This waiting is nerve wracking

ahhhh, this is so nerve wracking waiting for DHL to arrive with my cookbook!!! I don't have a tracking number so I can't see its progress but I have checked my email a million times to see if the publisher had written to say the delivery had changed or there was something wrong with the book.  I have texted my guy a million times to see if it has arrived, so much so that I have run out of credit on my phone!  I was up at six this morning; even unconsciously I must have been thinking about the book arriving today. This is like being five years old on Christmas morning and being told you have to stay in bed until your parents get up before going downstairs!!! I wish the time would pass more quickly!!!

And so the learning continues - and I am succeeding

Okay, I am making some progress.  Last night I spent some time working on my new website to coincide with the release of the cookbook.  I am starting to decide that truly you can learn anything you set your mind to if you work at it.  I registered my new domain name for the website.  The company that is hosting my website suggested that I set up a CNAME to redirect traffic from my visible domain name to my hosting provider.  What?  So I literally just followed the steps of their instructions, and set up the rerouting of the traffic and guess what it worked!!  I have no idea what I did or how it works on the internet itself but I guess I did it right because if I type in my web address, it redirects to my website and masks the name so no one knows it is actually hosted somewhere else.  Anyway, see even in explaining it, you can tell I still don’t understand what I did.  But it works; you just have to tiptoe through the instructions and hope that you don’t screw anything up too badly!

I also got an email from the publisher letting me set up more online bookseller sites that will host my books for sale including some new sites previously unavailable to me in Canada. So the books will be available in the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe and now Canada.  I was pretty excited about it and the book really will be on almost all the most popular book selling websites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, Blackwell, Ad Libris, Indigo and Chapters.

And best of all, I got the confirmation email that my proof has been shipped and should be here tomorrow!  First hurdle crossed, since I am assuming they would not send me a proof if the book was completely assembled incorrectly so I must have done something right last week while laying out the book and the cover. So with my proof I will be checking the final proof for errors, margins, picture quality, stuff like that.  I am so excited cause tomorrow I will see for the first time the result of all this work over the last six months!!  Yippeee.  Tomorrow may be a day full of tears when I finally see it.  

What's up with California

Okay seriously, how many newspapers are there in California!?!  So as you know I am still working through my email distribution list for my press releases and I found a great site which lists links to all newspapers by state in the United States.  I have already finished the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa. And now I am working on the United States.  I have done about ten of the smaller states just to get myself started adn to feel like I am making progress.  But for anyone, including reporters in these very newspapers foretelling the demise of the printed newspaper, they should try transcribing the editor contact emails from the newspapers in California!  I have been working on this list alone for three days now, probably 15 hours in total and in an alphabetical list I am only at the town of Pacifica, maybe just past half way through the list!!! This list is killing me!  But just have to keep going so I have all my contacts!  There is a remarkable repetiion in newspapers names by the way; there are tonnes of Sentinels, Gazettes, Journals, Dailies and Acorns!  Such is my life right now, endless email transcription. Anyone want to buy this master list when I am done! :>

I am so sore

I am so sore!  Yesterday we got to the house about noon, or just before, and we decided it was all painting, all day.  Sure sounds easy, till you have to do it.  My brother in law and sister in law both came down to help us so the four of set to it.  We painted trim upstairs, down the staircase, through the front hall and then the living room and dining room.  We painted all the upstairs hall walls, main hall and living room and dining room!  Too much work.  I have such a pain between my shoulder blades.  We painted for 8 hours, with four people painting, amazing how much work painting is.  But I am so happy.  The colour I choose are beautiful.  The hall ways are one tone lighter then the living room and dining room and with the new crown moulding and all the trims painted brilliant white the colours just shine so well.  It is beautiful even if I was exhausted.  I could barely get up to go to work today.  I need my day job almost as a rest from my weekends!  A rare treat though after working we took our great helpers out for dinner around 8 to a middle eastern buffet restaurant with belly dancers for entertainment.  I gorged on hummus, baba ganoush, dolmades, salads, tabbouleh, great rices.  They had whole fish grilled, lamb, chicken, sausages, it went on and on.  And great mounds of hot fresh bread.  I was in heaven.  This place is only 10 minutes from our new house; oh it is going to be dangerous living so close!

Taking a break and dreaming about my new kitchen

What a good day.  Okay so last night, I heard back from Leslie, yes another Leslie, my customer service rep at the publisher about my files.  She said I did fabulous loaded them correctly and if there are no mistakes she will be sending me my proof by Wednesday.  Now I am starting to get excited.  We went to the house today to do some work.  My brother and father came down to help. My brother brought his dump truck, yes I have a brother with a dump truck he is an arborist and so needs one for his business and together with them and four friends we emptied the house of all the debris we have been collecting.  We took out the old kitchen so now the big dreaming has started on what the new one will be like.  We also lifted all the old tiles.  What a job that was.  There I sat on the floor a hammer in one hand a chisel in the other, lifting these old tiles,  hard work, dirty work, but it is finally all out.  So literally now the finishing jobs can start.  We decided today to run our new hardwood right into the new kitchen so I will have hardwood in my kitchen!  We stopped on the way home to look at new tiles, backsplash tile, and counter tops. Saw some beautiful travertine, marble, and granite, it is going to be hard to pick.  And tonight we are both tired and have decided it is going to be all us time.  No house talk, no work on the cookbook, website or advertising distribution lists, just us and left overs for dinner.  Whatever we can scrounge in the cupboards is dinner tonight.  Somewhat ironic I suppose considering I just finished a cookbook last night but sometimes leftovers are fine and being together is more important than cooking a meal.  Taking a break from everything and trying to unwind and relax after the last three weeks.  I need it, he needs it, we need it!

Production ready files at the publisher - hurray

It’s done.  I just uploaded the production ready files to the publisher.  Files are checked, problems are solved, and man does it look good!  I can hardly believe it.  I have to admit it hasn’t really sunk in that I am finished.  I have a speedy, anxious feeling on the inside, kind of a keyed up feeling. I am have been running so many directions and thinking about so many different aspects of it that it hardly seems real that it is actually finished.  I ordered my full run proof today and should have it by next Friday.  I hope once I have it in my hot little hands that it actually feels real!  Besides that, this last push has practically killed me.  I haven’t been eating, no sleep, always stressed, I feel like I could sleep for a week.  I am exhausted!  Happy but mostly exhausted!  Happiness will come later, when I am rested enough to recognize it!!! Yeah for me, first major milestone crossed!  Now let’s just hope I did it all right and there aren’t any problems with the proof.  See my next worry to keep me up at night.  But for now, yeah for me, and now sleeping for 36 hours!!!!

It's almost midnight but I am DONE

It is almost midnight but I am done!  The fonts are fixed, the PDF created, book is proofread and layout checked.  My eyes are sore, square and burning, really hope the proofreading is accurate.  I seem to get dumber as the night passes.  But the best part, the cook book files are DONE!!!!  Yippeee

I may pull my hair out

What a lousy day yesterday.  First the snow completely stopped traffic in the city. Just driving to and from my appointments yesterday I was in the car for over six hours!  Sometimes not even moving on the road but stuff amid the traffic. I got so bored with the radio that it would be turned off and then suddenly I would think, oh turn it on it is too quiet in here, and then I would realize it had been an hour and a half.  No wonder I was ready for the radio again.  I swear people can’t drive in the snow. It is not like it is a surprise, we always get snow, but as soon as it falls, people in the city drive like they are afraid the boogeyman is going to get them.  Then to add to it, the layout for the cover of the book went great; the interior text not so much. We are having trouble with our fonts.  They are not translating the fractions from my Word document to the my InDesign template.  Umm, going to be pretty hard to have a cookbook if I can’t have fractions.  A half a teaspoon!!!!  Pretty frustrated.  But honestly last night I was bone tired.  I have made myself sick in the process and am not getting nearly enough sleep, in fact I can barely relax to sleep.  I just want to get through this last push and solve all these problems.  But every step there seems to be a new one.  Totally sucks.  I know it is just because I want it so badly but man, this last push is tough.  I talked with some of the experts here at work about how to solve the fraction problem.  They suggested changing the font, which I was loathe to do, I liked the look of the book in the ones I choose, but if I do change them, they think the fractions will flow.  It may just be a matter of the two programs not recognizing each other’s fonts.  I am going to try that and hope for the best!  Otherwise a new problem will arise.  But tackle problem with solution one and see if it works.  If not back to the drawing board.  I heard the army solves problems this way as well!! Now if only I had a whole team of people working on it so much the better!!!

Learning yet another new skill, ugh

Today I started working on my new website to support the launch of the cookbook.  Seriously, I am getting a little tired of learning new things!  Sitting down today, once again, I was facing a task I had no idea how to do.  I found this company, Square Box, that offers website building services where supposedly you just log on, pick your templates, write some text and away you go.  Yeah right.  Seriously, I have spent hours trying to figure it out.  I am making progress as I begin to understand how things work but it is very foreign to me.  I know I have always said I wanted to learn new things on this adventure but couldn’t there be something I could know how to do or learn easily?  The only thing I seem to be able to do is cook!  But making progress and hopefully soon, like in the next two weeks, let’s not kid ourselves, I will be able to launch it and you can tell me what you think. And talking about learning, we of course had some last minute mix ups at the publisher.  Apparently I mismatched my book type with my cover template so tomorrow night when I go to load the PDF files, I will have to Leslie my customer service rep assigned to me to help me fix all my mistakes!  She just laughed at me when I said I was a moron; she says not to worry she can fix it in like two minutes.  But honestly I feel like everything is on tenderhooks and I am in the home stretch and I am constantly thinking about it, and not sleeping well.  I just want it perfect and getting through the rest of this week will be a challenge.  But fingers crossed that it gets uploaded correctly and I can get my first proof next week.  

Now to set up a website

Yippee, I finished the final edits of the cookbook today and wrote a foreword to the cookbook.  I have to admit while I was proofreading the final version today, I was amazed at the cookbook.  I think it is pretty good.  Some of the reflections I can barely remember writing but overall the whole thing has a great flow, delicious food, lots of humour.  I am really happy with the final result.  We are working on the cover this week.  And then I will get my proof next week!  I got a note from the publisher that I made a mistake in setting up some of my files but it is easy enough to fix.  They are so great, very helpful and respond really quickly to all my questions.  It is really simple, if a little stressful.  I can’t believe it is really coming together.  By a week Friday I could have my first full proof hot off the presses for me to review,  just amazing to me.  The next job I have to do is set up the website between now and when it goes on sale. I want to have a dedicated website just for the cookbook where I can link the Facebook and blog activities to and then I can add tones more photos of my food and crazy ideas on the website for everyone to see.  A journey that started last September is getting ready to end on some fronts and just begin on others.  This is so so fun again, not that I am stressed but a feeling of accomplishment is creeping over me and the next adventure is just beginning!

Renovations are a killer

What an amazing day!  We got up early this morning and out the door quickly.  We went to our favourite little greasy spoon for breakfast, as always, great breakfast, eggs, hash browns, salad, breakfast meat, juice, coffee, dirt cheap and delicious.  We go so often the owner who is also the chef sees us walk in the door, say good morning and immediately prepares our breakfast.  We don’t even have to order.  Which could be really endearing or it could simply say we are way too predictable!   Not that I mind, there is something comforting in being that predictable and besides I really like being part of a community, a fixture in the neighbourhood where my breakfast order is already known when I arrive.  Anyway, after that, we made the rounds of the hardware stores, looking at and choosing hardwood flooring, tiles, looked at kitchen cabinets and picked up some paint and then over to the new house.  We had a full day of work and good friends came over and helped us with taping the walls for painting and working on the plumbing.  We really are extremely blessed to have such good friends who will lend a hand, willingly.  Let’s face it renovations are no fun when you own the house, even less so when you are just doing them as a favour!  How grateful are we.  Home now late, exhausted and sore, but the house is coming together.  We pulled out part of the kitchen tonight; a new kitchen is one its way!  Woo hooo.  Tomorrow a big day of final edits and then the laying out of the book and uploading for our proof.  So much going on right now!

Memories of my childhood served with a slice of cake

We had a great day today at my mother’s birthday.  We all went up to the house around one o’clock.  The snow is mostly gone and you can see the first signs of spring on the way.  While we were there a mating pair of wild turkeys came into the yard and yes there was an incident with one of my nephews chasing them and then the turkeys turning the tables and chasing my nephew.  Quite funny.  We had intended just to have tea and cake but as always with my brothers and sisters, everyone arrived with more goodies so in the end we had a surprise mid afternoon meal complete with light white birthday cake, layered with strawberries and cream.  Delicious.  Everyone had a great time, it was loud and riotous and exhausting and once the dust settled we stayed a little longer to visit.  My friend Claudette made a surprise visit which really pleased my mother and she brought my godson, her son with her.  Kai is getting so big so quickly; he is certainly no longer the little baby that I have in mind.  I have to remind myself he is six and all grown up, or at least by his standards.  Mom gave me a box of old photos and when we got home here, my guy and I started going through them, pictures of me on my first day of school, playing with my cat Charlie, riding my bike for the first time.  Looking through those old, dogged eared pictures of family reunions, school plays and walks in the fields around the house where I grew up, made me realize how fortunate I am to have grown up in the family I did and in the place I did.  It is almost idyllic, like a snapshot from another time and place, where things may not necessarily have been simpler or easier, maybe feels like it now, but certainly the pace of change was much less than now.  Some things were more consistent, you could expect similar things and a similar life as your parents.  But as times have changed, I guess those days are lost.  I looked a pictures my mother took of me on graduation day from university, so many of them, that I can see the pride she must have felt that day just through the sheer number of photos she took.  I was the first one in our family to get a university education and seeing me there in my gown must have meant a great deal to my mother; her job of raising me to get me to that point had been accomplished.  It feels good tonight to be connected to a past.  And to be able to share the stories and pictures with my guy, share with him another part of my life, was truly very special.  

The cover layout is coming together

It has been a tremendous day.  Today I finished the edits of the cookbook and re-ordered it some so that it has a better flow.  I had arranged it my theme but the recipes were still in the order in which I transcribed them. This afternoon I moved them around so that, although they are still by theme, they are also arranged by type of food, type of meat, etc so that each theme has a natural flow to it, and the narrative continues to run well with it, but the recipes will be easier to find, arranged a little more logically.  The cookbook really is a hybrid, somewhere between a traditional cookbook and a journal.  Hope other people like it!  I also started working on the layout of the cover.  I have the artwork complete.  I wrote the back cover text; I still have to do the “about the author” section.  Honestly I have no idea what to write, not a lot to say really, it may just end up being really basic, hi, I’m Jamie and I like to cook!  I did the font selection and the layout of the filmstrips of images and the front and back main images.  I think I may do the script in indigo blue and the backgrounds a lighter blue, just depends on how it looks against the main front image.  There is a lot of brown in the image from the cupboards in the picture so I have to find something that compliments it.  All in all it has been a productive day and I feel like I am in the home stretch!  Tomorrow afternoon, we are heading up to my parents for the afternoon.  We are all coming home to celebrate my mother’s birthday.  It should be a fun afternoon and a welcome break from these last few weeks.  I gave myself a tension headache this afternoon working on the book and I am constantly exhausted so it will be really great to have the chance to just hang out with family, eat, drink, celebrate and laugh lots.  

Square eyes

I am an editing fiend and feeling pretty happy about it.  It is so amazing to watch the cookbook come alive under my hands right now, I can see what it will be like when it is finally published.  It is going pretty well, taking a little longer than I had expected but have just finished the first pass of editing.  Need to take a break, sleep on it, and approach it fresh tomorrow.  My eyes are getting square from staring at the computer screen; I am not sure how they did this before computers.  I suppose lots of people did but man, without spell check this would be a whole lot harder!! Going to be quick today and go and let my eyes rest from the computer!

A surprise evening in with my guy

Hurray, I have the book back for editing from the publisher!  I am proud to say there are not too many edits to complete, no more than I can get done over the next few days so they can have it back by early next week to print the first full proof.  It is getting so exciting to see it all happening now.  It has a life of its own and soon I will have to let go of my little baby!  Already I am feeling some separation pains but once we are done with the publisher, it is all about word of mouth and advertising.  I have begun thinking again about YouTube commercials and videos promoting the cookbook, in a very funny, tongue in cheek sort of way, and how to create email chains that people will actually pass on to their friends and family, and how I can use social media and the internet to create interest in the cookbook.  I wonder if I should offer promotions to college dorms or social clubs just so people could see the cookbook.  Even better, get the college campus bookstore to carry it!

And I got a nice surprise tonight. My guy rather than having to work tonight as he usually does (he works with residential deaf clients and works from one in the afternoon until eleven each evening), will be home for dinner. We get to spend a mid week evening together; such a rare treat.  He has been working really hard lately, at work and on the new house, that he is really exhausted.  I think tonight I will just spoil him with treats, kindness, love and the remote control for the television and allow him to have a totally bludging kind of night!  Better run to the kitchen to figure out what to cook tonight!

Anyone know anything about sales

Ah sitting down to write my blog, feeling more centred after the rush of the last few weeks!  It feels good to be this close to publishing; we are in the editing stage now and although there is still a lot of work remaining to be completed, I can finally see that I am in the home stretch.  Just have to get through the editing, layout and proofing stages and then we are all set to start loading it to the bookseller sites like Amazon.  Now I have to start changing my mind to focus on selling strategies.  I have been compiling addresses for press releases and will start putting up a website starting end of next week so there is  a site to visit to learn more about the book but after that not sure what to do.  I may have to take some of the people in marketing at work out to lunch to pick their brains.  I don’t have a big celebrity who is willing to endorse it so it is back to the basics with selling one book at a time!  If you know of any great ideas, send them to me.  I can use all the help I can get!

I am exhausted

I am exhausted!

Keep those in Japan who have suffered such misfortune in your thoughts and prayers

I am exhausted. My guy and I went to the new house today to work.  I left this morning feeling so much better about being able to help and contribute to our new home.  I had been feeling guilty that I had been only occasionally helping with the crown moulding and painting and tearing out and building new while I was working on the cookbook.  So I left this morning with a light step to go my our new home.  And what a busy day it was.  I of course spent some time organizing, tidying up, sweeping and washing floors cause I like order and okay I admit it am a little bit obsessed with being tidy.  I am one of those weird people who feel unsettled around mess.  Then we spent the day painting doors and trim, and painting my new office.  It is beautiful, a dusty chestnut colour or maybe between chestnut and cappuccino.  It looks amazing, particularly against the stark white crown moulding.  Tomorrow installing new chrome door handles and painting base boards.  Soon the upstairs will be completely finished!  We came home here just an hour or so ago. We made a quick soup and turned on the television to watch the news coming out of Japan.  What a horrible tragedy and it quickly humbled us both how fortunate we are to be spending the day painting our new home when so many millions have experienced such heartbreak.  It is almost overwhelming to watch the news and imagine the suffering those poor people are going through.  Every day count our blessings; we have much to be grateful for.  My heart and prayers goes out to the Japanese people; keep them in your thoughts.  

The draft is done! Wooohoooo

That’s it.  I am done.  The draft is finished and ready for copy editing and proofreading.  I can hardly believe.  I keep looking at that big pile of papers and can’t believe it is actually done.  Feels like celebration time.  I am under no illusions; there will be lots more work to do, editing and polishing but the first major hurtle is over!  Yippeeee.  Hurray.  I know I always wanted this but somehow I could never imagine this day.  Actually finishing. It is really happening.  So surreal. My dream is being born.  I have been working so hard on it for so long now that I can hardly believe that there it sits.  Okay, get it ready to send off for editing.  Woohoooo. 

It is all coming together

I am feeling great.  I just finished almost the last outstanding items on my to do list for the cookbook.  I can’t believe when I look at that dog eared pile of papers on the table that I have been using to proofread that I am this close to completing the book.  I just finished logging on and setting up my ISBN number.  I just finished setting up my account with the publisher, and now just have to sign the agreements and email them back to them tomorrow.  I have selected the size of the book and even calculated the width of the spine and the weight of the book, 282 grams if you are wondering.  Not too heavy to carry around with you all the time no matter when you go, great for a night on the town or light reading on the beach!  Seriously, I can’t believe it is all coming together.  I can’t believe it.  Seriously, it really hasn’t hit me yet that in a few weeks I will be a published cookbook author with his own publishing business and getting ready to sell it to anyone who is interested. Oh don’t think I won’t be urging you all to put a link to the cookbook in any status lines you have on any social media, like Facebook or MySpace and hoping that you will tell all your friends and family that it is finally released.  But mostly I am in shock that this is really happening.  Normally I am too wordy for my own good but honestly I am speechless to describe how this feels right now.  The achievement is in sight and I can hardly believe it.  I know there will be more work ahead of me but to get to this point already is amazing to me, the struggles, the set backs, the fights with myself not be lazy, the urging I always received from my guy and his support.  This will be his success as much as mine.  He got me here, despite me getting in the way most of the time.  The night is still early so I am going to do some more editing but I wish you could see it already.  The pictures are ready, the text is ready, the publisher is ready, all just waiting for me to say I am done!

Finally, a breakthrough

Good news.  I have resolved the ISBN number issue!  This morning I talked with a colleague here at work that had a contact number for someone who works in the same department in the government that also manages the ISBN registration.  I called and spoke with an incredibly friendly woman who gave me the number of the department where they actually assign the numbers.  I called there and got through immediately. Amazingly, in both cases, I called the government and they answered on the first ring!  Anyway, I talked with the woman at the assignment department.  Poor thing, she had been out for three weeks with a car accident and was just back to work.  As a consequence they are behind in getting the work out the door.  I felt bad.  It put it in perspective, there I was worrying about a number to process a book so I can get it loaded to the publisher, she was dealing with the after effects of a car accident. It reminded me that life is going on with millions of people in millions of different circumstances.  She was wonderful, explained the process to me and told me that she would chase down my records and get me set up and assigned an ISBN number this week.  I can’t tell you what a load off my mind it is to have that last piece sorted out.  Now I can just concentrate on finishing the last push on the cookbook and I can move on to the next phase in this publishing journey.  I did quite a bit of typing last night, transcribing my chicken scratches into reflections in the cookbook and today did a few more during my lunch break. Tonight, I need to first assess what is left to complete, prioritize and for certain work on some more reflections for the book.  The end is in sight. Now I just have to fight off doubts, lingering worries and laziness to finish.  I am amazed at how fragile I can be right now. The smallest things can discourage me or demoralize me; last night I was strangely sad and I am not entirely sure I know exactly why.  I think I feel pretty vulnerable right now and really wan this to succeed.  I can almost imagine that I have accomplished this goal and yet right now so close, every little twinge makes me worry that it will not come together to happen.  So same old strategy, head down and concentrate on what is immediately in front of me and no worries about the rest for right now!

Shrove Tuesday, enjoy a pancake

Shrove Tuesday, pancake day!  I love pancakes and today is the perfect excuse to enjoy them.  I remember being a child and getting up early on Easter Sunday to attend a sunrise service.  We used to trek to the top a big hill in town, where in winter we would tobbagon, but at Easter, the congregation would climb the hill at seven in the morning and have an Easter service atop the hill, our songs ringing out in the early morning light.  Afterwards, we would walk back to the church and in the church basement have a pancake breakfast, complete with pancakes, syrup, sausages, juice, toast and coffee.  It was a great time and I remember going back time and again for more lukewarm pancakes served in great silver chafing dishes on the buffet tables, syrup poured from plastic jugs, and orange juice from urns.  It was a great morning where you could eat as much as you wanted and not a single adult told you to mind your manners or told you that you had had enough.  Well, tonight I stuffed myself with pancakes again, drowning them in real maple syrup and sliced banana washed down with a glass of cold milk.  Delicious.  Just the way to start my night before sitting down to write more reflections and to figure out just what I have left to complete before this version is complete.  I could almost feel sad that this part of the journey is coming to an end but have to remind myself that more adventures are to come!

Time has slowed peacefully down

It is amazing how long these days are, and not necessarily in a bad way.  I feel like time has slowed down and I can feel every minute of every day.  I think it might be because I have so much to do but it might also be because I have to so much to concentrate on, yet only one thing to concentrate on. It is a bit summer holidays from school, when each day seemed like an eternity and the summer seemed to stretch on forever, maybe precisely because there was nothing to focus on except enjoying each moment, playing with friends, swimming in the sunshine.  I had a productive night last night and tonight looks like to be the same.  I am really enjoying having something passionate to focus on.  And although the minutes are ticking by slowly, it is in no way unpleasant, boring or stressful. Rather it is like it has slowed down enough that I can notice time as it passes.  A nice feeling, and certainly a rare one!

A refreshing break has made all the difference

Yesterday was a full day.  We got ourselves up early and headed out the door to the hardware store.  When we were getting married, we had a themed engagement party that was focused all on decorating and cleaning our new house.  We didn’t own the house at that point but it seemed a great theme so that we would have some things towards making any new house we bought our own.  Well, yesterday we had some of those handy gift cards in our hands as we headed out to the hardware store.  The weekend before we had used a bunch of cards towards paint, crown moulding and all the paraphernalia that is required to get those jobs done.  We did the same yesterday.  We picked up seven new door handles to replace some of the interior door handles, we picked up samples of trim for doorways, more paint for painting the doors, rollers, brushes.  Pretty quickly the total ran up and I was even more grateful to all those family and friends that gave us those gift cards.  In fact, the bulk of what we have purchased so far has been with gift cards from that engagement party.  One of our other engagement parties was a stock the wine cellar party; we will enjoy that wine once we have moved in and the house is finished!

We went to the house in the afternoon for a couple of hours and painted my new office!  It looks great and between the two of us it didn’t take very long.  Now all three bedrooms upstairs are painted, the ceilings and crown moulding complete.  Just have to do the finishing touches to the rooms and they will be move in ready.  It felt great painting the office, I could see myself working on the cookbook or perhaps the next one in that little room with my Mac.  Friends stopped by while we were there and we all discussed how to renovate the kitchen. It got me excited but despite all the dreaming in the world, I am pretty sure those renovations will have to wait.  The bank accounts are drained!  All in good time.

We had to leave the house early.  Last night we headed out of the city to have dinner and a theatre show for my sister-in-law’s seventieth birthday.  It was called Nanny’s Naughty Knickers!  Dinner was a buffet which was pretty good, although I have to admit I have never seen meatloaf served on a buffet before and the show was funny.  We gave Jill a pair of naughty knickers as a gag gift for her birthday, which gave her a good laugh.  The show passed quickly, a bit over-acted but funny all the same.  It was nice to be out with family and honestly it was nice to have a break from constantly thinking about the cookbook and the house renovations.  It has refreshed me to hit the skids again today and make big progress on the book.  I have about one hundred reflections written out by hand for the cookbook so I think today’s job is to get them all typed into the draft and see what is remaining to do on the book.  I think I am almost done, suddenly.  Last couple of weeks seem like  blur but now I feel much better about getting it done on time and completed the way I want it.  The publisher wants a draft but there is still a chance to change anything I want after I get back the proof so I am hoping it will be exactly as I want it by the time it is final and locked at their presses!  Today, my goals are the cookbook and get the laundry caught up!!! Oh, the exciting life I am leading.  

Being reminded why I am doing this

It is Friday afternoon and I am beat!  This has definitely been a week of ups and downs.  And I feel it in every bone of my body.  I am amazed at how much energy you can have for something you truly care about, something you truly want to accomplish.  I have been watching myself and have been continually surprised at how well I have stuck to my guns, working long after the point of being tired on reflections or recipes or layout, taking a breath and sorting out the issues with the business and reminding myself to be patient in waiting for the ISBN numbers.  When I actually take a moment to reflect on myself, this journey is really showing me my own depths of determination, of passion, of commitment, of attacking problems as they arise and solving and plumbing the depths of my desire to achieve this goal.  I am meeting tonight with Lesley the photographer to talk about the photos and to pick up my touched up images.  Lesley often talks about how her love of photography, her dream to give up her day job in an office and pursue it full time and how she would likely do it for nothing.  For the first time, I truly understand what she means. Pursuing this goal is work certainly but it certainly doesn’t feel like it.  Oh sure I am tired at the end of the day but by the next morning I have boundless energy to attack it again.  I am not sure if I will be successful in selling even a single copy but I am sure I will have given it my best shot.  Lots to do this weekend again but feeling confident I can tackle it.  

Big setback for the company today but rolling with it

Okay I had a huge setback today. I received  a letter from the government telling me they are disallowing my company name.  I was going to call my company, the George Henry Press, but they believe it contravenes a regulation saying you cannot have an individual’s name in the company name if it is not your own!  So I have had to re-apply for a different company name, which also means I have to change the name at my publisher, change my tax accounts and worst of all re-apply for ISBN numbers which is the thing which is taking the longest to be begin with and now I have to start all over from scratch!  Totally pissed off today but trying to stay positive.  Nothing I can do about it, just have to roll with it, and keep focused.  I made some good progress on working on the cookbook today so I am still going to just work one step at a time and keep going.  I have to reschedule working with Todd since I definitely won’t have the ISBN numbers by next week but I have to tell myself that all things happen for a reason and it will be all the sweeter when I am finally published and completed.  Big breath for me and keep going.    

I have received my copyright, hurray

Today I am feeling much better about my progress.  I have to admit the ISBN thing yesterday threw me for a loop but I am back on track.  I applied for a received my copyright yesterday and set up my tax accounts for my new little business.  Yes of course the government would like to be first in line to collect their share of my meager profits from the sale of any cookbooks.  I haven’t even made my first sale and already they are stepping up, hand open, looking for some money!  But such are the ways of business so I just accepted it as part of this journey, definitely not as tasty as a pan of chocolate drops but a necessity nonetheless. 

Today I have reminded myself that in each thing, step by step.  I still have lots of work to complete this week and weekend to finish the cookbook, reflections to write, a foreword to write, ordering of the cookbook and proofreading and typesetting.  I applied for the ISBN number and no amount of worrying, watching the clock or complaining will make it arrive any sooner so best to focus on what I can control. If it arrived today I would not be finished the cookbook, so self, keep working.  Head down, keep at it.  I am making progress but am probably only half done the reflections I am going to head each recipe with so still lots to do.  Focused, working, not too exhausted and occasionally seeing glimmers that this may all actually come together.  I got a note from Lesley that she has been working on the photographs and has worked her usual magic.  Seriously if you ever need a photographer, Lesley is your girl!  She is amazing.  I know the pictures will be perfect; we are going to meet to collect them on Friday night, over desserts of course.  So many people have helped me up this point, made their contributions with their talents and energies, it is now for me to pull through to the finish line.   

Ahhh feeling stressed, gotta remember to breathe

Okay I am starting to freak out.  Yup the crazy, lose my mind phase has started. I got approval today from the publisher to start registering my accounts online with them.  So happily I got started, only to discover I needed more information.  I then switched website and registered for the tax numbers for my new business.  Back to the publisher pages, on to the next thing.  Back to other websites to register for an ISBN number, the tracking number all books have assigned to them.  No problems registering for the account, only to find out the government takes five days to activate the account!  They don’t have the process automated yet, so they have to do a lot of it manually!  So now I am stymied again waiting on the government to finish their process.  Then I have to log back on to apply for the ISBN number.  Need this number before I can finish laying out the book; need to lay out the book next Wednesday night, eight days from now.  Oh what else can come up that will make me a crazy person!  And I haven’t done any work on the book today and I am out tonight at a friend’s farewell party from work.  I think I am only stopping for a quick drink and then I am out of there.  This is crazy. And I am slower at writing the reflections that I thought I would be.  Still worried that everything will come together, so many balls in the air right now.  Getting a wee bit stressed, okay a lot stressed.  I am doing things so fast I am not even sure if I am doing them correctly.  I am sure when it comes to tax time I will have done everything for the business wrong and so it will be a complete mess, I will get audited or something crazy and I will be writing cookbooks from a little concrete cell!  Okay take a breath.  I moved it ahead all I can; focus back on the book.  That is the most important part!  Breathe!