Friday, September 18, 2020

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Emily Deibler, Author of Rabbit Heart



“What are you eating?” she asked Linda, her voice sounding strange and painfully new. Linda wore a purple blouse and cream skirt that reached her ankles; the blouse matched her lipstick, perfectly done and shining.

Linda paused and looked down at her food, as if she’d forgotten about it. “An omelet.” She stood and, before Rachel could protest, took the full plate at an empty seat and handed it to Rachel. The fat omelet made Rachel’s belly squirm in a way she wasn’t sure was hunger or nausea, or some gross knot of both.

“Can I eat in . . .” My room. “In the bedroom?”

Without missing a beat, Linda said, “Of course.” And led her there. Rachel should’ve added “alone,” so her meaning was clear.

Sitting on the bed’s edge, Rachel poked the fat omelet. Thankfully, it didn’t bite. “It smells . . .” Weird. “Okay, I guess.”

Linda smiled. “We try to excel at okay.”


In chapter ten of Rabbit Heart, Rachel wakes up in bed. After a traumatic event, she’s been unofficially adopted by two people who live in a cabin in the woods. The good news is that this is the first time in years she has a stable home and people who care about her well-being.

The bad news is that she’s in a Southern Gothic horror novel, and they’re serial killers with questionable tastes in food. Hannibal Lecters without the fava beans and chianti. Sadly, there aren’t as many peach cobblers on the pie rack like my grandmother would make.

That late morning, Linda, acting kind, offers Rachel an omelet to eat. Accepting food from a stranger is an act of trust. Rachel is immediately wary of Linda, and their talk over the meal outlines the main conflict: Rachel’s need for love versus her loyalty to her morals. She’s horrified at what Linda and Marcus have done, but their need to care for her, including making sure she eats, leads her to compromise her moral issues with killing others. While Rachel herself doesn’t hurt anyone on purpose, she ignores any suffering, so she may have a good home.

Often for families, a breakfast offers a moment of bonding and connection, which is what Rachel craves. “You are what you eat” might be taken to a more literal extreme in horror, but food offers us a moment to sit with others or insight into others’ traditions and cultures, which are shared with us.

In the end, Rachel receives inclusion, which impacts her on an emotional level. She accepts what she’s given to eat. The question is whether she continues to accept it as the years go by.


Thanks for stopping by and sharing your food for thought, Emily!



You can find Emily here:

EmilyDeibler.com

Twitter @EmilyDeibler

Facebook Fan Page

Books on Amazon


Friday, September 11, 2020

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Carra Copelin, Author of The Texas Code Series



A Foodie Shares a few Faves

I’m a sixth generation Texan with my roots deeply embedded in the South. My great-great grandparents began arriving from Alabama and Tennessee around 1845 to Dallas and Bosque Counties, in Texas.

I don’t know if planning one’s life around food and meals is strictly a southern thing, but that’s the way it is in our family. In addition to the dinner tables being so laden with food that they needed sideboards, nearly each woman attending contributed her own special dish. For instance, at Christmas on my Mom’s side of the family, my cousin Bena Faith made the best cake donuts and a cake-like cookie made with sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and coconut called Hello Dolly’s. My grandmother, Meme, fixed a pan of meatballs and spaghetti (that none of us can reproduce) and a Red Velvet Cake to die for. The rest of us filled in with salads, etc.

My grandmother, CarCarr, my Dad’s mother fixed the obligatory turkey and a Piggly Wiggly Picnic ham cooked in a brown paper sack. For this dinner, my mother would bring corn cut off the cob and baked with lots and lots of butter. We had peach cobbler, pound cake, and fudge candy, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and green beans.

I decided, with my Historical Romances, that the heroines have at least one dish or item they were expert at preparing. For instance, in my book, Katie and the Irish Texan, Katie’s biscuits would melt in your mouth. She also whipped up a fairly irresistible Irish stew. Her hero Dermot found he couldn’t survive without her cooking or her special charms.



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


You can find Carra here:

CarraCopelin.com

Twitter @CarraCopelin

Facebook Fan Page

Books on Amazon



Thursday, September 3, 2020

FOODFIC: Please Welcome Marianne de Pierres, Author of Burn Bright



The best thing about writing SFF is the fact that you get to make stuff up. I mean, whatever you want, really, as long as it fits the mood, tone and logic. It’s one of things I love most about writing genre. Your imagination is your only limit.

When I was writing Burn Bright [aka The Night Creatures trilogy]and the sequels, I wanted to create a sense that food was really a heightened sensation like everything else on Ixion, and I mixed up inventing foods with the very familiar: like goo-berry pie, black linguine and pink sauce, streaky bacon and red chilli beans, sweet oatmeal and wisp bread, rolled meats and honey-drenched pastries.

‘The [wisp] bread melted on her tongue like buttery air.’

I have no idea what wisp bread or goo-berry pie are, but I’d love to taste them!

In the real world of food, I’m a sucker for crisp streaky bacon, and a knock over for pastries and cakes. My Covid 19 guilty pleasure has been watching all the cake piping channels on Instagram. It’s kind of mesmerising – the things you can do with frosting!

Once, years ago, I made a passionfruit flummery dessert with toffee shards. I have such a strong memory of the dish that the toffee shards turn up in just about everything I have written since.

So, food in fiction was all going deliciously for me and then a few years ago, I developed a gluten intolerance. Now when I write stories, I’m much more mindful of what people can eat. I take care to vary my characters diets. It’s added a new dimension to how I think about food in my stories. I’m writing a dark fantasy fiction novel right now and have introduced “thin-fish” and “ropey” cheese. So far, there is MUCH less wheat bread.

I also really love to explore what the physical terrain of my books can actually produce for its inhabitants. You can’t grow everything, everywhere, and it’s engrossing making the decisions that affect it. What is the soil like? Is there much water? What’s the life cycle of the plant/animal species? How do you preserve food here? The world building that underpins the food consumption can be as fascinating, as having your characters eat it.

There are some great food-a-licious books out there, but a couple of my favourites are  Kerry Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman series – she’s a sleuth and a baker; Livia Day’s Café la Femme novels. Go check the  out 😊 Bon Appetit!


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



You can find Marianne here:

mariannedepierres.com

Twitter @mdepierres

Facebook Fan Page

Books on Amazon