Who put the "kitchen" in "novelist"? More accurately: Who put the "novelist" in "kitchen"? Years ago, my writing office became our family's Internet Central, and I often found myself transplanted to the kitchen. Not the best writing environment, but it has a lovely view of the backyard, allows me to keep a finger on the pulse of our family, and puts me in a cooking state of mind.

I'm not new to cooking, but cooking with purpose and passion? That began with a 3-book food-themed fiction proposal that happily sailed off my kitchen counter and onto an editor's desk. Only to be dashed on the rocks of an editorial board.

Though I have 14 novels published with RandomHouse, HarperCollins, and Bantam, this was not my first run-in with the rejection letter. But after the usual angst that accompanies the burial of an uncontracted manuscript, my proposal lives on in the items added to my kitchen during research into the character and habits of a cook: a KitchenAid stand mixer that would surely test positive for steroids, curvaceous measuring cups, beautiful bamboo cutting boards, knives sharp enough to take down a tomato with a single stroke, and a few (well…) new cookbooks. More importantly, my unpublished series lives on in priceless family time framed by a variety of freshly prepared meals. And that's where my editorial board comes in. "Thumbs up" from Senior, Junior, and Junior Too and the recipe is posted on my blog. "Thumbs down" and it suffers the same fate as my manuscript: no posterity.

And so I continue to cook and bake. I even dehydrate. Which may be the reason I need to keep a closer eye on the scales that surely exist to reflect my feelings about Mushroom Enchiladas, Dark Chocolate Cranberry Cookies, Meaty Cajun Carbonara, Hummingbird Cake…

The Kitchen Novelist blog is the big pot into which I stir cooking and a little writing. So pull up a pan or a pen and enjoy. Thank you for visiting my website and I hope you'll peek in on my ongoing adventures at: