I picked up a book on gardens, so I could study flowers and trees and vines in that way, and honest to God, people who read my novel believed that I loved to garden. Sometimes in fact they would start talking shop with me, thinking we could jam away, as gardeners are wont to do, until I let them know that I had only been winging it, with a lot of help from people around me, people who knew a lot more about gardens than I, friends who would cover for me, just like in real life. 'You don't love to garden?' they'd ask incredulously, and I'd shake my head and not mention that what I love are cut flowers, because this sounds so violent and decadent, like when Salvador Dali said his favorite animal was fillet of sole.