Authors Interviewing Characters: Carol M. Cram

Carol M. Cram is the author of Love Among the Recipes in which cookbook author Genna McGraw takes off for Paris to write a crossover cookbook/guidebook, while also picking up the pieces of her shattered marriage. Carol’s other novels include three award-winning works of historical fiction about women in the arts: The Towers of Tuscany about a female painter in 14th-century Tuscany, A Woman of Note about a composer in 1830s Vienna, and The Muse of Fire about an actress embroiled in theater riots in London in 1809.

Carol catches up with Genna McGraw at Les Deux Magots in Paris, the legendary Left Bank café across the street from the apartment building she moved into a few weeks earlier.

Carol 

So, I take it you’re enjoying Paris?

Genna

(sighs) Oh yes! It’s an amazing city. I’m so glad I came. There’s so much to see here. And the food is out of this world!

Carol

Yes, I suppose food is pretty important to you.

Genna

(laughs) You could say that! (she takes a sip of wine) Did you want a glass of wine? This place is super expensive, but I gotta say, this house red is excellent. 

Carol

Thanks. (Genna gestures to the server who meanders over and waits, his face impassive) 

Genna

Un verre de vin rouge, s’il vous plaît. (The waiter nods and glides off)

Carol

Your French is great!

Genna

Merci! Although it isn’t really. I’m getting pretty good at ordering food and wine since I do that almost every day, but it’s still a struggle to have a proper conversation in French. I just started taking classes three days a week. The people are nice, but I’m the worst in the class at speaking French! (laughs). I was pretty bummed out about that at first.

Carol

And now?

Genna

(shrugs) I’m trying my best and I’m slowly getting better. I haven’t met any French people yet. Well, actually I did meet this one Frenchman. He’s the son of the old man who owns the apartment I’m renting. His name is Pierre and he’s very French. (smiles) He took me to Versailles a few days ago.

Carol

Sounds interesting. Any chance of romance?

Genna

No way! I’m in Paris to write my cookbook, not get entangled with another man. (smiles again) Although Pierre is pretty dishy! After our day out at Versailles, we had dinner at the most incredible restaurant. You wouldn’t believe the food! I was totally in heaven.

Carol

So how is your cookbook coming along? You’re matching Parisian sites with recipes, right?

Genna

That’s the idea, yes. Paris is full of so many interesting places—the museums and monuments and parks, not to mention all the wonderful art. The other day I went to the Orangerie to see the waterlily paintings by Monet. Do you know them?

Carol

Sure. Les Nymphéas, right?

Genna

(nods) When I was looking at Monet’s paintings, I couldn’t help thinking about a bowlful of Vichyssoise. It’s the perfect cold soup for the summer—pureed onions, leeks, potatoes, cream. (looks wistful) Sometimes, the connections between sites, or in this case paintings, and French dishes come really easily, but not always.

Carol

Sounds like fun!

Genna

It is. And you know the best thing?

Carol

What?

Genna

I’m on my own for pretty much the first time in my adult life. I loved raising my family—my son Michael and my daughter Becky—don’t get me wrong, but when things went sideways with my husband, well, I just knew that coming to Paris was the best thing for me. Every day, I’m seeing new things and coming up with fabulous recipes, and of course, eating.

Carol

You don’t miss home?

Genna

(shakes head and then pauses) Well, yes, sometimes. I live near the ocean in Vancouver, and you know, Paris is a very big city and it’s pretty far from the coast. But when I get a little homesick, I go for a walk along the Seine or go sit in one of the parks and I feel better. 

Carol

Have you thought about what you’ll do when it’s time to leave Paris?

Genna

I try not to. (takes a sip of wine, sighs) Some days, I wish I could find a way to stay here forever.

Carol

I hope you do. Now, how about we go find a place for dinner? I’m starving! 

Genna

I know the perfect place. You’ll love it!

Carol

Lead the way!

—

Love Among the Recipes

Discover love in all its flavors in this fun, food-infused romp through Paris that is as crisp, sweet, and smooth as the perfect macaron.

Paris may be for lovers, but cookbook author Genna McGraw is definitely not looking for love. She’s looking for escape and she’s looking for a good runny Brie to pair with a smooth Bordeaux. Where better than Paris?

In Love Among the Recipes, Genna goes to the City of Light to get away from her philandering husband and write a “crossover cookbook/guidebook” that matches Parisian sights such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre with recipes for bistro-style French dishes. She also dabbles in romance with dishy French lawyer Pierre Leblanc and makes friends at her French class with Colorado transplant Marsha Renfrew and her snooty English boyfriend.

And then there’s big, blunt Bill Turner from Australia. Does he really eat crocodile steaks for tea?

But when Genna’s family crashes her new life in Paris, a crisis forces her to choose how she wants to live. Will she have the courage to embrace an uncertain future and risk losing everything?

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing