Feisty Deeds: Inspiration for your next story
Feb 06, 2025 2:01 pm
Greetings, historical friends!
How are you, ? What are you writing — or reading?
As the calendar clicks over into February, the Feisty Deeds committee is getting excited to see what stories are going to land in our in-box next month! We will be open to submissions from March 1st-31st, and what you are writing is going to shape everything we do this coming year.
Writers, if you haven't done so already, please fill out this form so we can gauge interest. It really helps us to manage our time to have a general sense of how many entries are coming in. There is a box for "not sure" so you don't have to commit!
But what do I write?
We've heard from some authors that they're not sure what to write for the theme, "Batches & Brews," or they worry it is limited to a subgenre they don't write. We chose this theme because we really see it as being so broad! To help you brainstorm, we've collected a bunch of books, movies, and short stories that we feel like would fit our theme in an exciting way.
As you can see, these span all kinds of moods, genres, and tones. We are sure that, whatever you write, you can write something that enhances the theme of this anthology!
Babette’s Feast: Short story by Isak Dinesen (1950), academy award winning movie directed by Gabriel Axel (1987). There is no more inspiring movie about food and drink than “Babette’s Feast.” While stories of eating and drinking often highlight sensual desire, the pleasures of Babette’s table reawaken love, friendship, and a kind of reverence.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: The central event of the first part of this novel is Mrs. Ramsay’s dinner party. Fabulous descriptions, including of the centerpiece.
Tastes Like Home by Jennifer Mistmorgan (a favorite Australian author); an eggnog-y, Southern hemisphere spin to WWII Christmas romance
Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker; because these books feature SO MUCH Dordogne food and wine that Bruno uses to bring people together
Ratatouille, Pixar movie; because ratatouille! a French peasant dish that’s the way to a grumpy food critic’s heart
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell; because Julie works through a crap job and a troubled marriage by making ALL the recipes in Julia Childs’ iconic French Cooking books
Chocolat by Joananne Harris (of course, everyone's going to say this, but it was the first one that popped into my head the other day): because how is chocolate not magical?
(Also Like Water for Chocolate, and most of the Latin American literary canon)
The Memory of Lavender and Sage by Aimie K Runyan; because a food critic can escape grief by traveling to her mother’s home tome in Provence and building a new life while concocting soaps, perfumes, and culinary products from herbs she grows
Château de Verzat series by Debra Borchert; because the characters create nourishing, delicious meals from scarce food supplies in revolutionary-era France
Soylent Green by Harry Harrison, but the 2008 movie with Charleton Heston; because it's people!
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, and the hundreds of books inspired by this iconic story. Main characters running a coffee shop, and every new food or drink solves a problem
Hate Follow by WFWA author Erin Quinn-Kong — the pivotal scene is around a bubble bath (made by the mother)
Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory — The main character runs a winery, where many of the scenes take place. The characters also grow in their love for each other by sharing meals, which are described. In fact, almost all of Guillory's books would fit our theme, because they have pivotal scenes around meals, such as a wedding feast, a Christmas dinner at a royal palace, a backyard party with a defining racial incident, etc.
Second Thyme Around by Katie Fforde. Main characters are a gardener and a chef. Again, almost all of Fforde's work fits the theme; in every one, a woman is mastering a hands-on profession, all of which involve mixing and preparing. Gardening, restoring furniture, pastry chef, living on a canal boat...they all work!
Playing the Witch Card by WFWA member KJ Dell-Antonia. Main character is trying to run a bakery, and her cookies have mysterious powers.
This an entire subgenre of “small town domestic witch who bakes things”! There's hundreds of these, and possibly the entire genre of "women's paranormal fiction" would fit our theme.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus fits in so many ways. For instance, some of the central imagery in the book is around a kitchen that is not a kitchen, and cooking vs science.
Most historical fiction about female scientists would fit —they're all mixing things up!
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. Much of this book is about mixing up paint, and the emotional power that has. In fact, most novels about art history probably fit the category, as well as most books by Chevalier.
Most everything we write fits...and that might be true for you, too
Kimberly writes about Italian food and the power of cooking to bring us together.
Kay's book has natural disaster -- an enormous brew of weather and chemistry!
Carolyn's character make her self-discovery while floating in a hot spring. (Not to mention all her books about the aesthetics of taste.)
Christy's witches ask for tea and cake.
Meanwhile, Elaine's character cooks eggs and chips for hungry, homesick English and Australian soldiers.
So what are you thinking of writing?
We hope this list has gotten your creative juices flowing! We can't wait to read your stories. And please, don't forget to fill out our form. It would really help us!
And in case you're curious what we've seen already....we might see a span of millennia in this volume! We have several people who have indicated earlier than 1400, which was our earliest time period last volume. Exciting!
