I’ve just returned home from a two week work trip to San Diego. The first few days, in truth, were fun time, visiting friends and seeing the sights of San Diego, the beaches and parks. But when I arrived at Steven Hammer’s Sphaeroid Institute, it was all business: Chapter layouts were quickly finalized, and Steven and I got down to the nitty gritty.
We began with a careful review of the text, reading the entire book out load. Then we’d head over to the computer and review our photo choices: is every species illustrated in flower? Check. Does every photo have a descriptive caption? Check. We reviewed alternate photo choices and selected the best photos and arranging them with the aim of showing the amazing range of forms and flowers colors for each species.
We filled in historical details, recalled interesting hybrids, and discussed what those mean for each genus and for the family as a while. We argued over a thousand details. And we wrote and we wrote, adding horticultural advice, appendices with old, hard-to-access texts, new captions of better pictures. We compiled references, edited maps… And we took breaks: a fabulous batch of mac and cheese, lovely salads, coffee and toast, steel-cut oats. We even took our proofs to the best new pizza place in North Country, URBN, and ate pizza and drank beer while reading the book aloud, ferreting out mistakes and inconsistencies.
And by the end of nine 12-hour days of book work, we were exhausted, but the book was nearly complete!
Press date set
The next six weeks will be consumed with layout refinements, map finalizations, and receipt of a few final bits of artwork. We go to press in October.
New pre-order deadline
Which means our subscription has been extended. Steven and I would be honored to print your name in this book. Please take a moment to order the book now, while there’s still time.