Accidental Hedonist

Picture by Lisa C. at foodscheming.blogspot.com

A Quick Announcment: The good folks at Theo Chocolate are helping me celebrate the release of Sweet Tooth with a book release party on June 14th. Their soon to be release will read as follows:

“SWEET TOOTH: The History of Candy” Book Event with local author Kate Hopkins

with special one-night-only Theo confections inspired by the book

June 14^th

7 pm, FREE

 Tonight we feature local author Kate Hopkins’ new book, Sweet Tooth. It’s a history of candy and how it evolved from medicine and luxury to corner store ubiquity, and not only did we enjoy reading it—Theo is featured in it!  Join us for a short reading, Q & A with the author, and a sampling of special Theo confections inspired by the book. From Italian nougat & Turkish Delight, to Peppermint Patties & Nut Brittle, our kitchen crew is having fun figuring out how to give these historical favorites the Theo treatment.

If you want to meet me, or have some unique chocolates never before released by Theo, feel free to stop by at 3400 Phinney Ave N in Seattle on the date listed above!

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Things will be a bit hinky for the next few days as I figure out where formatting blew up. But, other than that, what do you think of the new site?

Trying to determine what the topics will be is akin to me looking at the JCPenney Christmas catalog when I was eight. There’s likely too much that I want.

So, some ground rules – There should be no more than five topics at any given time, and no less than three. It’s likely that if I’m trying to run five topics, that one will get lost in the shuffle, but at least this gives us a frame to work within. So…

Topic 1 – The Spice Trade

The next three are essentially test runs to see what works and what does not.

Topic 2 – New York City: as I will be in New York City over Memorial Day Weekend, this gives us a bit of time to do some research, read up on the place, and get jazzed about The Big Apple. I expect this topic to finish the first week of June.

Topic 3 – Martinis: A short (six month) basic introduction into the world of the Martini, it’s history, and how to make a great one. Finish line: First week of September.

Topic 4 – As I want you, the readers, to get involved, one of my first posts will be about this topic. I’ll fill you in at that point.

And finally

Topic 5 – Site Philosophy. I have no idea on how long this will last, nor even what it will look like, but the goal is to allow and encourage discussion, but within a certain boundary. This will likely last several months as we play through the other topics and see what occurs.

Remember, at the end of each topic, a new one will be discussed and/or announced. My friends and I are already in discussions about what topic to cover after New York, (hint – voodoo may be involved), and the long term goal is to make the choice of topics interactive on some level (although to what degree still needs worked out).

Okay, so here’s how the new site will work – I will have, at a minimum, three different topics that I am working on. One that I am working on for myself, one that I am working on with my friends, and one that (hopefully) you, the readers can participate. This last bit has yet to be fully worked out, as I would like you, the reader, to participate in as many of the topics as you, the reader, desire.

Each topic will be covered here at accidentalhedonist.com for 9 months (give or take a month or so, specifically for these early topics). At the end of the nine months, I will ask myself one question: Do I feel as if I have a good grasp of the topic at hand? If yes, I retire the topic. If no, I ask another question: Am I bored of the topic, or do I want to explore further? If bored, I retired the topic, if I wish to explore further, then I sign myself up for another 9 months on the topic, bringing you, the reader along.

Oh, and I should define that a “topic” is really nothing more than a person, place, or thing that lends itself to an interesting trip at the end of nine months. Again, I’m still playing with this aspect of the plans, so bear with me, as I may alter this core definition.

In between the announcement of the new topic to research and the end of the nine months (which should result in a trip of some sort), any aspect of said topic is up for posts and discussions. For example. if the topic would be Charles Dickens, I could read a few of his books, perhaps a biography, maybe watch a movie adaptation, read scholarly dissertations, and, in the end, visit London. Along the way, I will let you, the readers, (as well as my friends here locally), know what I am doing before I do it. The goal is to have as many people who desire to, to participate along with me, and (most importantly) , and create a dialogue about the mediums consumed regarding the topic, as well as the overarching discussion of the topic itself.

This will be done via both posts on this here site, as well as a yet-to-be-implemented forum.

Yeah, now my plan is starting to sound a little convoluted, I know. trust me, it will make more sense in application than in theory.

That is it in a nutshell. I want to see if I can create a website that doesn’t rely on the news of the minute, but instead involves careful and intentional research to allow the creation of context and understanding of subjects that interest both me and the audience.

I have no idea if this is going to work, but I know that I’m going to enjoy the journey regardless.

Next Post: The first topics!

I am finally, finally updating the back-end of Accidental Hedonist. Since about 2008, I’ve had a hands-off approach on the look of AH, and it shows. Instead of seeing if B2Evolution has kept up with the times, I’ve decided to change the blogging Engine to something a little more fun for me.

In order to do this, during the weekend of March 10th, this site will be offline. It may be down for as little as four hours, or as much as 2 days.

When all is said and down, this site will look and feel much different.

For those who didn’t already know, I have a new book coming out here in 2012, entitled Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy. This means that this year is one where I will be forced to promote myself and my book, and do it in such a way where the results lead to more sales than my first book, 99 Drams of Whiskey.

I’ve never been one to foist myself upon others. This is a character flaw if one is intent on making a living in a publishing world where promotion and *shudder* marketing are almost a requirement. So I find myself at a crossroads, one where I have to find a happy compromise with myself. It has to be a compromise where I don’t sacrifice my core principles, one of which includes not insinuating myself where I’m not wanted through promotional campaigns and e-mail spam.

One of the ways to do that is to promote in my own neck of the Internet woods only, meaning on my own web pages and social media feeds. The goal is to generate enough interest to help with sales of the book, something that’s quite difficult to do in the current market environment.

So, here’s the thing – if you want to review the book, and wish for an advanced copy, send me an e-mail here at KATE AT ACCIDENTALHEDONIST DOT COM. If you do this, I will promise you full access to myself, meaning that while you’re reading the book, and there’s something that I’ve written that intrigues you, confuses you, or excites you, I offer myself (via e-mail, twitter, and Facebook) to follow through with you on that. I would rather work hand in hand with book reviewers, than have one go off believing I was writing the next Julie and Julia (which happened several times with 99 Drams).

Sweet Tooth itself is a bit of a different book than 99 Drams, as it starts innocently enough, but enters territories that show the darker side of history of sugar and chocolate. The basic question that results from the book is “How do we, as adults, come to terms with a luxury commodity that is being sold to us and our children as an innocent treat, when the reality is that there are makers of candy who put greed over the greater good?” My research into candy led me to areas that were unexpected, and conclusions that were quite distant from where I thought I would end up. My only hope is that I did the subject, as well as the conclusion I came to, enough justice.

At any rate, this is what I am proposing, and if it sounds interesting to you, let me know, and I will forward the publishers your information. Over the course of the next several months, you’ll see more information surrounding this, as I try to do something different in regards to promotion, writing, and trying to find my way in a very unstable publishing world.

Many thanks!

Some of you may have heard about the union protests going on in Madison, WI to save their collective bargaining rights. A subset of you may have heard about the pizza place in Madison who have been supplying pizzas to the demonstrators. The name of the pizza place is called Ian’s Pizza and they’ve been scrambling to keep up with the sudden influx of business, and how they started taking donations and well, I’ll just let them tell you….

“At the end of Tuesday night last week, we sent our leftover pizzas up to the Capitol. A Wisconsin woman heard about this somehow and called in with the idea of donating money to buy more pizzas for the protesters. Then a friend told a friend, who told a friend, it seems.” After a call from California, more calls from around the country, and a what-the-hell moment when someone called from Egypt to donate, the Twitter reports began flying and the floodgates burst. “We just got a $20 donation from Kenya,” said (Staci) Fritz, (office manager at Ian’s).

As anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry can tell you, an unexpected upsurge in business can be a curse as much as a blessing, and if you don’t have the infrastructure in place to handle that business, bad things can happen.

Ian’s is reporting now that they have addressed those issues, and now are able to handle the donations needed to feed the Madison supporters. They’ve given instructions on how you can help (if you’re one to support union workers).

From their web page:

Thank you all so much for visiting!

If you are here to learn how help feed the protesters in Madison, here’s how you can do that:

Call us at 608-257-9248, then press 1. As we have just three phone lines it may take a while to get through, and we apologize in advance for that.

For online ordering we have partnered with both badgerbites.com and campusfood.com to process our online orders. If you would like to order online, please put 115 State Street as the delivery address, and add in the notes that you would like to help feed the protesters.

While we thought about it, we will not be setting up a Paypal account, even though we realize that would make it easier. Please understand it’s not because we don’t want to help you out; we really just don’t want to over-promise & under-deliver.

It’s important to us as a business and as individuals that if we say we are taking your hard-earned money to help feed supporters, that we will make sure that happens. By taking phone calls and online orders only we can ensure that the money you spend with us does indeed get made into pizza that goes to the capital.

We truly appreciate all the enthusiasm, and know that many of you want to help feed the protesters, but we are also just one small business. Believe us when we say we are not really accustomed to getting pizza orders from the entire country (let alone internationally!)

Thank you for your understanding!