Q: What is the significance of your book/the cover? What do you hope readers will feel when they have read/seen it?

D: The significance of the book is to guide others on how to cook some great food with fresh wholesome ingredients that you could potentially grow yourself or get from a local market or farm gate. I intentionally designed he cover to catch the eye of gardeners and portray the journey from harvest to plate.

Q: How many books/stories have you written?

L: I’ve only written a couple non-fiction short stories, numerous non-fiction articles, both product and book reviews, and a total of 7 published books (one of which is no longer available). We did have an eBook (Jump Start For Writers), but that no longer exists. Currently we have a 2-book series on green living (Trash Talk), 2 books of poetry (Towards Understanding; Rhythm & Rhyme) and there’s a newly revised book filled with marketing advice for writers (Purple Snowflake Marketing). Our most recent release is a cookbook: From One Small Garden that, as you might derive from the name, focuses on recipes that help people take advantage of garden harvests and reduce food waste.

Q: How many (books) bookshelves do you have in your home?

D: We are still bookies. We have about 7 or 8 bookshelves throughout the house and studio. I will never stop reading real books as it has a much more intimate feel than a screen. A lot of the books I have are technical manuals on computer software, photographic technique books, books on drums and percussion and sound or rhythm therapy.

Q: Why did you feel this book needed to be written?

D: I think the times we are living in dictate a turn towards people growing more of their own food in their backyards. With this in mind and the fact that we have been doing exactly that for over 30 years we felt our collection of well-refined recipes could be very relevant and well received. We have had people showing keen interest ever since we started the project so many years ago. Another twist of the book is that it is not as meat-heavy as the average North American diet tends to be. As former vegetarians, we realized a compromise is all too possible. Like the Asian style of diet they have a small serving of protein with a lot of vegetables and rice or noodles. The typical North American plate has a big chunk of meat with a small portion of vegetables possibly. I always feel less energetic after a meal heavy in protein unless I have just been on a big hike or ride and have the need for that kind of portioning to replace what I burned off.

Q: What was your path to publication?

L: From One Small Garden started out as a collection of recipes we gathered from friends and family or created ourselves and over the years this developed into 2 binders filled with recipes. We decided to systematically go through them deciding on the best-of-the-best and organizing them for ourselves. It helped that at the time (1998), I had been in a car accident and was home to do this task. After we became writers and had been in the career for a few years, we decided that this collection needed to be published. That was some 18 years ago… and since then the manuscript has been worked on sporadically, set aside while we took on various life challenges, business and work projects, publishing 6 other books and renovated and landscaped 2 different homes we bought/sold. Finally in 2019, we again took up the task of completing the cookbook project, organizing for beta testers/readers, editing, book cover design, etc. and by early 2021 it was released.

Q: What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer?

L: The world of writing is constantly changing. People’s desires for certain types of books changes rapidly. The world in general has changed from one that values buying and reading books to one that wants to download things for free. So I have to keep learning, keep evolving, keep up with new opportunities and find new ways of showing our products have value. I think that is what has kept me a little off guard, the fact that an artist never really gets to relax into their role – there is no end to the learning, a new challenge is blocking the way at every turn. I often have to set aside things that I might really want to accomplish, just to that I can take the time to learn the skills to do what must be done. The frustration is endless and I am so grateful to have Dave to share all of this with.

Q: What is your proudest writer moment?

D: I’m unabashedly proud every single time we put out another book. I only wish my folks were still alive to see it.

Check out their new book – From One Small Garden: Over 300 Delicious Nutritious Recipes at:

AMAZON USA:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T7YRHPN

AMAZON CANADA:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08T7YRHPN

Source by Dave Brummet