Croissants with Za'atar

Today I should be posting about yesterday's fabulous and inspiring first ever Boston Book Festival. And I will, but it needs to sink into my brain further and distill a bit longer.

Meanwhile, all I can think about is croissants with za'atar. Flash back to a trip to Saudi Arabia with photographer Nicole LeCorgne in 2006, while we were on assignment for Saudi Aramco World Magazine. We usually had breakfast in our hotel room so we could eat while getting ready and checking e-mail. We fell in love with the exquisite combination of croissants filled with za'atar that had been moistened with olive oil. It came as part of the 'oriental breakfast' - consisting of these croissants, sometimes mana'ish (za'atar on flat bread), as well as a salad of cucumber, tomatoes and olive oil. Of course very fresh orange juice and marvelous coffee.

Za'atar is a combination of wild thyme, sesame seeds, salt and sour ground sumac. You can buy it in Middle Eastern delis. It has a lemony and spicy taste that makes your tongue squirm with delight. And with the delicate pastry layers of a buttery croissant, it's pure heaven, especially if you wash it down with a sip of Arabic coffee.

To replicate the experience, buy the inexpensive Pillsbury croissants in the tube in the grocery store. Mix up some za'atar and olive oil in a bowl, probably three tablespoons each. Then put a generous dab of the mixure on the wide end of each croissant before rolling it up. Ten minutes later, voila, your taste buds are doing a riotous dabke dance. You can also add za'atar and olive oil to popovers.

The Man Who Would Be King - Morocco as Movie Set

Last night we watched the film version of Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, directed by John Huston, starring Sean Connery and Michael Kane. OK, so we're thirty years late, but better late than never!

I love Kipling's larger-than-life characters and his out-of-this-world plots. Last December, I read Kim for the first time, in honor of the late father of a close friend who used to read it every Christmas. I fell in love with the book - then watched the 1950's black and white film version, starring Errol Flynn. While Kipling might be considered racist by today's standards, in these stories he writes about the unique society of the British Raj and how it interacted with the South Asian society around it. In The Man Who Would Be King there is another story layer about British freemasons living in India, and the plot even proports that Alexander the Great was a freemason. Kipling loves to explore the idea of brotherhoods and the bonds and friendships among men. In Kim, he explores a colorful multi-ethnic network of spies set up by the British - another layer there too. I read in this an implication that all men are brothers - since his characters mix it up with all kinds of people. So what's not to like?

In addition to enjoying the story itself, I got a huge kick out of the scenery and extras because most of the film was shot in Morocco; near Marrakesh in the Atlas Mountains, then further south toward Ouarzazate. The dancers in the Kafiristan scenes were Guedra and other dancers from the village of Goulamine. The extras in the these scenes spoke Arabic perhaps mixed in with Tamazirt (Berber) - couldn't understand all of it. The Bhuddist-like monks were actually singing Muslim chants in Arabic - and they used local Moroccan costumes liberally.

Then, I got a good laugh when the bride of Sean Connery, Roxanne, was brought to him wearing a bright red Khaliji thobe! The film was made in the 1970's during a big 'Oil Boom' so no doubt the wardrobe people had come across one of them, and it ended up on the bride. Today's filmmakers would likely have made this movie in India itself, so they would have no need to find a stand-in country with stand-in languages and costumes. But I still enjoyed it. Best of all, it was wonderful to see places like Ait ben Hadou in the wedding scene - a place we've visited on every Oasis Dance Camp Morocco tour. When we were there last fall, we went horseback riding outside of Marrakesh. It turned out many of our horses have been used in films that we've seen, like Gladiator. Just another indication that the whole country of Morocco is a movie set!

Grub Street Rules! - Panel on "How To Tell a True Ethnic Story"

Last night I attended a marvelous panel discussion on telling an 'ethnic' story, hosted by Boston's Grub Street creative writing center in downtown Boston, overlooking the Public Garden. It was a warm summer night, so the windows over Boylston Street were open. Amid the riveting discussion laced with many many laughs, we heard Mounted Police horses clip-clopping down the sidewalk, and motorcycles racing to catch the light before it changed.

The evening started with panelists Rakesh Satyal, Rishi Reddi, and Ru Freeman reading from their new books. Each reading and author commentary brought fresh perspectives to writing about their chosen worlds. Grub Street's Executive Director Christopher Castellani moderated the panel, asking great questions, prefacing it all noting that in a way, there is no such thing as 'ethnic writing' per se. Every story, ethnic or not, is set in a unique world, and we must deal with the craft of telling the story correctly in that world. His insightful questions helped pull together the wide-ranging and free-flowing discussion, and he artfully pulled things back to how we might want to consider the issues in our own work. The issues included nitty-gritty points like when to italicize foreign words, as well as over-arching concepts like the pressure on so-called ethnic writers to get trapped into believing their work has to represent their entire culture, rather than just telling the story they want to tell. I could only buy one book - and I chose Ru Freeman's, A Disobedient Girl.

I was deeply inspired by the panelists, the moderator, and Grub Street. How lucky we Bostonians are to have this institution!

Now, back to querying agents.

Harvest Gold in Spring - Short Story in the Aroostook Review

My short story, "Harvest Gold in Spring" just came out in the Aroostook Review, a literary journal produced by the English department at the University of Maine - Fort Kent. The story is set in northern Maine.

Essay in Down East Magazine

Above is the link to an essay I wrote for the "My Maine" column of Down East Magazine. I wrote it last September for our writer's group, and with edit feedback from the group, my big sister Jo Grossmann (who is on the editorial committee of Open Spaces Magazine) and my dear husband Gary, I sent it off and was delighted when it was accepted. I wrote this when I first began querying in earnest and received my first important rejection from an agent to whom I had a referral.

The agents I pitched to at the Maine pitching session in June didn't ultimately pan out, though I highly recommend the experience. It gives you the chance to get instant reaction to your book concept, as well as your platform. I came away with feedback that helped me boost my query's effectiveness and have had a markedly stronger response ever since. Staying positive, I'm back in the game!

Story published, and a close encounter with a loon

The Aroostook Review accepted my short story "Harvest Gold in Spring" and I'll link to that when it's up on their website.

Meantime I'm beginning work on a new book - not sure where it's going yet. But it's set in Fez. The Maine woods envelop me these days. The woods are soft, inspiring, mysterious and quiet. Strange how I'm writing about Fez here, with all its tumult, noises, smells and chaos, amid the quiet of the woods. Last night I caught a white perch off the dock using a worm and bobber. As I pulled the fish in, a loon followed the fish underwater toward me. It dipped and dived so beautifully - and when it was clear I was getting the fish, it popped up to the surface about two feet from me and just looked at me! It had been tagged on each foot - red and blue tags. I've never seen one that close. We think this might be one of a nesting pair down the stream from us.

Kareem Roustom in the Tufts Journal

My profile of Kareem Roustom came out in the Tufts Journal today. Link to the story here.

Kareem is a rising star - a multi-talented composer and musician who works in many musical genres. He composes everything from pop-star arrangements to classical concert music, film scores and choral works. He also does arrangements of classical and folkloric Arab music and leads the Tufts University Arabic Music Ensemble. He graciously let me sit in on oud with the group this past winter semester - and it was a pleasure to see him in action. We had our recital last Sunday. We shared the stage with the Tufts Klezmer Ensemble, which was a hoot since we had to fit into the right half of the stage, pie wedge style! We loved the pieces we learned from Beth Bahia Cohen who subbed for Kareem in a couple of sessions. She taught us several songs by ear in the old Middle Eastern tradition. We really sounded fine on those songs, since we'd internalized them so directly. It feels good to have this story picked up and out in the world. Kareem has some incredible projects coming down the pike...the film score for Mosque in Morgantown, and Amreeka. Check him out on his MySpace page.

Note: Photo by Alonso Nichols