Cravings

Biscuits and scramble, at Barista Proper, Nashville

Once back from Nashville all I could think about was the biscuits. Biscuits! Biscuits!
The New Times says the Loveless Cafe has the best biscuits, I must agree, slathered in homemade strawberry jam they were divine, but the flaky ones above were my personal favorite.
Breeding will out, what can I say? I was raised on Sundays of a gloppy batter of Bisquick dropped pell mell onto a baking tray. Once out of the oven, crisp on the outside and flaky on the inside my sister and I could never get enough.

Shirley Corriher once got a standing ovation in Italy for her biscuits, and her recipe is legendary.

I've tweaked it just a wee bit, for two people with my tastebuds.

Preheat oven to 425; butter a small baking dish or pie pan.
On a dish place spread half a cup of flour.

Into one cup self-rising flour add:
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbls sugar

Mix in 2 tbls shortening with your fingers.

Add:
1/3 cup 1/2 and 1/2
1/2 cup buttermilk.

It will be gloppy!

Scoop, with an ice creamer scooper or tablespoon, dough onto the plate of flour.
Cover with flour, dust off, place in center of baking or  pie pan. Continue with the rest of the batter, surrounding the first biscuit with the others, touching. Brush with a tbls of melted butter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until their color suits you.

 I freeze any leftovers and crisp them up in a 325 degree oven until heated through. Enjoy!

The Writing Process Tour

 

Thank you, Jessica Ceballos, for passing the baton in my direction!
I've been so impressed by Jessica's artistic dedication, from her Bluebird Reading Series at Avenue 50 Studio to her impressive organizational abilities and vision involved in the care and feeding of that tremendous project, #90for90 Literary Events in downtown Los Angeles. 

What are you working on?
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
Why do you write what you do?
How does your writing process work?

Right now my writing life is a giddy jumble.  I am working as hard as I can to a) promote my recently published novel, b) begin the academic year at Oxy c)  write new words!
Writing new words right now is looking more like revising the words I already have. I've been working on another Inez Leon (my Latina PI with a tortilla chip on her shoulder) for too long, now.  I really should simply nail my feet to the floor, unable to leave my writing area until I can at last type "The End."

The recently published novel is family drama, and the work-in-progress is a mystery.  I feel my cast of characters reflects the diversity of the world I live in, and that alone is enough to differentiate my work from 90% of all forms of media right there.  Most importantly, to me, my writing includes nuanced portrayals of complex Latina/os. 

I write in order to shred the cloak of invisibility that has been thrust upon me and others like me.

Process?
I really search for an emotional landscape that engages me.  I mentally feel out its shape and contours, because I need a road map, I need to know where I am going.  My issues of control and organization are good, up to a point.  I've taken Rebecca Solnit's words to heart: "Be open to mysteries, the nature of which are unknown to you."  I'm working on doing that with my writing, as well as my life.  With some of the contours in mind, (oops, and a tentative outline) I'm off to Anne Lamott's "shitty first draft."  Words on the page, words on the page are all so much better than a wasteland of emptiness.  The writing itself helps sort out ideas, directions, impromptu scenes.

And now, I pass the quill/fountain pen/touch screen to three writers I enjoy and respect: Melanie Page who already knows a thing or two about blog tours, the impressive poet/writer/badass Rachel McKibbens
and that goddess of all things eclectic, Margaret Finnegan.
Hope to see your posts in a week!

Join My Virtual Book Tour

Discover the week's schedule here

The road to writing is a circuitous one, and I chat about it here.
Have you ever annotated your own writing? I enjoyed it--see it here.
Come visit me today, over at [Pank] although I must confess, I'm not sure if I'm cool
enough for that uber cool publication!

Restless Nest Syndrome

The day after we shipped my son off to parts known to him but not me, Chris Erskine published a mournful piece in the LA Times about his empty nest syndrome.

The night my son left I:
Read in a bar full of fans and strangers
Drank in the giddy energy of Union Station
Ate out, with my husband at a delicious spot in Chinatown.

Color me a bad mom.
What my husband and I will certainly miss is our son's ability to translate his mother for his dad's benefit, and his dad for his mother's enlightenment.

But both of us are giddy and full of joy for his upcoming adventures.

Now is the Time to Honor Summer Flings

Originally printed in RLife