A Happy New Year

(A brief introduction to my substack)

And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been. -Rainer Maria Rilke

Life is like winter, when you really think about it. Some days are brisk and invigorating, bright with a warming sun and brilliant, clear skies overhead, everything glittering with a sense of hope, buzzing with excitement, vibrant with activity. Other days are dark, pewter skies hanging low, icy, damp fingers wrap tightly around you until you’re choking, chilled to the very bone, frozen in place; everything is hazy in the mist, edges blurred, shapes unclear in the oppressive gloom…days blend into evenings melt into night charged with melancholy and despair.

My days are like winter, like that, and this Substack newsletter will reflect those ups and downs; sometimes the stories I’ll regale you with will be funny, brimming with activity, hotel life, projects taking shape, and recipes. Other days I’ll write about the dark side, depression and anxiety, grief, doubt, and despair. But that’s the human plight, the human condition. 

Most of us experience the whole panorama of emotions and situations, unbounded joy and untold grief, blazing success and feelings of mediocrity. Everyone has a story to tell and mine will unfold here; I hope in telling my personal stories, talking about what drives and motivates me or what gives me pause, giving a behind-the-scenes look into my daily life and my life as a writer, of offering my vision on certain hard topics, you will find yourself and what speaks to you.   

You’ll never know what to expect, one publication to the next. I call it frenzied. My friend Allison calls it multi-faceted. And I’m nothing if I’m not frenzied…I mean multi-faceted. You know me from Twitter or you know me in real life, and so you know that this is how I am, my activities, my moods, my projects, my thoughts. My Substack couldn’t be anything other than a reflection of myself. It will be a place where I not only share my recipes, sometimes with a history of the dish, my particular passion, extracts from each of the book projects I’m working on, but my thoughts and essays on a wide variety of topics, as well.

And you are more than invited, like a guest at my dinner table, to join in the conversation. Contribute your thoughts, comments, critique in the comment section… please don’t hesitate. 

I must thank you all, each and every single one of you, for joining me on my writing journey, for reading my words, making my recipes, sharing your thoughts. I am overwhelmed by your response to my Substack and I’m so grateful for your subscribing and following along.

I want to wish each of you a festive and joyous new year. May your 2023 be filled with grace, kindness, generosity, peace, adventure, happiness, and good health. 

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something. - Neil Gaiman