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Who’s Cooking in Your Covid Story Kitchen

Personal Storytelling, ,

Who’s Cooking in Your Covid Story Kitchen? Someone once said that watching me cook in my kitchen was like watching a captain on her ship. Sure of every move I make, piloting with confidence however agitated the sea may be. Don’t you love that feeling?

Or, you might prefer a dance metaphor. Cooking up a story comes with its own choreography. When all is well, we glide from counter to cupboard, sentence to sentence, light on our feet. Each gesture has purpose. Each word has its place. We take charge.

No need for a long mirror to watch ourselves. We know how we look in this familiar place. More important, we know how we feel. At home in our natural habitat. Free to deviate from the recipe, a pinch of plot experiment here, a dollop of quirky dialog there, without counsel or critique from anyone.

Who’s Cooking In Your Usual Story Kitchen? You are. Occasionally you may invite collaborators in, but generally trust your own judgement first. Prefer your own fingerprints on the spice jars of your imagination. You perform with comfort on this stage, and soloing here gives you peace.

I pause now to focus on those sensations in my personal experience. Luxuriating, mid-pirouette, toes grazing tile, fingers flying over keys, commanding whatever my creative corner of the world might be. All are, for the moment at least, part of my past.

My Covid era story kitchen is another place entirely. I no longer flow freely from one inspiration to the next. No longer relax in my familiar creative place. I am no longer a captain on the bridge of my ship. Because I am no longer alone.

My husband is here. He simply showed up one day, buffeted by circumstance onto my private preserve. I might have been less taken aback if he possessed more aptitude or affinity for the practical tasks at hand. But maybe not.

His choreography is clumsy at best. He wants to be here about as enthusiastically as I am eager to admit him. He is out of his element and imperfectly replanted in mine. We attempt a compromise amidst our mutual discomfort. Try our best not to blunder into each other’s path.

All the same, he taxes my parameters. Asks endless questions, makes furtive moves, displays little inclination for blending into his new, accidental environment. He captained his own ship in another place, at another time, but that ship is on covid drydock now.

Our pandemic pas de deux may improve with practice. Lately, we are less at odds, but I doubt he will ever slide smoothly between storage cabinet and stove, or that his bumpy ballet will become a beauty to behold. And this is only in the cooking kitchen.

In other rooms, something more troubling pervades. I have lost my private creative space. Writing has always been a solitary occupation for me. I am challenged to maintain motivation in a shared environment. Are you in a similar circumstance, struggling to contend with the same question? Who’s Cooking in Your Covid Story Kitchen?

Meanwhile, an even deeper discomfort lurks  beneath our displacement dissonance. The absence of supper guests who never arrive. We yearn for company worth unearthing our most lovely table linens to pamper and please, so sadly absent now.

We are in lockdown, staying at home, staying safe, whatever. No feet other than our own tread the deck of whosever ship this may end up to be. Which, we find with regret, is the least tolerable intrusion of all.

Who occupies your Coronial creative place? Who samples the kettle and adjusts the seasonings just so? What characters concoct your story stew and contrive the plots in your pots? Who’s Cooking in Your Covid Story Kitchen?

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

A Wrong Way Home

Aunt Dee cooks to heal the heart in Alice’s novel The Wrong Way Home – the ladle-licking-luscious first book in her Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. Sample this delish dish for free HERE. After that appetizer, dig into the four Riverton Road story courses that follow. Find those, and the rest of Alice’s books, HERE.

What Readers Say: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”  “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

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Write Thru Crisis – Write It Down

Writing Tips, ,

Write Thru Crisis – Write It Down. “Go home, get some rest. Marnin’ the world new, every time.” In White Teeth by  Zadie Smith, gorgeous Jamaican Carla Bowden says these words to down-and-out Londoner Archie Jones.

Wise advice for today’s gone-to-madness world. Go to ground for a while and lick the wounds created by simply looking at, listening to, walking through the madness. Then, drag yourself up to as straight-back a position as you can manage and, if you are an author, Write It Down.

What is my own personal Biggest Mistake as a writer? Sometimes I don’t write things down. Crucial things that are the stuff of strong storytelling, because they have lots of Emotional Content. Which means they make me cringe and want to look away or, better yet, to run away. To do anything other than drag out my faithful notebook and record the psychic carnage.

We’ve got psychic carnage galore right now, right here in River City or anywhere. So, grab that notebook. Retrieve a stick of charcoal from the charred remains of what you once believed to be a sensible existence, and start scribbling. Fast as you can come up with words to describe the devastation. Because  this  reality is storytelling paydirt.

Too bad we are also in Biggest Mistake territory. I know this has happened to you, because it happens to all of us. The chaos of life presents you with a knock-your-socks-off story idea, so good you are blown away. So good you can hardly believe this super great fortune has been given to you out of the super obliterated landscape that surrounds you.

I call it the Idea from Heaven, or maybe, in these circumstances, from the other place. What has been given is a glimpse of narrative that, though it may be ugly to others, has for you, the storyteller, elegant symmetry. It is exactly the Inspiration you’ve been yearning for. Nothing short of paradise, or the other place, could deliver such a priceless gem.

You are struck profoundly. You are certain this moment will remain with you forever. It has been imprinted indelibly upon your soul. All the same, your writer’s practicality knows you should write it down immediately. But for some reason, often fairly trivial, you do not. For some reason, notetaking isn’t convenient for you at this particular time.

You don’t intend to put it off for long. You only intend to get done with whatever you’re into right now. Besides, this is the Idea from Heaven, or… A bolt of bestseller storytelling lightning has zigzagged across the deepest blue beauty of your writerly dreams sky. You absolutely will not forget a single detail. Except. You do.

You look for your priceless gem, maybe only minutes later, but it is gone, gone, gone. You search and search. You employ every memory-jog trick and technique you’ve ever heard of, but all you can recall is the feeling. All that remains is a whiff of the euphoria that blew in on this once-in-forever brainstorm. Everything else has evaporated.

You absolutely cannot believe what has happened, but… The story kernel that was destined to catapult you to the stars has flitted off, possibly to some other authorial imagination like a fickle tease, and your own authorial instincts tell you it will never return.

Brain science may have a theory or twelve about this phenomenon. Or maybe the universe if just screwing with you. Whatever the explanation, the upshot is always the same. You plunge into mourning. The Kubler-Ross five stages of adjusting to great loss lie ahead, and it is all your fault. Because all you had to do was write the damned words down, but you did not.

Meanwhile, back to our present definitely not- easy existence. Brainstorms are crashing and booming all around you. Pull your head out from under your comforting soft-stuff-filled comforter, mine is blue by the way. Gaze around you, take it all in, every earth and heaven rattling detail. Then. Write It Down. Write It Down. WRITE IT ALL DOWN!!!

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.  Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

A Time of Fear & Loving

A Thankless Season – Riverton Road Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 6 – the series finale, is in progress. Stay tuned for further alerts. And, Write Them Down!

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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Gratitude Attitude Writers Style

Writers Life, ,

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. “At this time of the rolling year,” as our great storytelling mentor Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol, gratitude feels obligatory, or maybe just appropriate, if you are more comfortable with that.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. Which got me thinking about what we, as writers specifically, might list in our thankfulness inventory. So, I posted an internet query under the heading “Writing Life Gratitude.” The responses have made me very grateful indeed.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. Most prominently, we are grateful for one another. “Critique partners who give me their honest opinions and encouragement when I make mistakes,” says Kayelle Allen. Ruth Casie adds, “Writing partners who enrich my life with their friendship, caring and great brainstorming ideas.”

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. Each of us can reflect on a history of helpers: other writers who may themselves suffer through dark passages of career disaster, crippling self-doubt, or personal life turmoil. Nonetheless, they reach out to urge us back toward the light. Roni Denholtz, Marcia James, D.V. Stone and Jennifer Wilck echo the rest of us in saying, “Thank you all so much for that.”

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. Joan Ramirez is grateful for “a loving husband who shares my enthusiasm for my novel writing career” and is her best friend as well. Several others, including myself, mention family, including grandchildren. Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but we are definitely not alone.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. And who isn’t thankful for readers? “All the readers who’ve stuck with me for so many years and keep buying my new books,” says Meredith Bond, while Marcia James reminds us to thank the Beta readers who help us hone our work, and I feel personally in debt to readers who make the effort to review what we write.Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. I was moved by those of us – Connie Bretes, Paul Lima, Nancy Morse – who shared their struggles through serious health problems, and somehow found the will and stamina to keep on working, or to get back to the writing desk eventually.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. Jean Brashear, Marie Force, Joan Peck and Livia Quinn spoke of the 60 Minutes story of Tim Green’s battle with ALS. “How dare I ever falter for a second,” Jean says, in the face of such inspiring courage.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. My own heart was hard-struck by the inspiration of one of our own, Susan Meier. “This year, every inch of my life, including my career, was tested when my son died in January,” Susan says, and thanks RWA and her sister chapters for their support. At the time of her loss, she had a manuscript due, and her publishers and editors helped her through when she insisted she must work on toward deadline. We are also with you, Susan.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. The greatest number of responses to my Writing Life Gratitude question were about being thankful for the opportunity to write in the first place. “To fill my hours with writing, and for the wonderful characters that keep me company,” says Carol Roddy aka Caroline Warfield. “To start with an idea and end with a published book,” says Joan Peck. Dee Knight speaks of her latest book, which “languished unfinished for years,” and now is completed at last.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. The ultimate joy of writing is summed up beautifully by Elizabeth Tarry-Crowe. “I’m grateful that, after years of writing, I still strive to get better, shoot higher, try harder,” and Lisabet Sarai agrees. Whatever life and career setbacks confront us, we do what we can and must to heal, then we forge forward again.

Gratitude Attitude Writer’s Style. Finally, as in the beginning, we are together. “I’m grateful for my writing friends….” Alice Valdal says. “The writing world is so different from the one I first joined, but writers willing to share and laugh and cry and encourage and keep trying are still there. For that I am grateful.” Me too! Happy holidays.Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

– R|R –

Readers recommend Alice’s latest novel. A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE.

A Time of Fear & LovingPraise for A Time of Fear & Loving. “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”

A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 1 – is a FREE Kindle eBook HERE. “Danger & romance explode in a red-hot read.” Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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