One of my first mentors and friends in food writing was the late Marie Rudisill, whom you may have known as the outrageously frank Fruitcake Lady on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. Her first piece of advice to me was, “Don’t change your phone number, sugar; half the fun you’re gonna have from this thing is the phone calls you’ll get.”

Of course, this advice was driven home by the fact that I was already getting regular calls from Marie Rudisill—who, while she’d not yet achieved her Fruitcake Lady notoriety, was already a legend among food writers. Her point was, make yourself available; give of yourself; be open to new people, new things, new experiences.