Holly Phaneuf

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Holly Phaneuf

Goodreads Author


Born
in Pittsburgh, PA
Website

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Member Since
August 2012

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I’ve loved working as a scientist and biochemistry professor. My PhD in medicinal chemistry (drug design) and BS degrees in biology and chemistry are from the University of Utah.

In 2005, I combined my love of plants and molecules and wrote Herbs Demystified. It needs updating!

But that’s how science works! I love how science can course correct what we think we know. Italian and Mandarin editions exist which I can’t read.

I’m a grad student again, in biotechnology at the University of Wisconsin. I don’t need another degree. I want to make meaningful connections and to try to be more useful while I see science under the greatest attack of my lifetime. I’m turning 60 soon, and worry about being more useful.

Mostly I help my husband manage our
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Holly Phaneuf Update: April 2022.
Now that my mom has passed, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that I still have the same question. Is she happy? Is she OK?

It he…more
Update: April 2022.
Now that my mom has passed, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that I still have the same question. Is she happy? Is she OK?

It helped for me to crystalize this need of mine. to answer this question. But I am not sure I could take it on as a plot. Too big.

I've spent around 7 years or more as a caregiver POA with a pressing need to know that my mom is okay, comfortable, happy, as she lost her ability to express herself more and more and more. I just realized I STILL have that thought, though now the question is much more tricky if not a little absurd. Just realizing that it is understandable for me to keep asking this question has helped my heart settle a little bit.

_______
2021:
Too many. These days, my biggest mystery is: What is my mom's actual state of mind? Here is a woman who can't walk, talk, or hold objects. Everything is done for her. But she smiles a lot, and when I play music, she sings with me. With a big smile. I would do anything to understand what her state of mind is. What does she need? Anything?

(less)
Holly Phaneuf This won't be a very satisfying answer, I fear.
I have the opposite problem of writer's block. I always have too much to write, and thank goodness I c…more
This won't be a very satisfying answer, I fear.
I have the opposite problem of writer's block. I always have too much to write, and thank goodness I can journal every day or I might explode. It feels like uncomfortable pressure if I don't write down whatever I can recall of my dreams, plus I have dream "music"--music my brain composes when I sleep-- that I sketch shorthand notes for (it's usually really bad, but I am curious about it from a brain research standpoint), plus the highlights of every day. I don't know what I would do without journaling.

My biggest problem is all the non-writing things I am required to do to stay alive fighting the forces of entropy, keeping my house from disintegrating into a dust pile around me. (Dust piles distract me from writing so they must be dealt with when they intrude on my peripheral vision.)

I feel sorry for my readers. But I also feel sorry for lone facts out there, which might, might, might appeal to...some readers. And some voice tells me that I had better include this poor little fact, lest knowledge of it vanish and then it would be all my fault.

I have to work to pare documents down.

I find I almost always write too long. I feel sorry for the publisher of Herbs Demystified. Matthew Lore of Marlowe and Co first innocently suggested I try a pocket sized book.

Now, there are over a quarter of a million plant species out there. It just doesn't seem fair to them. I only managed 52 before he said STOP! We ran up against a time deadline. And he saw the light at least. Thank goodness! I do wish he had given me time to write more. But it's a big book already.

I can not write pocket books. There is too much to say about everything.

The closest thing I get to writer's block, lately, is starting a new chapter in my fiction book. I have had the benefit of working off a known script for the movie that my husband and I created (The Emissary). But I also added subplots like a threatening factory farm, plus I made the women far more interesting, which wasn't hard (sorry Tim). So I have to deal with all those arcs all by myself. That takes some thought, and that's where I can get stuck.

I am learning to deal with this in this way:

I first write out WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN. Like, "Molly must be invited to the party." or "The farmer goes to the hospital." Then I do a sort of word vomit and get it all out there without worrying about what it looks like. Then I edit and clean it up. Then I stitch it together.

A more pressing question for me is, how do I find the time to write? That's really up to me, and it's something I keep hacking away at. (less)
Average rating: 4.38 · 29 ratings · 2 reviews · 5 distinct works
Herbs Demystified: A Scient...

4.37 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2005 — 5 editions
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Erbe: Tutta La Verità: Cono...

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009
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Herbs Demystified: : A Scie...

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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Herbs Demystified

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings2 editions
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Herbs Demystified: A Scient...

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More books by Holly Phaneuf…

December is brown because

The beginning of each month gives me an opportunity to share my synesthetic perceptions. I have always involuntarily perceived text as colored. This is called grapheme-colored synesthesia. I also have colored hearing, or chromesthesia.

Like most synesthetes who see colored text, I associate every letter with a different color. These involuntary associations have remained stable all my life. Each w

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Published on December 01, 2025 01:20
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An Introduction t...
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Holly’s Recent Updates

Holly Phaneuf wrote a new blog post

For Dec 3rd, my 60th birthday, I'm releasing something big. And it's here!



Painting by my husband, Tim Erskine. He refuses to airbrush a sweater on me. I keep asking. To show off his art skills I am compromising here.
Here’ Read more of this blog post »
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