Aviation Jelly Shot, blissfully unaware of its narrow escape from rampant authorial editorializing
In our last post, we covered the creative process and its sometimes unfortunate effects on our fashion choices, and but only touched on its effect on our grasp on reality/appropriate humor, etc. (Don't worry, this is not a PG 13 post.)
An impending deadline is a force to be reckoned with. To illustrate, following is a slightly-redacted trail of email correspondence between Amy and myself on April 30, the day before our manuscript deadline. Amy and I are both thoughtful, reasonably tempered sorts who work in the real world and communicate in written form with a variety of other professionals on a wide range of topics. We were thoughtful and organized about the drafting process throughout, produced an elaborate project plan to guide us, and gave ourselves the benefit of several "lock-away days" to produce banter and pre-edit to our little hearts' content. One of our last pre-submission tasks was the addition of "recipe banter" intros for each recipe providing cocktail lore, trivia, Jelly Shotting tips, etc. Imagine our chagrin, given this thoughtful approach, to stumble upon "surprises" in our final version, such as the intro banter for the Aviation Jelly Shot recipe. (The Aviation in case you are wondering is a delightful gin-based cocktail popular in the 1920's which had a recent resurgence - we were thrilled that it was able to be gelatinized.)
MICHELLE to AMY
Apr 30 (5 days ago)
Look what I found! Were we insane??!!
Aviation
The Aviation is a classic gin-based cocktail popular in the 1920s. Its subtle steely grey color harkens from the addition of Crème de Violette liqueur. [funny but self-derisive text deleted to protect the innocent, i.e. the authors and Aviation Jelly Shot.]
Goodness knows what else is lurking in patter . . .
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AMY to MICHELLE
Yes yes! Whole thing needs a full read over. Don’t you remember when we went crazy?
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MICHELLE to AMY
Umm no.
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AMY to MICHELLE
It was at the kitchen table. I didn’t think you actually typed the words in!
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Perhaps a different sort of lock-away day was in order, but I for one am blaming the entire episode on software gremlins. Oh the glamour, indeed!
Cheers,
JSTK (Michelle and Amy)
