Once a year, I get to read at the Book Cellar with a clutch of very funny Chicago lady-writers, which is how I know today's interviewee. Her books, which include Inappropriate Men, Sleeping Over, Room for Improvement, The Spinster Sisters, Good Enough to Eat and Off the Menu (which was inspired by her relationship with her now-husband) are very relevant to my interests, as they're about food and humor. Her newest book, Out to Lunch, was published earlier this month and has been praised by Booklist and Kirkus and she's got more books forthcoming! You can learn a lot more about her here and follow her on Twitter here.

You're a prolific lady. Like in Misery, do you have a tradition on what you do when you celebrate another book being finished/released?
When I finish a new book, my husband and I pop a really nice bottle of champagne to toast, and then order in dinner since by then I've been so focused that there is no food in the house at all. Usually when the new book is released I'm in the final stages of writing the next one, so there isn't a specific tradition on that day per se, but the night of my first signing for a new book we will go out for a nice dinner with some of the friends and family who have come out to support me.

Which of the books you published was the most difficult one to write and edit, and why? Which was the easiest?
Good Enough to Eat was the hardest. It was the first time I was writing about someone who handled personal struggles in such an opposite way as I do, someone who in many ways was her own worst enemy, and who was in a very dark place, so I couldn't rely on writing funny in the way I usually do. It was also the hardest edit process, we did nine months of rewrites to get it right, and it was the least fun I ever had writing a book. But I think it was worth it, and I'm very proud of it for the same reasons. The easiest to write was Off the Menu which contains a thinly fictionalized version of my courtship with my husband. That book was enormous fun to write, and is probably my favorite book so far, just because it is an account of such a happy time in my life!

Much of your fiction is based on real-life events and inspiration. I know a lot of writers are shy about mining their own lives for fiction (not me, for the record.) What rules of thumb do you have for how and when do fictionalize real stuff and when to make things up completely?
I fictionalize things that are funny, the kinds of things that are more hilarious than anything I could make up. I also keep it real about places in Chicago, or products a character uses, anything that is positive is likely pulled from or at least inspired by real life. Anything negative is fiction. If my character have a great meal at a restaurant, it is a real one. If they get food poisoning, that is a made up restaurant! When it comes to people, the same applies. If someone I know is an inspiration for a character, its their positive qualities I'm trying to capture. But I don't share secrets, or use anything that would be hurtful.

This is a question on behalf of any aspiring or new authors who may be reading, but what have you learned throughout your career about how much work authors need to do promoting their own work (as opposed to having a publicist take care of business?)
Your job as a writer is to promote your work and engage with your audience. The writing is the bonus, that is the thing you get to do to reward yourself for the work of being a writer. People seem to think that our "job" is to sit around in our yoga pants eating bonbons and making up stories. But if you want to make a living as an artist, the work is everything around the art not the art itself. An actors job is to audition, and rehearse. A dancer's job is to practice endlessly and keep your body in perfect shape. If you want to make a living, or even part of a living as a writer, your primary occupation is to promote your work. You write because you have to write to keep breathing, that, sadly, isn't the actual job. Even writers who have teams of PR people managing their social media and arranging their marketing etc., they still have to update their blogs, and write the guest posts and do the interviews and go on TV and tour and do the signings, and make the speeches, and attend the conferences. In fact, the bigger you get, the more successful, the more of your time and energy get sucked into marketing and promotion. Which, for the record, is a problem I would REALLY love to have!

You refer to your books as "foodie novels": what's the biggest divergence you've contemplated taking in terms of style, subject, tone or genre?
I would love to branch out to write many things! I have done proposals for young adult, dark thriller...so far no luck in getting a publisher to take a flier on either. Once you build an audience in one genre, publishers get skittish about switching. I was able to make the moves from Chick Lit to Women's Fiction to Foodie Fiction, but it was gradual and slow, and those all overlap in a lot of ways. I do have a digital cookbook coming out next year, so that is very exciting, but also is very connected to my novels since they all have recipes in them. These days I'd most love to do a memoir in humor essays, I've been collecting them for a while, and it would be amazing to get a chance to really pull them together! And it would be amazing to do a non-fiction book about the process of buying and renovating my house, which is the second greatest love story of my life.

I have some writer friends who passed around this article about great cities for American writing that are not New York, opining that the description of what makes Chicago a good writing city misses the mark. What do you think makes Chicago a good city for writers (if you agree with that?)
I thought this article was written by someone who isn't actually a writer. What makes Chicago (in my humble opinion) the single BEST city in which to live, especially for writers, is the combination of vibrant literary community, passionate independent booksellers, and a city that celebrates and respects the written word...in fiction, poetry, theater. There is a wealth of writers here, and we know and adore each other, we support each other and promote each other, and we are constantly making connections with other writers. Go to any random book signing in Chicago, and you will find at least one other local writer there cheering on his or her colleague. Yes, it is an affordable city in which to live, which helps enormously, but that doesn't take into account that it is also a city of true neighborhoods, where people mix and mingle and get to know one another in ways that are very inspirational for those of us who have to be able to effectively draw characters who are believable people. It also has MANY amazing schools of higher education, not to mention adult classes, so for those who want to teach as part of making their living, or those who want to continue to study, there are jobs and classes available. The six months of horrific bitter winter weather doesn't hurt either...you don't want to go outside, which helps you hunker down and get some work done. My brain doesn't function well for writing in the summer, I'm just so happy to go outside! But October-March? I'm typing away.

What books have most inspired you as a writer, in that you've tried in some way to emulate the style, tone or spirit of the author?
I try not to emulate the writing of others, because it is a slippery slope, and I very much want my voice to be my own. But I turn to other writers to keep me focused, get me back on track, or provide something of a palate cleanser to get me out of my own way. Anne LaMott for her writing about writing and making a life as a writer. Oscar Wilde for his ability to use wit and humor to illuminate the true nature of the human condition. Shakespeare for having all the stories, and finding urgency in conflict. Colette for relationships and love and romance that aren't soft-focus. Jane Austen, for being Jane Austen. Stephen King for plot plot plot. And for just the pleasure of reading, Jen Lancaster, Joshilyn Jackson, Amy Hatvany, Sarah Pekkanen, Jodi Picoult, Amy Tan, a zillion others...

I need to know this as someone with a day job (that I like, thankfully), but what are the downsides of being a full-time writer?
Isolation can be tough. I often go out of town to work, and then it can be many days in a row where I literally don't see another person and my only communication is my nightly phone call with my husband. Staying motivated is also hard. I'm very much in the Dorothy Parker school: I hate writing, I love having written. Sitting down at the computer is the single hardest thing I do, and there are plenty of days that I don't manage it. There is also often a perception by others that you don't "have a real job", so unwittingly you are the first phone call from friends and family who need favors, or things done or organized. I don't think they mean to be disrespectful of your work, they just don't have a reference for what it means, and how your time gets sucked away. I'm not one of those writers who can crank something out in a lost hour here and there, I need chunks of time, minimum 2-3 hours or more at a stretch, to really get anything productive done, so while "just doing this thing for me really quickly" seems like not a big deal to someone, it can really weirdly derail our day. I spend at least 2-3 hours a day on social media and marketing and promotion, so finding the second block of time for the actual writing is harder than you would imagine. I'm very blessed that my husband totally gets it, and while I do take on a lot of the "life maintenance" stuff like groceries and errands and planning dinners etc. because those things take about 80% less time mid-weekday than they would evenings or weekends, he doesn't ever come home and look at an empty fridge or a pile of folded laundry that's been sitting on the living room couch for three days not put away and look at me like I've somehow shirked my duties. He understands that sometimes I have as hectic and stressful a work day as he does and I just didn't get to anything else. I know a lot of writers who aren't so lucky! And I cannot begin to understand how writers with kids do it at all.

What's your favorite new (or new to you) cookbook?
I've been loving both Jerusalem and Plenty, gorgeous and the recipes really work. I was never much of a hummus person, but I'm making it from scratch now and it is spectacular.

What's the most memorable meal you've had lately?
We are in love with Sumi Robata Grill right now. Simple, fresh, and absolutely mind blowing. We keep taking our foodie friends there to show it off! I think I know that menu as well as the chef does by now, and it never disappoints. They have a tofu dish that is like a savory crème brûlée, and I usually HATE tofu. And their lamb chop is the single best piece of delicious I put in my mouth in 2013. When we go we order the lamb chops last because it just blows the top of your head off. And sometimes we have to order a second round!

How does it feel to be the 372nd person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Freaking amazing. I feel taller.