Here are the following ten names who will get a signed copy of Tatiana’s Table:   SARAH MEADOWS from New Jersey ROSALIND BRONKHORST, South Africa ASHLEY ADKINS, US (?) PEGGY BAILEY,US JACOB EVANS, US ANNIE CHANTALE VILLARREAL CHIU, Mexico SONJA POPKO, Germany YAEL APEL-SOFER, Israel HICRET SANCAK,  Turkey JENNIFER MCCULLOUGH

Congrats to the above and grateful thanks to everyone for being so generous with their time and family traditions. As it turns out,TATIANA’S TABLE is harder to get hold of than a cab in the the rain, and we’re fortunate to scrape up ten copies of it.  But I also have in my possession the freshly minted special edition of The Bronze Horseman,just out for publication in Australia.

This Christmas edition contains a letter from me,  and also a new “deleted” scene between Tatiana and Alexander. I have five of these I’d like to sign and send to the next five names I pull out of the Yankee hats, two from one hat, three from the other.  Or should I do three from one, two from the other?

The Bronze Horseman recipients are:

JENNIFER SEXSON, US MODI ALYSSA, Madagasgar CRISTINA, from Italy (I had several “Cristinas” submit recipes, and this one didn’t include her last name, but the recipe was for Frico) LISA HUSSAINOV, New York KRISTIN VETERE,  US   I will be publishing the winners’ recipes on my Facebook page and here in the next few days.

Hello, my Culinary Friends, I have never been more famished.  I sit here in my little studio holding on my lap your hundreds of recipes and letters, salivating over your family delights. All I have with me here to eat is an old can of cashews, Greek yogurt with early November’s expiration date, Nespresso coffee capsules, and bags of ice in the freezer.  I believe I will go dig up a TV dinner and nuke it for my midnight dinner. Be right back. …  OK, I’m back. This has been an illuminating, gratifying, deeply entertaining contest.  Because I have received almost as many recipes as there are countries.  Some countries were very well represented, such as Italy, and some woefully underrepresented, such as France. But Malaysia yes And Vietnam The Netherlands And Chile And Germany Germany Germany Mexico And New Mexico, thrice Spain and Israel Turkey and Australia The Country of Man, which submitted four Man recipes. And a voice from the great beyond: a woman named Maria Pavlova from St.Petersburg wrote to me with her recipe for Solyanka. My grandmother’s name was Maria Pavlova.  She was from St. Petersburg.  She made Solyanka all the time.  On my hungry lap I hold instructions for, among others, empanadas and tapenades Yorkshire Pud and Bread Pud and Egyptian Milk Pud Assam Laksa and Bratwurst Chocolate Sausage!!! Pizza (from scratch) Stuffed cabbage with Moose Meat Corn and Crawfish Stew Grandma’s Pie and Almond Pie And Lemon Meringue Pie Nut Rolls and Beef Samosas Casadiellas and Cucoli Fritti Hot Fudge Cake and Borsht Chocolate Muffins with Nutella inside; where are you, Nutella-loving Che, are you reading this and drooling? Oliebollen and Aalsterse Vlai Corn Souffle and College Drive-in! Melting Moments and Chocolate Bundt Cake Oatmeal Bake and Potato Bake And let’s not forget Fire Crackers. I wish I had two hundred books to give away.  Thank you all so much for enriching my life with your lives. You’ve given me a great gift, because now I’m going to make your concoctions all December, through New Years. From now on just call me Porky Pig.  I will have to walk through my door sideways.  I have written out your names on strips of paper, rolled them up and placed them in two Yankees baseball caps. I will now go and eat my cooled-down tofu with peas or whatever is waiting for me in the microwave, and pull out ten names and be right back.  Cue waiting music…

Dear Friends, And now for some news about the film option of The Bronze Horseman.  Things have not worked out quite as I hoped, but that’s only because I can’t see the future and don’t know what’s still ahead.   At the moment, though, the 18-month option with Andy Tennant’s production company has unfortunately come to an end. After months of no activity at all, we tried to extend the option at deadline time (plus 30 days grace), but we could not resolve the most important issue, and that is whose script to use, mine or Ross’s. I strongly felt and continue to feel that Ross’s vision for the story and adaptation of the book were diametrically opposed to my own. So reluctantly we parted ways, and the rights to the book have reverted back to me.  The difference between 2009 and now is that now I have a finished script.Which means that we can now seek and find someone else who gets the story, loves the characters, and perhaps can put his/her passion behind the project to get the film off the ground, so to speak, and onto the big screen, but this time with my script as a condition of development. I know you are disappointed by this and let down, as you can imagine I am, but don’t be disheartened. Because I remain hopeful and optimistic that great things are just around the corner for our two crazy kids. We have a couple of intriguing prospects we are working on and I will keep you posted as soon as I know something more concrete. In the meantime, you know that Tania and Shura live on inside my heart, especially these days, as I immerse myself in the young doomed life of the two people who once loved each other and who made Alexander.I leave you for now with a photograph of the actual River Kama and one devoted reader’s painting of the Urals and the Lazarevo clearing despite never having seen either, and also below Richard Tucker’s version of Puccini’s E Lucevan Le Stelle, a song I listened to on infinite repeat when I wrote the entire Part I in TBH.

1. ILARIA Zombie by Cranberries 2. AMANDA None but the Lonely Heart by Tchaikovsky 3. ALYSSA Grace by Kate Havenik 4.LIBBY Beautiful History by Plumb 5. AMIRA My Lovely Valentine by Sara Storer 6.  MARIEL Across the River by Peter Gabriel 7. MICHAELA In the Afternoon by Van Morrison 8. ALANA Eastern Glow by Album Leaf 9.  SARA I’ll be Seeing You by Billie Holliday 10.  ANNA Iris by the Googoo Dolls   CONGRATULATIONS! And to everyone else, thank you so much for participating. I loved exploring and listening to your musical choices.

Thank you! What a plethora of music! As many songs as there were entrees, very few repeats. I loved it. And such an international collection too: Ci Sei Sempre Stata, Luciano Lugabue Ich Bereue Nichts, Silbermond One, U2 Glitter in the Air, Pink A Little Too Much, Natasha Bedingfield And look at the variety of music: There was Say When by the Fray, Day by Day by Frank Sinatra, Acts of Courage by X-ray Dog, The Story by Brandi Carlisle, I Go to Sleep by Sia (though I know this great song as it was sung by the Pretenders), Rooster by Alice in Chains (!), Endless Love by Diana Ross, Bliss by Vanessa Paradis (is this Captain Jack Sparrow’s squeeze?), Marry Me by Train (was recently introduced to this song and love it), Cold Shoulder by the awesome Adele, Maybe I’m Amazed by Wings, Open Arms by Journey, My One and Only Love by Louis Armstrong, She by Elvis Costello, Lonely Nights by the Scorpions, Unintended by Muse. Okay, the names of songs and the girls who chose them have been printed, cut out into strips of paper, put into a big red Santa stocking, and all that’s missing is the 9 year old on the way home from school who will reach her little hand in and choose ten names. I’m hoping in twenty or so minutes.  Back shortly…and I’ll also share with you some of the songs I listened to when I wrote about Tatiana and Alexander. But I’m not putting my own name into a hat.