It seems as if it has been a very long time since I have blogged...and though I am normally a summer slacker, particularly as the harvest really starts coming in, I have been absent for a very different reason. This summer, I am co-authoring and editing a new book: Grocery Gardening, published by Cool Springs Press. And in fact, it is already available for pre-sale on Amazon. Click on the above link and it will take you there.
Now, you know I am not one to write a standard gardening book. So while this covers some familiar topics, it does so in a very different way. First, we started by writing the book in a true collaborative process. I corralled 3 of my favorite garden writers and convinced them to try this new style of writing. The fearless gardeners are Robin Riley of Bumble Bee Blog, Amanda Thomsen of Horticulture Magazine and Kiss My Aster fame and Teresa O'Connor of Seasonal Wisdom.
We started with a 60 day deadline...yes, 60 days...which ends on September 1st, 2009. After roughing out the book layout and dividing the work, we started madly writing away. We used an online collaboration tool called Wiggio, which while it wasn't perfect, was helpful in scheduling, file sharing and communicating. I wrote a post about it on Edgy Entrepreneur, if you are interested in learning more.
We are now in the second part of our process, crowdsourcing content. We want you the people to share your recipes, photos, planting tips and other garden wisdom with us. If your content is chosen, you will be acknowledged in the book and will receive an ecopy of my book, Growing Food: A Guide for Beginners. I whipped up a Grocery Gardening Ning for just this purpose. After the book is published, we will keep our little community going so you all can interact with the authors and each other. Please do join and share with us...your participation in the book is what will make it special.
On the Ning site, we have all of the herbs, fruits and veggie listed, as well as other topics/chapters. We also have profiles established, so don't hesitate to contact us...
It is highly likely that you won't see much of me until the book is finished in a few weeks...but keep the faith, I will return...
Good luck with the book Ms. Jean Ann!
Posted by: TC | August 18, 2009 at 03:14 PM