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!
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