2authors blog--The official blog of the award-winning writing team, V. and D. Povall.

Hello Readers! We're back this week, continuing our discussion of the stories that shaped us. Last week, we looked at the formative stories that made David who he is today. So today, we turn our attention to Victoria's favorite stories.  Explaining, analyzing, and discussing novels with her father was a favorite activity for Victoria around the house. As a result, there was an extraordinary amount of reading done while she was growing up. French was Victoria's primary language, and so when she began reading, it was the great French authors. Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Camus. Her favorite though, was probably Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (known to the world just as Colette). Writing in the early 1900s, Colette's titillating novels often explored the theme of women's independence in a male-dominated society, something Victoria certainly could relate to. A close second was Voltaire's surprisingly racy and satirical novels and Molière's work which lampooned the know-

Hello Readers! Today we are talking about the stories and writers that shaped us.  At first, our plan was to each list our top three books and discuss what we love about them. But as we set down to do that, it became clear we couldn't just pick three. We tried. We really did. So instead, we're going to put the spotlight on David's favorite stories and the ones that shaped him.  Next week we'll do the same thing for Victoria.  The reason it was so hard to pick just three is because defining "favorite" is tough. What is your favorite? The one that means the most to you? The one that you have the most nostalgia for? The most entertaining? Profound? For David, the great stories he read in his youth influenced what he loved as an adult, so maybe those are his favorites? Novels like Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which David owns a beautiful illustrated edition of. The themes of isolation and the innate human desire for companionship and purpose really resonate

Hello there readers! This week we're looking at our love of cooking and how it's incorporated into our writing.  If you're a regular reader of ours, you know that we both come from a multicultural background. We both grew up in Mexico City, and food has always been a major part of our lives. Luis Buñuel (the great Spanish, Mexican, and French filmmaker) was Victoria's godfather in Mexico City, and his wife Jeanne taught her a lot about cooking, along with Victoria's nana and mother. If we had to pick our favorite thing to cook, we'd say steak and caesar salad, or carne en chile colorado.  At first glance, there may not appear to be a connection between cooking and creative writing. But try looking closer; there are several parallels. Both start with a blank canvas--a pristine kitchen countertop and an empty page. The artist's imagination begins the process. They wield their tools of the trade. Whether it's pots and pans, or paragraphs and punctuation, so