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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

A secret I have been keeping: introducing Simmer!

October 10, 2016 by HappyGoStuckey 16 Comments

About eighteen months ago, I had a burning idea for a book.

It was to be a food and table memoir with recipes. Stories of feasting on life and hope— and the joy to be found in gathering. I dreamed up the stories I would tell, the recipes to share and even several title ideas. For nearly a year I wrote a book proposal, (and no, I don’t think it typically takes that long, but I’m a slow processor— like sloth-slow,) and then I pitched it with deep breath and shaky hands.

Those longs months of honing the idea behind the book are still something I am quite proud of. I learned much about myself as a cook, a writer, and a gatherer. Not even when I received three out of three polite agent rejections for the proposal, did I regret the time I spent in quiet preparation for my first book idea. Still, rejection stings and it took several long weeks of silence, questioning, and prayer to come completely back to the table and the writing desk.

img_0793One year later I am beyond grateful for those few polite ‘no’s. Without them I am not at all sure I would have grasped the deeper desire to keep searching. To keep creating but only in proper balance with the constraint I have to keep consuming.

I used to believe that my value as a writer was twisted together in the ropes of what I could produce.

Now I see that my responsibility as someone who desires to create, is not to merely produce much but to live first, to live well. To consume a lot of the best, leaving my inner well full and flowing over, rather than drying up inside and resting on the tenterhooks of fear and failing.

I will not seek publishing because it is seemingly the next step. I will not produce unless I have something to say that will help you or me or us both.

I’m chasing the fire. Chasing the love. Chasing the fun. Chasing the hope.
And waiting as long as it takes— for the simmer.

I know you understand. I know you’ve read books that could have been blog posts. I know you’ve read two hundred pages that could have been twenty. I know you’ve been asked to invest in things you weren’t certain you would be happy you did. Me too. But I’ve also been the happy receiver of someone else’s wait. I’ve enjoyed art that took ages in quiet production. I have read books that were twelve years in process, and it shows. I want to be willing to wait.

Back to my little book, for months I prayed and thought and to be honest, fretted, about what to do with it. Should I keep going, try again or stick it in a drawer under an old yearbook and call it a day? I hesitated to push it aside and move on until I shared it with you.

So I took my favorite parts, and I wrote it anyway.

Introducing Simmer: Six Seasonal Soups and the Stories that Inspired Them. 

Free Ebook. Simmer
I created these recipes (admittedly each one a spin-off from a memorable soup I once enjoyed,) in my own little kitchen in the blue house. I made them again and again, scratching down notes on the backs of water bills and preschool activity sheets.

I made soup all through the scorching summer so that when the weather turned, we would be ready for comfort and warmth.

This is my 28-page gift to you. I hope that it will inspire joy and hope as you walk through the unknown. I pray that you will see this, my stone of remembrance as a clear picture that time is a sacred privilege and whether we seem to be moving ahead or standing still, it is worth the wait.
It is worth the simmer.

I would love to share Simmer with you today. Click here to join this community and get your free copy by email. (Simmer can be enjoyed through iBooks or a kindle, but you do not have to have any type of electronic reading device to enjoy it. Just download and voila!)

If you are already an honored part of the community here, than you should have received Simmer by email. If you think you are and you did not receive it, would you just click that little “Let’s Connect” button up there and shoot me a quick email and I will check it out?

Simmer: Six Seasonal Soups & the Stories that Inspired Them. (Free E-book!)
Free Ebook. Simmer: Six Seasonal Soups & the Stories that Inspired Them.

Mid-Week Round Up (only the good stuff!)
Simmering in the Kitchen: A Giveaway

Comments

  1. Amanda Keith says

    October 11, 2016 at 7:05 am

    I couldn’t be more proud or excited to see you taking this step! Thank you for sharing your word and recipes – even if it’s not how you originally intended. Time to go Simmer!

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 17, 2016 at 11:39 am

      Thank you, sweet friend. I know you get it. <3

      Reply
  2. Lita aka @momtoJADE says

    October 11, 2016 at 8:46 am

    I am so proud of you for dusting off the feeling of rejection and pushing through by God’s grace. This post and your beautiful E book inspires me to not give up when I face rejection. Adversity and obstacles will come. Thank you for modeling to me how to grieve by going upward and inward. Off to download your book.
    xo,
    Lita

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 17, 2016 at 11:42 am

      Hi Lita! I’m always glad to see you here. And yes, adversity seems to be the nearly constant companion of anyone trying to do anything, right? Ha! I’m so glad it was an encouragement to you– and please, let me know how you like the soup! –C

      Reply
  3. Meredith Bernard says

    October 11, 2016 at 9:02 am

    I am so in love with this book already!! I am going to print it and start making soup pronto. You are a beautiful soul and your words are as comforting as these soups will surely prove to be. I’m proud of you and I know in time you God will birth just the right book at just the right time from you – you’re too gifted for Him not to. Love you, friend! <3

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 17, 2016 at 11:45 am

      You’re the best, Meredith. You always know how to make me feel loved. I cannot wait to hear how you like the recipes!

      Reply
  4. Niki Hardy says

    October 14, 2016 at 10:25 am

    This is so exciting. I’m nearly there with my eBook and you’re spurring me on! Not to mention the fact that I LOVE soups!!

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 17, 2016 at 11:46 am

      You can do it, Niki! I will be honest, the last 7 days was the absolute hardest! 🙂 That’s when all the technical issues happened. I’m over here, cheering you on! <3

      Reply
  5. Stephanie says

    October 14, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    Thank you for your honest journey of wanting to publish and the end result. I’m in love with your idea and can’t wait to download this and share it with friends.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 17, 2016 at 11:47 am

      Hi Stephanie! Haha, love your site address. If that’s not real life, I don’t know what is. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it and hope to see you again soon!

      Reply
  6. Lauren says

    October 17, 2016 at 6:17 am

    Cynthia, this post is beautiful. Thank you for honestly sharing your journey and for pushing through to write this book. You have inspired me! And, I can’t wait to read through your stories and recipes. Just in time for the cooler weather that is on its way here in Virginia.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 17, 2016 at 11:48 am

      Hey Lauren! Girl, send some of that weather change down here to Georgia– we are struggling! I hope you love it!

      Reply
  7. Teresa says

    November 30, 2016 at 12:58 am

    This is a wonderful little book. I love the stories you have shared – they are so beautifully written. We love soups at our little house and I’m excited to have some new one’s to try.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Simmering in the Kitchen: A Giveaway says:
    October 30, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    […] And the soup helps because making soup is the opposite of striving. Any decent soup recipe is a handful of ingredients and time. Soup-making is contrary to hustle. Too much hustle often makes bad soup and a weary heart. I have little use for either.”  —  from Simmer: Six Seasonal Soups & the Stories that Inspired Them. Get your copy here. […]

    Reply
  2. Friday Round Up: Only the Good Stuff! says:
    November 11, 2016 at 4:03 pm

    […] Did you get your free copy of Simmer: Six Seasonal Soups & the Stories that Inspired them, yet? Get it here! […]

    Reply
  3. Brown Sugar Lattes and Finding Home says:
    November 18, 2016 at 10:31 am

    […] you read Simmer,  then you know how hard it was when we left North Carolina. For almost two years, we […]

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

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My grandma used to make these and serve them to me on a pink plate with a small glass of sprite with ice. At 39, I now realize two things— 1. She would have adored my husband and 2. these cookies go best with coffee or tea.

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These trees in my own backyard, captured this morning, last March, and last August, will continue changing in their own rhythmic way whether I’m watching them or not. There’s a comfort in that for me today— and perhaps for you.

Whatever looks slow and unmoving, with change almost too gradual to detect— is still very much in a pattern of forward transformation.

And these quiet days in the midst of our January-ness— we can be reminded that growth never really stops, especially in the hidden places.

#wonderfortheweary #feastingandforaging #bluehousebackyard
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This is the first complete weekend that we’ve been home since Thanksgiving. 😳 It sounds awful, especially for this homebody, but really what it means is, we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, attended one beautiful family wedding (Hey, Shelby! 👋🏻❤️) one 90th Birthday party for our beloved Granny, and had a family trip. They were all such sparkly gifts. Ones I don’t take for granted and so very different from last year.

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Not pictured: waking up to find our children taller and suddenly at our eye level, new laugh lines on our faces, sweltering pool days, fireplace dinners, Marco Polo chats with friends, family weddings & visits, mountain air breathed, books read, new jobs begun, school days, approximately 52 pizza nights, new rhythms & schedules, house repairs, car issues, and God always before us, behind us and within us. Soli deo Gloria. #thebestisyettocome
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2021 has been full of new things— but I’m grateful we have walked through them together and in God’s sovereign hand. 

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