For starters, there's the front-page article in today's New York Times about her, her new cookbook and Good Books, the Intercourse publishing company she and her husband, Merle Good, own with other shareholders.

That article soon will be followed by a cooking demonstration on Fox and Friends, the televison network's morning news show.

Then there are two segments Good recorded April 28 for NPR's program, "A Chef's Table," which will be aired by Philadelphia's WHYY-FM 91 and picked up by public radio stations across the country.

On June 1, Good will appear on 18 different television stations around the country with cooking demonstrations based on her new cookbook, "Fix-It and Enjoy-It!"

That's a lot of attention paid to a Millersville native who graduated from Lancaster Mennonite School in 1966. As she was growing up, she avoided cooking so she could read. Naturally reserved, she never envisioned herself as a national cooking celebrity.

Yet pictures of her latest cookbook are larger than life in full-page ads in the May 1 issue of People magazine, which features Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the cover. Readers of USA Today and the New York Times saw full-page ads for the book of recipes that Good collected, edited and published especially for cooks who need simple, basic recipes.

But this national attention, which would make some people downright giddy, is met with a half-cup of cautious optimism and equal amounts of deliberate restraint by Good.

She is not willing to travel around the country to do book signings or nonstop cooking demonstrations, as many authors would, to add exclamation points to the national attention she's already received. She does not want a national cooking show on the Food Network.

"I love good food, I love to cook and I'm very committed to creating cookbooks that allow people to eat dinner together," said Good.

But she refuses to "wreck" her life by allowing book publicity to consume her.

"I love to read. I love to write. I love to edit books," said Good, who earned her master's degree in English from New York University. "I have daughters and aging parents. I want to keep these connections, and I really am not interested in adding greater chaos to my life."

At the same time, she doesn't want to spurn the opportunity to teach people how to use her cookbook. So Good Books' publicist has helped her find ways to optimize her time.

For example, Good opted to do multiple televised cooking demonstrations from a single studio instead of touring. On June 1, Satellite Media Tour in Manhattan will coordinate the filming of 21-w-minute cooking demonstrations and individual interviews for 18 television hosts from around the country.

The SMT staff will set up the cooking supplies. Then Good will demonstrate how to put the recipe together as she answers the reporter's questions she's hearing through an earpiece.

Then staff will clear away the finished demonstration and set up new supplies, and Good will start again with a new interviewer. Each station will get its own cooking feature, and Good gets her wish to stay in one place.

"I'm a little scared," Good said. Yet she believes her training on how to do cooking demonstrations, her prior experience with interviewing on radio and her integrity will help her pull it off.

When she prepares for a major interview, she reminds herself to focus, concentrate and be herself.

"You realize if you're not yourself, you run out very quickly," said Good. "It depletes your energy, so the more you are yourself, the more energy and natural quality get displayed. Yet you're mindful of what you're doing."

Good's teaching genes help, too, especially when she's doing demonstrations, said her husband, who masterminds the marketing strategy for Good Books, said.

"Phyllis has great teaching ability," Merle Good said. "So her teaching ability comes out in this format because she's helping people understand. She just kicks into teacher mode and gets all excited."

Even though Good says she is not outgoing by nature -- she's rather reserved -- she's learned to enjoy the public opportunities to talk about her passion for cooking. She even admits to some thrill over the national publicity.

"If the New York Times piece comes out, and it's really well done, there's no way I won't just feel really satisfied by that," Good said.

But bottomline, she keeps herself grounded by working closely with her husband -- sorting things out together, encouraging each other. She also thinks of her children, her parents and her small group at church.

"In the end, you look at the people you most admire, and you don't want to disappoint those people," Good said. "You go back to measuring yourself against that. That's a very steadying kind of influence."

Good books

New York Times story says local woman is feeding a need.

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