Romancing plants: How growing a garden is like a writing career

Tomatoes, garlic chives, peppers, basil, peppermint. The brown box is a Patio Picker. It has wheels for easy movement so I can bring it in when it gets too hot outside. My first year trying this.

Aren't plants amazing? Seriously. You put a little seed in some dirt and weeks later, voila! Food and flowers appear. How is gardening like a writing career? So glad you asked.

1. Plant food and fertilizer:  Plants grow better when fed, and my RWA meetings, online classes and craft books supply that for my writing career. Sometimes, the fertilizer is shit, as in a publisher does me wrong, I get a nasty review, etc. Manure helps with growth also, if I use it the right way and learn the lesson from each negative encounter. (I have to put in a plug for  Mary the Muse Charmer and Cassandra Carr, two authors I recently took online classes with. Awesome, both of them!)

2.  Sunshine:  Kind words from friends, good reviews and that happy email or call when a book is accepted at a publisher works as sunshine for me. I need a lot of it, so I continually talk to wonderful people and share happy news and keep putting out those books.

3.  Water:  Cooling and refreshing, I equate this to rest. Some days I have to say "enough" and take a break. I don't write anything strenuous and maybe even use my spare time just to read or watch television. Naps, brunch and shopping with a friend, wine and dinner with another, getting to bed early enough to rock my honey's world, those are the ways I recharge my batteries and stay invigorated.

Enjoy these pictures of my garden. More will follow as the plants go crazy!

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These are Topsy Turvy planters with tomato plants. They will get huge! My honey built this structure just for me and the tomatoes. The large pole next to the shed? That's part of an antennae we installed to avoid giganto cable fees. Take that, cable company!