NEST BUILDING: The Book

It is so exciting and gratifying to finally have years of work neatly bundled up, packaged and delivered into the hands of actual readers who have paid actual money to own it!

I have spent so much time with this project and am so intimately familiar with its content that I almost can’t remember what it’s about – which sounds contradictory, but isn’t. And so, it is especially pleasing to receive comments from readers identifying particular parts of the book that resonate with them on a personal level.

Many people have mentioned re-visiting some of their childhood memories, or chuckling over their own self-conscious decorating efforts. People have thanked me for reminding them that home is a safe and sacred sense of being to be enjoyed and modified, shared and protected. One reader credits me with giving her the courage to get rid of a painting she had never liked—let’s hope I’m not around when the relative who first gave it to her comes to visit. And here’s a big surprise … men are reading this book too!

I had always wanted to write a book but I didn’t know that this would be the one until a few years ago. Up until then I had been writing regular Nest Building columns for a local newspaper. I received positive responses to them and a certain local notoriety to boot so I began too look at my collection of 300-word columns and wondered if I could fill them out a bit and gather them all together in one volume. With the encouragement of friends and family, I got cracking.

Once I had a crude manuscript together I began developing my vision of how this book should look—not a glossy coffee table object, but an easy-read handbook with cartoon illustrations and short, sharp text grabbers. I wanted it to provoke thoughts and ideas, not provide them. Although the lack of ‘pretty pictures’ is one of the criticisms of the book, the choice to do it this way was entirely conscious and very deliberate. As the writer, designer and publisher, executing this vision was completely up to me and, at times, quite daunting but I’m pleased with the outcome. The book’s not perfect by any means, but it says what I wanted it to say.

Now, as I struggle with marketing and distribution, I can see that writing the book was a fairly minor part of the entire process! Getting it out there is a huge undertaking. I have charts of my charts … lists of my lists … tracking every phone call, every e-mail and every media kit sent, or to be sent. I’m like an angler—casting my line further and further afield and longing for a bite.

Meantime, my house looks like a warehouse and my dining table has become a shipping department. Like my book says, you have to be flexible and allow your home to respond and adapt to changing demands.

Visit www.redfernhouse.ca to learn more about my book!