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>>Erik: What have been the major milestones in your progression as a writer?
>>Scott: The first thing I ever actually published which was in the New Orleans Times Picuyane
in the Lanyap section, which is the arts section. They were making an open call for readers
to write in with experiences of their favorite meals. And I didn`t have an outlet at a time,
I had just graduated college, was working an unfulfilling job. But I did have this experience
of going to a restaurant called Dragos for an eat club dinner and sharing an eight pound
lobster with my mother. They set it down on the table and it looked like this gigantic
monster from the sea and we just howled with laughter. How unbelievably hilariously gigantic
this thing was. It was the size of a beagle. We ate the entire thing and had a ball all
night long. So I wrote this thing and they put it in the paper and I was like this is
great, that was my first vindication that I could actually do this. That something I
created people might actually enjoy.
>>Erik: And you enjoyed the process of it.
>>Scott: I did, I did. And from there it was the learning process of going through book
publishing and then the exact same thing happened when I wrote the book proposal for The Shameless
Carnivore. My literary agent really liked it, it got sent out, and other people responded
to it. And crossing that hurdle, when the book was finally sold, I tell people that
I had two reactions: That I sold my first book, a lifelong dream, I am going to be a
published author. And my reaction was, yes! And then crap! I have to write a book now.
How do I do that? And even with my experience of working on the other side of the publishing
industry the only way to write a book is to write a book. No short cuts. And so then there
were the other hurdles: Self discipline, how to be focused and do my research and make
sure I`m covering all my bases and make sure I am telling the truth and getting my facts
straight and telling an entertaining story and hoping that my editor is going to like
it.