Toni Piccinini

My writing career started when I stapled my first "book" together and launched it at a reading attended by my brother, Scotty, and our Boxer, Lonesome. The title-less story was a mash-up of Hansel and Gretel, The Six Swans, and a Box Car Children adventure, with the protagonists (sister, brother, and dog) risking everything in their quest for a magical lump of coal that would save the town. It was an immediate success. During the fifty years between my first and second book, "The Goodbye Year: Wisdom and Culinary Therapy to Survive Your Child's Senior Year of High School (and Reclaim the YOU of You)" I have—in no order of importance or chronology—opened a "Top 100" San Francisco restaurant, published scientific articles on the efficacies of antibiotics, sang the National Anthem at high school football games, published essays, recipes, and cookbook reviews, and sent three children off to college. I live in Marin County California, which is a long way from my Western Pennsylvania hometown, Heilwood. I am busy on my next book, which may revisit the power found in a magical lump of coal. Thank you for checking in.