Josephine Caminos Oría, SOBREMESA: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses
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[0:40]Josephine Kamino Soria is the author of Someday Mesa, a memoir of Food and Love in 13 Courses.
[0:47]How'd you like my accent there?
[0:49]Josephine was born in the city of La Plata, Argentina, and raised stateside from infancy on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
[0:56]Gathering around to table large enough to sit her family of eight, plus two for her abuelos on her mom's side.
[1:02]Food and the Someday Mesa that accompanied it was how Josephine learned to make sense of the world.
[1:06]Stories of where she came from and the people she left behind were served to Josephine during family, Someday Mesa's.
[1:12]She's savored like meals.
[1:14]Those tales nourish Josephine's imagination and sense of self, setting the table for Josephine's second act.
[1:19]A family and professional life focused around Argentine food and culture.
[1:23]It was in her early 40s with five young children in tow.
[1:27]The Josephine took a chance on herself, leaving a sea-level career to make Dolce de Lecce.
[1:32]Today, Josephine, along with her Argentine husband Gaston, is the founder of La Dorita Cooks, an all-natural line of Dolce de Lecce products,
[1:40]and Pittsburgh's first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early stage food makers.
[1:45]In addition, Josephine is the author of the Cookbook as Food memoir, Dolce de Lecce, recipes, stories, and sweet traditions.
[1:52]The Orias, along with their five children, Lucas Mateo, Nico Nacho, and Poopay, and Golden Retriever Andino are currently living,
[1:59]La Vida Low Country in Charleston, South Carolina.
[2:03]Welcome, Josephine. Thank you so much for coming on mom's.
[2:06]Don't have time to read bugs to discuss some bremasa. Did I say that right?
[2:11]Yeah, so, Josephine. Perfect.
[2:12]Bremasa, a memoir of food and love in 13 courses.
[2:16]Thanks so much for having me.
[2:18]My pleasure.
[2:20]I love the structure of this book that it's like, I just love, it's so great.
[2:25]It's just amazing. Tell me, tell listeners what your memoir is about, and also what inspired you to write it.
[2:33]So, it's that, you know, ultra-general coming of age act, but between La Pampas and Argentina and the Prairie here in the United States.
[2:43]So, I was born in Argentina, but grew up in Pittsburgh.
[2:47]And it's really, it's not so much about my life.
[2:51]It's about the spiritual direction my life has taken and the signs and what better day to talk about that than November 1st or the other La Muertos.
[3:00]St. Stay, you know, so, and it's really just about me finding my place in that in between.
[3:07]And that includes coming to terms with both of my cultures, which were, you know, beautiful cultures, but Argentina always felt very far away.
[3:17]It came to losing a big love of my life that took me led me to go back home.
[3:24]So, the heartbreak that actually led me back to Argentina.
[3:27]And then it's really about reckoning those two cultures, falling in love again.
[3:33]And then I would say, you know, following the signs, the signs that God gives us, the universe gives us, whatever God is to you or the universe, you know, and where it takes me.
[3:44]So, I hope that helps, but also it's all about conversations around the dinner table.
[3:49]So, that was probably the first thing I should have said.
[3:53]No, it's about all those things. Have you read Laurel and Jackson signs the book called signs?
[3:59]No, no.
[4:00]You should pick that up. It's like very on, on message for the story and your other man.
[4:05]Trying to get me down.
[4:06]The other half, the other man. What did you call him? Hold on, hold on. Let me flip to a page.
[4:10]The man who visits the ghost sort of in your story.
[4:14]The gentleman caller.
[4:15]The gentleman caller. Sorry. Yes, the gentleman caller. Like the other half.
[4:20]Yes, another era, you know. So, yes.
[4:24]Wait. So, why don't we start with that? Tell me about.
[4:28]I know you track in the book all the times where the gentleman caller sort of comes in and out of the narrative of your life.
[4:35]Right.
[4:36]And at times when, of course, you tell people and it's like, you feel like, what are you talking about?
[4:41]Right.
[4:42]So, when was the first time? The gentleman caller kind of called.
[4:46]And I know this is only one. This is not the main thing. But, you know, since we're talking about science.
[4:51]Yeah. So, he first came to me and my first boyfriend, which was a boyfriend of almost a decade when I was about 22, I would say.
[5:01]And he follows me. So, you know, we believe that this man is a ghost in my parents' home. We just can't reckon it. My parents come home. They're kind of like you guys are crazy.
[5:12]You know, just again, these things in my house, like if you talk about ghosts, it also wasn't like, Oh my God, what are you talking about? You know, because spirits in the Latin culture are kind of, you know, I don't want to say accepted, but they're just kind of a norm.
[5:26]So, they could be very well. So, and he then continues to haunt me. And I don't want to say haunt because that sounds like a very negative word, but he continues to appear to only me.
[5:39]Um, my boyfriend, my ex-boyfriend at the time trip is the only other person who's ever seen him.
[5:45]And then when I come to a realization, a reckoning of who he is 20 years later. Okay. You know, I'm this man will pop in and out of my life and he really catches me off guard.
[5:56]And a lot of the times I don't really understand it's him, till he's gone. If that makes any sense, you know, the hairs on my neck will alert me, but takes that time to digest.
[6:05]But when I do understand who he is, I realize I hadn't met him when I was 16. And you know, that's, he helped me through a car accident, a very terrible car accident.
[6:17]Yeah, you know, don't realize that till years and years later.
[6:20]Can we discuss the car accident because my jaw was like on the ground as I was reading about what happened to you.
[6:26]And you went flying through the windshield, they found you next to the car. Oh my gosh.
[6:32]I have a 16 and 17 year old.
[6:35]And I think of that car accident as they're like newly minted drivers and I'm like, dear God, I'm telling at them to take this 30 speed, you know, mile per hour speed curve.
[6:46]You know, slower when the tragedy of what my brother and I did, we were driving to Miami from Pittsburgh, which is like a 22 hour trip.
[6:55]We tended to caravan all together, my family, we had a family of eight.
[6:59]And we would just want to get through the, you know, through the trip. So I think I had my driver's license for two days.
[7:05]It was about midnight and my brother was trying to convince me to jump over the bench seat of a suburban.
[7:11]and take over my mom wouldn't let me drive. So she was behind in another car.
[7:16]And somehow he wore me down. I don't know if you have brothers, but I do.
[7:21]I have a brother and I have a dog stop. Okay. Okay.
[7:25]One hour, then we'll switch back. And anyway, he had it on cruise control.
[7:29]I don't even know that I knew what cruise control was.
[7:32]I still cannot do cruise control by the way.
[7:36]Yeah, no, I don't trust myself with it. So for good reason.
[7:42]So I couldn't gain control of the car and it's going 70 miles per hour. And did I mention it's a suburban packed, you know.
[7:48]So anyway, we hit the guard rail.
[7:51]Thank God. Well, the center, not the guard rail. Thank God no one else was on, you know, the road because these are like the I 95 at that point is like four or five lanes, you know, and we just tumbled and tumbled.
[8:03]And yeah, you know, somehow I ended up outside of the car. But the only thing, I mean, I had scratches and bruises, but the only big thing I had was one of my eyes had glass all in it, you know.
[8:15]And I've lived that that meant to me with a new astigmatism that was since, but you know it's crazy. And then my brother walked away.
[8:23]I think with the broken arm and some bruised ribs. My grandfather was in the car, you know, and I think he just walked away with a neck break, you know, it's just incredible.
[8:33]Oh my gosh. I got into an accident when I was 18, like again, I had had my license for like a minute.
[8:40]And I lost control of the car the same way and I like didn't know if I should turn into the skid or turn away from it, like that whole thing.
[8:46]Anyway, and I also crashed it in the middle of the thing, but it was during that panic. Yes.
[8:52]When you do this and somehow the axle, I don't know. I mean, it was fully, fully, fully and I do not take all the blame because my brother is 50% too.
[9:04]So I always remind him, but yeah, it's incredible. We walked away and my recollection of that accident.
[9:10]Now I did wake up in the hospital, but it kind of left me in shock for several days and I couldn't talk. It was right before Christmas.
[9:17]And you know, there was someone else there that all of my family claims was not. So that's sort of where the story of my gentleman collar begins.
[9:27]Oh my gosh. Wow, that is wild.
[9:30]Well, it's sort of nice to have the comfort that you have basically a guardian angel of sorts, right? I mean, you know, I don't know.
[9:37]Yeah, yeah, I think I think that there was more than a guardian angel. I haven't seen him since where my book leaves off, which was my God, I can't even think.
[9:50]eight years ago where I think more his, whoever he is, you know, is an ancestor of mine and I.
[10:00]named after that ancestor.
[10:01]And I think he was playing out.
[10:03]I don't wanna say his own purgatory,
[10:05]but you know, I think he was playing out the reckoning
[10:08]of how to find his way back to the table.
[10:11]You know, back to Sotomiesa.
[10:13]So yes.
[10:14]So tell me more also about the food and the meals.
[10:18]And now you've like dedicated your life to this
[10:20]and all the recipes that you include
[10:22]and the importance of the family meal and all of that.
[10:26]Yeah.
[10:27]So I grew up, you know, in Pittsburgh,
[10:29]but our home was Argentine.
[10:31]If that makes any sense.
[10:33]Once you entered those doors,
[10:35]Spanish speaking, the food was Argentine.
[10:37]You know, and it's very similar for all immigrants.
[10:40]It's, my parents never liked to coin themselves
[10:43]as immigrants, you know, but it's you keep,
[10:46]you make a home with what you grew up with, you know,
[10:48]with what gives you that comfort.
[10:50]So we mostly ate very Argentine.
[10:52]And one of those roles was sitting at a table,
[10:55]napkin and lap, you know, all eight of us.
[10:58]We always had the same seats.
[11:00]All the women on one side, nearest to kitchen,
[11:02]the men on the other side.
[11:04]Very Latin.
[11:05]I definitely talked about a lot of mojima
[11:07]at the dinner table.
[11:10]And we just, the role was you had to sit,
[11:14]you had to sit until you were excused, you know.
[11:17]And it wasn't formal.
[11:19]It wasn't like these formal that, you know,
[11:21]it was just you had to stay until the conversation was done.
[11:25]And so a lot of times that's tough.
[11:27]And it's tough for parents, too,
[11:28]because how annoying is it when,
[11:31]how many kids do you have for?
[11:33]Last time I checked.
[11:34]Yeah.
[11:35]So how annoying is it when they're like,
[11:37]can I get up now?
[11:38]Can I get up now?
[11:39]You know, you're almost like, yes, just get up.
[11:41]So I can talk to my husband or, you know, I don't know.
[11:44]But so it's really just about sitting and staying
[11:48]because it's really about the food,
[11:50]but it's so much more than the food.
[11:53]You know, the soba de mesa, which is that time
[11:55]you spend around the table after the food's gone,
[11:57]that's like the fifth and final meat course, you know.
[12:00]That's kind of like what serves up the real nourishment.
[12:04]And that's when, you know,
[12:07]the real conversations start coming out.
[12:09]When your guard is down and whether it's something
[12:12]that's been bothering you, eating at you,
[12:14]no pun intended, you know,
[12:16]but or if you have a beef with someone at the table
[12:19]or you just finally, you know, confess something,
[12:21]hey, I'm not feeling good at school
[12:23]or I didn't have anyone to eat lunch with.
[12:25]You know, that's when we get the kids.
[12:27]That and when they were little,
[12:29]I used to get them right at bedtime, you know.
[12:32]But so, you know, we just grew up that way
[12:35]and it was a really important part of our culture.
[12:38]And I believe it gave in me a sense of self of who I was.
[12:43]You know, I say in the book that it wasn't only,
[12:46]you know, a part of nourishment,
[12:48]a part of our nightly tradition,
[12:50]but it was a way for my parents to pass down
[12:52]their Argentine cultures beyond DNA.
[12:55]And that's important, we can have the DNA,
[12:57]but if it's not instilled.
[13:00]I love that.
[13:01]I love thinking about the idea of the nourishment
[13:03]of the meal coming after the food has been cleared.
[13:06]Yeah, I mean, it's a lot because the food is a portal.
[13:12]You know, food is a portal.
[13:13]It's a portal to something else.
[13:15]So it opens up conversation,
[13:17]but also, I don't know, can you recall anytime
[13:20]where you've eaten something
[13:21]and it stopped you in your tracks?
[13:23]And it's like someone's walking beside you?
[13:26]Yes, like a chestman cookie,
[13:28]which is like my grandmother.
[13:29]So right.
[13:31]So in this book, it's like you eat something
[13:34]and as long as we're making the recipes
[13:37]of those who pass before us, you know,
[13:41]it's like they're still alive.
[13:43]They're still there with us.
[13:45]It's true.
[13:46]No, my grandmother actually made this cake.
[13:49]And for the longest time after she passed away,
[13:51]we could not, that nobody could find the recipe.
[13:54]It was so good.
[13:55]It was like this sponge chocolate chip sponge cake
[13:58]with this really like inch thick, great chocolate frosting.
[14:02]It was so yummy.
[14:03]And then I finally found like this tiny little scrap
[14:06]from like a back of a magazine.
[14:08]I was like, I think this is it.
[14:09]And then my mother-in-law who was a baker was like,
[14:11]no, no, this doesn't make any sense.
[14:12]So she like redid all the ingredients and like,
[14:15]yeah, we had this one cake.
[14:17]And I was like, this is it.
[14:19]And then my mother-in-law passed away.
[14:20]So now I'm not gonna get the cake again.
[14:22]Anyway, it was just that one moment,
[14:25]just the taste of it.
[14:26]And now it has like all sorts of memories.
[14:27]So yes, I love how food just conjures up love.
[14:31]I mean, really, that's what it's like.
[14:33]It's love and it's staying after her.
[14:35]Put it out to her today on November 1st.
[14:37]Hey, send me that recipe if you can, please.
[14:42]I feel like we're in, there's the movie
[14:45]my kids watch all the time.
[14:46]Coco, right?
[14:47]Do you know what it does?
[14:48]Oh, yeah.
[14:48]I don't know.
[14:49]I love that.
[14:50]Oh my gosh, it was so good.
[14:53]So tell me about the writing of this book.
[14:56]What was it like for you to like relive all of this stuff?
[14:59]And you know, you shared so much of your private relationships
[15:03]with the reader, which I loved.
[15:04]And it was like so fun getting to know you
[15:06]as you went through everything.
[15:08]So what was it like just like sitting down and doing this?
[15:12]Well, it was really cathartic.
[15:16]It was also really frightening.
[15:18]And I had like a love-hate relationship with Soda Misa.
[15:22]I wanted to break up with her several times.
[15:24]I tried to.
[15:25]I tried to divorce her.
[15:27]I even like literally tore up 380 pages once.
[15:31]And my thing was in the other room.
[15:33]This was during the pandemic.
[15:35]And I think all of my kids were like,
[15:37]no one bother mom, no one go near mommy today.
[15:40]But I got the idea for this book.
[15:44]And it's really challenging because it's a memoir.
[15:48]And I've only written a cookbook.
[15:50]So you know, typically you don't write a memoir
[15:53]unless you're famous, unless some grand event has happened
[15:57]to you.
[15:58]And while there's some trauma in the book,
[15:59]it's not unlike any trauma that's happened to anyone else.
[16:03]But it's more about the spirituality of it.
[16:06]And me wanting to really introduce the tradition of Soda Misa
[16:10]to here in the United States, where there is no translation.
[16:14]And what better time does this come to me than at the pandemic
[16:17]when we're really all wanting to have a seat at the table?
[16:21]But so I released my first cookbook on Dulce de Leche in 2017.
[16:26]That book contains snippets of the recipes,
[16:28]like snippets of the memories behind them.
[16:31]And that book left me with such a taste
[16:33]that I wanted to really tell our Argentine story.
[16:36]I see so little of Argentina and the Latin culture here.
[16:40]And I really wanted to add to that and bring flavor to that.
[16:44]And so I started trying to write it in 2018.
[16:47]And I would grapple with why am I writing a memoir?
[16:50]And I knew the story in my head.
[16:52]I almost wanted to remove myself from it and make it fiction.
[16:55]Just, you know, so I, so it wouldn't be about me,
[16:58]but it would be about the message in the story.
[17:02]And I just couldn't.
[17:03]I couldn't because I had, you know, I had been a CFO for 20 years.
[17:07]Like my story was already out there, my bio,
[17:10]my company was named LaVita, my grandmother's LaVita.
[17:13]So there was no way to remove myself.
[17:14]So finally I had to just, you know, settle in with,
[17:17]okay, I'm gonna write about myself.
[17:19]And when you do, and I know you're writing a memoir,
[17:22]you really have to determine how vulnerable am I gonna be
[17:25]and how real?
[17:26]Because if you're not, there's holes.
[17:29]You know, it's like, it's not the real truth.
[17:32]When you have some omission and that's really tough, you know,
[17:36]and but people wanna know the truth,
[17:37]not everyone will agree with what you say.
[17:40]But so I wrote it for about a year.
[17:44]I would obsess, you know, I was working full-time.
[17:46]So I would obsess and wake up at like 2 a.m.
[17:48]when it would just come to me.
[17:50]And it took tons of long walks on the weekends.
[17:53]And I would get my, you know, it's almost like it would download.
[17:57]And I just couldn't get the storyline right though, you know?
[18:01]It was during this is us.
[18:02]And I kept trying to think I'm this magnificent writer
[18:05]and like doing like back and forth, back and forth.
[18:08]And then I, you know, like my husband would read it
[18:11]or read part of it and he'd be like, I'm confused
[18:13]and I've lived this with you, you know, to me a long time.
[18:17]I did get a first draft.
[18:19]I then had like an editor that I used for my first book
[18:22]that I just a private, you know,
[18:25]which I can always give her name out of anyone once.
[18:26]She's spectacular.
[18:28]And then I started querying it and just nothing.
[18:32]You know, I probably queried 200, 300, you know,
[18:35]people I wanted to get an agent.
[18:36]Well, you know, independent publishers and agents.
[18:40]And just nothing.
[18:41]And I kept getting almost no feedback.
[18:44]And finally it was like someone said to me,
[18:46]I love your story.
[18:48]I actually love the story.
[18:49]But first of all, who are you to write this story like?
[18:53]And second of all, in other words, very nicely
[18:56]but what's your platform?
[18:57]And second of all, it's just, it's not cohesive.
[19:00]So the pandemic hit.
[19:03]And I had really been like grappling.
[19:05]Do I continue with this?
[19:07]And one day my husband said to me,
[19:08]you just need to write the damn thing
[19:10]because if you talk to me about it one more time.
[19:12]So believe it or not,
[19:14]there's 380 pages that I had like ripped up.
[19:17]Granted, I saved it on my back.
[19:21]But when he sat down and in two weeks I rewrote,
[19:25]I reconfigured, you know, I had like my timeline,
[19:28]reconfigured it and it just, he sat down
[19:33]and read every single chapter with me,
[19:35]which is something my husband and I,
[19:36]we've worked together but don't, you know,
[19:38]and it just worked, it just worked.
[19:41]Story came together.
[19:43]And maybe it took that time with the pandemic,
[19:45]we had a food company.
[19:46]So we have a food company.
[19:48]So we were completely, you know,
[19:50]that all public things stopped.
[19:51]So we were at home with our five kids
[19:53]and it just, it just came together.
[19:56]But it almost didn't.
[19:57]You know, I think if the pandemic hadn't happened.
[20:00]I may still be grappling with it.
[20:02]So how did you manage the food business piece of the pandemic?
[20:07]Like how did you have to really challenging?
[20:09]So we have a food product, Dulce de de Chet,
[20:14]and we also have an incubator kitchen,
[20:17]which is we have like startups who come
[20:19]and work out of our space.
[20:21]We have a 6,000 square foot building
[20:22]and all these different kitchens.
[20:24]And that's instead of like building their own,
[20:27]they come and use ours.
[20:28]So we have anyone from like a huge meal subscription company
[20:32]which does thousands and thousands of dollars a week
[20:36]to a grandma who likes to do the seasonal farmers markets
[20:40]and sell her queshes and sauces and wedding suit.
[20:43]So just kind of everything.
[20:45]But they are all businesses.
[20:46]So that really, it all kind of just halted
[20:49]except for our meal subscription companies,
[20:52]which those members kept us going.
[20:54]And if we were to close, everyone was to close.
[20:56]You see what I mean?
[20:57]So we had this project on us.
[20:59]We have about 23 companies.
[21:01]And if I closed our doors,
[21:03]I was closing them on all of those companies.
[21:05]The Dulce de Chet side of it really suffered.
[21:09]And now we're looking to see how we can have someone
[21:12]manufacture it just because the milk,
[21:14]everything went out in ingredients so much
[21:16]that we couldn't, it no longer made sense to make it.
[21:20]And my husband and I have an Argentine food
[21:25]and that just got obliterated.
[21:27]So it was really hard because we were doing
[21:30]large corporate events and cooking classes for doctors.
[21:34]We did a lot of team building and all of that just disappears.
[21:37]And the really hard part was that you were having
[21:39]to return a lot of money for unit deposits and stuff.
[21:43]So anyway, it led me to move down to Charleston,
[21:47]South Carolina with my kids.
[21:49]We still have the company.
[21:50]We still have the culinary incubator kitchen.
[21:52]But I came down to help my brother
[21:54]who has a real estate brokerage company
[21:57]because he was killing it.
[21:58]While food was being obliterated, real estate soared.
[22:01]And so I just knew I needed to pat our income
[22:04]to keep the company going.
[22:06]So that's so it hasn't been easy,
[22:07]but I will tell you I'm still in Charleston.
[22:10]My husband is in Pittsburgh and we just make it work.
[22:14]And we're looking to start something down here.
[22:17]So probably sell Pittsburgh,
[22:19]but make sure it keeps going, the culinary incubator.
[22:22]But it really turned our lives upside down.
[22:25]And in all of that, I published the book came out.
[22:28]So.
[22:29]Oh my gosh.
[22:30]Well, I helped actually my,
[22:32]my husband's grandmother has this amazing crumb cake recipe.
[22:37]So a couple of years ago, I helped them
[22:39]like turn it into a business and they were in Charleston.
[22:42]It's called Nini's Treats.
[22:44]And they did find a co-packer actually.
[22:46]And so it's manufactured in Texas somewhere,
[22:48]but you can get it on gold belly.
[22:50]But I should send you a cake or something.
[22:52]But anyway, it's really yummy.
[22:54]But we did spend, like I was,
[22:56]we were trying to find space in Charleston
[22:59]and like they did share a kitchen.
[23:01]And anyway, I've been in that world.
[23:03]Yeah, I didn't have to pick some chocolate girls in.
[23:07]And like it was like a whole thing.
[23:08]So yeah, food is very bureaucratic.
[23:13]You know, people don't realize it.
[23:14]Like they're like, Oh, I have this recipe.
[23:15]I'd love to do it.
[23:16]And then once they realize the 25 hurdles,
[23:19]they have to jump through a lot.
[23:20]You know, yeah.
[23:22]Yeah, it's a lot.
[23:23]It shouldn't be, you know, we're ingesting that food.
[23:26]But yeah, it's,
[23:27]we talked to you also the, the famous,
[23:31]who's the famous biscuit company in Charleston?
[23:33]Have you been there?
[23:34]Oh, palleys.
[23:35]Yeah.
[23:36]Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[23:37]So we've got to touch with palleys
[23:38]and try to use their co-packer and I don't know.
[23:40]Anyway.
[23:43]Yeah.
[23:43]She's releasing a book now.
[23:46]She's releasing a book.
[23:48]I think so.
[23:48]It's like easy dinners or something.
[23:50]Yeah.
[23:51]You should do a thing with her.
[23:53]I know, I know.
[23:53]We'll see.
[23:54]Okay.
[23:55]She's part of Charleston royalty.
[23:58]Still, I mean, Charles,
[24:00]world of Charleston food.
[24:01]I mean, I know.
[24:03]I know.
[24:04]So it's fine.
[24:04]And you still, can you still buy your Dolce de Leche?
[24:08]Like, could I go online and buy it?
[24:09]No, it's still in some supermarkets in Pittsburgh,
[24:12]but no longer online.
[24:14]But you know, I just need to find the right co-packer.
[24:17]The issue with the Dolce de Leche is there are Dolce de Leche
[24:21]companies here, but it's not real Dolce de Leche.
[24:23]You know, they use like,
[24:25]they use powdered milk that they reconstitute with oil.
[24:29]You know, really it's, you know, Dolce de Leche is a jam.
[24:32]I know that sounds so bad, milk jam,
[24:34]but it's really milk, just oil, oil, oil,
[24:37]that there should never be oil in it.
[24:38]You know, so I'm really having a problem finding it.
[24:42]There's also that flip side,
[24:44]which the real, real, real thing is still not manufactured here,
[24:48]which obviously is an opportunity,
[24:50]but it's also a challenge.
[24:51]So interesting.
[24:53]So well, if you want,
[24:54]I mean, I'm sure you've done your investigation,
[24:56]but it took a long, long time to find the right co-packer
[24:59]for New Year's Treats.
[25:00]So if you want that information,
[25:02]let me know.
[25:02]I can get it.
[25:03]My sister loves running that business now, but um.
[25:06]Oh, great.
[25:07]Yeah.
[25:08]Anyway.
[25:09]So, okay, so now you're interested.
[25:12]You have the book out.
[25:14]What next?
[25:15]You're like, are you going into real estate?
[25:17]Are you like, what is the,
[25:18]and are you going to keep writing and cooking?
[25:21]Like, well, I've been,
[25:25]I've been wearing many hats for so many years now.
[25:28]You know, before I started my company in 2009,
[25:31]the food company,
[25:33]it was the CFO of a large medical company in Pittsburgh.
[25:36]So I did that for eight years plus my food company.
[25:40]So now I look at it as we have our food company.
[25:42]I'm an author and, you know,
[25:45]we're going to do something down here.
[25:46]I'm also doing real estate,
[25:47]but it's just really at many hats,
[25:50]but whatever has to make it work.
[25:53]And I definitely have an idea for a new book.
[25:57]My youngest daughter is nine and it's actually a series.
[26:00]I'm really looking to do kind of like a YA slash middle grade,
[26:05]you know, food, mystery,
[26:08]all fiction, you know,
[26:09]definitely have it have that spanglish feel.
[26:13]But sort of like Judy Blumish,
[26:15]incorporating food and just a lot of flavor there,
[26:22]you know, for young girls and boys.
[26:24]Hopefully that, like, that would include recipes too
[26:27]and would let them like start cooking in the kitchen.
[26:29]I'm very much an advocate that kids should know
[26:32]by the age of eight to make their own eggs.
[26:34]You know, it's a self preservation tool to cook.
[26:38]And also it's a way to learn to love yourself
[26:41]and to love others.
[26:42]So, but that's brewing in my head.
[26:45]I haven't had that lightning bolt yet to like sit down
[26:48]and write.
[26:49]So I try to go on walks and, you know,
[26:52]I invite my spirit guides and like,
[26:53]come on, meet my inspiration.
[26:55]I need that.
[26:56]But in the meantime, until we sell our company,
[26:59]I'm Pittsburgh and kind of figure out
[27:00]the tools of the richest side.
[27:02]I am focusing on real estate because the pandemic,
[27:04]if anything, it made entrepreneurship very real.
[27:09]You know, you just have to keep,
[27:11]you have to keep on producing income,
[27:14]no matter how it is.
[27:15]So with the books, I'm not at that point yet.
[27:17]So I do have to continue to pad otherwise.
[27:20]But we are constantly, my husband and I,
[27:23]when he's here, we're looking at spaces, you know,
[27:25]we really want to create our own Argentine food concept here.
[27:29]And while, you know, in Pittsburgh,
[27:32]we help a lot of entrepreneurs.
[27:34]I feel that in doing that business,
[27:36]we kind of lost ourselves.
[27:38]And what we wanted to do together,
[27:40]we were doing it, but more on like a corporate level.
[27:43]And now we want to do it for the public.
[27:45]And, you know, I think Charleston's a great place to do it.
[27:48]So there's lots of hats, you know,
[27:53]it's just how to get it all done, right?
[27:55]Yes, like, and five kids.
[27:58]Right, mom's don't have time to read.
[27:59]Mom's don't have time to write a five.
[28:01]That's true.
[28:03]So your kids are nine to what?
[28:06]So my youngest is nine, she's a girl,
[28:07]and then my oldest is 18, the other four boys.
[28:10]So I've got an 18, 16, 15, and 13 year old.
[28:15]Wow.
[28:16]So yeah, yeah.
[28:18]So it's been, I mean, just like a lot of people,
[28:20]you know, it's been challenging.
[28:21]It's also been a blessing to have them home last year,
[28:24]but it really derailed so many plans that we could,
[28:27]you know, your time was so limited,
[28:31]just like so many others.
[28:32]But good things came out of it too, you know?
[28:35]Yeah.
[28:36]Yeah.
[28:37]But I am waiting for that divine inspiration
[28:39]because the real thing, you know,
[28:41]my goal is to really be a full-time writer.
[28:44]That's what I would love.
[28:45]So you got to work towards it.
[28:47]I love your series idea.
[28:49]That sounds really good.
[28:50]The middle grade series.
[28:51]I'm serious.
[28:52]That sounds really good.
[28:56]You should just, and I have to make stories
[28:58]because like, do you hear your kid?
[28:59]Like, I have this little journal here.
[29:01]I don't journal, but I write things down, you know?
[29:04]And I'll like hear my daughter talking
[29:06]or my kid's talking, and I'm like,
[29:07]oh my God, you cannot make this stuff up, you know?
[29:10]I have like a research tool right in front of me.
[29:15]Totally.
[29:16]I know.
[29:17]And I'm like, where should I write this?
[29:18]You know, I'm going to know you'll remember
[29:20]and then, of course, I don't remember.
[29:22]Last night I had the best I was putting my sentiment
[29:24]and he goes, I finally believe you that I'm not adopted.
[29:28]And I would be like, look so much alike
[29:30]and he looks just like everyone else in the family.
[29:32]I'm like, oh yeah, why is that?
[29:33]He's like, well, and he's six.
[29:35]He's like, yeah, because you love books
[29:38]and now I love books.
[29:39]And I was like, that just made my life.
[29:42]I know, it's so great.
[29:45]It was so cute.
[29:46]And I love six-year-old, that loves books.
[29:48]I know, it's so cute.
[29:50]I was like, okay, I got one.
[29:53]Like, are anybody kids going to want to read?
[29:54]Anyway.
[29:56]Wow.
[29:57]Well, this is great.
[30:00]Tell me any advice for aspiring authors.
[30:04]Oh gosh, I think it's a first of all, just get out of your own head, you know, because
[30:11]sometimes we are our worst enemies where we have this idea and I've talked to a lot of people.
[30:17]I've actually had people ask me, how do I know if I'm a writer? And I'll look at them and I'll say,
[30:22]well, do you have an idea? Have you written? And no, no, I haven't published anything.
[30:27]Well, have you tried? You know, it's like, if you can't, if the story won't leave you alone,
[30:32]it needs to come out. So give yourself a chance to be a writer, you know, and it just takes
[30:37]a lot, a lot of dedication, a lot of patience because, you know, all those knows that you'll receive
[30:48]the the non answered queries, which are, you know, even I think sometimes the non answered ones
[30:54]are worse than the nose, you know, because it's just like you feel invisible after all this
[30:58]time you've put into things. And you just have to get that one, yes, you know, and with both of
[31:04]my books, I spent a ton of time in Barnes & Noble and other stores looking at books like mine,
[31:10]seeing who the agents are, if I could find it, who the publisher is, you know, you have to really
[31:15]just do a ton of research on like what the market is, who are the publishing houses
[31:24]that you've that would maybe, you know, best be home for you. And the other thing I would say
[31:30]is, you know, a lot of people say, right every day, right every day, it's not realistic, at
[31:35]least not in my world, you know, if you're not writing every day, it's okay. But I would always
[31:41]make sure to get out and walk in nature, because that's when I would seem to be able to clear
[31:46]my head enough. And in my case, I wrote in the middle of the night, you know, usually when my kids
[31:52]firstly, or, but there would be times where we'd be going to dinner and my family would be like
[31:58]sending me really mean texts because they'd be all waiting in the car. And I'd be like, I would
[32:02]have been in the shower and I would have gotten something. And I have like a turbine in my hair
[32:07]and I'm writing and I have them all in the car. I can't be from very self-absorbed, right? You know,
[32:14]but I would just say keep doing it. And the other, on final thing I would say about it is,
[32:20]if you're writing, protect your work, protect your ideas and protect your heart, because if you
[32:26]start telling too many people about it, not everyone is going to see it like you see your work,
[32:32]you know, so you really have to find your voice, whether it's a fictional character's voice,
[32:38]if you're writing a memoir, it's really your voice, because if you start sharing it with
[32:43]brothers, sisters, a couple of friends here, your voice gets lost and you start taking in all
[32:48]these ideas before you've really flushed this thing out yourself, you know, and I kind of learned
[32:54]that the hard way. And you have to really protect yourself and remember what we remember in life,
[33:01]what is our truth? Someone sees it through a different lens, you know, so really protect your work
[33:07]until you're ready to share it and choose two or three people, you know, not, you know, that you
[33:14]really admire, maybe someone, let's just say if you're writing a memoir, maybe someone who you
[33:19]know professionally, but doesn't know your life, you know, that's always a good thing to have someone
[33:23]read it who doesn't know you well, and then one or two confidants, but you have to remember,
[33:28]if you start wanting the approval of all, it's just not going to happen and you sacrifice yourself
[33:34]for that approval. Good life lesson, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly. Well, just
[33:43]thank you. This was so fun to talk to you. And I hope that one day you do become a full-time writer
[33:50]and that, you know, the dream comes true and the spirit guides sort of lead you down that path.
[33:56]So, yeah, I say get to work on the children's book on the mail grade series. I think that's
[34:02]how it sounds. I know. I will. I will. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
[34:07]All right. With your own writing. Thank you. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.
[34:13]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[34:17]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[34:22]Also, sign up for my newsletter at zibiowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots
[34:27]of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for
[34:32]The Sound Editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and
[34:36]out your music.