I sat at the green table on the terrace of my apartment, just under the window of the kitchen, and Matt, inside, handed out a wooden cutting board with a round of camembert and a small bowl of grapes on it. Here’s your cheese ‘n’ grapes, he said.

This was at the end of the last week of August, about ten days ago. It was a big big week for me.

• My book Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio was released, the culmination of an incredibly intense three years of work and preparation.
• I wrote a major article about my new writing obsession—collaboration and group edits—for Transom.org, the best site on the internet about making radio and podcasts.
• Despite developer disasters, and having to find someone new over a weekend, I managed to launch a new website.
• …and I wrapped the second episode of my new podcast. Episode 1: Eureka, is live TODAY!

It was also week in which I’d spent 11 hours a day in my studio, and then worked another one or two at home every night.

In short, Matt was mocking me, gently. Because this is what I say in the first episode of my new podcast:

…and that’s when I knew.

It was time to take a step back, and celebrate what I’ve accomplished.

It’s all too easy for me to just put my head down and grind. I know that’s not true for everyone; but I’ve got basically no problem getting work done. What I’ve got a problem with is stopping.

I’ve got a little issue with appreciating where I am, enjoying my life while I’m living it, eating the cheese and grapes that life offers.

This is the view of the Charente River from my studio. This is what I look at every day.

And so I made myself get out of the studio. I invited Benjamin Frisch, my producer, Matt, of course, and our photographer friend Alain François down to the Charente riverside for a midday Friday picnic.

And I live in France; this is not stock food photography. This is our actual lunch.

And this is my studio, seen from down below.

There it is, up there.

Today is a day to celebrate: my new podcast goes live!

Out on the Wire is the show about making stories, step by step.

I invite you to subscribe via iTunes, or whatever your podcast-listener of choice is. And if you have that itch to make a story yourself, there are challenges for you in every episode!

[update:] Out on the Wire was a limited series, but we have TONS of great stuff in the show notes, and when they hit your inbox, you can pretend that the show is coming out live! Check out the podcast page, and subscribe to show notes, at the link.

There are plenty of narrative-building challenges to come in the podcast, but today I’ve got another kind of challenge for you:

Say yes to cheese and grapes.

Take a look at what you’ve accomplished, and celebrate it.

The aftermath. We did not finish the cheese. Or the grapes. We did, however, finish the wine.

An aside: I thought it would be funny to do some “French” drag, so we all wore striped shirts, and Ben sported a beret. Climbing back up the hill, Alain, who is actually French, said, “Vous êtes habillés un peu bizarrement, mais bon…” (“You guys are dressed a little weird, but whatever…”).

…and because Alain never gets to be in the photos of the various parties he documents so beautifully…

Thanks to Alain François for all the actually good photos in this post. Check him out—amazing stuff.