What would Jesús bring?

I bravely (foolishly) volunteered on the first night of my short story workshop to turn something in by the following evening so that the group might have something to read over the week and critique at the second class. Not having anything actually prepared, I then had to spend all day Friday writing, and was able to get ten pages worth of a story which has been foating in my head for a few years. here’s to deadlines and being accountable to someone else.

I also volunteered Thursday to go first. Getting critiqued consists of sitting silently for 15-20 minutes while the others in the class talk about your writing. It wasn’t as painful as it sounds — I came away with a very good understanding of what works about my story and what needs work, and I drove home feeling validated and refreshed and optimistic and ready to get right back to the grind on it.

The challenge for the evening was to bring a snack that a character in your story would bring if he or she were attending a writer’s workshop. It’s a whole “get inside the heads of your characters” exercise. One of my characters is named Jesús. The other characters are a family of German descent who are meeting in St. Louis for a family reunion. I had grand plans for cooking something, perhaps some kind of family reunion food like deviled eggs or ambrosia salad, but I ran out of time and ended up buying grocery store-made mini strudels. (Because strudels = German? I dunno.)