Paleo Perfection!

Sometimes it happens that everything falls into place when you work on a book, and the end result is even better than you could have anticipated. This is certainly what happened to me this year when I worked on Optimum Health the Paleo Way.

My brief from Exisle Publishing was to find the right author to write the 'essential' paleo book. Contrary to popular belief, the paleo diet does not mean that you eat like a caveman. Instead, at its best, it's a return to a way of eating that puts the focus on seasonal, unprocessed, whole foods. It's all about eating 'real' food. I needed an author with the necessary knowledge and qualifications as well as someone with a passion for food and an ability to develop quick, easy and delicious recipes. After a lot of research, I found the perfect candidate: Claire Yates of Indi Nature. And luck was with me, as Claire jumped on board immediately!

Many months later — and after much liaising via phone and email — Claire delivered a truly brilliant manuscript, packed full of information on healthy eating, using food as medicine, reducing sugar cravings, boosting energy levels, etc, etc. You name it, she'd covered it! She also supplied over 100 tasty recipes and accompanying photographs. 

My editing and design team were top notch and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as, over the coming months, we put together a book we are all incredibly proud to have worked on. And now it's about to hit the shelves. So, if you're interested in great food that's good for you, check it out — you won't regret it.

Optimum Health the Paleo Way by Claire Yates, ISBN 9781921966262, RRP $35.00

Brumby Book Signing

This morning I had the pleasure of attending a book signing for a title that's definitely one of my favourites for the year. Brumby: A Celebration of Australia's Wild Horses was over a year in the making, but the end result is truly stunning.

I first came up with the idea for this book when I visited the Hunter Valley Brumby Association sanctuary. Founder Kathryn Massey works tirelessly, together with a team of volunteers, to rescue Brumbies that would otherwise be culled, then care for them and handle them until they are ready to be re-homed to their 'forever' owners. I thought it would be wonderful if we could put together a book that gave a brief history of the Brumby and then featured stories of people who have either experienced encounters with these magnificent animals in the wild or who have been lucky enough to adopt one. 

Kath jumped at the idea and together with co-author Mae Lee Sun, editor of the online Wild Horse Journal,  set about collecting the stories and images. It was a long and often difficult process, but I think both authors realised that all the hard work had well and truly paid off when they saw the finished book a couple of weeks ago! And today, Kath got to see the wonderfully positive response of others to the book at her first book signing.

This book has been a labour of love from start to finish and proceeds from the sale of the book go towards saving the Brumbies. It's the kind of project I love to be involved in!

Brumby is published by Exisle Publishing and is available in bookstores and online from September 2013.