What I Write and Why

June 26, 2014  •  Food for Thought

Taste_of_Washington_FRONTCOVERI was recently asked by a fellow writer (MJ Evans) to participate in a blog hop – sort of a way for writers to share with their readers what they write and why, as well as introduce them to some other bloggers. Since I didn’t have another blog post ready for today, I decided to participate, so here goes:

What Am I Working On?
I’m actually not writing anything right now, as shocking as that is to admit! But that’s only because I’m in an in between place right now. My next book (A Taste of Washington, pictured above) is about to be released in a few weeks, so my time is filled with planning book launch events and a book tour, not with writing.

How Does My Work Differ from Others of Its Genre?
I am a food writer, having written numerous recipe columns, thousands of blog posts, and articles for regional magazines and websites. Click here for all of my clips. But my last two books have been cookbooks. What’s different about my books from many cookbook authors is that the recipes in these books aren’t mine. Instead, my cookbooks feature 120 recipes from top chefs all over the state (first Colorado in Tasting Colorado, then Washington in my upcoming book). So my job is also about research, editing, style, proofreading, scaling recipes, and testing recipes for home cooks.

Why Do I Write?
When I launched my cooking business in 2006, a friend suggested I delve into food writing. I’ve enjoyed it and over the past eight years the writing has been a nice balance to the other work that I do – cooking classes, catering, and food tours in Italy.

TASTING_COLORADO_FRONTCOVERHow Does My Writing Process Work?
Like many writers, I am deadline inspired/driven. I write better when I know my time is almost up! But I also like to do a once and through quick and dirty write first, put the piece away, and then revisit it when I have time to clean it up and think about it a bit more. For my cookbooks, I like to do a read through and visual edit of the chefs’ recipes first, then cook them and test them, before doing a final edit. I think that process has saved me from having to re-test many recipes.

Stay tuned for some other food bloggers to “hop” to as part of the blog hop!

Comments

2 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. M.J. Evans says:

    Washington State or Washington D.C.???? Can’t wait to see it! Love, M.J.

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