Okay. I love to eat. Never had a problem with any kind of food. I even tried chocolate-covered ants once. They were okay, but I knew what they were so that experiment ended quickly.

In the purest definition, I am a gourmand. I am a person who enjoys good food. I’ve been lucky all my life to have been surrounded by excellent cooks. My mother, my sister, and my daughter come to mind. I, on the other hand, am a hack when it comes to cooking. I can burn water, or at least the pan the water is boiling in.

What does this have to do with being a writer?

In this, the glorious internet age, one cannot just write books. One also has to be something else: a good cook, a great gardener, a knitter, a do-it-yourself maker of dollhouses, an artist. When there are eight million books on Amazon alone, an author must connect with readers to sell books. How do you do it? By putting out a newsletter and a blog and letting people peek into your life.

My life was once pretty exciting. I was a boater and when boating is a way of life, it has unique aspects that are fun to share. Finding topics for a newsletter during my boating years was easy. I even blogged once a week. No problem.

Now, my life is pretty ordinary. I live in a house, I do chores. I read books in my genre written by other people, I watch trendy Netflix shows and I watch the San Francisco Giants get thrashed night after night by other baseball teams. My one and only personal obsession is writing.

My newsletter has always been quarterly and is a vehicle to announce my newest release and to promote other authors. I give away gift cards through random drawings. But I have to have something else, so I feature a recipe, something I’ve made, something I can whip out my phone and capture with a picture.

Problem? Not everything I cook turns out.

I am reluctant to share my potential disasters. I might forget an ingredient. Once I forgot to say a vegetable had to be peeled. And then there’s the photo. It has to look like Southern Living Magazine. (Hint: it never does). The spring newsletter—it’s still spring isn’t it—goes out in a few days and I forgot the chicken in the chicken salad. I quickly added it, but it’s not in the picture. Sheesh!

I think I will stick to eating.

If you want to share my dubious culinary experiences, go to www.pamelagibsonwrites.com and sign up for my quarterly newsletter. At least you’ll be eligible for the gift cards at the next drawing.