Welcome to David Hochman online.
Now that you’re here, I thought I’d give a quick update on the latest news. Continue to watch this space for projects in progress, book updates, readings, classes and general thoughts about the writing life.
This week, our children’s book, The Potty Train, sold its Israeli rights and soon children from Eilat to Haifa will be shouting “Chugga Chugga Poo Poo” or however that translates in Hebrew.
This Sunday, Ruth and I are finishing our month of no spending for a Reader’s Digest essay I’m writing and it’s been an astonishing month. All told we’ve spent $92.23 on essentials and made it through without buying gas, toilet paper, lattes, presents or anything from Amazon. So far, we’ve saved about $3,500. I’ll be blogging about it on RD.com.
Our tree planting (for another Reader’s Digest essay) began in earnest this week. Sebastian and I blanketed the neighborhood with leaflets announcing our plan to line Bonaparte Avenue with trees this October. So far the responses have been good — better than I expected on a treeless street that hasn’t seen much change in 50 years.
We volunteered yesterday at an amazing place in Venice called Bread & Roses cafe, which serves three meals a morning to homeless clients in a cafe setting. Ruth and I worked with chef Derrick Walker, a former chef at Bastide in LA, to turn out 150 servings of pasta bolognese. An amazing, moving experience.
In the afternoon, I was on the other end of the spectrum, writing about a fancy, funky “maid cafe” in Culver City for The New York Times. Also, my Forbes editor is having me pick 10 places in Los Angeles ‘dialed-in’ Angelenos should know about. You don’t realize how big a city this is until you write a story like that.
In terms of almosts, I almost went to Survivor in West Africa this week and then to 24 in South Africa. And I almost had to go to London next week and still might, to interview Ricky Gervais. We’ll see what happens.
The proposal for Project X is almost done and it’s a doozy. Stay tuned.