Tell us about your latest book.
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The phrase “chanterelles garnished with cream” alludes to haute
cuisine while “mayhem” hints at crime. Food is featured, but food isn’t really
the focus of the story. It’s a device (along with mayhem) to show how the
heroine, a cook at a high-end restaurant, negotiates a world far from the one
she grew up in. A privileged world of pleasure and menace.
Who
are your favourite authors?
Jane Austen,
Anthony Doerr, and Chitra Divakaruni in no particular order. Quality of the
prose is important to me.
What's
your favourite quote about writing/for writers?
The unread story is not a story; it is little black
marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a
story. – Ursula K. Le Guin
This says it all, I think, for any form of art—painting, writing,
sculpture, music, etc. The creator needs others to see (read, hear…) her work
because it’s an expressive, living form whose meanings can change according to
the viewer’s personal history.
What's
the best thing about being a writer?
My earlier jobs involved a great
deal of writing—research proposals, research reports, rehashing of studies both mine and those of others for the consumption of “lay people.” That
profession didn’t have the label “writer” attached to it.
Now that I write fiction, I think I have finally earned that label. Fiction
is different from the kind of writing I used to do which was grounded on facts,
analysis, drawing of conclusions or recommendations and which often followed a
more rigid structure and its own special lingo. Fiction requires much more
imagination, gives you much more leeway. In some ways, it’s scarier because
there are no must-follow rules. But it’s freeing. That’s the best thing about
it for me. When you create a character and a fictional story, you have a lot
more control, as opposed to facts and method having control of you.
In fiction writing, you have to be open to circumstance, to have the
courage or imagination to veer away from your original story because of how
characters or scenes develop. That’s what makes fiction writing occasionally
surprising and exciting. I love that aspect of it, too.
Where
can people find out more about you and your writing?
I have an
author website: https://www.evyjourney.com where I write about
experiences that have inspired my stories. Also some personal thoughts on
writing.
I also have a
book review site where I share my views on books I’ve just read which made a
deep enough impression on me that I had to write about them: https://margaretofthenorth.wordpress.com.
My third blog
is where my thoughts on my other loves—art, travel, and food: https://eveonalimb2.com.
I’ll hedge this question a bit because I firmly believe in the above
quote from Ursula Le Guin. When it comes to expressive forms of communication
like fiction or visual art, individual tastes dictate what you’ll enjoy or find
memorable. For instance, if you like to read about food scenes especially
around San Francisco, you’ll find something to enjoy in the book. Also, as one
Amazon reviewer says, “The story is deep and sheds light on real relationships
and how to distinguish them from the shallow ones.” So, if you like stories
liberally sprinkled with angst, you’ll find something to chew on in this novel.
What are you doing to
market the book?
I’m doing this blog tour. I’ve sought reviews, bought “new book
release” and “book buzz” features on various book sites. I’ll have discounted
book sales. And I have a Facebook group which I hope spreads the word about the
book to their friends. I call it Thoughtful
Romance Readers Love Food. I’d be thrilled for readers to check it out and
join. I’ve also offered the book to book clubs.
How do you research your
books?
Most of us start with searching the internet. I also read books
similar to the one I’m currently writing. Experience plays a part including
being at the setting of a story and observing.
The inspiration for Sugar and
Spice and All Those Lies comes from the food scene east of San Francisco. I
happen to be quite familiar with that scene which includes the Bay Area’s
gourmet ghetto. Descriptions of a few restaurants the characters go to are
based on real eating places in the area. I also read about what it’s like to
cook for high-end restaurants and how people felt when they seemed to be on the
point of dying.
I’ve done interviews with people who’ve lived
in the settings of my stories. I did that, for instance, for Books 2 and 3 of
my trilogy, Between Two Worlds. You can read
about those places but when you talk to people who know them well, descriptions
become personal and more relatable.
What are you currently
reading?
Isabel Allende’s Daughter of
Fortune.
When you’re not writing,
how do you spend your time?
I live a day-to-day life, including all the grubbiness of it. When
I’m at leisure, I do art. Lately, it’s mostly digital art. I’ve been working on
an acrylic portrait I can’t seem to finish. It’s a request from my niece of her
two young daughters.
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Evy Journey
Interview
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Jo Linsdell
Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies
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