The Perils of Being a Pantser

When I wrote my first mystery, A Matter of Taste, I had pretty much everything outlined. Even if I didn’t have certain plot points actually written down on paper, I at least had most of the story in my head before putting fingers to keyboard. Being new to the genre, I figured it would be best to have all my clues, suspects and red herrings organized and mapped out in advance.

 red, but not a herring

In writing circles, this is called being a “plotter.” The other alternative is a “pantser”—as in seat-of-the-pants—where you just sit down and write without much of an outline.

A New Year, A New Town

Robin and I have been back in our second home, Hilo, Hawai‘i, for three weeks now. We’d been gone since last January, so—given how things grow in this tropical clime—you can imagine the amount of whacking back and weeding we’ve been up to since our arrival.

 the bougainvillea when got back

If you know one thing about Hilo, it’s probably that it rains a lot here. And I mean a lot—some 278 days a year. Since the weather is generally warm and pleasant even when it’s raining, however, it’s best to have a lanai—a covered porch—to hang out in.

So Long To Sprouts

Robin and I have just arrived in Hilo, Hawai‘i, where we’ll be for the next six months. The Hawaiian Islands are home to a host of wondrous fruits and vegetables, but the winter veggies we get on the West Coast—broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and th like—are all imported from the Mainland and quite expensive here.

In anticipation of this forced change in eating habits, I prepared a dinner last week before we left, with roasted Brussels sprouts as the main star. Our friend Brian had kindly shared with us some eggs from his hens Brittany and Aretha—whose yolks are a deep orange-yellow and have a rich flavor to match—so I decided to top the sprouts with a couple of his eggs, in the style of a salade Lyonnaise.

Moreover, I also had on hand some prosciutto made by my friend Bob’s son from his own hogs, which could play the part of the traditional bacon in the salad.

a sow at TLC Ranch eyes two hens

who are not Brittany and Aretha

Guinness, James Joyce, Murder and Suicide

Yes, there is a connection between the items listed in the title to this post. Of course, being a member of a Finnegans Wake reading group, I can assure you that when dealing with James Joyce, everything is always connected with everything else, on levels within levels within levels.

While visiting my folks in Santa Monica a few weeks back, my mom gave me a few of her mystery novels. Among them was The James Joyce Murder, by Amanda Cross. I’d read Cross’ Death in a Tenured Position years ago, but had forgotten than she’d penned a book about Joyce. How fun! Eagerly, I started the novel that first night of my visit.

a photo of my copy of the book

Half way through, I was wondering where the heck the murder was. These days—or so we aspiring mystery writers are told in no uncertain terms by those who deem themselves qualified to give advice to aspiring mystery writers—the murder must occur within the first chapter. And within the first few pages is even better.

Mother Tongue

I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue, which chronicles the evolution of English over 1,500 years—from primitive, runic Anglo-Saxon to the global language it has now become. Bryson is always funny and amusing, and this book is chock-full of entertaining factoids. I’m only about one third of the way through it, but I thought I’d share a few choice tidbits with you:

The larynx of Homo sapiens sapiens (aka Cro-Magnon man) was positioned farther down the throat than in any previous hominid, which made well-articulated speech possible for the first time. This physiological change, however—which meant that food and drink must pass over the larynx on the way down the throat—also resulted in us being the only mammal capable of choking. (Curiously, modern humans are not born with the larynx in this lowered position; rather, it descends between the age of 3 and 5 months.)

It is thought by linguists that the Basque language (Euskara) may be the last surviving remnant of the Neolithic languages spoken in Stone Age Europe, which were later displaced by Indo-European tongues.

 cyclist from the Basque team Euskaltel

English underwent countless changes between the time of Chaucer and the present day, many of which I find particularly intriguing. For instance, certain words beginning with the letter n eventually lost their first letter to the preceding indefinite article: e.g., a napron became an apron; a nauger became an auger; and an ekename became a nickname. Similarly, it is thought that Ned came from “mine Edward,” and Nan from “mine Ann.”

Aurora’s Gnocchi

The protagonist of my mystery A Matter of Taste belongs to an Italian-American family in the fishing and restaurant business. The story thus, not surprisingly, centers quite a bit around* food. Since I’m not Italian, and my cooking expertise leans more to the French side of the spectrum, I’ve deemed it prudent to conduct research prior to writing some of the food scenes in the book (e.g., when Nonna prepares “Sunday gravy”). And as the sequels involve the same family—and therefore more Italian food—I consider this research to be ongoing.

So when my friend Robert asked if I wanted to come to his house for a gnocchi-making demo by 90-year old Aurora Leveroni, I readily responded “si, certo!”

yours truly with Aurora and the finished product
(photo: Robert Orrizzi)

The word “gnoccho” (the singular form) most likely derives from either “nocchio” (a knot of wood) or “nocca” (knuckle). These small dumplings have been eaten on the Italian peninsula since at least the days of the Roman Empire, when they were made of semolina and eggs. [See here .] After the potato was brought to Europe from the New World, the Italians incorporated it into their dumplings, creating what we now think of as the traditional potato gnocchi.

Lyon: the Gastronomical Center of the Universe

Lyon is nicknamed the “crossroads of Europe,” and—situated as it is at the foot of the Alps, the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers, and the meeting of the Burgundy and Rhône wine regions—the moniker is well-deserved.

afternoon sun along the west bank of the Saône

Originally settled by the Celts, Lyon became a major Roman town, and then managed to survive the collapse of Rome by virtue of its importance as a religious center. It continued to prosper during the Middle Ages, largely because of its location: Anyone traveling between Italy and Paris had to pass through the city.