Savory Subjects: Finding Inspiring Content in the Everyday

by Robin W. Pearson

Typically my days are filled to the brim, and I don’t mean with writerly activities like getting buried in the library stacks for hours, driving into the hill country to do book research, or gluing my fingers to my laptop for hours to pound out five thousand words.

No, I’m talking about starting my day with a hurried smooch from Hubby as he heads to his “office”—the desk in our family room. Greeting five grumpy little people who are not in the mood to read from Proverbs and the Psalms, let alone face algebra, AP literature, or Wordly Wise. Starting an Instagram post. Tracking down my globe-trotting oldest daughter who recently graduated college. Copyediting an email for Hubby. Chatting around the water cooler–cum–kitchen table with my oldest son about marketing life and the latest Wordle. Writing two sentences and deleting one on the Instagram post. Prepping dinner to deliver to my parents. Asking Hubby to check the Wi-Fi connection. Peeking at my lesson plans to compare what I didn’t finish last week with what I’m not finishing this week. Missing my mama’s second telephone call. Proofreading the elusive Instagram post. Laughing (instead of crying) with Hubby about the little people and our parents. Correcting long division problems. Peeking into Think Tank’s room to see what’s so funny about calculus and to keep his door open so we can laugh, too—not. Texting my sister about my parents’ appointments. Telling TD to sit down for the thirtieth time. Turning on the oven for chicken nuggets because it’s almost lunchtime. Explaining to my mama why I couldn’t answer her call. Closing my eyes over my Bible—not in prayer but to dream of the coffee I haven’t had yet.

More than half the day has scooted by, and I have yet to share the Instagram post, let alone type a single word in my work in progress, which my publisher eagerly awaits. I have a feeling many writers would look at this typical morning at my house and consider all those events interruptions. Totally understandable. Once upon a time, I did as well. But these days, this full-time homeschooling author-mama has another word for it: content.

Not convinced? Then take our stack soup, one of my family’s favorite and most complicated meals. So many specific ingredients go into preparing a batch of it: chicken, frozen veggies and chopped veggies, Ro-Tel, two different kinds of smoked sausage, tomato sauce, and other odds and ends. Those ingredients have to be diced, cooked, stirred, added in a specific order—stacked if you will—seasoned, and simmered. And because it’s so labor intensive, we only have it once a year, usually on the first really cold day of the season. But since we only have it once, I insist on doubling it.

Now, what does my annual gargantuan vat of soup have to do with what my family’s cooking up on a daily basis? Everything. Our routine and that dish are both a mélange of ingredients, a great deal of work, love packed on top of love, bits of this which seem unrelated to that, lots of interdependent pieces and combinations that involve constant maintenance and tending to. They yield an overflowing bowlful of inspiration. The pile of onions or passel of whiny children might make an ordinary person cry, but not this writer. I’ve learned that one missing piece affects the outcome. Conversely, every added ingredient improves the result. And since it’s so yummy, why not have more, double the recipe?

Again—still—I’m talking about content.

God called me to write character-driven, contemporary Southern fiction. Thanks to the family He provided me—all this living, breathing, loud content—I don’t have to travel very far to do character studies or google examples of family dynamics. There’s no need to search for the definitions of terms like “sandwich generation” when Hubby and I are squeezed between the same slices of Wonder Bread. Granny B’s personality came through loud and clear in A Long Time Comin’ because I’ve been listening to it my entire life; it’s near and dear and just as taciturn up close. Maxine and all her folks in ’Til I Want No More can burn in the kitchen because not only did my own mama bring home the bacon, she knew it tasted best fried in a cast-iron skillet, a pan she passed down to me when I married Hubby almost thirty years ago. Highway 85 isn’t merely part of the setting in my latest release, Walking in Tall Weeds. It’s a real, well-traveled road between our peeps’ grandparents’ home and ours. Their own great-grandma used to pick creasy greens not far from it.

Like many authors, I’ve rubbed my head in those rare spare moments and asked myself if I’m equipped to tell my stories. I’ve wondered how can I transport my readers to another time and place when I’m carting folks to soccer and youth group and the grocery store and over the hills to Grandpa and Grandma’s house? What’s so delicious about the everyday? Over and over, God continues to show me that He has provided all I need in this writer’s life, even rest, believe it or not. I don’t have to make do or concoct something from a list of terrible “ingredients.” Each piece is valuable. Usable. Necessary. Purposely intended for my particular bowl of soup. And altogether, it’s quite delicious.

Let’s stir the pot: how can you change your perspective and view interruptions as opportunities?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin W. Pearson’s writing sprouts from her Southern roots, her faith in Jesus Christ, and her love of her husband and seven children. All lend authenticity to her novels. After graduating from Wake Forest University, she has corrected grammar up and down the East Coast in her career as an editor and writer that started with Houghton Mifflin Company more than twenty-five years ago. Both her Christy Award–winning debut, A Long Time Comin’, and her second novel, ’Til I Want No More, have earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Follow her on her blog, Mommy, Concentrated, where she shares her adventures in faith, family, and freelancing.

ABOUT Walking in Tall Weeds

From award-winning author Robin W. Pearson comes a new Southern family drama about one family who discovers their history is only skin-deep and that God’s love is the only family tie that binds. Paulette and Fred Baldwin find themselves wading through a new season of life in Hickory Grove, North Carolina. Their only son, McKinley, now works hundreds of miles away, and the distance between the husband and wife feels even farther. When their son returns home, his visit dredges up even more conflict between Fred and Paulette. McKinley makes it no secret that he doesn’t intend to follow in his father’s footsteps at George & Company Fine Furnishings or otherwise. Fred can’t quite bring himself to accept all his son’s choices, yet Paulette is determined McKinley will want for nothing, least of all a mother’s love and attention—which her own skin color cost her as a child. But all her striving leaves Fred on the outside looking in. Paulette suspects McKinley and Fred are hiding something that could change the whole family. Soon, she’s facing a whirlwind she never saw coming, and the three of them must dig deep to confront the truth. Maybe then they’ll discover that their history is only skin-deep while their faith can take them right to the heart of things.

Thank you, Robin!

Giveaway*

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*giveaway prize courtesy of Tyndale House Publishers. Giveaway subject to Tyndale House Publishers and Seekerville giveaway terms and conditions. US mailing addresses only.