Feel the Fear and Write Anyway

July 8, 2010

After a class on book proposals I taught recently at The Writing Salon, I solicited feedback from the students. One accomplished author of many books, hard at work on a memoir, took me to task for my negativity. “My major problem was having to deal with the relentless discouragement,” she wrote. “I realize that you [...]

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Here it Is: The New Edition of Will Write for Food

July 6, 2010

Last year, based on the success of the film Julie & Julia, my agent persuaded my publisher that Will Write for Food needed an update. “EVERYONE who has seen the movie wants to write a food blog,” she said, “and Dianne has already been received as an expert on the subject.” Published in in 2005, [...]

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Food Writer Busted on Free Wedding Meal

July 1, 2010

Befriending chefs and purveyors when you’re a food writer can be perilous. Worse yet, the practice can come back to bite you in the butt. And that’s exactly what happened to Josh Ozersky, a food writer who got married recently in New York and showed poor judgement when planning for his wedding. The trouble started [...]

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The Blog Turns One

June 29, 2010

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…oh, hello there. My blog has made it to the one-year mark and I’m celebrating. Want to join me? I know I’m a piker compared to many of you, but when I started blogging about food writing, I didn’t know if I could continue posting at least twice [...]

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All the Other Jobs We Do

June 23, 2010

Food writing doesn’t pay the bills. I hope this isn’t news to you. Sure, a few people are employed full time to write about food. Did you notice the key word? Few. To make ends meet, the rest of us self-employed types take other jobs: cooking classes, private cheffing and catering, consulting for corporations, more [...]

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Crazy for Produce, from Dad to Daughter

June 21, 2010

On Father’s Day yesterday, I thought about my dad, a food-obsessed poet and songwriter who loved produce more than anyone I’ve known. It sounds funny to say that he was obsessed with produce. But my dad lived for it. He grew vegetables in our Vancouver back yard, specializing in a Chinese green called celtuce. All [...]

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