Table of Contents: From Breakfast With Anita Diamant to Dessert With James Patterson - a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings and Insights From Today's Bestselling Authors (30 page)

Louie Escobar

SELECTED WOEKS

Wench
(2010)

Inspiration
I am inspired to write stories that need to be told. There are so many out there, and if we don't write and record these stories then the memories will die. I often think of my grandmother's extraordinary life and wish that she had written a journal that I could have and keep. When I began to write, it was so that the generations after me would have a record.

Readers Should Know
My writing comes from my heart. Many people have called my book,
Wench
, “heartfelt.” I take this as the highest compliment. My hope is that I can develop my writing craft enough to clearly tell the stories that haunt my conscience.

Readers Frequently Ask
The question I receive most often about Wench is:“Do Lizzie and Drayle really love each other?” This is a question I asked myself as I began the book. Yet I found that, after finishing the book, I still was never able to answer it for myself. Their relationship is complicated. I leave it to the reader to decide.

Influences on My Writing
I am influenced by Toni Morrison's bravery, unflinching eye, and incredibly high level of writing craft. I am influenced by Gabriel García Márquez's ability to take on the very biggest themes of human existence. I am influenced by Gayl Jones's beautifully seamless integration of African American idiom and romantic, lyrical prose.

Makes 8–12 servings

In Part I of my historical novel
Wench
, my protagonist Lizzie meets another slave, Mawu, who makes a stew that, she says, can “soften the white man.” Mawu practices hoodoo, an African American folk tradition that uses spells and potions for various magical practices. After the book came out, many readers wrote to me asking what was in Mawu's magical stew. I did not have a recipe in mind at the time that I wrote the book, so I called upon my uncle, Sylvester Thornton, who is the most accomplished cook in my family. The fact that we all respect Uncle Sylvester is a great testament to his skill as I come from a large southern family of men and women in Memphis, Tennessee, who all cook very well. Yet Uncle Sylvester is a true master when he is in the kitchen.

Many cooks in the southern African American tradition learn to cook from their elders. My uncle learned from his mother, Millerine Thornton, and he taught me and my cousins. My mother also gave me many lessons in the kitchen when I was growing up. I was taught to read a recipe, but they encouraged me to bring my own creativity to it. I have always been inspired by the creativity of slave cooks who fashioned an entire cuisine out of meager ingredients. As the old folks would say, they “turned guts into chit'lins.”

I hope you enjoy my Uncle Sylvester Thornton's gumbo. My hope is that it will “soften” everyone who eats it.

1
Place duck in a large stockpot with enough water to cover and boil until tender (about an hour). Add a little of the diced onion to the water.

2
While duck is boiling, prepare the gumbo: In a large (minimum 3-quart) saucepan or stockpot, heat ¼ cup olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

3
In the same pan, make a light roux: Pour ½ cup olive oil into pan, add flour and stir constantly over medium heat until golden brown. Add salt and pepper. Gradually stir in chicken broth. Boil until slightly thickened. Roux should have the consistency of a tomato sauce.

4
Add okra, tomatoes, and bay leaf to thickened roux. Simmer on medium heat 25–30 minutes. Add sautéed bell pepper, onion, celery, and garlic.

5
When duck is tender, drain the broth, saving just a bit. Discard onion. Cool duck, and pull apart or cut it into medium pieces before adding to gumbo with reserved broth, thyme, and additional salt and pepper to taste. Cook gumbo uncovered about 30–45 minutes on medium heat. Remove bay leaf before serving.

6
Serve over rice. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Roxana Perdue

SELECTED WOEKS

The Leftovers
(2011)

The Abstinence Teacher
(2007)

Little Children
(2004)

Joe College
(2000)

Election
(1998)

The Wishbone
(1997)

Inspiration
I tend to draw my inspiration from the most mundane sorts of domestic experience.
Little Children
, for example, emerged from the experiences I had as a part-time stay-at-home dad when my kids were little (not that my adventures were quite as exciting as those of my characters). In
The Abstinence Teacher
, a major subplot revolves around youth soccer, which I've spent countless hours watching over the past few years.

From the Page to the Screen
Two of my books,
Little Children
and
Election
have been made into excellent movies, and a third,
The Abstinence Teacher
, has been adapted for the screen. I'm a big movie fan, and love the fact that my novels have had such an interesting second life on the big screen.

Writing from the Female Perspective
Most book club members are women, and they often seem curious about how a male writer goes about creating female characters like Sarah in
Little Children
and Ruth in
The Abstinence Teacher
. For some reason this seems unusual to a lot of readers, though there's a long history of writers imagining characters across gender lines — think of Tolstoy and
Anna Karenina
, Flaubert and
Madame Bovary
, or Annie Proulx writing
Brokeback Mountain
. My answer is that I just keep my eyes and ears open.

Influences on My Writing

This Boy's Life
by Tobias Wolff. A number of my books are about teenagers, and Wolff's memoir of his childhood and adolescence has a been of source of inspiration for me. It's a masterpiece, funny and sad and beautifully told.

The Rabbit novels by John Updike. Updike's four novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom form an American epic that chronicles the private life of its flawed everyman hero, while also exploring many of the major historical transformations that took place in America in the second half of the twentieth century.

The stories of Flannery O'Connor. O'Connor stories are like no one else's: funny and bizarre and fearless, soaked in
violence
and religion. I read them as a teenager and haven't gotten them out of my head since.

Like Todd (a.k.a. “The Prom King”), the stay-at-home dad in
Little Children
, I've been known to cook the occasional family dinner. It's a little complicated in our house, though; my son, Luke, and I are carnivores, while my wife, Mary, and daughter, Nina, are vegetarians. Some nights the two parties go in separate directions (chicken for us, risotto for them), and some nights we cooperate (real burgers and veggie burgers). Fortunately, there are a few things everyone can agree on. Here are two of our favorites:

Makes 4 servings

1
Purée basil, garlic, walnuts, olive oil, and cheese in a food processor or blender until smooth.

2
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions, until al dente. Drain pasta, place in a large serving bowl, and toss pasta with pesto. You know the rest.

Makes approximately 10 servings

I'm not sure where this recipe comes from. It's just one version of a common soup; the chicken stock keeps it from being purely vegetarian, but vegetable stock can be used instead.