Food: The Author’s Friend or Enemy?

Food: The Author’s Friend or Enemy?

            I am beginning to work on the second book of my series Of Gods, Flies and Desperate Lawyers, I find that I become very distracted: by eating. Yes, I must admit it.  Food interferes with my writing.

            I wish I was like certain other people. They eat because if they don’t, they die.  They eat to live. Food is just a means to stay alive and keep going,

I, on the other hand, live to eat.

And when I sit down to write, food becomes a distraction, a temptation. The movie,Chocolat, with Juliet Binoche and Johnny Depp was on. I love this movie and I have seen it numerous times. But when the music was playing and Binoche’s character, Vienne, was stirring hot buttery looking chocolate for a ganache, I was doomed. Running into the kitchen, the only thing I could find that even resembled a form of something chocolate was a small chunk of unsweetened Baker’s chocolate. I looked further and found a half packet of Swiss Miss reduced calorie hot chocolate. Well, it was certainly not almond truffles dusted with cocoa powder or “nipples of Venus,” dark chocolate creams dipped in white chocolate. But what could I do? I drank it anyway. Was it satisfying? Hardly.

A few day later as I was outlining a chapter for my new book, there was a southern cooking show where the host was preparing an old Southern recipe for macaroni and cheese. Suddenly, my mouth began to water. I dropped the laptop and ran to the kitchen. I started rummaging through the refrigerator. There was nothing but a solitary piece of Jarlsberg cheese that had been unclaimed for at least a week.  Was it satisfying? Hardly. And my exploration in search of some cheese-like food resulted in interrupting thoughts in a perfectly good introductory paragraph.

So, what have I learned? When I sit down to write, I must find myself some better food.

Wishing you sweet dreams on a rainy night, Anna