Living in Italy taught author Erica Bauermeister a new language – and it wasn’t Italian. Lively conversations happened in the kitchen every day – between cooks, of course – but the ones that caught her attention most were the dialogues that simmered on the stove, mingled in the salad, marinated on the counter. The ingredients, it seemed, carried on intimate conversations between themselves and could be overheard by those who paid attention.
Inspired, she signed up for a cooking class when she returned to Seattle, but on the first night, students were expected to kill a crab with their bare hands. The experience “shocked” her deeply and from that fissure emerged the idea for a book about a cooking school where food was a catalyst for each students’ character arc.
Thus began Bauermeister’s exploration into the world of fiction. “The School of Essential Ingredients,” was an IndieBound bestseller and now, released in paperback in January, creeps its way up The New York Times extended bestseller list.
After working in both nonfiction (500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide) and memoir, Essential Ingredients is Bauermeister’s first novel. And in the same way that ingredients react differently when used in a bowl, a skillet, or a baking pan, story structure – fiction, non-fiction or memoir – will affect the end result.
Bauermeister will lead a Field’s End Roundtable on that very topic, “Fiction, Non-Fiction, Memoir: How Do You Choose?” from 7-8:30 p.m., Feb. 16 in the Bainbridge Public Library Meeting Room. The format begins with an introduction of the topic by Bauermeister, followed by a group discussion.
For her, choosing was easy. The idea came on the heels of advice from a fiction writer: your characters will speak to you if you listen intently.
Listen, she did, and what unfolded is an interwoven tale of strangers brought together by a shared interest.
Often, though, how we see the world informs the kind of structure that would work best, she said. For some, the world is composed of hard facts and new ideas; for others, the world is perceived as a single narrative; while others still arrive at a cocktail party speculating on the other guest’s backstories.
Bauermeister is intrigued by multiple (and interwoven) storylines which she feels is a response to a “very fragmented world.”
“We know that life is not as simple as a three-part plot line – beginning, middle and end – with a single narrative,” she said.
Still, she muses (while on her book tour) of what her book might have been in another structure.
“What would I have been able to create, to say in another genre? ”
Tuesday night, she’ll offer advice on how writers can use one of the three structures to “bring coherence to chaos.”
Food for thought:
Erica Bauermeister leads the Field’s End Roundtable discussion, “Fiction, non-fiction, memoir: How do you choose?” from 7-8:30 p.m., Feb. 16 in the Bainbridge Public Library Meeting Room. For info: Visit www.fieldsend.org.
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