Before I dive into the details , I ’ll get straight to the story first : I signed a book deal ! ( There it is on the table , done and done . )
And … It ’s a cookbook !
type out those words is something I still ca n’t conceive . I ’ve been sit on this newsworthiness for a few calendar month and it should ’ve been part of my2013 yr - remainder wrap - up , but I was n’t quite ready to reveal yet . ( Yep , that was the big tidings I was so eager to not tell ! )
It ’s been full speed ahead on the ms since last calendar month , and I ’ve been cooking and exhaust and dishwashing like a devil . My icebox looks like it has n’t been emptied since the holiday … but thankfully , there ’s nary a turkey or cranberry in sight . My crisper bin are burst out the face , and every ledge is packed with jars of homemade condiments and platters of meals - in - advancement .
The married man — whom you might have it off asWill Taylor — is my guinea pig / formula tester / styling assistant / lensman extraordinaire . He ’s shooting the whole book ! ( Sucha different subject from what he normally shoot — after all , you ca n’t really tell tomatoes to arc their backs or point their toes — but so far the image are looking amazing . )
I ’ve had the idea for this book percolating in my heading since last twelvemonth … a cookery book that I have n’t yet see on the shelf . I needed to sit down and get all those thoughts out of my head and onto a piece of paper to even cognise whether it was viable .
One week later turn into one month by and by turn into three month later … when finally , six months after , a road slip we ’d planned had to be hold over because of Will ’s work . Not require to lease a long weekend go to waste , I called a lady friend and we met up in the California desert for a duo retirement .
It was a weekend for us to get away from the distraction of home and work , chore and errand , and really focus on the things we loved to stargaze about : new business venture , five - year plans , faraway travels … and book proposals .
It ’s intemperately not to get inspired in such a sacred place as Joshua Tree , a high-pitched desert residential district in the Mojave . look out over the landscape painting , at the odd and otherworldly Joshua trees and tremendous batch of Boulder , hold you need to get mislay , in a good direction . The extraterrestrial smell of this terrain was amplified only by its secretiveness . On a Saturday afternoon , all we could hear was the occasional rustle of malarky .
We stayed at a champion ’s sign of the zodiac just outside Joshua Tree National Park . It was a former homestead that go to the grandparent and was remodeled over the year to become the family’smidcentury mod oasis and holiday rental , an dodging from the hubbub of Los Angeles .
If I was n’t typing away furiously ( on my laptop , not that typewriter ! ) in the support room , or the dining room , or the backyard , I was in this tub . It pour a newspaper column of water from a spout in the roof !
In the evenings , I ’d retire to the living room to look on window television set . The sunsets ( and sunrises ) in Joshua Tree are some of the best I ’ve ever look .
But mostly , I was getting away to work . Working “ on vacation ” just happens to be my thing . ( And I do differentiate between vacationing and travel . )
On our first morning in the house , I sit in front of my laptop , brace to start research . Out of habit , I senselessly checked my email and the first substance that came in was from an editor at a publication house . He suppose he ’d been follow my blog for some time , I ’d be the perfect source for a script he wanted to flip , and would I have any interest in writing this rule book ? !
I finagle to reply through my sheer shock and excitement that , coincidently , I wasjustsitting down to publish a proposition for a record book I ’d had on my mentality for a while . We compare idea and they turned out to be one and the same ! It was pure serendipity .
For the next four twenty-four hour period , I was a mind - mapping car , diagram out every persuasion that popped into my head . I came home and turned those random thoughts into what I hoped would be a cohesive and convincing proposition for the publisher . Exactly 1 week and 25 Page later , I bump off send at 7 in the morning and went straight to bed . I did n’t waken up till 3 that afternoon .
It would be a very nerve - wracking three weeks before I heard back from the publishing house . What happens is the proposal gets make pass around to all the other editors , the sales and marketing multitude , and the chief executive officer himself . Once they ’ve had a look - through , they convene at a encounter where all the current proposals are pitched before the integral staff and get voted up , down , or sideways . ( Sideways ? That ’s when they might like the author but not the estimate , and frailty versa . )
Well , you could guess how this coming together turned out for me .
On the twenty-four hour period before Thanksgiving , I received exciting news : The team at the publishing house was all on card with my book , and they made me an offer ! ( Somuch to be grateful for that Thursday … and every day , really . )
On the day before Christmas , the contract come and it was a done deal . Best Christmas ever ! Will signed on to shoot my first cookbook ( that condemnation alone still boggles my mind ) and we ’ve been at it all calendar month .
I ’ll deal more detail as the formula are developed and my ms is submit ( in three very curt month ! ) . The book is slated for release in Spring 2015 and I promise it ’ll be worth the wait ! ( Eeeeeeeek ! )
Read the full “Making of a Cookbook” series:
