“I’ve got a school boy heart, a novelist’s eye,
stout sailors legs and a license to fly.”

– Jimmy Buffet, “School Boy Heart”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about how I manage my creative life, it’s that I still tend to have too many irons in the fire at once and that choosing which projects to work on feels like picking favorites. I always wind up emotionally attached and guilty.

I’m sitting next to my friend Tom’s truck, having just scarfed down a weekend PREC and spent the better part of the morning exercising and deciding how best to move through the rest of the day. There are the typical chores to do, laundry and attending to the hot mess that is my nightstand in particular. The drive to socialize and avoid extended isolation as well, partially being allayed now with the warm sun, quiet company of a public space, and the classic blues and jazz coming through Tom’s speakers.

The will to write is strong, but the focus- or choice of focus rather- is not. Rereading some food writing has invigorated me, and writing this blog continues to at the very least be good practice and keeping me in the habit. I have several projects overdue, however, and I need to hunker down and pick one of them- ANY of them- to lock myself into.

This blog may suffer somewhat in the short term. Writing is not yet my meal ticket, and much of my energy still has to go to the kitchen and my own mental/physical wellness, so I find myself budgeting my creative energies.

The Living Cookbook

I have assembled the contents of the living cookbook I want to provide for all my subscribers- now begins the actual typing and formatting of the thing.

As a reminder, this cookbook will not only be living, but it will be free to everyone that subscribes via email to this blog. It will be in the form of a Google Document that everyone who subscribes with their email address will gain access to, and it will be regularly updated as I learn and test new recipes. This will not just be a vanity project, but my personal recipe database and a gift to all my readers.

Why just for email subscribers? For several reasons. First, an email address is needed to give people access to the document. Second, much of my reach with this blog happens through platforms like Facebook or Instagram. As we have seen in recent years with Twitter, the fate and impact of these platforms is subject to the whims of others, as is my access to them. By subscribing through email, I can reach my readers without them.

So by subscribing via email, you don’t just get access to the future cookbook, you help ensure the life and reach of this blog- regardless of the whims of the next super-rich man child.

The Mentorship Book

You Don’t Have To Yell has been stuck in “WIP Hell” for, arguably, the best possible reasons- my career has been giving me more to add and more material for it. I last updated the book when I was running the pie shop kitchen and the events of that job have absolutely given me a crash course in checking my ideas and opinions about mentorship and leadership.

At some point I will have to accept that, unless I bring my career to a screeching halt, the book will never tell a complete story. Instead, I will need to sit down, finish the damn thing, and accept that there willl be something of a “to be continued” at the end.

Impostor Syndrome is an especially nasty demon for books like this, but I intend on finishing it this year for better or worse. You can’t edit or improve a blank page.

The Whiskey and Jellybeans Hour Podcast

During the pandemic, you may remember I started a short-lived vlog over Facebook Live that I called “The Whiskey and Jellybeans Hour”- little hour-long chats from my rocking chair where I tried to create an atmosphere of calm and contentment at a time when the world was isolated and seemed slipping into chaos.

Making hour-long videos every week during the pandemic proved a bit much and they fell by the wayside… but it’s been suggested a podcast format might be a bit more accessible for me and engaging for others. The idea is more than a little appealing- the idea of recording a quiet chat in my rocking chair, or sipping a cocktail with me, or sitting on a park bench and shooting the breeze is precisely the feeling of ease, company, and contentment I’d always wanted to share.

This is the newest and most nebulous idea though. It’s almost more a thought experiment- but a fun one nonetheless.

If there’s one of these projects you’d be more excited for than the others, let me know in the comments!

Thank you for all your patience and remember to
Stay Classy,