Category: Inspiration // Cool

Zero Proof: The Good House

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On the new episode of Zero Proof Book Club, Shelley and I discuss Ann Leary’s book “The Good House.” We’ve been reading so much quit lit and self-help, we decided to read a novel. “The Good House” by Leary, an NPR host and recovering alcoholic herself, fit the bill. Kirkus Reviews calls this book “a genuinely funny novel about alcoholism,” and we’d have to agree.

Listen to the new episode here, at ZeroProofBookClub.com, and follow us on Instagram at @zeroproofbookclub.

Hildy, the main character, is super funny, even if her spiraling addiction is not. We talk about the agony of hearing about what you did while drinking, the effectiveness of interventions, and, of course, witches.

About “The Good House”

What to expect: A funny, poignant novel about a struggling, high-functioning alcoholic

Pairs well with: A Virgin Mary. Tomato water with jalapeño & basil + horseradish + Worcestershire

In the book, Hildy drinks a Virgin Mary at a Thanksgiving gathering while the rest of the family downs the real thing. Our ultra-refreshing interpretation of the Virgin Mary captures the spirit of a Bloody without the booze. It incorporates tomato water, a super-concentrated liquid that captures the delicious essence of tomato. Here’s what you do:

  • Roughly chop three beefsteak tomatoes, one jalapeño and a handful of fresh basil.
  • Throw it all into a food processor and pulse until smooth. Pour into a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl.
  • Let it sit in the fridge for at least 12 hours, and you’ll be rewarded with a cup or so of jalapeño-basil tomato water.
  • Pour it over ice, stir in a dash of Worcestershire, grate a little fresh horseradish over top if you can find it, and garnish with cherry tomato and basil.
  • Enjoy!

From the book jacket:

“Hildy Good is a townie. A lifelong resident of a small community on the rocky coast of Boston’s North Shore, she knows pretty much everything about everyone. And she’s good at lots of things, too. A successful real-estate broker, mother, and grandmother, her days are full. But her nights have become lonely ever since her daughters, convinced their mother was drinking too much, sent her off to rehab. Now she’s in recovery—more or less.

Alone and feeling unjustly persecuted, Hildy finds a friend in Rebecca McAllister, one of her town’s wealthy newcomers. Rebecca is grateful for the friendship and Hildy feels like a person in the world again, as she and Rebecca escape their worries with some harmless gossip and a bottle of wine by the fire—just one of their secrets.

But Rebecca is herself the subject of town gossip. When Frank Getchell, an old friend who shares a complicated history with Hildy, tries to warn her to stay away from Rebecca, Hildy attempts to protect her friend from a potential scandal. Soon, however, Hildy is busy trying to protect her own reputation. When a cluster of secrets becomes dangerously entwined, the reckless behavior of one person threatens to expose the other, and this darkly comic novel takes a chilling turn.”

On writing: Find the lie

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I signed up for author K.M. Weiland’s Helping Writers Become Authors newsletter about a year ago, but only recently have I started really digging into her work.

It’s good stuff.

Her book “Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story” helped me finally understand the difference between the hook, the inciting incident, plot points, and pinch points. The breakdown, in fact, was so enlightening and easy to understand that it was key to me finally wrasslin’ all of my ideas into a workable plot structure (!!!).

The notecards method was doing me no good (so overwhelming, so much trash), and the thought of the time-suck-potential of “pantsing” made me feel super itchy (and breathy with anxiety).

That was a tough egg to crack, and girlfriend has got me cooking with gas now! How do you like your omelettes, baby?!

Weiland produces her own podcast (she’s already 450-something episodes deep) and has free e-books up for grabs on her website for newsletter subscribers. If you’re trying, like me, to wade into the vast waters of writing your first novel without drowning, her stuff is a good place to start to understand the mechanics of the whole thing.

As I move forward with my own process, I’ve been trying to work on character arcs. I encounter a sort of chicken-or-egg headache (no omelettes) when I try to think of plot and character arc as separate entities. In her podcast interview with Bulletproof Screenplay (below), Weiland once again helped me see the light!

I know that in a good novel or story, a character has to change in some way, for better or worse, but, as Weiland explains, an easy way to imagine this journey is to first consider the lie that a character believes in the beginning of the story and then consider what truth they have to face near the midpoint to do something climactic toward the end. So simple. I was really forcing matters with outlandish external events, but this pro-tip helped me understand that the writer has to understand the character’s internal events first. Because of course.

You can listen to the interview here:

#SundaySentence: Toni’s call to action

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For David Abrams’ Sunday Sentence project, readers share the best sentence they’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

(Except I totally give you context and commentary.)

“We know you can never do it properly — once and for all. Passion is never enough; neither is skill. But try. For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light.“

From Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize Lecture in Literature, as a younger generation speaks to the artists, the writers, the people who are struggling to make way before them.

My list of books to read this month

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The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison

I’m such a Toni Morrison fan girl. This latest tome is a compilation of writing outside her novelistic cannon, composed of essays, speeches, lectures, and meditations she’s written over the decades of her iconic career.

It includes, among my favorites, her Nobel Prize Lecture in Literature from 1993, as well as several deep dissections of her favorite pieces of literature and insights into her own work. It’s exciting to have these parts of her deeply intellectual oeuvre in one place.

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

I’m also a Lee Miller fan girl. So this was the obvious pick for my Book of The Month subscription choice. Lee Miller is best known as photographer Man Ray’s muse, but girlfriend has her own work, photography, and story to share. The Age of Light fictionalizes Lee’s sojourn from man’s muse to self-made artist, with 1930’s Paris as its backdrop.

Lee Miller

I first learned of Lee in Francine Prose’s book The Lives of The Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired, which, now that I think of it, is worth a re-read itself. Maybe next month?

Tanja Ramm under a bell jar, 1930, Lee Miller

Untitled (Iron work), 1931, Lee Miller

#SundaySentence: College kid psychology

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For David Abrams’ Sunday Sentence project, readers share the best sentence they’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

(Except I totally give you context and commentary.)

I’ve been so under the weather the past week. I could fill a landfill with all the innocent tissues I’ve violated of late. Most of my reading happened from my sick bed and on my smartphone. Thus, my #SundaySentence comes from PsychologyToday.com. (Of course, I try self-diagnosing my mental crises when I’m under physical duress. I’m sure that’s a symptom of something…)

Research by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA shows that college students’ number one value is now “being well off financially,” while for students in the 1960s it was “developing a meaningful philosophy of life.”

From “Why do so many college students have anxiety disorders?”

The generational divide is whatever. Millennials are screwed. I knew this. I’m more intrigued by that phrase “developing a meaningful philosophy of life.”

Mm… that sounds nice.

So does more cold medicine…

and a down-the-rabbit-hole search for “college” on the NYPL database…

Aw, hey buddy. Why so blue?

Seven things I’m loving this month

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Smarter Living by The New York Times

I’m loathe to sign up for more newsletters, considering how inundated my inbox has become with sales pitches, unlimited LIMITED TIME ONLYs, press releases, and political provocations to a mystery woman named “Janet Manty.”

Some Smarter Living stories.

The Smarter Living series by the Times hooked me, though, with its consistently interesting roundup of how-to articles and service-based news you can actually use. Peruse its most recent stories here and sign up for the newsletter, if your inbox dares, here.

Unpublished Black History by The New York Times

The Times again with the win! The paper’s interactive digital project, titled Unpublished Black History, tells stories that deserve telling but didn’t get their due when they happened. Because America. Recommended reading: “Looking Again at James Baldwin” and “A Newark at War with Itself.”

“The 2000s” on Netflix

Huzzah! The CNN documentary miniseries has reached the new millennium. For “The 2000s,” eight episodes examine TV, music, pop culture, political upheaval, and, of course, war in the first decade of the 21st century. It’s worth a watch for a refresher course on history you lived, history you missed, and history that’s hard to believe now falls under the category of “history.”

This panel about pitching as a freelance writer

The Pulitzer Center’s Student Fellow Weekend 2018 panel featured journalists and editors from a range of media outlets. It’s a long conversation—an hour and a half—and I recommend skipping the introductions. But give it a listen for some helpful nuggets on how to make your article or essay pitches standout.

I learned what to and what not to include (ie. don’t include more than one story pitch if you haven’t worked with that editor before… oops), how to format a subject line (ie. put “PITCH:” in all caps and follow it with a headline that would work for your proposed piece), and much more.

Financial Planning for Creative Careers

Related: This free course from Kadenze. It’s pretty high-level, as free online courses are wont to be, but there’s some helpful goodies in here on budgeting, tax basics, financial goal setting, and Excel best practices. Bonus: It’s taught by Columbus College of Art & Design’s super, duper smart Elaine Grogan Luttrull, whom I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing before.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner in “The Resident”

My medical drama binge-watching continues. I’m obsessed with Mina on “The Resident” (played by Shaunette Renee Wilson) and the raptor doc I hope becomes her bff mentor lover, AJ Austin.

THE RESIDENT: L-R: Malcolm Jamal Warner and Shaunette Renee Wilson in the “About Time” episode of THE RESIDENT airing Monday, Oct. 15 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2018 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Guy D’AlemaFOX.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner is so excellent at playing the doc whose outrageous arrogance is matched only by his unexpected tenderness. And, of course, by Mina.

“Venom” by Little Simz

Just wait for that beat to drop. So venomous it burns. This new song is perfect for all your feminist musical needs—from a workout playlist to a protest march. 🔥

To do: Three cavernous Chicago hideaways

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This winter’s cold has been unrelenting. But I still want to go out, even if it means wearing three layers underneath my heavy-duty winter jacket. Same? These three activities offer a cozy and cavernous getaway while we count down the days to spring.

Go deep inside: The Palmer House

The OG brownie is at The Palmer House, a historic Chicago hotel that Rudyard Kipling long ago described as “a gilded mirror rabbit warren crammed with barbarians.”

Today, I recommend going barbaric on the hotel’s OG brownie. It’s as decadent and rich as the golden drapery and as opulent as the soaring ceilings. The confection was concocted in the late 19th century under the direction of Bertha Palmer (watch the video below for more) for the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair in 1893. Pro tip: Get dinner at the burritos and bowls quick-service spot right outside the hotel so you don’t feel totally gluttonous after downing the whole dessert by yourself. Because you will.

https://vimeo.com/241074022

Go behind walls: Dorian’s

On a recent round of The 10 to 10, we rolled into Bucktown and ended up walking to Wicker Park. We passed a boutique record shop that seemed worthy of a step inside.

It was more than a record shop, though. Hidden behind an unsuspecting “secret” doorway was Dorian’s, a midcentury mod-style restaurant, tucked away with tiki-themed drinks (and a mocktails option!), jazz spinning on the sound system, and a charcuterie board complete with pickled grapes.

Go underground: Three Dots and A Dash

At Three Dots and a Dash, go on a warm adventure beneath the city. Located in the River North neighborhood, no treasure map is required to find it: Just look for the sign in the alleyway off Hubbard and head down the dramatically lit stairwell to a dreamy tiki hideaway. At the grass-skirted bar or a cozy booth, surrounded by chic wooden fixtures and sunset lighting, order up some small bites, a cold pressed juice or handcrafted cock(or mock)tail. The team of mixologists makes its own syrups, such as falernum and allspice, to keep things fresh. The exotic combinations are designed to give even the most well-traveled tongue an exciting new taste.

‘Till a Mexican beach and a flute of sparkling juice and I meet again…


Introducing: Zero Proof Podcast

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Zero Proof is a brand new biweekly podcast featuring me and my forever-friend/ former-editor Shelley Mann Hite. Read our story here.

On each episode, we read and discuss one book about sobriety, self-growth, or surviving—and then thriving—in spaces that profit when we numb ourselves, from ourselves.

Episodes one and two launched today over at ZeroProofBookClub.com! Add that link to your bookmark bar or follow us on Instagram @zeroproof.

First up (on episode two), we discuss “The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath” by Leslie Jamison and dig into our own varied approaches to recovery.

We’re also featuring Zero Proof drinks (get it) that pair with each book. After all, we know book clubgoers need something to imbibe. We just don’t think it has to be alcohol.

“The Recovering” pairs well with an Iowa Fog, considering all that time Leslie spent at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. ☕📝 It’s our take on the classic London Fog: Steep a mug of Earl Gray tea, add a drop of vanilla, then top it with steamed milk. If you don’t have a milk steamer at home (who does?), you can get the same effect by beating milk in a saucepan over low heat with your hand mixer. Beat for a few minutes till your milk is nice and frothy.

The Iowa Fog

I can’t wait to share more episodes throughout our first season! Up next, we’re reading “The Body is Not An Apology” by Sonya Renee Taylor. Episode three drops on March 11.

#SundaySentence: A star closer

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And, of course, this policy of denial is just another form of lying — a fanciful story we tell ourselves about our future even as we fight to free ourselves from the personal lies of our past.

Nancy A. Nichols, Memoirs of a Used Car Salesman’s Daughter

For David Abrams’ Sunday Sentence project, readers share the best sentence they’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

This closing line from Nancy A. Nichols’ issue of True Story gave me a lot to chew on as I rode the train home (these mini magazines with one longform true story per issue are so perfect for commutes).