AN INTERVIEW WITH AMY ROSEN

The Book: Off Menu

Amy Rosen and I go back all the way to Journalism School in Halifax in the ‘90s. Not too long after we graduated, we started to explore a concept introduced to us by one of our professors. He said at the time that reality television would be the next big thing in broadcasting. (Stephen Kimber, you are actually Kreskin). At the time, there were no Kardashians or Real Housewives, so the concept was really just a concept. We developed an outline of a show where we would tell the day-to-day stories of a group of 25-year-old women (our age at the time). We started with my high school friend group, who ultimately chickened out, so our reality show at the dawn of reality shows never came to fruition! From there, our careers took off in different directions. Amy went to Le Cordon Bleu and achieved a certificate in Basic Cuisine and became a food editor for magazines, a travel writer, a cookbook author, a judge on food competition shows and an entrepreneur. I recently wrote about her cinnamon bun brand, Rosens Buns in the newsletter. Now, she’s a published author of a witty rom-com novel for food lovers. I loved Off Menu from start to finish! We recently had a chat about this full circle moment in her life and career.

Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

Amy, you’ve accomplished so much in your career, where does publishing your first novel rank?

This is the thing I’ve always wanted to do, like this is number one. This is the childhood dream realized, because as a kid, when people say they don’t know what they want to be, I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I used to write short stories in school and my stories were the ones read out in front of the class, so I always knew I was kind of okay at it. Terrible at math, good at this, so I just leaned into it. But then, why do we go to Journalism School? Because we know we can’t make a living in Canada as a novelist, so what kind of journalism have I always done? Not hard news but I’ve always done lifestyle stuff because it’s fun stories, it’s more creative writing. It’s all still factual, but you can put your personality into it, especially travel writing. It’s the closest thing to writing a novel without writing a novel, which I’m now realizing.

How did you get started?

This has been in and out of a drawer for more than 15 years. In 2008, I had started writing it and sold it after the first few chapters to Key Porter Press and we remember what happened in 2008! They went out of business. And then, I was like, should I continue writing? Then I kind of did, and there were so many “almost deals” along the way, but I don’t know how to write a book. I knew the writing was good, and people liked the characters for the most part, but I didn’t know how to develop characters, or how to move a plot along. I didn’t realize that you had to move a plot along! I just needed someone to say yes, so an editor could help me fix this and give it the right structure. Then the pandemic hits and no one had time to take that on, but I never gave up. My friend Tommy and I went to Porto on a self-deemed writing retreat — you know Tommy Smythe, right? — he always said, “having a book in a drawer is shameful! You gotta suck it up!” I was like, “Oh my God, it is shameful!” I just thought it was annoying, but it is shameful, especially for someone who makes her living off writing.

So, I had done a little cookbook for a store in Kensington Market. I just needed my novel printed, because having a book in a drawer is shameful, so I said to the owner, can you just print this, maybe edit it? And she says we don’t do fiction but I have a friend I’m going to send this to. So I get an email from this woman Kenna who had just started working at ECW, an independent publisher and she says, can we meet for coffee? So we meet for coffee and Kenna says, how would you describe your book in one sentence. And I say, “Nora Ephron’s Heartburn for a new millennium. And then she pulled up her sleeve and she showed me goosebumps, and she says, look what I wrote down. “Nora Ephron’s Heartburn meets Bridget Jones’ Diary.” And then I got goosebumps.

Food for Thought

Get Amy Rosen’s Recipes

Reading Off Menu was delightful on so many levels. Knowing Amy, I could hear the cadence of her voice when reading about her main character, Ruthie Cohen’s adventures (and misadventures). Ruthie is a 20-something culinary school student trying to find her way in her career and in love. Not only are the circumstances Ruthie finds herself in quite funny, Amy’s telling of them are uniquely Amy. Her brand of dry, provocative humour is prolific throughout the novel. Woven into the storytelling are tantalizing references and descriptions of food. The icing on the cake (I couldn’t resist), is when you finish the book, there are recipes for the dishes that Amy wrote into the plot. The two dishes I was dying to try as I read the story are VEGAN SZECHUAN CARROT SOUP FOR DEAN (Ruthie’s vegan love interest) and APPLE PECAN BREAD PUDDING (an accidental masterpiece that helps Ruthie win a cooking competition). The photos below are not part of the book, just for suggestion, it is a novel after all, but there are some clever illustrations throughout the book that enhance the story.

Enjoy!

AN INTERVIEW WITH CATALINA MARGULIS

The Book: Again, Only More Like You

Cat and I live in the same neighbourhood. We each have four children. Our kids have gone to the same schools. We both started our careers in journalism and we both had a dream to write a novel. Quite a lot in common, but our busy lives rarely brought us together, beyond seeing each other at a school play or bumping into each other at the grocery store. I first learned that Cat was writing a book on a Halloween walk through the neighbourhood with several families during the pandemic. She told me she was writing a book and I told her I was too. We spent the rest of the time talking about the stories we were crafting. By now you know the status of my “novel.” When Cat’s Instagram post announcing her book launch popped into my feed, I did a double take. She did it. She actually did it! I ordered Again, Only More Like You immediately and didn’t put it down until I was finished. When I reached out to Cat for this interview, she was genuinely thrilled that I had read her book. While commercial success is definitely welcome, Cat’s biggest goal for the book is that people read it, enjoy it and connect with it. Mission accomplished from my point of view!

Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

^{What was the starting point for your novel?}

I started writing nine years ago. I was unemployed and pregnant and didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I wrote the book I needed at that time, so it is my life, with a lot of fabrication. It’s based on my career as a magazine editor and my friendships with single women and stay-at-home moms and the tension between those friendships when you’re living completely different lives. So, it’s based on my life but if you read the fine print, you would say I’m a total liar! But that’s what fiction is; I can make a better story, the way I want it. So, the arc of the book, none of that existed when I wrote it, but I always knew where it would end. And then I had to live it, figure out what the hell am I going to do with myself. 

So you’ve become an author and a consultant for people who want to be an author. Is this where you thought you’d be?

Do you ever feel like you keep hitting the same cycle? The same questions, and choices. Even up to this week I was like maybe I should sell out and get a corporate job. I keep getting spammed by Indeed and I'm like, maybe I should just cut it out already and get a job or something. And them I'm like, okay God, send me a sign. If you want me to keep doing things I’m passionate about and it’s fulfilling and things that I want for my life, you better send me some signs buddy! Yesterday, I landed a dream client, so I’m like okay, we’re going to do this for a while. When I started I didn’t even know what a book coach was, but people I know started coming to me for advice and they would tell friends, “Oh, you’ve got to talk to Cat.” and they started coming and I really liked it. Eventually it led to client referrals. People asked for help and I helped them, they were happy, and I got better at it, and they loved it.

Writing Tips from Cat

How to Flirt with your book: Tips to get it on with your book and kickstart your writing habit.t

1. Create a Spotify Playlist. An absolute must. Bonus points if you share it to plant seeds with your future audience (comes with a little accountability built in). Get Cat’s playlist here.

2. Design a Pinterest board featuring your book dream settings and favourite actors you would choose to play your characters (Cat would cast America Ferreira as Carmen, the main character in her book). You can visit this at the beginning of your writing session to get you in the mood. Tip: add a time limit or hard stop at 2-3 new pins so this doesn’t suck up your writing time!

3. Choose your writing tool wisely. Personally, I like Scrivener, but Word is growing on me lately. But whatever floats your boat — whether it’s minutes/hours clocked, word counts or pages — adopt the platform that lets you track the metrics that work to encourage you.

Tell me about Alex, the school council mom character with 7 kids (Spoiler alert: there is a mom in our neighbourhood, with 7 kids) Is it her?

I went to one of those parent council meetings when they started bringing the TV’s to the classroom at lunchtime to “babysit” the kids and I should not have opened my mouth, but I’m like, “what are we doing with TVs, we might as well give them a pill or something.” And this woman gave me a lashing. She’s like, “you don’t know what it’s like. You don’t volunteer here. You don’t know what the kids are like.” But she was right, because she said we don’t have enough volunteers, we don’t have enough staff, we can’t be with all the kids blah blah. I didn’t appreciate it then. I was going downtown and working and I honestly used to look down on the stay-at-home moms. Then when I started to be that part-time mom, talking to everyone because you’re standing at the park waiting for the kids and I realized, wow! They are bad asses! You realize all the stuff they do...these are the people that do all the things. They say moms are the unpaid workforce, but the volunteer moms are the ones that don’t get any credit. Nobody knows they’re buying the computers, building the playground and I didn’t appreciate it. So yeah, that’s Alex. The one who balled me out!

What if she reads the book and makes the connection?

I thought about changing some details. I thought maybe I would give her eight kids, but that seemed so Octomom. Then I thought maybe six kids, but it didn’t feel like enough. I mean, I have four. I hope by the end, you realize I see you, I appreciate you. You scared me initially but, that’s the hope. Part of the process of writing the book was that I feel like I could step into other shoes. There were two things that drove it: One was my story; and one was my single friends who always picked the terrible guys. Those were the two problems I wanted to fix. I need to roll up those characters and step into their shoes to really do it compassionately. It was a long journey of gratitude and forgiveness. I'm not that mom, but God bless that you are doing these things.

Your life is so busy with four kids and work. How did you make time to write?

How I got that book done was 5am club and sprints. Having conversations with my family, who would say, “you’re always on your computer!” And I would tell them, “I’m on a sprint right now, just give me another hour or give me until June.” I will set a deadline and you just show up, carving out that time first thing in the day. I like to set the bar low, to make it very easy for me to wade in. If I write seven lines, amazing! Good for you! If I write a paragraph, 200 words or 500 words then I’m really proud of myself. Then you get momentum and you don’t want to leave and before you know it the kids are late for school again because I keep getting stuck in my story and keep pushing the clock. You’ve just got to catch that wave and then the wave is going to take you. 

CAT OUTFITS HER MAIN CHARACTER

What would Carmen wear?

We asked Cat to choose a garment from a Canadian woman-owned brand for her main character, Carmen, who straddles the competing worlds of magazine editor and stay-at-home mom. She chose the One Button Blazer in Raspberry Jacquard from Smythe.

“Carmen would be a huge fan of Smythe’s blazers which are cool and put together without trying too hard. Carmen 2.0 may experiment with a colourful, loud print, because she’s done with being the boring, reliable one and ready to show her fierce, fabulous, slightly-*unhinged*-but-learning-to-be-okay-with-it true colours (wink-wink)”

keep sharing real stories

AND OTHER BITS

Check out these tidbits we found to make your life a little richer this week.

▶ Want to free the writer within you?: Read Writing Down the Bones

▶ Love tomatoes?: Check out @alessandrabrontsema and her tomato party

▶ Traveling to Italy?: Experience Milan like a fashion editor

▶ Are you a word person?: Try a word search