We are finally coming to the end of our 2000 copies of the coffee table book Kapenta & Lerish & Other Fishy Tales! What a journey it was!
Initially I was asked by Pritty Melwani to help her put a recipe book together in aid of Lusaka Animal Welfare Society. Not everyone buys recipe books, but I thought that if we added a twist to it and included humorous stories of our lives in Zambia (I have collected many for years) and added beautiful photos, we would have something for everyone. And.... we did!
It took a whole year to complete the book. I stepped back from Ad-dicts Advertising, leaving Gemma and Emma with the reins, and Pritty and I got stuck in. It was a year of laughs, countless cups of coffee to keep us focused, Pritty’s tasty foods that she would add to the lunch table, and lots of nattering and fits of giggles, much to hubby’s annoyance! It was a fun year! Exhausting, but fun, fun fun!
Firstly, we gathered 50 great page sponsors who we promised to mention in the stories, asked Ad-dicts Advertising subscribers for their fun experiences and photos, gathered wonderful ladies to cook outs and did photoshoots of their recipes at my house. We enlisted talented photographer Angela Stavrou to take the still shots and the 3 of us scouted the town like schoolgirls, taking photos of funny shop names, places of interest and filled our little note pads and cameras with all that we could soak up. Daniel Nel also let us use many of his great wildlife photos, and of course our multi talented Pritty took many great photos too! Whenever we found in a blank in the book, Pritty would go out and find the picture we would need! She also came up with the ingenious idea of adding African sayings and proverbs to the pages! Quentin Allen kindly allowed us to use some of his magic sketches, and Jenny Gordon and many others came to help with editing. Our production team was done!
We tried to link everything up. The sponsor was mentioned in the story or recipe, the African proverbs were a message about the story, and along with the pictures and sketches, we did it!
Kapenta & Lerish & Other Fishy Tales was well received in Zambia as many relate to the stories therein. Zambia is full of good humour, good nature, and is just the most wonderful place to grow up in. We are very happy that Lusaka Animal Welfare received some much-needed funds from the sales of the books and hope that through this contribution, many little furry lives have been saved and re-homed.
Zikomo Kwambili to all that you do!
