Non-Fiction, Beer and Cooking

I've been reading alot of non-fiction lately. At first, I wasn't sure why. Usually I dislike non-fiction. It bores me. When I read, I want story and characters and action, and non-fiction just isn't as good at that sort of thing as fiction. Non-fiction is good for some things though, namely teaching you things, opening your experiences, and at times, creating a good story as well. Not to mention, the writing can be very good and just as interesting as fiction. 

It started with Anthony Bourdain, who, only a couple months or so ago, I knew next to nothing about. He was a guy who had a show called No Reservations, on the Travel Channel. I'd seen the show a few times, and enjoyed it. In it, each episode he travels to a different country or area, experiencing these cultures and talking about them. He interacts with all sorts of folks, eating a grilled lamb with some farmers as well as enjoying fine dining at fancy establishments. Food is a pretty big deal for him, something he talks about with passion and extensive experience. So, a little while ago, I realized he was an author, so I decided to check out a few of his books, because I liked the way he monologued on the show, the way he spoke of other cultures and people, and the way he drank and ate anything he could get his hands on. 

I started with Kitchen Confidential, his first work, I believe. Turns out he was a chef for many years, which isn't a big surprise considering his obsession with good food. Kitchen Confidential is part biography, part exposure, of the crazy intense and hectic lives of chefs, and the life-style of those who work in restaurants, those who serve you your medium rare hamburgers and fries, your steak-frites, and your chicken parmesan. It was a really interesting read. His writing is quite good, sounding exactly like the way he talks on his show. He is a kind of no bullshit tell-it-like-it-is guy, an angry ex-chef who knows the biz and knows food, and the story of his life as a chef is compelling. Then I read his fiction, two novels, Bone in the Throat and Bobby Gold's stories, both of which were pretty good. Unsurprisingly, the main characters are involved in restaurants, and they read almost like hard-boiled mystery tales. From there, I read A Cook's Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal. Basically, Bourdain realized he didn't want to be a chef after writing Kitchen Confidential, gave a proposal to his publisher, where he said he would travel around the world searching for the perfect meal, doing crazy shit and eating crazy food, and he would write about it. Which he did. It also became a television show. It was also really good. His description of food and places and people and culture is just interesting, at least to me. He comes across as a pretty normal guy, ex-heroin addict chef, no bullshit kind of a guy, now turned writer and traveler extroadinaire. I'm jealous. 

I've also read some Hunter S. Thompson, currently reading his book about the Hell's Angels. One of my professor's used the term 'creative non-fiction', and that fits Thompson perfectly. He was a reporter of sorts, but he also told stories, drug and booze-filled hilarious adventures. They are good simply for the story, but they also have a point to them and make you think about certain things. I guess that's one place where non-fiction can trump fiction. It can really make you think about the world around you, maybe in a way you hadn't before. You can learn shit. Fiction can do this as well, but it's more difficult. Fiction is more about escapism, escaping from this world to get lost in another, more fantastic and exciting world, following wild characters into dangerous situations. Non-fiction shows you new things about the real world around you, makes you realize how exciting and strange it can be. I've always thought of the line "Truth is stranger than fiction" was bullshit, and I still do. "Truth can be stranger than fiction" makes more sense to me. 

Regardless, one reason I think I've been reading alot of compelling non-fiction, is because I'd like to write some interesting compelling non-fiction. I don't really mean publishing articles or journalism, more about improving my writing on this blog, making it more interesting and exciting and new. Hopefully, by reading some good non-fiction, my own non-fiction writing will improve as well, and this blog will get better and better. So there's that, I guess.

Beer. 

It's almost been a week. Tomorrow is when I should bottle, I think, from what the directions say. Should be a fun and interesting process. Fermentation has definitely been going on. Bubbling in the airlock, foam and stuff on the top of the wort and a general brown color are all good signs I think. All I need are bottles and caps and I'm good to go. It's been fun, watching it, thinking "I am creating something!" The foam has gone away somewhat, which I'm not sure if that's a good or bad or nothing sign, so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and we'll see what happens. 

Here's more pics!

First few days of fermentation. Look at those goddamn beautiful bubbles!

Last couple days before bottling! Look at that delicious amber liquid!

So that's going well, I think. I'm pretty excited, actually. There really is something about creating something, putting things together to form a wholly complete end-product, that feels good. No bullshit. Making shit yourself feels good. Which is why I think I enjoy cooking. 

Yes, I enjoy cooking and I'm not afraid to say it. I shouldn't be, either, nobody should. Cooking is an incredibly useful skill, one that can cut food costs and increase the deliciousness and nutrition of your diet. I'm not going to lie though, if I didn't have someone to cook with...Well let's just say I'd be eating more C-17 General Tso's Chicken and Buffalo Wings. 

Cooking is like a puzzle. You must take basic ingredients, use them, combine them, and change them in such ways that you end up with a delicious solution. Add to this the fact that there are a nigh-infinite amount of variables to add and subtract, methods of cooking, that can change the deliciousness of the end solution. 

Now, to be honest, I don't stray from recipes very much. At all. But still, it kind of reminds me of building a model airplane or something. You start with the pieces, follow the directions, put it together and at the end you have a cool looking plane, or a delicious meal if you follow the recipe correctly. If you mess up a piece here or there, the airplane may fall apart, or it may not even matter. 

So maybe that's why I like cooking. Or maybe I just like delicious food. In one of Bourdain's books, he talks about how basic cooking could and probably should be a skill learned by all in high school, and I'd have to say I agree. It's cheaper and healthier and works your brain. Like I said, following a recipe, cooking something, is like a puzzle, you have to work your brain to figure it out and get it right, and we can all agree working with our brains is a good thing. It takes more thinking than say, ordering takeout or delivery or getting fast food. And when you make something delicious, when you get it right, it feels good. 

Anyways, that's about it for today. 

P.S. GO GIANTS

A New Year, A New Hobby

For Christmas, I received a homebrew kit from my lovely girlfriend. Today, January 2nd, 2012, I began my first batch. Basically, making beer is pretty simple, or so it seems. You boil some malt in water, add some hops, creating a substance called Wort, mix it with four gallons of water, toss some yeast on there and let it ferment. For the most part, everything went well. There was really only one mishap. When you boil the malt and hops, foam rises very suddenly, you're supposed to turn off the flame, let the foam go down, turn on the flame again. Repeat if necessary. The foam rose slowly a couple times but I followed the instructions and nothing bad happened. I thought I was in the clear. Thinking back, (following a comment made by my girlfriend), I realize perhaps I hadn't needed to keep the heat on the highest setting. Anyways, I stirred the brown mess and it suddenly exploded upwards. The foam surged upwards and splashed everywhere before I could even turn the knob on the stove. The stovetop and surrounding floor area was covered in brown gunk. But other than that, everything went fine. A glass carboy filled with Wort now rests in the study, hopefully fermenting. After a week, I'll bottle it and then let it ferment for about four weeks or so. Then, we drink, and hopefully it tastes okay.

Here's some pictures!

Boiling the malt, making Wort

The Carboy where the fermentation will take place

The Bottling bucket

A Manual that came with the kit

I even took a class in brewing, back when I was a sophomore. It is unfortunate that I remember just about nothing from that class. Ah well, doing something new is always exciting and fun.

I have a smart phone now, so I guess I'm always 'connected', man. Like, the government could totally be watching me, dude...

Anyways, it's nice not having a flip phone anymore. One thing that I am enjoying is having a decent camera on my phone. I like to take pictures of things. Big buildings, abandoned factories, warehouses, etc. Anything interesting. I've always wanted to take pictures of places where I think I could write cool scenes set in. So that is nice. I will also be able to take pictures for this blog, so it won't simply be walls of text all the time. Don't get your hopes up too much though, as I am a writer, not a photographer, so walls of text aren't really going away.

So brewing. Yeah. It is a thing I am doing. I shall keep my loyal readers posted about it. Some of you may even get to taste the end result, for better or worse.

The First Has Come

It's here. January 1st, 2012, the year of the apocalypse and all that. It is also the day I said I would release my novel to those family and friends who wished to read it. It just so happens I finished editing it today as well, so I'm pretty happy about that.

This is going to be a short post, because of various reasons. Basically I don't have time to write much of a post, I may write something up tomorrow though. So anyways, send me an email, and I will send you my novel.

That's all folks.

Happy Holidays

Aha! I bet you thought you were going to catch me, I bet you were thinking, oh Ben won't update his blog this Sunday because it's Christmas Day and then I'll get him, I'll say, hey you didn't update every Sunday like you said you were going to! But I've got you now! Because I am writing a post, so there. Bam. I win. One to Nothing. Game over.

I know, I know, I gave in. I put Happy Holidays in the title, rather than Merry Christmas. Oh boy, that's nearly as bad as putting up a tree, decorating it, and calling it a Holiday Tree rather than a Christmas tree. Thing is I don't give a damn. You can put up a tree on July 4th, decorate it red, white and blue, and call it a damn Indepence Tree. Who gives a shit? Not me. Have a happy December 25th, whatever that means to you. It's a time of giving and loving, right? So why do people get all bent out of shape about the name of a decorative tree? When did a tree even become a part of Christmas? I guess I forgot the part where Mary and Joseph had a pine tree in the shed where Jesus was born and threw lights all over the freaking thing. Maybe Jesus mentioned wanting a "really bitchin' pine tree, man, with like, lights and colored balls and shit all over it," on his birthday. Anyways, this is just a rant about people getting upset because in some town, some government figure called the tree a Holiday Tree instead of a Christmas Tree. It's a tad ridiculous, the sorts of things that people get upset about.

But regardless, it was a day of fun and feasts, presents in packages and the presence of family. See what I did there? Pretty slick, huh? I thought so.

The novel's coming along. I actually got alot of editing done on the bus ride home, so I'm about 35 pages or so through it, with 40-ish left to go. Whether I finish by January 1st or not...Well it's up in the air. Either way, that is the date where I will send it to close friends and family who wish to take a look at it and will be so kind as to tell me what they think.

So sit by the fire, look at your holiday tree, play with your holiday presents, and have fun with what you got, not what you didn't get, because let's face it, you could've have gotten nothing and you'd still have alot more than many others in the world.

Now I'm going to enjoy some eggnog and rum and maybe do some writing or editing. Enjoy yourselves.

Editing Woes

The process of working on my novel is stalled and stagnant. It is a slimy disgusting swamp, impossible to navigate, every step a boot-sucking hole that pulls you down into murky depths. Editing is simply something I'm not that familiar with I guess. Even in school I rarely wrote more than one draft of a paper. It's simply how I work, I think, at least when it comes to reports and such like that. With fiction, it's entirely different, and considering this is the first time I've really finished a novel, it's not really something I've done before. I've editted and rewritten short stories before, but that's about it. Even then, it's hard to know what to keep, what to change, and what to add. How much detail do you need? The answer is enough so that the reader has an idea of the place, but not so much that the reader cannot use his own imagination to fill in the blanks. That isn't exactly an easy line to toe.

So it's been slow. I've finally decided I'm going to give my novel a full read through, changing what I feel needs to be changed as I go, keeping a list of notes as I read, and simply powering through it. So far I've gotten through four pages out of 75. I guess part of the problem is editing is worse than writing, I'm not even coming up with new ideas, characters or stories, I'm simply going through the same situations, which isn't nearly as fun. I'm going to get through it, though, eventually.

I'm nearly finished with the Millennium series, which consists of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. All three are very good, the plot is a winding twisting and interesting tale, and the characters are fantastic. The story starts off relatively simple, but gets more intricate and complicated(though never needlessly so) throughout the three novels. The whole story is about Lisbeth Salander, who is an utterly believable and tragic character who is very different from most 'heroes' in fiction. She is fascinating and badass.


When I was working last night, I heard someone say "I haven't read since I got out of college," and I thought that was sad. Reading, in many ways, is better than watching movies, or tv, or playing a video game. I'm not sure how to describe it, but reading gives you worlds and characters which you imagine in your mind, you do not see the characters, so you must visualize them yourself. In this way, reading is entirely different from anything else. There is much less limitation. This is why when a book is made into a movie, many people become distraught that the character does not look like the one they imagined. A movie shows only one way to see a character, where as a line of description can be read and visualized in an infinite amount of ways. It just seems too many people these days have stopped reading, they are distracted by everything else, they became jaded by all the crap that we're forced to read in school, not to mention the fact that reading has become 'work' and is seen as 'lame' and 'boring'. Blah I sound like I'm an old man. Try reading something, anything. There's books that are more exciting and fast than action movies, more intriguing and mysterious than any spy movie, books that are about murders much more interesting than CSI, books with serial killers and thrilling car chases and brutal bloodbaths and anything you could think of or be interested in. If you enjoy any kind of movie or fictional tv show, then there is a book out there that you would enjoy reading.


Or not. Don't read. See if I care.   


"I suppose some editors are failed writers; but so are most writers." T.S. Eliot

"When in doubt, delete it." Philip Cosby

Random Thoughts

A new story idea has been floating in my head, about a depressed lonely substitute teacher. Every day, he gets up and asks 'Who am I today?', goes to work, meets people that he knows he will likely never or very rarely see again, and then goes home. He's in a new city without friends or family around and has difficulty making new friendships, especially because everybody he meets he only sees for a day and then they are gone. Not sure where the story would go, other than perhaps the guy spirals down and down, becoming more and more crazy, losing his own identity in the process. Before anyone asks, no I am not lonely or depressed. Perhaps I would be like the character I'm describing if I had no family or friends, but I do, so don't get any ideas. Yes, alot of what I write has some basis or comes from my every day life. My life inspires me to write, but that does not mean I am writing about myself, if that makes any sense. I just think the profession of essentially 'being' somebody else every day is interesting. In fact, I have another idea that goes with this one.

It's a science-fiction set in the future, idea where, instead of being a substitute teacher, the protagonist is a substitute person. This means in some way he becomes the person he is substituting for. He downloads the persons thoughts and memories and anything he needs to know to perform the job he is subbing. This would be more than just teaching, could be anything, in fact. He really does ask 'Who am I today?', and he really does 'become' somebody else for a day. Now, I've been playing with this around in my head, either as it's own separate idea, or as connected with the previous one. Perhaps the lonely sub-teacher is struggling to write a story about a sci-fi substitute. Or something. Maybe that's dumb. Anyways, the idea of someone who, for a job, becomes somebody else for a day just really interests me, as it very much deals with one's identity.

Anyways, process on my novel is slow. I am finding it difficult to motivate myself to write without Nano breathing down my neck. Part of it might be that rewriting and editing sucks balls, but oh well. Needs to be done. Most people cut down their writing while they are editing but mostly I'm adding in scenes that I believe need to be there. I guess most over-write in their first draft, but I wonder if that's really a problem for me. I think my writing is pretty sparse, a few bare details to give you an impression of the scene, rare thoughts from characters and such. There isn't much that I write that seems excessive. I could be entirely wrong, though. It is tough to tell. I do feel, however, that the deadline of January 1st, when I reveal my novel to close friends and family, is coming very quickly. I hope that I can finish up the last scenes I wish to add, give it a full thorough read through, then hopefully a quick edit and polishing up. We'll see if I have time.

I recently read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which is very good. It is an excellent mystery which actually reminded me why I like mystery fiction. I haven't read a mystery in awhile, I think because in my Detective Fiction class I read too much of it at once. It all seemed too similar, detective-case-investigation-revelation. But I am glad I picked up this one. It has alot of backstory, suspects, investigation and twists, all that is required for a good old mystery novel. I also watched the movie, with subtitles(the horror!) which was also quite good.

I guess that's all for now. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Sunday, December 4th

With Nano finished, I've taken somewhat of a break from writing constantly. It felt good to write every day and create a story that grew and grew and to finally come to an end. It is nice to have a couple days off from it though, a break in the creative outflow, regenerate my imaginary well, and generally not care if I write 1667 words today or not. That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about my novel, though, which still needs alot of work. I've written a timeline, some scenes I believe I need to add in, and there's definitely some pacing issues as well. You need some slow casual scenes in between the violent brutal action, which I think I need more of.

Now, I know some folks want to read it, and I will definitely let you do so, if you wish, in the near future. I would like to do some more work on it before that happens though. I know you may perhaps be groaning, be saying 'what if you simply never feel it's finished or it's good enough or simply forget about it, then we will never read it!' Which is why I promise to give it to anyone who wants to read it by January 1st, 2012. There, less than a month to go, I think you can wait that long. This way, I have a deadline to work towards and you have the satisfaction of knowing you'll be able to read it no matter what. In the meantime I can hopefully finish it up. Now, don't get your hopes up about it. It will be rough and likely need more editting and rewriting. It may also feel short. I know I said it is a fantasy epic, but to be honest, it's more the very beginning of an epic. Lord of The Rings and the Wheel of Time both have books that are much longer than 50k. Consider this novel the very beginning. 50k is only around 175 pages or so, which is very short for any fantasy novel.

There's one thing about fantasy writing that is interesting and irritating at the same time, and that is the language. Tolkien created his own actual languages, others seem to just make up their own strange words in 'ancient languages' made up in their world. In my novel, there is this sort of ancient language, from which some words and names come from. The problem for me is whether the names feel realistic and cool, or are they just kind of lame and uninspiring. Do I have everyone speak the Common language, (english) like other books or does each race have their own language and on and on. It is a very difficult thing to create. In mine, Elves, Dwarves and Humans all speak the same language, but then, they are considered more of a single race and species, (they call eachother 'Cousins') so having a common language is perhaps plausible. I guess that's just one of those difficult things about creating your own world, you have to create entire cultures, including languages and essentially how they came to be.

Another thing about language is the swearing. How do fantasy folk swear? By their Gods, often, but what else? I use 'blood' and 'ashes' because of a famous battle, as well as 'hell' and 'damn'. I would like to use 'fuck' but would that feel modern? Unrealistic in a fantasy world? And why, I mean, why wouldn't a culture come up with Fuck as a swear word just as we did? I'd like to go the route of Deadwood, fuck the actual logic of how fantasy people would swear and just use the swears we do, so that it actually feels visceral, like swearing in real life, to the reader.

Anyways, such is what a fantasy writer must deal with. It's a great deal of fun as well as a great deal of work. Such is life.

This is a short post because I've got other shit to do, so there.