Paris?? No Really, It's Research! @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: You might remember when I wrote about a nubbin of an idea for a women’s fiction a.k.a. book club book mostly set in Paris. Last week I was thrilled to start thinking about the novel while actually on the scene. A Recipe for Paris or The Paris Recipe (working titles) isn’t a sequel to The Ingredients of Happiness but it takes off from (will take off from!) one of the subplots from that book about a girl given up for adoption as a baby, her birth mother, and her unknown birth father. Once the mother, Betty, finds her daughter, Winifred, she gives her a box of clippings she’s been keeping for 20 years about the biological father, who is a patisserie chef in Paris. Winifred decides she has to go meet him in order to understand herself. You can see why I had to go back to Paris to do the research!

As we walked and walked and walked the city streets, I tried to keep Winnie's story burbling in the background. What would she see and feel and taste?

(I'm not sure how she'll end up hearing a concert like the one we did, but it will happen...)

Many of the Paris novels I’ve read over the past few years involve a secret inheritance, maybe a high couture dress or a fabulous apartment left languishing for years. I don’t expect to find either of these in the book I’m planning, but there will surely be an unexpected upper crust grandmother. I had such fun, figuring out where she lives (the seventh arrondissement), which is old money, and very formal. Maybe it would look something like this? 

or this? 

(Photo from the Sotheby’s booklet of Parisian apartments for sale.)

When Winifred arrives in Paris to work for her biological father (who knows nothing about her), I’m pretty sure she’ll be assigned to live in a bunk on a houseboat on the Seine until she gets her bearings. It might very well look like this: 

I’ll be telling you lots more as the story evolves, but if you’re heading for Paris for real, or want to go in your imagination, I recommend these blogs: David Lebovitz, Heather Stimmler's Secrets of Paris, Cake Boy Paris on Instagram, the Real Emily in Paris, Dorie Greenspan, Paris by Mouth. Here are a few of the novels and memoirs I’ve enjoyed: there are so many more!

Hidden in Paris

Almost French

The Paris Wife

My Life in France

The Sweet Life in Paris

Paris is Always a Good Idea (Jenn!)

The Paris Dress

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris

The Paris Dressmaker

Jacqueline in Paris

The Paris Library

The Keeper of Happy Endings

The Paris Key

Cara Black's mysteries

Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars

and of course...

Rhys's THE PARIS ASSIGNMENT, which kept me glued to my kindle app on the long trip home...

 

Meanwhile, THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS, where Winnie makes her first appearance will be in bookstores July 4 –I'm so excited! Reviewers, you can get your copy on NetGalley now.

Reds, do you share my Paris obsession? Or have a place you visited or yearned to visit that would make a great story?

PS Reds, Barnes and Noble is running a big 25% off sale on all pre-orders (print, ebook, and I think audio--for two days only! You can pop over and preorder any of the upcoming Reds' titles!

The Neurotic Reader @LucyBurdette #amreading

LUCY BURDETTE: I am writing this from a truly desperate place: I am nearing the end of a book I loved and panicked about finding the right one to read next. It's so disappointing to start a book that isn't as good as I hoped it would be, and thrilling to find one that captivates me. I find myself dreading the end of a great book, slowing down the way Tonka does when he's being delivered to the dog sitter when what he really wanted was a walk with his family followed by supper and a nap.

I've read two books recently that I haven't loved, although I finished them both. One was written by an author that I usually admire and enjoy--one of my favorites lately. She writes novels about culture clashes and the complexities of people attempting to adjust to new lives in unfamiliar territories. Good stuff for these times. The other was a novel set in Paris, which for me should be a slam dunk--I'm crazy for Paris. But this one was skimmable. And that raises a neurotic reader's question: Must you finish a book once you start it? If not, how quickly do you abandon it? Or do you skim to the end, wanting to know what happens to the characters, or hoping against hope that it has to get better?

And that raises one more question, do you read reviews before you start a book? If I had read the Amazon reports on the book from one of my favorite authors, maybe I wouldn't have started it. Because plenty of people noted how dark the ending was. For me, life is dark enough--I prefer my fictional endings happy. Or at least to leave the reader with some glimmer of hope. And besides, these characters made some completely foolish life choices that bothered me as a writer, and a person. Why did no one wonder why the man was spiraling out of control? How did that writer feel about following through with an ending that grim?

If you happen to be reading this blog and you are a writer as well as the reader, how does that inform the process? As I'm reading a truly excellent book, I can't help thinking that I can never produce something quite as clever and deep and appealing.

Jungle reds, tell us about the highs and lows of your reading life. And what have you finished lately that knocked your socks off?

And PS, the book I was loathe to finish was THE OPPOSITE OF EVERYONE by Joshilyn Jackson, and here’s how she describes what kind of book she writes:

“Weirdo Fiction with a Shot of Southern Gothic Influence for Smart People Who Can Catch the Nuances but Who Like Narrative Drive, and Who Have a Sense of Humor but Who Are Willing to Go Down to Dark Places.” 

I wouldn't have described it that way, but I will certainly read more of her books.