Wow, editing…

Wow, editing and redrafting take so long. Who knew?

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve checked in. I’ve been busy editing, redrafting, and doing other fun writer stuff like writing a logline and a synopsis. I didn’t even know what a logline was, and the 400 word synopsis was almost as difficult to write as the rest of the manuscript. Trying to succinctly say what your 70,000 words are about in 400 words is a challenge.

So, I decided I wanted to share my logline with you. Trying to distill your 70,000 words into one sentence is more challenging than the 400 words of the synopsis. Hopefully, it makes people want to keep reading. The logline is the ‘hook’ or the ‘elevator pitch.’

Logline

Searching for answers after her husband Michael’s suicide, Kylie travels with her two young children to Japan and discovers a different cultural attitude and long history of ritual suicide, allowing her to look at Michael’s death with respect rather than guilt and shame.

Apart from writing these aspects and continuing with the redrafts, I’ve been a bit distracted by fun stuff like the Australian Sake Awards in Sydney last weekend. About five years ago, Stu and I decided to do an internationally recognised sake qualification for fun. It was hard for a city girl from Melbourne, learning about the rice growing year and other foreign concepts. But, the fun comes later when you get to participate in these kinds of events.

The first day we tasted around 40 sake. The tasting is completely blind with no labels visible. Of course, you have to sip and spit, or you would probably keel over. Each sake is scored on aroma; balance; taste; category, which is how well it suits the category it’s been entered into; and sessionable, meaning you could sit and drink it over a night.

The second day we tasted different sake, matched to food. Cooked prawns, charcuterie, Margherita pizza, Aussie BBQ steak, and grilled salmon. This was a really fun and interesting experience. We often have sake with food, but I’ve never sat all day considering whether one food improved the taste of the sake, or the sake highlighted aspects of the flavour of the food. It was like science experiments with alcohol and eating. What’s not to like?

The aim of the awards is to encourage Australian consumers to try more sake. And also, to encourage people to think of sake outside of drinking it only with Japanese food. Most people are surprised when I say we tasted sake with pizza, but this is one of the most satisfying food pairings I know. The umami flavours in the pizza mix with the umami in the sake and it’s like a flavour hit. An ‘umami bomb.’ I noted during this tasting that the sweetness in the tomato sauce also highlighted any sweetness in the sake. I highly recommend you try this excellent taste sensation. A junmai sake with a great Margherita or mushroom pizza. Yum!