Beer and Book “Tastings”

I find tastings in wine and beer to be a lot like reading the first few lines of a book. When you know you will only be sampling something, you tend to savor the flavor more, tend to really pay attention to the details, perhaps more so than when you are handed a whole glass [...]

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Stop. Look. Listen. Sniff. (Or, what you should know about your book’s setting)

So you’ve decided on the perfect setting for your next book. The only problem: it’s a place you’ve never been. So off you go to the web and within a few searches, you have an impressive collection of resources. You have photos of neighborhoods and regional architecture, essays on town history and climate trends. You [...]

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Try it. You’ll like it.

There’s a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Camden, Maine called Blue Sky Cantina. The owner Ron and his wife Jennifer make authentic Mexican dishes with a regional twist, adding local seafood to some of their dishes, such as fish tacos made with haddock that are out of this world. They own a second restaurant down the [...]

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Behold, the glorious Whoopie Pie

In the world of Maine-made sweets, there is quite nothing like a genuine Whoopie Pie. Those sticky chocolate cake sandwiches. That layer of thick frosting. That very first bite and you feel the fudgey concrete form across the roof of your mouth, feel the crumbs wedge between your teeth and gums. Looking down you peel [...]

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Presenting…the Lobster-tini

Lobster is a luxury. Just because you’re from Maine, doesn’t mean (with some exceptions) that you get some sort of native discount. Lobsters are expensive and, of course, delicious. So in our family, we use EVERY PART. Or so I thought… Then last night, I watched as my mom emptied a claw of its juice [...]

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Needhams and Rugosa Roses (or, To Maine, With Love)

When I decided to set the majority of my novel LITTLE GALE GUMBO in Maine, it was more than because I felt the Maine landscape would make a poignant contrast to the Bergeron women’s world of New Orleans. Maine is where I am from, and, like a lot of writers, I feel compelled to write [...]

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