When she started out, Meier asked her mentor for some advice on what makes a good short story.

“A short story,” he replied,  “unlike a novel, should be something you can completely walk around. It’s a morsel you can hold in your hand and turn over. And, ideally, it’s utterly digestible.”

Thus, the inspiration for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. 

Although the three books have nothing to do with food, cooking, or entertaining, Meier says that these short stories are “a deliberate and creative expression of life."

She describes her skeptical irreverence as “her mark.”

“If my brand of irreverence is more ironic than what you might imagine to be encouraging, forgive me," Meier writes. "It’s my mark.”

These three tales come with the insight that, although you don’t have control over much of anything with life, and though you might not change the world, you do can still affect someone in some way.

“The color of your socks. This is your art," she writes.  "If you’re vigilant and let them speak, all of these things have a chance to say something about you. Not about fashion or this year’s colors – but about you."