An Interview with Kate Jacobs

Welcome, Kate!  I'm thrilled to interview you again. (I first interviewed author Kate Jacobs last November, right before the release of Knit Two.)  Thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions.

KJ: Thank you, Susan, it's always a pleasure!


1) Tell us about the inspiration behind your new book, Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel, which comes out on Nov. 3, 2009.

KJ: Well, this is an exciting month because Knit Two is out in paperback as well as Knit the Season in hardcover. So I finally feel I can talk about the series as a piece, about how each layer fits together. And Knit the Season is more fun, more joyous, than the other novels in the series. Part of that is because it’s a holiday book, and so the backdrop is a happy period of the year. But it’s much more than that. Knit the Season is really the story of hearts completing their healing, and about the positive ways we continue to be influenced by those we have lost. It’s a novel about reflection.

(I felt honored to read and review Knit the Season early.)


2) Some family members (of both sexes!) have become knitters this past year.  Why do you think more and more people are taking up knitting as a hobby?

KJ: Knitting is fun: it can be a great stress-reliever to let your fingers work the needles. Also, let’s not underestimate the satisfaction from finishing a piece made by your very own hands! Finally, there can be a great social aspect to knitting, to connecting with other knitters online or spending time around a table in a knitting shop.


3) How does it feel to publish a fourth novel?   What have you learned from the success of your other novels, The Friday Night Knitting Club, Comfort Food, and Knit Two?

KJ: Well, I dreamed about writing books for a long while. So it’s hardly the case at least for me that I feel, oh, it’s just my fourth book. Instead, I think, wow, it’s happening again! In terms of what I’ve learned from having successful books is that it’s not about writing at all. It’s that what matters most are our personal relationships. I’m grateful to be able to tell stories for a living, but being published just made me realize that I spent too much energy focused on what if and when rather than taking full stock of the blessings I already had in my life in the form of family and friends. There is a reason why I write, over and over, about the need to make relationships a priority.


4) As a best-selling author, what advice do you have for those just starting out?  What were your earliest writing ambitions?

KJ: I wanted to tell stories since I was a very little girl and that hasn’t changed. I was eight in third grade when I attempted my first novel but I spent all my time naming characters and creating family trees. So I never finished and then my nine-year-old cousin, who was my manager, fired me! Now I don’t try to fill a novel with 300 characters. My advice for any writer is simply to believe in yourself and keep writing. Publishing is not an easy world, and it’s fraught with rejection; the very act of writing can be tremendously difficult some days. The only option, though, is to push on.


5) I read that The Friday Night Knitting Club may be made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.  If it does, how involved will you be with the movie?

KJ: It’s thrilling. And I’ll be as available as is needed or wanted and that suits me fine. I’m quite confident Hollywood knows how to make a movie and I look forward to seeing what they do!

(I'm so excited about seeing The Friday Night Knitting Club as a movie and will dash to the theater as soon as the movie opens!)


6) Do people recognize you when you go out?  If so, do you enjoy the attention, or is it intrusive?

KJ: I’ve been recognized on a very few occasions, typically by readers who have been to book signings. One instance I was in an airport after TNNA (The National Needle Arts Show) and several yarn shop owners had heard me speak and popped over to say hello. Another time I was in a restaurant in New York and a woman came up to me and said, "Kate, is that you?". And I had a moment of shock over being recognized. I’m tickled whenever a reader cares enough to approach but it always surprises me. You see, I’m an observer and, in my opinion, I do a very good job of blending in. Which works because I don’t actually want to be the center of attention even though I travel around to all these book signings and telephone book clubs, its all because I want my stories to be the focus. I want to share my stories, and in doing so, I share my life.


7) What can fans expect next?  Is there another book in the works?

KJ: I’m working on a new a novel about relatives and family relationships. With a twist that I shan't give away!

Thanks again, Kate, and best of luck with the movie and your new novel!  Relationships are very important, and it's evident in your books that they take priority.  Kate, I wish you and my readers a warm and wonderful holiday season.  

Special thanks to Lydia from Putnam for arranging this interview.  Comments welcomed.

Comfort Food

Recipes found in books that are not cookbooks have extra appeal to me. They seem more special somehow, and more worth trying, perhaps because they're not expected, as opposed to having page after page of recipes (although many cookbooks are wonderful, and the photographs can be rather enticing). When my daughter was in second grade, we read a story together called Jalapeno Bagels in which there was a recipe for "chango bars", and we had to bake some, because they sounded (and taste) so good!

In The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two, author Kate Jacobs offers a few tempting recipes, including "Dakota's oatmeal, blueberry, and orange muffins" and "maple apple muffins". Trying out the muffin recipes in these books will add another dimension to my reading experience of them. I haven't yet read Comfort Food, also by Kate Jacobs, but I've learned that it's the story of Augusta Simpson, a famous cooking celebrity on the Food Channel. Augusta, who's called Gus by everyone (this author often gives her characters off-beat, unisex names), is about to turn fifty-years-old, and starts to question who she is and what she has done so far with her life on a personal and professional level. Somewhat surprisingly, I read that this book doesn't have any recipes in it, although it talks a lot about food, especially Spanish food; perhaps the author thought it would be too predictable to include recipes in this book and wanted to focus more on the storyline. Still, my guess is that reading Comfort Food makes you head for the kitchen or out the door to a favorite restaurant. But let me return to my discussion of recipes in non-cookbooks or unexpected places. Here, I present a recipe in an unlikely place, in my blog about books, after a little background information.

I came up with this recipe for miso soup because I wanted my vegetarian daughter to be able to enjoy it again. I found three problems with the fresh paste, instant miso soups on the market. First of all, I couldn't find anything vegetarian--they all have fish in them. They also have MSG and a lot of sodium in them. I thought I could do better, so I asked the advice of friends and some family members, and also searched on the web. The result is my recipe for vegetarian miso soup, below.



Vegetarian Miso Soup ~ A Healthy Comfort Food
Serves 4

Ingredients:
5 cups of water
1 teaspoon shredded dried wakame seaweed, broken up
1 dried shiitake mushroom
1 tablespoon of extra-firm tofu, strained, and chopped into tiny rectangles
2 to 3 green onions, sliced into small pieces
1/3 to 1/2 cup of miso paste, depending on taste (I prefer an organic dark miso paste that I order from the Asian Food Grocer in San Francisco.)

Directions:
Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer seaweed and shiitake mushroom in the water for at least 20 minutes. The longer you simmer the seaweed, the less "fishy" the seaweed will become. I leave the top partially on the pot, to allow steam to escape, and keep the heat on low.

After simmering, remove shiitake mushroom, slice up, and return to the broth or "dashi".

Add sliced green onions, tofu, and smallest dash of soy sauce, and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes.

Gently mix miso paste in a bowl with about a cup of the dashi, then add to soup pot and simmer uncovered for a couple of minutes on very low heat before serving. (Do not boil miso, because that destroys the flavor and healthful properties of miso, which is a superfood.) Soup is best enjoyed steaming hot.

As with any recipe, vary amounts of ingredients to taste. You can get creative and add small amounts of other things to your miso soup, such as edamame and sliced baby corn. To make miso soup for one, use about 1 cup of water, two teaspoons of miso paste, and reduce other ingredients as well.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

"Choosing your wool is dizzying with potential: The waves of colors and textures tempt with visions of a sweater or cap (and all the accompanying compliments you hope to receive) but don't reveal the hard work required to get there."
~The Friday Night Knitting Club, Kate Jacobs

After reading this brilliant book by Kate Jacobs, I'm ready to take out my crochet hook (because I don't knit) and get to work again. While I don't know of any cozy yarn shops nearby such as the one in the book, Walker and Daughter, even Michaels (a craft store for those who don't know) has a dazzling array of yarns in all colors, which inspire creativity. I'd like to find some really gorgeous cashmere yarn and get started on some Christmas gifts.

In this novel, which was published in 2007, knitting is presented as a creative, empowering, calming, and uniting pursuit, rather than an expression of the supposed domesticity of women. In The Friday Night Knitting Club, the characters are believable--not perfect--and you care about them and want them to succeed. Each one has her own story (or in a few cases, his own story), so we may understand why they are the way they are. They also change and develop throughout the story. Thank goodness a sequel to this book, Knit Two, will be out on Nov. 25, because I want to know what happens to this close-knit (couldn't resist) group of friends. I hope it doesn't sound corny, but they've become my friends, too.

Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Kate Jacobs, author of The Friday Night Knitting Club, Comfort Food, and her new book, Knit Two!