I've been working on some articles for the Library. I'd like people's opinions on how well this works, if it needs anything, if I've screwed up spelling, etc. Thanks! **************** Spice up your stories with food Food is more than a survival requirement. It is a slice of culture. The types of foods your characters eat, how they're prepared, and when they're eaten give insights into them and the culture they come from. If your story is on a different world then you need to put some thought into the very basics of food. It's more difficult to ease into the exotic world of Frambula Five if everyone eats burgers and fries. (In fact, even using such "common foods" identifies more about the author's culture than the story's culture. In Britain, fries are called chips. Some countries don't have fries at all, except for the odd McDonalds invading the local scenery.) The purpose of this article isn't to suggest that you need to create a culinary cookbook with thousands of recipes in order to properly detail your world, but deciding on some basics and tossing in a few details will help color your world and your characters. What does it say about a character who orders a plate of pork spare ribs in Egypt or a beef hamburger in India? (They're culturally clueless or insensitive.) How about a person who knows to order raita for their nan? (They're well-travelled enough to know some basic Indian foods.) With a few, well-defined culinary rules in place, you can accomplish the same thing in your worlds. How much variety is there? If your culture is a pre-industrial one, food will likely be very limited to whatever is currently in season and to what can be stored safely for months at a time. (Pre-industrial is not necessarily the same as non-mechanized. You can have an industrial world where everything is powered by the laws of magic. You can have a world replete with robots but many of the basics that we take for granted are not possible - perhaps a mining colony with no resources available for luxuries such as refridgerators.) Cultures with limited trade will also have less variety than those with well-established trade routes. (Trade might be limited due to technology, geographic location, societal mores, and governmental or religious mandates.) Variety may be artificially limited as well. If the culture is an aesthetic one, then variety would be discouraged beyond what's necessary for good health. Military cultures restrict variety due to logistics. (We have 100,000 troops to feed very day. They will like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.) Even mundane things like available space will dictate what will be stored. (Hey, we're in luck today. We can have green food concentrate or blue food concentrate!) What is taboo or restricted? Some cultures will not eat certain foods. Many nations and religions ban certain foods, such as pork, or require special preparation, such as kosher meals. On the opposite end, some foods might be considered special foods and will only be eaten at certain times. The reasons for the restrictions are many. Perhaps the food in question has religious significance (the wafer at Catholic communions.) The food might be strongly associated with a holiday, such as eggnog and fruitcake at Christmas time, and simply not served any other time of the year. (When is the last time you had fruitcake in July?) You might also have foods that are eaten all year but especially at certain times, such as turkey at Thanksgiving. What are the staples of the culture? If you wandered into someone's house, what would you expect to see? In the U.S., bread and potatoes are two everyday items. Tortillas are quite common in Mexico, but you wouldn't expect to see them in China. Couscous brings up visions of the Middle East while rice is the Far East. Food preparation Is there anything special done when preparing the food? There are rules on how to slaughter animals for Kosher food. Some cuisines serve food cut into small strips for eating convenience, while others leave the meat on the bone so the diner can have every last morsel. While individual foods might be acceptable, some combinations might be considered odd, or even taboo. (As much as I love chocolate, I can't imagine putting it on chicken or rice.) Table manners What is considered polite? In the Middle Ages, you were expected to wipe your hands on the table cloth. In the 1800s U.S. it was considered polite to clean your teeth with a knife at the dinner table. Burpring will get you reviled for poor manners in some countries but accepted in others, the same with slurping soup. Does the host eat the first bite to indicate the food is safe, or do they wait until their guests have started? Do they pray before or after the meal? Are certain foods always served before others foods (soup first, desert last) or is everything put out at once? What utentils are commonly used? Does each person get their own plate with a portion of food, do they take what they want from a set of dishes or do they dine communally, eating from the same plate? Tastes Thai food is known for its spiciness while British food is solid and a bit plain. Your culture may prefer sweet foods while disdaining spiciness. Perhaps meals feature one strongly flavored dish while the other dishes are quite plain or they might be a cacaphony of flavors that emphasize variety in every bite. Dining Times Not everyone eats 3 meals a day. In the "Lord of the Rings", Hobbits have breakfast, second breakfast and elevenses, all before lunch. It might be acceptable to munch all day, or prohibited to eat during daylight hours. Your culture may dictate fasting during holy days or feasting. Enjoy! (Or should I say, Bon Appetit!)

You missed the obvious title, Cres.

I'd explore food in relationship to character development a bit more (you covered the cultural possibilities beautifully).

There is also the senuous nature of food. Fully dressed people, savoring their food, and devouring each other with their eyes, can set up for an interlude without any clothes being dropped. I come from the school that you don't stick something in your scene if you don't intend to give it a dramatic import. Food can provide an insight into the passion (or lack of it) in your characters. There's a world of difference between a mother feeding her child, and a potential lover feeding his or her partner.

I vote for not having long and detailed discriptions of banquets if there's no point in it but showing off your culinary prowess, but if you have two enemies at a table and one suspects the other of having poisoned something on that table...ah, then you have tensions, some reason for the food being there. Or look at "Like Water, Like Chocolate," or "Tom Jones" where the food has an aphrodisiac effect. Or what if two people go to lunch and one orders hot spicey foods, and the other goes for turkey on white bread with mayo only. Does that give you an insight into their personality? Some people make a food choice...like being a vegetarian...out of choice; and some people purposefully eat foods against their upbringing out of rebellion; and some people don't eat because they have bought into the delusion that thin is all that matters. This is telling of the person's personality.

Or maybe that's just me.

A suggestion that may be ignored without offense.

At the end of "Frasier," there is often a silent scene which ends the comedy. Last night the segment centered around cups of coffee. One character suspects the other has added something to the cup so they begin a classic exchanging of cups of coffee to avoid getting the "extra." The audience figures out, before one of the characters, that both cups may be "tainted." It's a way that something very ordinary - a cup of coffee could not be more so - is used to sum up the relationship between the two characters without one word being spoken.

Attached Link: http://stephenlawhead.com

Under table manners, "desert" should be "dessert."

Other than that, great stuff!

The following is copied from the Q&A archives of writer Stephen R. Lawhead's site:

Q: One little nit-picking comment: In Taliesin and Merlin, you have the characters in Wales eating potatoes quite frequently. If I remember correctly, potatoes were brought to England from Central America by Sir Walter Raleigh in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I -- some centuries after Taliesin/Merlin/Arthur.

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Q: In The Black Rood, as Duncan and his friends are fleeing Antioch, they pass a 'squalid little farm, the crabbed fields of which yield more stones than corn.' I don't want to sound like I am nit-picking, but was not corn a discovery of the new world that did not occur for several hundred years?

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Q: Your description of the feasts always makes me drool. What sources have you used to develop the menus and have you ever considered creating a cookbook? Sounds corny but I'd love to try some of the things you write about.

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Q: I eagerly await the publication of each of your new books. I do however have one great complaint. I have gained at least fifteen pounds since I began reading your books. It seems that I have developed an insatiable appetite for meat, broth, dark bread, and ale.

A: Food, food, glorious food! We'll deal with the matter of potatoes first. Potatoes are a New World crop and had no place on Merlin's table -- it only happened once, however, not 'frequently' as you suggest. The error was actually caught just after the first edition went to press and in subsequent editions the more acceptable turnip was substituted on the menu. I thought the error had been dealt with, but apparently this is not the case. I invite any readers who spot potato-eating in Merlin -- I believe this is the only book involved -- to cite publisher, edition, and page number so I can follow-up. Leave your message on the Readers Write page.

As for corn: in Britain (where I live) this word is used to describe any cereal grain -- especially barley and wheat -- as what North American's call 'corn' (maize) is a relatively new crop. Thus, Duncan, like all good Scots at the time, would have thought of any field of grain as 'corn.'

Now onto medieval meals. Yes, I'm a foodie. For many years I was unaware of the role that food and feasts played in my books. Now it has gotten to the point that even I realise that my love of food and drink has found its way into my stories.

As it is an interest of mine, I am constantly on the look-out for factual information about the ancient and medieval diet that might find a place in a book. Many foods eaten today have been little-changed in past centuries: wine and ale, of course; whole-grain and granary breads; sweets containing honey (not sugar); various indigenous birds such as partridge, pigeon, or duck; and any sort of game cooked over an open fire. In fact, for most of the world's history people ate pretty much whatever they could find or catch, including many things even the more adventurous would question -- from swans to sparrows, and porcupines to porpoises. Really.

Beyond that, I have a modest collection of cookbooks with such titles as How to Eat Like a Roman Emperor, Food and Feast in Medieval England, Cooking in Roman Britain, etc. Other books dealing with specific subjects such as travel conditions of pilgrims, monastic life, women's work in medieval France (or whatever) will contain some information about what those people ate and drank.

Then it's simply a matter of bringing imagination and enthusiasm to the subject. I'm glad so many people are enjoying the feasts. If you have a real taste for these foods, they can certainly be tried by amateurs (especially those who know a co-operative butcher). And, if you are visiting an Old World country, why not go to one of the many medieval banquets offered in various castles? For example, they're offered at Bunratty Castle near Shannon in Ireland (been to that one), Ruthin Castle in Wales, Warwick Castle . . . and a host of others. Although I've not tried them myself, I wouldn't look for an authentic experience in Orlando or Las Vegas, though.

Very interesting reading! I agree with Dialyn about the unnecessary descriptions of meals... however it happens that a writer mention food in an ordinary description, and too often happens the kind of food is 'out of place'; maybe being the food not the main object it can pass unnoticed, but it certainly doesn't add to the realism of a scene... One should be careful of such details while writing...

How about a person who knows to order raita for their nan? (They're well-travelled enough to know some basic Indian foods.) Or they're British: our history has been closely entwined with India and the sub-continent for the last couple of centuries. One result of that is that we have a huge number of Indian restaurants, especially in England. Roast lamb is considered a classic English meat - Sunday dinner without a roast is unthinkable. The taste for roast lamb, though, came back to Britain with the Crusaders: it's Middle Eastern in origin. Food reveals history. (And that Sunday dinner without a roast? Not really unthinkable - in fact, it's getting harder and harder to find. Be careful of using food as shorthand. You may be aiming for a 'telling detail' but you'll often end up with a stereotype.)

All good points! I'm doing these articles out of order. When I have the set completed, I'll have the first article on putting in details in general (and not overdoing it.) After that comes articles on ways to make your worlds different - not everyone should be wearing tunics and wandering around stone castles filled with tapestries or running around metallic hallways with phasers. That's where the articles on food, decoration, etc. will come into play. It makes more sense as a whole, but I'd rather put up the individual items as I finish them, instead of waiting for the whole series to finish. I'm also slowly putting together some more technical pieces, such as Point of View. (That one's half done.) Are there any particular articles that people would like to see? I can't promise I can knowledgeably write about all subjects, but I do want to put stuff up that's useful for as many as possible. Thanks for the insights so far!

My bugaboo is plotting....making the storyline fresh and original and dropping into cliches. I try to develop plots out of character but they often dissolve into soap operish dramatics. I'd like to see some insights about that. I also have a hard time writing descriptions of backgrounds and scenes. They pretty much bore me to read so I find it hard to write them because I'm very conscious of how wearisome I often find them. How do realize a background without having it stop your storyline?

It's the little details that people remember. How about a lamb roast crackin crispy on the outside, blackened to hold in every bit of juice, just pink enough on the inside so that every bite just melts in your mouth. On the side a salad of crisp romaine with pearl onions and chick peas and croissants with a light garlic butter. To top it all off a bone dry chablis served ice cold so that it reminds one of the cold edge of steel when it first touches the teeth. Or a mug of beer and bowl of popcorn (no details)