So Many Cities, So Little Time and Space

Busy, busy, busy as I'm simultaneously working on rolling out two huge, amazing upgrades to our site on Planet Purl, writing content for the site and the newsletter, and researching self-publishing, publishing on demand, figuring out which cities will be featured in the book, designing some PurlQueen patterns inspired by our featured cities, rifling through my favorite southern food creations to include in the book, getting my taxes ready, working on an appeal brief on the very last case of my legal career.... if it weren't before 8 a.m. here, just looking at this list would make me want to take a cocktail break. Alas, it will just have to be coffee.

The states to be included in the Deep South Knitting will be Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, both Carolinas, Mississippi, Virginia, Louisiana & Tennessee. After doing lots of research, I've picked the cities that will get full travelogues -- Savannah, Mobile, Charleston, Asheville, Natchez, Williamsburg, New Orleans & Lexington & Gatlinburg. Our first chapter where we hope to work out the kinks, layout, space, photo, etc., will be Savannah. Depending on the the construction timetable for my new laundry room, I'm hoping to make it to Savannah in April.

The research on self-publishing has been tedious, to put it mildly. Almost as bad as practicing law, but then very few things in life are that bad. Went to the dentist 2 days ago after I chipped a tooth, and neither chipping the tooth nor going to the dentist were as bad as practicing law. There must be a hundred companies out there to help authors publish or author/publishers print and market. All of course claiming to be the best on the planet. There are also hundreds of bulletin boards out there were people who've been through this themselves post about their experiences, good and bad. Lots of bad. And now it seems Amazon will only list your book if you use their publishing on demand company, and that one has a ton of complaints posted on these bulletin boards. So that research continues. Unhappily. Ick.

Planning the travel, knitting, cooking part has been way more fun. I'll be contributing my recipes for Sweet Tea, Mint Juleps, Red Velvet Cake, Bourbon Pralines, Beignets, Peach Cobbler, and what I believe is the best Sweet Cornbread on the planet. We'll also be soliciting restaurants in our featured cities to contribute signature recipes. I'll get to test them all for the book, too! Yummmmmmmy. A moment of silence in sympathy for my poor friends and members of my knitting group who will have to eat all this stuff after I bake it to photo it for the book?....

The visitor's bureaus of the featured cities have been very helpful in sending buckets of info to help me plan my trip. That part has me excited to get on the road, but we want to make sure we've mapped out exactly what I need to get in terms of photos, etc. before I go. And I'm using my burning desire to hit the road as an incentive to finish all the icky stuff, like getting my tax stuff finished and my appeal brief written before my road trip, as the trip to Savannah will be my reward for slogging through stuff I hate.

If anyone has a favorite place to eat or stay in any of the featured cities, I'd love to hear about it. Please post here or email me at deepsouthknitting@planetpurl.com.

And the adventure continues......

Looking for our "Look"

While in Richmond with Erin working on layouts for our new sections on Planet Purl, we took a morning off to wander Barnes & Noble to check out travel, cooking, & knitting books to find things we liked (and lots that we didn't like) about book layouts. Since Deep South Knitting is the planned to be the first of several in the series, we need to develop a "look" that will be distinctive and still be versatile enough to be used in the other books. There are some really boring-looking books out there.

Several hours later, we took home a stack of books that each had some element we liked to start a basic layout so we can map out how to approach research, photography, and the various elements of knitting, cooking, and traveling. It was a good thing my luggage was pretty empty as the books almost put me over the weight limit for my checked baggage. So while Erin maps out screen shots for the new pattern search and shop search features on Planet Purl, I've been left to run amuck for the rough design of Chapter One for Erin to take apart. You know I love you, Erin.

I figured it would be best to pick a city that I really love, so Savannah, Georgia gets to be my guinea pig. Great architecture, lots of scenic spots and tourist activities, terrific food (mmmmm, pralines!) and of course, yarn shops.

The research is turning out to be fun -- just like planning a real vacation. Since I am the official vacation planner for my family, it's a familiar role. I'll be planning a long weekend to visit some inns, eat some fine Savannah cookin,' and hit the yarn shops, probably in April.

If you've been to Savannah and have a favorite restaurant or inn, I'd love to hear about it.