1. Tell us about your business:

   YourNovel.com can put any couple into their very own personalized novel. We currently have 30+ novels and eBooks set at exotic location around the globe available for personalization. Our service lets customers input 26 details like their names, eye and hair color, best friends’ names, home town, place of work, type of car they drive, perfumes, places of work and more. The information is sent through a customized computer program that generates a book – either a paperback or hardback with or without a photo added on the cover, and here’s a fun part: each books comes in a “Wild” or “Mild” version, so the customer gets to choose how spicy the romantic interludes are. (The books are titillating yet tasteful, and not graphic, and 90% of the readers choose “Wild.”)

2. Why did you start this business?

   Back in 1992, Kathy was attending a public relations conference and Fletcher tagged along to keep her company. She was on a panel and the icebreaker question was: “What would people be surprised to find out about you?” She answered that she had written a yet-to-be published romance novel, which got an appropriate response. One of the women, a friend, at the lunch table said, “Wouldn’t it be great to read about yourself in one of those romance novels?”. Well, everyone at the table laughed and kidded around about it. Then, on the four-hour drive home, we looked at each other, and the proverbial light bulb went off. We said, “You know, we could do that!” and actually started outlining our first book, “Another Day in Paradise”, on the back of a manila folder on the drive. We started writing it the next day.

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Sunflowers!

They can be tall, short, or in between, yellow, orange or red, ornamental or edible. It’s a summer favorite of young and old alike and hopefully there’s room in your garden for at least one helianthus annuus, more commonly known as the sunflower.

Sunflowers are easy to grow to from seed. Simply sow them directly into the soil where you want them to grow. Give them rich soil, ample water and with plenty of sunshine, they’ll do the rest. If you don’t want to go the seed route, many nurseries offer sunflower seedlings, some already in bud.

Sunflowers can be categorized by ornamental types or those with edible seeds. Ornamentals, those best suited for cutting, are generally more compact and branching with a wide range of colors and names: Lemon Eclair, Prado Red, Velvet Queen and Cinnamon are just a few available for the home garden.

When selecting flowers for cutting, choose blooms that are barely showing any color as these will last longer. Cut the stem at a 45 degree angle anywhere between 1 and 1 1/2 feet from under the flower head. Immediately place in a vase of water. Once cut, sunflowers can last in water from 6 to 12 days providing the water is replaced every 3 days and the water level kept full.

The giant sunflowers, aptly named Mammoth, grow from a single stalk with big faces of golden yellow petals, brown centers and gray and white striped seeds. To harvest the seeds, wait until the petals drop and the seed kernels swell. Preserving the flower head is crucial: provide some kind of covering around the head such as a mesh or paper bag so the birds and squirrels don’t make off with the seeds! Cut the stalk at the base when the seeds have a hard shell. Let the seeds completely dry before eating or using in a bird feeder.

Debra Togliatti has her own gardening business: Weed It and Reap: Garden Restoration and Design and is a teacher who gets young children involved in gardening and nature experiences. She lives in the Bay Area of Northern California.

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