A Recipe for Disaster (# 9)
Food and Fame in the Italian countryside
It’s been a while… Sorry about that. I guess I am just not that organised. I know I should be doing this more regularly. But at least now I actually have some interesting things to SAY!
First of all it’s goodbye to Italy for a while. I’ve been anticipating a call to go off for another stint with Aljazeera in Qatar, and finally it’s come. Tam is not best pleased. Because it means I shall be clearing off just when things get a bit tricky here as winter comes. There will be much log carrying to do, as we’re fortunate enough to have a big open fireplace in our temporary home. I’ve arranged something though…. I had a word with Romeo, the son of our downstairs neighbours. He’s going to make sure Tam has a constant supply of logs which he will lug up every week from the wood store outside the house.
I know wood is valuable commodity round here, but I didn’t realize that you needed a guard dog to protect it! Of course, Jack is not really there to protect the wood — he was actually supposed to be trained up to be a hunting dog, but apparently he’s no good at it.
It’s obvious why… because he’s just too nice. He is the softest, sweetest dog you could imagine, and really he should be someone’s beloved pet — not a failed gun-dog. In fact, if there’s anyone out there looking for a dog, I think it could possibly be arranged. He’s a lovely, good-natured English setter, and (for my money) he’s also just about the most beautiful dog I’ve ever seen. Someone, somewhere is going to fall in love with him. Sadly it can’t be me — hotel living in the Arabian desert is not quite the way forward.
The other thing to report is that I’ve been plotting a sort of pre-Christmas publicity campaign for A Recipe for Disaster…
The wonderful Rachel Gilbey at rachelsrandomresources.com has put together a blog tour which will run throughout the first week of November. What’s a Blog Tour? Yes, I didn’t know either, but it’s an orchestrated campaign where a series of regular Book Bloggers (Bloggers who write regularly about books, rather than Bloggers who write about regular books) will review and help promote the book on their sites, through a series of different techniques including sample recipes, Q&A with the author (me!), extracts from the book and even in one case a clip from Cookucina, the TV series which inspired the book.
Then, running through November and into December there will be some BIGG poster adverts on the platforms of a couple of stations in West London. I chose Chiswick and Twickenham because a) I know them well, and b) I think Chiswickians and Twickenhamese are just the sort of people who will appreciate Italy and Italian food, and therefore the book and the series too.
Also, and this is one I have high hopes for, I’ll have an advert in the lifts at Borough station, which is great, of course, for its proximity to London’s foodie magnet, Borough Market.
I, of course, will be in Qatar while all this is going on, so I won’t be able to see for myself. But if you happen to be in any of these places please take some kind of a selfie alongside the poster. Best poster-selfie wins a prize…
So, busy right now getting everything ready for that campaign, and getting packed for Qatar. I shall, of course, miss the log fires as the winter closes in (I will be basking in temperatures in the high twenties for most of the time), but the thing I am going truly to miss is the autumn here in Le Marche.
So far, this month has been a glorious Indian Summer, and it looks set to remain that way right through to November. Hot, hot sun, cool breezes, and bright, clear blue skies — it’s really magical, and I shall miss it no end.
Oh, and one last thing… I am going to be doing some Facebook/Google type online advertising over the same pre-Xmas period. I’m starting by creating a Facebook Page for the book. It’s still work-in-progress at the moment, but try searching for StephenPhelpsBooks or A Recipe for Disaster and let me know if you can find it. And… any (creative!) criticism will be gratefully received, and (probably) acted upon.
