Hashtags and #Hothouses (aka, how to be a sociable plant nerd)
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Lately, I’ve been taking it upon myself to seek out more plant writing opportunities for publication. Because I often find myself in impromptu teaching situations that require me to vomit up information into easily digestible bits and because I’m an in-person-shy-but- internet-opinionated, I’m pretty much a shoo-in for a writer role. My ultimate goal with these writing opportunities is to reach wider and wider audiences. Not that I’m the expert on everything green, but I really enjoy the act of searching for practical information on keeping weird plants alive. The way I see it, the more people that are growing plants successfully, then the likelihood more plants surviving the #Anthropocene is increased.
With that in mind, I’ve been reaching out to the plant publications that I read, to see what writing opportunities are available. This is really how my conversations with the editorial staff at the American Orchid Society were initiated. I pitched them several ideas on op-ed articles and they bit down on a piece about utilizing social media to find #plantfriends for their magazine.
Below is the article that appeared in their November 2019 issue. (vol. 88 no.11) If you want to read this piece in the magazine, you’ll have to become a AOS member, which is $65 a year (about $5.42 a month).
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Overall, the process of working with the editors to get this version of the article published was rather enjoyable. However there were some hiccups. The editors needed a 48 hour turnover on some edits, while I was in Marfa, TX and I had limited cell reception. In a panic I had to come up with some creative solutions for editing a PDF on a cell phone while hopping up and down on a Donald Judd piece in the middle of a field in order to maintain cell signal. Never say I’m not determined!