Spudnuts Doughnuts...
How I've never sold a doughnut pitch and how Substack offers a public platform to writers who have been pigeon-holed.
Did you enjoy last week’s Holiday Gift Guide? Or, the FREE Coquito Tres Leches Cake Recipe? The Stats would say you did! THEN GIVE ME MONEY! Become a paid subscriber to the fucking newsletter, dude. If you’ve got commitment issues and don’t want to attach yourself to a monthly or annual monetary contribution…
Contribute to this artist in residence, buy Mami a burger, send her a Starbucks gift card (grande hot mocha with whip) or nail polish at the Dollar Tree:
Mami Maisonet
5960 S Land Park #222
Sacramento, CA 95822
It’s almost Christmas. Fuck. I released my Holiday Gift Guide last week, I hope you got a chance to thumb through it. If you purchased anything from the list, be sure to tag me (and the maker) on Instagram stories. It helps!
I’ve also made my annual contribution to Save A Gato. It’s a 501(c)3 non profit organization near and dear to my heart. They help cats in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico through their TNR program(trap neuter return) with INSANELY limited resources and even still during natural disasters like Hurricane Maria. During the holiday season they offer a calendar - in exchange for a $25 donation - that includes photos of some of the cats that belong to the Old San Juan colony. Chances are, if you’ve ever walked around El Morro or VSJ in general, you’ve come across a cat. Chances are, this cat was definitely being cared for by Save A Gato. Chances are, Benny has been harassed by one of these cats and Alicia has cursed the day it was born.
Paypal.me/saveagato
I have pitched two doughnut stories throughout my career and neither of them sold. You’re thinking, “that can’t be unusual.” And it’s probably not. But, in comparison to having pitched numerous Puerto Rican stories (90% of them which have sold), there’s a huge imbalance. Basically, I’ve been pigeonholed by some of the publications out there. And even one of the doughnut stories I pitched was about an iconic Puerto Rican baker in Puerto Rico, who since has stopped baking due to old age and not being able to pass it down to anyone! No one wanted to hear about doughnuts. No matter who the hell was making them. When I wanted to write about the sole remaining Spudnuts in Sacramento - a once dynamic empire - eyes rolled and breaths sighed. I think a lot of publications - and the editors that serve as gatekeepers - get caught up on the topic (doughnuts) and can’t see the larger picture (Americana history). Yes, while all doughnuts might get made the same, the people behind them do not get made the same. And I’m more focused on the history of the people against the backdrop of food.
Thanks to Substack and our subscribers, writers can write about whatever the hell they want. Even if they have no business writing about it.
TO THE DOUGHNUTS!