I'm very comfortable with an audience. I tend to be anarchic, and if the book is rockin' I'll give up whatever I have to, change my schedule, etc. I write every day in the sense that I'm working on something subconsciously even if I'm not putting anything down on paper or on the computer. For most writers, there's little or nor recognition and never very much money, so learn to accept defeat and disappointment and very delayed gratification and very real envy when writers less talented than you become successful. Talent is one thing, luck is another.
Some writers just happen to hit publishing at the right moment, and take off.
Sois sage, sois chic. I wouldn't want to be pigeonholed as a writer of culinary mysteries, since that's not what I'm writing, not the focus of the series, but simply an element. I like to cook, but I wouldn't ever call myself a gourmet cook. And no, my partner and I do not eat like Nick and Stefan do. I've always loved satire, from Dorothy Parker and Henry Fielding to Philip Roth and Jane Austen.