Happy Friday! This weekend I’m going to a joint bday brunch with six high school friends and to the Food Book Fair. Next week I’m also taking driving lessons (!), so gotta catch up on rules of the road (they don't come naturally to me, surprised?).
Some thingamabobs I liked this week…
from 101 Cookbooks
Heidi from 101 Cookbooks wrote this thorough, honest post about her cookbook proposal process. As a writer who still has a lot to learn, these posts are so incredibly useful (even though she writes nonfiction and I write fiction). I realize they must be time-consuming and some people might not like sharing what goes on behind the scenes. But when it’s done, and done well, man they are invaluable. Thanks Heidi!
This discussion got stirred up in January, but I just came across it. First, Marc Vetri wrote about the ruthless cycle of restaurant reviewing in Huffington Post. More people, with less knowledge, making superficial rulings, at a faster pace. As he says, “Instead of stories, we get inventories. Is there any other form of journalism that continually rates things, judges them and then packages them up in a neat list?” Helen Rosner directly addressed Vetri in the Eater forums and said that “There may be more noise, but there's also more signal.”
I see both sides. Definitely restaurants have had to adjust to new pressures. Everyone’s a critic. But do these people deserve to be critics? Helen says yes -- more voices, more outlets, more expression. Vetri says no -- if you’re going to review a restaurant, you should know what you’re talking about, and do it in a respectful, considered way. In an ideal world, you’d have plenty of outlets, with people who write fair reviews among all sorts of other excellent food writing. But it can’t be as tidy as that. What do you think?
I’m going to be signing galleys at BEA this year (opening day, Wednesday, May 27th at 3pm, tentatively Table 14). I’ve actually been twice -- not as an author -- but I’ve still been researching the experience (possibly to get some ideas on how I can make my little 30-minute signing session memorable). These "So You Want to Go to BEA" posts from Octavia at ReadSleepRepeat made me smile and now I’m even more excited to meet readers!
P.S. I'm making temporary tattoos as swag. Take a look at the options and vote on your fav here.
Not baking much these days, but am bookmarking these (plus, I’ve been loving this blog).
D and I watched the first two episodes of Better Call Saul. I liked it, he didn’t. Should we continue?
I’m so curious about this meal delivery service. But at $99… a DAY maybe not so much.
I started doing #the100dayproject -- basically, 100 days of making. I’ve committed to posting an original recipe on Instagram everyday, and a blog post every weekday. You can follow my days here and see the rest of #the100dayprojects here. As of this second, there are 28,698 posts.
(and, btw, here’s a superbly most excellent Medium article from Elle Luna who is leading #the100daysofproject on choosing must over should. Required reading, for sure.)
That’s all for now. Hope you have a great weekend!