Peeking Between the Pages

...escape into the pages of a good book

Guest Post & Giveaway with Michael Baron, Author of When You Went Away

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Hello everyone! I’m very pleased to have Michael Baron, author of When You Went Away guest posting on Peeking Between the Pages today. Because of the events of the past month and a half at my house I’m behind on some of the reading I needed to have done so I’m just starting When You Went Away but I have to say I’m already hooked and my review should be up sometime early November. The best thing is that Michael is a ‘foodie’ like many of us and his guest post is all about Why Food and Fiction Mix so settle in for a great guest post!

I’m a fairly serious foodie. I think about food a great deal. Far more often, to be honest, than a healthy person probably should. For instance, just now, when I should have been focusing on this piece, my mind drifted to what I was making for dinner. For the longest time, this didn’t have much of an impact on my writing career. I wrote nonfiction books, they weren’t cookbooks, and therefore food rarely entered into the equation. However, when I sat down to write my first novel, When You Went Away, the food references exploded on the page. I edited out several of these (it is not, after all, a food novel; I’ll get to one of those eventually), but those I left all have symbolic value. An early cooking scene shows my protagonist Gerry trying to do this normal thing in the face of hardship and even though he is only cooking for himself. A later one allows Gerry’s sister-in-law to care for him in a way that sends echoes of a now-lost home. Still another hints at renewal. Even the very first present-day scene in the novel involves food, though it’s a baby bottle (Gerry is a widow with an infant son).

Obviously, I write about food so often in my fiction because I care about it. But I think I do it for another reason as well. I think I do it because it is essential. Food represents sustenance at one level and sensual pleasure at another — both things that we all need. In any piece of character-driven fiction (the only kind I write; I don’t have the plotting chops to attempt a plot-driven novel), the “things of life” are central. Therefore food serves as a fundamental metaphor for living and being alive. Interestingly, in my next novel, Crossing the Bridge, food plays a much smaller role, but for precisely the same reason. My protagonist there, Hugh, is untethered. A tragedy ten years earlier has left him feeling lost. I make very few references to food in the first act of this novel, and when I do, it is purely as fuel. Then, in the second act, Hugh makes an effort to reach out to the woman who has been haunting him, and he discovers a roadside diner that brings his taste buds alive. When he cooks for this woman, even though he’s a stranger to kitchens, it’s an announcement that he’s moving forward with purpose.

In my next novel, cooking has a central place in the story of one of the main characters. He will make several dishes right on the page. This, of course, has driven me to take the food-as-life metaphor even further. I’m trying to determine the specific symbolic qualities that different ingredients have. What message does a tomato send? What about pork? Does the shoulder have a different emblematic function from the loin? These mysteries still lay in front of me. But I will make it my mission to uncover them. And I’ll get started on it as soon as I decide on a side dish for tonight’s meal.
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Fantastic guest post Michael! Thank you so much for joining us at Peeking Between the Pages and sharing with us today.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I’m pleased to say that I have 2 copies of When You Went Away available for giveaway courtesy of Joy and the publisher-thanks so much! What do you need to do to enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment with a way to contact you.
  • For 2 entries follow my blog. If you do, many thanks and let me know please so I can make sure you get the extra entry.
  • For 3 entries blog or tweet this giveaway to spread the word.

This giveaway will be open to US & Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will be drawing for the winners on Saturday, November 21, 2009. Good luck to all!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. The review is very good on this
    book, please count me in.

    I follow by google reader.

    cenya2 at hotmail dot com

  4. Hooked already and you're just starting … sounds good to me.

    Great guest post with Michael Baron, Crossing the Bridge sounds like it's gonna be a great read too!

    I follow and will add this to my Up For Grabs post.

    wanda_waiting[@]hotmail[.]com

  7. The book sounds great, and the guest post about food was actually a bit thought-provoking. Thanks for the giveaway.

    And I follow through Google Reader.

  8. I love food references in novels – I find it really helps me to figure out what kind of person the character is: adventurous? average? It also, for me, plays a big part in novels set elsewhere to help learn about the culture, flavour of a country.

    melacan at hotmail dot com

  10. Awesome post! I just added this book to my amazon wish list yesterday, so I would love for a chance to win it!

    I already follow your blog, and will post about your giveaway in my sidebar.

    Thanks, Dar!

    k9kutter64(at)yahoo(dot)com

  13. He shouldn't have cut out any of the food passages – I love to read about food! Please enter me in your great giveaway. milou2ster(at)gmail.com

  14. I love books where food plays an important part. Loved this guest post and I'm putting this book on my wish list!

    jgbeads(at)gmail(dot)com

  22. No need to enter me, although I love a man as food obsessed as we are over here.

    I'm dropping in on my usual mission: to let you know I've posted this at Win a Book.

  23. This sounds like an interesting book. Please count me in.

    +1 I'm a loyal follower.

    gaby317nyc at gmail dot com

  26. Would love to win, it sounds like a great story, please count me in!
    Thanks.
    JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

  28. I love foodie books, so Michael sounds like a writer I should definitely read! Please enter me in this giveaway, and thanks so much for hosting it!

    zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net

  38. I'd also like to win this book!

    I just put your blog on my Favorites list!

    mtakala1 AT yahoo DOT com

  39. No need to enter me, but I'll post the giveaway on my sidebar. I really enjoyed this novel and read it in one day.

  49. I'm an already friend follower.

    mitzihinkey at sbcglobal dot net

    Thank you for the giveaway contest!!

    Mitzi H.

  54. I think about food way too often as well. Count me in this drawing, please.

    booklogged at gmail dot com

  56. This sounds like a really good read! I would love to be entered to win! Thanks for the great giveaway!

    imsosweepy { at } gmail { dot } com

  67. This sounds like a very good book, emotionally intense but satisfying…in a few different ways! Please include me in your contest.

    Amy
    Aimala127[at]gmail[dot]com

  71. Sounds like a good one. I can definitely understand food as being both sustenance and sensual.

    thebookfaeryreviews AT gmail DOT com

  73. Sounds like a great read… Please accept this as my entry. Thank you!

    Aliya D.
    aliyadaya(at)shaw(dot)ca

  83. I like to read books with food in them. I am a great reader and good eater, too.
    JWIsley(at)aol(dot)com

  84. This book sounds very interesting and I truly would love to read it. Please enter me in the giveaway.

    bstilwell12 at comcast dot net

  89. I'm hooked. polo-puppy-fluffyAThotmail *dot* com I need to know how Baron integrates food into his novels. Would love to read this.

  104. cococroissants

    peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/2009/10/guest-post-giveaway-with-michael-baron.html When you went away giveaway

    chocolate and croissants at yahoo dot com

  107. Unfortunately, I'm too late for the giveaway, but I've been excited about this book ever since Susan Elizabeth Phillips mentioned it on her Facebook page. It sounds like a winner. Hard to believe this is your first, Michael. I really like the thoughts on your post and will look for the vignettes you mentioned. Yes, food is essential to our livess. Thanks. jld