After months—nay, years—of anticipation, plus blood, sweat, and tears (though fewer than those who know me might expect), I’m thrilled to announce that Sugar Snaps and Strawberries has arrived! (Wow, that was a little like a birth announcement. Coincidence? I think not.) My advance copy (just one!) came via the slowest courier ever, and arrived while I was off at work. I will admit that I was not the most focused employee this afternoon, thinking about the package that awaited me at home. And then I was home, and the package was in my hands. And yet somehow, I couldn’t open it. I’d imagined that moment for a long, long time, and I wanted to savour it. Preferably along with something alcoholic. But dinner was on the stove and I had a toddler bashing her plasma car into my shins. So I waited. We ate dinner (the package seated alongside us). I almost held out until Lila was in bed, but at some point I said something along the lines of, “screw it,” and tore into the package.
It’s a funny thing, getting what you want. This thing—writing a book—has been on my bucket list since I was an angsty teen (I imagined myself more of a Sylvia Plath or Anais Nin than a garden writer, but heck, I’ll take it). Holding that book—my book—in my hands was a totally surreal moment. As my friend Dave says, nothing is ever as good or as bad as you think it will be. And so it was. The book seemed physically smaller than I’d expected. But somehow bigger with the weight of all the expectations I have for it, the work and love and time that went into it, and just the bigness of it all. I wrote an f*ing book. Allow me to be amazed for a moment, friends.
And there’s so much fear that comes along with it, too. What if there’s an error? What if someone doesn’t like it? It’s so much scarier than hitting “publish” on a blog post. This thing is in print. I am both thrilled and terrified to be sharing it with you all.
Like I said, it was a bit of a surreal moment. I looked at every page. Stuck my nose in and inhaled the ink. Was satisfied. Then I put the book down, saw the spine, and screamed. My husband, thinking I’d spotted a mistake, looks like he might be getting ready to dash our child to safety. Then I explain: “Bellamy! My name is on the spine of a book!” I don’t know why, but that suddenly made everything real, and worth it. I can’t wait to look myself up at the library.
Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden features stunning photographs by the uber-talented Jackie Connelly, and is published by the fabulous Timber Press. I owe them huge gratitude, as I do you, my loyal readers. Thank you for being here.
Sugar Snaps and Strawberries will be hitting shelves within the next month. If you want to get your copy faster, please pre-order from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.
I am doing a happy dance for you!
Congratulations, Andrea. Can’t wait to read it. You must be so excited!
YAY!!! CONGRATULATIONS. Sorry for screaming. I can’t wait to read your book, but I already know I will love it!
Congratulations! Tap into that thrilled feeling and leave the terrified one behind.
Congratulations on realizing your dream! The book looks great.
Congratulations!! It looks lovely.
Congratulations! How amazing!
CONGRATS! How wonderful!
Congratulations…love your drawn out saga of opening the package. Just like Xmas!
(p.s. I couldn’t have held out that long)
Congrats my old friend. You are so amazing.
Yay for you! I love that you shared this moment like you did.
Ahh, huge sigh of relief. Bring on the book tour! Congratulations Andrea, I too can’t wait to read it.
Congratulations Andrea! I can’t wait to get a copy and do some urban gardening!
Congrats! I’ve just pre-ordered it from Amazon UK.
Congrats Andrea :) I can’t wait to get my copy!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations the pages look beautiful wonderful gift for the Holidays on my list : )
Congratulations! That is very exciting indeed!
Ohh! It is so lovely. I will be buying many copies :) Please come and do a talk in Portland so you can stay in my guest room and I can feed you and we can go out and have a glass (or three) of bubbly to celebrate. I will pay for your train ticket and bring lots of guests!
Yahoo! I am so over-the-top excited for you!!! Yippee!
That’s our girl! Congratulations to you, Ben & Lila for a job well done.
Mazel tov dear sister! I can’t wait to see it!!
Andrea Bellamy, Author.
So very proud of you!!!
xoxo
Andrea Bellamy, Author.
xoxo
Congratulations! From the photos of your book it looks delightful, I’ll definitely be ordering a copy. I hope that looking yourself up in the library is as good (not bad) as you are expecting. :)
Congratulations again Andrea! Your name on the spine! That is something to shriek at! I wish you all the best for your sales. I know I will be hoping to find this under the tree this year myself!
Shut UP! Yippeeeeee! It looks great!!
Congrats Andrea, I’ll have to go look for your book – it looks fantastic!
congrats, Andrea. Nice to see a fellow Vancouver urban gardener doing so well!
Wonderful news of your sending your ideas out into the world…….I haven’t even gotten the courage to start a blog yet, so I can imagine your thrill to have accomplished the feat of publishing a book.
I’ll be looking for it.
Enjoy your hard earned success!
looks GORGEOUS!!! I’m going to special order from my local bookstore to turn them on to it! Thanks!
Mama? I knew it! You were writing a book. That’s why daddy was always hanging out with me while you were slumped over the ‘puter in the office. I like worms…and ladybugs. Love, your daughter, Lila (with help from dada).
Hi, congratulations on the book, Ive been experimenting with tin cans as hanging pots and thought sugar snaps would be good to plant in and strawberries would too and then searching around i stumbled on this a book called sugar snaps and strawberries with a tin can pot’s pictured all over it. Excellent glad to know I’m not a freak. Im going to dig through your archives now for some tin can related posts! (ok maybe i am a freak)
Andrea, just wanted to give you my congratulations along with everyone else! Great job, will totally read this one and use it while working on my garden in Southeast Alaska. I wish you all the best! lotsa love your oldest cousin
Oh Andrea!! I am so proud of you. We all knew you would someday be a writer and here you are, Andrea Bellamy, the Author. Wow. My little cousin wrote a book… I can’t wait to get a copy. You will have to autograph it one day for me.
Love you lots.
Andrea, I received my copy and reviewed it on the blog. I love your rock ‘n roll vibe and the seductive plant eye candy. You rock girl.~~Dee
I bought this book a little fearful that it’d be one of those coffee table small space books, where I’m expected to live in an Ikea world. Totally so much better! It’s spot on for what I want to grow on my balcony and my office windowsills. Really great to see some writing for those of us who are newer to the garden world, yet want to grow on our apartment balconies something more tasty than geraniums. Plus I’m so happy that you did both the broad spectrum advice and the detail by plant, it’s difficult to find that in one book.
So thanks for writing the book that will save me hours and hours of online research time.
Andrea, congrats!!! I’m so happy for you! I can’t wait to buy a copy. Blessings!!
I am listening to CBC about books and I am keen to see your blog. Congratulations!
I just found your blog site and am very impressed. I would like to know where to buy your first book as I live in Ontario Canada and hope it is sold here. Also if you are in a warmer climate than we get here maybe some of the growing tips. Congratulations on your first book, even if I am a year late finding this blog:) its very informative ,, just love it.. thanks..
hello again I meant maybe since you are in a warmer climate area , your gardening tips would not be good for those of us in the colder climate areas. such as here in Ontario . still I would love to buy your book.
Just stumbled on your website when researching an idea for an upcoming book in my Gardening with Don series. I see the theme of your site is “urban organic” whereas one of my earlier books was “Almost Organic” – so I guess we can’t be friends eh? Maybe “almost friends”?!?