By Linda Lovely
What’s magic if
it’s not letting your imagination run free?
I tend to find hidden
magic in two locations—the kitchen and the shower.
First, the
kitchen. I choose to view cooking as a form of conjuring. How else would you
describe the process of mixing flour, raw eggs, sugar, a pinch of salt, a
teaspoon of vanilla, some baking soda, nuts and chocolate chips, subjecting it
to high heat, and poof! you have melt-in-your-mouth white chocolate chip
cookies? Now if that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. 
Plus I have an
almost supernatural power to make the cookies disappear. All it takes is a
little incantation: “Tom, the cookies are out of the oven.”
Plus I have an
almost supernatural power to make the cookies disappear. All it takes is a
little incantation: “Tom, the cookies are out of the oven.”
Okay, I eat my
share, too.
While I’m
kidding, I do feel there’s a certain magic in cooking. My relatives know I
haven’t met many recipes that I don’t feel just might be better if I tinker
while I’m doing the “bubble, bubble, boil and…” routine. Those white chocolate
chip cookies I mentioned. Though I started with a recipe I was given, I’ve
since added an extra egg, substituted nuts, changed the white/brown sugar ratio,
and changed the cooking temperature and time. Most of the time I’m happy with
the changes. If not, what magician doesn’t have the occasional mishap? I can
concoct new magic next time.
So what’s with
the shower? I have no explanation for why my shower (though it’s a great one) has
magical properties. But that is where I solve 80 percent of my plot problems. Often
I’ve gone to bed perplexed about how to get my heroine into or out of a jam.
Then, while standing in the shower the next morning, solutions seem as
plentiful as the hot water. Problems go down the drain.
The shower is
also where characters tend to speak to me. On a given day, my heroine might whisper
that she’d really like to plan a nice surprise for the villain on a mountain
trail or arrange trouble at a golf course. No, I don’t actually hear voices.
But the messages get through. And that’s magic, too. Characters become real,
have weight and dimension. This makes writing magical.
I can’t imagine
ever getting tired of cooking or writing. I sure hope you find magic in both,
too.
