"Nothing is wasted on the writer." : CALENDAR

Books by the bed

Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl: A Novel
Can't-put-it-down double-crossing thriller --- read it in case you need reminding that getting involved with a narcissistic sociopath is always unwise. There's a twist in the middle that'll give you whiplash, vertigo, or both. Ending didn't work for me, however... kind of a whimper, not a bang. Almost like the author ran out of steam. (***)
Kathleen Grissom: The Kitchen House: A Novel
(**)
David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel
(****)
Eleanor Brown: Read Pink The Weird Sisters
(***)
Anne Kreamer: Going Gray: What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters
I put an offhand musing up on Facebook about whether or not to let my hair go gray. Such an ASTONISHING outpouring of responses. Though I went back to red, BTW, after a summer of 59 shades of gray... 59 being my age... when I saw this book in the library I knew I had to read it. ... It's a quick, fascinating (if lightweight) read on many aspects of this topic, and how visual aging has gradually become pathologized. Highly recommended. (***)
Neal Pollack: Jewball
I don't read sports novels, but this is exceptional. I just love the characters --- reprobate, nominally criminal Jewish basketball stars on a sharp urban Philly league. Playing under impossible conditions as the Nazis ascend to power in Germany, and the Bund (SS sympathizers in US) try to bring them down in America. Feisty, funny, gum-cracking and delightful. (***)

Books I'm listening to in the car

Sena Jeter Naslund: Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette (P.S.)
I don't like historical fiction. I have very little interest in the French monarchy. But Sena Jeter Nashland, whose first novel could not've been more different, is a brilliant writer, and has me utterly pulled into this world, time, and place, and given me sympathy towards a person to whom I had none. A novel like this reminds me of why I fall in love with fiction, over and over again. Transporting, tragic, and deeply fascinating. (****)
Markus Zusak: I Am the Messenger
(***)
L.A. Meyer: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy (Bloody Jack Adventures)
(***)
Robert Mnookin: Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight
(*****)
Curtis Sittenfeld: American Wife: A Novel
Alice Lindgren Blackwell's normal-enough middle-class Wisconsin life goes through the windshield twice, once quickly and literally (a car wreck when she is in her early teens, in which she kills the young man who just may have been the love of her life) and once very slowly, and for a long, long time (when she marries Charlie, a super-wealthy, basically incompetent charmer with fierce political ambitions, who ends up --- somewhat to everyone's surprise --- in the White House). An imagining of a life loosely based on Laura Bush's, Sittenfield's writing is unshow-offy, as unobtrusive and accommodating as her careful protagonist, who tries to walk the impossible line of being "good wife" to a public figure with whose actions, public and private, she does not always agree, and cleaving to her own conscience, which may have gotten lost somewhere along the way. The book is inhabited by carefully drawn, detailed, dimensional characters: Alice's off-again-on-again best friend, her wise, quietly lesbian grandmother, the members of the dynasty into which she has married. An endless war, a weak wealthy husband saved from being a total wash-up by the embrace of a Christianity Alice herself does not understand, a bereaved parent whose son has died in the war, who attempts to meet the president ... all these echo the tragedy of the Bush years from an imagined perspective. Yet finally the novel rings true not because of this echo, but because Sittenfeld has created characters and a plot as complex, flawed, and mysterious as life itself. (****)
Nora Ephron: I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections (Vintage)
The wry, funny Nora Ephron, in her own words. She forgot more than many of us knew. Highly entertaining, and makes me grieve her recent death even more. (***)

Books in my (culinary) office

Mary Donovan: The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook: A Collection of Favourite Receipts from Thirteen Exemplary Eighteenth-Century Cooks With Proper Menus for Simple Fare
Early American recipes and lots of good quotes from period source material, this is just the kind of thing that fascinates me. (***)
Kevin Young: The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink
(***)
Michael Natkin: Herbivoracious: A Flavor Revolution with 150 Vibrant and Original Vegetarian Recipes
(****)
Ben Hewitt: The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
Hewitt raises more questions and hypotheses than he answer... one has the sense that he was grappling with issues that were too large for him, and the subject of the book, the food-centric (sort of) hardscrabble town of Hardwick, Vermont. I got frustrated with his asides and a certain precious town that occasionally crept in, but I couldn't help but find it enthralling. He tries to make peace with the fact that environmentally sound, home gardening, and incremental agricultural semi-self-sufficiency may be elitist and nay not be economically sustainable. But that our present-day food system is also frighteningly fragile and unhealthful in any way, and simply would work unsubsidized: 1 single fast-food mega-ag calorie on the plate takes an average of ***95*** calories of fossil fuel to get from seed to plate. A gardener himself, Ben Hewitt writes: "The scale on which my family and I grow food is arguably inefficient, in terms of economics, efficiency, and land use. We don't utilize chemical fertilizers, synthetic weed and pest control, or genetically modified seed; these things could probably boost production in the short run, but then, we don't farm for the short run. "I can buy a fine potato from any number of local farmers, but (not) the May afternoon I spent w/ Penny in the garden, sticking our hands deep into the cool soil. I can buy a head of lettuce, but (not) the pleasure & pride of my boys returning from the garden w/ a basket of greens & saying 'We picked it ourselves, Papa.' " And, in this Monsanto-fast food-fake-food world... being willing and able to feed yourself, even partially is a true "Occupy" act. Hewitt quotes a farmer named Eliot Coleman: "Small farmers are the last bastion protecting society from corporate industry. When we feed ourselves, we become unconquerable." I wish this book had been better edited: someone needed to keep Hewitt more on track and focused, with fewer asides. He needed to be less anecdotal and more fact-based, or more anecdotal and... Well. Still very much worth a read. (***)
Ayun Halliday: Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste
A feisty memoiristic series of vignettes, from growing up in Indiana and aspiring to Betty Crocker Enchanted Castle cakes with a mom who aspired to Julia Child and a fried-chicken-and-mashed-potato cooking grandmother to the author's own "postcoital breakfasts", labor, deliveries, and childrearing (one picky eater, one not). Categorized on the jacket as "FOOD / HUMOR" it is both, sort of. A recipe, written slap-dash but followable, and certainly with personal, um, zest, follows each chapter. It kept me somewhat amused; it kept me reading; and it did warn "questionable taste." The latter was over-the-top for me; a combination of TMI, reliance on gross-out, and a few too many gratuitous 'fucks' crossed the just-have-to-drop-the-#-of-stars line. Ayun's a good writer; a little less smart-assiness and a little more depth to the revelations, and I could be done for the cause with her. (**)

Books in my (writing/creativity/teaching) office

Carolyn G. Heilbrun: The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty
The perplexing, brilliant and thoughtful Carolyn Heilbrun, a feminist and academic (who also wrote mysteries under the name of Amanda Cross) on various aspects of aging, as well as the people --- some well-known, like writer May Sarton, some not, like her husband --- who have crossed her life. She is smart, stubborn, and interesting. The last chapter, "On Mortality", is particularly good. It's not a how-to, a self-help book, oir an inspirational read; rather, it is a thoughtful and personal exploration about the span and depth of one individual, intellectual life. (***)
Thomas M. Sterner: The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life - Master Any Skill or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process
Over simplified, under-edited, states the obvious. I SO wanted to like this one (being as 'practice' fascinates me deeply), but was very 'enh' about it. (**)
Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Fascinating word from the brain neurophysiology/ psychology front on why we do and don't do what we should and shouldn't. Clunkily written, science-based, lots of case histories... well worth the read. (***)
Laraine Herring: The Writing Warrior: Discovering the Courage to Free Your True Voice
If you take an holistic approach to creativity (I do) you'll find much to like in Herring's suggested writing practice, and the thoughtful, story-rich anecdotes about the ever-cycling nature of writing. Herring's been compared to Julia Cameron (The Arist's Way) and there are some similarities. But where Julia Cameron comes out of a 12-step program and brings that perspective, Herring is a yoga teacher, so her mind-body-spirit lens, and the language with which she describes it, differs. There's a little more emphasis on the importance of craft in addition to process, and she comes across with more humility than Cameron, at least, to me. Good addition to a writer's library, and interesting suggestions for setting up a beginner's practice... no matter how experienced you are. (***)
Jane Maas: Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the '60s and Beyond
(****)
Patricia Ryan Madson: Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up
Jonathan Fields: Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance
Michael Port: Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
Leonard S. Marcus: Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom
Douglas Stone: Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

JANUARY, 2012

Saturday, January 14: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

SECOND WEEK OF JANUARY:
Publication of Bean by Bean, Crescent's first
new cookbook in three years.
         "I dare you to browse through Bean by Bean
and not feel the urge to run to the kitchen and make a delicious pot of beans. With just a bean pot, a wooden spoon, and a few everyday ingredients, Crescent will be right by your side as you make incredible salads, soups, stews, chilis, and more. Long-time bean lovers will find lots of great information. And if you're new to beans, I can't imagine a happier introduction."
                  -Steve Sando, Founder, Rancho Gordo New World Specialty Food

Saturday, January 21: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Downhome family-friends-and-neighbors Bean by Bean Publication Party, at Crescent's home. In the neighborhood? Email [email protected], with "Bean Party" in subject line, for more an invitation.

      FEBRUARY, 2012

Saturday, February 11: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

Thursday, February 16: 7:00 -8:30 pm / Andover, Massachusetts
Talk & Tasting, a bean-bountiful-and-bebopping booksigning at Andover Books. For more information, call 978-475-0143.

Friday, February 17:

11:00 a.m. / Boston, Massachusetts
Crescent will be interviewed live by Tom Ashbrook on NPR's On Point, a national radio show (for stations --- you have 230 to choose from ---and times near you, click link). This is a call-in show, so please do! "To join the conversation on the air, call us at 1-800-423-8255 during a live broadcast."
7:00 p.m. / Marblehead, Massachusetts
Talk & Tasting, a bean-bountiful-and-bebopping booksigning at Spirit of 76 Bookstore. For more information, call 781-631-7199.

Saturday, February 18th, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. / Boston, Massachusetts

Crescent Dragonwagon's Deep Feast
You'll find Deep Feast: Writing the World Through Food, the workshop that gets everyone who writes about food jazzed, reinvigorated and wide-open, at the juncture of food, writing, and life itself. Experienced food writers and bloggers, cookbook writers and editors, chefs and others who are considering telling their story about food in words, and all who want to deepen their relationship to the subject of what, why, and how we eat (including those just starting to explore the field), will discover a conucopia of ways to:

expand the vision of what culinary writing is & can be
find voice & rhythm in writing about food
unearth your inimitable, one-of-a-kind point-of-view
stop dissing yourself (“I’m just a food writer”)
clarify your unique qualifications & authority
use your own singular experiences
discover (& start telling, & writing) your own stories
spend an eye-opening, mouth-opening afternoon with creative colleagues

Boston's Deep Feast will be held at the offices of The Harvard Common Press, one of America's preeminent cookbook publishers. Limited to 30 people. Register now! $95 for first ten registrants; than $125. If there are spaces left, $175 after February 15th or at the door.

MARCH, 2012

Friday, March 2-Sunday, March 4, 2012: weekend workshop, Rowe, Massachusetts
Fearless Writing at Rowe Conference Center. Register here.

Saturday, March 9-10: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Deep Feast / Seattle

Crescent Dragonwagon's Deep Feast

Pacific Northwest chef/food writer / restaurateur Greg Atkinson called 2011's Seattle Deep Feast, "A profound experience with a legendary writing instructor and cookbook author, unparalleled at coaching food writers. Her understanding of how this craft works is amazing." Clearly, you won't want to miss the Second Annual Seattle Deep Feast: Writing the World Through Food Deep Feast / Seattle will be held at one of Seattle's little know gems: the quiet WPA-era stone lodge known as Camp Long, in West Seattle. Limited to 35 people. Register now! $95 for first ten registrants; than $125. If there are spaces left, $175 at the door.

Sunday, March 11, 2012, 11:00 a.m. : Seattle, Washington
The Book Larder, Seattle's welcoming community cookbook store, has invited all of us to brunch! This generous, comfortable space is preparing several brunchy-breakfasty recipes from Bean by Bean, for a morning meal, complete with conversation, q-and-a, a talk, and of course, mucho nibbling.

Saturday, March 24: 3:00 p.m. Little Rock, AR
Cozied into the Heights, one of Little Rock's most hospitable neighborhoods, Wordsworth Books & Co has been welcoming readers since 1973. Crescent returns for her fourth booksigning at this, the best bookstore in town, in celebration of Bean by Bean. A notable P.S.: just around the corner from Wordsworth is Cafe Bossa Nova, where the bean-hungry can happily feast on positively succulent feijoada.

Sunday, March 25 to Thursday, March 29: Eureka Springs, AR; events TBA

Friday, March 30: Springfield, Missouri

Noon.
Crescent will be interviewed by her long-time Ozark pal, Steve Grant, on KY3.
2:00 p.m.
Join Crescent at Waverly House, for a parents-and-kids only children's book talk and signing. Please call Eunice at (417)882-3445 for more details.

Saturday, March 31: 11:00 a.m., Springfield, Missouri
Nobody, but nobody, does a book-signing like Eunice Waller at Waverly House. Perhaps it's because Waverly House is not a bookstore, but a gallery --- so she has no box to think outside of OR within. All I know is, she throws one remarkable and celebratory party, and the whole atmosphere is fun, vibrant, busy, energized. She doesn't just have "samples" of recipes made from the particular cookbook (in this case Bean by Bean), she has two or three beautifully set-up stations, with generous amounts of many different dishes, all perfectly prepared. Just as the gallery itself is idiosyncratic, reflecting her good taste and generous spirit, so is a Waverly event shaped by her quiet, lovely do-it-right-and-enjoy-every-minute-of-it self. Please call Eunice at (417)882-3445 for more details.

APRIL, 2012

Saturday, April 14: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

MAY, 2012

Saturday, May 12: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

Saturday, May 20, 2012 / Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Talk and booksigning at Books in Bloom.

JUNE, 2012

Saturday, June 9: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

JULY, 2012

Saturday, July 14: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

AUGUST, 2012

Saturday, August 11: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

Friday, August 31-Monday, September 3 / 3-day workshop / Westminster West, Vermont
4th Annual Fearless Writing: The Whole Enchilada Workshop. 2012 Registration opens on Valentine's Day (February 14, 2012). Limited to 12.

SEPTEMBER, 2012

Friday, August 31-Monday, September 3 / 3-day workshop / Westminster West, Vermont
4th Annual Fearless Writing: The Whole Enchilada Workshop. 2012 Registration opens on Valentine's Day (February 14, 2012). Limited to 12.

Saturday, September 8: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

October, 2012

Saturday, October 13: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

NOVEMBER, 2012

Saturday, November 10: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

DECEMBER, 2012

Saturday, December 8: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

TBA: Two weeks of Fearless Writing in late December / early January with Crescent Dragonwagon at Rancho la Puerta, Tecate, Mexico.

JANUARY, 2013

Saturday, January 11: 1 p.m. - 5:00 p.m./ Westminster West, Vermont
Ongoing Works-in-Progress group, at Crescent's home. Email [email protected], with "2nd Saturday" in subject line, for more information.

Comments

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Did I miss the posting of the details of your San Diego workshop? February has come and gone.

Posted by: wendelah1 | February 27, 2009 at 06:02 PM

Pls be in touch. I'd love to stop by and visit you in VT this month, even tomorrow!

Posted by: lorna sass | August 05, 2009 at 05:21 PM

I bought "The Bean Book" when it was first published and it finally fell apart this year. I really loved it! I guess I used it to death.

Is there any way I might get another copy?

Posted by: Bruce Murray | July 08, 2010 at 08:18 AM

Bruce, I am so tickled to learn you are Bean Book fan, and I have happy news... Ive just finished revising (which is to say, completely rewriting) and it will be published in its born-again version by Workman Publishing in 2011!

Posted by: Crescent Dragonwagon | July 08, 2010 at 08:05 PM

Hi Crescent. I was your computer guy for a while back in the mid-late 80's. And did some computer work for Ned's firm in FS. You may remember, Tom from the computer place in Fort Smith. My wife and I stayed at DHH several times. I don't think you liked the computer age back then. I Remember you didn't write on the computer. Only used it store your work, as a backup for safekeeping.

Posted by: Thomas T | October 21, 2010 at 03:38 AM

I am TOTALLY lost... re: vegetarianism. HELP! I have several cookbooks, have looked online at various sites, etc. The problem is, I have several conditions which cause extreme fatigue, therefore lack of follow through. Do you have any ideas how I may get started, without a whole lot of planning? Please e-mail me at my address, below. I oftem forget to go back to a site to look at responses... Thanks!

Posted by: Shirley | November 06, 2010 at 11:26 PM

Hello Crescent,
I am a farmer and love using your recipes to cook up our farm's produce. I would love to share your recipes at the farmer's market (paper form) and on our website in our weekly CSA updates, citing your books, of course. Would either or both be acceptable?
Thanks,
Dana

Posted by: Dana | March 12, 2012 at 05:39 PM