Mary Jo Rulnick (www.maryjorulnick.com) has written everything from greeting cards to parenting articles to countless how-to tips and hints. She self-published two books before co-authoring The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life: A Year's Worth of Hints, Tips and Tricks (Warner, 2004) and authoring The Frantic Woman's Guide to Feeding Family and Friends: Shopping Lists, Recipes and Tips for Every Dinner of the Year (Warner, 2006).

Mary Jo's family tips go beyond usual household suggestions. Her "Audio Bingo" game was included in a coffee table book, Disney's FamilyFun Crafts Book (Hyperion, 1997). She's been a regular contributor to Pittsburgh Parent since 1996 as well as Atlantic Family, Canada's City Parent, Connecticut Country Kids, Michigan Parent, San Diego Parent, and Wilmington Parent, among others. Mary Jo has also been a frequent contributor to such websites as Club Mom, Ladies Who Launch, Teach-at-Home and Hachette Book Group USA, plus many books, including: Quick Writing for Quick Cash (AMACOM, 2003), New Mom's Manual: 800 Tips from Hundreds of Moms for Baby's First Year (Crown, 2001) 101 Best Home-Based Businesses for Women (Prima, 1998) and Games on the Go Travel Book (Hyperion, 1998).

She's a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and was keynote speaker at Viacom's Food for Thought Luncheon (New York, 2005). In addition, she keynoted at the Komen Foundation's Tickled Pink Luncheon (Pittsburgh, 2005), followed in 2006 as a speaker at NEC Romance Writers of America (Boston). In 2007, she was the keynote for National Association of Women's Business Owners (Pittsburgh) and hit the #1 author spot on I Book Data Base surpassing authors such as Sidney Sheldon and Rachael Ray.
 

Tips, Hints, Suggestions, Pointers

There are many topics we could pursue within your career, such as writing for parenting magazines, how to give a successful writing keynote speech, etc., but I want to concentrate on two subjects: Organization in writing and creative ways to get publicity for articles, books, etc.

Both your books through AOL Time Warner, but especially your second book, The Frantic Woman's Guide to Feeding Family and Friends, are models of organization, where you've gathered thousands of facts and condensed them into a coordinated book that takes your readers around the kitchen and through the seasons.

Tell us how you broke menus down seasonally as well as time-wise (Day One through Day 14)?

Most of us cook lighter in the summer and serve comfort foods in the winter. Our cooking may depend on special occasions or times of the year, such as holidays, overnight guests or vacations. Though you could have a "one size fits all" system, not only would it be boring, you'd miss the opportunity to take advantage of seasonal produce, loss leader specials (those very low specials supermarkets advertise to draw people in), and holiday ingredients. I wanted a book that incorporated such items into the recipes and offered a solution for those atypical times in a family's lifestyle. The Day One through Day 14 approach makes life easier as the reader knows exactly what she's making for dinner for the next two weeks. 
 

Give us the low-down on exactly how you organized everything. Did you use a spreadsheet, index cards, a long roll of butcher paper or some other form of keeping everything straight?
 

This was definitely a challenge. I started with fall and pulled 28 recipes for it. (There are two cooking plans with 14 meals for each season.) I divided the recipes into two groups-- 14 recipes for each plan. I wrote each recipe along with its ingredients on an index card. After this I shuffled the recipes so there would be a variety of meals and then checked to see if any ingredients could be doubled up for later meals. On the top of the index card, I coded the recipe, such as DU for a double up meal or MM for a meatless one.

I then typed out each seasonal plan with the recipe and any sidebars on a sheet of pastel-colored paper. (Each season had its own color: orange for fall; blue, winter; pink, spring; yellow, summer). I taped these sheets to my wall to see the recipes. There were also six one-week plans for special occasions, such as Ham Week for Easter or Turkey Week for Thanksgiving, where I repeated the process using neon-colored paper.
 
Did you personally try every recipe and tip in the book? How do you filter through the impractical tips, the not-so-good recipes and the just-plain-awful suggestions?

Every recipe has been tried either by me or my kitchen testers. My test kitchen was set up at a local senior citizens' community. Once a week I would arrive with a sack of ingredients and a recipe. We would make the recipe and the residents would give me feedback. These ladies have cooked their entire lives and many grew up during the Depression. When they didn't like a recipe, they didn't mince words.

As to choosing what information to include or delete, I stuck to a few simple guidelines. I wanted all the ingredients to be ones the reader would find at her local supermarket. The meals had to be completed within 30 minutes. Some meals needed to be no-cook, 15-minute or slow cook. The prep time had to be reasonable with simple step-by-step directions even kids could follow.

Watch next week's issue for more of Sandra Miller-Louden's interview with Mary Jo Rulnick, where the conversation turns to publicity!

Sandra Miller-Louden (www.greetingcardwriting.com) has worked for Absolute Write as a greeting card writing instructor since 2001. Her work won the coveted Louie Award (the industry's highest honor) and in addition to teaching and writing, Sandra does major consulting work in the field of greeting cards.

Her work has appeared on "Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee" and she's been interviewed in many places, including The National Examiner, Staples, com, Metro, The Christian Science Monitor, Voice of America, The Washington Post, Focus: Entrepreneurs (2^nd Edition), Attaché (U.S. Air), Talk Magazine, the BBC (three different occasions), Valentine in the Morning Show (Los Angeles), The Philadelphia Inquirer, spawn.org, and NBC-TV. She also appeared on the cover of Parade Magazine in 2006.

In additional, Sandra has written two successful books on writing and a number of booklets. Her book reviews, quizzes, articles and short stories have appeared in various publications.

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