Dun, da, dun, done!

Processes always have quite a number of more or less continuous steps leading from here to there, from a start to a finish, but for purposes of our mental health certain stages of processes are celebrated to mark our progress along the path.  Yesterday was one such day.  After having had this manuscript nagging at me for the past couple of  years, the Phactor declared his book manuscript done knowing full well that it is not done done, but it was at a stage where little else was being accomplished so with a semester looming, and knowing that progress on big projects does not happen during semesters, a big pile of paper (That's a 4.5" tall coffee cup for comparison.) was shipped off to the publisher.  Also a certain very patient editor had been promised that the book would be done this summer, and as mentioned above, with a semester's arrival ready to destroy August, if a book was to be done this summer, this was the week.  But more than a feeling of accomplishment, it was a wave of relief that passed over me.  It will be a couple of weeks at least before an editor kindly explains that this or that should have been done that way or this way.  This is to be expected, but these are only details.  It was the ideas that counted anyways.  It is way premature to be flogging my book to readers; that will come later, when it actually has a cover and a title (it remains tentative).  Suffice it to say that the Phactor's academic alter ego has attempted to explain a great deal about what we know about plant diversity in a manner accessible to the interested amateur, which is very different from most botany books.  So botany textbook it is not.  Now to go and update my CV and indicate the status as "In press", which is sort of more impressive than "manuscript in limbo" or "manuscript progress incredibly slow" or one of the many other euphemisms for "not published".  Actually it has been accepted for publication.  The next task is to clear enough of the book debris out of the office that there's room for a new semester.  Who knows what will be discovered in the lower strata?

Something wicked this way comes - book report.

Not too long ago the Phactor asked for help about wicked plants, an interesting idea, for a colleague.  After your helpful comments and suggestions, the Phactor decided he had better read the book that sparked my colleague to seek some wicked plants.  At any rate, here's my report on Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart.  The Phactor would recommend this book for an interesting, convenient read, nice short installments for time challenged people.  Well over 200 plants are included with interesting essays.  The book has an old-timey feel with tinted papers and illustrations.  The essays are quite readable, non-technical, although strangely the author chooses to use scientific names rather than common names for families, which is rather at odds with the low-key approach.  As someone who teaches these things, only two entries were new to me.  Now our definitions of wicked may also differ: Illegal, dangerous, deadly, painful, intoxicating, offensive, or destructive.  Personally the Phactor doesn't think of plants as wicked, although they may be all of these 7 things.  People can be wicked, but plants just have biologies and these features tell us how the plant evolved, but the quality of being wicked seems a peculiarly human trait, but that's just what kind of cynical guy the Phactor is.  The book is quite well researched with only a couple of things that could be called errors.  Almost anybody who likes plants will find this little book interesting, and it's quite economically priced.