S. Smith's Blog, page 5
March 26, 2020
Doing My Part During Covid19
[image error]
In my last post I discussed what I was doing to be a helper during this time of crisis. Not feeling like I was a good enough seamstress to help with sewing masks (my daughter’s significant other works in a hospital), I pleaded “gardening.”
Authors (of which I am one) are also stepping up.
Some are discounting or giving ebooks away for free. Some are hosting read alouds on Zoom or Skype, even Instagram. Some are offering writing or drawing lessons. Some are creating collections and lists of books for all the parents and kids at home.
What am I doing?
Before the virus got out of hand I had already put my first three ebooks on sale for Plant A Seed Day. I had planned to go back to full price (normally $5.99 each), but instead I’ve left the books on sale. In fact, yesterday I put all five of them on sale. You will find the lowest prices at Smashwords, who is hosting big discounts in their Smashwords store for any author who joins.
I’ve also signed up with Draft 2 Digital to enter my ebooks at a discounted rate to libraries through Overdrive. I don’t know if my books have been chosen, but I did sign them over.
Another thing I’m doing is making sure the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood are always stocked with children’s books. (take precautions, people! wash those hands!)
Finally, I have some Audible codes to give away for a free audiobook of my first book, Seed Savers-Treasure. If you’d like a code, let me know in the comments below. I have only a limited supply. You will need to leave your email for me to contact you. Or you can comment and then email me at sandrasmithauthor at gmail.
If you are not on the frontlines already, what are you doing in your own small way to be a helper? Feel free to share in the comments below.
Stay safe!
Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
(If you’re not familiar with my books, Seed Savers is a 5-book series that takes place in a future where gardening is illegal and real food unknown. The first three books are appropriate for elementary age kids and the last three “age up” somewhat.
Go here for summaries of the books.
For comprehensive reviews of each book, check these out:
Seed Savers-Treasure (book one)
Seed Savers-Heirloom (book three)
Seed Savers-Keeper (book four)
Seed Savers-Unbroken (book five) )
Doing My Part
In my last post I discussed what I was doing to be a helper during this time of crisis. Not feeling like I was a good enough seamstress to help with mask sewing (my daughter’s significant other works in a hospital), I pleaded “gardening.”
Authors (of which I am one) are also stepping up. Some are discounting or giving ebooks away for free. Some are hosting read alouds on Zoom or Skype, even Instagram. Some are offering writing or drawing lessons. Some are creating collections and lists of books for all the parents and kids at home.
What am I doing?
Before the virus got out of hand I had already put my first three ebooks on sale for Plant A Seed Day. I had planned to go back to full price (normally $5.99 each), but instead I’ve left the books on sale. In fact, yesterday I put all five of them on sale. You will find the lowest prices at Smashwords, who is hosting big discounts in their Smashwords store for any author who joins.
I’ve also signed up with Draft 2 Digital to enter my ebooks at a discounted rate to libraries through Overdrive. I don’t know if my books have been chosen, but I did sign them over.
Another thing I’m doing is making sure the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood are always stocked with children’s books. (take precautions, people! wash those hands!)
Finally, I have some Audible codes to give away for a free audiobook of my first book, Seed Savers-Treasure. If you’d like a code, let me know in the comments below. I have only a limited supply. You will need to leave your email for me to contact you.
If you’re not familiar with my books, Seed Savers is a 5-book series that takes place in a future where gardening is illegal and real food unknown. The first three books are appropriate for elementary age kids and the last three “age up” somewhat.
Go here for summaries of the books.
For comprehensive reviews of each book, check these out:
Seed Savers-Treasure (book one)
Seed Savers-Heirloom (book three)
Seed Savers-Keeper (book four)
Seed Savers-Unbroken (book five)
[image error]
Stay safe!
Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
March 23, 2020
Which American Girl Doll Are You?
[image error]
“You’d be a terrible American Girl doll!” my daughter said with disapproval. I’ll admit, no one had ever hurled this insult at me before.
My daughter is 27 and lives in Indiana though a good portion of her heart is still here in Oregon. We talk nearly every day on Facetime, yes even before the virus. On this particular day she asked if I would like her to send me instructions on how to sew facemasks. Her boyfriend is an emergency room nurse.
“Uh, no,” I answered. I have way too many things to do.” That’s when she hit me with the American Girl doll thing. For those of you unfamiliar, when my daughter was young, American Girl dolls were very popular. And they aren’t just dolls. They are dolls with history, of history, and they had lots of books that went along with each doll. We read them all. She even had a subscription to the magazine. But I digress.
I felt the accusation was unjust. As I tried to explain my way out of it, she kept telling me it was my American duty and reminding me of the many ways “the girls” helped during their particular place in history. By golly, before she’d finished with me, she’d even brought up George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life.
“Do you think George Bailey wasn’t out there volunteering during the war BESIDES running the Bailey Building and Loan??”
“But, but, I am doing something,” I said. “I took the Garden on Wheels out to grandmas! I gave vegetable starts to my neighbor. I’m sharing seeds.” I was talking fast now, gaining momentum. “I’m the gardening American Girl doll, not the sewing one!”
She was silent a moment. “Okay, there is that,” she admitted.
Phew.
Which American Girl doll are you? 
March 21, 2020
Garden on Wheels
[image error]
Not the one I took out there, but similar. (I forgot to take photos!)
I’m sure you’ve heard of Meals on Wheels and all the good work they are doing (and always do, but particularly needful at this time). Yesterday I did something for my parents I’m calling “Garden on Wheels.”
This is how it all began. Here in western Oregon we have been basking in a week of great weather. Sunshine, highs in the 60s, blue sky. So those of us with a little land (we live on a lot and a half in town) have been planting whatever can be planted this time of year: onions, potatoes, lettuce, carrots…things like that.
But our soil here is wet and clay-like, so really only raised beds and containers can be planted since the soil is too wet to work. Alas, my parents’ garden falls into that category. My mom was bemoaning that everyone was talking about planting their gardens and there was no way she could get started.
Enter my idea of the portable garden. It just so happened that I had one of my larger containers that was empty. I also had an unopened bag of garden soil and potting soil. We had already planned that I would visit them during the heat of the day (63 degrees) so that we could sit outside, a proper social distance away. (Tracy, call your parents.)
So I showed up with the container, placed it in a warm, sunny spot, added the soil, and planted it full of Walla Walla onion starts, radishes, and lettuce seeds and gave it a good watering. Voila, garden on wheels.
“This will give you something to do,” I told Mom. “Until your ground is dry enough to work.” (It’s supposed to start raining again and rain for a week or more.)
We sat and talked for a while, I cut some of last year’s chard from the big garden to take home to my 4 urban chickens, and we gave each other air hugs goodbye.
I’ve got two more days of warm weather, so off I go to plant a few more seeds.
Take care wherever you are.
S
[image error]
Example of last year’s lettuce in container.
Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
**Seed Savers-Treasure, Lily, & Heirloom ebooks still all on sale.**
March 19, 2020
Hope in the Seed
[image error]
For whatever reason, lately my husband has had a bee in his bonnet when it comes to pollinators.
He’s collected mounds of seeds to plant flowers to attract pollinators and has been approaching neighbors about planting on their property. He announced in church he had a handout for bee friendly plants (before church was cancelled on account of the virus). And every day (even though it’s barely warm enough yet), he’s been bugging me about when can he plant seeds.
“What I don’t understand,” I said to him recently, “is where in the alley you plan to plant the seeds. I think the ground would need some work done.”
“Oh, I just want to go and scatter them about,” he answered.
“Just toss them?”
“Yes.”
Having planted many a seed in the best of circumstances that have NOT come up, I shook my head. “You have an awful lot of hope in those little seeds,” I answered, feeling immediately the irony of me–author of Seed Savers–doubting my own motto.
Today we walked out in the alley and scoped out the possibilities. On the other side is the vacant lot where the daffodil bulbs I tossed there last year are in full bloom.
Yes, there is hope in the seeds. And hope in spring. Despite these trying times, we celebrate the new life of the budding blueberry bushes and flowering cherry trees.
Scatter your seeds. Happy spring! Happy Plant A Seed Day!
Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
**Seed Savers-Treasure, Lily, & Heirloom ebooks still all on sale.**
March 18, 2020
Plant Seeds of Hope & Kindness & Kale & Cabbage…
As we go about our adjusted daily lives, remember the small kindnesses. If you have to go to a store and there’s not an automatic door, hold the door open for the next person so they don’t have to touch one more thing. Give out smiles and kind words freely. Check in by phone with friends, family, and neighbors.
I freaked out the other day. Take news and social media breaks. Because you don’t want to be in a state of constant freak-out.
March 11, 2020
The Seed Savers Series–Will You Like It?
I’ve created this flowchart to help you decide.
March 7, 2020
Celebrating Plant A Seed Day
[image error]
So last year Big Green started “Plant a Seed Day.” As many of you know, the way I sign my books has always been “Plant a Seed for the Future,” so this day is right in line with my books and message for people to plant seeds and grow something, even if it’s just in a pot on your balcony.
For the official Plant a Seed Day, you can go here and pledge to plant a seed on March 19. I already made my pledge. And I’ve already planted lots of the tiny seeds (onions, cabbage, kale, etc.) in my sunroom. For March 19 I will pant tomatoes and peppers.
What else am I doing for Plant a Seed Day besides planting seeds? So glad you asked. For a limited time I’ve reduced the prices of the first three books in my Seed Savers series for a savings of ten dollars!
If you aren’t familiar with the Seed Savers series, Seed Savers is a finished series of five books set in a future where gardening is illegal and real food is unknown by most of the population. Three children learn from an older woman in the community about gardening and real food until the tomato plant they are secretly growing is discovered by the authorities. Read more about each book here.
What are you waiting for? Go, plant a seed, read a book, learn to garden.
March 2, 2020
Clare & Dante Plant Onions from Seed
Once again I have started onions from seed after skipping last year. Nothing up yet, so I thought I’d rerun this post from a few years ago.
A few weeks ago I posted about pruning my blueberry bushes, something I had my characters do in Heirloom. Recently I planted onion seeds to grow my own starts, also something my characters do.
I planted some that I know do well in my area, and some I just happened to have the seed for: Red Burgandy, Spanish Sweet, Cipollini, Walla Walla, and one I just call “Pete’s storage onion,” because I got it from Pete and he only labelled it as a storage onion.
February 10, 2020
Dedicated to Master Gardeners & to All Who Aspire To Prune With Confidence
Four years ago to the day I wrote this post…Yesterday as I was leaving after a visit with my parents, my mom handed me a newspaper article on how to prune blueberries. She knows I struggle…Today is still cold and foggy. The blueberries and hydrangea await. Probably not today.
The past few days have presented us with marvelous weather in these parts. I’ve finally gotten outdoors and pruned my three blueberry bushes, the pear tree, the hydrangea, and trained the boysenberry bushes.
The blueberries are of different varieties and seem a bit different in the way I should be pruning them. And even though I got my Master Gardener certification and grew up on a farm, I still struggle with this. Sigh.
Blueberry Bushes
Sometimes I google and watch videos on pruning. Sometimes I get out my notes and instructions from Master Gardener class. My sister gave me a few tips this year, and I looked at different web pages than I usually do. You know, the promised “6 easy steps” ones.
Training the Boysenberry Bush
One thing I know for sure: It was vastly easier writing the scene in Heirloom about blueberry pruning than it has been for me…
View original post 431 more words
