BUYUKADA; NOT ENOUGH DRAMA
Several years ago, I wrote about a visit to Buyukada in Turkey, an offshore island in a chain known as the Prices' Islands that Istanbul dwellers use as a summer resort. It is a scenic place with hillside villas, beaches, a lively boardwalk full of outdoor restaurants and an ornate, fin-de-siecle pier. There are no motorized vehicles in the island except for fire and police, all transportation via donkeys, horse driven carriages and nowadays by bicycle.The essay was to be a chapter in a book I conceived as a memoir-travelogue that I never finished. It described the traditional fayton tour[...]
DINNER AND WINE WITH A ROCK STAR, SAMMY HAGAR
When I accepted our friend Kelley's invitation to dinner at far away Mill Valley, Marin County, north of San Francisco, including a nearby hotel to stay overnight, I did so because the accompanying wine event peaked my curiosity. I did not count on having dinner with a rock star and his entourage.It was to be a BYOB (bring your own bottle) Collectors Night at El Passeo, a restaurant owned by Tyler Florence, whose Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco I was familiar with. The theme was pre-2005 Chateauneuf du Pape, one of my favorite wines. BYOB may be routine in certain[...]
YET ANOTHER WRITING COURSE; DO I NEED IT?
Abraham Verghese, doctor, Stanford professor and accomplished author (if you haven't read his Cutting For Stone, a masterpiece novel, please do) once famously lamented about the endless writer workshops he has attended and how he now resists them with little success. I recall this as I embark on yet another course in writing that I downloaded from the The Great Courses (formerly The Teaching Company) entitled Writing Great Fiction, Storytelling Tips and Techniques by James Hynes, a series of lectures by a university professor.When it comes to artistic endeavor I have always been a lone wolf and shunned the company[...]
ON MULTIPLE PROJECTS, MEMOIR CONVERSIONS AND CHARACTER NAMES
I no longer have the luxury of writing at a leisurely pace and taking a year to complete a story. I have set a deadline of Autumn 2015 for publication and engaged an editor. I now have to work like a pro. While I am presently indeed more productive, I grapple with several issues. Foremost among them is my inability to work on more than one project at a time. Once I start a story I live in its fantasy world which I frequently visit day and night, while driving,bicycling, waking up from sleep, shaving, drinking coffee or wine. I[...]
1601 BAR AND KITCHEN; THE FRUITS OF GLOBALIZATION
My wife Julie has recently been hitting the jackpot with her selection of offbeat restaurants in out-of-the way corners of San Francisco. She did it again last weekend with 1601 Bar & Kitchen.It was an easy reservation on Open Table, at prime time Saturday, on short notice, either a sign that the restaurant is on a downswing, or that it is a hidden gem. In this case it was the latter. A quick internet search revealed it to be Sri Lankan cuisine, something we've never experienced, with tapas style servings, prepared with French cooking techniques. Intriguing.When we arrived at 12th[...]
THE TROUBLE WITH TESTICLE TALK
My first five stories came back from my editor Mim. We communicate by e mail. The stories go out to her as a Microsoft word document, all in black print and return to me splashed all over with red, her corrections. I quickly perused these and discovered good news and bad news.The good news was that she liked most of them, and thought they were worth publishing. The bad news was that the one I thought would be my flagship story, Testicle Talk, she had issues with. This is a dialogue driven story in which two different pairs of people[...]