Blending life (& food) with fiction

How much do authors put tidbits of their life into their stories? There was a trend on Twitter awhile ago that dove into how much writers intentionally or accidentally put themselves into their stories. It got me thinking. Naturally, it's easier to write what you know, but what is true?  Four major things stuck out about the three books I have out right now. 

• Recipes
• Restaurants
• Jobs
• Sports

Recipes: I hated listening to my dad when he would talk about all the recipes he knew when I was growing up. Now-- I text him an annoying amount of times for recipes that I grew up loving...but never learned. Anytime a character talks about food or cooks, it's a real recipe that my dad knows and taught me.  I've mastered like four of them... but I may have burned a couple and given up. (Fun fact: homemade popcorn is the best thing ever, don't @ me)

Restaurants: I clearly love food. Is that obvious yet?  Every time characters go out to eat, drink, coffee, desserts (okay, they eat a lot in my books?) the place is based off a real location, I always change the name though... and almost all of the places are either based in Phoenix or my college town in the Midwest. 

Jobs: Another "food" thing. Next book, I'm not writing about one damn food scene. That's my goal. But really, waitressing, education, technology, corvettes, landscaping, bartending... I've had a lot of odd jobs and these are fun and easy to write about because I know them. It is equally fun and challenging doing research on jobs I have zero experience with (like all the college or professional sports, but, it's definitely NOT a hardship looking up baseball and football players for hours...) 

Sports:  If you didn't know, my husband works for a MLB team and baseball is essentially a part of our household just as much as our dogs are. Due to the hubs' obsession, I've slowly turned into this baseball fanatic who can spout random stats and facts. I even started listening to radio broadcasts because I freak out if I miss a game. I'm that person now. We play on a co-ed softball team, watch MLB TV every day, and talk about players like they are our friends. It's totally normal. 

In conclusion, my next book the characters won't eat anything and I'm going to have them hate sports just to challenge myself. 

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