This 5 Q's features not one but two fabulous young writers. Leanne Shear and Tracey Toomey are the co-authors of The Perfect Manhattan and contributors to the 2007 anthology It's a Wonderful Lie. Leanne and Tracy's experiences bartending at hot spots in Manhattan and the Hamptons served as the inspiration for a novel about a recent Columbia grad who observes New York nightlife from behind the bar. Here's how the pair juggled bartending and writing a book.Urban Muse: The Perfect Manhattan is a fun read, and it isn't readily apparent that it's written by two people. How did you make the writing so seamless with both of you contributing?
Leanne and Tracey: We have very similar backgrounds and families, and generally speaking, our outlooks and approaches to life are very complimentary, so that makes writing together easier in terms of ideas and style. Our writing process itself is seamless and extremely collaborative as well: basically, we outline a chapter in great detail, bullet point by bullet point, so we have a fairly concrete blow-by-blow of the major events of the chapter. Then we each go off and over the course of the next week or so, write our versions of the same chapter. Finally, we come together for some marathon sessions at Starbucks to pick and choose the best of what we've both written, edit, and rework/rewrite that chapter together. It's a taxing process but we both feel we contribute equally to the voice of our characters.
UM: Do you think people you've written about recognize themselves in your writing or have you added fictional elements to obscure the identities of your characters? Where's the line between fact and fiction?
L & T: This is a very good question, especially for us (and many other first time authors, whose novels in a lot of cases have at least some elements of autobiography)—and the answer is, people do recognize themselves in our writing (for better or worse), because as writers, even within the fiction genre, definitely draw from the world around us. That is one major lesson we learned for future novels: if we use inspiration from our real lives, for example, for Character X, we have to bear in mind that even if Character X is 90% made up, the person who inspired that character will inevitably see much more than 10% of herself and get offended by her portrayal.
The line between fact and fiction is tenuous. As we've mentioned, writers tend to draw from their surroundings, even if they fictionalize them, but the important thing is those books are classified as fiction (so anything's fair game). Where the line gets much blurrier is when an author classifies his or her book as a memoir (think A Million Little Pieces): memory is fickle and when an author takes huge liberties with something deemed non-fiction, it is a real slight to his readers.
UM: How did you get involved with It's A Wonderful Lie?
L & T: Our agent, Elisabeth Weed, contacted us and asked if we would be interested in contributing an essay to It's a Wonderful Lie. We loved the idea of a group of women writers getting together to rehash the turbulence of their twenties. When we first heard about the project, we were in our mid-twenties, our first book had just come out, and we were still bartending and living in a rowdy share-house in the Hamptons, so we certainly had a lot of material to draw from.
UM: Any advice for other aspiring writers trying to juggle their writing with a day job? I'm all ears...
L & T: It's definitely tough. When we were writing our first book, we were bartending full-time. We would literally get off from a hard, long shift at four in the morning, go home and sleep for a few hours, and then meet up at Starbucks or another little café, work on the book for eight hours straight, and then go right back to work behind the bar. We both agree that writing requires a lot of discipline. One thing a budding writer can do is use down time at their day job to work on their writing. But the best advice we can give is to just sit down and do it. If you're serious about it, you have to make time for it.
UM: Since each chapter of your novel is named for a drink, could you share your favorite cocktails to make and to drink?
L & T: Both of us enjoy red wine – namely Pinot Noir – above all else. But as far as cocktails are concerned, we both love mojitos and enjoy them in two ways. The first recipe is one we picked up in South Beach at the Shore Club, and the second is a variation on a mojito offered at one of our favorite haunts in Manhattan.
Sugar Free Mojito
1 ½ oz. of rum
Juice of two limes (make sure to use fresh lime juice not bottled!)
One packet of Splenda
A handful of torn mint leaves
Spash of club soda
Several Ice Cubes
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Garnish with a sprig of mint.
Italian Mojito
A handful of torn mint leaves
1 ½ oz. of rum
Juice of two limes (make sure to use fresh lime juice not bottled!)
Splash of simple syrup
Splash of Proseco or other sparkling wineMuddle mint in the bottom of a shaker. Add ice, rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. Shake like crazy. Pour into a wine glass and top with Proseco. Garnish with a sprig of mint.UM: I'm sure you both make a mean mojito! Thanks, ladies. Check out the 5 Q's archives here.