Every year around the beginning of April, my husband and I plant 54 heirloom tomato seeds. We watch for the first bits of green to appear, then carefully tend our seedlings under grow lights until early June.
At that point, we plant 36 of them in our garden and give away the others. They’re a variety of types, all indeterminate, which means they grow as high as 6 feet tall. My husband built wire mesh hail covers to protect them, and they require regular trimming and tying to remain healthy and fruitful.
The harvest, as you can imagine, is plentiful. We eat them fresh, give them away, and make lots of marinara, BBQ sauce, and salsa, canning it to share with friends and enjoy throughout the year.
We save the seeds from year to year, planting last year’s seeds for this year’s crop. (We always have extra seeds and are happy to share. Want some? Get in touch, and I’ll put them in the mail to you.)
Is this a lot of work? In a word, yes. Couldn’t we just buy all that stuff at the farmer’s market or the grocery store? Sure.
But there’s something deeply satisfying about beginning with something as a small as a tomato seed, growing a 6-foot plant, harvesting hundreds of tomatoes, and creating delicious food from them. You can’t get that experience at a store, or even by patronizing your local farmer’s market. (Although I also encourage you to do that, because farmer’s market folks are the best folks.)
Books Are Like That, Too
Writing and publishing a book is a similar process. You start with nothing but an idea, and you nurture it, grow it, and help it become what it was always meant to be. If you’ve worked hard and had a bit of luck (we’ve seen entire crops wiped out by hail, before the hail covers were added—and we all know how fickle the book world can be), when harvest time rolls around, you’ll have the pleasure of sharing what you created with others.
It’s harvest time for Anyone But Her, which publishes on September 17th—two weeks from today. I started writing the book in September 2019, so the book process has been 12 times longer than the 5-month life cycle of growing and harvesting tomatoes. But perhaps it’s no coincidence that I announced my indie-pubbing journey for Anyone But Her around the same time I put those tiny tomato seeds into 54 pots of soil this past April. Since then, the process to get the book into the world has been a ton of work, but I’ve learned more than I’d ever expected, and I love sharing this journey with you.
Most of all, I love the support, encouragement, and friendship from librarians, booksellers, readers, family, friends, and everyone else who walks beside me in this journey. Thank you all so much! I can’t wait for you to hold a copy of Anyone But Her in your hands.
Announcing the Winners!
Congrats to Kim Buck and Lisa Wurster, who each won an ARC (advance reader copy) of Anyone But Her simply by being subscribers to The What If Journal. I regularly run subscriber-only giveaways—so if you’re not subscribed, now is the time!
Sending congrats as well to Kate Lents and Teresa Bawa, who each won an ARC of Anyone But Her through the Great Big Book Giveaway sponsored by the Facebook group Readers Coffeehouse. If you’re on Facebook and aren’t in this group, I encourage you to join in the fun. It’s a large, positive-vibes-only group that loves talking about books of all kinds.
There’s still one more chance to win an ARC, via a Goodreads giveaway for 5 copies of Anyone But Her. The giveaway ends this Thursday, September 5th. Jump over there to enter, and good luck!
You can preorder Anyone But Her in print and ebook everywhere books are sold. (Audio is coming soon…stay tuned.) Order links are here.
“Masterfully crafted, distinctly Denver, and a must-read for anyone who loves a gripping, edge-of-your-seat mystery.”
— Denver Life magazine
What If We Create? What If We Step Out?
A reminder that Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Conference is only a few weeks away! I’m presenting a session called “Keeping It Real: How Much Fiction Belongs in Historical Fiction?” and facilitating a “Birds of a Feather” session for writers of historical fiction. I’ll also be attending other sessions (because I always have more to learn), meals, and social events. Registration closes on September 10th—I hope to see you there!
Release events for Anyone But Her take place October through December. My events calendar is here. I’d love to see you at an event!
On a Heartbroken Note
I’m devastated to have to share that over this past weekend, we lost our beloved German Shepherd, Jojo. It was sudden and unexpected, but she went peacefully, surrounded by most of those who loved her. (One son, too far away at college, was unable to be here.) Jojo was a rescue whom we adopted at the beginning of the pandemic—and she rescued us as much as we might have rescued her.
She was a big, beautiful, goofy girl, and we miss her terribly.
One of my friends shared these lovely words, and I’m finding great comfort in them:
Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you…I loved you so — ‘twas heaven here with you.
— Isla Paschal Richardson
Whatever we feel happens after death, it’s good to remember that for a well-loved pet, heaven is being right here with us.
If you’re so inclined, please share your favorite pet stories…they’ll help me get through this time.
Peace, love, pets, and reading to all…
I LOVE heirloom tomatoes, and you’ve inspired me to want to start from seed with them as you have.
I started writing my novel in 2022, rewrote it in 2023, and spent the better part of this year querying it. After considering a contract with a hybrid publisher, I took the leap last week to self-publish and launch at a big writer’s conference in February. I have a cover design in process, a copy edit in process, a publicist deciding whether to break her own rule and work with an indie, and I learned the typesetting tools yesterday. So much to do!
We currently have five pets, and I’ve had many cats and dogs throughout my life. There was a golden retriever we got when I was 4 that slept on my bed and passed away when I was 16 that was like losing a sibling. And a cat I got when I moved into my first apartment after college that slept on me until she was 16. It’s so hard to let go of them, but I agree their heaven is being loved on earth.
I love that quote. Thank you. And I wish you all success with your new book!