Bootstrap Marketing and the Power of a Review

Marketing a novel—particularly when you’re published by a small “indie” house rather than one of the “big five”—is a bootstrap endeavor. It turns out writing The Forager Chefs Club was only the start of the creative work necessary to make it a success. 

With so many books out there vying for what little time people can devote to reading, reviews are particularly important. While my “TBR” (to-be-read) book stack continues to grow, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a novel without reading the synopsis and what other people had to say about it. But unlike ads or blog posts or other ways of getting the word out about your book, an author has absolutely no control over what people write in a review. Which is why they can be so powerful. 

I received my copy of this week’s Publishers Weekly. It’s their “Best Books of 2024” issue and the BookLife review of The Forager Chefs Club is in it. As you might recall from an earlier blog post, I got word of the review—and that my novel had been selected as an “editor’s pick”—in September, but holding the magazine in my hand and seeing it in actual print… Well, that’s a whole ‘nother level of gratitude. Here’s a snippet of what they had to say:

"Walston's epically delicious second novel summons readers to a table piled with purpose, twists, and, of course, a passion for food. Precise and sumptuous dish descriptions prove just as enticing and involving as the character portraits, making this feast for the senses one readers will fall in love with and revisit to have their souls and hearts nourished." 

You can read the whole review here. I can’t get that one added to the actual book, but I am grateful to the very accomplished authors who have given me reviews, including this one by New York Times best-selling author J. Ryan Stradal:

"The Forager Chefs Club has everything I love in a novel: complex characters, beautifully described settings, a ton of heart and empathy, and incredible food. Curl up with this one by the fire and enjoy." 

And what Warren Buffet is to finance, Samuel Thayer is to foodie foraging. He wrote this about The Forager Chefs Club:

"What a treat—it's not often that foragers get to see our pastime realistically depicted in a work of fiction. I had to stay up late in my hammock reading by moonlight just to find out how the threads of all five forager chefs were tied together in the end." 

To my readers who have provided a review on Amazon and GoodReads, thank you so much! 

Getting the word out about The Forager Chefs Club is a work in progress. I’m lining up some book signing events and seeking out opportunities to connect with those of us who love forest-to-fork and farm-to-fork cooking. If you have any ideas for me, please let me know!

A Tale of Two Tomatoes

Now that I have a greenhouse, October no longer means the close of my garden and forage season. I plan to harvest tomatoes and other ingredients for my foodie cooking experiments all winter long! I’d read that an easy way to start tomato seedlings is to place a seed-filled slice in garden starter mix, so I thought I’d give that a try.

As an experiment, I bought one tomato from my local Wegmans grocery store, and one from a vendor at my local farmers market. I chose the organic Beefsteak variety. One of the reasons I like Wegmans is that they support sustainable sourcing, buying regionally and locally as much as possible. Still, you can’t get much more farm-to-fork than a vendor at the farmers market, right?

I planted a thick, seed-packed slice of each tomato into my growing mix on September 8. Want to guess which tomato slice produced more seedlings by mid-October?

I know I was surprised…

Yup, the grocery store tomato. The farmers market tomato only produced one viable seedling—which really surprised me. It makes me kind of wonder about that particular vendor and his produce…

I also have the Black Brandywine heirloom variety in the greenhouse that’s quite tall but not yet producing, but a hearty slice of Beefsteak tomato in the middle of January sounded too good to resist. I’ll keep you posted on progress!

In other news, I had a wonderful book signing at Twigs in Purcellville last week! Thank you, Amy Turner, for the opportunity to sit on the front porch of your lovely shop on a gorgeous Saturday and talk to people about gardening, foraging, and The Forager Chefs Club! If you don’t have your copy yet, The Forager Chefs Club is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org, as well as at brick-and-mortar locations in Virginia like Twigs, Fields of Athenry Farm Shop & Sidesaddle Bistro in Middleburg, and Birchtree Bookstore in Leesburg.

Thank you for all your encouragement and well wishes!

Reclaiming My Greenhouse (and Some Lessons Learned)

Inside My Greenhouse

It's mid-October and the 90-degree days here in rural northern Virginia are (hopefully) behind us. Which means I can again enjoy time in my greenhouse!

We built the greenhouse with summer ventilation in mind. A number of the reclaimed windows are hinged, we have doors on either end, and a double fan-and-vent system that pushes the hot air through and out of the structure. Still, the greenhouse is typically 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. Which means from June through September the temperature in the greenhouse was typically over 100 F. (I think the highest I saw was 112 F.) Even my Christmas cactus wasn't happy. In June we moved all the plants and citrus trees to our back deck for the summer. It felt odd to have a greenhouse without any plants in it.

Every year I dry herbs from my garden to incorporate into the chicken feed over the winter. Before the greenhouse, I did this in my home office using a mesh drying cylinder my son and daughter-and-law gifted me. It was nice having the smell of drying herbs as I worked there. In June I hung the cylinder in the greenhouse, loaded it with thyme, oregano, basil, sage, and rosemary cut from my garden, and left on a scheduled business trip. When I returned, I was dismayed to find nothing but gray, desiccated leaves and stems. Lesson learned: drying in the greenhouse during the summer takes no more than three days.

But now it's mid-October, the mornings are chilly, and in the evenings Tim and I sit around the firepit with libations in hand. 

And I once again have plants in the greenhouse. I look forward to harvesting peas, cukes, tomatoes, and lettuce throughout the winter. I can't wait to share with you in my next blog the results of my experiment in growing tomato seedlings from a grocery store tomato versus one from the farmers market.

Oh, and in other news, The Forager Chefs Club was released by Koehler Books on October 8! If you like foraging, farm-to-fork, forest-to-fork cooking–whether doing it or eating it–please order your copy! The Forager Chefs Club is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, Bookshop.org, or select indie Virginia retailers like Birch Tree Bookstore in Leesburg, Twigs Gift Shop in Purcellville, or Sidesaddle Bistro in Middleburg.