Category: Writing Life

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A Productive January

The month of January is a crucial time for writers; the new year sets the stage for new goals and new habits, and the first few weeks can set the tone for momentum moving on through the rest of the year.

Poem

Since one of the common struggles amongst writers is coming up with ideas, we launched the Idea Generator at the beginning of the year, and have been dedicating our Daily Writer’s Fix time this month to helping you build a pool of writing ideas to last you well into 2013.

Blue Bottle Line

We have also been excited to share with you some of our favorite San Francisco writing and brainstorming spots with a special Destination Inspiration series based in that city. From Blue Bottle Coffee to La Boulange and Samovar, we had a great time discovering new creative spots to help you drum up inspiration and creativity if you visit San Francisco.

2013 Writing Goals

We talked about some of our own writing goals and created a worksheet to help you develop a strategy for setting and keeping your 2013 goals. We shared thoughts on the writing life with writing as an excuse to explore and the experience of working with divided attention.

A savory cup

We shared a favorite tea that was the result of a delightful accident, and an overnight coffee cake that’s easy to whip together even when you’re on deadline.

Salted Rye Cookies

And, of course, we talked about the writing ritual and shared a recipe for a delightful cookie that would be just right for pairing with your writing tea when you sit down to work.

It’s been a good month for us here at Nooks & Cranberries, and I hope it’s been good for you too. We’d love to hear what you’ve been working on this month!

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Goal Setting Guide

The beginning

Our mission with Nooks & Cranberries has always been to provide inspiration and tools to help you along your writing journey. Sometimes our support comes in the form of photos or destinations, and sometimes in the form of writing gossip and recipes. This time we’d like to share a worksheet put together to help you organize your writing goals.

This guide can be useful for setting goals in all genres and areas of writing, be it a book that’s been brewing in your head for a while, or beginning work as a freelance writer and building your platform. Regardless of where you’d like to take your writing, we’d like to be there to support you all the way in accomplishing your goals. So grab a cup of your favorite coffee or tea and take a peek at this guide. Let the journey begin!

Nooks & Cranberries Goal Setting Guide

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Special Writing Tea – A Delightful Accident

A savory cup

Tea is a crucial part of my  life in many ways, but one of the biggest roles it plays is in my writing ritual. I always brew a cup to enjoy while immersing myself in a couple hours of writing. Beyond that connection, this post has nothing to do with writing and everything to do with a special tea I have added to my collection.

Recently my father-in-law brought back some tea and spices for me from his ministry trip to India. Among the tea he brought back was chai, some Darjeeling and mamri tea. This is the first time I had ever come across “mamri” tea so I was excited to investigate. I brewed up a cup and was blown away with an interestingly savory flavor. It was unlike any tea I’ve ever had. It’s rich, strong, dark and surprisingly full bodied. It packed quite a caffeine punch too!

I did a bit of research to see if this was a common flavor panel for mamri tea. I learned that mamri is a specific type of Assam tea that has been cured in a special way that creates granules as opposed to “leaf” tea. It is inexpensive and the tea most often used in India.

Mamri tea granules

This tea was like no Assam I’ve ever tasted and that’s when it hit me. The spices. The surprising spice flavor had to have come from somewhere else. The tea was stored in a plastic bag. So were the spices. And they were transported together. The spices infused the tea in transport!  The tea was sandwiched between curry powder, saffron and cardamon seeds. What a delightful accident.

This special tea has become such a treat and this new discovery makes me want to experiment with other unusual infusions. Any suggestions? Have you come across any accidental combinations that have turned out to be favorites?

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Your Divided Attention

Overlooking the snowy mountains.
Overlooking the snowy mountains.

You read that right. I’ll need your divided attention. These days, undivided attention is hard to come by, and sometimes not always the most necessary attribute to have. As a new mom, I long for the days when I could sit down and write undisturbed. I could pour my full attention into whatever tickled my whimsy. But those days are gone. Case in point, even as I’m writing this sentence, I’m holding my child back from the power cords with my foot. This is what I might consider the epitome of divided attention…or as some call it, multi-tasking.

I love those rare sweet undisturbed moments and since my little one has gotten more mobile, those are few and far between. They come with nap time, bedtime, and when dad takes him for a hike on the weekends. Those are the moments you have to cherish and the minutes you really have to utilize. It can get overwhelming. Where do you start? There’s so much you want to do and only a matter of hours to do it. It’s like routing a river through a pinhole.

I could give you the tactics I use to get the most out of my few free moments…lists, tricks using a timer, etc. But in all honesty, there are times when you just need to sit back and let the pressure roll off your shoulders and just write when you feel like it. You have to remind yourself that it’s not all about the race, sometimes it’s just about the writing. The sheer pleasure you get out of writing what matters to you, when it matters to you.

If you find yourself in a pinhole situation of time, don’t stress. Relax and let the words come as they may. It’s your free time, so shrug off the pressure and let yourself focus your attention on being free.

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Writing as an Excuse to Explore

Worthy Brewing Construction Site

Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird, “One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.”

I love that! From the writing that Sarah and I do for Destination Inspiration–which takes us to coffee shops and restaurants from Seattle to San Francisco–to The Flying Salmon, the Pacific Northwest travel blog I write for Wanderlust & Lipstick, I have to get out and explore my little corner of the world. I can’t stay home and watch the world pass me by–I have to get out there and experience it, and then share that experience with you.

I agree with Anne, that it is one of the greatest gifts about being a writer. Don’t you?

Image shows Sarah in an interview during our beer-tasting trip to Bend, Oregon, last summer.

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Capturing Holiday Moments

Ethan's ornament
Ethan’s ornament

The holidays are full of friends, family and precious moments that you’ll want to remember.  Having a camera at hand is the perfect way to record those times. But what if there’s a moment that the camera missed? Painting word pictures to capture what the camera couldn’t is a priceless post-holiday gift.

Writing a descriptive account of a holiday moment not only helps to beef up your albums, it can also make for a very special thank you note or end of year letter. Look at the photos you’ve taken so far, write the moments in between and enjoy reliving your holiday memories!

 

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The Gift of Experience: Holiday Tea at the Sorrento Hotel

Sorrento Hotel Exterior

As writers, there’s nothing like stepping into an historic building lit up with Christmas lights and evergreen boughs to get us in the holiday mood. The two of us experienced the official start to our month long holiday celebrations last week when we visited the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood for Holiday Tea.

The Sorrento Hotel, which opened over a century ago, in 1909, takes its architectural cues from the The Vittoria in Sorrento, which was the architect’s muse. Walking through the circular porte-cochère and into the lobby lined with rich wooden walls, we enjoyed the Christmas decorations, tastefully done, and spotted our fireside place in the lobby tea room.

As we settled into our large, comfy chairs, we scanned the menu and chose our tea–an assam, a tradition for the two of us–and ordered Pimm’s Cups, one of several English-inspired cocktails on the tea menu. As writers, friends, and mothers, the two of us spend a lot of our time together wrangling very active little boys while we talk about each others’ writing projects and how we’re doing at balancing our many roles in life. It’s a joy, and we’re both thankful for the ability to inspire and encourage each other. Sometimes, though, it’s important to remember the foundation our friendship was built upon and get out and do something special together, something usually involving one of our favorite things, such as tea.

We sipped our assam and our Pimm’s cup, the sweet, flavored liqueur complemented by the fresh flavors of muddled cucumber and citrus–while we talked about our kids and about writing, of course, but also what else is going on in each others’ lives. For Sarah, it’s about redefining her style and finding ways to care for herself now that she’s gotten into the new groove of motherhood that comes when a baby starts to transform into a toddler. For Daytona, the topics of interest are photography and cooking.

That’s part of what’s so lovely about sharing experiences like this together: we’re forced to set aside the responsibilities of day-to-day life for a couple of hours and reconnect–really connect. As our food arrived, we were already relaxed and ready to enjoy the artfully-created little bites that had been prepared for us. The berry scone was still warm from the oven and needed almost no cream to be rich and decadent, perfectly complementing the huckleberry cream-filled cannoli with walnut preserves. The tea sandwiches were anchored by the classic cucumber sandwich but then elaborated upon with a caprese-inspired open sandwich on a little toast, tiny triangles of bread with goat cheese, walnuts, and honey, and a smoked salmon sandwich accented with shaved cornichons.

An experience like holiday tea is a great gift for friends or family, which is why it is top on our list of gift ideas for the holidays. It has everything, tasty bites, hot cups and cool drinks, mixed with great conversation. A chance to rest and reconnect can be the greatest gift during a busy holiday season. So sit back, enjoy a cup of tea and have a happy holiday!

Sorrento Hotel Interior

Sorrento Hotel Christmas Tree

Sorrento Hotel Tea Room

Sorrento Hotel Horse and Wreath

*Disclosure: Our tea time was provided courtesy of the Sorrento Hotel.

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Sacrifice of Writing

Up late working. Image from oncelermagic.tumblr.com.

Let’s get real for a moment here. I’m not going to lie…life rocks. I have a wonderful family, I’m living the dream of a writing life with my best friend and we have an amazing blog that brings ideas and inspiration to writers and foodies across the globe. I am grateful beyond measure.

But like I said, let’s get real. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows. There’s sacrifice.  A lot of sacrifice. Any writer will tell you about the woes of the writing life; the writer’s block, the loneliness, the often horrible eating habits and hermit-like tendencies. And depending on what your motive is for writing, the reward may not come until well along in your journey. Some of us may not even live to see our writing succeed.

So why do we do it? Why do we stay up late, pass up social opportunities, and eat cereal for dinner on a more than often basis? Because we have to. We are driven to it. Whatever your reason, we all understand the sacrifice. Especially when you start a family.

For me, the biggest sacrifice right now is sleep. I was already loosing sleep from caring for a newborn, but now I am loosing sleep to write. I’m also sacrificing time. Whenever I’d watch a show with my husband, I’d have my laptop out and be writing at the same time. When my son is napping, after I finish dishes or laundry I can sit and jot down a few thoughts. I feel that I am constantly doing double duty or multi-tasking. There are days when I’m just a zombie.

But despite the sleep deprivation, the poor eating habits and the isolation, I can honestly say it’s worth it. This is the price we pay for that perfect sentence, that timeless essay, or a moving dialogue. It is essentially what moves us and what drives us crazy. In the end it is what makes us writers.

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Thanksgiving writing

Thank you!

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks and what better way to do that as a writer than in a well composed thank you note?

We thought it would be nice, on this day of all days, to revisit the age old tradition of writing a personal thank you note. There are many occasions that call for a note of gratitude, such as, when you receive a gift or are treated to some kind of hospitality or kindness.  In every case, the following are some basic elements to include for a well rounded, thoughtful thank you note.

1. Depending on how close you are to the recipient, open with “Dear [name]”, then continue the letter by thanking them for the gift, hospitality or kindness offered.

2. The second sentence or part of the letter should give some elaboration of your enjoyment or use of the gift.

3. If you’ve been out of touch for a while, it could be nice at this point in the letter to share a little news. This is not a necessary part of the basic thank you note, but close family or friends who live far away and don’t hear from you all the time might appreciate a short update.

4. A strong closing sentence or paragraph should include a sentiment of looking forward to seeing or speaking to the recipient, especially if a reunion or holiday is approaching. Mentioning “thank you” again is also nice to emphasis the point of the letter and bring it full circle.

5. End with a personal phrase like “love”, “best wishes” or even “thanks again”. Try to avoid closing with “sincerely yours” as it sometimes comes across as too formal.

With that, here is our thank you note to you. We really wouldn’t be where we are today without you. So thanks again and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading our blog. Your comments and feedback are so encouraging and much appreciated! We are very touched that we can share our passion for writing with you and that we can grow together in our craft. We look forward to sharing more with you as we continue to learn and explore the writing life!

Thanks again and we’ll talk to you soon!

Sarah & Daytona