Good Food as Reward and Vengeance by Norma Watkins
/
*Enjoy this special guest post by award-winning author Norma Watkins!
I am suspicious of novels where no one eats, or if they do, they do so without description or appreciation for the food. I suspect these books are written by the kind of men who wouldn’t thank you for a nice dinner.
In the South, during the time my novel In Common is set, good food equaled a good life. The two main characters, Lillian and Velma grow up accustomed to delicious meals. In Velma’s farmhouse kitchen, a hard day in the fields was rewarded with fried pork chops or chicken and dumplings, side dishes of turnip greens and black-eyed peas, and a pie or stewed fruit for dessert.
At Lillian’s family hotel, though many guests came for the healing waters (drinking eight glasses of the foul-tasting stuff a day), they also enjoyed bountiful breakfasts of eggs any style, bacon or sausage, and thin, crispy corn cakes covered in sorghum syrup. Lunch was simple, but dinner included a starter of fruit or soup, a meat entrée, potatoes or rice, a vegetable, and salad on the side. The cook Lena made corn sticks and delicious rolls for lunch and dinner. These two meals always ended with dessert: blackberry or plum cobblers in season, cake or pie. Cooking was women’s work, done by Velma’s mother on the farm and, at the hotel, by a sweating Black staff under the close watch of Lillian’s Aunt Ernestine
In the 1940s, ‘50s, and into the early ‘60s, most well-brought-up white women in the South had little power, no money, and no job outside the home. The task of a southern lady was to land a man who could provide. After the wedding, she should be content planning the delicious meals he expected after work, keeping herself attractive, and producing at least one son.
Without power or money or outside work, women often found life depressing and empty. This condition could be temporarily relieved by tipsy afternoons of bridge, but there was another way.
In addition to its obvious pleasures, southern cooking could serve as revenge. Let a man have a couple of three strong drinks before dinner, feed him slices of rosy ham, creamy mashed potatoes with thick brown gravy, golden fried chicken, Jimmy Dean sausage, salt sweet and fat rich greens, clouds of spoon bread, creamed corn, cheese grits, butter bean succotash, and fried okra. Give him daily helpings of bacon-dripping corn bread and buttermilk biscuits. Finish with bread pudding, warm apple or pecan pie with big scoops of hand-churned ice cream, a bubbling cobbler with bourbon hard sauce, or maybe a triple-layer chocolate cake with fudge icing.
You get the idea. Deprived of a means to express her talents outside the home, a wife could exercise them at the dining table. Give a man enough good southern cooking and you slowly but surely slid him toward the grave. It took time, but it could be done. There were a lot of happy widows.
My uncle Doug met his wife buying and selling oil leases. She came from Texas and taught him the business. Once he learned the trade and married her, he didn’t want people knowing. She wasn’t to talk about the oil business in company. She kept her deals, along with her private bank account a secret. When she bought me a dress, she warned me not to tell Uncle Doug how much it cost. After his death, we learned another secret: our aunt buttered her husband’s toast, not just on the top and bottom, but around the edges.
About the Author
Raised in the South during the civil rights struggles, Norma Watkins is the author of In Common and two memoirs: The Last Resort, Taking the Mississippi Cure (2011), which won a gold medal for best nonfiction published in the South by an independent press; and That Woman from Mississippi (2017). She lives in northern California with her woodworker husband and three cats.
You can find her online by visiting her website or reading her blog.
About In Common
Lillian Creekmore grows up at her family's popular rural spa. She successfully runs an entire hotel, yet longs for a husband. Then she meets Will Hughes.
Velma Vernon accepts life on a small, struggling farm until a boy she barely tolerates proposes marriage. To accept means duplicating her parents' hard life. Alone, she leaves for the city and triumphs, not as a wife, but by being the best at her job. Velma is content until the most beautiful man she has ever seen walks into her office.
This moving and darkly humorous novel follows the intertwined lives of women willing to surrender everything to a man.
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
ISBN-10: 1684339235
ISBN-13: 978-1684339235
ASIN: B09V1NNLSZ
Print Pages: 595 Pages
Purchase a copy of In Common by visiting Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. Make sure you also add In Common to your Goodreads reading list.
Follow Norma’s Blog Tour
February 13th @ The Muffin
Join us as we celebrate the blog tour launch of In Common by Norma Watkins. You'll have the chance to read an interview with the author and win a copy of the book.
https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com
February 15th @ Michelle Cornish's blog
Visit Michelle’s blog to read about good food as reward and vengeance by Norma Watkins.
https://www.michellecornish.com/blog
February 18th @ A Storybook World
Join Deirdra as she features In Common and shares a guest post from Norma Watkins about writing truths about people who might be hurt by them.
https://www.astorybookworld.com/
February 20th @ Lisa Buske's blog
Stop by Lisa’s blog to read a guest post by Norma about civil rights and growing up in the South during Jim Crow.
February 22nd @ Author Anthony Avina’s blog
Join us today for author Anthony Avina’s review of In Common.
http://www.authoranthonyavinablog.com
February 24th @ Fiona Ingram’s author blog
Stop by Fiona’s blog to read a guest post by Norma Watkins featuring a look at how women were treated in the South pre-feminism.
https://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com
February 25th @ The Book Diva's Reads
Visit Vivian's blog for a feature of In Common by Norma Watkins. You'll have the chance to read an excerpt too!
https://thebookdivasreads.com/
February 27th @ Mindy McGinnis’s blog
Stop by Mindy’s blog to read a guest post about bad sex.
https://www.mindymcginnis.com/blog
February 28th @ Seaside Book Nook
Join Jilleen for a spotlight of an excerpt of In Common by Norma Watkins.
http://www.seasidebooknook.com/
March 1st @ The Mommies Reviews
Join Glenda as she reviews In Common and shares a guest post from the author about sharing the hard stuff.
March 2nd @ The Frugalista Mom
Join us for a guest post from Norma Watkins on how you are unique and irreplaceable.
March 4th @ World of My Imagination
Stop by Nicole's blog where Norma Watkins is a guest for "Three Things on a Saturday Night."
https://worldofmyimagination.com
March 5th @ A Wonderful World of Words
Visit Joy's blog for a feature of In Common by Norma Watkins.
https://joyffree.blogspot.com/
March 6th @ Life According to Jamie
Join us as Jamie reviews In Common
http://www.lifeaccordingtojamie.com
March 8th @ Author Anthony Avina’s blog
Revisit author Anthony Avina’s blog to read "What are Women Willing to Sacrifice for Freedom?" by Norma Watkins.
http://www.authoranthonyavinablog.com
March 9th @ The Knotty Needle
Stop by for Judy’s review of In Common.
http://knottyneedle.blogspot.com
March 10th @ Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews blog
Join Lisa for an interview with Norma Watkins.
https://lisahaselton.com/blog/
March 11th @ Reading in the Wildwood Reviews
Join us today for Megan’s review of In Common.
March 12th @ Jill Sheets’s blog
Stop by Jill’s blog to read her interview with Norma Watkins
