July 1, 2010

The last eighteen months have been a whirlwind!  I sent the first draft manuscript for Teacakes & Squirrel Mulligan to University of Georgia Press knowing it was over the word limit and needed polishing.  Quite frankly, I ran out of time.  When I began the project in 2006, I didn’t know that my research and writing time would be compressed by planning a wedding, a career change, combining households, orchestrating a move completely across the country, and getting ready to become a mother.  By autumn of 2008, I was finishing up text and testing recipes while constantly fighting off the urge to curl around my big belly for a nap.  I made a last desperate trip home to the South to finish up interviews before I was too far along for my doctor to let me travel.  The manuscript was due December 1 while my son was due December 3.  Thankfully, sweet Elijah waited to arrive until after the draft went into the mail. 

While I embarked on a world of diapers, first milestones, and baby love, the manuscript sat quietly on a shelf all the way across the country.  The economic downturn that affected so many Americans also meant the press had to move more slowly.  When feedback arrived after several months, I began a second draft, working during my son’s naps or when he was in bed at night.  It was a rewarding but often painful process.  Some of the sections I had to cut meant invalidating whole research trips and leaving some favorite topics untouched.  It also meant some kind interviewees now appear in the book only in the list of contributors.  But late this spring, a much stronger and more cohesive second draft went to the press and this time was assigned an editor.  When will the book reach the printing stage and be available in bookstores?  At this point, I do not know.  But I will post periodic updates to this website.

I would like to thank those who granted interviews and served as consultants.  I would also like to thank everyone who has supported me through the entire process – kind words, unwavering interest, but also recipe testing and babysitting.  A stay-at-home writer and mother certainly knows that it does take a village!

The First Teacake At age three months, Eli supervises Mama making teacakes using his great great grandmother’s recipe.	The First Biscuits So many people contributed to the chapter in the book about biscuits.  Here is Eli at ten months enjoying his first biscuit.  Mama made it from scratch, of course.