The Food Giggle… It’s a Thing. A few quick, easy, and stealthily healthy recipes in honor of a great Mexican restaurant and an even greater Mexican sister-in-law. PLUS – a bonus restaurant review!

Dos Caminos, Times Square, NYC

5/5 STARS!

   “I just want to sit here and play in the salsa.”

     My sister-in-law, Felicia, dreamily uttered these words on Sunday afternoon, as we sat, marveling over a couple of crazy fresh margaritas in a brand new Mexican eatery in Times Square.  We’d been on our way to The Blue Fin to grab some quick pre-show sushi, when we just happened to stumble upon Dos Caminos. The manager informed us that it was only their 4^th day of being open before warmly welcoming us with a round of free drinks. At the first sip, a big, bright grapefruit flavor flirted with sea salt and tequila on my tongue.

     “Yum,” I said and smacked my lips together, as Felicia took a sip of her mango-cucumber margarita.

      She raised her eyebrows and nodded with unabashed gratitude at her drink.

     This place was good.

     In my experience, so many restaurants take a week or two to get it right. Not Dos Caminos. This underground cantina, with its melted candle sculptures and funky décor, was on the right track to score a five star review from me and my palate. And, that was before I even tried the food.

     Our server was lovely. She engaged in just enough conversation and made sure that we had ample time to make it to our show, since we were on a bit of a tight schedule. We let her know we had a matinee to get to, and she made it happen for us. Also, she was an aspiring Broadway actress. She told us all about how she played Ursula in The Little Mermaid and how she adores character roles. I love theater people. They fit right into my tribe.

     The manager noticed us, complimented us, and even showed us the incredibly swanky private VIP room where he’d hosted a few fashion week parties a day or so before.  He answered our questions and seemed genuinely apologetic that they were out of one of their signature dishes.

     The grasshopper guacamole.

     Yeah – it’s made with actual grasshoppers.

     Listen - we would have stepped up to the plate had the challenge presented itself, but I can’t say we were too heartbroken over missing out on the grasshopper guac. Especially after our waitress told us that it was chunky. I was totally golden with plain old avocado.

     So, the food.

     Dear God in heaven, THE FOOD.

     We decided to go for small plates, since we had limited time and a post-theatre dinner reservation at an Italian restaurant. We wanted to have room for pasta later on. So, we ordered:

     -Traditional guac and chips.

     -Grilled shrimp salad with cotija cheese, cilantro, and crispy fava beans.

     -An app trio of plaintain empanadas, pulled chicken taquitos, and lobster tacos.

     The trio was served with three varieties of salsas – tomatillo, traditional, and habanero,

     In the end it was the habanero salsa that did it.

     The first airy giggle escaped Felicia’s lips while she was savoring a sweet plantain empanada slathered with salsa. I thought I must have missed the joke and went on noshing, joyfully. When the second burst of ethereal laughter chimed out, I gave her a funny look.

     “What are you laughing at?” I asked, only to be answered with another round of giddy twittering.

     “I just really like this food,” she said, simply, nearly out of breath from the foodgasm that had apparently rocked her world pretty hard and sent her into a fit of the giggles.

     The food giggles.

     We had a good laugh at this newly discovered phenomenon before finishing every last bite of yum in front of us.

     When it was time to skedaddle out of Dos Caminos so we could make it to our matinee, Felicia expressed her desire to stay and play in the habanero salsa. She was drunk on deliciousness and the memories that our meal had evoked.

     Spices just like Uncle Benny and Aunt Esther used to cook with.

     Flavors that took her back to her late grandmother’s table, where she used to eat enchiladas and tamales with her Dad’s Mexican family.

     This is what good food does. It stirs your soul.

     I was drunk on the joy of having shared the best Mexican food I’d ever eaten and a trip I would never forget with my sister-in-law, Felicia, who also happens to be my best friend.

     Moral of the story~ Next time you’re in Times Square, eat at Dos Caminos.

     It’s food-giggle worthy.

     Even though I don’t cook a ton of Hispanic food, this week my recipes will have a Southwestern flair.  In honor of my sister-in law who came all the way to New York City to celebrate my birthday with me and also in honor of the brand new restaurant in Times Square- Dos Caminos, I give you this, my go-to meal on a day when I have no time to fuss.

Sneaky Chili and Quesadillas with Salsa Frrrrresh.

S   Sneaky Chili – So named, because when you sneak veggies like zucchini and spinach into chili, your kids don’t notice. To them, it's all just more yummy, chili-flavored chunkiness.  Also, I use ground turkey, just like my mom always did. It gives the chili a mild, sweet flavor that kids love, and it’s healthier than the fattier ground beef. My children love this, and the neighbor kids often show up at my door on chili night! I always have enough to share.

2T olive oil

2 lbs ground turkey

1 bag frozen onions or 1 large chopped white onion

1C zucchini – diced (optional)

1C fresh spinach – leaves chopped into small pieces (optional)

2t chili powder

1t salt

1 can chili beans in sauce

2 cans tomato sauce

How to– Brown the ground turkey and onions in olive oil with salt and chili powder.  Add the veggies here if you’re going to sneak them in. Once the meat is cooked, add the can of beans without draining it and the tomato sauce. This can simmer for 15 minutes and be ready to eat.

Serve with tortilla chips and sour cream, and your kids will love you!

1.       Quesadillas with Salsa Frrrrresh – my brother, Tony,  named this salsa, bc it bursts with fresh flavor. It’s a great time to harvest those garden goodies and use them in this salsa!

Ingredients

Quesadillas

Flour tortillas

Shredded Mexican cheese

Shredded rotisserie chicken

¼ C cream cheese

1 tsp Chili powder

Pam cooking spray

Salsa Fresh

3-4 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 can of corn or fresh corn if you have the cobs

1 can of black olives, sliced

½ C chopped cilantro

Pinch of salt

Splash of red wine vinegar

How to – Mix softened cream cheese, Mexican cheese, shredded chicken and chili powder in a bowl. Spray a large frying pan with Pam and heat on low. Lay one flour tortilla in the sprayed Pam and place cheese and shredded chicken mixture on top. Top with 2^nd flour tortilla and let cook until cheese is melted. Flip and cook for about a minute on the other side or until the tortilla takes on a golden glow.

Repeat this to make as many quesadillas as you like.

Mix all salsa ingredients in a bowl. Top quesadillas with this.

This salsa can be made ahead and can be even better when the flavors have had some time to meld together.  Also, this can be transformed into an Atkins-friendly meal by nixing the quesadillas and making it into a salad instead.  Top some crunchy romaine with the shredded chicken, Mexican cheese and Salsa Fresh, and you have a fantastic salad. You can add some black beans as well if you dig the all natural carbs.

Try this meal on your busiest night - when you have to do a gazillion pages of fourth-grade math and then drive one kid to dance class and the other to softball. Truly, this chili is so fast, and it will get your kids to eat vegetables without even realizing it. BONUS! Salsa fresh is also great for parties. People inhale it!

Please post a comment if you've tried any of my other recipes!

And Cheers til next time!

Have a yummy week!

2.       

Food Glorious Food! 3 easy recipes that will get your family to the table without a fight.

     I love food.

     Who doesn’t, right?

      For me, though, food is about more than three square meals. Dinner time means family. There’s an unspoken open-door policy at our table. Welcome friends. Welcome hungry stragglers. Welcome neighbor kid who smells garlic and wants a meatball or two.  Eating together means opening up a bottle of vino, and taking a moment out of the craziness of our lives to be grateful.

     Growing up, my mother made dinner time a priority. She planned meals around everyone’s schedules, making sure that we broke bread together. There were baseball games and high school musical practices to compete with, but family meals came first. My mother always made the table an attractive place to be too, with homemade food that suited the seasons and quenched our cravings. Chili and soups in the fall. Roasts in the winter. Pasta on Sundays, no matter what time of year it was. And always a salad – with the absolute best homemade dressing. My friends used to pop in at dinner just for my mom’s salad. Weird, but true.

     My grandparents lived with us, so oftentimes, Nana cooked with Mom. Some of our favorite days were the ones when Nana broke into the mood to make homemade gnocchi or even just sauce. My brother and I would come through the front door from school, begging for a piece of sauce bread before we even said hello. And Nana never disappointed. She’d remove the lid from her signature silver sauce-pot and ladle warm, thick goodness over a slice of soft bread.

     Best. After school snack. Ever.   

     I’ll admit it, cooking comes easy to me now. Growing up as a first-generation Italian probably has something to do with that. For Italians, food is life, and I’m no exception to that rule. For four years, I ran a successful in-home catering business.  I cooked for big wedding celebrations as well as small get-togethers, like neighborhood jewelry parties.  I made simple and delicious food for people who just didn’t have the time, and they were so thankful. For me, planning meals is fun. I have to admit – I don’t always enjoy preparing them at my kitchen island, amidst a crew of whiners who don’t want to do their math homework, but that’s part of my job description. So, I deal. We all do.

     When my husband complains about the menu or his daily dish-duty, I threaten to stop cooking. He always laughs and calls my bluff. He knows that, for me, cooking for my family and even for myself is an outlet, something that inspires me. Even in this fast-paced society, where a protein shake and a half-caff soy latte can suffice for lunch for most of my friends, you’ll find me in my kitchen around noon, tossing a salad with crunchy romaine, chick peas, tomatoes, onions and some chicken from last night’s dinner. I dress it with my mom’s oil and vinegar magic, and I have a healthy lunch to enjoy while I answer e-mails or brainstorm the next chapter of whatever I’m working on.  

     Maybe it’s just that I’m the mom now, but these days it seems more and more difficult to keep families together at the dinner table. Activities seem more demanding. Homework seems endless. Kids are distracted by technology, their heads buried in Instagram and Twitter accounts, their communication more active in their Minecraft pseudo-worlds than in the real one.  Still, this is where we are. This is what we have to compete with. So, we up the ante.

     No more hamburger helper, people.  There’s a better way to lure your kids to the dinner table. And, it’s not as hard as you think it is. I’m here to help.

     I’m going to share some of my easy and sought-after “recipes” here on the blog. I use quotes, because these are just easy things that my mom and Nanas used to make for my family. No one ever wrote recipes for them until I started my catering business and had to compile them for my employees. These dinners are so simple to throw together on a school night when you have to get the kids to soccer and piano practice and then study for a science test.  I’ll post these once a week for you, and I’ll include a vegetable, a starch, and a protein – just like my mom always did!

     For my first food post, I am going to share the ever-famous Jackie’s salad dressing. For all of you who have eaten this a zillion times and gone gaga over my salad, you will laugh at how easy it is! I told you so. I’m also going to share a family and friend favorite, my go-to helping hands meal. I love to make my mom’s Chicken Verona, a.k.a. lemon chicken, and take it to a friend who is under the weather and needs a meal delivery. This was my number one seller when I ran Chez Vous, my in-home catering business, and several customers asked me for the recipe. I always gave it to them. Last, I’ll post a recipe for my award-winning tomato casserole. When I say award-winning, I mean this recipe took the Catalpa Place block party first prize for the main dish category. Serious business, y’all. Honestly, though, everyone loves our tomato casserole. And, if you hate the word casserole, just call it provincial tomato bake. That’s what I called it on the Chez Vous menu. Sounds prettier.

     These are three things that are easy to make. Your kids will eat them, and they don’t require crazy ingredients that you have to buy at the ethnic food or gourmet store. Have fun with these, and let me know how they go over at your table. Now, mangia!

Chicken Verona

8-10 boneless chicken breasts

1C Italian breadcrumbs

1C Parmesan cheese

1 stick of butter

Juice of 1 lemon

1 T garlic powder

Directions:

Toss breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Coat chicken breasts in parmesan and breadcrumb mixture and lay in a baking pan.

In a microwavable bowl or Pyrex glass measuring cup, place the butter, the lemon juice and the garlic powder. Melt together in the microwave for 2 minutes then pour over the chicken.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

Tomato Casserole

2 C Croutons – any flavor works

3 large tomatoes or 4 medium sized ones, sliced thickly into rounds

1 bag shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese

1 1/4 C oily Italian dressing (my favorite is Ken’s Steakhouse Caesar or a balsamic vinaigrette)

Directions:

Cover bottom of 8x11 casserole dish with croutons

Top croutons with a layer of sliced tomatoes

Top with a layer of cheese

Add another  layer of tomatoes

Add another layer of cheese

Drizzle dressing all over the top

Bake at 350 for 40 min. or until cheese is golden brown.

Jackie’s salad

1 head of Romaine or leaf lettuce

Some Tomatoes – grape or sliced

1 sliced Onion

¼ can chick peas

½ C Olive oil

¼ C Red wine or balsamic vinegar

1 tsp Salt

3/4 tsp Pepper

3/4  tsp Garlic powder

Directions – Place the veggies in a bowl. Atop the salad, sprinkle the spices. Add the oil first then the vinegar. Toss. Don’t mix the dressing first in a jar. For whatever reason, it makes it taste different. Still good, but different!

NOTE – please add anything you like to this salad! Cheeses, proteins, nuts, berries. I love grilling veggies in summer when I have more time and tossing them into the salad with gorgonzola cheese or adding some store-bought rotisserie chicken and croutons. Even a fried egg is awesome on a salad. Try it. You’ll be surprised!

    

    

Nana's Garden

     

     “Give it some Miracle Grow. That’s what I do.”

     That was my Nana’s gardening advice.

     As a kid, I was curious about my grandmother’s penchant for growing fruits and vegetables. Her row house in downtown Pittsburgh had a tiny backyard with no grass. Instead, practically every inch was devoted to growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, green beans, zucchini, basil, and rose bushes. She even had a grape arbor that twined and tangled above the slim gravel parking space out back. This little organic Eden didn’t make any sense to me. It sprouted in the center of what was then a grimy city, where morning announced itself with steamy steel mill smog and afternoon haze smelled like freshly poured pavement. The garden didn’t fit in.

     But I loved it.

     I loved climbing up to the grape vine with my little brother. We’d spend what seemed like hours searching for sweet fruit, daring each other to eat the tiny unripe pellets that we knew would make our bellies hurt. By September, most of the wine grapes were large and pale green, and bursting with a surprising sweetness. I was too young to remember whether or not my grandfather used these grapes to make his homemade wine every year. I do remember that my grandmother later used his wine as salad vinegar.

     I loved the smell of tomatoes on the vine. The pungent spice of the leaves and stems, the leathery smoothness of the fruit. My grandmother had to remind me several times a day not to pick the green tomatoes. They were so tempting!  A child can learn patience through the slow reddening of a tomato, and what sweet reward to those who master the art of waiting.

     I loved snapping the ends off of freshly picked beans. Sitting at the kitchen table with my Nana and a gaggle of neighborhood women. Their broken English chatter was background noise to the click and pop of vegetables being readied and tossed into a large plastic bowl.  Nana would later dress the velvety beans with garlic, green olive oil, and a little salt. They didn’t last long. Green bean salad was a family favorite in late summer.

     After my grandmother died, I visited the place where she was raised in the South of Italy. I walked the crag of road to see the dilapidated rubble that was once her home. Her family had had no running water. No electricity.

     But they’d had a garden and a farm. And for this, they’d eaten like kings.

     Most of the mountain towns in Calabria are still awash in poverty, but their gardens are lush. Tomatoes dry atop milk crates that sit on broken cement steps. Baskets of fat eggplants and zucchini color the ochre stone stairwells in between dark tenements with dented doorways. The contrast is stark, but it helped me make sense of my grandmother’s little patch of green paradise in downtown Pittsburgh. 

     As a child in the mountains of Calabria, she’d had practically nothing. As an adult in the “land of milk and honey,” she still struggled. Raising seven children in a tiny house on her husband’s meager salary was not an easy feat. She did it though, and the family that has bloomed from the passionate work of her heart is even more beautiful than the garden she tended so carefully with her wrinkled fingers. I know she is smiling down from Heaven at the crazy lot of us. From seven children, she now has thirteen grandkids and seven great grandkids. When we are all together, we twine and tangle around each other like the grapevines upon which my brother and I once played. Some of us are spicy, and some are sweet, and when tossed together, we are a colorful bunch. We love each other, because she loved us enough to tend first to family. She was an amazing gardener.

     Of plants and of people.

     A miracle grower, of sorts.

     I can only pray that I’ve inherited just a smidge of her green thumb.

     I have my own garden now. I’ve planted some of the same things my grandmother did. I’ve also tried a few new veggies, like Brussels sprouts. They’re doing okay, after a bit of a war with cabbage worms that I believe I’ve won. I also accidentally planted a pumpkin plant that I thought was a zucchini. It’s growing, although the space is far too small. It’s twining and vining into my grass, and there are little green pumpkins peeking out from some of the flowers. My kids are thrilled to be able to grow their own Halloween jack o’ lanterns. Hopefully, the pumpkins keep getting bigger and eventually turn orange.

     I’ll try some Miracle Grow.

     After all, that’s what she would have done.

NOT A ZUCCHINI PLANT... SNICKER

The Writer's Backstory - Tanushree Ghosh

Happy July! As spring has morphed into a cool,wet summer here in Pittsburgh, I have found myself quite enveloped in family time, including birthday celebrations and mini vacations.  I've been taking advantage of the snippets of warmth and sunshine by floating around in our swimming pool.     Several beautiful books have found their way onto my Kindle. And yes, I have carved out a few minutes here and there to write.

Seeking quiet within the noise of summer break is like searching for a lost diamond earring in the pool. Precious writing time is elusive. Still, I try to shut out the slap of the kids' flip-flops as they travel through the halls. I grab hold of  moments in between endless snack-making and camp-driving, even if it's only enough time to scribble (or tap) some notes into my iPhone. Memories of an inspiring three-day writers conference in New York City urge me forward in pursuit of my dreams.

Months after the Algonkian NY Pitch conference, the writers of group C are beginning to see the fruits of our labors. Some of us are on our way to finding the right agent to represent our writing. Others continue to edit and plug away on our manuscripts, utilizing the professional advice and education we received at the conference in March. Today, I am excited to introduce another talented Algonkian writer - Tanushree Ghosh, who has recently been hired to write for Huffington Post! Congratulations Tanu!

Currently working for Intel Corporation as an engineer and engineering manager, Tanu is a mother, an activist, an artist and a writer.  Her education has been primarily in the STEM fields (She has a PhD in Material Science and Chemistry from Cornell University and has worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratories) but she has pursued ‘the arts' defiantly throughout her life and continues to do so. She is an active and past member of several international NGOs and is currently working to open her organization - Her Rights  - to facilitate resource mobilization for women in need.  Her blog posts and stories are in effort to provoke thoughts towards social issues, especially issues concerning women. Immigration and related acculturation is also of close interest to her. The latter is the topic of her first book. She is also a blogger for the Huffington Post.

1. Tell me about yourself. What kind of writing do you do - novels, poetry, screenplays, etc.... When did you start writing and why?

I started with an essay, and then moved to fiction, from what I understand my pieces would fall into the ‘literary’ genre there and now have started contributing to Huffington post as a blogger with mostly essays.  I haven’t ventured into writing a novel yet, but definitely plan to someday. 

2. What are you currently working on?

My biggest project now is my first book, literary fiction, collection of connected cohesive short stories. You can think of the manuscript to be similar in model to recent works like Olive Kitteridge and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. The collection depicts stories of 10 individuals who choose to immigrate to the US are linked to explore the complexities of human ambition placed against the nuances of acculturation. It is titled ‘Under The Seventh Tree.'

3. Do you outline, or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I definitely outline – when I started I took some online courses available through the writing program at MIT which taught me a lot on how to think of an event or a character as a seed and then develop around that. I usually start with an idea, which comes to my head mostly when I am driving interestingly, develop the seed, outline what can happen and then put it to paper (or rather computer to be accurate).

4. What was your impression of the Algonkian Pitch conference, and how did it specifically help you in your journey as a writer?

What I found of most value from the conference is the people I met there. You guys, our Algonkian 14 team, Susan, Michael, Paula – it was a support that had been previously missing for me. Also, unlike a previous conference attended, the sheer size being smaller made for an ambience which was very nurturing and encouraging. 

5. Top 5 books you've read?

God of Small Things, Nandita Naroke (In Bengali, By Late Humayan Ahmed), The City of Joy, Everything by Agatha Christie.

6. Where to find you?

My personal website is www.thoughtsandrights.com, twitter: @thoughtsnrights, I also guest blog for Huffington Post so you can search by my name on Huff Post and get to my blogger archive. 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tanushree-ghosh/i-always-thought-id-return-home-to-india_b_7472776.html

Link to her personal website for more info: http://www.thoughtsandrights.com

Introducing Another Wonderful Algonkian Writer - Kathy Ramsperger

     

    

     Spring is finally here! Ahhh.The sunshine and warmer temperatures energize me, making want to wake up earlier and stay up later. More hours equal more writing time! Querying, submitting, critiquing and just plain creating! It’s been great getting more chapters in on my new YA paranormal romance – book three of the Whisper Trilogy. It’s also been amazing to keep in touch with and follow all of the amazing writers I met at the Algonkian NY Pitch conference.

     This week, I would like to introduce the first person I met at the conference, the wonderful Kathy Ramsperger. I’ll never forget the first time I talked to Kathy, I thought to myself – Wow – this woman is the real deal. She’s a journalist, and she has her own communications company! I knew right away I had a lot to learn from her. 

Kathryn Brown Ramsperger wrote her first story in fourth grade, but she began loving stories long before that. She grew up sitting on her grandparents' front porch swing, listening to her relatives weave their stories of the day. After receiving her B.A. at Hollins University, she felt a pull to see the world, so she became a journalist, and then a humanitarian worker with the Red Cross. She's lived and worked in Europe and Africa and has a special interest in the Middle East. Her most recent story will appear in the Spring 2015 issue of forgejournal.com. She's written one other novel that received the Hollins Fiction award. She also writes for online publications. Her writing, fiction and nonfiction, is about the connections between (often very different) people. She lives and writes in Maryland with her husband, two teens, and two cats. 

1.      What kind of writing do you do - novels, poetry, screenplays, etc.... When did you start writing and why? 

Maybe I started writing by chance. I never remember not writing poems and songs.

I used to say, "Give me a subject. Give me a genre. And I'll write about it." I wrote my first story in fourth grade about a jack-o-lantern who came to life. A story I wrote in high school won an award, and so I majored in English instead of Music or Biology. I've never stopped writing because I simply can't. I've tried to run away from it, and I also do humanitarian work and life coaching. Yet writing feeds my soul. 

I had to make money, and journalism fell into my lap through an internship. I published poetry and stories along the way. Once I published articles in National Geographic and Kiplinger publications, and I headed the International Red Cross publications department in Geneva, Switzerland, I knew writing would always be part of me. I also write online, with articles on Yahoo Parenting, yourtango.com and thegoodmenproject.com. I consider it a job, but I also consider it a meditation, a way to put two and two together to see the bigger picture.

These days I'm more selective about what I write, though. I write about how human connection can heal us. How we're more similar than different. I always wanted to get back to writing fiction - what I went to college to learn how to do. I won an award for a Young Adult novel in college, but I never tried to publish it because I was too perfectionistic at the time. Called Moments on the Edge, it's about the connections between two women, one coming of age in the Industrial Revolution, the other coming of age in the 1970s, during the Space Age, a revolution in technology and communication. Most people know this era as one of sex, drugs and rock and roll, but it was much more.

     After surviving melanoma in 1999, and facing all sorts of terrorism in my neighborhood in 2001 and 2002, I decided I finally needed to write and try to publish a novel. I also wanted to write a novel that would heal the rifts between continents, many of them reverberating to this day. Writing and revising what I'm now calling The Shores of Our Souls was the easy part. Its road to publishing has been long. Yet those words I wrote, no matter what happens now, will leave a legacy and a goal accomplished. That's the message I'd like to leave all writers: Just write.

2.       What are you currently working on?

     My most recent story is published in the April issue of Forge. (forgejournal.com) It's called, "A Rug, A Piano, A Quilt, A Voice." 

     My current novel has a new title following Algonkian. The Shores of Our Souls, formerly Incongruent, tells the story of two people from opposite sides of the world, differing in culture, race, nation, gender, and age, and their journey together towards healing. Dianna meets Qasim and falls for his educated charm and adventure. Yet she has trouble trusting him, more because of her own past than because of his mercurial moods, which ebb and flow as civil war expands in his homeland - 1980s Lebanon. Dianna, immersed in her own challenges, doesn't realize that Qasim is as fractured by family and societal expectations as she. Her own secrets, which brought her to New York City, keep a wall between them, much more than their differences. Yet life continues to reunite them each time they run away from each other, Dianna ending up in Sudan's civil war and Qasim rising through the ranks at the U.N. Both caring for families back home. Can they sidestep society, tradition, and their own hearts to find love and peace? 

By the way, the novel's title is derived from a Khalil Gibran quote: "Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

3.      Do you outline, or do you write by the seat of your pants?

            I fly by the seat of my pants in almost everything in life. I like adventure. In writing, I come back to earth after the first draft. I outline, then revise, then outline again. I also use Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey to help me plot once my major scenes are written. He wrote this Jungian-based how-to for screenwriters to use, and I usually see my books play out like a movie if I close my eyes, so it was perfect for me. It connected my right-brained writing approach to a logical plotting method - a marriage made in heaven. I also graph my stories if I get stuck to see if the action is rising and falling in the right places. If you connect voice, plot, and setting to the heartbeat of a story arc, you're on your way to a good story.

4.       What was your impression of the Algonkian Pitch conference, and how did it specifically help you in your journey as a writer?

I'd been marketing my novel for quite some time, and I'd taken all the comments I'd received to heart. Some of these comments were objective and true; others were based on myth. The Algonkian Pitch conference separated fact from fiction and directed me forward. As Michael Neff explains in pre-conference exercises, "The pitch wags the novel." I’m now on my way again - not only to a better pitch but to a well-crafted, well-organized novel. While in New York City, I made connections I wouldn't otherwise have made, including our workshop leader, Susan Breen, one of the best teachers I've ever met. This conference gives writers a way to meet with the insiders in publishing and to learn from them face-to-face. I returned home with a plan for revision and, I hope, publication. And I want to express my gratitude to everyone who was there!

5.       Top 5 favorite books?

Most books have transformed my life. These are the dog-eared books I carry around and re-read:

Middlemarch by George Eliot (pen name for Mary Ann Evans)

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Letters to a Young Poet by Ranier Rilke 

The Eye of the Story by Eudora Welty

Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott

Just one more? The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

6.      Where can your readers find you?

You can find more about my novel at kathrynbrownramsperger.com.

You can also reach out to me here:

@kathyramsperger

facebook.com/kramsperger

ramspergercommunications.com

groundonecoaching.com (I coach Creatives.)

http://www.yourtango.com/experts/kathrynbrownramsperger 

Interview with an Algonkian Writer - Kimberly Bunker

     

     Last week, I shared a little about the amazing Algonkian Writers NY Pitch conference I attended in March. I am still making connections from the conference and reaping the benefits of all that I learned there. I was lucky enough to be placed in group C, under the training of Susan Breen, an author and professor at Gotham University. She taught our group how to perfect our commercial novel pitches so that we were ready to pitch to editors from impressive publishing houses.  It truly was the best writers conference I've ever attended. If you'd like to read more about it, last week's blog post contains much more information about the conference itself..

     Our group, which we have since called The Algonkian 14, has created a Facebook page on which we can share ups and downs, our success stories and information about writing and publishing. We now have a place to go to support each others’ careers, share pertinent field information, and simply stay in touch. We have the wonderful Kathy Ramsperger to thank for creating the FB page, and I’ll be sharing her interview next week.

     This week on Whatever Inspires, I would like to introduce you to the talented Kimberly Bunker. Kimberly lives in upstate New York, where she is finishing both her novel and her MFA from St. Joseph's College. Her fiction recently won Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest and The Story Plant's Authors First Short Story Content. She's also had stories published in PANK, Used Furniture Review, and other magazines. When she's not writing or reading, she's learning a new vegan recipe or practicing aerial silks.​

1.      Tell me about yourself and your writing.

     My focus is on my novel, but I also write short stories​. I work as a freelance writer, so I write​

Nonfiction too​ - blogs, articles, etc. But my heart is in fiction.

​ 

     When did I start writing?...when I learned to write, I suppose. I stopped being embarrassed to show it to people a year or two after college. I was working for a nonprofit that led life history workshops into a women's prison. I was leading one called Live Your Dream, and the discussion question was, What is your dream? For me, the answer was easy - it came immediately, though I'd never said it out loud. "To write a novel."

 2. What are you currently working on?

        My novel, Dream, Awake, is about an artist named Jessi who, for the past year, has made a living working for the elderly recluse Errol Spice, who pays her to sit at his bedside, listen to a dream he had, then paint it. The story starts when he dies. Days later in the mail, she receives a letter that was written to him years before she met him, yet mentions her by name, and insists that he can save himself from some tragedy if only he contacts her. Shocked, and intrigued, Jessi goes in search of the letter's writer, turning first to her paintings for clues. She finds herself on a quest to uncover Errol Spice's past, and how it - and his dreams - intertwine with her own.
 

3. Do you outline, or do you write by the seat of your pants?

     More so the former, but I wouldn't really call it outlining. I happened upon a new method a couple summers ago, when I was living in North Carolina. I would go off on a long walk with one scene in mind, and I would just climb into that scene and live in it. Then, when I got back to my computer, I'd have that scene  in my mind, vivid and real and sensory, and I could write about it from a place of "having been there." Of course, I'd still need to revise it a hundred times, but that was the method for getting it on paper. 

4. What was your impression of the Algonkian Pitch conference, and how did it specifically help you in your journey as a writer?

     Publishing, and trying to get published, is not antithetical to the "art" of writing. On the contrary, trying to get published has helped me become a better writer. For so long I've been told that I shouldn't care about getting published - I should just write for the love of writing. But those two aren't mutually exclusive. Instead, they - getting published, and loving writing, and becoming a better writer - are all interrelated; they augment each other.  

​​

​Also, now, I can't imagine ever NOT writing a pitch before I start a new project. Writing a pitch is so effective in chiseling down a big story into the essential parts, the motives and the crossroads and the bare bones of the story. ​

5. What are your top 5 favorite books?

"Look at the Harlequins" - Vladimir Nabokov 

​"Kiss of the Spider Woman" - Manual Puig 

​"Slowness" - Milan Kundera 

​"Eat, Pray, Love" - Elizabeth Gilbert

​"Final Exam" - Julio Cortazar​

6. Where can we find more information about you and your books?

     I'm still working on building up a platform. Truthfully, I haven't done much yet. I'm getting there. For the moment, I'm just on Twitter - @kimberly_mb.​ Also, you can find one of my publications in Glimmer Train’s bulletin online -   http://www.glimmertrain.com/b81bunker.html

Thanks Kimberly! Looking forward to seeing Dream Awake  in print someday soon!

Until next time, be inspired!

    

     

The Writer's Backstory - The Algonkian NY Pitch Writer's Conference, and How it Inspired the Lives of 14 Writers

     

     Last weekend, I was privileged enough to attend the Algonkian Writers New York Pitch conference in Manhattan. Directed by the contagiously enthusiastic Michael Neff and taught by a faculty of talented writers, literary agents, and editors, The New York Pitch conference is devoted to helping writers develop a strong pitch for their commercial novels. Pre-conference work forced attendees to pick apart our novels on a deeper level than we usually might. We were instructed to come up with several comparable books, decide on a working title, flesh out our protagonists and antagonists, and plot our conflicts through a series of exercises.  Once we arrived at the conference, we were ready to pitch our projects.

     …Or so we thought.

      After being divided into groups that were organized by the genre of our novels, we spent hours working through our pitches with our designated mentors. We pitched. We revised. We pitched again until we had our spiels under our thumbs and could speak them with fervor and faith. On Friday morning, we were finally prepared to pitch to our first editor. She was from Berkeley Penguin and was gracious enough to both listen to our pitches and give us helpful feedback.   By the end of the conference on Sunday we’d pitched to four editors –all from big houses based in New York City. A handful of us got requests for pages and went home with a new found spring in our steps!

     The New York Pitch conference was by-far the best writing conference I've attended.

     Now I not only have a fabulous pitch and editors who are interested in reading my work, but I have a group of writing peers to support who can support me back. Our group, group C, consisted of fourteen writers from all over the country. Susan Breen, who is a successful writer and an alumni of the Algonkian workshop, was our fearless leader. She led us through the pitch writing trenches and ushered us into the world of publishing with a new and improved product.  We were so grateful to have been her students for the weekend.

     Since the Algonkian Writers New York Pitch Conference made such an impression on me, I’ve decided to post a blog series about it. The series will be entitled “The Writer’s Backstory,” because although we are encouraged to limit backstory in our projects, I happen to LOVE it! Every week I’ll post an interview of one member of the Algonkian fourteen, group C. Interviews will focus on each writer’s backstory, their careers and projects, as well as their impressions of The NY Pitch conference – specifically how the workshops helped each of them grow as writers.

     There will never be enough words to thank Michael Neff, Paula Munier, Jackie Cantor, Silissa Kenney, Lyssa Keusch, Leis Pederson, Susan Breen, and Caitlin Alexander. For your enthusiasm and time, your field expertise, and your greatly appreciated organizational skills, we all thank you!

     Without further ado, I give you the first of the Algonkian 14 – Geraldine Donaher, a Philadelphia resident and member of The Delaware Press Club. A talented writer with a background in Diocesan studies and experience living as a religious sister, Geraldine recently finished writing her first novel. Her book touches on some really interesting issues – the ins and outs of living and leaving the convent life and also life with post-traumatic stress disorder.

1.      Tell me about yourself and your writing.

I consider myself a woman's fiction urban writer. I've been writing since I was in second grade. A few years ago my mom apologized to me for not helping me in my writing career. She said as a child, I wrote constantly and was always sharing what I wrote…but with twelve brothers and sisters, she didn't do anything with my passion. She said she saw it dim over the early formative years. Actually, it didn't dim, I just stopped sharing it and have trunk loads of journals/diaries/stories/poems that I figured no one wanted to hear….but I never stopped writing.  Ten years ago, at 40, I decided to throw my passion out into the world and see what would happen. Like my family, maybe nobody wants to read it, but at least I can try. I think I already have thick skin because of my family. I've learned that's an ok thing to have.

 2. I love it that you kept on writing for yourself, even though you weren’t sharing with anyone. I think so many of us simply must write for ourselves! What are you currently working on?

 I lived as a Religious Sister in a convent for six years, and thought people may be interested in how religious life influences a young woman as she tries to create a new life for herself. I learned that religious life attracts women for different reasons: austerity, piety, redemption – even escape.  In my novel, Clara's Voice,  it’s the quiet. Growing up in Philadelphia with thirteen siblings and strict Catholic parents, Clara's empty parish church is a respite from family discord. By age twenty, these simple visits have grown into a personal relationship with God and she decides to enter the convent. For six years Clara enjoys the teaching apostolate and theological studies, but she struggles with loneliness. Unable to connect with the community aspect of Religious Life, Clara decides to leave and ventures out into the Philadelphia area.
   What follows is a different kind of soul searching as Clara struggles with boyfriends, bills, and binge drinking. Self-doubt grows with her destructive choices but In the middle of the chaos she finds quiet, confident Anton. Their friendship creates a nurturing space where Clara learns to trust her judgment again. When their friendship grows over three years into a loving relationship, Clara and Anton marry and she is confident that she’s found the companionship she has been searching for.
 When a difficult pregnancy ends with a stillborn son, Clara’s self blame exacerbates her grief. Post-traumatic stress disorder fills her with disturbing images and Clara struggles with irrational urges to kill Anton. To silence the intrusive thoughts of PTSD and save her loving relationship with Anton, Clara journeys back into the quiet that first led her into the convent. Only there, will she find the peace and love she shares with Anton. It's been waiting for her all along.

 3. Do you outline, or do you write by the seat of your pants?

For Clara's Voice, I made a very general outline (not sub bullets). I'm working on a novel now called The City's Allee and am actually using an outline approach - following The Algonkian Pitch articles we had to read,

4. What was your impression of the Algonkian Pitch conference, and how did it specifically help you in your journey as a writer?

Validated what I've already done, but didn't sugar coat anything, I think I have a realistic view on what I still need to do. I like the constructive criticism. That's where the thick skin comes in handy.
 

5. What are your top 5 favorite books?

Ahab's Wife, Z- a novae of Zelda Fitzgerald, The Orphan Train, The Red Tent, Year of Wonder - and probably ten others :)

6. Where can we find more information about you and your books?

I'm from Philadelphia and like to write about ways people better their lives through education or small business. I have a website www.geraldinedonaher.com where I interview people, and blog about some of the things happening in big cities - good and bad. The blog also organizes my information on the horrors of sex trafficking. People don't realize how close it is to their own homes.    I have a degree in English Literature, Theology, and Pennsylvania Certification in Education. I taught for fifteen years in Philadelphia Archdiocesan parochial schools and put many of my classroom experiences into Clara's Voice.  I'm the eleventh child of thirteen and put a lot of the frustration, anger, joy, and love that is the wonderful mess of family into my stories.

/http://www.geraldinedonaher.com/

Thanks Gerri! Looking forward to seeing Clara in print someday soon!

Until next time, happy writing! Happy pitching! Happy happy!