Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an author and publisher (Greenwoman Publishing). My published books include the six-volume series Greenwoman (garden writing and art); a YA environmental fantasy novel, Zera and the Green Man; and Fifty Shades of Green, an anthology of sexy gardening stories that I call “the feminist-gardener answer to Fifty Shades of Grey.” My most recent book is a memoir, Please Don’t Piss on the Petunias: Stories About Raising Kids, Crops, and Critters in the City.
I’ve been a columnist for The Denver Post, and my humorous essays have appeared nationally in GreenPrints and MaryJanesFarm. I’ve also been a guest commentator on KRCC’s (NPR’s southern Colorado affiliate station) Western Skies radio show. I live in Colorado with my family, three dogs, a huge organic urban garden, and lots of books.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Please Don’t Piss on the Petunias: Stories About Raising Kids, Crops, and Critters in the City.
The very first nonfiction story I wrote about was called “The Chicken Chronicles.” It was about the time my then very young daughters (ages 4 and 7) and I spent a summer raising exotic breed bantam chickens (from chicks). It was such a great story, with so many highs and lows, laughs and tears, that it won a first-place award at a writing conference contest! That win spurred me on to write other stories about our adventures as a family–and my own adventures as a gardener.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, not really!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I deeply connected with books in the garden writing genre before I became a garden writer–Michael Pollan was probably the first contemporary writer that I fell in love with. I also write fiction, and my favorite authors include Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Ray Bradbury, Barbara Kingsolver (and I believe all of those have written fiction and nonfiction!).
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a fiction book about a destination wedding in Ireland (an American woman marrying into an Irish family). It’s inspired by the experience we had as a family when my daughter decided to get married in Ireland this year (2019)–there are lots of twist and turns, highs and lows, problem-solving and high drama for the four main characters: the bride; the mother of the bride, the sister/maid of honor; and the groom’s mother!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best, which I am finally learning how to do, is to meet the public in person–I’m doing this through a lot of book events this year.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you love it, stay with it! The world needs good stories and artists devoted to their craft.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The same advice I am sharing: don’t give up if writing is your life’s passion.
What are you reading now?
I just finished reading a book by award-winning Irish garden designer, Mary Reynolds. The title is “The Garden Awakening: Designs To Nurture Our Land & Ourselves.” I came upon this book after my daughter’s wedding in Ireland and connected with it in a very deep way–it’s a how-to book, but also spiritual, and it has a brilliant message of working with nature in garden design. I was astonished to learn my son-in-law met Reynolds as a kid– because she lived, for a while, in their village of about 200 people!
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing my new book: Diaries of An Irish Wedding (working title!) this year and hopefully finding the time to create rough drafts of my 2nd and 3rd Zera and the Green Man books before too long. I was planning on doing those this summer when the wedding book called to me in a stronger way.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
It depends on how long I would be stranded! If it was for the rest of my life (a terrible thought to have only 3 or 4 books in that situation!), I’d want to bring the complete works of: Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and I would want a plant encyclopedia that would fit the landscape I was stranded in, perhaps the Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants.
Author Websites and Profiles
Sandra Knauf Website
Sandra Knauf Amazon Profile
Sandra Knauf’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Pinterest Account