9' x 12': The Adventure Continues - Chapter 5
Waiting For P Day. The Run-Up to Publication: Press, Promotion, and Patience.
Ludwig Van Beethoven wrote, "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life." I think everyone agrees that music has the power to transport you and evoke strong emotions. I was pondering this as I walked home from an exuberant classical concert recently, and you might be wondering what this has to do with writing cookbooks. Bear with me.
The program included Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No1. (see playlist at the end of this chapter) I'll add here that Shostakovich is not my favorite composer (apologies to any of his ardent fans) and that I was not overly familiar with this piece of music. Little did I know I was about to get my socks blown off. The soloist was Patricia Kopatchinskaja. She walked onstage in a flowing ensemble that resembled an abstract Braque painting and promptly removed her shoes. She poured herself into the music with almost balletic movements flowing with the notes as she flew through the extraordinary score. There was a moment early in the cadenza where the orchestra was silent, and the only sound was almost whisper-like notes emanating from her violin. The entire audience held its breath, you could, as the saying goes, literally hear a pin drop. The score then gathers momentum and accelerates, drawing in the orchestra for the finale. It was electrifying. I think we all felt exhausted afterward, as if we had just scaled a mountain. I sat in my chair, collecting my breath and my thoughts. Music has the ability to transport you, my immediate thought was that this piece represented, in an odd way, the creative process I had just gone through over the past year, (see previous chapters) from the initial flurry of activity to moments of calm and contemplation to discovery, imagination, trial and error, repetition, creation, and, in a final frenzy of work, completion. When I finished the book, I felt a little like I did when the piece of music ended. Exhilarated and simultaneously exhausted.
During the intermission, I stretched my legs to gather my thoughts and also to find out more about the virtuoso violinist. I googled her, as one does, and found her website. On the landing page is the following quote: "My first teacher was the rain. I listened to the drops. They were the first short, round notes in my childhood imagination. Then came the sun. The notes became longer and more transparent, beginning in the clouds and disappearing into infinity. Wind taught me momentum, the night taught me silence and the suddenness of the morning. I learnt about atmosphere from the smell of the candles in our small Moldovan Orthodox church; the movement and shadows of their flames showed me how to improvise. From language came phrasing, and with that my dreams opened up into the limitlessness of fantasy..."
Reading this, I realized we all draw inspiration and insight from our lived experiences, surroundings, sights, smells, tastes, and sounds. They impact our creativity. The morning of the concert, I was at the farmers' market, marveling at the riot of autumnal colors that had blossomed in the new season of crops. Splotches of russets, deep ochres, and pumpkin festooned the farmer's tables. I marveled once again how nature's cyclical nature inspired all the recipes in my book, just as raindrops and light inspired Kopatchinskaja.
I stepped outside and breathed in the night sky while everyone caught their collective breaths, and a thought crossed my mind: my new book, Flavour, is currently in that intermission stage. Production is complete. The books are currently sitting on a ship that is making its way across the Pacific Ocean. This post-production-pre-publication period is the calm before the hurly-burly rush of the book tour. But beneath that calm, much is afoot. Press releases have been written and sent out, and follow-up contacts must be made once, twice, and sometimes thrice. Everyone in the media is busy; you want to get their attention but not be a pain, and it's a fine balancing act, not being a pain, that is! How many people in the food department at The New York Times does one send it to, for example?!
Articles in the press are free publicity. You want all the free publicity you can get. My job as the author is to then re-post that information on social media platforms with a view to driving sales. This stage is all about building momentum, much like an orchestra building up to a crescendo. The first articles about the book have started to appear. 805 Living just published three pages, with recipe excerpts and photos.
I have also started posting videos marking milestones in the book's production, including this one, when I received the first advance copy of the book. It was very exciting!.
I'm giving interviews to other publications for articles to appear just before the book launches and in the weeks following. You will hear and see more on those in the coming month. The other time-consuming task is organizing the book tour and the concurrent publicity for that too.
With great delight, I can now reveal all the events (14 and counting as of this writing) for the Californian part of the Book Tour. Each event is slightly different comprising talks, cooking demos, lunches, tastings and of course a book signing at every stop!
November 10th - 4:00 to 6:00 PM Private Book Launch Party in Santa Barbara, CA. Everyone who pre-ordered the book is invited. Invitations will be sent soon. All pre-ordered books also receive special gifts. You can still receive these bonus gifts if you order before Nov 9th!
November 12th - 6:00-7:30 PM Chaucer’s Books - Santa Barbara, CA
I am honored to begin my book tour with a talk and signing at this much treasured independent book store. This will be signing number six in this wonderful shop.November 13th - 6:00-8:30 pm Women’s Literary Voices - Santa Barbara, CA
Savor the flavors of autumn and celebrate the release of chef and author Pascale Beale’s new cookbook, FLAVOUR, Savouring The Seasons: Recipes From The Market Table, at a special Women’s Literary Voices Salon. This is a ticketed eventNovember 15th - 11:00 am-1:00 pm Emily Joubert, Woodside CA
Conversation and book signingNovember 15th - 2:30-4:00 pm Emily Joubert, San Francisco, CA
Conversation and book signingNovember 16th - 6:00 - 7:00 pm Omnivore Books on Food, San Francisco, CA
Author talk and signing. This is one of my favorite book shops dedicated to cookbooks. Owner Celia Sack is a cookbook connoisseur and I’m honored to be invited back!
November 20th - Noon-2:00 pm A Taste of Flavour - Montecito, CA
Join the owners of Cabana Home, Luretik Olive Oil and chef and Author Pascale Beale of Pascale's Kitchen for a private lunch featuring dishes from the book, a book signing and tasting. This is a ticked event, more details will be available here.November 21st - 2:00-4:00 pm Folly, Santa Barbara, CA
Join me in one of Santa Barbara's loveliest shops for a chat about food, writing and cookbooks!November 22nd - 5:30pm Clementine Carter Winery, Los Alamos, CA
Join Pascale Beale in conversation with Winemaker and Owner of Clementine Carter Winery for their Speaker Series. Pascale will discuss the creation of her latest cookbook, FLAVOUR. Books will be available at the event.
November 23rd - 11:00am Emily Joubert - Montecito
Join chef and author Pascale Beale at the beautiful Emily Joubert Store in Montecito, CA for conversation, a tasting and book signing.
November 30th & December 1st - 10:30am-4:00pm
Join PASCALE'S KITCHEN, JESSICA FOSTER CONFECTIONS, GIPSY HILL BAKERY AND JUDIT m. DESIGNS for our very special ANNUAL HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE.
A weekend of luscious treats, fragrant spices, sensational oils, exotic tastes and beautiful gifts for you, your friends and your home. By invitation.December 3rd - 11:00am Fleur de Lys, Costa Mesa, CA
Join Chef and and award wining food writer, photographer and cookbook author Pascale Beale at Fleur de Lys for a book signing and talk.
December 5th - 6:00pm Godmother’s Bookstore, Summerland, CA
Author talk and conversation about The Art of Food and book signing
December 6th - 3:00pm A Beautiful Mess Home, Agoura Hills, CA
Conversation and book signing
There are some more events pending, including a signing at the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market, dates will be announced soon!
The first part of the tour is ready to go but I still have a long list of items that must be completed before 10th November. The new herb collection has to be packaged, new bookmarks must be designed and ordered, invitations to the launch party created, planning the launch party itself, prepping for talks, staffing the events, etc, etc, you get the gist. I feel like a bird gliding calmly across a pond, knowing that there's mad scrambling going on underneath the water. It's a frenetic yet oddly peaceful time because once the book is actually here, it will be a marathon of signings, talks, and events while driving up and down California.
I'm looking forward to it, but as with each book release, I'm also apprehensive .. will everyone like the book? Will it sell well? Will stores sell out and re-order?
It was appropriate then that the concert ended with Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4. The London Philharmonic, under the auspices of conductor Edward Gardner, did Peter Ilyich proud. The rousing finale got my (and the entire audience's) blood flowing. The mighty send-off felt like a gigantic orchestral round of encouragement. I walked home feeling energized and ready to tackle the to-do list.
4 weeks to go until Publication Day!
Playlist for 9’ x 12’: The Adventure Continues - Chapter 5
Dmitri Shostakovich, Violin Concerto no. 1 (unfortunately I cannot find a recording of Kopatchinskaja, but this one is excellent with Soyoung Yoon as the soloist)
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4.
Recipes and excerpt of FLAVOUR from 805 Living Magazine.
Hats off to you, Pascale! I've got the music playing in the background to accompany your words. Succinct, precise, pitch perfect, as clear as any of the notes. Bravo.
Dad