Last Sunday I had the great pleasure to sit down at a local Starbucks with the Arts Columnist for the Village Life, Susan Laird.

Back in June I read an article she had written about another author in the area. I was really busy at the time  so… I set the copy of the paper aside for future use with the intention of contacting her.

I was hoping she would think my news was worthy of publication!

What a pleasant surprise to hear her cheerful voice on the other end of the phone when I called her to try  set up an appointment! She was truly interested to hear about what I had been doing since last March 2009, when I  lost my job. I told her I had been busy “building an empire!”

And of course, the latest news was the El Dorado Hills Cookbook project I was launching.

“Sounds like a ‘local girl makes good” story to me,” she said. That was music to my ears!

When we finally met in person, we spent the better part of the morning together.  What’s even better, we found out we had many things in common! We reminisced about growing up in San Francisco and talked about all the great things we used to do as kids.

I’m glad I took action and made that phone call that day. I not only  got a great article written about being an entrepreneur and not giving up on dreams;  more importantly, I also made a a new friend!