“Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block” by Jesse Sutanto

Jesse Sutanto has found a unique writing formula. The author of over a dozen books including the Aunties and Vera Wong (the previous interview with Sutanto came after the publication of Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) treats her writing like it’s a day job. After writing an outline, she walks about her Indonesian home, which she shares with a husband, two children, and a nanny “talking to myself about what characters would say and do,” said Sutanto.Allowing about five weeks per book, she writes by day while her kids, ages seven and 11, are at school. “I write 2,000 words a day—usually writing every weekday before lunch time,” said Sutanto. After completing 40,000 words, she checks into a luxury hotel in Jakarta, recently declared the largest city in the world (itsestimated population of 42 million tops Tokyo, the previous leader).There in her favorite hotel, she gets down to brass tacks or bold headlines (make that deadlines), and comes up with 12,000 words a day. In three days, she’s done. “I’ve followed this routine six or seven times,” she said.Sutanto’s latest effort is Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block. Mebel Tanadiis a doting Chinese Indonesian trophy wife who finds, at age 63, that herhusband is leaving her for a much-younger woman, the couple’s private chef.Rather than wallow in her sorrow, Mebel enrolls in culinary school, and the adventure begins. Since the book delves into some of the intricacies of preparing fine dishes, I asked Sutanto if she was a foodie. It turns out that she had considered developing the culinary arts, herself, before opting for creative writing. But a good friend of hers did go to culinary school and became a major source for Chopping Block.Jesse said she didn’t think Chopping Block qualified as a cozy mystery (the label she used for Snooping), but rather, a coming-of-age mystery.Sutanto, who got her bachelor’s from the University of California and a master’s from Oxford (one of the settings for Chopping Block), grew up in Singapore where she spends time when she’s not in Indonesia writing books according to that formula that she’s shared with writer-friends, some of whom have followed her example. (Do the Hilton people know about this?)