacon, and beer. He home-brews some pretty awesome beer with a group of guys that get together once a month. I used a chocolate stout they made back in December in this batch of carbonnade and let me tell you - it rocked.

The recipe itself came from an old issue of Cooking Light (yes, Cooking Light). I follow the recipe except I substitute the "light beer" it calls for with the chocolate stout. If I brought light beer into this house it would be ugly!

After dinner I settled in for some writing time on my next book, which is the first in a series. All and all it was a great day off.

Cheers!

Liv

www.vocabulary.com

How’s your vocabulary? I stumbled upon this site that tests your knowledge. Fun! If you’re into that kind of thing :)
http://www.vocabulary.com/

Blogger vs. Tumblr

Tonight, Blogger wins.

I'm sad about that. I really like Tumblr a lot. It's so easy and fast to use. But when it comes right down to it, I couldn't include all of the information that I wanted to include in an easy-to-find format for my readers. So, I'm giving Blogger a shot as my official site. I'll keep my tumblelog on the side, like a hip young friend who is great fun to party with every so often.