The following was originally part of a comment on Zoe’s LJ post about food.

I was working in the kitchen today, slaving over a hot stove and a cutting board and hoping my improvised recipe would delight and nourish and it occurred to me that all the time I spend every week, not just cooking, but also thinking about it, shopping for it, studying cookbooks and recipes on index cards and online, and all this time and effort and energy… It isn’t wasted. It never felt wasted, but it occurred to me today that spending an hour or more a day, most days of the week, cooking for my family is one of the most valuable things I contribute. Not (just) because cooking real food reduces costs, but because it adds value.

Whether because of the failing economy or because I’m failing to market myself effectively, I’m not bringing a lot of financial reward into the household right now. Yet when I’m able to put a good meal in front of my wife after she’s had a long day at work, I know there are more important rewards in life to invest yourself in, and that I’m a success in the areas that matter to me most.

My mom taught me -she tried to teach me- how to make her spaghetti sauce. If I’m able to remain a househusband, if I’m able to continue investing myself in showing my love through food, maybe in another couple of years … Maybe I’ll have the skill required to share what made her sauce so special, in making a sauce that my family will associate with love, happiness, family… We’re Italian, it’s all in the sauce, right?

I’ll be showing some of my art and have all my books available at two art walks in the next two weeks:

Saturday, September 27th, 2008, from about 10AM to 3PM
SE corner of Greenway & Tatum (in N. Phx / Scottsdale)
Sponsored by Angel’s Serenity & Intatto Coffee

Intatto Coffee will be closed -the owners have to leave town somewhat last-minute- but this is part of their semi-regular local Art Walk series. I also showed at their August Art Walk. It’s a very casual atmosphere, relatively little foot traffic compared to downtown (more on that in a moment), so it’s easier to take your time and really look at everything that’s being shown. I’ll be glad to talk with you about all my different books, and my art, and would even be glad to do readings if you like. I’m also told there will be live music by Amber Gaia, so it should be pleasant all around.

Friday, October 3rd, 2008, from about 6PM to 10PM
I’ll be in the “Roosevelt Row” street closure / booths area
(Either on Garfield between 4th & 6th, or on 5th S. of Garfield)

This is part of the Phoenix First Fridays Art Walk, and October is when “art season” really seems to start in Phoenix, so I expect a lot of foot traffic and big crowds, despite the downturning economy. I’ll still be glad to talk to you about any of my art, or my books, but I am definitely aware that a lot of people coming to the Art Walk downtown want to try to “see everything” and don’t want to stand still too long. It’s a lot of fun, especially if you like crowds and people-watching with your arts and crafts. I spoke to the Roosevelt Row organizers today and am told that there will be a stage set up at the end of 5th Street with live music.

I bought some interesting 4×4″ canvases today, and I’m going to try to have them ready for sale before the Art Walk on the 27th. I want to put as much effort into them as I would for any of my other pieces, but to have art that’s priced a little cheaper, probably $15 each. (Unless I do something weird/sculptural/with-lights to them…) I’ve tried to keep all my art at affordable prices, and while I’ve been creating larger and larger pieces (with larger and larger prices), I’d also like to do some smaller pieces with smaller prices, to suit a wide range of budgets. Come out and see what I come up with!

Oh yeah, this was a personal online journal, too, right?  I can, like, write about my life, and stuff, not not just write about work all the time?  I remember when -and this was when I worked for someone else, see- I refrained as much as possible from writing about work.  Except when I didn’t.  (Definitely pissed off some bosses, now and again.  Started doing friends-only LJ posts for those times…)  And now, here I am, and most of my time, most of my life, is spent working - and most of my posts are about same.  Must be the whole self-employment thing.  Between that and the idea that the actual core of my work - the painting, the writing - is something I (mostly) enjoy doing, it seems to fill my time pretty well.

Not today so much, so far, which is what I want to write about here, today.

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So, in addition to posting the audio version of Lost and Not Found on Podiobooks.com (coming soon), I’ve decided to start my own podcast feed for Modern Evil Press.  This feed will update at least once a week with the latest episode of a novel (beginning with Lost and Not Found), and I hope also to update it mid-week with something else.  The ’something else’ would be shorter, perhaps a poem from one of the Worth 1k books, a short story, or a preview of a work-in-progress.  If you want “pure” feeds for the novels, definitely go to Podiobooks.com and subscribe to the ones you want, but if you want to have a taste of everything we (which means me, it’s a one-man-publishing-company) have to offer at Modern Evil Press, the Modern Evil Podcast is the way to go.

Point your “Podcatcher” (ie: iTunes, for most people) to: http://modernevil.com/Podcast/?feed=podcast

Incidentally, I simultaneously added a “news feed” to modernevil.com, where I’ll try to post things like the upcoming Art Walk at Intatto Coffee (9/27/08) … so there’s relevant information there beyond book descriptions and sales pitches.

I’ve been working on various aspects of this project throughout the month of August, and there is yet quite a lot of work to be done before the project is complete, but it is complete enough to begin putting it out there for the world to see (by which I mean hear).  Tonight I submitted the first episode of the Lost and Not Found audiobook to Podiobooks.com.  I am assured that their queue is not too long right now, so it should go up there … well, relatively soon.  Maybe next week, but certainly within September. *cough*  I hope to have everything in place to start my own podcast/feed of my audiobooks by the end of this week, at modernevil.com.

The podiobooks.com feed will be strictly the book by itself, same as for Dragons’ Truth.  The Modern Evil Press podcast (Should that be just “Modern Evil Podcast”, or “Modern Evil Press Podcast”?  Hrm…)  will also include short stories and future audiobooks (including the followup novel to Lost and Not Found I am currently writing) as well as a small amount of “chatter” and promos for other podcasts / podiobooks I want to spread the word about.  It should be an ongoing / continuous podcast, going forward.  bleh.

I never really wanted to do a podcast of my own (though I did try my hand at audio blogging now and again, long before podcasts became popular, and it recently occurred to me that I was doing a sort-of podiobook back in 2001, when I “released” a serialized audiobook as I was recording it, week by week sending out installments… by snail mail, rather than the as-yet-uninvented RSS), so I’m not sure how much “chatter” I’ll actually be doing, but at least some more information and advertisement than in the 20-second intro/outro I did for the podiobooks.com version.  At least to remind people that there are paper versions of the books available, and perhaps updates on what else I’m working on that week, instead of just saying “see modernevil.com for more info…”

I’ve never been much good at maintaining regular content-update schedules, so we’ll just have to wait and see how things go with the podcasts.  I’ve got 5 episodes of Lost and Not Found recorded and -nearly- ready for upload.  I can record/edit/mix roughly an episode a day at this point (since I’ve done most of the music and planning work in advance… though my crazy plans require a certain amount more work on the music for a few future episodes… you’ll have to wait and listen to find out what I mean), and I expect there to be in the vicinity of 15 episodes total, so even without working on it every day, I should still be a couple of months ahead before my birthday rolls around, which will make things easier in that regard.

Anyway, along with the podcast, I plan to be adding a proper sort of “news feed” to modernevil.com (and to wretchedcreature.com as well) with updates on things like the next Art Walk at Intatto Coffee (September 27th!  Come and see my latest art, and get books signed!) or… well, I’ll probably go do the Phoenix Art Walk October 3rd, as well.  And I need to throw together a website specifically for Lost and Not Found, like I did for Dragons’ Truth … except I need to let people know this one exists, rather than putting it up late and not really linking to it.  I own lostandnotfound.com already.  In fact, I’ve put a couple of media files there, already:  Listen to a “five minute” preview of the Lost and Not Found audiobook, or grab the 60-second promo for Lost and Not Found to share with your friends/blog-readers/podcast-listeners/pets/self/et cetera.

That’s it for now… getting sleepy. Been up (and working) since before 7AM.  Mostly on the audiobook.  Forgot (slash was too busy for) to paint, today.  In the middle of at least 4 new paintings, and have another I need to photograph & get online… Exciting stuff.  And did I mention I’m over halfway through the new novel?  I’m sure that’ll take up some of the days I’m not recording & editing audio between now and forever…  So, lots of stuff in the works, I hope you tune in, and I’ll try to post again soon.