Who is this Published Author Storytelling Script Writer? What does a small plates, tapas cookbook, a beauty-shop gossip collection, 52 muffins, and a 19th Century memoir all have in common? They are all my published creativity!
Books!
Did you know that books are nearly the oldest form of entertainment and storytelling in the world? Unless you’re from the era of cave drawings, that is!
What is man-kind’s passion for books? One word: Escape.
Books enable us to enter other stories outside of our own, fantasize, be inspired, educate or be educated in areas or depths we haven’t yet explored.
Who Qualifies To Publish A Book?
We all do. It is said that everyone is good for at least one book in their lifetime.
A story to tell. Something we hold fast in our hearts.
We don’t have to be a writer to publish a book. Tell the story to someone else and let them write it for you.
My grandmother was a quiet yet interesting person who had the most amazing memory for vignettes of her life. I found them fascinating, as well as educational.
Back in the 70’s, while in her 90’s, I took a small tape recorder to her with lots of blank tapes.
I told her, “When you sit out on your front porch in the evenings, when you are sipping afternoon tea by yourself, tell your stories into this tape recorder and save them for me.” She never did.
Storytelling
Over a period of 40-years, I was a hairdresser; started when I was 16 years of age and stepped away in my 50’s.
Who do you think the storyteller was all those years?
It was YOU! Years and years of stories rummaging around in my head, stories told to me by you. Stories of love or loss, stories about health and daily challenges of life.
I heard them all.
When I stepped away from the work I had known all my life, went off to Brazil for a few years, a time I refer to as my sabbatical.
In fact it was probably my mid-life crisis after raising my 4 children as a single mom, I had time.
I had the time to write some of these stories, stories about a vast variety of people, and publish my first collection of Beauty Shop Chats I call Confessions of a Hairdresser.
Confessions Of A Hairdresser
My book, Confessions of a Hairdresser can be purchased here.
The synopsis: Hairdressers, most often, offer their ear more times than their talent.
Confessions of a Hairdresser is a vignette collection of stories told by me, Robin Daumit, from a collage of clients.
Beware of the stories you share with your hairdresser.
You never know where they will turn up next!
Books To Film
Since the publishing of this book in 2009, I have ventured out, like, allllllll the way out, extracted from this book’s inspiration, into a television script series written for multiple episodes.
The first 4 episodes of this series have been written (numerous more outlined), in Final Draft, and is ready for a savvy production company to want this show available for the networks they do business with.
Since the television series is extracted from true stories, I myself have either heard or actually lived, its continuity will be an extension of the original book I have already published, cover and all!
Tell Me About It!
The narratives of beauty parlor clients come alive at a charming countryside estate, outside the nation’s capital, as owner and millionaire Melody Dubonnet seeks to rationalize her own troubles.
Peppercorn Estate provides a season-changing backdrop for the excursions we are taken on, that encourage us to blow the dust off of antiquated thinking and accept life for what it often is… complicated.
Melody’s own life undergoes restoration as her story of love and loss, that rendered her a single mother to the heir of a dynasty that rejected her, a tale that weaves throughout nested client anecdotes.
Authors
In a shoebox, in the attic of my deceased grandmother in the 80’s, these 100-year old, hand written memoirs were hiding.
Since I am the inquisitive, storytelling one in the family, I took them home with me, put them away and didn’t pull them out again until 2012.
I was surprised at what I found.
A woman’s memoirs, apparently given to my grandfather (a war historian at the White House), to transcribe and publish.
But there they sat, her writing in quill, ink and on a paper that never seems to fall apart.
My grandfather’s attempts to transcribe in pencil, and on paper crumpling every time I pick it up, were also in the box.
I felt duty bound to see this woman’s stories, published.
And so I set out over a long winter, sitting in front of my fireplace, just having returned to the states from my 3 year excursion to Brazil.
Had it not been for the internet and Google search, transcription still would not be possible.
She often referred to poetry written in the 1400’s and wrote it out.
Problem? Handwriting 100 years ago is not easy to decipher today.
An Original DAR – A Woman’s Unpublished Memoirs – 1800’s
I did it! I saw to it that this woman, who lived over 150 years ago, became a published author!
So, you see… It doesn’t have to be you that writes the story, it just needs to be you that tells your story!
I became so enveloped in what life was like for Adelaide Hall.
Living in Connecticut where the winters can be harsh, no electricity or stove, and grocery stores really didn’t exist.
Can you believe this woman, an original DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), seems to be of no interest to the DAR?
I have tried and tried to bring her story before them and they have zero interest. Shame on you DAR!
Storytelling Long Ago
A kitchen that only just received its first stove, so she writes.
How holidays were celebrated.
The weekly anticipation of mail to be delivered.
One-room classrooms.
Girl talk and thoughts about being a woman in a world where men dominated every aspect of life.
All this and more can be discovered in this book.
Definitely a ‘must read’ for all middle school age children.
Certainly a wonderful gift to give to your kids or grandchildren around that age.
The 19th Century Memoirs of Adelaide Hall can be purchased here. Don’t mind the odd cover of the book; it was not my story to tell, only to see that her story was told.
I did not feel I had the liberties to design a cover for her book, and so I simply made the cover exactly like the dozens of yellow legal note pads I used while transcribing her work, and preparing it for publication.
Cookbooks
After having filmed in my 3rd Food Network television show, in which a film crew was sent to my home to do a followup story in my kitchen, I was asked if I had a cookbook.
Gee, I had never thought about publishing a cookbook since I share so many of my recipes here on my website, but once the seed was planted, I had to let it grow.
I love my little cookbook because it’s so different from many cookbooks today.
I love to eat a tapas style of dining, in Arabic we call it ‘meze’, in Greek it’s Mezedakia.
Small Plates. Lots of different dishes prepared to graze and eat as you wish.
Not an overstuffed plate of the same thing.
The World On My Plate can be purchased here if you are interested in a more intimate look into my life, my ‘third generation’ foodie family and the fine dining style of gathering we love so much.
The World On My Plate is a celebration of people, stories, laughter, flavors and techniques from a collage of life’s excursions that led me to publish my first cookbook on Tapas size recipes for those memorable gatherings.
Published Author – Script Writer – Storyteller Is At It Again!
Having just been spewed out of a year long hibernation from the 2020 pandemic, I was asked to join up with PBS for a brand new cooking series they were creating, The Great American Recipe.
While hunkering down during that strange year, I created so many new recipes, honed some new skills as a gardener, growing only things to cook with, and heightened my written word to create a form of visual storytelling.
Was I ever ready to jump back into a film set and cook my tahootie off!
Everything In A Muffin – My Muffin Madness
Once we filmed the show, in September of 2021, by November I was ready for more excitement.
However it wouldn’t be until June, of the following year, before the show would air.
And so, I set to work creating recipes for a fun new cookbook, unlike any on the planet (truely)!
A collection of 52 muffins, unlike you’ve ever seen or tasted, came together in this fun cookbook, now known as My Muffin Madness, for your fun, pleasure and gift giving.
You Are Important
For 5 years I have stored my recipes here on this blog, told many stories about my life, family and lifestyle.
But it is YOU that is important, because you read them, you share your thoughts and comments with me, and it here that I have met you.
You are important to me because we have become friends. Thank you.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.