Somebody pinch me... BEST FOOD WRITING 2005.

The night I read that e-mail I just about fell out of my Herman Miller, swallowed my Marlboro and sprayed out my Sanka. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I re-read it and re-read it. And everytime the e-mail still said the same thing. It wasn’t a typo or a misunderstanding. The e-mail from Avalon Publishing announced that my writing would appear in the BEST FOOD WRITING 2005 anthology. (Insert me screaming like a girl.) The e-mail continued on and requested my permission to reprint. Permission to reprint my writing in The Best Food Writing book? Hmmm. That’s like asking, “Hey, Eddie, can we get your permission to serve you barbecue ostrich neck?”

Abso-freaking-lutely! Permission granted!

The next thing I did was log-on to e-vite.com to plan a soirée for my Best Food Writing self. I named the party — “The Best Food Writer in the Universe Party”. (Humility is for communists.) Then I got plastered on absinthe and hallucinated that Tony Bourdain was making out with Ruth Reichl in the broom closet. And Amanda Hesser and Jeffrey Steingarten were doing body shots off of each other. (Shudder). The next day I woke up, cotton-mouthed and bleary-eyed and stumbled over to the iMac. It wasn’t a dream. It was still true. I made it into the Best Food Writing 2005 book. God have mercy on us all.

There are many people I must thank. First and foremost, I'd like to thank one of my best friends, Eric Alba, for inspiring me to do my own blog by sharing his awesome photoblog with me. He is an outstanding photographer and his work should be in a Best Photography book somewhere. Next I want to express my gratitude to Bruce Cole of Sauté Wednesday. He’s my food blog guru and was supportive from the very beginning. He has also volunteered all kinds of great information and gave me pep talks via e-mail that emboldened me to try and get into the book. Bruce, you’re the best! Also, in the food blogosphere, I’d love to thank my early link buddies: The Food Section, A Full Belly, Cat Food and, of course, Kiplog. Also, thanks to everyone else who has subsequently discovered Deep End Dining and linked us. There’d be way less quality traffic without you all.

Super big thanks to Megan McCormick. She was on board from day one, even with her new baby and hectic TV hosting schedule. Megan rules! And super huge thanks and kisses to my wife Diane who is my love and lifetime dinner companion. Poops, thanks for not asking me to edit you out of my stories. And, Ma, thanks for force feeding me boiled cow’s brain when I was six. And thanks to my baby Chloe for being born because I probably wouldn’t have started this blog otherwise. Babies do change your life!

I want to give a major shout out to the editors and staff of Best Food Writing 2005. Mille grazie to Avalon Publishing Group, Marlowe & Company, Kylie Foxx (Senior Editor, Marlowe & Company), Holly Hughes (Editor, Best Food Writing 2005), Peter Jacoby (Marlowe & Company) and Nathaniel May (Avalon Publishing Group). Thanks for giving me a shot.

To my readers: my sincerest and heartfelt gratitude to you. Your visits, page views, comments, e-mails and overall good energy really keep me going. Like most food bloggers, I don’t get paid for this. I do it for the love of food and writing. I also do it for the feedback and reader relationships. Deep End Dining would be meaningless without you feasting on and digesting my literary offerings. The ultimate compliment for a cook is to finish everything on your plate. So thank you very much for reading. But, before I start channeling Sally Field, I’d better stop right here. Thanks!

Yo! What are you waiting for? Go and pre-order the book! (Scheduled release Fall 2005)