Ever wonder what kind of company you keep as an AvantGuild member? They're busy and prolific, just like you! Check out what they've been up to, and keep an eye out for your monthly newsletter to find out how you can submit your own good news.

For those of you who live in Washington DC, Sarah Walpole Gray is coaching a creative writing workshop through the National Press Club. In the meantime, she's also working on a "a choose-your-own adventure book about dating, and every adventure is based on a true story."

Diana Estill's first humor book, Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road: Humorous Views on Love, Lust and Lawn Care, (Brown Book Publishing Group, Inc.) will be released June 10, 2006. "The book is comprised of 55 humor stories, many of which have been previously published in The Dallas Morning News, The Murphy Messenger, Road & Travel Magazine, and other publications." She is also a columnist for The Murphy Messenger, a small weekly, and has freelanced for The Dallas Morning News for ten years.

Judith Fertig just published a cookbook co-authored by Karen Adler: Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens. And the BBQ Queens are on the TV Food Network in May 2006! Judith has written food and lifestyle pieces for Cooking Light, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Vegetarian Times, and Better Hones & Gardens. I asked Judith to share her top five cookbook writing tips with us:

1. Have a unique angle or slant, just as you would for a magazine or newspaper story. When I wrote about the cooking of the Midwest, I named my cookbook Prairie Home Cooking (Harvard Common Press, 1999). That title evoked a certain nostalgia and geography without conjuring up Cleveland. It was also the way I approached the regional cooking of the Midwest--by the land and the people who settled and cooked there.

2. Recipes have a set structure which you can use to make a cookbook your own: Recipe title, headnote (the paragraph preceding the instructions), ingredients list and instructions, and notes. Many cookbooks also have sidebars for additional material.

3. Recipe titles need to be colorful, interesting, and evocative. Not "Aunt Sally's Apple Pie." More like "Wildflower Honey Creams with Warm Spiced Berries."

4. Weave stories, anecdotes, history, mystery, etc, into your headnotes when possible. Many people today read cookbooks like novels.

5. Write your recipe ingredients list, then the instructions, in the order in which the ingredients are used. Give readers a heads up if they need to preheat the oven or marinate something overnight. And test, test, test those recipes!