Published At Last!

Horse chestnut bonsai grown from seed

You've met Tom, my renaissance husband: bread baker, cheese maker, violin builder, painter, potter, among other things. Now he has something new to add to the list -- published author!

Long before I met him Tom had been growing bonsai. When he was hiking or exploring nurseries and garden shops he'd find young trees with interesting features to take home to shape and train into lovely miniatures.  By the time we'd met he had several in process, including a flourishing horse chestnut bonsai, grown from a chestnut that he found on the ground at Seattle Pacific University.

Sculpting trees brought him a lot of joy. As a way of sharing his interest he wrote and illustrated a booklet to show others how they, too, might grow bonsai. He called it The Art of Growing Bonsai From Seed. It was camera ready art, pasted up and ready to go. He planned to have it printed and sell it through magazine ads, including a starter packet -- some seeds and soil -- with each purchase.

But that was before he married me and we had our kids. The book languished in a file cabinet while we raised boys and computers rendered camera ready artwork obsolete.

When I got back from Burundi in July Tom had a surprise waiting for me. He had digitized the book, inputting all the text and recreating his tables and illustrations on the computer. Over the past few weeks he has been putting on the finishing touches and just last night he clicked the "Publish" button, uploading the booklet to Kindle!

I don't have a Kindle, but I have the Kindle app on the desktop, the laptop, and the Thrive, so I can read Kindle books on any of those devices. Even if you don't have a Kindle, you can get the app and download Tom's book for just $0.99! It's an easy, helpful guide for anyone who is interested in bonsai, whether a novice or a long time enthusiast.

Here's the link; check it out! It would be great if you'd take a few minutes to write a review, too. Thanks!