what a week! honest diary entires from a big cookbook week 😅

Diary of a tired creative, butt-shuffling to the finish line.

This week has been a big one! I'm borrowing a format I love here – diary entries from those going *through* something (like motherhood or publishing a book). I've been saving this format for when things get to the pointy end with I Want Dopamine for Dinner. Here's a little diary I kept from the week that was...

SUNDAY / preorder announcement day

Managed to keep a lid on overthinking today (go me).

I approached it like a work day – as I had to finish up the various launch content before hitting send – yet it still managed to feel like a really good Sunday! I visited my grandmother, who apart from having a tear-filled sad day, was very excited for me (in the capacity that she understood) when I told her today was the day I announced my cookbook. She asked if my parents were taking me out to dinner (they were not), then took a long pause and gave me a stern look when I told her the price I had set for it. Tried explaining that the cost of printing is very expensive these days and that it is on the lower end of what cookbooks cost in bookshops these days.

Before posting everything I ducked out to the library to collect the 7 reserves that had accrued in my name. Aren't libraries the best? The vibes were immaculately intergenerational / living room coded / third space vibes and I felt RICH-rich (as the young people say) sitting on a comfy couch browsing my books.

Said a little prayer to myself before pressing send / publish on all the preorder content (which went smoothly). Had a celebratory hash brown with tea (a satay tofu rice bowl lol), then forced myself to get back in there (on the apps) to reply to people's comments and DMs which were all extremely lovely and encouraging. Went to bed with a full heart, feeling the magical force of artists supporting artists.

MONDAY

Took the morning "off" from cookbook work to catch up on housework (clean space, clear mind... that sort of thing) – although only so successful because I woke to hundreds of delightful messages about the cookbook. So I eventually dedicated myself to answering those instead. Realised there are only so many ways to say thank you and that means so much (which it does), which kind of made me feel performative and inauthentic.

Was weirdly warm today. By the afternoon it felt like summer holidays, so it was hard to get any work done. Did some mindless data entry putting the cookbook into the Australian library supplier catalogues. Felt riddled with cabin fever or perhaps a dopamine come down by evening (ironic considering the cookbook's title). Craved a salad for dinner, had pies from the freezer with greens instead.

TUESDAY

Put all the page numbers into the cookbook document – think Index, see p. ? for more information etc. It was as dry as it sounds. Satisfying to tick it off though. Somehow realised that I'd formatted the width of my file wrong (what! why?!), so I fixed that. Made a cookbook themed header for my YouTube and made a quick tofu saag for dinner (recipe in my first cookbook), to get my greens in. Felt cabin fever-ish again by evening. Eager to get out of the house tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY

Today I was reminded of the value in a friendly follow-up email! I contacted all the booksellers who hadn't responded to my inquiry about the possibility of *stocking my book* and by the end of the day I had secured two more stockists, hooray! Yes, it's slow going. But a win's a win.

The weather was bitterly cold and my friend woke up with a cold so froyo was cancelled and my iNtErEstiNg oUtinGs *just* consisted of therapy (last session before my therapist goes on leave), a consignment store (no luck), the bulk store (for dark chocolate coated almonds... duh), a Japanese cafe (for some sushi), the vet (for my dog's worming tablet) and the supermarket on the way home (for some final cookbook reshoot materials). Now that I'm writing it, that was quite a lot!

THURSDAY / FRIDAY

Writing this entry on Friday evening feeling like the last few weeks of *no real weekend* is catching up to me. I'm not even sure I can remember today let alone yesterday....

I got 1 out of 2 blurbs back from some lovely mentors / writers who read over bits of the book and generously agreed to write an endorsement quote for it. Feels really nice to add other names to the back cover... I'm reflecting on how isolating this project has been!

Spoke to a friend over in Western Australia this morning, also realising how much I miss long catch ups with people who are excited for you and what you're doing. My parent's moderate interest at best, lacklustre sounding board is starting to get to me.

My main efforts the last two days have been prepping recipes for some fiNaL reshoots. Problem is it's winter and the sun (who I've decided does make food look 10 times better than the shade does) is only showing its face once in a blue moon and when I looked at the forecast Saturday was the only day for it. *Sigh* and goodbye 3/4 of my weekend, again! No but in grateful news the sun came out for a few hours today and I knocked over a third of what I had to shoot then.

I'm worried my marketing efforts are falling behind (suddenly have perfectionist tendencies towards posting anything... how helpful!), but I'm trying to remind myself there are like 3 months between submitting the book and it coming out. Maybe I should stop writing and go and post something!

Update: I did!

SATURDAY

Developed major trust issues with the sun today, the weather app was saying all week that it was going to be FULL SUN today – hence why I planned doing the final cookbook shoots... TODAY (!) – only for it to poke its meek winter head out at 12:30pm! Of course, being a morning person who jumped out of bed to get this shit done, was kind of done waiting by 11:00am and just went ahead and shot the sub-par-shot-in-the-shade pics... in the shade... AGAIN, although (drama aside) I'm pleased to say they are definitely a big improvement. I tried working with the afternoon sun but it's so low in the sky at that point the harsh shadows are just a pain in the hoo-ha to work with – so I think I made the right call making the best out of a *what can ya do!?!* situation.

So it's done! The photography is done. Now just one more week to put in the final bits and bobs, proof-read everything one last time and then send it off to the printers. I feel like I'm butt shuffling to the finish line here folks. Had a fat nap all afternoon (while the sun poured through the shutters... thanks hun) and had a (very needed) little cry when I woke up (a common occurrence these days).

Endlessly grateful for your support on my book and all the content I've been flinging your way! 

(A very tired brain put this newsletter together, so apologies for the – very many – rough edges),

– Phoebe x