Happy Holidays!

Okay, so I know the holidays are pretty much over now, but I still hope that everyone had a wonderful break and got everything they wanted. The sales for the book were really good (nearly 3 times what they normally are!) and I have a feeling that a lot of that came from Christmas. Thank you all very much for that. I appreciate it so much and cannot express gratitude enough.

One of the things I did for people as their Christmas present was make a cookbook. It’s pretty obvious that food features heavily in the sequel, so I rounded up a ton of recipes from there and added a few of my own that I use a lot. It ended up being fairly substantial, but not enough for a full-volume cookbook. I also dreaded writing anything about the meal beyond instructions, but I knew it would be a really boring cookbook if I didn’t do something. So, I figured, since I did write this mammoth book where these characters are eating this food, why don’t I just put excerpts of it in here?

If anyone has ever read or heard of Laura Esquivel’s book Like Water For Chocolate, this was my ultimate goal. Since this novel was magic realist in it’s execution, I figured I should follow suit. So instead of picking and choosing from the gigantic sequel that’s been posted online, I edited and picked some key scenes from one of the old versions of the story. (Obviously, the magic realist one I’ve mentioned before in other posts). I cut and pasted, added some painting by Goya and Magritte, and the appropriate about of pretentious epigraphs, and then I was done. I called it Several Perceptions after an Angela Carter novel of the same name, and picked a cover. Here it is!

Half vegan cookbook and half magic realist novel, Several Perceptions follows Bernard, Thomas, Jasmine, and Vivian as they search together for the memories they have lost, the love they need to hold onto, and the food they still need to make.

So what are the major differences from this and The Rainbow? Other than an absurdist style, the whole thing is now in third person perspective.  The point of view goes beyond Thomas and because of that, you know about Bernard’s illness right from the beginning. The story “The Forgetting Disease” is his story and how he feels about what’s happening to him and depicts Thomas’ utter obliviousness.  Most of the events between the books are the same, but they are told very differently. The style is rather dense and wordy, very similar to Carter’s in a lot of her novels, and the events that are depicted happen as if they were in a dream. Magic realist basically means that weird shit happens, but people proceed as usual. So when foods sets itself at a table and cupboards seem to know what Jasmine and Thomas want for dinner, no one thinks its unusual.

Here’s a basic table of contents and I will tell you what each story is about.

Roots: Jasmine discusses her family tree and how she descended from Vikings. The scene then moves to the dinner all four of them had together the first night back from Paris, and she goes out on the balcony with Thomas where they discuss dreams.

The Forgetting Disease: As mentioned, this is Bernard talking about his Alzheimer’s and how it feels being back in NJ. It’s when he decides to label everything so he does not forget. He also talks about Paris here, since it was when he developed symptoms.

The Apartment: The apartment itself releases smells that trigger nostalgia for whoever enters. The bulk of this story goes through everyone who has lived in the apartment, and what directions their memories went afterwards and what relationships it helped flourish. For instance,  when Thomas lived there when Bernard was away, the landlord came by to get rent but never ended up collecting it because all he thought about was his sick mother, and when Vivian entered, she would always flashback to art school.

Making Dinner and Remaking The Past: This is the night that Jasmine finally has dinner with Thomas and the power goes out. They make Pad Thai and are both stricken with an usual hunger that will not be satisfied, no matter what they eat. Over dinner, they both discuss whether or not it is possible to live beyond what your family heritage dictates.

A Secular Night In Winter: Told in five vignettes,  it depicts Christmas Eve and into Christmas day for all four of them. No dialogue is used and it’s mainly different descriptions. The recital that is mentioned in the first part of December where Cassandra plays Wagner happens, along with a fight from Vivian. Marc and Alexa’s kids insist on different ornaments for the tree; Jasmine and Thomas actually spend the night together, as do Bernard and Vivian. Similar to Esquivel’s story, something is added to the gingerbread cookies and it makes everyone fall in love with one another again.

The New Year: Jasmine, Bernard, and Thomas all gather together for New Years. This scene was never in The Rainbow, but a lot of the same themes are discussed about whether or not one can escape fate. Jasmine and Vivian make breakfast for Bernard and Thomas. Jasmine teaches Vivian how to “veganize the alphabet,” comparing it to reinventing the wheel.

Dancing: Jasmine and Thomas dance on New Years, but eventually the pressure of change and resolution is too much.

Even though with this version of the story I manged to get into January, I decided to not include any of the other narrative here. This is also not the entirety of the December plot told in this style. I have many more scenes, but these were the most effective to my goal of keeping the narrative centered around food. I’m considering making the magic realist version available,  but since it will involve a bit of editing, I’ve put it off from my priorities for the time until I can at least finish what I’m writing now. I will post these stories in full on the website by the end of January for anyone who does not wish to purchase a cookbook, but still wants to read the events in the meantime.

Since the people I gave this to wanted it on Kindle, it is available there in addition to the lulu website in epub and print.

Speaking of Kindle, it has an interesting system of publication and they have a lot more restrictions than lulu. I’ve gotten some requests for the series of books in mobi format and I’ve been able to get them done. Not all the table of contents work, but all in all, it’s a good system. You can see and purchase The Epilogue, The Rainbow, and Several Perceptions there, but there is no The Dove Keeper. This is because before Kindle publishes something, they do a web search for it. Since it’s widely available for free online, Kindle will not host TDK in their system.

But! I do have the mobi version of the book on my own computer. I’ve sold a few of them to people, and we’ve been doing it over email attachments and paypal. If you want to get TDK this way, I’d love to hear from you. If you want to get all the books too, I can give them to you without Amazon interfering and making it cost more. Just send me an inquiry to evelyndeshane(at)gmail(d0t)com.

Thanks again, everyone! You made 2012 a great year and I hope 2013 will be the same. :)