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Dear Reader,
I'm on vacation and while I'm gone I'll be featuring the winners of this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest and author friends of mine have graciously volunteered to write Guest Columns.
Today's column is written by author Marshall J. Cook. Please welcome Marshall; send an email and he will reply. And be sure to enter the drawing at the end of today's column.
Thanks 'Marsh' for filling in for me.--Suzanne Beecher
Take it away, Marshall...
"Why I Didn't Enter Suzanne's Recipe Contest"
When I cook, nobody ever says, "You simply must give me the recipe!" Truth is, I don't have one. (If you ate my food, you'd know that.) Mostly, I only cook for my wife and myself, anyway (with a little spillage for the ever-vigilant dogs), and she knows my 'recipe' all too well.
Everything I cook that doesn't start with 'first remove from plastic container' begins with Pam, a skillet, and a red onion. After I get the onion chopped up and frying (if I had a recipe, would I be 'sauteing'?), I add some sort of ground-up animal (turkey, mostly) and then some manner of vegetation, often peppers, tomatoes, and--if I'm being especially solicitous of my aforementioned, long-suffering wife--mushrooms.
If it's going to be chili, I put in beans. If not, I don't.
Then comes the seasoning, generally essence of Lawry's or Newman's Own. (His green salsa covers a multitude of sins.)
When it's getting close to done (I like some crust on my round animal), it's time to grate some cheese on the whole deal.
Then I wrap it (tortilla), stuff it (taco), or let it sit on a plate with Fritos*. (*Note to editor: I realize I've been dropping brand names like a regular Stephen King. Please do not, under any circumstances, put that stupid little TM thingee in the circle after them. It looks stupid.)
By now you've figured out why folks don't ask for the recipe. Maybe the nicest thing you can say for my cooking is that it's 'transparent.' 'Guileless' is a nice word, too.
Ironically (and a good recipe should always contain irony), students often ask me for a recipe for writing. I don't have one of those, either, and I try to discourage them from trying to find one. Annie Lamott says to write one word, or one bird, at a time, Richard Lederer says simple words are best, and Mark Twain says if you can catch an adjective, kill it. That's really all you need to get started.
When I write I start, not with a red onion, but with an image, often a place into which I put a couple of the poor souls I'm currently torturing and let them react to it and each other. No Lawry's or Newman's; I try to let the nouns and verbs do the heavy work.
As close as I come to a recipe I can sum up in three lines, seven words:
1) Pay attention
2) Try stuff
3) Hold nothing back
Now pass the cheese grater. The animal's getting nice and crusty.
Marshall J. Cook
Email him at mcook@dcs.wisc.edu
Marshall J. Cook's most recent novel is Walking Wounded, a wartime romance set in Madison, WI in 1944. He taught writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Continuing Studies for 31 years. He publishes a free monthly online newsletter for writers called Extra Innings. Email him at mcook@dcs.wisc.edu. Ask for the newsletter if you'd like, but do not ask for the recipe.
Send an email to Marshall, say hello, and be sure to include your mailing address. He's giving away copies of his book, Walking Wounded: A Wartime Love Story and Obsessions, the fourth in his Monona Quinn mystery series, and Off Season: A Novel of Love, Faith, and Minor League Baseball. ('Folks can indicate which book, in case they're name is chosen.')
AUTHORBUZZ: Books and books and complete sets of books to give away. Email an author, sign up for their giveaway and simply cc me (Suzanne@DearReader.com) and you're automatically entered in a drawing for a $25 bookstore gift certificate.
Debbie Macomber/1022EVERGREEN PLACE, Louisa Edwards/JUST ONE TASTE, Sheldon Russell/THE INSANE TRAIN: A HOOK RUNYON MYSTERY, Jan Watson/STILL HOUSE POND and Francine Rivers/HER DAUGHTER'S DREAM (MARTA'S LEGACY). Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
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