Big news, Gardenerds: my new novel, Bolting To Seed, is coming soon! If you read Garden Variety (and even if you didn’t) you’ll love this cozy mystery featuring everyone’s favorite fictional community garden.
That’s right, our story returns to Vista Mar Community Garden, where we find Lizzie, Jared, Ned, and the rest of the eclectic cast of characters doing their best to grow food in tight quarters. Only this time, there’s a murder to solve.
I’m so excited to share this news with you, now that I can talk about it. It’s been in the works for a couple of years, and my agent had it for a while. But there’s something I want to share:
Reality Check
You love Gardenerd because you can find the facts quickly here. So, in true Gardenerd fashion, here are the facts about publishing:
- Sequels are hard to sell to traditional publishers, and as my agent said recently, publishing is brutal these days. So rather than wait for a publisher to pick this up, I’m releasing Bolting to Seed on my own.
- It costs between $15,000-$20,000 to produce and distribute a novel (and that’s without photos. Imagine how expensive a gardening or photography book would be!).
- I don’t have that kind of moo-lah laying around.
I don’t want to let these facts stop me from bringing this next chapter of Vista Mar Community Garden to the world. And with your help, it will happen sooner!
Kickstarter Campaign
On Monday, January 5, 2026, we pre-launched a Kickstarter campaign, with a plan to officially launch in March. Right now, you can visit our pre-launch page and click the button to “notify me on launch”. Note: if you haven’t supported a Kickstarter campaign before you may need to create a profile (log-in and password) to get notified. You can set your email preferences to reduce spam.
Rewards are Coming!
Once we launch the campaign you’ll be able to see all the goodies that go along with the book. Signed copies, custom bookplates, durable tote bags, garden parties, launch party tickets, character illustrations, and more. I can’t wait to share those with you in March.
For now, join me on our Kickstarter pre-launch page where you can preview an excerpt from Chapter 1, and sign up to get notified when more details become available.
More soon, gardenerds!
