On May 13, I spoke before the Silver Lakes Arts & Craft Guild. We had a packed house and an audience that was very receptive and warm to me. And, they bought quite a few books too.

I was there to promote my book Food Stories. I told the audience that my interest in writing started in the 4th grade, when the nun who was my parochial school teacher introduced us to Composition class and writing essays.  Writing seemed intimidating and fascinating at the same time – I was exposing my thoughts and way of expressing myself to someone else and I really had no idea where the words were coming from. It seemed to me I just plucked them out of nowhere!  To this day, that intimidation and excitement still exists when I sit down to write – I feel it right now!

Food Stories was an accident. I wanted to write a book with my daughter about her early teenage years that included her dropping out of school, drugs, alcohol and a year in a psych hospital and group recovery home. It was a time of pure hell for me trying as a single dad to cope with it all, and I felt we could help other kids and single parents who could learn from us, especially the mistakes I made. We started our writing and it became too painful for me and a struggle for her, so we abandoned the idea. But the writing bug had a hold of me, and Food Stories got written instead.

I passed around a picture of my 2nd grade class and promised an unlimited number of free books to anyone who could pick me out. A few people got close but no-one chose me. I had a blast and I think the audience did too.

Talk to you soon.

Denny