Saturday, September 13, 2008

Happy Stud Year!

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the adventure that has become Stud Muffins! Our new cookbook, "Stud Muffins: Luscious, Delectable, Yummy (and Good Muffin Recipes, too!) was released on April 1st, so while some calendars may claim that 2008 is the Year of the Rat, I will have to ask that you completely disregard that thought, and know that this is the Year of the Stud!

I have created this blog in the hopes of documenting the extraordinary experience I have had (and will continue to have, I'm positive) as a first-time author. I'm going to ask now that you excuse me for any future giddiness, immaturity, and/or downright goofiness as I record this trip to publication and beyond. It's just that I have been dreaming/scheming/obsessing about becoming an author since I was an eight-year-old in Mrs. Riddle's second grade class at El Camino Elementary School in Ontario, California. I had just completed my first a tome entitled, "My Fat Cat", and Mrs. Riddle presented me with the coveted Golden Key Award for Best Writer. Well, it turns out that accepting that award in front of the class, coupled with the heady feeling of hearing 32 pairs of grubby hands clapping wildly for little ol' me sealed my fate. I had to become a writer. I just had to.

Flashforward with me to a pivotal moment in the waning years of the last millennium, won't you? (Notice my outstanding ability to edit, as I just left out many years of my writing heartache, rejection, hand-wringing, wailing, and depression. You're welcome.) While having my hair cut at a little salon, I looked up and saw a Chippendale's calendar hanging on the wall. The moment is etched in my mind--partly from the revelation I will describe in a second, and partly because it was gorgeous Mr. November. In my pre-marriage days, I had visited the dance club where that actual gorgeous Mr. November put his actual gorgeous hands around my shoulder and they took an actual picture of us. (I still have the actual picture, tucked away somewhere. If I find it, I'll post it here.)

On to the revelation: I remember smiling and saying to myself, "Now, that's what I call a stud muffin!" By the time the last blast of hairspray hit my head that day, the seeds of a new kind of cookbook began to germinate in my fertile brain (and yes, I have been called a *@!% head before, and I take it as a compliment.) And not only Stud Muffins, but a whole series of cookbooks, with titles like, Beef Cakes, Cutie Pies, Eye Candy, and Hot Dishes.

For reasons I still can't explain, I didn't take the ideas past the idea phase for over a decade. Sure, I can blame a myriad of things, from kids to a real job to not knowing how to start, but the fact was that I allowed it to just ruminated in my imagination for over ten years. I can recall, lying in bed after a busy day of non-writing stuff, just thinking, visualizing, and dreaming of men and food, and knowing I HAD to do move forward with these ideas before someone else did.

This is where I'll leave this story right now. Tune in to the next post for more of the exciting adventures of Judi's Journey to Studdom and Beyond!

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