I haven't written in a while, and I'm sorry. The greater portion of my research has wrapped up, so I'm not really finding new stuff very often.
Several months ago, I submitted the finished manuscript of my book to the publishers, and they gave it to a couple of review readers. It had to be proofed for historical rigor. This called for two independent reviewers to read and make thorough comments. The reviewers are respected authorities in the field, who make a recommendation to the publisher about the worthiness of publication. These reviewers remain anonymous (so that I won't offer them bribes of homemade pies to influence their reviews). Today I received copies of the anonymous reviews. I thought I'd share a couple of juicy nuggets with you, purely by way of boasting.
Reviewer #1 said, "This manuscript contributes greatly to the study of foodways in the latter half of the nineteenth century." Whoah there! I started to feel giddy, and then read on. "This book, if published, will be of interest to scholars, history 'buff’s' fascinated with trail history, staffs of museums and living history farms, and the general public who values history." Imagine that, someone besides me thinks there might be an audience and market for the book! This reviewer went on to say that the manuscript needs some serious editing, and maybe not so many recipes but more analysis.
Reviewer #2 said, "I believe that Brock’s research is extraordinary." Heh. I think I know how to do research, but I could do better with writing and analysis of the research. This reviewer also went on to say, "Brock is to [be] congratulated for his painstaking research over two years." Then followed several pages of things that needed a strong editorial hand. But the best part of all is that this reviewer contributed a couple of recipes from her own family dating back 5 generations. I share one of these with you here.
"Molasses Candy
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
Butter
Boil until stringy in cold water, not so it breaks or hard. Pour in greased pan, cool, then make a roll and pull into lengths and cut in pieces."
~Anne Hess Milne
St. George, Utah
1854-1921
Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far, including all of you who read here.
Potato Paste/Peppermint Chocolates (1912)
3 months ago
8 comments:
Wow, Brock! This is fantastic! And it's about time you wrote something on this blog! I'm so proud of you! You rock!
I'm going to post this link on my facebook page. I have a TON of writers who would love to support you!
Wonderful! I can't wait to ready it.
Good for you. I just finished a research paper on Mary Lou Williams, and discovered that she probably was the very founder of bebop. Groundbreaking, and important, if all I wanted to do was research for the rest of my life, which I don't. It would make a good doctoral thesis for someone, if they wanted to spend a couple of hundred hours pouring over archives. It feels good to do legitimate, valuable research, though, and make some kind of discovery of impact. Too bad no one will ever find out about Mary Lou. She was awesome.
Congratulations Brock! I'm happy Melissa crowed about you on FB. Enjoy the view from cloud 9!
Great jorb! How exciting. Once published, you should give your loyal blog readers first crack at buying it. Perhaps there could be a blog editition limited stamp inside each copy, with your signature.
...or maybe even a blog giveaway. :-)
good job, Brock. you are the man.
I was wondering what you were up to. Congrats on those reviews. I'm looking forward to reading this book. BTW, I love molasses candy. That brings back fond memories of pulling molasses candy at Grandma's house after the Days of '47 parade. Grandpa used to ride his horse in that parade every year.
Hey, I read your blog and wondered what you thought of this. Perhaps a statement here for your readers will let us know what's giong on since this was your original idea...see this link:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700032147/University-of-Utah-fellow-to-study-origins-of-Mormon-food-subculture.html
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