If I Could Choose 3 People To Endorse My Book
Last week I went through A LOT to get endorsements for my book, Little Grapes on the Vine. I was overjoyed with those who did endorse me; friends, colleagues, people I have written for, even someone who didn't know me. I was humbled, built up, and excited - so of course, I found a way to sabotage this feeling - I do silly things like that. My immediate ego rescue was to create a mental list of fantasy endorsers for my book, in no small part due to Bon Appetit magazine. At the back of Bon Appetit every month, a celebrity is featured and dishes about what's in their fridge, their favorite places to eat, and always, who they would have over for dinner if they could invite anyone. In Rachael Ray's magazine, Everyday, she has a similar feature, "Celebrity Fridge". These are my culinary Enquirers, guess you couldd say.
Fantasy is not reality, I'm aware of this as I sit in my size 12 jeans, but I dream nonetheless. So I indulge myself this daydream, because I believe if I ever got the ear of these fantasy endorsers, we'd agree wholeheartely about most things, stay up late talking (maybe drinking red wine), and certainly devising plans to overturn the broken systems of society - I'm a sucker for revolutionaries, especially when they use their voice, pen (hm, keyboard?) and benevolence to help others. That's just me.
MY FANTASY ENDORSERS ARE:
1) Anthony Kiedis - my book has California content, also musings on how we can save the world, one small, self-sustaining, organic farm at a time. When I listen closely to his stream-of-consciousness lyrics an get a spare minute to read his autobiography, I hear someone I'd like to meet at the farmers market, on the beach, someone who really gets it. He's half-Greek, like my kids, and he'd smile when I told him I am a Valley Girl. He'd love my salmon with citrus, and upon finding the recipe in my book, would know an endorsement was meant to be.
2) Dave Matthews - Talk about grass roots. I lost count of all the different charities he is involved with, performs for, gives to, has created...and why is that do you think? Because he cares. He'd read my reference to Tom Joad and smile as he wrote my endorsement, but probably not say much. Then I'd give my Oatmeal Raisin Peanut Butter cookies to him and his band. They'd have an extra spring in their step as they performed thereafter. We "Eat Too Much".
3) Julia Child - "I never cooked until I was 32, until then I just ate." Talk about revolutionary. She reinvented herself in her thirties through food, but she brought people together and posthumously continues to tame the haughtiest of chef egos - and inspire home cooks simultaneously. Food is not a tool of intimidation, I learned from her, it's a way of life. Explore it and enjoy the best life has to offer. I would make Julia my mother-in-laws Artichokes and Potatoes with Fennel. I would try to sell her on the genius of Mediterranean recipes hundreds of years old. French cooking, my Greek husband and family will tell you, probably started in Greece, like everything else. Pretty good from the hip, I could run with that topic until she scribbled down my endorsement similar to the way she wrote hundreds of recipes.
This is a nice dream. I could go on and on, Bill Clinton, Don Henley, Greg Maddux, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frances McDormand, but that's another blog. Basically, I am re-affirming belief in myself and my book when I conjure up this fantasy list. I find idealism in these people I hope simmers within me and gets me typing away about my own revolutions - gradually becoming books, maybe speaking to others the way my fantasy endorsers speak to me. Benevolently.
Now, what can I cook for you?
