We have news!

For the last two years we have been researching and writing and finally, after much cutting, pasting, messaging and final decision making, we have a completed manuscript.   (Cue the champagne corks here……)

Wednesday night saw our emailed digital copy sitting as a draft for several hours while several deep breaths were taken and the elastic on our big girl knickers was pulled up with a resounding snap.  Our good friend Annemarie who helps us with all our digital stuff coined a hashtag for us several months ago and we throw it around jokingly – #shitsgettingreal, and yes, this week we were throwing it around but it wasn’t really a joke!

It’s so real that we have created a tangible thing.  We’ve taken an idea and turned it into a proper, physical, printed document.  Those women who submitted recipes to Barossa’s community cookbook in 1917 and again in 1932 now have their own names.  Their own story.  A small interpretation (we hope) of their own voice.  A glimpse into their lives, sacrifices and dedications.  And even if this book never gets published, our manuscript can sit on a library shelf as an impressive body of research work in its own right – and that is a mighty feeling.  As keepers we have created a new life for this old book, and we hope we’ve played a part in giving it relevance for another 100 years.

We would like to take a moment to call for a round of applause for the team of people who have helped us reach this point.  Our recipe testers, our research assistants, our cheerleaders, and our living descendants.  All of you have played such an important part in helping us get to this point, so take a bow.  It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes an awesome group of keepers to write a manuscript!

Wakefield Press have been fabulous to work with so far and we really hope that they love our manuscript as much as we do.   With both digital and physical copies now submitted, the wait to see what they think begins!  

And while the life cycle of the manuscript evolves,  so too does the next phase of the project.  The next step will be editing, then food photography and while all of that is going on we will also be stepping out into another entirely unfamiliar scene.  This project has seen us have to get brave and step out of our comfort zones again, again and again.  But out here is where the magic happens, right?  And we love magic!

So the next thing for us to master is corporate sponsorship….because this is a community book, and these things don’t print themselves!  Editors, graphic designers and food photographers don’t come cheap.  We need to honour the intent of the original cookbook by directing proceeds back to the community, and to do that we need to raise funds.  So whilst spruiking our work and becoming shameless self-promoters doesn’t sit comfortably with us, it’s just another skill we are about to learn.  (And let’s be honest, new skills are never really acquired without wine….right?)

There will be an opportunity for keepers everywhere to support our project in a meaningful way and as soon as we have nutted out the finer details we will be in touch.    We want to build a package that you will love but that will also support the project, so we just need to finalise details, but be assured that it will include exclusive pre-orders and personalised book copies!

So yes, we’ve been a bit MIA on socials for the last few months, but we promise all that is about to change.  It’s preserving season, it’s Christmas, and there is a whole year of amazing keeper things to celebrate!

So here’s cheers.  To completed manuscripts, to community cookbooks, and to the keepers everywhere who keep us and all this beautiful stuff going.

Cheers

Sheralee and Marieka

Cheers,

Marieka and Sheralee

Thosebarossagirls@gmail.com

#wearethekeepers