Founder & Managing Editor
Michael Nolan editor@growwrite.com Contributors
Carolyn Binder Dawn Kelly Daniel Gasteiger Sandra Knauf Meleah Maynard Jeff Gillman Web www.growwrite.com
Portrait of a Lady Rancher by Carolyn Binder
5
Amy Stewart's Writing Secrets
10
The FTC Endorsement Guidelines
17
Web Presence Matters
18
Reality Check
20
The Ancient Grains of Maria Speck
23
The Last Word
25
by Sandra Knauf
Phone 908 TO GROW 1 Inquiries & News Tips news@growwrite.com Advertising & Sales sales@growwrite.com
by Daniel Gasteiger
by Meleah Maynard & Jeff Gillman
by Dawn Kelly
by Michael Nolan
What a year! As of today we are a quarter of the way through 2012 and I just started putting the right year on invoices two days ago. Along the way we made the decision to publish bi-monthly, so this issue represents both February and March. In addition, beginning with this second issue of GrowWrite!, we have decided to broaden our horizons beyond the typical garden writer fare and we now proudly welcome food writers to the family. Gardeners and foodies share so many common interests and so much of our work overlaps that this seemed like an obvious decision to make.
This month's issue has some really great features that go from one end of our business to the other, from an informative interview with NY Times bestselling author Amy Stewart to a cooking class with author and food journalist Maria Speck. Such varied content focused on garden and food communicators has never been available in one place before, and I'm proud to be able to bring it to you here. My biggest hope is that you glean something new and useful from every issue of GrowWrite! that brings you back for more every month.
A
by Carolyn Binder
nnie Haven is a storyteller with the distinct advantage of having compelling stories to share. You might imagine, if there were still suppers around the campfire (and maybe a little sippin’ of the ’shine afterwards), that Annie would
be the one sharing the rambling tales of her grandfather, her father and her brother‌the stories of her life and her legacy. Way back when retail seed sales were the new thing , the Haven Seed Company supplied seed to Landreth Seed Company the oldest seed house in America - as well as W. A. Burpee and Comstock, Ferre & Co. to name a few. Annie treasures the record books detailing seed sales, trialed varieties and new vegetable introductions written in the hand of her grandfather and great grandfather before him. These timeworn documents(reproduced on pages 5 & 7) are important pieces of farming history, indeed, of our shared American history. Annie would talk about the time the family ranch was taken by the U.S. government and leased back during WWII, the Japanese farm workers pulled off the fields and into internment camps. Those were hard years, but the family felt a responsibility to our nation and contributed without complaint. She might even tell how she would sneak out of school after homeroom in order to work the horses or check on a new heifer. School was lackluster in comparison to life on the ranch, so Annie graduated early and got back to business. continued on page 8
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Annie's Authentic Haven Brand "Moo Poo" Teas are special for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Annie herself. Her family has been ranching and farming in California’s Coastal Valley for decades, and she learned the time honored tradition sitting at her father’s and grandfather’s knees. From the very beginning, the Havens practiced sustainable agricultural methods on their ranch, with the cattle exclusively grass-fed on the ranch pastures. The Haven method was one that utilized a closed loop system— the ranch supports itself through use of good practices like land management and composting, thus eliminating the need for outside goods like chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics or pesticides. Somewhere along the line, I got in touch with Annie directly and placed a small order to give her Moo Poo Teas a try in my own garden. I was delighted with the creative packaging and liked the fact that one little tea bag made five gallons of soil conditioner, gently brewed outside in the sun. Moreover, I was intrigued by the marketing genius behind making Moo Poo Teas available to gardeners via social media. Annie and I became friends as we communicated back and forth about gardening and eventually, about our lives. How often does that type of relationship evolve in a big box store? Years passed on Haven Ranch, as did Annie’s beloved grandfather and father, though according to Annie, both lived full lives until they were "older than dirt and well-aged like the soil" they so intently nurtured. It was her brother, a marketing executive for the likes of Ocean Pacific, Oakley Sunglasses and Harro Bikes, who helped Annie first begin to develop and deliver Moo Poo Tea as a commercial product, as well as helping her set up the website for her business. Sadly, he passed away, too, leaving Annie Haven to carry on a generations-deep family legacy. While Annie still runs the ranch using the closed loop system and the all-natural techniques that she learned from her family, she is the one that has brought the ranch online and into gardens all over America. Annie sells her Authentic Haven Brand Moo Poo Teas via Twitter, Facebook and her own web site, all with her own special brand of humor, wisdom and insight. Any grower that follows her online has found a friend for their garden and if they are lucky, a friend for themselves as well.
Carolyn Binder is a freelance garden writer and photographer, a passionate organic gardener, and a foodie. She writes from her hobby farm in north Florida at Cowlick Cottage Farm. Carolyn is also the Proven Winners Garden Guru for the Southeast
Region.
Is
anyone out there not in awe of Amy Stewart? In eleven years she’s gone from fledgling memoirist to New York Times bestselling author – for each of her last three books. She is an award-winning, highly sought-after public speaker, a co-founder of the wildly popular group blog Garden Rant, and co-owner
of a to-die-for antiquarian bookstore in Eureka, California. And, dear readers, that's the short list. All of this is impressive enough, but what endears Stewart to us is that she is wholly unpretentious and she knows how to have fun. Stewart-watchers have had a blast laughing through her videos – from the faux-newsy video trailer for Wicked Bugs to the horticultural homicide trailer for Wicked Plants. We’ve felt like special guests hanging out with the girls at the occasional Garden Chat Cocktail Hour video. One of these features Stewart in her own garden sipping raspberry-infused vodka from a Mason jar. She is also joined by her chicken Bess, who in a later post is captured snatching a bit of peach out of a bourbon/peach cocktail. What’s not to love? I considered it not only an honor to be able to ask her questions about garden writing but a selfish pleasure. I learned a ton, and you will, too. When did you start writing? Was your first writing project your first book-- From the Ground Up: The Story
of a First Garden? I always wanted to be a writer. I was one of those kids who wanted to be a writer when she was five. But yeah, apart from the kind of writing that all aspiring writers do when they are young, From The Ground Up was my first book. I'd been writing a garden column by the same name for a local paper, but the goal was always to write a book. I was very inspired by a food column I used to read in the Austin Chronicle (when I was a student at UT in the late 80s/ early 90s) by Petaluma Pete, the nom de plume of rock critic Ed Ward. He was writing about food, but from the point of view of a fictional character who had this complicated personal life. So it was about food but it was also this sort of interesting running soap opera. I thought, "You can do that? You can write like that?" I always wanted to tell stories, and that's what he was doing.
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You created your first garden after you finished grad school and moved to California from Texas (I'm calculating that this was in your twenties?) Did you come from a gardening background? Is your family from Texas? Please tell me a little about your gardening background. I was 22 when I finished grad school. I'm from Texas and I'm a fifthgeneration Texan on my father's side. I have no family gardening background. I grew up in the suburbs, and people did go out in the miserable heat and do something called yard work, but I never wanted to. Who are your favorite garden writing authors? Your favorite writers? I was very inspired by Carl Klaus, who founded the nonfiction program at the University of Iowa. His My Vegetable Love and Weathering Winter are two beautiful meditations on gardening. And of course I love Katharine White, and her husband (E.B. White, best known as the author of Charlotte’s Web) even more. He actually wrote quite a bit about small-scale farming.
And I am not just saying this because she's my friend, but I truly think that Michele Owens is an absolutely brilliant writer and that Grow the Good Life belongs on everyone's shelf. As for other writers--I've never known how to answer that question. It's like asking somebody what their favorite food is. Well, what are you in the mood for? Having said that, a partial list of authors I adore would include: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, E.B. White, Joan Didion (especially the early stuff), Geoff Dyer, David Foster Wallace. I adore Nick Hornby, I love PD James and pretty much any female British detective novelist. . . oh, and every week I try to keep up with the New Yorker, New York magazine, the Atlantic, Harper's...
I have to add that Grow the Good Life was my favorite gardening book last year. Your latest book, The
Drunken Botanist, is scheduled to be published next spring. What are your ideas for that? Not saying! I'm going to be a writer-in-residence at Portland State this spring, teaching a nonfiction writing workshop in their MFA program, so I get the luxury of a couple of months in Portland to lounge around and explore my next topic at my leisure. At least, that's how I'm imagining it will go. I hear they just started allowing liquor sales at food trucks in Portland, so maybe I'll just see how much good food and drink I can consume in a tenweek period. That could be fun, too.
To what do you attribute your success (aside from writing great books)? I know a lot of your time is spent in traveling and promoting your work through speaking tours and other events. How big a part do you think that work plays in sales? Well, I guess I would just say that I do this full time. I don't do anything else. I don't have kids, my husband also works all the time so he's pretty self-sufficient, I don't have any other kind of job; I just literally work on writing and selling books all day, every day, seven days a week. I don't take days off. I spend the evening in front of my iPad or my laptop, doing work-ish stuff. (Fortunately, my husband does the same. This is our way of at least being in the same room together!) I barely garden--you would not believe what a terrible garden I have-- and I take a little time out to paint, but not enough. Today, for instance, I woke up thinking that I would paint for sure, and it's 4:00 and I haven't gotten up from my computer yet. The other thing is that I aim for a non-gardening audience. I mean, I write about plants and bugs and the natural world, so I know gardeners are going to read that. But with a book like Flower Confidential, I want people who never thought they might be interested in flowers or the flower industry to read it and go, "Wow, that was fascinating. Who knew?" So really, I'm just trying to tell stories that would be broadly interesting to anyone. What advice would you give to authors who are about to publish a book to maximize sales/promotion?
Your website/blog should be so professional that a producer for Good Morning America could look at it and know that you're organized and professional and worthy of their time. It should look slick and cool. This does not have to cost a lot--I did a pretty simple WordPress site for Drunken Botanist and spent less than $500 on design, using people I found on eLance. I'll redesign it a bit when the book is done and I know what the cover looks like, but at least I've got something that looks presentable. Here's a hint: Make sure your book (as in, a clickable image of the book, maybe with the title underneath) is right up top on your website/blog/internet presence. Just last week I was talking to my editor at Algonquin about a couple of authors and she Googled them as we were talking. She said, "Seriously? This is supposed to be a blog about the book? Where exactly is the book?" She never could find it. continued on page 14
continued from previous page And please go to independent bookstores and try to do wonderful events and help them make sure lots of people show up and encourage everyone to buy their books there, not online or from the trunk of car. I own a bookstore, and I can tell you that your local, independent bookseller can stand behind a counter and hand-sell your book all day long if you give them a reason to. I hear garden authors say "Oh, it's not worth it to go do bookstore events, because I only sold like five books and that's not worth my time." Well, the question is not how many books they'll sell that day. It's how many they will sell that year, and next year, and the year after. It's about your whole career. Another tip for authors with a book coming out: Reach out to your publicist shortly after your book is turned in and "accepted." Most publishers hold a sales conference in spring and another in fall where they pitch the next season's books to their sales reps. For some reason, authors are generally not told about sales conference. I don't know why, because I think they could help. Try to find out when your book will be at sales conference and ask if you can help supply anything to them--a short (usually two minute or less) video clip, or a sheet of "fun facts" about the book. You can see an example here. My publisher was really impressed with the design and ended up covering the design costs. Otherwise, it probably would have gone out as a Word document on their letterhead with some bullet points. Also, let your publicist know how available you are to tour (and remember, you don't get paid to go on book tour), ask them for feedback on your website, and ask them what else you can do to help promote the book. Some of this communication happens through the Author Questionnaire they send you, but it doesn't hurt to reach out in addition to that. What is your favorite book out of the six you've worked on so far--and why?
Oh, the latest one is always my favorite, so Drunken Botanist will be my favorite until I start the next one.
Sandra Knauf and her daughter Zora are the feminine forces behind the new "everything BUT how-to" garden writing magazine Greenwoman Magazine. They also have a new group blog in the works, Flora's Forum. When she's not working on literature and art, Sandra loves to be in the garden tending vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers—both at home and at Vermijo Community Garden near Colorado's Pikes Peak.
What you need to know...
The FTC Endorsement Guidelines We recommend that you read the full text of the FTC Endorsement Guidelines. It is just 12 pages and includes lots of examples that take the guesswork out of what might otherwise be overcomplicated legal jargon. Though the press has suggested otherwise, the Federal Trade Commission is very clear that there is no fine for a failure to comply with an FTC guide. These are not laws, they are guidelines. That said, there are some things to keep in mind, especially if you are reviewing products or otherwise offering testimonials or endorsements. A blanket disclosure statement that seemingly covers your entire website is not considered adequate. It is a best practice to include a disclosure on any page and in any blog post that contains discussion of a product or service from a company that has paid you, given you free product or otherwise compensated you. Failing to disclose a relationship of this nature may not subject you to government scrutiny, but it can negatively impact your reputation with readers. One question from the FTC Q&A page the question of 2nd Amendment rights stood out: "If you are acting on behalf of an advertiser, what you are saying is commercial speech – and commercial speech can be regulated under the FTC Act if it’s deceptive." There is also a series of short videos aimed at clearing up some of the misconceptions about the guidelines.
Before you started blogging, did you identify a killer key phrase? Did you find a combination of words that fits the following criteria? ✔ The key phrase relates very closely to the topics you discuss in your blog. ✔ Each day more than 150 people search for the phrase on Google. ✔ Despite the enthusiasm for the phrase, there are fewer than 100,000 web pages that contain it. Most bloggers don’t identify a good key phrase before starting the writing process. In fact, I’ve attended several “beginning blogging” seminars where well-established, popular bloggers haven’t even mentioned keyword research at all. Don’t panic! Even if you never heard of SEO before starting your blog, you can compensate very effectively through killer social networking
Simple but Powerful The most elegant approach to effective SEO-free blogging I’ve ever seen catapulted a friend out of his job and into Internet stardom in about a year. His method was simple and repeatable: Identify blogs in your market space and read them habitually. Comment on blog posts you read. Don’t leave generic comments such as “Nice post!” or “That’s exactly how I’d do it.” Leave comments that acknowledge the post’s contents and extend the discussion. The sidebar on the opposite page provides more useful information that would have helped my friend’s blog rise to the top even quicker. For 2 out of 3 blog posts you write, start by visiting other blogs. Find a post that strikes your fancy and use it as a springboard for the post you write. Expand on the ideas it presents, suggest alternatives, provide personal insights related to it – then post this inspired entry on your own blog. When you write your post, tell your readers about the source of the article’s inspiration, and link to that source. Here’s the best part: Now return to the blog that inspired your post and leave a comment. The comment should be in the realm of: “I so enjoyed your post this morning that I decided to post on the same topic. I hope you’ll have a look and let me know what you think.”
You can include a link in your comment, or link to the specific blog entry using the URL box when you sign your comment. The HTML code to link to your post is: <a href=”http://www.yourwebsite.com”>Name of Blog Entry</a> Blog Comments for SEO When you leave a comment on someone’s blog, make it a good one; politely If you employ the simple strategy I’ve outlined on several influential contributing to the blog’s content. It’s OK to show some expertise, but don’t be rude. A lot of bloggers blogs, and repeat it from time-to-time on each blog, the bloggers won’t approve your comment if it’s who inspire you will get to know you… and they’ll most likely off subject, salesy, or rude.
One More Accelerator
appreciate the promotion you’re doing on their behalf. Here’s how
Always choose the Name/URL option to identify yourself in a comment. my friend took those relationships to a much higher level: Options often include Google Account, Live Journal, Wordpress, Typepad, Ask the influential bloggers you’ve engaged if they’ll participate in AIM, OpenID, and Name/URL. You might also encounter Discuss. Choosing giveaways on your blog. Typically, the best bloggers to tap for this Google makes the blog associates your are ones who are also book authors. If they’re willing to give away a comment with your Google account. That helps Google, but it doesn’t book, perhaps they’d be willing to answer questions people leave on help your blog. Likewise, choosing Wordpress promotes your Wordpress your blog during the giveaway. Or, if you’re particularly techusername, but it doesn’t promote your oriented, you might ask them to participate in a podcast where you blog. When you choose Name/URL, you can give your blog a boost.
record an interview with them and post the audio file on your blog
Now, when you enter your name, include the name of your blog. For to kick off the book giveaway. example, when I comment on a blog, I enter the name Daniel @ small kitchen The more you promote other influential bloggers, the more likely garden or Daniel (small kitchen they’ll cross-promote your blog. And, because they already have large garden). The blog engine uses your name as “anchor text” to build a followings in the same market you’re developing, your exposure will hyperlink. The link itself comes from the URL entry you provide. Type the grow very rapidly through your relationships. base URL of your blog, or the URL to a specific blog post.
Check out my friend Dan Rockwell's blog: http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/
When you sign your comments this way, the blog builds a link back to YOUR blog. That’s a good thing for building your blog’s authority with Google.
Daniel Gasteiger is an author, photographer, and speaker. He teaches how to grow and preserve food and how to build a powerful web presence to promote your business, your art, and yourself. He invites you to visit his premier blog, Your Small Kitchen Garden and find him on Twitter where he goes by the name @cityslipper.
In the sea of gardening advice, how do you know what you’re saying is true? As garden communicators in one way or another, none of us want to repeat information that’s off base, outdated, or just flat out untrue. Still, the fact is we’re all are probably guilty of it from time to time. Deadlines are tight. Word counts are short. Whatever the reason, let she (or he) who has never written something based on something they read without first checking to be sure it was true, cast the first stone. We admit it. We’ve propagated debatable and even bad advice from time to time. And that truth was never more evident to us than when we were writing our newly published book, Decoding Gardening Advice, the Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations. You want an example? Okay: Plant trees deeply to help them develop strong root systems. This was viewed as good advice until just a few years ago when new research proved that burying trees deeply was killing them by setting them up to be strangled by girdling roots. Even though researchers were aware of this, it’s taken years for this information to become widely known to garden communicators and subsequently, to the public. We’re not claiming that this lag between research and the dissemination of information is to blame for all of our mistakes. No, when we’ve gotten things wrong it has mostly been due to repeating things we didn’t check out thoroughly enough. The truth is, even when information is coming from a trusted source, it always pays to ask why. If research isn’t cited and/or experts aren’t quoted, find something to back up what you’ve read or heard yourself. Who says it’s a good idea to always stake young trees, add peat moss to garden soil, or use gravel in pots to improve drainage? (Those things are all wrong, by the way.) We’re always up for a good round of why, why, why. So, each month, in this column we’ll be offering up new research, our take on advice we’ve heard recently, and, heck, we might even flog an out-of-control guru or two. Email us your ideas and let us know what you think.
Mason Bees With honeybee populations declining in recent years, gardeners have been seeking out alternate pollinators, and mason bees are a hot seller because they’re easy to care for and so gentle they rarely sting, even if provoked. Available through magazines, catalogs and online sources, mason bees are shipped to gardeners all over the United States. So we got to wondering whether all those bees going every which way might be a problem for native bee populations. Sure enough, it definitely can be, says Joel Gardner, a graduate student studying mason bees at the University of Minnesota.
While native bees, including mason bees are “always a good thing,” Gardner says, it is important to order the species that’s right for your geographic area. The mason bee (Osmia lignaria), he told us, has two subspecies: Osmia lignaria lignaria and Osmia lignaria propinqua. "Lignaria lives east of the Rockies and propinqua lives west, and introducing them outside their native range should be avoided," Joel advises. Otherwise, you run the risk of spreading outside pests or diseases to local bee populations.
Unfortunately, this information is not widely known and the willy-nilly nationwide shipping of both bee species is ongoing. Gardeners who want to buy mason bees need to know that it’s important to order from reputable sellers that ship bees according to zip code.
Worm Compost and Disease Suppression Vermicompost has long been touted as being good for attracting more earthworms, increasing nutrient availability in the soil, and improving soil structure and water-holding capacity. Those things appear to be true. However, reports that vermicompost can do a whole lot more than that are often greatly exaggerated.
That said, new research from Cornell University suggests, that vermicompost may be helpful in preventing Pythium aphanidermatum, a pathogen that plagues greenhouse growers by causing seedlings to damp off, as well as root and stem rot. The article, which was published in the in the December 21 st online issue of the Cornell Chronicle, explains how Eric Carr, a master’s student working with Professor Eric Nelson in the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, is studying vermicomposts’ ability to suppress the pathogen.
At the same time, Ph.D. student Allison Jack has built on Nelson’s previous research to show that “beneficial microbes in vermicompost can colonize a seed’s surface and protect it from infection by releasing a substance that interferes with the chemical signaling between the host and the pathogen.” The article is an interesting read, but we like that it also makes clear that research on the benefits of vermicompost and other organic waste products and resources is challenging and ongoing. While studies have shown composts can suppress disease, there remains much to be learned about which microbes suppress various diseases and how they go about doing it.
Jeff Gillman is an associate professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota. Visit him at www.gardenprofessors.com. Meleah Maynard is a journalist, garden writer and master gardener. Visit her at www.everydaygardener.com.
W goodness.
hole Grains are getting a lot of press these days. The words are touted on packaging throughout supermarket aisles, but unless you read the label you may be getting more marketing than whole grain
Luckily, getting more whole grains onto your plate and into your belly is easy and can take only minutes longer than boiling pasta in most cases. I recently spent a Saturday afternoon taking a cooking class in Salem, New York at The Battenkill Kitchen with food journalist Maria Speck, author of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals (Ten Speed Press). Maria, who grew up in Greece and Germany before coming to the United States, feels that people get scared about whole grains because of all the healthy hype associated with them. Instead, she prefers the focus to be on creating delicious dishes that just happen to contain whole grains. Not surprisingly, one participant brought up gluten intolerance. Maria quickly listed the whole grains that do not contain gluten as well as bringing up how current research points to widespread gluten intolerance being linked to the hybridization of our modern grains. Am I the only one who feels that the industrial revolution was the beginning of the downslide that led us to many of our current health crises? The class of 16 was split into four groups and we got busy gathering the ingredients needed to prepare the recipes Maria had assigned. The intimate space of The Battenkill Kitchen turned this into an exercise in patience and courtesy which quickly gave way to friendly competition. Soon the space was filling with the smells of spices toasting in olive oil, fresh, local lamb searing and excited chatter between groups about their recipes. The latter may or may not have been fueled by wine, but either way, Maria was not shy about keeping us on task and focused on the dishes we were preparing. The mouthwatering recipes were bursting with flavor: Kamut Salad with Carrots & Pomegranate, BulgurLentil Soup with Minted Olive Oil Butter, ArtichokeRosemary Tarts with Polenta Crust, Lamb Stew with Wheat Berries in Red Wine Sauce, Honey- Almond Cantuccini and Wheat Berry Fools with Grand Marnier Figs. continued on next page
continued from previous page Each recipe was made twice which proved interesting. There were obvious differences in color & consistency and variations in taste that could be attributed to differing levels of cooking skills and attention to the details. While it certainly was a class, we were a group of mostly social adults who socialized a great deal while we cooked. I was meeting a handful of people in person I had gotten to know through Facebook and was for the first time able to have face-to-face conversations instead of dipping in-and-out of sound bite interactions that spanned across a given day. Then there was the flurry of constant picture taking with everything from smart phones to digital SLRs for sharing, tagging and uploading to our Facebook walls, blogs and Twitter feeds. As we got tucked into the dishes the room became quiet for a few moments before we began comparing the slight variations between the two versions of each dish. Or incomplete dishes, as was the case with one version of the Wheat Berry Fools. After soaking the figs in Grand Marnier, the liquor is reserved for drizzling over the top when served. When Maria inquired where it was, there was a burst of giggles as it was sheepishly admitted that it had in fact already been enjoyed. I of course plead the fifth. At the end of the day I came away with a greater appreciation of whole grains, a full belly and a full heart. For this foodie there is no better way to spend a day then being able to learn how to bring new ingredients into my kitchen with a room full of like-minded individuals. We left with signed copies of Ancient Grains and I've since prepared two of that day's dishes (and others) at home to rave reviews. I highly recommend picking up a copy for yourself.
If you have questions, Maria is can be contacted through her website, Facebook and Twitter.
Dawn Marie Kelly is a Yorkie Wrangler & Writer who has mucked about in the blogging world since 2003. Her newest blog, Dancing Outside The Box, is her latest incarnation. Her passions; food, gardening, writing & people, all come together there. She is the Social Media Outreach Gal at Chick On The Go and operates Not So Silent Partner Productions with her husband Martin. By night she is writing a future award winning scripted television drama. Stay tuned!
A longtime colleague confided in me recently that she is burned out. It came as no real surprise to me considering the breakneck pace that she's kept up for longer than we've known one another but it did make me take some time to think. We aren't being fair to ourselves. No, that's not any great epiphany, but it is the truth. Some of us work full time jobs and then throw ourselves into the oft-unforgiving world of the writer while others â&#x20AC;&#x201C; myself included â&#x20AC;&#x201C; choose to work twice as hard for twice as many hours, often to make half the money we would otherwise. Regardless, we put in the time and give what we can until the other areas of our lives show the signs of neglect. Our gardens are often made to suffer when we spend more time writing about gardening than we do gardening. Our homes suffer when we continue to say that the laundry can go one more day until it can't. Our families suffer because moms and dads, husbands, wives and partners aren't there as much as they should be, even when they are just in the next room staring intently at a computer screen. I guess I should say that we just aren't being fair, period. But neither are the publishers who expect us to produce bestseller material while juggling impossible deadlines. Neither are the clients who want us to write, edit, photograph, format, rewrite, do SEO, and then promote the work for which they want to pay pennies per word. It hurts to know that my colleague is so close to the end of a very long rope, but I know where she is coming from. What's saddest of all is that if she really did throw her hands up and walk away from it all, we would lose one of the most witty, knowledgeable and talented writers I've ever met.