Foothill Flavors

Mok’s new look inspires plot twists

by Antoinette May Herndon

Writers need all the help they can get. Believe me!

That’s why critique workshops are so essential for anyone seeking to publish. My partner, Lucy Sanna, and I hold a retreat three times a year. We invite six writers. Just six—despite the waiting list. That’s all we can do justice to in two days.

All day Saturday, all day Sunday, the writers gather at my home, Mok Hill’s orange Victorian. They start to arrive early. around 8:30. Lucy and I really have to scurry to be ready for them, but the table is always set: hot coffee or tea, yogurt, fruit juice and blueberry muffins.

By nine we’re all settled into our places in an informal circle. The first person to arrive is the first read her or his chapter. (They’re all writing novels or memoirs.)

The morning flies by. We break for lunch—a picnic that we assemble ourselves. Lucy and I have purchased fresh bread and lots of cold cuts, several kinds of cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and red onion. Lucy makes a fantastic three-bean salad and there’s plenty of fruit for dessert.

Then it’s back to work. By the end of the day each of the six writers have read a chapter of his or her book in progress, while Lucy and I and the other five attendees listen carefully with a pen in hand and a copy of what they are reading before us.

No one present is a dilettante. The common goal is publication by a major publisher. Some may impatiently try to publish their own books, but they know all too well that self-published work must compete with novels published by the big houses such as HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Random House. Everything we turn out must be perfect in order to survive the cut, to win the interest of an agent, and editor and finally a reader. We will accept nothing less, but that takes lots of work and a very thick skin. Constructive criticism is the name of the game.

Each writer has come to find out what if anything is wrong with his or her work. Rarely is there a chapter that doesn’t require tweaking somewhere or other. Invariably, participants leave

feeling challenged and excited, each one eager for the next session.

A highlight of the weekend is the Saturday dinner. At our most recent retreat, we were all eager to check out the newly refurbished Leger Hotel in Mokelumne Hill.

Yes, yes, I know the Leger has been around for more than 150 years, but now it would appear that everything old is new again.

Recently the Leger was tapped by the new TV series, “Hotel Impossible,” for a makeover. The results are pretty impressive. Goodbye pool room, hello inviting Victorian lobby, for example.

In September when Blanche Garcia, the show’s co-host and designer, came to town to scout the place, I had an opportunity to talk with her. “Our job is to take a tired property and turn it into a Destination,” she explained.

Well, Blanche and her creative team had plenty of exciting ideas, but the residents of Mokelumne Hill played an even larger part in the renovation project. More than 200 volunteers showed up to paint, pound nails and landscape.

Supervisor Steve Wilenski’s organizational skill coupled with Planning Director Rebecca Willis’s willingness and efficiency where the procurement of inspection permits was concerned—not to mention her ability to shepherd those inspections through the county bureaucry in record time made the whole thing possible.

Blanche to me that the tidal wave of volunteer help exceeded anything the TV show’s staff has ever encountered. “Never have our televised episodes had such a great sense of community with everyone helping.”

Surely one of the most exciting of the hotel’s new elements is Kevin Brady’s grand design for a fresco- style mural that winds around the hotel’s lobby and common rooms. Kevin coordinated a cadre of artists to assist in creating a kind of colorful pictorial signature for the hotel.

During the renovation process, I’d been particularly curious about the roll of concrete workers who pumped more than 20 cubic yards of material through a hose to create a new floor in the basement of the hotel, a place had had preciously been a dirt floored storage area.

A week later when Shawn Canti, brother of Ashley Cantee, who owns the hotel, offered to show me the “new room,” I was thrilled. It’s light, bright and airy, part of the old hotel but not of it. It’s small but not too small. I’d call it intimate and private. Perfect for a private dinner party.

“Ooh! I want this room for our Saturday dinner.” I’d told him.

“Glad you feel that way,” he’d responded, “because we’re going to have a biker group that same night. They’re pretty well taking over the hotel.”

Believe me, I was relieved. We made our own fun far from the madding crowd. That weekend, our six attendees included Pam Mumsdale of Mountain Ranch, June Gillam of Placerville, Sally Henry of Scramento, Nitya Prema of Arnold, and Bob Yeager of San Francisco. With the exception of Nita, who is writing a memoir, they are all writing novels.

The dinner, which the Leger’s great new chef Chuck Swisher devised, featured a choice of rib eye steak ($25) or salmon ($21) They had another decision to make: soup or salad. Dessert was an elegant sorbet swirl topped with fruit.

Saturday night at the Leger is always fun with a live band for dancing. You can count on seeing plenty of new faces as well as old friends with which to chat.

Moke Hillians are happy and proud of their new-old hotel. It’s a fun place meet old friends and entertain new ones. It’s also a perfect venue for an event. Lucy and I have already made reservations for our next retreat in January. The writer find the Leger “inspiring.” Some of them are plotting gold rush sagas. Who knows what will drift out their computers. The hotel’s haunted, you know.

VITALS: Hotel Leger 8304 Main St., Mokelumne Hill. Phone: 286-1320. Open for dinner Thursday through Monday from 5 p.m. to 9. Reservations required for private rooms. Credit cards accepted.

Pictures

Diners 2) Visiting writers enjoyed a recent in the Hotel Leger’s newly completed dining room.

Bob Yeager who’s novel, “The Romanov Stone,” has just been published, relaxed before dinner in the Leger Hotel’s newly completed mini banquet room.