New to this, and a little about my writing’s

Ex-chef1967

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Hi all,

I am Alan, and for thirty years of my life I was a chef, all I knew or ever cared about was food. Being a chef can come with many side effects, including alcoholism, divorce and insomnia, and each side effect drives the others. Though insomnia still lives with me, the alcohol was left behind with my knives and kitchen life. In 2004 the alcohol and depression brought forth a poem, good or bad I am not qualified to say, but that opened a flood gate, of writing’.

the poem dried up at the same moment I did but were replaced by some of the oddest short stories you can imagine, currently, I am working on ‘Noah and his new boat’ possibly not suitable for those with belief in higher powers. Eventually, I would like to post a few on here for guidance, constructive comments and so forth, but for now, I will sit in a darkened corner and see what’s going on.
 
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Maryn

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Hello, Alan. I like to ask current and former chefs what they had for dinner last night. My favorite answer so far is Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. How about your evening meal last night?

Anyway, welcome to you. New arrivals tend to approach Absolute Write in either of two ways. Some dive right in, often without following the solid advice to read the stickies on any board before posting there, which may or may not work out for them. Others lurk in the shadows, watching, hoping we don't notice them while they figure out how everything here works until the day they scurry out and make a brief innocuous post. (That was me.)

Whichever you are, if you want to become the best writer you can, you have arrived at the right place. Nice to meet you.

Maryn, about to go cook
 

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No COVID yet. Still masking.
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Welcome, Alan, from a fellow insomniac.
 

Izz

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Welcome, Alan, to AW! It's nice to meet you :)

You'll love it here, I'm sure. AW is, in my opinion, the premier writing hangout and resource on the nets. Chockfull of information on all things writing and publishing and populated by an awesome, eclectic community of likeminded folk.

Please carefully read the Newbies Guide you were linked to when you registered, as well as the stickied/pinned threads at the top of each forum page. They'll help you get a feel for the rules of the place as well as the culture and etiquette of all the various spaces within. AW's number 1 rule is 'Respect Your Fellow Writer.' Abide by that and you'll get along just fine :)

In regards to sharing you work for critique, we do have a 50-post requirement before you can do that. This is to encourage meaningful engagement within the community. One excellent way to engage is to offer critique and insight of your own. You don't need to be some writing master to do this; even a brief 'I particularly enjoyed how you did this,' or 'Unfortunately this didn't quite work for me' can be very helpful. And, as counter-intuitive as it may sound, offering critique will likely help your writing far more than receiving critique will. Here's a link to our Share Your Work section. Before posting there, please peruse the stickies in the Intro to Share Your Work room.

Take your time exploring, lurk, join in conversations you find fun or interesting if you want, make friends, enjoy yourself!

See you around the boards :D
Izz
 

regdog

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Welcome to AW


Take some time and read the Newbie Guide and the Stickies found
at the top of Forum pages. They are your best guide to learning about
Absolute Write.

Stop by the Weekend Progress Report each week to brag about your weekly writing accomplishments. Awesome smilies and awards are given out.

Please read the FAQ about posting photos.


In fact we have lots of brilliant FAQs check them out.


Members who want to start a thread in Share Your Work to have work critiqued need
50 posts. Don’t make a mad dash to reach your 50 posts. That is frowned upon and can lead to your posts being deleted.
Take some time to greet fellow newbies, critique other members’ works, or join a discussion.


Announcements, Events and Self Promotion is for active members only. All obvious spam will be deleted on sight! Here’s how to Promote With Aplomb.
 

Ex-chef1967

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Hello, Alan. I like to ask current and former chefs what they had for dinner last night. My favorite answer so far is Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. How about your evening meal last night?

Anyway, welcome to you. New arrivals tend to approach Absolute Write in either of two ways. Some dive right in, often without following the solid advice to read the stickies on any board before posting there, which may or may not work out for them. Others lurk in the shadows, watching, hoping we don't notice them while they figure out how everything here works until the day they scurry out and make a brief innocuous post. (That was me.)

Whichever you are, if you want to become the best writer you can, you have arrived at the right place. Nice to meet you.

Maryn, about to go cook
Hi,

Thank you for your comments, and in answer to your question about dinner, I had MacDonalds, but in my defence, I am living in an empty house sitting and sleeping on an old mattress, while all my belongings and woodworking tool are on the high seas going to New Zealand. My wife and I are emigrating from the UK, she is an NZ citizen.

I will approach this group with trepidation mainly due to very few ‘educated’ people joining the catering trade, long hours, low pay and seven day weeks making it a little undesirable. To my eternal shame, it was not until I started writing that I learnt the correct spelling of tomato, and the word ‘restaurant’ is still one I struggle with, haha.

I do love to write though, poems have returned, the short stories pop into my head quite often, and I keep my mind sharp with a drabble or two, the quality of any of these are open to debate, the fact that most are bizarre just points at the odd way a chef or ex-chef’s mind works.
 

Maryn

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I love knowing that a former chef eats Mickey D's. Love their fries but rarely indulge.

I've never moved from one country to another. A move from one state to another was utterly daunting a couple years ago and my ribs and right knee may never fully recover. We joked that if we'd never learned to read, the move would have been easier. All those boxes of books!

Are you holding down the fort in the UK or in NZ? When we moved, we had one of those foam mattresses shipped to the new home and bought a pair of lawn chairs. The mattress was fine for sleeping even on the floor (and we like it better than our main bed, which became a guest room bed), and its box became the table between our lawn chairs until our things arrived.

Maryn, knowing you'll do what you have to do
 

Janine R

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That‘s like us. Many years ago we moved with our small children to a small darkly religious town ins deep valley in the Kootenays. The rental house had no furniture. We bought 2 foam mattresses and cut one in half for the kids. There was a picnic table outside for meals. We didn’t stay long.
Good luck to ex chef with the move and the poetry.
 

lorna_w

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welcome! There are words I could not spell at all did the red squiggly line not appear whenever I spell them wrong, so you are not alone in that. Congratulations on your sobriety, and enjoy the writing!