Although our research team has not been in the field since 2023 (we will be back in 2027—blog post to come), we haven’t been sitting idly by. In fact, we wrote a book. It’s called From House to Home: Small-Town Maya Archaeology in Belize, and it is now available for purchase (see links at end of this post). All author proceeds—if any—will be donated to the Maya Mopan Primary School in Maya Mopan Village, Belize.
Because we like to be as educational as possible in our blogs, we wanted to tell you a bit about how this came about and what took place throughout the academic book publishing process.
WAYYY back in January 2022, a well-known Canadian archaeologist, Bob Muckle, asked Meaghan if she was interested in writing a book about SCRAP for the Teaching Archaeology book series at the University of Toronto Press. This was after they had been chatting for a while about his own book, the excellent inaugural book of the series—Forgotten Things: The Story of the Seymour Valley Archaeology Project—and about their mutual appreciation for public-friendly books about archaeology. The Teaching Archaeology series focuses on concise, engaging case studies designed primarily for use in university courses, but also for others interested in archaeology. In addition to focusing on the research process, the books provide insights into the culture of archaeological fieldwork in different parts of the world.
We’ve always wanted to write a book like this, as we explain in the Preface. We saw it as something that would have been beneficial to us as students (and that would—hopefully—be beneficial for the next generation of students) and would also help the public better understand how archaeology is—or could be—conducted in Belize alongside Belizeans.
In October 2022, we submitted a book proposal to the press after developing roughly 6 draft roadmaps and 6 draft outlines of the book and receiving feedback from Bob (the series editor) and Carli (our press editor). The press then sent the proposal to reviewers, along with a sample of our writing. A month later, they returned with their feedback; we responded in a letter outlining how we would (or wouldn’t) incorporate their feedback, which led to our signing a contract in January 2023 to write the full book.
From February 2023 to January 2025, we used our roadmap and outline to produce 4 full drafts of our book. Easy, right? As it turns out, writing a coherent manuscript in a single voice with three authors who don’t all live in the same place can be challenging. Even when all the authors are invested in the outcome, life can sometimes grease the curves on your road to the finish line. A few months before beginning the first draft, Jill decided to leave academia for the nonprofit sector. At first, she had no concerns about working on a book alongside her full-time job. Academics are used to doing a million things at once. What is one more? As it turns out, quite a lot when one of the reasons you decided to pursue a new career path was to have more free time. Jill highly recommends doing whatever brings you joy, and if you’ve been working with a wonderful team like SCRAP, you get to work with understanding colleagues who make it possible to do both. Shawn, too, while in an academic position and supported by his institution, often found it difficult to carve out the requisite time to hit our (largely self-imposed) deadline. While Meaghan provided a steady hand as she juggled her own additional responsibilities at work and at home, progress came in fits and starts, tied to holidays and other schedule breaks, with many online meetings and exchanges of drafts, but we got there in the end.
We submitted our 5th draft to the press, and it was subsequently sent on to reviewers in February 2025. We heard back in September 2025 that it was accepted with minor revisions! We incorporated those revisions into Draft 6 while both Meaghan and Shawn were on sabbatical—again, as outlined in a response letter to the UTP Board—and submitted it to the press and the Institute of Archaeology in Belize in January 2026. From there, we went through a round of copyediting, proofreading, indexing, the preparation of cover and other promotional materials, and more. And here we are!
We hope this helps demystify the university press publishing process—well, at least our experience of it. We’ll be bringing copies down to Belize in April for formal submission to the IA and for our various community stakeholders. We also hope you can get your hands on a copy and enjoy it!
Cheers!
Meaghan, Shawn, and Jill
Here are some places where you can purchase the book. Official release date is Oct. 6, 2026, though some sites may not have access for a few weeks:
UT Press: https://utpdistribution.com/9781487553982/from-house-to-home/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from-house-to-home-meaghan-m-peuramaki-brown/1149495275
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Home-Small-Town-Archaeology-Fieldwork/dp/1487553986
New South Books: https://newsouthbooks.com.au/books/from-house-to-home/
Amazon US: https://a.co/d/03Tn9uno
