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Dear Reader,
Through wind, sleet, snow, rain, labor pains, or the flu, a writer never misses her deadline.
Send an email and welcome today's guest columnist, author Jen Lin-Liu. She has five Advanced Reading Copies of her brand new book On the Noodle Road to giveaway to readers. Email a hello and enter to win a copy of her book: jenlinliu@blacksesamekitchen.com
Welcome author Jen Lim-Liu...
My upcoming book is about a six-month overland journey from Beijing to Rome that I took to research the connection between Chinese noodles and Italian pasta. With my husband along with me for much of the journey, the trip definitely was a test of our relationship. I believe we passed, plus we returned from the journey to a surprise: sometime in the last days of the journey, I'd gotten pregnant.
The pregnancy came not a moment too soon. Had I conceived any earlier, I would have been dealing with morning sickness--all while having to sample irresistible and off-limits foods like unpasteurized cheeses and raw sea urchins in Italy. But I did have to deal with being pregnant while writing the book, which came with quite a few challenges. For the first trimester, the mere thought of many foods made my stomach turn--a rather unfortunate feeling, given I was trying to write about the pleasure of eating my way from China to Italy. Things brightened in the second trimester, when I started feeling like a normal human again. I could write for hours and almost forget I was pregnant. But then third trimester crept up on me, and I could not shrug off the almost constant bouts of sleepiness. I resorted to taking naps at least a couple of times a day, in between languidly stringing together sentences at my computer.
I emailed my editor a rough manuscript of On the Noodle Road from my hospital bed about an hour after my water broke and before the labor pains began in earnest. And for the first few days, weeks, and months after my daughter's birth, I forgot about my book completely. Part of it was my sheer bedazzlement with my baby girl, but it was also the pure exhaustion that comes with tending a newborn.
I turned back to writing several months after my daughter's birth and wondered if I could do it. Surprisingly, I found that writing after becoming a mother was easy. I don't have to deal with the discomfort of being pregnant. I wrote more quickly, realizing that I need to be efficient during my hours away from my daughter--particularly because I pay a nanny by the hour. And I love that every so often, especially in my moments when I am struggling with a word or a sentence, my now one-and-a-half-year-old ambles into the room, smiles, and exuberantly dashes toward me with one of her favorite toys.
My daughter has been a constant companion through my writing process, and for that, I am incredibly grateful.
My publisher is offering five advance review copies of On the Noodle Road--To enter to win, please email me at jenlinliu@blacksesamekitchen.com and tell me about an unexpected event in your life that continues to inspire you.
--Jen Lin-Liu
A little bit more about the author: Born in Chicago and raised in Southern California, Jen Lin-Liu attended Columbia University and went to China as a Fulbright fellow. The founder of Black Sesame Kitchen, a Beijing cooking school, she is the author Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China She has written about food, culture, and travel for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Newsweek, Travel + Leisure, and other publications. She lives in Chengdu, China.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@EmailBookClub.com
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