What Must the Neighbors Think?

So our book was coming along nicely. Recipe ideas were flowing, storyboards were melding. It then became time to flesh everything out, pun intended. Since the concept of the book was so visual, we decided to create six sample pictures to show agents and publishers exactly what we had in mind. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, it saved us from typing "hubba hubba hubba" nine hundred and ninety-seven more times. So, with the kind help of Gilda's husband, Ted, a former professional photographer, we turned my kitchen into a make-shift photo studio.

To make this transformation, we moved my kitchen table to the side, hooked the hanging lamp up higher, and secured a roll of background paper to the wall with painter's tape (luckily for us, Ted was now in painting and construction.) Since we had zero budget for lighting equipment, Ted came to the rescue again and let us use his industrial work lights. I can't thank him enough for helping us with this part of the project. He was our construction/painter/photographer angel. The first model up was my little brother (who is 6'2", but he'll always be my little brother.) We put him in role of Dirk, the boxer for our T-K-Oatmeal Muffin, and after a few awkward moments of me trying to get my little brother to look sexy for the camera, we got the shot we needed.

One down, and five to go. We rounded up relatives, friends, and friends of friends to pose with a muffin in varying stages of dress and undress. My little kitchen had never seen such activity, and since my house is situated at the bottom of a hill, I'll bet my neighbors hadn't either, if they happened to be looking out their back windows. And when all was said and done, we had six very hunky photos of the original Stud Muffins to send to prospective agents.

I packaged up nearly four dozen query letters and sample photos, took them to the post office, gave them a kiss for luck, and sent them on their way. In my heart, I knew there had to be at least one agent out there in the great unknown who would believe in our crazy dream. As our fantastic luck had it, we found the best, most incredible, most amazing agent on the planet.

Next up: Andrea the Fabulous.