Table of Contents: From Breakfast With Anita Diamant to Dessert With James Patterson - a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings and Insights From Today's Bestselling Authors (25 page)

Rob Hann, Retna Ltd.

SELECTED WOEKS

The House on Fortune Street
(2008)

Banishing Verona
(2004)

Eva Moves the Furniture
(2001)

The Missing World
(2000)

Criminals
(1996)

Homework
(1990)

Inspiration
The House on Fortune Street had several inspirations: my love of nineteenth century literature, my fascination with how people's lives change over time, a brief encounter with someone, like my character Cameron, whose desires have no place in this world.

What Keeps Me Writing?
I have two very hard working sisters in Scotland; one runs a market research company, the other is the head teacher in a primary school. They are both ardent readers and when I write I'm always trying to keep them awake at night a little bit longer.

Readers Frequently Ask
Was Eva, from my novel
Eva Moves The Furniture
, based on a real person? Yes, on my mother. I know very little about her, though, so my character is largely (and lovingly) imagined.

Books That Have Influenced My Writing
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens is, as I hope
The House on Fortune Street
makes clear, a huge influence. My dear friend, the wonderful writer Andrea Barrett, guides both my reading and my writing. I grew up reading and watching Shakespeare, and he still remains my benchmark for character, plot, and, above all, language.

Makes 4 servings

Abigail, the owner of the titular house on Fortune Street, learns to make this from her friend Dara's mother, Fiona. She whips this up the unfortunate evening when she drops in to visit Fiona and instead finds herself alone with Fiona's husband Alastair, Dara's stepfather.

I always put in more of my favorite ingredients — anchovies and pine nuts — but somehow it works out.

Note:
Tagliatelle works well, but so would linguine or any not-too-chunky pasta. I'm allowing 2 ounces of pasta per person but for guests with hearty appetites, allow a little extra.

1
Prepare pasta according to package directions.

2
While pasta is boiling, toast pine nuts in a small skillet over low heat (it's easy to burn them so don't get distracted). Remove from heat and set aside.

3
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over low heat and sauté garlic for 30 seconds. Add spinach and sauté, stirring frequently until spinach is soft and almost completely cooked. Add raisins and stir for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat.

4
Place cooked pasta in a serving dish. Add spinach to cooked pasta and toss. Stir in anchovies (they dissolve but leave a nice sharp taste). Sprinkle with pine nuts and add Parmesan cheese (I always go a little overboard on this). Serve with good bread and lively conversation.

Makes 6 servings

Dara makes this soup for her father soon after she moves into the garden flat in
The House on Fortune Street
. She hopes this delicious soup will both make the flat seem more like home and impress her father with her adult competence.

1
Melt butter in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add onion, ginger, and garlic and sauté for fifteen minutes.

2
Add stock, wine, and carrots. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, over medium heat until the carrots are very tender, about 45 minutes.

3
Purée the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth (Dara, in London, would have used a mouli).

4
Return to pot, and season with lemon juice, curry powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chives or parsley. Serve hot or chilled to appreciative family members and friends.

Andy Newman

SELECTED WOEKS

The Next Queen of Heaven
(2009)

A Lion Among Men
(2008)

Son of a Witch
(2005)

Mirror Mirror
(2003)

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
(1999)

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
(1995)

Where I Find Inspiration
Two quotes bully themselves forward clamoring for attention: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” and “Still will I harvest Beauty where it grows,” from Robert Herrick and Edna St. Vincent Millay, respectively. Both quotes suggest the notions of scavenging, salvage, and even theft. I am inspired in writing by my heroes (Maurice Sendak, Tony Kushner, Penelope Fitzgerald, Lucy Boston, and Emily Dickinson to name the first of hundreds who come to mind). The tiniest accident of concurrence — a visual thing, a scrap of memory pasted against a new understanding of human character, a spiral of melody, a dream image only partly recalled — can serve as the sand in the oyster. And so often does; and so efficiently that usually I cannot recall what the original fleck of sand was. Still, I try to pay attention to as much as I possibly can, for my work as well as for my satisfaction in daily life.

Readers Should Know
My critical monograph on Maurice Sendak,
Making Mischief
, codifies some of what I mention above in that I itemize his heroes, the sources of some of his images, and I admire what he makes of his particular sand. (Well, Blake is a very fancy bit of grit.) It also reminds me how to work and keep worthy heroes and muses in mind. I'm hard at work on the fourth, and I think final, volume of The Wicked Years, my series that began with
Wicked
. I have several quotes and bits of poetry as epigrams and a couple of CDs of Fauré set aside to listen to. I also have several years' worth of scraps of questions and conceits about the characters in Oz, scraps that have occurred to me at irregular intervals while I was working on other projects.

Readers Frequently Ask
Readers seem endlessly fascinated about the relationship among the following creations:
The Wizard of Oz
, both the 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 MGM film starring Judy Garland, and the 1995 novel I wrote called
Wicked
as well as the 2003 play based on my novel.

I cannot always answer the questions. What I do find amusing is that some readers (and some reviewers) claim my book is more directly derived from the film, and others insist I follow Baum's inventions rather slavishly. In fact, I tried hard to derive my work in about equal parts from both iterations of the famous story, while at the same time adding novelty and dash of my own (as well as I was able).

Influences on My Writing
I admire, and constantly applaud the influence of, T. H. White's magnum opus about King Arthur, published in omnibus edition as
The Once and Future King
. I did not see initially that
Wicked
was inspired by his efforts, but I found his taking of a familiar legend — King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table — and retelling it as if it had never been told before, through his particular sympathetic intelligence and artistry, to be (when I reconsidered it) the book I had read that most prefigured what I hoped to do in
Wicked
.

Also, interesting, isn't it, that
The Once and Future King
inspired a musical (Camelot), and so did my novel.

I have never stopped admiring, for its poetry and its moral sensibility, a fine American novel called
Mariette in Ecstasy
by Ron Hansen. I had already written
Wicked
when I read
Mariette in Ecstasy
, but I went on to read Hansen's novel,
Hitler's Niece
, which did much of what I had wanted to do in
Wicked
in a hugely different vernacular. Hansen is a shockingly capable writer who should be known by everyone. I envy and would love to be able to emulate his capacity to render in storytelling the pettiness and weariness of evil as well as its dreadful cost.

Finally, the English novelist Jill Paton Walsh — a friend of mine as well as a hero — wrote a book for teenagers called
Unleaving
. It is now, I believe, out of print, but certainly worth searching for in libraries or on out-of-print websites. Her capacity for articulating a moral conundrum in the most sensuous prose makes her, in this novel especially, a worthy descendent or follower of Virginia Woolf at her best.

Of those denizens of Oz, we know a few things. They can sing. They can dance. Some of them can fly. But can they cook?

Dear reader, let us take a voyage deeper into the mysteries of the place. Let's spend a little time with the backstairs support, the scuttlebutts of scullery and buttery. Let's pay some attention to the help behind the curtain. Welcome to the kitchens of Oz.

Makes 6–8 servings

Glinda — you used to know her as Galinda but times change and she moves on, we all move on — replies to our request for a peek in her larder with a little squeal of protest. Then she pushes through the door to see what is there. (She has rarely been behind that door, as frightening things like pots and kettles and chefs are said to lurk within.)

Imagine her surprise, she tells us, to see things laid out so prettily, almost as if by magic, ready for assembly. A half dozen fresh peaches, sliced and arranged in a pretty design on a pink ceramic plate with scalloped edges. A lemon freshly squeezed and its pips removed, its juice waiting in a small cut-glass decanter. And rough but handsome pastry dough, chill to the touch but ready for manipulation on this convenient, broad, and floured board! Why, who knew cooking could be so easy? And such fun! She'll have to have friends over. She leaves the job half-done to go pen a few hundred notes, only to her very very closest friends, to come sample her baking. While she is gone, nameless staff come in and finish the job. Your nameless staff can do it, too. But if you should want to impress someone, anyone, do the whole thing yourself. (Glinda will not be able to visit; she is previously engaged, she urges me to mention. No matter when you write.)

Note:
Use our tart dough recipe below or thawed commercial dough (unwrap it, and thump into lumpiness so Munchkins think you made it by hand the day before).

1
Preheat oven to 450°F. On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough into an 11-inch circle. Transfer to a cookie sheet (lined with aluminum foil, if you prefer). Chill while preparing the fruit.