To recapitulate what I was writing: I thank you all for your comments, all of which reflect much thought and feeling; Rick, I particularly appreciate the warmth of what you wrote and your information about legal protections of intellectual property; Cynthia, thanks for the observations on books and preservation of the written word, an interesting topic; catsrose, thanks for a realistic survey of the obstacles involved; and, really, THANKS to you all for the encouragement, literary quotes (Odinthor), book mentions, factual information, discussions about the value of illustrations in books, and everything else that you all have put in your answers. Concerning myself and my book project, I came up a few days ago with a provisional answer to the question I asked in the title of this thread. There's nothing in the way of my starting to write--unless it's my own fear or sloth. I don't know whether I have the discipline it takes to write a book; I don't know whether I'm a good enough writer to write a good book. I do have one quality needed to tackle this task, and that's a healthily stubborn faith in my own ideas about gardening and writing. Many of you make the point that such a book as I'm talking about needs to come from passion, and you're absolutely right. I already have a lot of practice working long and hard on a task for purely personal satisfaction, as opposed to applause or money: it's called my garden. Should I write a book, then if some people like it, and if I even make a bit of money from it, that will be great. But that's not why I'm thinking about such a project, and these considerations wouldn't be enough to make me undertake it. So, all I need to do now is sit down at the computer and begin writing..... Melissa

Since I too am considering writing a first book, I find this is an interesting thread, and I appreciate the words of wisdom of zootjs and ketzel. Along these lines, I have a question for everyone: Is there a market for a new and comprehensive book on tomatoes? By that, I mean one that covers, at least to some extent, everything about tomatoes that a tomato enthusiast/aficionado/junkie/addict/head might want to know (and maybe more). I am considering writing such a book, and in fact already have prepared an outline and introduction. But before I put a year or two's work into it, I would very much appreciate any opinions anyone may have on the subject. What I have in mind is something that would cover at least the following subjects: 1. Biology and cultivation (including different species and cultivars), 2. Genetics and genetic modification (e.g., sad story of the Flavr Savr gene), 3. Origin and evolution (meet your cousin, the tomato), 4. World-wide diffusion and subsequent history (how did the tomato get to India and China, anyway? The English? The Portuguese? The Spanish? One author suggests early sea contact with Peru) 5. Adoption and use in different food traditions (e.g., how do tomatoes fit in with the religious aspects of Indian food tradition?), 6. Health aspects (e.g., effect on prostate and lung cancer, macular degeneration, sun damage to skin), 7. Commercial and economic issues (do they really eat 200 pounds per person per year in Egypt?), 8. Connections with famous people (e.g., Ronald Reagan), 9. Film and literature (nobody should miss Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or its sequels), 10. Myths (e.g., the Robert Gibbon Johnson story) and misconceptions, 11. Tomatoes and sex (no misconceptions there, and no conceptions, either, I suppose [smile]), 12. Enthusiast organizations and festivals (the most spectacular is in Spain), 13. Etymology of popular and scientific names (where did the name lycopersicum -- Wolf Peach -- come from?), and 14. Home growing and cooking (somewhat). I know of course that there are many books on how to grow tomatoes, and many recipe books, and I certainly don't intend to compete with such books. What I am thinking of is something that would not only contain quite a lot of information about a broad range of subjects relating to tomatoes, but also use tomatoes as a lens to look into some of the things mentioned (history, biology, even cosmology: for example, without supernovas, tomatoes could not exist). Needless to say, with such a range of topics, I could only cover most things in a fairly summary manner; the selling point would be its breadth, not its depth on any subject. I would make reference to other books for more depth on a given subject. Would you buy such a book? At Amazon prices? Would it be better to have lots of pictures, maps etc. and a higher price or fewer of such things and a lower price? There the various books on other food items, some of which have done quite well in the market, notably Mark Kurlanskys three books, on cod, salt and oysters, respectively. There is also one on the potato by Larry Zuckerman and one on the olive by Mort Rosenblum. Each of those is, however, somewhat less comprehensive than what I outlined above, which brings me to a second question: Should I cut back the scope and make it a bit deeper in the areas retained? If so, what should I leave in or keep out? Should I make it pretty much purely a history book with a particular twist, like KurlanskyÂs? Or would that narrow the audience too much? Just to elaborate for a moment, a historical work would start with the break-up of Pangaea, the latest supercontinent, which started drifting apart 200 million years ago. The breakup resulted in separate biospheres developing in the Americas and Eurasia, which meant that the tomato was unknown to the bulk of humankind until the the last 500 years. During that time humans have, from a biological perspective, re-united the divided parts of Pangaea. Before they did so, the tomato spread from its origin in the alto plano of the West Coast of South America to what is today Mexico and Central America, but not to what is today the US (why it didnÂt is an interesting issue I would try to explore) or anywhere else. In the last 300 years or so, it has been adopted into almost every food tradition on earth. How and when it did so is a story that, to my knowledge, has never been fully told, except as it relates to the US (in Andrew SmithÂs book cited below). Telling that story would allow me to bloviate on various subjects such as international trade routes and social history. As I write that last paragraph, it occurs to me that this story alone would be quite an undertaking, one that could not really be done justice in a single chapter of a broader book. But then ÂÂare the 30 million home tomato gardeners in the US going to buy a history book? Or will you want growing tips, recipes, cosmology, sexual innuendo and genetics and such thrown in? I suppose I could include some of those topics in a book that is primarily a history, but would a book that is primarily a history that grab your attention, or, more relevantly, give you an uncontrollable urge to buy it? Hey, maybe I could include OprahÂs favorite tomato recipes. I could put that in a chapter entitled, "the tomato and popular culture." I would appreciate any thoughts any of you may have. Thanks very much, Jonathan P.S.: I have looked at the following, none of which (it seems to me) is quite what I have in mind: 1. Tantalizing Tomatoes, ed. by Karen Davis Cutler (New York 1997) 2. The Tomato in America, by Andrew Smith (Columbia, S.C. 1994) 3. The Great Tomato Book, by Gary Ibsen (Berkeley 1999) 4. The Great Tomato Book, by Sheila Bluff (Short Hills, N.J. 1999) (The preceding two books have the same title and were published in the same year; rather remarkable.) 5. In Praise of Tomatoes, by Steven Shepherd (New York 1996) 6. Exploring the Tomato, by Mark Harvey, Steve Quilley and Huw Beynon (Cheltenham, U.K. 2002) 7. All About Tomatoes, by Walter L. Doty (? 1981) 8. Terrific Tomatoes, by Mimi Luebbermann and Faith Echtermeyer (? 1994) 9. 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden, by Carolyn J. Male (New York 1999)

If anyone was doing any jilting, it was me. Both of you said very nice things about my writing and I responded with - resounding silence. I could portray it as revenge for all those women who were ever told "I'll call you" and never received a call. But the truth is, I got busy for a couple of days and then got zapped by a storm that took out the network server. No internet access for a couple of days, and then a couple of more days chasing down the lingering problems. I'm pretty sure Thoreau never had these problems with his pencils. But now it's time to say a sincere thank you to both of you for your kind words. You (plural form) have encouraged me to get serious about setting a goal and getting it accomplished. I already have taken the time to think out my first steps. Now it's time to start cracking those eggs. INK, I would be happy to read your book when you write it. Even if you aren't bubbly and never marry Poppa. Poppa, I think your second idea has some real potential. It may not be whimsical given the realities of GMOs today, but it could be cast as a cautionary tale like The Lorax. And Dr. Seuss was old, too. (Just teasing!) So get busy writing... both of you. V.

so they all decided to head over to "Mister Roger's Neighborhood", if anyone could restore calmness it would surely be him. He called his cousin "Captain Kangaroo" to help entertain the crowd, but "The barefoot Contessa" stepped on a rusty nail and had to be taken to...