Cena Apicius is a working title for a historical fiction novel about the life of Marcus Gavius Apicius, a wealthy Roman noble who lived in the early first century. Very little is known about him save for snippets of information left behind in works by Seneca, Tacitus, Pliny the Elder and others. He was famous for the lavish feasts he threw for his fellow Romans, and even for Emperor Tiberius. I became interested in the story when reading food memoirs and books about food history. As a big foodie myself, I found myself drawn to the strange story of Apicius, who could be considered the world’s first known gourmand.

My goal for this book is to have the complete, edited draft finished by my birthday, June 5, 2009.

Basic info: 80-100k words, approximately 60-70 scenes of about 1430 words, give or take a few.

Incremental Goals

• Currently rewriting 12 written chapters from 3rd person to omniscient→ October 31, 2008
• Finish writing the rest of the chapters (approximately another 12–will probably use NANOWRIMO as motivation) → December 31, 2009
• Most of major editing by March 30, 2009
• Farm it out to writing group and friends for full manuscript edits by June 5, 2009
  

I do so much better with deadlines. And no, I don’t plan on living up to Douglas Adam’s ideal when he said, “I love deadlines–I love the sound of them whooshing by.” Because frankly, I really hate that sound.