The Kasbah Chronicles: March 2023

Updates on Bitter Sweet: A Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France

Dear Kasbah Chronicle readers;

As you know, this is only my second Substack chronicle. Your responses to the first edition have been most gratifying. Thank you all for your messages of condolences. It's comforting to know that so many of you remember Owen, my husband and co-publisher of Bitter Sweet. We worked on the book for three years and he passed away two days before I got a sample copy. From now on, not only will the book be a memorial to my French ancestors, but also to my in-house editor, photographer, and researcher.

To all you readers merci beaucoup. I must say this Substack blog is much more fun to write than the one I wrote for 12 years and sent via Mailchimp! I hope you take the time to explore this novel platform, and its many Substack bloggers  writing about all sorts of subjects under the sun. And I am sending it out for free (thank you to all those who "pledged" to support a paid version. This will come later.) Please feel free to forward this to a friend.

For this short update, I will limit myself to the delivery of the books to my door. The book is heavy, hard cover and 245 pages long (printed on the best paper, at my husband's insistance!)

How did Bitter Sweet get to my door? As author/publisher, I hired a printing company to send my manuscript to China, or more exactly Shen Zen (their bid came in so much lower than American printers, I had no choice). We received a couple of galleys to correct the very last errors (I hope), though our lovely printer of Lorna Johnson Print!  was a champ, and corrected many a typo on her end.

May I remind you that you can order Bitter Sweet through Amazon.com, wholesalers and resellers can order it through Ingram. In other words, you can go to any bookstore from Barnes and Noble to your local indie bookstore, and tell them the book is available on Ingram, and they can order it for you.

Or write me directly if you want a signed copy, and send a check to Kitty Morse, La Caravane, P.O. Box 433, Vista CA, 92083--email me for details: kitty@kittymorse.com. Book: $35.00; shipping (in the US only): $5. Now for the BIG ARRIVAL:

At my front door! Four pallets…And this is where it all began!

I needed help from my relatives and friends:

Owen, we made it. How I wish he had been there….

I have already given two zoom presentations and an in-person demonstration/class: all met with success. One listener told me everyone was in tears at the end of my zoom talk. As I mentioned before, my mission is to memorialize those who were so unjustly killed during the Holocaust. They had a life, they were part of a community...and they enjoyed preparing meals and special dishes as did my great-grandmother, Blanche. Please think of me if you need a speaker for a book club or a class, or for any other reason. Send me an email to work out the details.

Another successful Adventure organized by (adventuresbythebook.com).

Merci, dear friends, for putting up with my ramblings. It is comforting to know that I have so many “contacts” who read my Chronicles.

Merci, thank you, and bon appétit, à mes amis francophones.

Kitty