Botanical Hoaxes, Artistic Conundrums, and Cocktails in the Garden

Nice Try, but There Are No
Rainbow Tomatoes

I stumbled across these hilariously fake tomatoes because I wanted to tell you about some real tomatoes: the bluish-purple Indigo tomatoes developed at Oregon State University. Those tomatoes are real and quite good and packed with the same nutrients that make blueberries so good for you. They are also sold out just about everywhere, so I was going to abandon this little newsletter item, until I ran across the pictures above.

Someone on Amazon is selling ordinary tomato seeds and passing them off as crazy, rainbow-colored tomatoes. And at least a few people have ordered them. (Please don't order them.)

I almost admire the boldness of this con game, and also the simplicity and old-fashioned nature of it. When I wrote Flower Confidential I ran across stories from centuries past of botanical swindlers who would douse rose bushes in blue dye and sell the plants to unsuspecting customers, promising a garden full of blue roses. This is a classic old con, reinvented in the Amazon age.

(The same Amazon vendor is selling tiny fake wooden ladybugs that you can stick on your plants, which are weirdly hilarious and at least they acknowledge those are fake, but still, don't buy from these people.)

Speaking of Cons...

We all love that adorable movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, right? The crazy true story of Frank W. Abagnale Jr., a con man who pretended to a pilot, a doctor, etc etc?

Did you ever stop to wonder if "Catch Me If You Can" was too good to be true? I confess that I never did. That is just a delightful little creampuff of a movie, based on a book written by Frank himself, and I never thought to question a word of it.

But someone did. Alan Logan has written a book in which he debunks the whole story. I've not yet read the book, but I was fascinated by this article, and by the kind of research he did. Much of the debunking had already happened, back in the late 1970s, but we had no Internet back then and stories could run in a daily paper and disappear without a trace.

It's a good reminder that books--I'm referring here to Frank Abagnale's book about his own life--are rarely if ever fact-checked. Publishers claim they can't possibly do their own fact-checking because it would cost a fortune. But in fact, they could do what newspapers do when people like me write an op-ed: put the burden on the author to back up their claims with sources, and just spot-check some of those sources to see if it looks legit. Of course, in Frank's case, he would've forged the sources too, right? 

This did get me wondering about whether I would've smelled a rat if I'd looked too closely at Frank's story. What if I was going to mention it in one of my books? How deeply would I have dug, beyond his memoir which was the basis for the film?

I might have dived into Newspapers.com, just out of curiosity. Maybe I would've turned up those old articles questioning his story, especially if I'd limited my search to dates before the book was published. I might've found it suspicious that none of the big, splashy events in the film were described in newspapers at the time they happened.

Maybe. I'd like to think I would have. But I guess I'll never know. It is a good reminder to question EVERYTHING when doing research. (I do teach a class on research methods, if you're a writer asking similar questions.)

Ever Wanted to Plant a Cocktail Garden?

When I was writing The Drunken Botanist, I planted a cocktail garden outside my kitchen door. (It was far more useful than the poison garden I'd grown there previously, while I was writing Wicked Plants.) In the course of building that garden, I collected all sorts of amazing photos, garden projects, plant lists, and other ideas for building a lovely cocktail garden in a small space like this...along with a lot of much more ambitious, luxury spaces I could only dream about!

So I'm going to talk about that, and get into the specifics of WHAT to grow, and WHY, and what delicious drinks you might make from it all, in a free virtual event on June 17. Go here to register.

So Many Virtual Events!

I have a crazy number of virtual events coming up in the next month or two. They are all listed on my website, but here are a few highlights:

Drunken Botanist with Tucson Botanic Garden

Cocktail Gardening & Mixology Demo with Belvedere Vodka

Wicked Bugs in conversation with Daisy Hernandez, who has written an amazing memoir-ish science-ish book called The Kissing Bug about Chagas disease and also about her own family.

Wicked Plants/Wicked Bugs in conversation with Erika Engelhaupt, who has written a book called Gory Details which was illustrated by Briony Morrow-Cribbs, the artist who illustrated my Wicked books.
 

How Do You Settle on a Style for Your Art? Or Do You Have To?

It’s a question that every kind of artist grapples with:

I do these watercolor landscapes, but I also do abstract collage and sometimes I get really into architectural ink sketches. I can’t seem to focus on just one.

I write short stories, but I’ve also written three mystery novels and now I’m thinking about writing a biography. But successful writers pick their genre and stick to it.

I play classical guitar and I’m also in a blues band and lately I’ve gotten into the harmonica and I’d kind of like to learn percussion, too, but I’m never going to get anywhere if I don’t choose one.

Sometimes it’s a question of a creative person picking one of several very different pursuits:

I’m into photography, and I love to crochet, and also I do pottery. Why can’t I pick one?

I have some thoughts on this. You can read the whole thing on my blog.

Did You Know Zoom Now Offers Free Automatic Captioning?

We are all doing a lot of virtual stuff nowadays. Over the last year I have sometimes heard from people with hearing impairments about their frustrations with virtual events. Here's good news: Zoom now offers free, automated captioning of events. (See glamour shot of me, above, getting everything set up with captioning on) If you are a host, speaker, or participant of a virtual event, I hope you'll encourage the organizers to turn this option on to make events accessible. This link has the info they'll need to make it happen. 

(Pro tip: If you interview people for a living, why not interview them on Zoom, turn on captioning, and then you don't have to take notes? Just download the transcript at the end of the conversation.)

Are you a writer? Do you want to talk about anything and everything writing-related? That's what these free Zoom events are for. Every month, the group decides what we're going to talk about next. In June our topic will be the public aspects of being a writer--websites, outreach, communication with readers, etc. etc.  I'm also happy to take your questions on anything writing or publishing-related. The next one's happening on June 28. Go here to register.

We're painting butterflies this month! Bring your watercolors and a black ink pen and we'll fill a page with monarchs. Thursday, June 10. Go here to register.

I Love Watching David Hockney Flip Through His Sketchbook

There's nothing ground-breaking or earth-shattering about this sketchbook. It's just the day-to-day drawings of an old man living in Normandy who also happens to be one of the world's most successful living artists. I also loved this short podcast interview with Hockney about spring.

Anybody want to paint
at the farmers market?

Paint a beautiful produce stand with me! This is my latest online class, and you can find out about it here. Also, for Skillshare users, I'll be giving away the art I made in this class, and if you'd like to get in on that giveaway, you can read about it on Skillshare.

Meet the Woman Behind Van Gogh

It will surprise absolutely no one to learn that a woman was behind Van Gogh's immense global success after his death. This story has never been told because no one ever went looking for it, until now. Read the entire remarkable account here.

Here's a Delicious Vegetarian Dinner

Regular readers of this newsletter know that both my husband and I are indifferent cooks and perpetually bored with our efforts. Once in a blue moon I add something new and surprisingly good to the rotation. This tofu and sweet potato dish is excellent, and takes almost no time because most of the time is just for roasting. I use a lot more cilantro and green onions than this picture shows, and you could also add rice, noodles, or any sort of chopped-up greenery. The optional peanuts are not optional, they are the best part. Chop up enormous handfuls of them and toss them on top.

New Art in My Shop

Little French villages, canal houses in Amsterdam... Feel free to stop by my little art shop anytime and have a poke around. You can always see new stuff on Instagram, too.

Virtual Events? I'm Available!

If you run a lecture series or any sort of event series and you need a virtual speaker, you can go here to see the types of virtual events I'm doing now. Feel free to pass this on if you know someone who's putting on these types of events right now.

I Can Send (Some) Signed Books to You

Would you like a signed Kopp novel? I have small quantities of a few titles...or rather, my husband does. Supplies are limited, so get them while they last, and thank you sincerely for your patronage. Go here to browse and order.

What Are You Reading?

You might think I'm crazy to recommend a Stephen King book. Not exactly a soothing writer, is he? But this was good escapist fiction with only a few mildly terrifying and/or gory bits. It's about a kid who can see dead people, and his mom's a literary agent. When her most lucrative client (a George RR Martin type) dies before his book is finished, she turns to her son's supernatural powers for help finishing the manuscript. It does not go well. Worth a read if you can handle a bit of a fright.