About Me

Kitty Warren, ca. 1950

I love this picture of my grandmother, Kitty Warren, probably taken in the early 50s. Note the perfectly done nails and the triple strand pearls. This was taken in her kitchen, where she wrote her stories for Women's Wear Daily, typing them out on her manual typewriter that she stored on a shelf in the pantry. I guarantee you she's wearing hose and heels and has a coordinating handbag in the chair by the door. I loved my grandmother because she was an original; hard-working and hilarious in a slightly ditzy Southern belle kind of way. She was a lady, when that word meant so much more than it does now. She's also the only writer in my family.

Lucy Mercer, 2010

And this is me, again with the pearls. I'm a writer, a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, in no particular order. Or maybe that is a particular order, because writing is always with me, a phrase or sentence or paragraph continually working itself out in my brain's endless stream of prose.

Some people start blogs because they want to be the next Pioneer Woman; some people have opinions they think the world needs to hear. Others have unstoppable and un-toppable recipe collections. Me, I just want to write and share my words with others. My tagline pretty much sums it up: I cook, I write, I carpool. That's my life.

That's my Happy Housewife bio. Now let's get down to brass tacks:

I am a freelance writer, editor, cook and photographer. Food is what I've always wanted to write about, but I will stay true to my journalism background and tell you that I can write about anything for any reader.

If you want an idea of the stories that I really like, check these out:

Something from Nothing: Stuffed Pumpkin Blossoms

Chef Linton Hopkins Talks Shrimp and Grits

Kim Severson on "Spoon Fed"

Eat a Peach

Marcus Samuelsson's Lesson on Rum

I write stories for Examiner.com, too. My titles there are:

Atlanta Restaurant Examiner

Atlanta American Food Examiner

National Cookbook Examiner

Like many of you, I work for a living and consider this blog part of my work. That is to say, I get a bit tetchy when my work, especially my photographs, are used to drive traffic to other sites, be it another blog, a restaurant, bakery, petting zoo, you name it. If you have any questions regarding my work, or just want to say "howdy," please contact me at acookandherbooks [at] gmail [dot] com.

Text and images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.