Daily, weekly, monthly? How often should you blog?

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When I first started this blog back in September 2011, I planned to write three sections each week: the writing bit, the reading bit, and the food bit.  I was so enthusiastic and excited about the project that I could have written hundreds of words on each subject, every time.  But I soon realised that, given that I also have a number of teaching commitments, a house to clean, a dog to walk and a husband to talk to, not to mention a Difficult Second Novel to write,  I simply don’t have time to write what is essentially three posts a week. Most writers seem to blog anything from daily to occasionally.  Personally, I think weekly is good, although I have to admit that recently, I have failed dismally to even keep to that.
Sadly, I don’t even have time to read as many blogs as I’d like, but now and again I have a ‘blog fest’  where I spend a whole morning catching up. In doing this recently, I took note of how frequently the blogs appeared, and I discovered that many of the daily blogs are very short, and skim the surface of the subject, whereas the longer blogs were usually more in-depth with more to get your teeth into. 
Some frequent bloggers post on the same subject over several posts, e.g.  Plotting: part one, part two, part three.  And I think this works really well. But some short blogs promise more than they can really deliver, and it’s disappointing to find that something that suggestsan in-depth discussion about, say, point-of-view, character, or plotting, in reality only touches on the subject.
Could this be because the blogger has recognized how difficult it is to blog on a daily basis and still have time for writing a novel, short stories or whatever?  How anyone, especially a writer, finds time to blog every day is beyond me.  Fine, if you can come up with a riveting, pithy nugget of genius in 20 minutes flat, but the chances are that blogging every day means you’re likely to sacrifice quality in favour of brevity.  Unless you can give your blog the time and attention it deserves, your reader is likely to be disappointed.
Having said that, there are some daily – or almost daily – blogs that really do seem to do the trick, as in, they do actually deliver. So how come there are so many brilliant brief bloggers out there?  Shall I tell you my sneaking suspicion? –  and I only say this because I know I’ve done the same thing myself – I’m wondering if the good daily bloggers are using their blogs as a legitimate form of procrastination.  I mean, it’s writing isn’t it?  Its creative, you’re practicing your skills, honing your craft; it counts, right?
Well, it does, sort of.  It’s certainly better than not writing anything, and it helps to get you known, but unless you’re sure that you can deliver posts of a reasonable quality without seriously impinging on the writing time you have available, might it not be better to blog less frequently so that you can spend  time on each post and still have time left to devote to your work-in-progress?  The important thing, so I’m told, is that your readers know what to expect and when to expect it.  To that end, I have changed the heading on this blog to reflect the fact that it will appear less frequently than it did at the start.
I like to spend a fair bit of time on each post, writing a first draft one day, leaving it overnight, then  editing, tweaking and polishing the next day.  Having said that, I’m sure that many of my posts contain typos, repeated words or inelegant sentences, but if I were to blog several times a week, I fear the quality would be even poorer.
Or is this whole post a transparent attempt to justify my own low output?
How about you?  Do you now blog less frequently than you did at first?  Or have you become even more prolific because of the regular practice?
To find out more about me and what I do, visit: www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

Does any restaurant regularly offer Vegan options?

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Bit of a rant this week. Regular readers of this blog will know that most of the recipes/meal ideas that appear here are vegan, because although I’m not vegan myself (I eat fish, occasionally dairy, and  very occasionally, free-range chicken) my dear other half, known here as Vegan Husband, is.
Now, for a foodie such as myself, this is a challenge. I don’t care what all those websites say, it is NOT ‘easy’ to prepare ‘healthy and delicious meals all year round’ without using any animal products. But it’s certainly easy to prepare somehealthy and delicious meals; maybe even quite a few. And I could possibly – probably, in fact – come up with a month’s worth of pretty tasty vegan meals, plus a few puds, cakes and biscuits into the bargain. It’s coming up with a good variety that’s difficult, not vegan cooking in itself.
As I’m cooking vegan meals most of the time, I have of course looked into specialist foods such as soya alternatives to meat and dairy products. To be honest, some of them are pretty awful, but there are some products that I regularly make use of, so that creamy sauces are not necessarily a thing of the past, and I can even knock up some pretty mean vegan ‘meatballs’.  But even if I couldn’t use these products, I would still be able to come up with a good few meals that are actually nice to eat and attractive to look at.
Why, then, is it nigh on impossible to get a vegan meal in a restaurant unless you’re eating Indian? Or (if you like Tofu) Chinese or Thai? Wouldn’t you think that there could be just one thing on the menu in European restaurants, dining pubs and cafe-bars? Even a plate of pasta with a veggie sauce would do the trick.  I often see dishes that look like they could be vegan, but then I see ‘finished with ricotta/goat’s cheese/double cream’. I’m sure if we called ahead most chefs would rise to the challenge, but just occasionally, I’d like to be able to go out with my husband on the spur of the moment for a meal that isn’t Indian, Chinese or Thai. Cafes aren’t too bad. We could probably get lunch fairly easily. But it’s dinner I want; with wine and candles and proper tablecloths and the option of three courses.
For a starter, they could do a vegan soup, served with crusty bread; or some mushrooms in white wine and garlic; or bruschetta.  Pasta would be an easy main-course choice.  They could serve it simply coated with olive oil, garlic, minced chilli, lemon juice and parsley; or with a tomato, olive and caper sauce; or a homemade pesto (without cheese); or a spicy tomato sauce. It’s not fine dining, but it would be nice.
Even puddings aren’t that difficult.  There’s always fruit. Baked peaches drizzled  with maple syrup are good.  Ready-made puff pastry is dairy-free (if you don’t buy the buttery version) so a caramelised apple tart wouldn’t be beyond the wit of man or woman. And it’s easy to get really good dark chocolate that doesn’t contain dairy, so there’s stuff you can do with that, too.
I’m sure the management of most restaurants would argue that ‘there’s no call’ for vegan dishes; I’d argue that vegans don’t bother trying because their dietary preferences are seen as weird and extreme. I  couldn’t find an up-to-date estimate of how many vegans there are in the UK, but the Vegan Society  reckons it’s at least 150,000. Not a huge number, it’s true. But there are plenty of people who are allergic to dairy and would happily go meat-free for a night. And plenty of vegetarians who’d welcome the chance to try really good and exciting vegan food.

Given that when a group of people goes out for dinner, they’ll look for a restaurant where the one vegan among them can get a meal, so by offering one vegan option, restaurants could attract other new customers. And who knows, if the vegan option was attractive enough,  a non-vegan might actually choose it.

Any vegans out there have the same problem? Are you vegetarian but would like to eat vegan occasionally? Are you a chef or restaurant manager who’d be keen to offer a vegan option? And does anyone know if there’s anywhere outside London where we could get a vegan meal that would be good enough for a special occasion?
To find out more about me and my work, visit www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

Review of Jubilee, by Shelley Harris

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Well, what a treat this book was. A clever idea, beautifully realised. Satish Patel is a paediatric cardiologist with a guilty secret. The secret is revealed quite early on, but we then want to know why Satish  is in this situation, and why he is so upset by the idea of appearing in a staged photograph to recreate the one taken of him and his neighbours in a Jubilee street party in 1977. The shot, taken when Satish was eleven, became an iconic representation of ‘multicultural Britain’, and made the photographer’s name. 
The narrative slips seamlessly back and forth between the present and the day of the street party. It’s soon clear that something awful happened to Satish that day, and that whatever it was occurred as a result of the casual racism that was inherent in 1970s British society. As we meet the children and adults who appeared in the original photograph, we see how their behaviour and attitudes range from a simple lack of understanding to outright racist cruelty.
The author maintains the tension right through the novel, revealing the past little by little, and showing us the effects that that past has had on the present.  The reader is gripped by a number of questions, but as we wonder whether Satish will come out of this with his career, family and friendships intact, we want to know in particular what happened to him that day that was so traumatic. When the revelation comes , it is unexpected, deeply shocking, and brilliantly handled. I finished the novel a few weeks ago now but am still haunted by one particular scene. The most upsetting aspect of what happened, and perhaps the most distressing for the young Satish, is the reaction of the mostly well-meaning adults to whom he goes for help and comfort.  This is powerful stuff.
Satish is a hugely sympathetic character, and his character and those of his family are utterly convincing. One or two of the minor characters weren’t quite as vividly drawn, but this is a minor criticism because it had very little effect of the overall storytelling, which was pacey and well-judged. The period detail was perfect – enough to give a sense of the era but without laying it on with a trowel. I also loved the last section of the book in which there are some immensely satisfying events, leading us to a perfectly balanced ending. An enjoyable and affecting novel.   
To find out more about me and my work, visit www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

Links to all my Food Bits & Reading Bits

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When I first started this blog, every post included a ‘writing bit’, a ‘reading bit’ and a ‘food bit’. Often, the reading bits were book reviews, and the food bits included recipes or meal ideas, usually (but not always) vegan or vegetarian.  Alas, I soon realised that, in my enthusiasm, I’d rather underestimated the time it would take to write three different components each week, so I now tend to stick to one or two subjects.  But I’ve realised that the titles of the posts only refer to the writing bit, so in this post, I’ve listed all the recipes and book reviews (the early ones are very brief – they get longer!)  that I’ve written so far, and I’ll keep adding to them as I write more, with the most recent first.

4 October
Book review: Archipelago by Monique Roffey

6 September
Book review: Rook by Jane Rusbridge

20 Jan 2012
8 Jan 2012 
22 Dec 2011
11 Dec 2011 
2 Dec 2011
25 Nov 2011 
19 Nov 2011 
12 Nov 2011 
4 Nov 2011 
Book: Blackmoor, by Edward Hogan
Food: Ratatouille crumble
Book: The Still Point, by Amy Sackville
Food:  Vegan burger & chips
Book: The Devil’s music, by Jane Rusbridge
Food: Smoked haddock pie
Book: Glasshopper, by Isabel Ashdown
Food: Butternut squash and walnut risotto
Book: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
Food: Vegan Cassoulet
Book: A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Food: Vegan cupcakes
Book: The Road Home, by Rose Tremain 
Food:  Vegan sausages and mash with red wine and onion gravy


For more about me and my work, visit www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

When your characters speak

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The Writing Bit
How do you make your dialogue convincing ?  It has to be realistic enough to be believable , but  your characters shouldn’t speak exactly like real people, and you only have to eavesdrop on a few conversations to see why.  Real people  say ‘um’ and ‘er’; we waffle; we go off the point; we don’t finish our sentences; we use the wrong word; we can’t remember why we started telling you this in the first place. Characters can’t get away with that (well, once, maybe, to make a point about the character).
But by and large, what your characters say should be more interesting, meaningful and to the point than what real people say, and they should say it in more interesting ways.  If you catch your character wittering on about something that really isn’t relevant to his/her character, the scene, or the overall story, it’s time to shut them up!
Dialogue is a wonderful way of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’, but we do need to ‘tell’ sometimes, such as when showing would clearly bore the pants off our readers. So for example, it’s ok to summarise:
‘How was work,’ he asked.
She sat heavily on the sofa and sighed. ‘You don’t want to know,’ she said, and then proceeded to give him a blow-by-blow account of her day.
In terms of the characters and their relationship, maybe we do need to know that they had this discussion, but we don’t need to hear the blow-by-blow account of her day, so summarising in this way is fine.
Speech attribution
He said/she said. That’s it; it’s all you need.  Anything else is an authorial intrusion, because the reader is likely to notice it, and when a reader notices the writing, it means that he or she has stopped reading, albeit briefly.  Ok, we can probably get away with ‘he whispered’ (or muttered/yelled/shouted); and I don’t think the reader is likely to trip up over ‘she asked’ (or replied/added/continued) but please, oh please, avoid speech tags that are unnecessary or inappropriate at best, and at worst pompous, overblown or archaic. I have seen all of the following used as speech tags in contemporary fiction:  opined; interjected; retorted; exclaimed; remonstrated; expostulated; and (I kid you not) ejaculated.
The simplest tag of all, ‘said’, is virtually invisible on the page. If you feel you’re using it too much, can you show who’s speaking by their actions, or just by what they’re saying? For example:
‘Hey, at last!’ He stood up, smiling, his arms outstretched.
 She hurried towards him, dropped her bags at his feet. ‘I’m so, so sorry!’ She leaned in and kissed him. ‘First I couldn’t get a taxi, then the traffic was horrendous and the stupid man kept going on about what was wrong with the transport system in this country, and …oh sorry, I’m rambling. But I mean really, do I look like the sort of person who would be interested in – ‘
‘No, darling, you don’t. Anyway, you’re here now.’ He leaned over and pulled out the chair opposite. ‘Sit down. Drink?’
‘Oh lovely. G and T please.’
He looked around for a waiter. ‘Gin and tonic for my companion, please.’
She giggled. ‘Ooh, get you. “my companion” indeed.’
He leaned back in his chair, a smile spreading slowly over his face. ‘So how would you describe yourself?’
‘Let me see…girlfriend is too young; ladyfriend  is too old. Mistress? No, then people would think you were married. Shame; I quite like the idea of being a mistress.’ She leaned towards him and lowered her voice. ‘How about lover?’
Ok, it’s not the most riveting piece of dialogue I’ve ever written, but I think you’ll agree it’s fairly easy to tell who’s speaking, and not a speech attribution in sight. I’m not a fan of qualifying ‘said’ with adverbs, either (she said, angrily) But that’s probably a whole different blog post. 

So to sum up: he said, she said – fine. That is all.
The Food Bit
If you don’t went to spend too long faffing around in the kitchen, this  garlicky mushroom pasta is  dead easy and quite delish.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and pop in enough pasta (egg-free if you’re vegan) for two. Meanwhile, slice about 300g of mushrooms. I use a mixture of portobello, chestnut and ordinary closed cap mushrooms.  Put in a pan with some olive oil and cook over a medium heat. Crush two big fat cloves of garlic and chuck that in with the mushrooms. Add a good grind of black pepper, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard and a slosh of white wine. Cook for a couple of minutes – they should be more or less cooked by now – then add about 100ml of string vegetable stock and a squeeze of lemon juice.  When the liquid has more or less evaporated, taste, and add salt and more pepper if necessary, and chuck in a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley.  Mix with the cooked pasta, adding more olive oil if liked, and serve. 
This goes well with most types of pasta.  For even more flavour, add a few dried porcini  (wild mushrooms). Soak in a little boiling water first, then add to the fresh mushrooms. You can use the remaining water as a base for your veggie stock, but make sure you strain it first because the mushrooms are sometimes a bit gritty. Suitable for vegans if you use vegan wine (or use more stock instead of wine).

To find out more about me and my work, visit: www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

Review of Hurry Up And Wait, by Isabel Ashdown

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No ‘Writing Bit’ this week, because it’s a book review instead.
The Reading Bit
When I first started reading Isabel Ashdown’s Hurry Up And Wait, I thought it was  going to be an enjoyably  nostalgic look at teen culture in the mid eighties. And it was, but then things took a much darker turn and that’ s where the story really took off. 
The main section of the novel is set over the course of the 1985/86 school year, and is framed by present day sections at the beginning and end. My own teens were a little before this, but the dynamics of teenage friendships were the same then and I suspect they aren’t too different now. Teenage girls are often fickle, their friendships coming and going like the tides. One minute, girls can be inseparable, intense, hanging on one another’s every word; the next minute they’re indifferent at best, spiteful and cruel at worst.   This perennial truth is well observed and expertly portrayed in this novel.
Sarah is always slightly on the edge of a group of three, so she’s particularly vulnerable to the  whims of Kate, the coolest of the three and very much the leader. When Kate decides to make Sarah suffer, she leads the third girl, Tina, in a campaign of taunting and bullying.  And yet Sarah – an all-round  nice, sensible girl – is still attracted to Kate as a friend, despite Kate’s cruelty and betrayal.
Hurry Up And Wait shows brilliantly how vital these unsatisfactory friendships seem at the time. For Sarah, whose mum died when she was tiny and whose dad is older and less cool than the other dads, her friendship with Kate is central, but her increasingly close connection with Kate and her family leads to an event that has a devastating effect on Sarah’s life.
This novel is a treasure trove of period detail and of authentic characters. Some, such as Sarah, her dad, and one or two of her friends, are thoroughly likeable; others, such as Kate , Dante,  Jason, and the awful teacher Mrs Minor, range from the not-so-likeable to the distinctly unlikeable. But all are convincing. The novel starts in the present day with Sarah, aged almost 40, arriving for a school reunion. She then takes us on a journey through her memory as she relives that turbulent final school year before bringing us back to the present where she faces the  truth of what happened all those years before.  
I enjoyed Isabel Ashdown’s first novel, Glasshopper, but I enjoyed this even more. The style is so easy to read that before you know it, you’re two thirds of the way through the novel – I read the last third in one sitting!  I’d say hurry up and read Hurry Up And Wait!
The Food Bit
Freezing out, isn’t it?  When you’re cold right through and feel the need for some warming vegan comfort food (yes, is does exist), try soya mince with vegetables, garlic, red wine and herbs.  This is a ‘one pot’ dish, so you’ll need a large pan.
For two people, you’ll need one onion, a couple of largish potatoes, a few carrots, and a handful of other veg – whatever you’ve got in the fridge, really. I made this the other night and used half a  red and half a  green pepper, some mushrooms and three baby sweetcorns that were left over from a stir-fry. But broccoli works well, too, and so do green beans. You’ll also need 50g of savoury soya mince, about two pints of vegetable stock, half a tin of chopped tomatoes, a heaped teaspoon of tomato puree, three cloves of garlic (crushed), some mixed herbs and a good slosh of red wine. 
First, peel the potatoes and carrots and cut into chunks, then boil in half of the vegetable stock until almost cooked through. Make up the soya mince following the instructions on the pack but use some of the  veg stock instead of water. (It’s usually ‘add 150ml water to 50g soya mince and leave for ten minutes’)  Chop the onion and fry in olive oil until soft, then add garlic  and cook for a minute or two. Add all other ingredients except the stock and tinned tomatoes fry gently for a few minutes. Add stock and tinned tomatoes and simmer until all the veg is cooked and the flavours are absorbed. Taste, then season as required with salt and freshly ground pepper. You can also add more stock if required – I usually serve this in bowls. You don’t really need anything else with it, but is there’s sauce to be mopped up at the end, crusty bread is good.

For more about me and my work, visit my website: www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

A room of one’s own – where do you write?

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Jilly Cooper writes in a gazebo in the grounds of her Cotswolds home; Jeanette Winterstone uses  an outbuilding that she describes as a cross between a shed and an office – she  calls it her ‘shoffice’; and Roald Dahl famously wrote in a shed at the bottom of his garden.
When the children were small and I was an occasional, dabbling writer, I wrote at the kitchen table so I could keep an eye on what they were up to; I’ve also been known to write in the car, in bed, or even in the bathroom – there was a time when that was the only way I could get a little time to myself!
These days, I’m lucky enough to have my own study. I have all I need: desk, office chair, bookshelves, books, a couple of comfy chairs and even a halogen heater for those days when the central heating just can’t warm someone who is sitting still for hours at a time. The dog lies at my feet and photos of my loved ones look down on me from the walls, which are also adorned by pictures that I like, plus framed certificates, awards etc. There’s also a corkboard with ‘interesting things’ pinned onto it.  It’s a great room. I love it.

 

Why then, do I really struggle to write in it?  I can write this blog, I can write letters, I can write student reports and I can do all my lesson planning. But when it comes to the novel, I seem to dry up.
Recently, a friend offered me the use of a desk in her office for a few weeks until her new employee started, and I was amazed at how much I achieved.  So I tried to analyse why. What was different? First, the desk was clear and tidy – nothing on it but the pc and keyboard. At home, even though I try to clear my desk every night, there are always a few things that it doesn’t seem worth putting away.  Second, my friend was sitting opposite me and working – if someone else is working, I feel guilty if I’m not working too! Third, no home telephone – at home, you’re at the mercy of people who know you’re there and think it’s ok to call you for a chat in a way that they wouldn’t dream of doing if you were ‘at the office’.  And fourth, I didn’t use the internet. There was a connection, of course, but because my friend was working away in the same room, I felt far less inclined to spend time on Twitter, following interesting links or just chatting.
So now I no longer have use of the office, I need to find a way of working that’s just as effective. At the moment, I’m using cafes.  I love the little independent tea and coffee shops, but these can be almost too friendly and intimate, and anyway, I’d feel guilty sitting there for ages with one drink. But the big, impersonal places like Starbucks and Costa are perfect, because as long as you buy something, they don’t seem to mind you taking up a table. So for an outlay of roughly £2 for a coffee, I can stay comfortably for two hours and get quite a lot done. 
When I thought about it, I realised that it’s probably because these places have all the elements I’d identified before: the table is clear – just a laptop and a coffee cup; there are plenty of other people around working away on their laptops; there’s no landline telephone, and you can put your mobile on silent;  and finally, there is an internet connection if you want it, but with everyone else around working or chatting, you’re less likely to use it.
So, at a ‘rent’ of about £4 a day for two 2-hour sessions, it’s way cheaper that renting an office. If I do two sessions, I’ll come home at lunchtime to deal with emails etc. If I’m only doing one, I’ll use it for fiction, then I’ll do the other stuff at home.
If I had a big garden, I think I could make a ‘shoffice’ work, maybe in the form of an old camper van that doesn’t go any more, but in the meantime my ‘office’ will be Starbucks or Costas, because I’m finally making some progress. I wonder how many novels are currently being penned in Starbucks and Costas? 
What about you? Where do you write? Where would you write if you could choose an ideal place?

For more about me and my writing, visit www.susanelliotwright.co.uk

How’s everyone else getting on with their New Year’s resolutions?

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How’s everyone else getting on with their New Year’s resolutions? Even if you don’t call them ‘resolutions’, it counts if you made any sort of plan of action for the new year.  Last week, I publicly declared my intentions with regard to my plans for my working day in 2012, so how have I done so far? Hmm.
Write for at least two hours every morning: Well, including this one, there have been five mornings since I wrote that post. One was wiped out by a long dental appointment, and I’m taking a chunk out of this one to write the blog. (Really, I should use the afternoon for blog-writing, and I’ll attempt to do so from now on.) That leaves three, and although I hit my target on Thursday and Friday, I confess to spending Saturday morning browsing holiday cottages online. So, given that the only valid excuse was the dental appointment, I’ve had a 50% success rate (and also, of course, a 50% failure rate.)  Mark: C+ -you have made some effort, but not enough -must try harder.
Resume ‘Morning Pages’ – three pages of freewriting, preferably on waking: Oh dear. I have failed dismally here; haven’t done it even  once.  Crazy, because when I was doing this regularly, I found it very useful. Maybe I need to start getting up earlier so I can’t use lack of time as an excuse. Mark: F – dreadful! Appalling! Abominable! Must pull your socks up!
Do all teaching preparation, reading students’ work, writing reports etc in the afternoon: Yes!  Have restrained myself from trying to get these jobs ‘out of the way’ in the mornings and ending up allowing them to stretch into the whole day. This week, I’ve only had  reports to write for a couple of my Open College of the Arts students, and by leaving it until after my writing session to work on them, I’ve felt that I’ve achieved a lot more by the end of the day.  Mark A+ – good girl!
Restrict Twitter activity to two half-hour sessions during the working day: There have been four full days since this post,  I’ve managed to stick to this on three  days. On the other day, I realised that over an hour had passed with me just reading tweets and blogs, retweeting things and ‘chatting’. Twitter is a wonderful resource for writers, and the camaraderie and friendship is hugely supportive, but Twitter can gobble up a lot of time. I really intend to get to grips with this. Mark: B+ – a good effort.
Take one or two days off from writing activities each week. Use these to catch up with household stuff, and to do something nice as well: Well, I took yesterday off, did some laundry, went to the theatre to see a excellent production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company and had a Thai meal in the evening. So I think that counts. Mark: A- – good, but you didn’t do the shopping.  Don’t start relaxing too much; you have a novel to write!
The Reading Bit
Just a thought this week – have you noticed that when you’re reading a novel on a Kindle, it’s quite hard to remember the title of the novel and the name of the author? This is because you’re not looking at the cover every time you pick it up. Love my Kindle, but not sure I like this aspect.
The Food Bit
As promised last week, here is the recipe for Red Kidney Bean Dahl:
1 tin kidney beans
Half a tin chopped tomatoes
1 onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
1-2 tsp tomato puree
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Oil for frying
Spices: 1/2 tsp each of cumin seeds and black mustard seeds, 1 tsp each of  tandoori masala, turmeric, and garam masala. If you like a bit of a kick, 1/2 -1 tsp chilli powder (I’d start with 1/2 tsp!)
Put the tomatoes, chillies and garlic in a blender and whizz into a paste. Heat oil in a pan, then add the cumin and mustard seeds and cook for a few seconds, then add the onion and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the blended paste and all ingredients except the beans. Cook for a minute or so, then add the beans and about half a pint of water. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, and adding more water if needed.  I like mine quite saucy (if you see what I mean). Serve this with some boiled basmati rice and naan bread or chapatis.  There’s enough here for two if it’s the main dish, but we sometimes freeze it in smaller quantities and have it with, perhaps, a spinach and potato or green pepper and potato curry.

For more about me and my work, check out my website: https://susanelliotwright.co.uk

First post of 2012 – a writing plan!

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Happy New Year! My apologies for late posting this week – I have a number of pretty top-quality excuses: a funeral, Christmas & New Year and the houseful of family that go with them, a vicious head cold, plus a couple of days of paid work.  I still have the cold but the other things are thankfully behind me now. I didn’t even get round to putting a tree up this year, and anyway, it didn’t seem appropriate to decorate the house while we were still so close to my father-in-law’s death in mid-December.
Without all the decorations and cards to take down, it should have made the ‘getting back to normal’ a bit easier, but I still seem to be struggling to get on course for 2012. Does anyone else feel like they’re trying to run up the ‘down’ escalator?
I haven’t even had time to make my New Year’s resolutions. Well, I don’t make resolutions as such, but I do usually start the year with some sort of plan of action with regards to my writing, and I’m usually ready to hit the ground running on the first of January (or the second, should the first be somewhat shortened by a hangover and a lie-in). But this year, we’ve somehow got to the third day of 2012 and I still don’t really have a plan, so I’m going to make one now, ‘live’ on the blog! If you don’t have your own plan yet, feel free to adapt mine. I really can’t faff about this year, because I have a two-book deal (hoorah!) and that means I actually have a deadline and need to deliver the second book on time.
Ok, so in 2012 I will:
  • Write for at least  two hours every morning, in two or three sessions. I find it’s better to have a time commitment rather than a word commitment, because there are some days when the words just won’t come, and I don’t see the point of beating yourself up every time you don’t hit a thousand words (or whatever). If I spend the two hours at my keyboard, thinking about my novel, I’m convinced something will happen. Won’t it?
  • Resume ‘morning pages’ as recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way  – three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing every morning, preferably on waking. This year, I might combine this with journal writing, so that the freewriting comes from what I’ve done, seen or thought about in the previous 24 hours.
  • Do all teaching admin, lesson preparation, reading students’ work, writing reports, student tutorials etc in the afternoons only, thus keeping the mornings clear for writing. I have a habit of thinking I’ll get teaching things ‘out of the way’ first, only to find they then stretch into the whole day.
  • Restrict daytime Twitter activity to two half-hour sessions a day – this will be difficult! There is so much on Twitter that is of interest to writers, not to mention the simple, pleasant chit-chat with other writers.  But Twitter can easily gobble up a morning.
  • Take one or two days off from writing each week. These days can be used mainly for boring but essential stuff such as shopping, housework, household admin etc, but should also contain something nice – coffee or lunch with a friend, a walk in the countryside, some time reading all the fabulous blogs that are around, or even a short train journey to somewhere new – anything to recharge the creative batteries and allow time for story and characters to develop. I’m particularly keen to take a few train journeys this year – going to new places always helps to sharpen my observational skills.
  • And finally, I’ve realised that by having three sections to this blog – the Writing Bit, the Reading Bit and the Food Bit, I’ve bitten off rather more than I can chew, so in 2012, there won’t be three sections every week, but there will always be  either something about writing, or a book review. And there will usually be something about food.
The Food Bit
This week, because of the excuses/reasons stated at the start of the writing bit, the food bit will be brief. It’ll be simply to tell you that as I type, Vegan Husband is downstairs knocking up Red Bean Dhal – does anyone know the definition of dhal? I always thought it meant ‘made with lentils’, but this is made with kidney beans. He’s made it before and it’s absolutely delicious, especially if you like your curries to have a bit of a kick – this should see off the last of my cold! He’s cooking some basmati rice to go with it, and we’re going to pop to the Indian restaurant down the road in a minute to get a sag bhuna and a garlic naan to have as side dishes.  I’ll get the recipe out of him later and will post it next week. The garlicky, spicy aroma is now wafting up the stairs, and there’s a glass of wine down there with my name on it!
For more about me and my work, check out my website: https://susanelliotwright.co.uk
  

It’s Christmas!

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The Writing Bit
No Writing Bit this week – it’s Christmas, and the only writing I’m doing is shopping lists, gift tags and Christmas cards!
The Reading Bit
When I look back over my Reading Journal  (great Christmas present!) I see that I have read 33 books this year, still  long way short of my target of 50. Included in the total were two memoirs, but the rest were novels, including four re-reads.
So, my top 10 reads this year (some new, some not so new), in no particular order, are:
The Road Home, by Rose Tremain – this was one I’d read before but returned to it because it’s such a beautifully crafted novel with a wonderful central character.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – original and surprising. I thought it might be a bit ‘tricksy’ and annoying, but it’s currently in my lifetime top 10. See my blog post September 23 for a very brief review.
The Rapture, by Liz Jenson – strange, chilling and beautiful. You need to be prepared to suspend disbelief, but it’s worth it.
So Much for That, by Lionel Shriver – some readers found this a depressing book, others viewed it as a rant against the US healthcare system. The subject matter – terminal illness – is certainly not cheery, and there is an element of ranting. However, the novel is ultimately uplifting and I found it incredibly moving and honest. Possibly one of the most affecting novels I’ve ever read.
The Testament of Jessie Lamb, by Jane Rogers – set in the very near future after an act of biological terrorism, this is not the sort of novel I usually go for, however, this is both a page-turner and a ‘make you think-er’.
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver – how on earth did it take me so long to get around to reading this book? If you haven’t read it yet, you must do so immediately!  I have to say that the first few pages were a bit hard to engage with, but once I’d got into the book and knew the characters better, I re-read these pages and found them moving and beautiful.
The Devil’s Music, by Jane Rusbridge, wonderful setting, a family tragedy, vivid and beautiful writing – what’s not to like? See my blog post October 14 for a review.
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – this was another of my re-reads. It’s a short, chilling novel of madness. The character’s post-natal depression is mismanaged by her well-meaning doctor husband, and she ends up in a worse state than she was in the beginning.
This is How, by M J Hyland – the writing is spare and precise; the character odd but affecting. See ,y blog post December 2 for a review.
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters – what fun! A creepy, supernatural story set in a huge, chilly and decaying mansion house. The pace doesn’t slacken for a minute and it’s not until quite near to the end that you get an inkling of what’s going on. Wonderful!
The Food Bit
As promised, here are a couple of fab vegan Christmas recipes:
Cashew Nut Roast with sage, onion & apricot stuffing
 About 25g of vegan sunflower spread
1 medium onion and 2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of marmite dissolved in about half a pint of hot water (you can use veggie stock, but marmite helps to bind everything.)
500g nuts (I use a mix of cashew nuts and almonds)
2 tbsp soya flour
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp, dried winter savoury (or you can use mixed herbs)
3-4 slices of bread made into crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
Fry the onion and celery in the sunflower spread for a few minutes. Add the marmite in hot water (or veggie stock, if you’re a marmite-hater) to the onion and celery, then stir in the soya flour, nuts, herbs, breadcrumbs and salt and pepper and mix well. Allow to cool slightly, Grease a loaf tin. Place half the nut roast mixture in the tin and press down, then add the stuffing (see below) and press down well again, then place the rest of the nut roast mixture on top. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes at mark 4 then turn out of the tin while still warm and serve sliced. This goes really well with all the traditional trimmings.
Stuffing
6 slices of wholemeal bread, made into breadcrumbs
About 80g sunflower spread
3 tsp dried sage (or 8 of fresh sage, chopped)
1 finely chopped onion
About 100g chopped, dried apricots
salt and pepper to taste
Fry the onion in the sunflower spread for a few minutes. Add other ingredients and mix.
Red Cabbage with apple
1 red cabbage, sliced finely
1 small red onion, sliced finely
2 med eating apples, grated
1 tbsp sugar
1-2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
2 tbsp wine vinegar
1/4 tsp ground cloves or half tsp allspice
Salt to taste
Put all ingredients except redcurrant jelly and salt in a pan, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 40 minutes. When cooked, stir in redcurrant jelly and add salt to taste. At this point, you may want to add more sugar/vinegar or redcurrant jelly. Just keep adding little by little and tasting as you go along. Non-vegans might like a bit of butter stirred in just before serving.
Merry Christmas!


For more about me and my work, check out my website: https://susanelliotwright.co.uk