The Story Behind the Story Behind the Story
My name is Lucy Mercer. I’m a writer, a photographer, a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, in no particular order. Or maybe that is a particular order because words are always with me, a phrase or sentence or paragraph continually working itself out in my brain’s endless stream of prose.
A Cook and Her Books blog sprang into being on a hot July day in 2008 as a way to share recipes and live out the fantasy that I wrote for Southern Living magazine. That afternoon spent writing while my girls played outside was the beginning of what I think of as my real career. Up until then, I had an infrequently used journalism degree and a steady gamut of bookselling jobs.
A Cook and Her Books
This blog’s name can be explained this way: the “Cook” because, while I’m not a chef, I love to make good food for my family. “Her Books,” of course, for the packed-out bookshelves and teetering stacks in nearly every corner of my home. (The cookbook collection is around 500 books.)
When I started A Cook and Her Books, my family was young and we were at home all the time, so the food stories came easily. In those early food blogging days, I participated in a year of themed cooking challenges at Salon.com (you’ll see more of these stories in the archives). You can also find my work at Food52. And here’s what I discovered when I began telling my stories: what happens outside in the garden influenced what happened inside in my kitchen. Writers call this “telling the story behind the story,” and the more I wrote, the more I realized that the story behind the story behind the story was the most interesting to me.
Serendipitously, I now have a full-time career in garden writing and I feel like I’ve found my tribe. Part of that tribe is my local Master Gardener volunteer group. (I’m a certified Master Gardener Extension volunteer, class of 2018).
My day job is Garden Expert and Content Strategist for The Home Depot. The opinions and content on this site are mine and do not represent my employer.
Join me in this journey as I tell my stories share some pictures along the way.
Photography Notes
The pictures are my own, unless attributed to another contributor. I’m a competent, but lazy photographer and while I occasionally break out the Canon with nifty 50, my phone usually does the job.
Let’s Connect
The conversation springing from A Cook and Her Books takes place on social media. Follow A Cook and Her Books on Facebook and Instagram to learn about what’s growing and what’s cooking at my house. Please comment on stories — I love to hear from you!
Sign up forA Cook and Her Books emails for fresh ideas about gardening and food. I won’t spam you and you can opt out at any time.
And one more thing: if you’re interested in my freelance expertise in gardening, cooking and content strategy, please reach out through LinkedIn.
Affiliate Disclosure Statement
This policy is valid from January 2025
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by Lucy Mercer. All photos used in this blog are the property of Lucy Mercer and ACHB Productions. You may download/use any photo on this blog for non-commercial use. Please link back and/or credit The Prudent Garden if you use any of the photography.
This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.
The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.