by Theresa Garee | Feb 18, 2019 | Blog
I’ll use any excuse for another installment of “What Writers Eat.”
The good folks at Mango, my publisher, (I still love the way that sounds – “My publisher”) need an author photo for my upcoming book, Depression Hates a Moving Target. I rarely like how I look in photos and I’m extra fussy about this particular snap, so today I visited a third photographer.
Since I only wear “full kabuki” makeup or grown-up clothes under duress, and the #onehundredpercentgoodhusband and I hadn’t made dinner plans, I suggested dining out.
Ed already had VASO on his new-restaurant radar so we braved the Dublin death-trap roundabout and took the fourth floor elevator to the roof of the AC Hotel for tapas and a panoramic view to the west and north overlooking downtown Dublin.
We shared res y champinones rostisados (flat iron steak with mushrooms and crispy onions, gambas al ajillo (tiger shrimp, garlic, pimentón oil, and pickled peppers), and judias verdes (green beans with garlic and almonds).
Lava cake sounded tempting, but the tapas were plenty.
All day, the skies had been a typical February-in-Ohio gray, but as the sun began to set, enough clouds cleared to provide a pretty sunset view.
It was just the two of us, and we don’t drink, so the bill was well below the $100 minimum for one of the heated “igloos” on the patio. I added that to my bucket list. I’m sure we can find adventuresome friends to join us for another sunset view.
by Theresa Garee | Feb 4, 2019 | Blog
“Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words.” ~ David Terrar quoting newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane in Brisbane’s 1911 discussion of journalism and publicity
One of the challenges of being an introverted author is the need for a continuous social media presence. I’ve written before about loathing the feeling that I’m constantly shouting “Look at me!” to a room full of strangers. My latest challenge has been to make Instagram work for me. I love taking photos and Instagram allows me to post them directly from my phone. But what do readers want to see?
I thought about some of my favorite writers who have Instagram accounts. Anne LaMott, for example, posts photos of her dog and her loved ones and, in her typical honest fashion, her aging mind. She posts a few writing photos including a short video taken at a publisher’s office, but she primarily documents her life. With this in mind, I began to post on Instagram the kind of things I already (somewhat compulsively) document anyway.
My first posts were photos of me with famous runners: Amby Burfoot, Bart Yasso, and Meb Keflezighi.
When Scarlet, the #ninetyninepercentgooddog came into our lives, she became the subject. Well, that and the things she shreds.
As a joke, I documented a meal. Some folks criticize Instagram as a place where you go to see what everyone’s eating. But my followers enjoyed the food post so much that I transformed it into my beloved #whatwriterseat posts which, if I’d done my research, would have been #writingfuel. Nearly everything already has a hashtag. You just have to find it. In this series you’ll find food that Ed, (the #onehundredppercentgoodhusband) cooked, things I cooked (badly), lovely things restaurant chefs cooked, and things I ate during a really nasty upper respiratory infection aka the “hostage crisis” during which I didn’t leave our house for ten days.
Since both my life and my upcoming memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, have a mental health theme, I post about depression and the tools I use to manage it. I include running photos of the trail or my group or Scarlet trying to eat my hat. I show brain training photos since neurofeedback (another name for brain training) sits in my mental health tool kit along with running, therapy, and medication. I haven’t yet taken a photo of me in either my therapist or psychiatrist’s office, but don’t put it past me.
I add the occasional writing photo mostly of my laptop in different locations to show my “office-of-the-day.” When the book was short-listed for the Faulkner Award, I documented our trip to New Orleans. But my personal favorite writing photo was the “final” (hahahaha – is it ever really done) draft of the book I submitted to my editor at Mango Publishing.
As it turns out, being a writer on Instagram is no different from being a writer in the rest of my life. As a reader, I want a glimpse inside the lives of the authors I love. With the tables turned, I’m offering my readers a view behind the scenes of mine.
Eventually, I’ll post a photo of the book cover. Maybe I’ll print the cover and post a second photo of me holding the cover. Then, one glorious day, I’ll post a photo of the book itself. After that, if I’m lucky, because I do have the best friends in the world, you’ll see photos of my friends reading the book. I do love to dream!
by Theresa Garee | Jan 15, 2019 | Blog
The upper respiratory infection (aka common cold) that has laid waste to most of central Ohio struck me as well. When I asked the #onehundredpercentgoodhusband to pick up some bone broth at the grocery, he arrived home with this selection.
This is just one of the many reasons I call him the “one hundred percent good husband.” Thanks, Honey. We’re “stocked” for a while. #punintended
by Theresa Garee | Jan 10, 2019 | Blog
Ed, the #onehundredpercentgoodhusband, and I long ago stopped giving each other presents on holidays. Instead, we go to a nice restaurant. Yesterday for his birthday we ate at Houlihan’s, a mid-scale restaurant in Upper Arlington a few miles from where we live.
I may have squealed just a teensy bit when I saw the daily lunch special. MEATLOAF! At heart, I am still a farm girl and meatloaf remains one of my favorite dishes. Theirs version was sublime.
They gladly reduced the portion of mashed potatoes in favor of more garlic green beans. The crispy onions were a pleasant surprise.
Ed ordered the taco plate with the chicken tortilla soup. As is his custom, in the time it took me to take the photo of my food, he inhaled his. Someday I will learn to photograph his food first.
by Theresa Garee | Jan 7, 2019 | Blog
What Writers Eat at Colin’s Coffee
We like to run on Monday mornings, usually three miles. I often run an extra mile, but not today. I was still tired from the weekend and there were only two of us. One regular was in a minor auto accident and was thankfully not hurt, but couldn’t join us. Another regular was recovering from an upper respiratory infection. Others who sometimes run with us were either out of town or back to work after the holidays. Neither of the two of us who showed had much pep. But three miles is three miles. We ran then headed to Colin’s Coffee, our standard post-Monday run hangout.
I had my usual:
Behold the McRoy sandwich on a Block’s everything bagel. That’s a fried egg, bacon, and three kinds of cheese named after Roy, a former Colin’s Coffee employee who has sadly gone on to the great coffeeshop in the sky.
The cup contains a “Sleepy Mudshot,” a coffee beverage the shop owner, Colin Gawel, named. It is decaf coffee with a shot of decaf espresso and a pump of chocolate.
The buff is swag from the 2015 Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama. I ran the half. Wearing it reminds me of the remaining states in which I’d like to run half marathons. But for today, three miles will do.