Hear things new
Storytelling stuff worth sharing
I mentioned a couple weeks back how my beloved Rebecca got me an oak barrel for aging spirits.
It has been serving us well.
The first batch of Old Fashioned, aged for two weeks, featured Bulleit Rye, homemade brown sugar simple syrup, and orange bitters.
Smooooooth as a frog baby’s bottom. Doesn’t hurt that I have a silicone mold for freezing large ice orbs, and definitely doesn’t hurt to add a good cherry or three. Or four.
But the thing I forgot to add to that first batch? DRIED CITRUS.
I don’t have a dehydrator, but all you need is an oven set at 200 degrees and some patience. Slice ‘em thin, spread ‘em out on a rack set inside a baking sheet, and wait, oh, four hours. Just until they are no longer tacky to the touch.
You can eat those suckers like snack chips, rind and all, but they are especially delightful bobbing in the smooooooth Old Fashioned next to the ice orb and cherries.
So aged Old Fashioned batch 2 featured Wild Turkey 101 Rye, brown sugar simple syrup, and black walnut bitters. We took it over to our friends’ house for dinner, along with the ice orbs, cherries, and citrus chips.
Liquid bliss.
Batch 3 is currently aging. Bulleit (but not rye this time), black walnut bitters, and—check it out—Aperol, the classic Italian orange aperitif, taking the place of the simple syrup. I based that mix on a local cocktail called “Corinthian Leather.”
It’s all about patience, kids.
Storytelling tip o’ the week
This week I have had the great delight of taking a class over at Bookstore1 in downtown Sarasota.
Seriously, Bookstore1 is the BEST. If you haven’t visited, be sure to check ‘em out.
They’ve got Julie Metz hanging out this week. She’s a New York Times Best-Selling author. I’ve almost finished her beautifully written memoir PERFECTION. If it were fiction, you would scoff at the plot. But the language is lovely and the story packs a wallop.
Julie is teaching a memoir class, The Art of the Scene, and as soon as the marketing email hit my inbox a month or so ago, I signed up lickety-split. Every morning this week, I’ve been up in the loft of Bookstore1 with another dozen eager writers, jamming with Julie on dialogue and sensory detail and all the other cool, under-the-hood stuff that goes into good storytelling.
It’s important for teachers and coaches and professionals to slip back to the student side of the table sometimes. Not just because we hear new things. But because we hear things new.
Julie shares my disdain for adverbs. The way she puts it is this: “Join me in my never-ending war against adverbs.”
The way I put it to my students is either “The road to hell is paved with adverbs,” or, more helpfully, “When you’re editing, if you come across an adverb, it almost always means that you simply haven’t chosen the best verb yet.”
See, sometimes I can start to sound stale to myself. I can only imagine that students or clients who stick with me long term may come to hear my offerings as stale, too. You hear that story in sports all the time. How the coach’s message has become stale, because the players have heard it too many times.
So taking a class, tapping back into that student mindset, enables me to HEAR THINGS NEW. I can get that gentle validation—ok, good, a New York Times Best-Selling author also thinks adverbs suck! I’m not crazy!—but also hear new ways to share that vital and fundamental message.
No matter how far along you are in your journey, whether storytelling or some other professional gig, take the time to be a student. You’ll always hear new things, and that is reason enough.
But you’ll also hear things new, and you’ll go back to your gig rejuvenated, encouraged, and fresh.
Book signing
A quick shout-out to Noreen Kelly, who I had the great pleasure of working with on her book 7 ESSENTIALS TO HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.
Things must be going well, because she is having a book signing on Saturday, February 1st, 1-3pm, in the lobby of One Palm at 201 S. Palm Avenue in downtown Sarasota. Light refreshments and authorial autographs!
The Page&Stage Podcast: Find Your Own Voice
A reminder to check out the most recent episode of the Page&Stage Podcast, featuring Emmy-winning writer Lisa Seidman. Lisa shares how Star Trek inspired her journey into the television industry, writing for popular shows like Dallas and Murder She Wrote. She talks about her unexpected path to learning Russian and how it played a part in her writing a historical soap for Russian television. She also gives insights into the difference between daytime and prime-time writing, and how naming characters after real people in your life can have unexpected consequences.
Thanks as always for reading, and have a great weekend!
Jason “Old Fashioned” Cannon