Meet the Author: Marty Cowan

Welcome to our first Meet the Author interview of 2025! I'm so excited to introduce you to Marty Cowan.

Marty Cowan is an ADHD-wired, Northern Colorado-based cook and food writer, trail enthusiast, yogi, and author of Table To Trail, Plant-Based Recipes for Day Hikers. Coincidentally born on National Picnic Day, her long-standing mission encourages outdoor exploration in nature with homemade and delicious food. The rest of her time is spent cooking at women’s retreats across the country, hiking internationally, and roaming locally through the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Marty cross-trains daily with weighted jump ropes and has a dedicated yoga practice to make hiking easier and more enjoyable. Follow her adventures @tabletotrail on Instagram.

How and when did you decide to write Table to Trail? What was that like?

It was such a fun project. It was one of those things where you wake up with an idea, and it happens to be a global pandemic, and you decide, “Hey, I'm going to hike 50 trails this summer. I'm going to create recipes for each one, and I'm going to put it together in a book.”

I had the best time. You get to go out and explore, and you get to taste food out in nature. It's so different from bringing it from your stove to your table. It's a totally different experience. You earn it with elevation gain, with distance. Instead of a table, you get to find a boulder and or a log or a nice little spot in the meadow and create your dining experience outside.

I love hiking. I love food. It was a perfect marriage for me. And it was perfect timing, too, because there was nothing else to do.

What was the writing process like? How did you choose the trails and recipes?

I had to break it down with places I knew we were going to go as far as local/regional traveling. None of the trails extended outside Utah, Wyoming, or Colorado. Most of them are in Colorado. Once I did that, I created recipes to pair with each one.

I cook a lot. I always have. I wanted to make stuff that was going to be okay on the trail. Not all of them worked, so I had to throw some extra ones in. There were some trail fails, as I call them, and that's okay, too! It's just as much of an experience as something deliciously amazing.

How did you land on beginner hikers as your target audience?

I love beginners. I'm a 500-hour certified yoga teacher, and I love bringing in people who are brand new to it. I love getting people excited about it. I love the physical aspect of yoga, the asana, but I also love the spiritual practice of it as well. It's good for people like me, with unique wiring. I guess we all have that, right? It's a group that I love because I'm a nurturer and an empath. I want to let people know that it's out there. You do not need to be an Olympian or a trained athlete. You can go out there on your own terms, accept every single bit about you before you head out, and have a really good time.

I feel like I'm the Welcome Wagon for that, and I love that. I don't consider myself a great athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but I love it. I know the mentality of being scared to do something because you don't feel like you belong to that club. I say “Bullshit” to all of it. Get out there and do it. No matter where your background is from, no matter what body type you have, the outdoors are there for everyone. There are no specific requirements, and it's a beautiful place to unwind. We have it everywhere, even in cities.

How did you land on the idea that this was a book and not a YouTube series or TikTok videos or some other medium?

As soon as I thought, “I want to do this. I want this project. I don't know exactly what it's going to be, but I'm probably going to put it together in a book,” the starter gun went off, and I went all in. In full frankness, I put no thought into anything else, not a thing. I didn't even have a Table to Trail Instagram account at the time.

What has your publishing experience been like?

The gun started for my race, and I didn't care about that either. I made a not even super conscious decision that I wasn't going to bother with a publisher. I wanted this to be all on my own terms. This is something that I wanted to produce that was completely and solely a part of my life and what I want to share with others.

I decided to self-publish this thing, and that was an adventure in itself. I laughed, I cried, oh, I sobbed. It was tough at times, but I did it! I set the whole book up myself. I hired photographers and things like that, but other than that, it was completely DIY.

I remember, after it was all said and done, I was like, “Am I going to be embarrassed about this book one day?” I'm definitely not. I'm still totally proud of it. I would do things differently now, of course. I've grown as a writer and as a person, but it was a ton of fun.

I would recommend anybody doing that. It was completely created on my terms, and that was fun. I didn't have to work with anyone, ask anyone, or be told to go in a different direction. That could be a good or a bad thing, but I think for a first-time author like me, it was a great approach. For me, it was the only approach. Given the time frame, it was like, “The world is ending. I gotta get this thing out.”

You are also working on a series of romance novels. Where are you in that process?

This was such a different experience than Table to Trail. I've always loved food-forward fiction. I'm not even sure if that's an official genre name, but there's a lot in that particular category. I love it when food is included in books, and I've always loved series—the friendships, the families, and the circumstances. I love creating characters that I want people to befriend.

When life is a little rough, and you need a little bit of trash, this is something that I could step in and provide. It’s a connection. I've read so many books in that genre, and you just don't forget them. I've connected with them in my heart.

I've always wanted to write a romance novel, like always. I was flying to the East Coast to cook for a women's retreat and started writing it on a plane. All I had was my phone. I was so bogged down with equipment and food—I bring a lot of stuff to these retreats. I started typing in the notes, thinking through what this book was going to be about.

I got excited about it and wrote it in a month and a half. Here we are two and a half years later, and I am still editing. I'm really changing it, but I feel like I'm zeroing in, and I'm getting there. I'm just about done with it and ready to pass it off to my editor.

I've read your interviews about people's processes, and they're fascinating—they’re so vast. Some people take forever to write and have a process for that, and then they edit quickly, or vice versa, or somewhere in the middle. It's interesting to see how people do their craft.

Everybody has to find their groove. I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all approach.

Oh, definitely. What's important for people like me to understand is that you read about somebody's process, and then, for the next project, it could be totally different. So, there’s no need to tell yourself, “Jennifer edited in two months, and that's how she did it.” Well, Jennifer might be doing something different in a year, and she may be having life circumstances that completely conflict with it. There's so much that goes into it. It's all about timing, too.

What have you found that works? What hasn’t worked?

I have struggled when I am over it, you know? I've hit the wall. I'll put it down for a month and find every reason in the world not to pick it back up. Then, I'll pick it back up and figure out what I'm doing. It's been like that the whole time, but I've never wanted to give up on it. I don't know why. I'm not giving up on these characters; they're a part of me, and I don't want to give up.

I try to set myself up for a little more success than I used to. It's an evolution. I have white noise music. I'll purposely stop what I'm doing, especially if I'm frustrated, and especially when it comes to dialog. If I'm like, “Oh, that sounds so stupid,” I have to walk away.

I think it was Hemingway who said something like, “Don't ever leave stuck; leave the keyboard when you know what you're going to do next.” In my case, it’s about being excited about it. I know what's coming next; it's all good. “Don't leave stuck” is really hard advice to follow, but I took that to heart. I feel like I have to figure it out before I move forward.

Right now, part of my process is leaving it behind, putting it on the back burner, and then moving forward and questioning it in my everyday life. If I'm washing dishes or whatever, maybe I can start thinking about it. Maybe I can meditate on it. Maybe I can figure something out. I can also ask for help. I always have to remind myself, “Marty, just ask for help. It's there.”

You're planning a whole series. Where are you in the writing process for that?

I'm drafting the second one now and finishing edits on the first one. I've given myself a deadline, which I usually don't do. I know a lot of people are super deadline-oriented, but I'm not. I'm very free-form, free-spirited, but it's good for me to carve out a schedule and put a deadline out there. That pushes me to put those stuck sections aside and get back to them.

You are a late diagnosed ADHDer. What has that meant for your creativity and writing?

It's such a good question, especially with Gen Xers like myself. There are quite a few of us out there. If I had been born maybe 10 years later, things were starting to change at that point, but little girls in the classroom who were exhibiting ADHD signs were completely overlooked. Little boys were just given Ritalin, and they needed more intervention, accommodations, and services. Little girls are completely ignored. When I got the late diagnosis, it was life-changing.

That's probably why my book was on the shelf for a little while, too, because that was a lot to absorb. I went headfirst into the research. I still go to a therapist. I had a major assessment done on it and got 13 pages of results. Thankfully, my insurance company covered it—it was expensive, but it's so useful.

Anyone with ADHD, we're all different. It's a big gray area. In my ADHD world, I know where my challenges lie and how to accommodate them. There are tools, and you have to figure out and be willing to figure out and be willing to accept that about yourself, which I am. I'm not embarrassed by it at all. In fact, it explains everything to me. It's a total relief, where I am now, and I'm not even a year into my diagnosis.

There's a lot of ADHD stuff out there. There's a lot more awareness. There's a lot more intervention, especially with young kids, which is awesome. There are a lot of books that are like, “Harness your ADHD. It's a superpower!” I'm not there yet, and I think that could really be a struggle for a lot of people with ADHD. It's not easy to harness anything with it. I don't know about those suggestions, that it's a gift and all that. I feel like, yes, it absolutely could be.

I know people with ADHD. I know doctors with ADHD. They're amazing. Some people are naturally oriented to be able to harness it. Then there are people like me who are just crawling through it.

I think it’s important to share that you're not going to automatically take medicine and read a book, and all of a sudden, you're wearing a cape and doing great things. It's not like that. I feel like it's more of a personal archeological dig into your psyche and how your mind works. I think you can expect a lot of super positive changes. I don't talk to myself anymore so harshly. I'm a lot easier on myself, which is so nice.

I can do those things. I can get things done by breaking down my day into smaller pieces. I wear a watch with my alerts turned off; my phone goes in the other room. I set timers. I have a whole list of break ideas. If I need something physical, I'll do a three-minute plank. If I want to wipe down the kitchen counters, I will. There are \things that we can do to help us move forward, as opposed to getting stuck, especially in a world of self-doubt and in that inferiority complex area.

People with ADHD, I've read, are more susceptible to depression and addiction. And I get it. I mean, who wouldn't want to have a margarita as opposed to facing what's hard? It's work, just like with anything else. ADHD is common, and there's therapy, there's tricks, there's tools. It's a matter of being open and accepting of it and being willing to do the work.

You mentioned you create accommodations. Have they changed your writing practice?

I've taken out a lot of the harsh self-talk. I don't put myself down anymore if I drop something, and I drop things all the time. That's classic ADHD. I get my clothes caught on the doorknob all the time. Now that I'm stepping back and looking at my mind, it’s like I am in a fast setting. If you picture a cassette tape, an old-school cassette tape, it’s like fast forward, stop, fast forward, stop, fast forward, stop. The processing is really high.

It’s not that I'm absorbing content from it because, for the most part, I'm not. That’s why learning has been such a challenge. Giving up, of course, is a classic struggle. I'm still learning. I may have a whole new set of accommodations six months from now, and I hope so. They help with the writing process because I have been kinder to myself.

It’s amazing. With anyone who's got self-doubt, whether it's ADHD-related or not, when you surrender that to say, “That’s not what I'm going to do anymore,” it's amazing what can come out. It doesn't have to be this amazing book or whatever, but it is amazing how much it changes you and your happiness. And that's what we're here for, right? To find purpose and happiness.

What is the number one piece of advice that you would offer to another writer?

I would say that finding your authenticity and sticking to it is really, really important. Reading a lot is really, really important, and listening is important as well. Being open to making changes if you need to.

And try not to be so hard on yourself. That's what I would say.

What is the best book that you read recently?

I read a book called The Courage to be Disliked (affiliate link*), and it was awesome. I've read and listened to it a couple of times. I've written stuff down. I've started writing about how it applies to my world. It has helped me with a lot of reactive things, taking a more introspective approach to life, and making wise decisions about where I want to give my energy.

I used to be like, “Okay, I gotta comment on this. I gotta reply to that.” It’s amazing what silence does. Now the question is, “Do I need to respond? Why am I responding? What is it serving?”

The other one is The Way of the Hermit (affiliate link*), and it's by a Scottish adventurer-hermit. He is a beautiful writer who’s lived half his life, at least, out in nature. He has incredible stories about his experiences. He’s one of those rare people who has lived the art of surrender, and we can all learn from him. I believe there's a documentary on the BBC, which I haven't watched yet.

The way he lives his life is not normal compared to how we all live our lives. It's such a great learning experience to read about his life and nature, how it is so disruptive, how that parallels the disruption in our lives, and how we are going to deal with that. He does it with no air conditioning, no Wi-Fi, and a house he made himself. It's a constant giving and taking and giving and taking in the best way imaginable.

Finally, Marty offered a gift from Table to Trail! This recipe is named after Marty’s husband, who tops his morning yogurt with a scoop of this homemade granola.

John's Favorite Granola

EQUIPMENT

• Large mixing bowl
• Baking sheet lined with parchment paper
• Small saucepan

PREP TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 55 minutes

MAKES: 7 cups

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INGREDIENTS

• 3 C. old-fashioned oats
• ½ C. all-purpose flour
• 1 TBS. brown sugar
• 1 TBS. ground flaxseed
• 1 TBS. hemp hearts
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ C. pecans, chopped½ C. slivered almonds
• ½ C. slivered almonds
• ¼ C. sunflower seeds (raw or roasted/salted)
• ¼ C. pepitas (raw or roasted/salted)
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ½ C. nondairy butter, melted
• ½ C. maple syrup
• 1 TBS. coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. natural coconut extract (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325°. In the large bowl, add the oats, flour, brown sugar, flaxseed, hemp hearts, salt, and cinnamon and stir. Add the pecans, almonds, sunflower, pepitas, and shredded coconut, and stir. In the small saucepan on low heat, add the butter, syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla and coconut extracts. Stir, and when completely melted, add to the mixture in the large mixing bowl and stir until coated evenly.

Place the mixture on the baking sheet and spread out evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven for a quick stir. Put back in the oven for 10 additional minutes or until golden brown. Allow plenty of time to cool. Store in an airtight container. This freezes well (if there’s any left!).

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I appreciated Marty's willingness to discuss her writing and publishing experiences and how neurodivergence shapes her creativity. As I often say, there's no one-size-fits-all approach to developing a writing practice that works—the best one is the one that works for you!