Unleash the toastie goodness!

Okay, so it's all about to happen.
This is just a quick post to basically just upload a few pics - a proper update later.
First pic is of the counterpack hat we created for the book, it incorporates a fridge magnet (that I designed) as the header.

The other is me - after my work had a party for me (well, partly for me, we were celebrating other things as well [three books in the upcoming Montanas book awards]). I am very lucky to work with some good people, and they are a friendly bunch.
They presented me with a celebratory gift for my first book -- a one-of-a-kind Kiwi Toasties pinny! Hilarious! I never thought I'd own a pinny - but now, my Mum will be very proud!

The webpage also went live yesterday, so www.toasties.co.nz has a portal where you can get to anything Kiwi Toasties related, including this blog.

And, as you can see from the pic, the books have arrived and, as of yesterday, are being sent out to bookshops nationwide.

I'm told that the Herald on Sunday feature on toasties will be running tomorrow, so... it's all about to become real in the reaal world...not just in my little world!

Off now to get some ingredients for Otago cheese rolls -- perfect for a midwinter dinner with friends!

The back story ...

The question many have asked me, is "WHY?", with a tone of incredulous curiosity as to why anyone would even think about writing a book about toasted sandwiches.
It takes a small amount of effort for me to resist the reply my sixteen-year old self would've blurted: "why not?". Which, in itself, is a fair enough response, but in no way helpful to anyone.

So, here for anyone who cares to read, the back story to Kiwi Toasties goes as such:

July 2008: A mild-mannered editor working for a publishing company spots a blog on the stuff.co.nz website (unfortunately, I can't find the exact location of the exact blog, as the stuff website has changed in the last year, and no caches seem to exist for their blog archive dating back that far), the author of the blog was celebrating the fact that he had rediscovered the glory of toasted sandwiches (or toastie pies, as he called them), and had swapped his five-year daily ham, cheese and mustard (on untoasted bread) sandwich habit for the innovation and mouth-watering glory of warmed toasted fillings - the enticing smell of which was causing great commotion at his place of work.
The editor was intrigued to see that nearly 80 people responded to that blog, posting comments on their lunch habits, their favourite lunchbox fillings, and their favourite toasted sandwich fillings for the newly converted toastie-fan to try.
She thought about her own lunch habits. And then resolved not to think that much more about it (or the money she wasted on bought lunches).

mid-August 2008: Editor (that's me, guys! just in case you hadn't figured that one!) is at home, talking with her flatmate about boring stuff like work. He's not a fan of people filling up their water bottles at work and reusing the same bottle over and over for weeks on end "sucking out of those horrible plastic lids - ewwwww" (I, personally, don't know what I'd do without being able to fill up my water bottle three times a day!). Flatmate said something to the effect of how he also hates how people eat their lunch at their desk - especially pies. Editor/Astral thinks about how messy pies would be on her keyboard and then thinks about toasted sandwiches and remembers the blog she had read a month earlier.
Midway through the bottle of wine and dinner, flatmates are talking and all of a sudden Astral says, "No one has ever written a book about toasted sandwiches!".
Flatmates look at her, smile, and nod.

And that was the idea. Well, it turned out that a couple of people had (the UK has a couple written, but in my opinionated opinion, they are not a patch on my book, far less interesting, and seem to be written for people without tastebuds... mind you, they are British, and we all know that NZ taste in food is fresher than the UK. Uh-oh, hope my British flattie doesn't read this!), but after doing some research on amazon, and discussing the idea with a few loved ones ("bestseller!" said one biased enthusiast), I thought I might present it as a book proposal for the next publishing meeting (a monthly occurrence where we discuss new book ideas). I knew it had to be New Zealand focussed, and to be friendly and cheap.

I also decided to mock up a cover and some internal pages to present to the publishing team at work.

I thought it should be about the size of a CD, gift size, cute and 'Impulse Buy' price; so, under $20.
This was the cover I mocked up the night before the meeting.
I also put together about four pages of what sort of recipes would be included in such a book (from the simple and sublime cheese, pineapple and onion, to the ridiculous of mashed feijoa, cream cheese, chili sauce and chopped pistachio nuts ! -- no, I don't think that recipe made it into the finished book, but I still want to try it!) .

I then presented it to the team.

They're a tough bunch. And publishing is a tough business, so I was very happy (but not too surprised, I kinda knew it was an idea that could run) when they all gave the idea the thumbs up.

What I was surprised about was the fact that they thought that I should be the author. I'd presented the idea and had assumed that we would find a suitable author. But it seems the team thought that I was not only suitable, but also an author. Uh-oh!!

So, there we are, the Kiwi Toasties story - the genesis of.

The finished book is a very long way from the book that I mocked up for the presentation. The expert photography has taken my concept to a higher level in toastie-tastiness, and I am indebted to quite a few people who instantly understood what I wanted to do, and helped me get there. Oscar acceptance speech in Gwenyth Paltrow style to come later!

Galvanise!

I got a bit of a surprise this morn when I opened up my work email and read the status report from our printer in China. Kiwi Toasties advances due to be couriered from Hong Kong on 25 May -- wait, hold up -- 25th MAY? That's today!! eeek!

I knew they would be leaving there sometime this week, but wasn't really ready to consider that on a Monday morn.

Which kinda urges me (along with a friend's kind prompting) that it is about bloody time I got into action n this promotion/book malarkey. (still deliberating about a launch event!)
I have a lot of work to do!
watch this space..

PS - isn't this the perfect weather for a toastie?

Proof

Reading AL Kennedy’s quirky yet oh-so-competent words about receiving proofs to revise – the last chance to make sure your work, words and your book stacks up – holds a particular resonance for me today.
Proofs of my lil’ book are due to arrive at Bateman HQ today or yesterday, depending on how fast the FedEx man can run. (he’s obviously had a few hot cross buns, because he’s slow this week)

Last. Final. Conclusion. End. No more chances to meddle with what goes out into the big wide world.
Eeeeek!
As an editor I am usually interested to see if the proofs of the book are faithful to what I see onscreen. It’s an opportunity to find any lurking text errors and stray design elements that have decided to become unruly. Proofs can be the last time I will actually look at a book properly. Even when the advances come in, I can only just have quick flicks through; checking that everything is where it should be, before I send them out to the people who need to see them.
(This is where the oft-used simile of book production being like a pregnancy stumbles, falls and does not stand up. Ideally, parental interest in offspring doesn’t taper off at the moment of birth. Yet it is a very rare book that can win back an editor’s attention within the first few months – and even years – of publication).

As an editor, there’s always another book around the corner – you’ve probably been working intently on at least 3 other books by the time the proofs turn up, and by the time the book is published, you’ve possibly even forgotten the premise of the book.
But as an author, this is it.
This is my last chance to decide whether or not I want my name on the cover of the book. For months I had been deliberating. If my name was Sheryl I wouldn’t have a problem. But I am gifted with not only an unusual first name (thanks Mum and your beatnik ways), but also an odd surname (thanks random Irish ancestor who relocated to Scotland then the antipodes).
It was a subject of debate for my colleagues and my friends. Should I use a pseudonym (Wendy S Dale, Brie N Vogels being two of the more lateral thinking examples), a nom de plume, or not have the author mentioned at all?
As I wrote the book, however, it became apparent that I couldn’t be a detached author, I’d have to put some name to it, even if it wasn’t my own. But nothing seemed to sit right.
And then, over a couple of glasses of wine, my friend Anna (who is today heading off to immerse herself in a vivid life in Buenos Aires) made the very reasonable statement, “Well, if you don’t have your name to it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”
(A valid point, Anna. Your clarity of thinking certainly gives you an edge as a designer, and I reckon you’d make an amazing lawyer, too. But in the meantime – enjoy whatever adventures await you in the city of fair winds! )

It’s nearly 1pm, proofs still haven’t turned up. It’s making me jittery and I may resort to nervous eating – the sales manager brought in some hot cross buns this morning. The entire office smells of warm spiced fruit bread. (Almost as good as Apple-pie toasties!)

Ahhhhh — proofs, shmoofs.
If I could do it all again, would I write a different version of Kiwi Toasties? Possibly slightly different, possibly get hold of a better camera for the photos that I took. But I’d still be going through the same angst right now.

Maybe I’ll just pack my bags and head for Argentina, too?

Uh-oh ... Here’s the Fed-ex van ...

Why? why not!

I promised myself that I’d post to this blog this weekend. But, despite having lots to say, I managed not to. This is mostly due to the fact that the weekend was glorious! It was the last weekend of daylight savings, and rather that tip tap tap at my keyboard I had a picnic of French pastries on the beach, made icecream, ran and walked up and down hills, jumped off a pontoon into the April-warm sea, drank beers in the sun, ate fish and chips with mates who would not share their chips but did share their wine, and generally had a weekend of fun and frivolity.
But here I am on a Monday night, tapping away; hoping to post this sometime this evening. (Our internet is being shambolic at the moment. I think I need a new modem/wireless router.)
* There * is * always * something * . *

Friday, April 3rd – passing by the fax machine today I saw my name on a fax. I don’t usually receive faxes, ( it is not so long ago the implicit technology behind receiving and sending facsimiles mystified me – all those dots of information morphing into sound-wave immaterial data then back into something material again… too much for my brain to comprehend how that actually works in realtime). I don’t usually check the faxes, they are either orders from stores, or junk mail offering special discounts on cases of ‘manufacturer’s clearance’ items.
But this fax had my name on it. It was an order from a store. The first one I had seen.
5 copies! Five! To one small-town shop … HELL! It’s real! My name is now associated with a book, an ISBN, an RRP … a product. A transaction. A fax. Millions of little dots being fired as data into space and time because of me.

I’ve been trying to keep my distance from the sales information for Kiwi Toasties. I’m happy, for once, that I don’t have direct access to our sales monitoring system. It’s all too much to think about.
I suppose I’m in denial.

I don’t want fame and fortune, but I also don’t want failure! I know that is rarely something that one would admit. We all try and muck along pretending that we don’t give a damn about what other people think. But, essentially, I do care if I let people down.

I came up with this idea. I was thrilled when first a loved one thought it was a good idea, then my workmates thought it was a publishable idea … and then … well… then it grew into a book.
And here I am writing a blog to make sense of it all; how I ended up writing a book on the beloved, tasty and iconic toasted sandwich.

Shall I tell you how it started?

Well, maybe I should. If you are reading this then it means you have either stumbled in sideways to it, or you are actually interested. (As I say in the book, there is no accounting for taste!)
Dad, this blog is for you – I know you always thought I would write a book, and you were quite chuffed when I told you I had managed to get a publishing deal. But it took you a little while to realise I wasn’t joking, and that I was actually writing a book on toasties (of all things)! Love you Dad, thanks for your continued faith. Maybe the next book will be a Booker nominee! ha!
The next posting will relate how this all came to be... thanks for stopping by and reading my rambles.

Cover!

It's funny how something you've imagined for so long finally turns up and it looks better than you thought it might. Here's what I got to see first thing this morning upon arrival at the office.