Note: while Anne is dealing with some health issues, some friends of the blog have stepped up to keep the blog going. This week we have a fun post from one of our favorite authors, Melodie Campbell, “Canada’s Queen of Comedy.”
by Melodie Campbell
I like to get in the mood, when I’m reading. Here’s my list of how to pair your nosh to your book:
Westerns
Riders of the Purple Sage. Cow country. This would suggest a certain menu. Steak, medium rare. Tempting, but hard to cut a steak while simultaneously holding a book and turning pages. Really, Mel Brooks had the right idea. Beans, and plenty of them. Make sure you’re NOT reading in public.
Chick-lit
Slipping into the realm of the unknown here. Chicks are slim young things, right? They would eat salad. I hate salad. (Besides, lettuce could give you the dreaded cyclospora parasite… Anne) Ergo…hand me a western.
Action-Adventure
The trouble with Bond-clone movies and books is you’re apt to spill your martini with all that racing around in the plot. Things blow up a lot in the action-adventure genre. This might suggest popcorn. But make sure you pop it before you eat it. Keep the explosions to your book. (Or switch to westerns.)
Horror
This is obvious. Ribs. Dripping with BBQ sauce.
Herself’s personal horror additions: Cilantro and goat cheese <<shivers>>
Romance
Chocolate.
CanLit (Literature, for all you American types.)
It will be unusual, expensive, and unpalatable. You won’t “understand” why others think it is so good. Your palate has not been suitably developed to appreciate such fineness. Caviar. Escargot (it always sounds so much better in French.) Duck liver (you can look up the French spelling.) If you get beyond the first bite (er…page one,) Yay for you. Hard to read – hard to eat.
Mystery
Should be obvious, right? Chinese food! Get someone else to order it for you, so the mystery deepens.
Fantasy
Try to find Ambrosia. They really dig it on Olympus. If you can’t find that, substitute ice cream. (I know. You thought I was going to say wine.) But my fantasy is ice cream with a suitably delicious Greek God-ling. Okay, he doesn’t have to be a God yet. Just young and Greek. Okay, this is slipping into erotica…
Erotica
Forget the oysters, artichokes, or other silly vegetable-type aphrodisiacs. (Fish is almost a vegetable. Trust me.) The answer is more chocolate. (Silly. That’s the answer to almost anything.)
Sci-fi
KIND nut bars. Okay, is the metaphor too obvious? (and yes, I have sci-fi credits 😊)
What to Eat if you’re a Writer:
Coffee.
And humble pie.
by Melodie Campbell (@MelodieCampbell) July 26, 2026
What about you, scriveners? What do you like to eat when you read? Let us know in the comments!
About Melodie Campbell
Called the “Queen of Comedy” by The Toronto Sun, and compared to Agatha Christie by The Toronto Star, Melodie Campbell writes capers, heists and golden age mysteries. Winner of ten awards, including the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence. Her publications include 21 novels and over 60 short stories. The Pharaoh’s Curse Murders is her most recent crime book. (And Anne loved it!)
BOOK OF THE WEEK
THE PHARAOH’S CURSE MURDERS
Series: A Merry Widow Murders Mystery, Book 3
Genre: Historical Mystery 1920s
Release: April 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Cormorant Books
It’s the winter of 1929, and Lady Lucy Revelstoke and her pickpocket-turned-maid, Elf, are back in the third installment of The Merry Widow Murders ― this time voyaging to Egypt. Lucy is particularly interested in the ancient sites, and Elf ― well, Elf is keen to find out how the tomb raiders mastered their trade!
The voyage should be a treat, as two rival teams of archeologists will give lectures while on route to their digs. Old-school Doctor Phineas King and his daughter, Isla, make up one team, while the other’s led by flamboyant, privately funded American adventurer Anton Margolis. Both teams seek to discover a prized tomb, despite local whispers of a curse that befalls upon all those who dare to disturb the pharaoh’s grave.
Soon, an archeologist drops dead at a cocktail party. Is this the work of the pharaoh’s curse, or someone with a personal motive? As accusations of antiquity smuggling come to light and a distraught clairvoyant predicts more violence, Lucy and Elf race to find the fiendish murderer before they strike again.
***
featured image by Frans Snyders, 1620
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Brilliant! Just one question: What does a writer eat who is writing non-fiction or historical fiction? I’m working on a historical novel set in Jerusalem in Jesus’s times. I get hungry for some of the items I have found that those people ate. I want to try my protagonist’s wife’s famous seed cakes. Everyone else in the story raves about them, from Jesus’s disciples to the Roman centurion he befriends. I keep digging into the internet for recipes …
Sally, I’m writing 1920s these days, and yes, the research I had to do! What dishes had been developed by then? Which hadn’t? But I can imagine your period is even more challenging! I’m smilinng just thinking about it – thanks for commenting!
Chocolate. Definitely chocolate.
We are kindred spirits, CS!
Chinese is comfort food. Although popcorn works for several genres. Just glad you didn’t say Dippin Dots for science fiction.
Laff! In my family, Italian is comfort food, Alex! Although I am a science fiction nutbar myself (Don’t Panic!)
I read Riders of the Purple Sage not long ago. I think I was eating trail mix.
Since you have to be crazy to be a writer, I snack on cashew nuts and sparkling water whenever I can.
Trail Mix – thank you for that one, Kay! I never matched my love of nuts to the career, but am poised to second that sentiment 🙂
I wonder if there is a recipe for humble pie?
Laff! Will check that out – I’ve certainly eaten it several times, Audrey.
Audrey–Actually, there is. Well, it was called “Umble Pie”, meaning pie made of organ meats. It was a Medieval recipe for chopped game giblets baked with apples and raisins. https://www.foodsofengland.info/umbleornumblepie.html Looks kind of good.
There are/were recipes for humble pie. (I might have one in my library of ancient cookbooks in the cellar. Let me know if you want me to look.) The origin of “humble pie” was “umble pie” in Medieval England, which was made using a game animal’s “umbles” – heart, liver, kidneys – ingredients considered inferior for the plates and palates of the elite and wealthy. Truly humble ingredients for a pie.
Sadly, I find it difficult to multi-task like that either as a reader or a writer. As a reader, if I have a snack/meal with me, I concentrate more on finishing my snack/meal than reading the book, no matter how interesting the book is. Ditto for writing: until I finish my snack, my writing is taking up space in the trunk.
So the only thing that I can safely consume while reading or writing (that is, stretch it out longer than three minutes) is a liquid beverage of some kind. Then I can nurse that bad boy for about a half hour to an hour.
I give props to anyone that can successfully multitask like that.
GB, that is the perfect comment to put a smile on my face before bed. Multitasking, indeed! I shall attempt to perfect my one true skill (eating.)