Sensory

I like the ritual of drinking absinthe. I like the hardware. I like watching the ice water slowly drip over the sugar cube as it melts away. The bright green absinthe turn a more subdued opaque jade as the water interacts with the alcohol. It's too bad that I don't care for the flavor.  I've tried, but I simply can't get past it.

I never thought anything would replace my espresso addiction (strangely enough, not a huge fan of coffee) but lately I've been indulging in Turkish coffee when we eat lunch at our favorite little Persian cafe. With Turkish coffee the ritual isn't as dramatic as with absinthe but the hardware has its own charm. Plus Turkish coffee has amazing flavor. Even the steam rising from the bubbly brown surface is bliss.

Any difficult food ritual appeals to me, probably because it means I have to slow down and pay attention. If it gets really complicated going through the motions becomes almost like a meditation. Anything that trains my brain to focus on detail and experience the moment helps my writing. Or, at least, that's what I tell myself, because it sounds better than 'I'm a caffeine addict.'

There's a lot of lavish sensory detail in my writing. Many of the reviews of Devil's Concubine mentioned that they could almost feel the heat and humidity. Those details make the setting come alive for me so I try to give that immersive experience to my readers. I want to take you away to another world, and I want you to feel as if it's the kind of place where you could sit at a cafe, drink a tiny cup of intense coffee, and people watch for hours.