Pre-order your copy today on Amazon.com! The official release date is March 6, 2012.
I finally got to see the cover of my new book The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Seed Saving & Starting. I couldn’t be more thrilled. The front cover and the smaller photo on the back cover are ones I took. I wasn’t sure how to photograph a book cover. This is where the senior acquisitions editor, Brook Farling came into play in a big way. He explained to me what the kind folks at Penguin/Alpha was looking for. He gave me lots of great advice on how to get the best photo.
When it came to laying the actual photo out, a good friend Minnie Thurman loaned me the cute little dishes and helped make sure every seed was in just the right location. This photo would not have happened without these two great people.
Still, I wasn’t sure the photos I took would be good enough to grace the cover. What a wonderful surprise it was today when I opened the email that contained the attachment with the photo of the front and back cover of the book. I am thrilled beyond belief. This was the icing on the cake.
The back cover of the book.
The book is available for pre-order now and although the official release date isn’t until March 6, 2012 there is no reason to wait until then to place your order. The price you pay now is guaranteed not to go up once it is released. With this tough economic times, it just makes sense to get your order in now – and maybe even pre-order one for that special gardener on your list. Best of all, this book will arrive just in time for seed starting season to begin. Plus if you order it now, once seed saving season begins you will have a handy reference that tells you exactly how to save flower, fruit and vegetable seeds. Saving your own seeds saves money and you will end up with seeds that are adapted to your local growing conditions which leads to even more success in the garden in the future!
Filed under Books By Sheri Ann Richerson by on Nov 18th, 2011. Comment. 
Every Thursday evening at 7pm EST, I will be hosting a #homesteadchat on Twitter. You can use any tweet chat program including tweet chat at http://tweetchat.com
Be sure to include the hashtag #homesteadchat.
Tonight’s topic is making herbal holiday craft ideas. We will be talking about how to use ingredients grown in your own garden – or ingredients you can find locally to make a wide array of herbal holiday crafts.
Have a question you would like to see answered tonight, but can’t make the chat? Leave it in the comment box below this post. Questions that are not answered tonight will be addressed either through a post or You Tube video.
I hope to see you there.
_______________
If you missed this week’s #homesteadchat, click here to go to the archive.
Filed under Sheri Ann Richerson On The Web by on Oct 27th, 2011. Comment.
My 2011 goal is to make a blog post at least once a week and more often if I have the time. The blog post will be on of the Experimental Homesteader sub-blogs…..Dreams and Destinations, Exotic Gardening Thoughts, Food Preservation, Crafty Creations, Animal Husbandy or The Experimenal Homesteader, but will all be visiable from the home page Homestead Happenings at http://www.experimentalhomesteader.com
If you are a regular reader, or even if you are new here, please post your comments, questions or encouragement along the way! I love reading what you, the valued reader, has to say!
Filed under The Writing Life, The writing life, Writing Goals, Awards and Achievements by on Jan 31st, 2011. Comment.
Have you noticed the pencil at the top of all the blog posts? It is there to help me, Sheri Ann Richerson, chart my progress so I can reach my writing goal of 100k in 2010.
Now, if you have been following my blog for a while you may realize that in 2009 I wrote over 200K. I wrote five books last year which was a big help in acheiving that goal and I won NaNoWriMo 2009 with a word count of over 54k.
I am also participating in NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month. It actually runs 12 months out of the year, so my goal is to put up a blog post every day on some part of The Experimental Homesteader, which now includes this blog as well.
Currently I am involved in a writing contest known as Book-in-a-Week. My goal for January 4 though 11 is to write 100 pages which will complete my work on book #20, the final book in the LifeTips series I am working on, the secret life of a gardener.
Of course there will be other contests throughout the year and hopefully some magazine and book contracts. Keep an eye on this site for updates.
I love hearing from you, so drop me a comment on any of the blog posts. Let me know what you think, what you would like to see or even feel free to ask questions if you feel I have missed anything along the way.
Hope your 2010 is filled with dreams come true!
Sheri
Filed under The Writing Life, Writing Goals, Awards and Achievements by on Jan 5th, 2010. 2 Comments.
It’s official – Amazon is taking pre-orders on The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Year Round Gardening. Order your copy today so they are not sold out by the time the book is released in February 2010.
This book is so cool because it tells you, no matter what hardiness zone you are in, how to garden year round. It doesn’t matter if you have a heated or unheated greenhouse, garden indoors, use frost covers or cold frames, you can defy nature and grow many varieties of fresh produce year round.
Here in Indiana we have been successful with a variety of produce – lettuce, peas, radish, turnip, carrots, to name a few. This year, using season extending ideas like you will find in this book, I planted tomato plants on April 1.
Don’t miss your chance to own this fantastic book. Even seasoned gardeners are sure to learn something – and don’t let the name fool you, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Year Round Gardening should be on every gardeners’ bookshelf!
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Year-Round Gardening
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Filed under Books By Sheri Ann Richerson by on Jan 1st, 2010. 3 Comments.
This just in – Magical Gardens is now live on Amazon.com
Garden styles vary widely, everyone wants something unique. If your wish is to incorporate your religious beliefs into your garden, choosing the proper plants can leave you stumped. In this book I will tell you what plants to choose for a moon garden, a fairy garden, a tarot card garden, a sabbat garden, an old world medicinal garden or a zodiac garden. Magical Gardens also contains a basic gardening primer so even new gardeners can successfully create the garden of their dreams. I know if you seek information on creating Magical Gardens this book will be the one you need.
Magical Gardens held the #22 position on the Amazon Shorts best seller list!
Magical Gardens
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Here are some reader reviews:
Hi Sheri!
I love your Magical Gardens Amazon Short. The concept of creating a garden incorporating your beliefs … how beautiful and inspiring! Soooo much detailed information in there … you really know your stuff. You give specifics on what to choose for various purposes and I love that because I would be lost trying to do this on my own.
The one thing I sooo missed was a photo of the beautiful plants and flowers … or better yet, of an example of one of these magical gardens.
Amazing work, great great job! I’m so glad I discovered this!
Much love,
Colleen
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No green thumb … Will my son-in-law create my magic garden?, December 17, 2008
By Betty L. Dravis
Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t have a very green thumb. Heck, my thumb has been known to kill so many plants, it’s actually yellow… a little yellow coward that runs at the first mention of gardening.
But there’s nothing I enjoy more than a lovely garden ablaze with brilliant blossoms in every shade of the rainbow aesthetically placed among rows of greenery so lush I feel like I’m in a tropical paradise.
I bought this Amazon Short in hopes I could lure my son-in-law into creating a fabulous garden in my back yard. His thumb is so green, I often fear he might one day become green all over, like the “Incredible Hulk.” … lol … But all kidding aside, he’s a master at creating magnificent garden settings. You should see their backyard; the pool area is to die for! Whenever I visit them, I feel like I’m swimming in a natural pool amongst the lush foliage of Kauai, Hawaii’s Garden Island.
I applaud Sheri Ann Richerson, the author of Magical Gardens, for her awesome gardening skills and for her contribution to “greening” the world. She not only has over twenty years of newspaper, magazine and creative writing credits, she’s a well-known speaker, a garden coach and writes on a regular basis for “Garden Solutions Magazine.” She has too many credits to mention, but she’s a Purdue University Silver Level Master Gardener and a Horticulture Gardening Institute Instructor and is a Global Warming Ambassador for the National Wildlife Federation … just to name a few.
In addition, her farm, Exotic Gardening Farms, is a certified wildlife habitat.
Richerson is known for her magical garden themes: Moon Garden, Fairy Garden, Tarot Garden, God or Goddess Garden, Zodiak Garden … and the list goes on. She encourages people to use their imagination to come up with their own themes.
In this short story she details all that’s required to create those gardens and more. Don’t they sound captivating? They certainly enchanted me, but since I know my limitations, I’m hoping this article inspires my son-in-law to create something special for dear old “Mom” … come springtime, of course. I’ll let him get through the Holiday Season without hitting him with my latest project. Am I generous or what?
I highly recommend this article to anyone who’s interested in gardening. Richerson is also the author of a poetry book, Perspective Visions: Enigmatic Masterpieces, which in the author’s own words is “a unique work of art showing the darker side of life and love.” I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds intriguing.
END-NOTE: The five stars are for the author’s gardening credits, skills and the helpfulness of this short article; her punctuation would not pass the “green” test.)
Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, December 2008
Filed under Books By Sheri Ann Richerson by on Jan 1st, 2010. 1 Comment.
This is a brief listing of other books I have contributed to:
• 2007 Our Food Heritage, Past, Present, Future Baking Bread Together, Helps to Keep the Family Together, contributed some recipes, multi-contributor cookbook. (Simsbury, CT: Family Cookbook Project, LLC, 2007)
• 2006 The Herbarist, contributed one chapter on housekeeping with herbs. Look for copies through The Herb Society Of America. Here is a link http://www.herbsociety.org/herbaristtoc06.php
• 2006 Herbal Almanac, contributed one chapter on chocolate and one on herbal hydroponics. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2006)
• 2006 Magical Almanac, contributed one chapter on wishing herbs and one on wedding superstitions. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2006)
• 2005 All Things Chocolate, multi-contributor cookbook. (Marion, IN: Lead, Inc., 2005)
• 2005 Herbal Almanac, contributed one chapter on fire in the garden. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2005)
• 2005 Magical Almanac, contributed two chapters, one on fire legends and fire magic, and another on healing water. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2005)
• 2004 Magical Almanac, contributed one chapter on the ghosts of Key West. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2004)
• 2003 Witches Spell-A-Day Almanac, contributed twenty-five herbal spells. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2003)
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• 2003 Herbal Almanac, contributed one chapter on an herbal meal for the one you love. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2003)
• 2003 Magical Almanac, contributed two chapters, one on the monkey man of India, and another on the magic of urban legends. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2003)
• 2002 Moon Sign Book, contributed one chapter on medicinal astrology. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2002)
Filed under Books By Sheri Ann Richerson by on Jan 1st, 2010. Comment.
We have a new website up for your reading pleasure, http://www.experimentalhomesteader.com
Eventually we hope to have all the websites and blogs linked. This is going to take some time as my tech person has a full time job, works on computers on the side and then does my website coding.
2010 promises to be a great year. Happy New Year to all my readers!
Sheri Ann
Filed under Sheri Ann Richerson On The Web by on Jan 1st, 2010. Comment.
Compelling poetry sure to draw one into another world, Perspective Visions: Enigmatic Masterpieces, is a unique work of art showing the darker side of life and love.
The works in this book were written over the course of many years. The first poem was written when the author, Sheri Ann Richerson, was just ten years old.
As time progressed, the poetry took on a darker, almost haunting perspective.
Perspective Visions: Enigmatic Masterpieces is sure to conjure up mysterious images and undeniable, hidden feelings of lust, love and the darker side of life.
Perspective Visions: Enigmatic Masterpieces
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Filed under Books By Sheri Ann Richerson by on Jan 1st, 2010. 1 Comment.
This blog will be all about Sheri Ann Richerson’s writing life. Currently the blog is at http://www.sheriannricherson.com/blog/ The archives will remain there, at least for now, so all the posts here will be new.
Stay tuned for further developments.
Sheri
Filed under Coming Soon! by on Jan 1st, 2010. 1 Comment.
Reader’s Thoughts