Triple X Writing: How One Author Fills in the Blanks

by Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp

As a former reporter for daily newspapers, I know what it’s like to write on deadline. I’ve read about the topic, researched it, and completed interviews. I know the story I want to tell, I’m on a roll and the words are pouring out. The last thing I want is to stop that creative process because I can’t think of a word, quote, or detail.

I confess I’m not a horticulturist. I just play one in print. When I’m writing my weekly garden column, a magazine feature, answering readers’ questions, or building a PowerPoint presentation, I frequently have to look up the scientific name of a plant. I always include the scientific names because I think it helps readers locate just what they are looking for. 

Mysteries, Lore, and More: Spring Region III Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky

We had a great group attending the Region III meeting

by Carol Michel

Can you imagine visiting a botanical garden, a mystery writer’s garden, a retail nursery full of tropical plants, an arboretum / research forest, and a cemetery arboretum in just 24 hours? If you attended the GWA Region III meeting in June, you not only imagined it, you actually did it. There were highlights at each stop.

• Yew Dell Botanical Gardens featured an outstanding collection of plants and a castle to go with the plants.
• Brian’s Botanicals gave us all a chance to find the perfect tropical plants for our Midwest gardens.
• At Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, we gathered in a LEED Platinum building before heading out to see the vegetable garden and a traveling display entitled Vanishing Acts: Trees Under Threat.
• At the historic Cave Hill Cemetery, we viewed a collection of unique and interesting trees, some of which are the largest of their species.

Networking Saves the Day: How One Author Located Hard-to-Find Ingredients

by Ellen Zachos

Writing is a solitary profession. Gardening often is too. That’s one of the reasons I love GWA and the friends and colleagues I’ve met as a member. Not only does GWA provide a network of accomplished professionals, but it’s also a social group, full of friendly, interesting people who are willing to go the extra mile to help out a fellow member.

The fresh purslane for this cocktail was shipped from Indiana to New Mexico

This past fall, as I worked on my most recent book, I had reason to appreciate this aspect of the vast network that is GWA. Because the subject of my book is intensely seasonal (The Wildcrafted Cocktail) there were several instances in which I needed to test a recipe with a plant that was no longer available where I lived.

When I needed to distill rose water from fresh, organic rose petals in November, I figured I was out of luck. Then I thought, hey, I know some garden communicators who live in warmer parts of the country…maybe their roses are still blooming. Within a half hour of posting my request on Facebook, Ann McCormick answered and said she thought she could gather enough for me before an impending storm touched ground in Fort Worth. I gave her my FedEx number and the next day I had a ziplock bag full of lovely pink ‘Old Blush’ rose petals, fragrant, fresh, and ready to be distilled. Ann refused compensation for her time and effort; all she asked was that I write this blog post!

Let Me Introduce…Making an Introduction Work For You

By C.L. Fornari

If you’re a speaker, you’ve been introduced to many audiences. Some of those introductions have undoubtedly been short and sweet while others have been long and rambling, non-existent, or (worst of all) inaccurate.

Sadly, program chairs might take information off your website that appeals to them personally. In doing so they might be ignoring your credentials, the audience’s interests, or the topic you’re presenting. Others might read your entire resume, so that the audience is on the edge of slumber when you take the stage. Yet these incidents can be avoided.