Cookbook daze

Today I heard from the publisher of my cookbook, and she suggested that it would be in print in the spring of 2009, possibly the fall of 2008. Of course, I pushed for fall, pointing out that I would market it strongly as a Christmas gift and suggesting a huge autograph party for which I would cook recipes from the book. She was enthusiastic, so I'm on pins and needles to see what will happen. But tonight I'm deep into working on it--the editors suggest it needs to be about 50 pages shorter--believe me, that's a lot of my golden prose to cut out! And it needs a new title: The Faux Gourmet doesn't do it for marketing, they suggested.
So my editor, Carly, asked me to ask blog readers for feedback: if you have title ideas for a book about a single mom cooking for kids, while writing and publishing books, I'd love to hear it. Not a gourmet cook but one who approaches the kitchen with enthusiasm and a sense of adventure, and one whose friends think she's a gourmet cook--they just don't know the definition nor the fact that gourmet cooks don't used canned soup or canned tuna.
The other question to ask your opinion on is regular binding or spiral? My instinct is for spiral, but Carly suggests that if she uses a spiral-bound cookbook much it gets nasty stuff stuck in the binding. Since all my well-used cookbooks are spotted and stained, I don't see that as much of a problem--but it may be. So please let me hear from you.
I know that there are more than two readers of the blog, because the other day a woman I'd never met was in my office to talk about a local history she wants to compile. And she definitely got on my good side when she said, "I love your blog." How to win a writer's heart!
Great day today. Deborah Crombie, author of eleven mysteries set in England and featuring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Jemma James, spoke at a Pinkbag luncheon on campus. I got to play hostess and introduce her at the luncheon. I was of course prepared to be intimidated by a successful mystery writer whose books are sold in eight or ten countries, but she was charming, unspoiled, a lot of fun. And her talk was lively and interesting--with some insights into writing. If I ever have time to get back to trying a mystery, I may take her advice about plotting different story lines and seeing how they all go together. But right now I have no time for mysteries.
Tonight my friend Betty and I had a nice, lazy relaxed supper at a local bistro--a shared platter of tapas, a glass of wine each, and sinfully rich chocolate mousse for each of us. Perfect end to a nice day, although the day had its frustrations--I just won't go into that now.