FOODFIC: Please Welcome Jessica Tornese, Author of Linked Through Time

Kate Christenson has lost her appetite. After traveling back in time and taking the place of her aunt Sarah, there isn't much of her new life that is even remotely appealing. Landing in the midst of her father's childhood days, a time when her aunt was still alive, Kate finds herself flat broke and living the life of a farm girl in rural Minnesota. When there are times to eat, Kate has to fend off one of her 10 brothers and sisters for just enough to get by.

Kate discovers quickly, her newfound meals aren't McDonald's burgers, or even a Pizza Hut pizza. Landing on her plate could by anything from freshly shot venison to a 4-H raised rabbit, a chicken newly beheaded out of the hen house or an annoying red squirrel who spent one too many nights in the attic.And seriously, how can anyone be expected to drink milk that came from a rusty bucket and sat beneath the steaming mass of a smelly cow? The only drinks Kate wants come from the cold refrigerated world of her favorite supermarket.

Kate realizes her privileged days are gone and the meals are only one  of the many challenges Kate must learn to navigate this bizarre new world.

Once she realizes that she has traveled back in time to just before her aunt's untimely death, Kate's new fear is centered on how much she can alter fate. Her aunt's death was ruled a suicide, but the more time she spends in the past, the more Kate is sure her aunt was murdered.

Whatever penalties she faces for the mistakes she's made, Kate is willing to pay almost any price to get back to her real time and place. Even if it means eating a little squirrel.

Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Jessica!

You can find Jessica here:

JessicaTornese.com

Twitter @JLTornese

Books on Amazon

Jessica Tornese’s debut novel, Linked Through Time, was inspired by her home town Baudette, MN. She graduated from high school there and continued her education at Minnesota State University-Moorhead where she earned a degree in education. She continued her first novel and turned it into a time travel trilogy, following up with titles Lost Through Time, and Destroyed Through Time.

Jessica is married and has three children. Her family moved from Minnesota to a small town on the east coast of Florida, where Jessica teaches at a private school and hopes to continue writing.

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Elizabeth Schechter, Author of The Rape of Persephone

Half a dozen pomegranate seeds are the reason it’s in the 50s today here in Florida.

At least, that’s what the mythology would have you believe. According to the Greek Myths, Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld, and was therefore doomed to spend eternity there. However, the Gods compromised for the sake of the human race, and instead of eternity, Persephone has to spend six months as Queen of the Dead before returning to the surface and bringing Spring with her.

(Yeah, I know there’s more to it than that. This is the simple, let’s start an essay explanation, not an in-depth anthropological examination of the roots of the Kore figure in various cultures.)

The whole “don’t eat that!” warning shows up in different forms throughout time. There are dietary rules and strictures in most religions, and almost all of them have some cultural or historical reason behind them. Those beliefs are reflected in our stories – don’t eat the food of the dead, or you’ll be trapped in the realm of the dead forever. Don’t eat anything offered you by the Fair Folk, or you’ll never see the mortal realms again. One side of the mushroom makes you bigger, and the other side makes you smaller.  You can eat anything in the Garden, except the fruit of that tree right there (which by the way, wasn’t an apple. It might have been a quince. Or a pomegranate.)

When I wrote The Rape of Persephone, it was with the intent of turning the canonical myth on its head. There might have been an anonymous prompt involved, but I can’t really remember. What was important was that when you’re doing a pastiche of a story everyone knows, you have to keep the high points. Which meant that, while what brings Persephone to the Underworld was going to be entirely different, what keeps her there had to be related to food.

So I played with it, and we ended up with Haides, who comes to the mortal realms with a mission that I won’t reveal here because spoilers. And he finds Persephone. Persephone here isn’t a shy young maiden picking flowers. She’s an aggressive and arrogant young godling, and very much her father’s daughter. Haides taking her to the Underworld isn’t so much as kidnapping as it is imprisonment. But once he gets her there, he has to keep her there. So when she wakes up, he invites her to dine:

He dodged the thrown kylix, wiping wine from his arm as he shook his head. "A waste of good wine, my dear. There's a fine meal laid. Will you join me? Will I have to watch out for flying lamb?" He gestured toward the door, and tried not to smile as she scowled, then stalked past him. When Haides reached the next room, he was unsurprised to find her seated in his own chair at the head of the table, picking at a dish of lamb, yogurt and pomegranate seeds. She looked up as he came in, smirked at him, and popped a piece of lamb into her mouth.
"Are we changing roles, then?" Haides asked, amused. He took what should have been her seat, pouring himself another measure of wine. He sipped it as he studied her. Arrogant little godling. She had no idea what game she was playing.
She'd learn.
"Why not?" she asked, picking up a piece of bread and tearing off a chunk. She took a bite, then picked up another bit of lamb. "And I won't be staying. I'm leaving as soon as I finish."
"Then by all means, help yourself." Haides waved his hand expansively. "It's a long walk back to the world above."

Notice that I worked the pomegranate seeds in there?

I didn’t have a specific recipe in mind when I put that lamb, yogurt and pomegranate seed dish on the table, but there are several traditional Greek recipes that include lamb and yogurt. The lamb would have been coated with the yogurt, which would have perhaps been mixed with spices and wine to thin it out. Then the meat was either roasted, or sealed in a clay pot, which would then be put into an oven. Yogurt tenderizes the meat, and when you roast the meat, the sugars in the yogurt caramelize and form a crust. Also on the table were bread and wine, two staples of the ancient Greek table. Not mentioned here, but common found on the dinner table of an Ancient Greek nobleman, would have been eggs, cheese, olives, figs, and vegetables such as cucumbers and carrots. So we can presume that when Haides encourages Persephone to eat and enjoy herself, that there was a wide variety to choose from.

The question, though, is why did she indulge? In the original myth, Persephone knows not to eat the food of the dead, and has to be tricked in to doing so. Here, though, she goes willingly to the table, even going so far as to steal Haides’ place at the table – something that isn’t at all accurate. Ancient Greeks reclined to eat, a practice that the Romans continued. If I’d written the scene accurately, she’d have stolen his couch.

Going back to the question – why does Persephone eat? She had to have known the consequences, especially since there’s earlier scene when Haides invites Demeter to visit him:

"You're welcome in my realm, Demeter. I'd look forward to your visit. And I lay a fine table."
Demeter hesitated, then shook her head. "You'll understand if I refuse the invitation?"
Haides nodded. "I understand. Then perhaps I'll see you again when next I come above."

Clearly, Demeter knows the risks. It’s not a stretch to think that she taught her daughter. So why does Persephone ignore those warnings? I’ll admit that it’s not something I gave much thought to when I wrote the scene. Rereading it, and thinking about it, I’ve realized why.

She doesn’t think the rules apply to her.

You see it in her behavior all the way through the story. She’s the daughter of Zeus. She’s a goddess. She can do whatever she wants and her actions never have consequences. She is, as Haides’ muses, an arrogant little godling. One who is fated to meet her match over bread, black wine, and lamb in yogurt with pomegranates.

Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Elizabeth!

You can find Elizabeth here:

R-F-X.com/ESWrites

Twitter @EASchechter

Facebook Fan Page

Books on Amazon

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Emily Mah, Author of Chasing Sunrise

In a recent interview, someone asked me why I hadn’t set my latest trilogy in my hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico. After all, it’s an interesting enough place. Why had I chosen the neighboring town of Taos? My answer was and is that I wanted to write about the three cultures of New Mexico, and while they are present in my hometown, they’re more pronounced in other towns in the region. New Mexico was settled in three waves and these three cultures remain to this day.

The first arrivals were, of course, the Native Americans, and the modern Natives of the region are Puebloans. Many of the dishes adopted by Spaniards are variations of Native Puebloan cuisine. The second wave were the Spaniards, and the third wave was us Anglos. (The term refers to our most common home language, not our race. I’m a mix of Chinese and Italian heritage myself, and yet indubitably Anglo).

My main character, Liana Linacre, is a wealthy girl from Southampton, New York, who is ripped from her comfortable life when her father is murdered. She also has a rather big secret and nobody left to trust when she’s shipped to Taos to live with her aunt. On her first day of public high school, Liana meets two best friends, Amy (Native American) and Gina (Hispanic). One of the first things these two do is take Liana grocery shopping with them in preparation for making tamales.

In New Mexico, as in many parts of Latin America, tamales are traditionally made around Christmastime, but Amy’s family has delayed the tradition so that they can honor it once her older brother is back from his deployment. Liana is thrown into the deep end of New Mexican culture.

Later that week, she joins her new friends to make tamales and sees a Native pueblo for the first time, coming face to face with one of the oldest cultures on the continent. She also meets Amy’s mother, who is a trauma nurse and a state senator (New Mexico has a lay legislature). The family makes tamales in an assembly line operation, which Liana does her best to keep up with.

Photo Courtesy of http://www.schoolphotoproject.com

Tamales are a mix of masa dough, which around here is a cornmeal dough, and spiced meat, often pork, chicken, or beef. These ingredients are wrapped in a cornhusk and are most commonly cooked in a stovetop steamer or instant pot. (Amy’s family uses casserole dishes, steamer racks, and a water reservoir to steam them in their traditional horno.) Eating them around Christmas time may be the tradition, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying them any time of year!

The friendships Liana forges over tamale-making are what ultimate save her at the end of book three. I won’t give spoilers, but suffice it to say, her new friends are willing to go to the ends of the Earth and beyond for her.

Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Emily!

You can find Emily here:

EmilyMah.com

Twitter @EmilyMah

Books on Amazon

The Sunrise Prophecy Trilogy

Liana Linacre thought she was in love, but what began as her fantasy romance ended with a curse that threatens her life and everything she loves. Orphaned and alone, she barely escapes the dark forces that want her soul.

Corban Alexander belongs to an ancient order of vampire hunters and wants to kill everyone who is demon-touched. He knows that the creatures who want Liana dead will find her again before long.

Liana must fight if she wants to live, while Corban must decide if he can love a girl who made the one mistake he believes is unforgivable.

No one, mortal or immortal, has ever won against the evil that plagues Liana, but if she and Corban can work together, they might just defy the laws of the universe.

Corban Alexander has a dark side, and ever since a chance encounter with Liana Linacre, a girl he was supposed to protect, it's darker and more addictive than ever. Every minute of every hour of every day he fights to resist succumbing to his worst instincts. If he doesn't, he will fall, and gain the power to scourge and wreak havoc upon humanity, feeding off their pain. It would take a legion of angels to stop him.

So when he learns that Liana needs help once again, he knows he is the last person to provide it. The problem is, no one else is willing.

Corban must return to the side of the girl he loves, and pray that he is strong enough to save both her and himself.

Angels are falling all over the world and earthquakes and tidal waves are demolishing the major cities. Vampires are proliferating in the chaos, and a deadly, demonic plague is spreading like wildfire.

Liana thought her battle to keep from turning into a vampire and stay human was personal, but prophecy says she's the only person alive who can free humanity from demonkind. Others have been called before, but none have succeeded, and she is the last. If she can't win this war, nobody can.

The pressure is on her and her faithful friends: Corban, the ex-angel and possible boyfriend; Amy, the anthropology-student-turned-loremaster; and Gina, the jeweler-turned-supernatural-weaponsmith. The four of them plus an army of soldiers drawn from across all the human realms must journey into the demon realm and close the portal once and for all.

But when the fallen discover their plans, the battles begin, and Liana finds herself alone in a strange realm of immortal demons who live in perpetual night, under a sky studded with stars. While her friends fight to reach her, she must decipher the prophecy and figure out how to free both Earth and herself from dark forces that could rend the very fabric of the universe, and destroy all creation.