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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Avocado on toast, anyone?

17/11/2020

8 Comments

 
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I don't recall when I first tasted avocado. It might have been as a starter in the kind of restaurant that thinks it's sophisticated to use the term hors d'oeuvre. For a while, I regularly added a pack to my supermarket trolley until the millennials got a taste for avocado on toast. Although I don't object to being on trend occasionally, it makes it hard to eat ethically where we have to import them: I don't want to be responsible for the loss of rainforests to get my fix.
That's only partly why I struggled to respond to this week's flash fiction challenge. I've also been mega busy running my first book giveaway promotion and responding to my publisher's edits of my forthcoming novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, about a brother and sister separated for fifty years against the backdrop of the longstay psychiatric hospital closures . Most of those edits were straightforward agree/disagree, but a couple required some extra thought. Might Matty's nickname for a fellow patient have an extra connotation I hadn't intended? Could I move a section from a quarter-point chapter right to the front?
 
When I can't easily find a 99-word story to fit the prompt, it often helps to have a further constraint from the book I'm reviewing or something I've recently – or less recently – written myself. I vaguely recalled placing an avocado bathroom suite in my second novel, Underneath, about a man who seeks to resolve a relationship crisis by keeping a woman captive in a cellar and, tramping the fields this morning, I thought I might pair it with my character Matty's possible reaction to being served food she'd never heard of in her childhood almost a century ago.
 
But I've got to the stage as an author where I forget what I've written. (Let's hope it's because my publication list's growing rather than something more sinister.) In the process of composing my opening paragraph I recalled that I do have a short story about the West's insistence on year-round availability of produce we can't grow ourselves. Although it doesn't mention avocados specifically, I could make sure the 99-word version does. If you have a spare twenty minutes, you can check it against the published version even if you don’t have a copy of my short story collection, Becoming Someone, on the theme of identity, as I recorded it for a local green festival when it had to move online.

Nothing about avocados in my debut novel, but it does connect with 99! The number of pence my publisher's reduced the e-book to; it might not be as neat in other currencies but it's still a flash sale for the end of our giveaway (closes tomorrow November 18). Click the left button to go to the Inspired Quill website. If you're not buying, do click the right button as I'm rather proud of the new landing page I've put together. But beware, you might need sunglasses!

GRAB A DISCOUNTED COPY OF SUGAR AND SNAILS
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SUGAR AND SNAILS
Haunted by her carbon footprint

Selena thought they resembled hand grenades, but beneath the toady carapace the flesh was melt-in-the-mouth divine. Yes, the price had doubled recently, but avocado on toast would set her up for a successful day.

Three packets in her trolley, she moved on to the bakery counter. Turning her head, a trail of sooty footprints marked her path from the greengrocery section. Yet the soles of her shoes were pristine.

With a sigh, she retraced her steps. She knew the drill. She could scrub the floor she'd sullied. Or return the airfreighted produce that depleted the rainforests to the shelf.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
D. Avery link
17/11/2020 02:10:11 pm

You have been busy! Hopefully your efforts will translate into increased sales. Imagine (well, you did) if shoppers left a trail, or could view the trail of their purchases. Where I am the local-vore movement has been strong for a long time, which provided more resiliency in the face of Covid closing in. CSA's and such have only grown stronger and many more people are growing their own. Of course that means not always having what you want, but what you need. Remember when fruit was a Christmas treat?

Reply
Anne Goodwin
17/11/2020 03:24:27 pm

And you've been quick in your response! Thank you. Sadly, we don't have any small shops nearby, but a supermarket a ten minute walk away, so shopping local means shopping big! One of the things I dislike about year-round availability is people have no idea what's in season. I grow vegetables – but less than I used to – and even I forget. But that might be partly because I often have to stop and think what time of year it is.

Now you've got me about that fruit for Christmas thing. We used to get an apple and orange in our stockings but I'm sure we also have them throughout the year – although maybe not every day. But peaches came only from tins on a Sunday afternoon.

Reply
Charli Mills
19/11/2020 08:29:28 am

Oh, no, Anne, that's a terrible feeling to wonder if you already wrote something. Let's take it as a sign of a large body of work! I used to write about food to get people to shift toward seasonality but Americans want strawberries in January. I find that produce tastes better seasonal, although I also love the indulgence of raspberry jam in winter after picking them in summer for such a cold day. Your flash shows the difficulty people have connecting food to source when it's so readily available. And we still do oranges, peppermints and canned smoked oysters in Christmas stockings!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
20/11/2020 02:37:52 pm

Jam is always seasonal IMO, as it's a way of preserving a summer glut. I'm wondering about your oysters -- if they're smoked, do they need to be canned? I don't think I've ever eaten them in any format.

Reply
susan scott link
21/11/2020 12:50:14 pm

Yep, on point about the avos being freighted from everywhere. I love avo, and buy only in season. They're getting more expensive though. Good luck on ongoing WIP and have a lovely weekend!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
22/11/2020 10:32:22 am

Thanks Susan. Here in the UK we don't know WHEN they're in season!

Reply
Norah Colvin
6/12/2020 10:53:18 am

Your flash is very clever, Anne. I'd love to know the effect my purchases have further down or up the line (I'm never sure which way it goes), and I don't mean just carbon footprint, though that would be useful too. I buy Australian produce as much as I can but am surprised sometimes that (some) oranges and grapes come from the USA, garlic from Mexico, and recently discovered that an apple pie I bought was made in the UK. Although I use an Ethical Shoppers Guide to help me choose, not all products are listed and we rely on the honesty of retailers to tell us. Farmers' markets would guarantee local produce but unfortunately, there is not one near me.
When I discuss other effects, our local TV news will sometimes report a comparison of the cost of a trolley of groceries from each of our three main supermarkets. What they omit to tell us, is where the profits are going (local or overseas) or where the good are produced and whether they are supporting local or overseas employment, and whether that employment is ethical. I think there is more to shopping that simply cost.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
6/12/2020 06:00:28 pm

Thanks, Norah. Yes, bizarre how fresh produce is imported when you could buy homegrown. And capitalism is hard at work for consumers at the best of times, but even harder when you're trying to make ethical choices. I hate shopping so much, I often forget to read the labels to check where things are from.

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