Wonderings - Michelle Richmond

Five Things I Love (& 5 I Can Do Without)

Cafe Kitsune Paris, with book from Librarie Galignani

When I go through a dry spell in my writing, I find it helps to think in fives. Instead of beginning the day with a scene from my novel-in-progress, I begin with a quick exercise: write about five of something. Five books I love, five cities I’ve lived in, five dates, five meals…anything.

In her excellent and esoteric blog Writer’s Notebook, NorCal native and Paris expat Summer Brennan explains the origins of the Five Things post.

“There seems to be something about the number five that helps to give a satisfying structure, at least to the writer, if not to the reader,” Brennan writes.

With that inspiration, I’m sharing my own five things: Five Things I Love and Five I Can Do Without. (I considered calling this post “5 Things I Love and Five I Loathe.” That would have been a catchier title, but a dishonest one. There’s nothing in this list of fives I actually hate. I began with the idea of very strong preferences. Here goes: Five Things I Love, and their less lovable counterparts.

Coffee not Tea

I have a secret bias. If someone reveals that they drink tea instead of coffee, I automatically mistrust them. I don’t think they’re morally corrupt, necessarily, but I question their common sense. Fair or no, I associate tea with china cups and doilies. Ruffled lampshades. Dusty sofas in floral patterns. I secretly suspect that the majority of tea-drinkers can name the lesser royals and perhaps even recall their more questionable moments in haberdashery. (I do have dear friends who drink tea and exhibit none of these characteristics, and I fully admit my bias is not based in fact). By contrast, in my mind, a coffee drinker’s lamps give good light. Their linens are unfussy. They like to get stuff done.

Give me coffee (I wrote a whole book about it)—the stronger the better. Black, not doctored. Give me energy and focus, the noise of the coffee grinder, the oil of the beans, the straight-to-the-brain olfactory joy when you pour the ground beans into the filter basket. Give me the heat, the first bitter taste, the burn in the throat, the electric charge. Give me a really good drip machine.

technivorm moccamaster — Best coffeemaker ever: Technivorm Moccamaster

Coffee in Paris, Les Deux Magots — Best coffeemaker ever: Technivorm Moccamaster

I should mention my husband drinks neither tea nor coffee. He is strictly a hot chocolate man. Once, when he edited one of my novels, he replaced every mention of the male protagonist drinking coffee with the male protagonist drinking hot chocolate. Despite reservations, I let it stand. Several layperson reviewers objected. “No grown man drinks that much hot chocolate,”they said. For some readers, the prevalence of hot chocolate in the novel created a problem of verisimilitude, a corruption of the fictional dream.

I will quote one of the reviewers, who calls herself muppetbaby99 and who writes a great blog called Doubleplusgood where she does wildly entertaining “live readings” of novels. She posted about The Marriage Pact for several days in July of 2017, right after the book came out. On the matter of hot chocolate, she had this to say:

I think Michelle Richmond must own stock in a bunch of different ‘hot chocolate beverage flavouring chemical’ companies due to sheer number of times she mentions/describes HOT CHOCOLATE in this story. She must be getting a kick-back from Nestle

If I were the type of writer to correct readers on matters of the possible, I would have responded, “But there are men who drink that much hot chocolate. I am married to one of them!” Of course I am not that type of writer. Readers are, after all, entitled to their opinions. May they all be so lucky as fall in love with a man who is man enough to drink hot chocolate instead of coffee or tea.

P.S. I don’t own stock in Nestle BUT we do have an entire cabinet full of Benco, the French equivalent of Nesquik, which my husband buys by the case whenever he goes back to Paris.

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Searching for Leonard Cohen in Hydra

In July of 2020, we escaped crowded Paris for a remote region of Greece. This audio story, excerpted from my memoir-in-progress about my family’s expat years in Paris, is exclusive to subscribers at The Wandering Writer.

7 Inspiring Books for Writers in Any Genre

Every writer must be a reader first, and the best education you can get is by reading. The most inspiring books for writers aren’t necessarily books about writing. Remember the first novel you wanted to tell others about? The first story that stuck in your mind? The first character you wished you could know in real life?

Reading widely across genres is essential. If you want to write literary fiction, reading crime novels can give you a stronger grasp on plot. If you want to write thrillers, reading literary novels can help you better understand the nuances of character development. Immerse yourself in novels, story collections, essays, poetry. Read for pleasure, and read with analytical eye. See what makes the writing tick. Those books will the foundation of your education in writing.

But when the well is dry, when you go to your computer or your notebook and feel adrift, books about writing can get you into the writing mood again. Here are seven books for writers that I recommend to students in my novel writing class, ranging from the practical to the inspiring.

First You Write a Sentence: The Elements of Reading, Write, and Life, by Joe Moran

This isn’t just a book about what makes a wonderful sentence (although it is that). It’s also a book about how sentences lead us into our writing, how sentences guide us to discovery and help an idea become a story. This book is an inspiration for those of us who geek out on language and a primer for anyone who wants to know how a great sentence is made, and why it matters. Get it on Amazon.

Novel Starter: 50 Days of Exercises and Advice to Help You Start Your Novel, from the Fiction Attic Press Master Class Series

Designed to help writers kickstart their novels, Novel Starter features 50 days of assignments, prompts, and inspiration, arranged in a progression to help you get the most out of your writing practice. Ten-minute prompts help you break through writers’s block, generative exercises help you write scenes and chapters, and craft keys demystify the fundamentals of narrative craft. If you want a 50-day boot camp to get your novel off the ground, this is the book for you. Get Novel Starter on Amazon.

Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in The Writer’s Life, by Bonnie Friedman

According to Friedman, “Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences, they are the ones who keep writing.” While the other books on this list focus on narrative craft, Writing Past Dark is the book you’ll turn to when you feel gobsmacked by your novel, and you’re not sure how (or why) to continue. Get it on Amazon.

Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, by Patricia Highsmith

You don’t have to be a writer of crime fiction or thrillers to learn a great deal from this slim, to-the-point guide on creating suspense in fiction. Highsmith’s advice on everything from plotting to getting past “snags” is invaluable to novelists in any genre. As a writer of literary fiction, I found that it provided me with a much-needed kick in the pants. Get it on Amazonor Bookshop.org.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Listen to this audiobook whenever you think, “Why am I doing this? Can I really do this?” Gilbert is like a cheerleader standing on the sidelines of your writing life. Get it at Bookshop.org or Audible.

The Apprentice Writer: Essays, by Julian Green

A refreshing, wide-ranging collection of essays by a French-American writer. While the essays cover various subjects such as translation and Paris neighborhoods, the book is worth reading for the essays “How a Novelist Begins,” “Where do Novels Come From?”, and “Lectures on Writing.” This one isn’t that easy to find, but if you do stumble across it, be sure to buy it!

On Writing:A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

By the time I got around to reading this modern classic by one of the most prolific writers of our time, I’d already published three novels. I wish I’d found it sooner! While King’s smart, down-to-earth memoir/writing lesson is a must-read for beginning novelists, fiction writers at any stage of their careers will find much to admire and be inspired by. Consider it a crash course in how to write fiction that people want to read. Get it at Bookshop.org or Audible.

Letters to a Young Writer, by Colum McCann

This wide-ranging book by Pulitzer Prize winning author and long-time teacher McCann is one of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read on writing. McCann talks about how to focus on the work instead of the ego, how to get past envy, how to work with an agent, and why exhaustion is an essential part of the writing process. If you’re in a slump, this brilliant little book will pull you out of it. Get it on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of THE WONDER TEST, THE MARRIAGE PACT, and six other novels and story collections. She mentors writers through Fiction Master Class.

Silicon Valley novel tackles achievement obsession

Michelle Richmond author of Silicon Valley novel THE WONDER TEST

My new Silicon Valley novel, THE WONDER TEST, hits shelves today. In a review of THE WONDER TEST for the San Francisco Chronicle, Anita Felicelli writes,

“Contemporary fiction set in or around Silicon Valley doesn’t always reach far enough with its absurdity and speculation.. Richmond’s eighth work of fiction, “The Wonder Test,” hits the right notes. It is a madcap suspense novel with a clever premise.”

In THE WONDER TEST, recently widowed FBI agent Lina Connerly relocates from New York City to an affluent suburb in Silicon Valley with her teenaged son, Rory, to clear out her father’s home and get her life back in order after a series of traumatic setbacks.

After enrolling Rory in the public school, which is obsessed with an annual exam called the Wonder Test that has put the small town of Greenfield on the map, Lina is drawn into a mystery involving local teens who go missing. Meanwhile, colleagues back in New York keep trying to rope her back into and old espionage case that needs her attention.

What a blast this novel was to write! Inspired in part by a move to a small town south of San Francisco 12 years ago, and in part by nearly 25 years as an FBI spouse, this “sharply written, subtly satirical thriller” (Publishers Weekly) imagines high-achieving parents and communities in Silicon Valley willing to put their children through the most extreme paces in pursuit of excellence. Oddly enough, this Silicon Valley novel also pays homage to Shirley Jackson, author of the famous short story “The Lottery”–a story about good citizens committing heinous crimes. Jackson lived and wrote for years in the neighborhood where THE WONDER TEST is set.

THE WONDER TEST is also about grief: how we go on and rebuild our lives after the foundation has crumbled, and how work can be a solid force that helps us survive the worst. Did I mention it’s also a bit of a spy novel?

The most enjoyable part of the book, however, was writing the WONDER TEST questions at the beginning of each chapter, like “Square feet is to cubic feet as time is to what?” and “Provide examples to illustrate the term ‘diminishing returns’ without providing so many examples as to achieve diminishing returns.” The questions were inspired by many years of elementary school homework, during which my husband, son and I attempted to find the “right” answer for a series of increasingly absurd standardized test questions.

“Richmond’s (The Marriage Pact) latest is a two-in-one winner: a gripping thriller set in a Stepford-esque California suburb, and a story of surviving loss and building family bonds. With a realistic protagonist, well-described setting, and an uber-creepy villain, it will please readers who like their stories with action and heart in equal measure.”—Liz French, Library Journal

I talked with Jessica Zack of San Francisco Chronicle Datebook about the story behind THE WONDER TEST, and how the seemingly far-fetched so often comes to pass.

You can buy the book at your local independent bookstore, or you can purchase it online through your favorite retailer.

Buy indie: Get THE WONDER TEST at Bookshop.org

Also available on Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Add THE WONDER TEST on Goodreads