As a retired family therapist, I began a second career as a culinary/travel writer compiling vignettes from both French and Italian families regarding their favorite foods, family traditions and family stories. “What favorite recipe brings your family to the table?” was my question. During one of my interviews with an elderly French woman, I simply asked, “So what foods did you prepare as a young wife in central France?” She threw her head back, laughed and said, “Foods, mon chère? Why, we were in hiding! It was during the thick of WWII and we were surrounded by Germans. I was lucky to sneak out to the fields after dark to dig up a potato or two for my family. Not so much to ‘prepare,’ you see.” With that one statement, my mission changed and I began writing a novel based on this woman’s most intriguing story about love, war, loss and the power of food and friendship. The historical novel, A CUP OF REDEMPTION was published October 2014.
Immediately following the launch of A CUP OF REDEMPTION, I began receiving requests for the recipes to the foods mentioned throughout the novel. In response, RECIPES FOR REDEMPTION: A COMPANION COOKBOOK TO A CUP OF REDEMPTION was published on August 15, 2015. The cookbook provided the French recipes culled from the pages, the times and the regional influences found in the historical novel, A CUP OF REDEMPTION and are shared by the book’s three main characters—Marcelle, Sophie and Kate.
My original food/travel interviews, taken from over seventy-five people in France and fifty in Italy, has culminated in a series of books called, SAVORING THE OLDE WAYS. SEARCHING FOR FAMILY AND TRADITIONS AT THE FRENCH TABLE, BOOK ONE was published on August 27, 2019. Book Two of the same name in this series is a continuation of Book One and was published August 19, 2020, and the third book, A SEPTEMBER TO REMEMBER: SEARCHING FOR CULINARY PLEASURES AT THE ITALIAN TABLE takes my readers and fellow travelers to Italy and was published in April 2021.
Once my last book was published, I continued to work on my next book, Adventures on Land and Sea: Searching for Culinary Pleasures in Provençe and along the Côte d’ Azur. It was more difficult for me to write as it is a memoir of three separate trips through Provençe, and not reliant on the magic of interviews. Nevertheless, it is to be published October 25, 2024. Only one more year to go!
I have recently retired as a state board member of the California Writers’ Club (since 2012) which is an organization to which encourages writers to help other writers in their writerly interests. I have alo been on the local San Francisco Peninsula Branch board since 2010, and was chair of the regional NorCal Group board since 2015. Within my roles with the CWC, I headed up the statewide outreach and connection to the San Francisco Writers Conference (since 2015) and the Bay Area Book Festival – Berkeley (since 2017).
I have had three short stories published in the CWC Club’s anthologies: Fault Zone: Words from the Edge; Fault Zone: Stepping up to the Edge and Fault Zone: Over the Edge. I am also a member of the Women’s National Book Association–San Francisco, a member of the Writers’ League of Texas, Austin branch and have been a contributing food/travel writer for numerous local and national newspapers and blog posts from London, to Paris, to across the U.S.
I have also been active in traveling with, writing for and about WWII veterans in the U.S. and France since 2009, as part of my research for understanding a country (France) living under the siege of WWII. In that regard, I have been privileged to speak to veterans groups far and wide.
So, what’s next? So many topics; so many themes; so many interests . . . why my head is swirling! Catch up with me on Substack.