A few months (Weeks? Days? Time has been flying so fast…) ago, I mentioned that I was working on a secret blog and a secret project and a secret area of my agenting and life. I invited guesses. Was this Green Day related? (I wish.) Theatre or Stephen Sondheim related? (No, but I am going to see the New York Philharmonic production of Company tonight with Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Hendricks, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Cryer, and I am so excited that I literally can’t stop dancing.) People wondered if I’d be writing about all manner of stuff.
Well, wonder no more because all is revealed!
(Or, um, you could’ve gone to my personal website, www.marykole.com, and figured it out instantly, but I don’t want to ruin the aura of mystery…)
FOOD, homeskillet. The answer is food.
I’ve had the food bug for as long as I can remember, and I was blessed and lucky in my life to have three things:
- An amazing mother who always cooked. Always. After we immigrated from Russia, she was so happy to have access to fresh and diverse food that she cooked all the time and sent me to school with delicious, homemade food every day.
- A New Yorker step-dad who is a very talented gourmet cook and took us to all the best restaurants whenever we would visit Manhattan from California.
- The incredible experience of working in a 2-star Michelin kitchen a few years ago. (I wrote a post about it a while back…that was your big hint!)
Since then, it’s been kidlit and food in my head, all day, every day. My adult reading hobbies, aside from all the children’s books I plow through, have always been cookbooks, travel and food memoirs, travel and food anthologies, and other food/culture/travel subject books. And it was only recently that I realized — duh! — that I could also represent food books like the kind I love to read (with Andrea’s blessing, of course). So that’s what’s going on. In the meantime, I’m learning about that arm of publishing, making contacts, and doing even more food reading, even more cooking, and even more learning. Don’t worry. My love of kidlit isn’t going anywhere…I just want to add to my portfolio so that I can pursue both of my passions!
The blog I’ve been working on is pretty bare bones so far, but you can now also find me on Chowlit.com on Fridays! Bon appetit and cheers!
How exciting! Food is pretty far up on my list of favorites as well. 😀 And what a great epiphany–that you could include this love into your agenting life as well. Can’t wait to see the delectable cookbooks that result!
Cooking and writing have always been together for me–Since cooking is all about the art of taking a few basic ingredients, putting them together creatively in the way you like best…And even improvising a few new solutions when something goes wrong and the idea doesn’t work out, and coming up with something better.
Every time I try to advise friends and neighbors how to save twenty to thirty bucks a month on groceries, I always start with “Learn to cook”…And every time I try to explain the Joy of Cooking in layman’s terms, I always fall back on the same two folktales I read as a kid in Cricket magazine (the Stone Soup one, and the one about the old woman forced to feed an army). The association between my two childhood hobbies is just permanently set.
That’s very exciting!
I, too, am a foodie as well as a Russian immigrant. Boy, does my mom love to cook. I wish I had some of her skills. Now you’ve inspired me. I think I might have to make cutlyetky tonight.
Congratulations on your new endeavor!
Good for you! That’s awesome that you can cater (pun intended) to both loves!
Wow, how did I not know you had so many blogs? And I say more power to ya! I always find it interesting that some people don’t think a person can have more than one interest or hobby that they are really good at. It blows their little minds away.
Anyway, I wish I had a love of all things food. Maybe some of your enthusiasm will rub off on me =). (we can only hope)
Food, art, writing – all part of the big creative melting pot! Can’t wait to see what you rep in that genre.
I could hardly get to the (ahem) meat and potatoes of your post, because this distracted me: You’re going to see “Company” with NPH et al?!?! How on earth did you get tickets?
I look forward to reading your new blog. If it’s anything like this one, it’ll be fantastic!
Elizabeth — I called like a lunatic at 9:59 a.m. before the 10 a.m. tickets went on sale and waited on hold. Demand for this show (since it’s only four performances) crashed their website. If you want to know something that will make you hate me: I am sitting in the fourth row. 😀
Wow, I’m so excited. I love food lit too, so I’ll be lining up to subscribe to your new blog. Congrats!!
Congratulations Mary! I believe that doing what you love and embracing new experiences are two of the best things in life!!! Cooking and eating are high on my favorites list as well. Mixing foods and flavors, trying new recipes, learning about different cultures and locales…heaven.
It’s always exciting to step out into the unknown and take a chance, especially when it’s for something you are passionate about! I love your blog and look forward to reading the new one as well!
Btw Mary, you’ve mentioned your manuscript wish list for Kidlit, what’s on your wish list for prospective Foodie Books?
I’m a great believer in following your passions.
Congratulations, Mary.
Poccu-ya? Eta znachet ti govorish pa rooski? Ti loobish borsch?
Zach — Да, конечно! Но я теряю мой Русский, потому что я не использую его. И, да, я люблю борщ. 🙂
What is UP! I am awesome in two languages! (Well, two and a quarter if you count my half-baked French.
Oh, I am jealous. But I don’t hate you! I have found your blog far, far, far too helpful to hate you.
Please tell me it was fabulous, though. I bet it was.
How exciting! I can empathize. I was the kid who would ask around a mouth full of cereal, “What are we having for lunch and dinner?”
When I was in graduate school for psychology, my would call me regularly. I would say…uh…hmmm…75% of the time I was cooking or baking. My mother would say, “I have no idea why you insist on studying psychology. You really should be in culinary school.” Nope! I love to cook and bake. It is my relaxation…my happy place. I have put myself on no-more-cookbook lockdown. I have no more kitchen space for them. Time to move! 🙂
Regularly on the menu chez Swanson:
Borscht
Blinchiki
Peroshki
Pelmeni Soup
Yes! for fanatically-devoted-to-cooking-from-scratch-Russian-emigre parents! (Just learned how to make my own from-scratch hoop cheese (farmers cheese) for blintzes!!! Can you say YUM?)