And Now the Conclusion

I'm a big fan of Star Trek. And though I realize that making such a statement allows my nerd flag to fly quite prominently for all the world to see, I still cannot help, but bring up the topic of one of the world's greatest sci-fi franchises and apply it to the question at hand. That question of course being – how does one create a must-read series of cookbooks?

You see, the people behind Star Trek have created a franchise of six televisions shows (counting the animated series) and eleven movies (not to mention numerous books, comics, board games, and plastic action figures) that millions of people around the world follow almost religiously. And though I don't believe anyone will ever immortalize me with some form of posable plastic action figure with included colander and skillet, I cannot help but ask the question – how did Star Trek do it? Let's face it, the plot of every episode can be outlined as follows:

* The valiant crew of the starship [insert ship name here] faces an unexpected problem (be it technological, sociological, or otherwise) while exploring the [insert astronomical place or event here].

* The intrepid starship [insert ship name here] then shakes a bit and a few computer screens explode throwing a couple of no-name lieutenants across the room.

* And finally, the six or so major characters put their heads together, come up with some form of solution, and implement it by flipping a few blinking light switches, thus saving the day.

Yet despite my rather monotonous summary of the shows' plots (I really do like the series), people watch the reruns week after week, they buy the dvds, read the books, and purchase pretty much anything with the Star Trek logo on it. Now, why does that happen? I believe the answer lies in how one differentiates between a series and a franchise. For example, Star Trek Voyager is a series of shows that follows - the valiant crew of the starship [Voyager] as they face unexpected problems while exploring the [Delta Quadrant]. (As you can see my outline above is quite thorough.) The series lasted for 7 seasons, which was about the amount of time it took for the show's writers to exhaust all the ideas relevant to the show's premise.

So, Star Trek Voyager is comparable to my first cookbook. CELEBRATE: Food for Life's Special Occasions is a book devoted to teaching the reader how to entertain friends and family at home during holidays, birthdays, and other annual celebrations. CELEBRATE is one book that discusses a series of special occasions. Unfortunately for me, I do believe it covers the bases pretty thoroughly and unless there are lots of people out there who are celebrating National Deviled Egg Day or our country's two Guacamole Days (that's right, there are two of them), I don't think a second Nathan Scott book on special occasion entertaining will be significantly different than the first. (At least not anytime soon. Maybe it will be after a decade or so, when everyone has forgotten what the first cookbook said.)

So instead of creating a series of special occasion cookbooks, what I need to do is create a franchise of Nathan Scott cookbooks. The first book tells the reader how to entertain during the special occasions. But the next book could tell the reader how to cook everyday. That could then be followed by a third book that discusses how to cook frog legs – I could call that something like 101 Things to Do with Frog Legs. And maybe a fourth cookbook could be written to tells the reader how to entertain the elderly (you know what I mean – recipes like prune juice cocktails and oatmeal surprise).

In short, my solution to this little problem of how to create a series of must-read cookbooks is to not create a series of must-read cookbooks. Instead, I intend to create a franchise of Nathan Scott cookbooks, each with a unique topic that, with a little luck, will have readers racing to the stores in fits of anxiety-ridden cookbook-buying mania.