Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 10

fired up

I woke up at 4:30 this morning; my new novel was percolating and I could hear my characters’ voices but I wasn’t willing to get out of bed and sit at my desk. Instead I finally got up around 8am and made a plan to walk back over to Bronzeville. We were there yesterday on our Chicago Mahogany tour but it’s different when you’re actually walking along the streets you want to study. After months of not writing, it feels good to have my process just “kick in.” Our guide yesterday, Shermann “Dilla” Thomas, mentioned just as an aside that we ought to look up Aldine Square—I think it was while we were parked in front of Louis Armstrong’s house. I complied and was surprised to learn that such a swanky address was simply abandoned by its wealthy residents. It happened over and over in Bronzeville, with landlords turning mansions into flats for working class people and then refusing to maintain the overcrowded buildings—which led to demolition. We made quite a few stops on the tour but once I got home, all I could think about was Aldine Square. And once I had time to explore the Oakland neighborhood’s history, the novel began to take shape. Our negotiations with Random House have fizzled out so I’m no longer focusing on Book #5. The prequel will follow Ma—Lavinia “Vinny” Robinson—as she first discovers magic and stumbles through a gate that leads to Palmara. So far I’ve got Sis and L. Roy Jenkins in the cast of characters; I need to work on my outline now before all the ideas in my head disappear. I know the novel will end with the racial violence of 1919—the Red Summer. I think Ma’s father was lynched in Alabama; she and her mother and grandmother are live-in domestics for an elderly White woman who hasn’t followed her elite neighbors out of the rapidly transforming neighborhood. Aldine Square eventually became home to Black migrants fleeing the South in the middle of WWI. Today as I was walking around, I tried to imagine what the area might have looked like in 1919…the greystones would have been standing but Aldine Square was torn down to build the Ida B. Wells housing projects—and those have since been demolished as well. There isn’t much that was erected in their place, just a few modern middle-class complexes. There are so many empty lots in Bronzeville—all tidy and well-maintained, but a glaring reminder that the city hasn’t replaced the affordable housing it destroyed over a decade ago. By the end of the novel, Ma and her family are facing eviction…it’s amazing how easily I can see the parallels between her childhood and Jaxon’s! After my walk I stopped at Yassa to rest a while and pick up lunch; I took a Lyft home just in time to meet with Canadian kid lit scholar Jeffrey Canton via Zoom. What an honor it is to have such a brilliant reader analyze my books! Jeff is like a detective—he finds all the clues I’ve scattered throughout the series and recognizes the intentional choices I make in the interest of inclusivity. I said I wouldn’t do another series but I can see this book about Ma having at least a sequel of its own…uh oh! For now I’m just happy to be writing again and giving myself parameters and wandering the streets looking for signs of a city that no longer exists…

Brightly

The op-ed I wrote about A PLACE INSIDE OF ME being challenged in VA is up now on Brightly. And with my publisher providing security, I’ll be heading down there in early May to thank in person the folks who have stood up to the book banners. I never imagined I’d need protection at an author event; there haven’t been any specific threats and I’m relieved to know that I can adjust our safety plan if I feel comfortable with the crowd. But after seeing how heated things have gotten at school board meetings in VA, and with that county supervisor insisting my book is “anti-police,” we thought it wise not to take chances. That means no signing line and questions from the audience will be selected in advance to avoid hecklers. How did we get to this point? Hopefully things will have cooled down by the start of the book festival. I’ve asked if we can squeeze in a school visit or two. The whole point of writing these books is to connect with kids…

We authors can and do defend our books, but protecting freedom of expression isn’t the responsibility of any individual or members of a particular profession. Communities have to embody the values they wish to pass on to their children. Sometimes the students themselves need to remind adults that the purpose of education is to invite — not prevent—the curiosity that can sometimes cause discomfort.

guardrails

For the past two weeks, I haven’t maintained my To Do list. I finished one notebook and started another; I transferred my check roster but not the list I depend on to keep me on task. The result? Two weeks of drifting from day to day, relying on my routine instead of obsessing over all the items that need my attention. Most things still got done—I didn’t miss a virtual school visit or meeting—but I also just made room for the things I wanted to do. I went to see August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean and sat in a packed theater for the first time in years. I went to the cinema for a matinee and saw Death on the Nile with no one else around. I met friends for brunch and took my mask off to eat in a restaurant for the first time this year. I haven’t been writing, which hasn’t been good for my mood, but the article I wrote last month was published over at Mom.com and my op-ed about the book ban attempts in VA will come out on Monday. The weather has been mild so I’ve been able to run outside; I’ve been baking banana bread to curb my craving for sweets. This weekend I spent way too much time shopping online (a sofa, a rug, a chair, a footstool, and a cushion) but I’m hoping that these new furnishings will inspire me to finish up the many little tasks around the apartment that I’ve put off since last year. I took new headshots; after months of rejection, I found a new agent and met with her yesterday to learn the details of Random House’s opening offer for the final book in the dragon series. After a very long, very full Black History Month, I met with the woman who will be directing the staged reading of Say Her Name. We’re assembling a cast and hope to hold the reading by the end of March. It will be my first time hearing the play aloud since I wrote it in 2020; if I’m not impressed, I’ll leave theater alone for a while and try my hand at puppetry! There’s a fellowship for emerging Black puppeteers and I’m going to apply even though I don’t think I have much of a chance (having no experience whatsoever, just a love of puppets). I’ve talked with three of my Black women kid lit friends about making short films with dolls so that’s something I can build upon; I have my novel that’s loosely based on the Dogon people’s inheritance of astronomical knowledge from aliens. My new editor wants a quick turnaround on edits for the fourth dragon book and I’m not going to complain because I booked my first vacation in ages and don’t want to have that hanging over my head. I might even try leaving my laptop at home so I’m not tempted to do any work! Moonwalking comes out next month and we’ve started making plans for the virtual launch; at the end of the novel, Pierre heads to San Juan so I figured I should do the same. So not having a To Do list has and has not slowed me down. I made a new list this morning and will see if I feel more focused and/or productive for the rest of this month. Spring is coming—we’re nearing 70 this weekend!—but I stayed inside today. I hope the new season helps me shake off the lethargy that lingers after months (years?) of hibernation. Bears leave their dens scrawny and hungry and let their instinct guide them. It helps to have a list but it’s good to know I can manage without one and not go off the rails…

“garbage”

Whew—what a week! On Monday morning I spoke with WVON host Rufus Williams, Jr. about THE WITCH’S APPRENTICE before meeting with the young Black woman producer of The Morning Show on Global TV in Canada. She asked great questions and gave me a chance to share photos of my grandmothers, which was an unexpected surprise. By the time the actual interview rolled around on Wednesday, I felt prepared and relaxed (watch the segment here). The next day I did a virtual visit with students in Roxbury, MA before being interviewed by a journalism graduate student at Northwestern. I was looking forward to a quiet weekend and maybe that’s why I chose not to share a couple of posts on social media that let me know an elected official in Virginia had a problem with one of my books. If someone I knew and respected called A PLACE INSIDE OF ME “garbage,” I’d probably be upset. But a White male conservative likely trying to exploit the ridiculous right-wing rage against critical race theory? Nope. I didn’t retweet or share his original Facebook post during the week but today the story appeared in a local VA newspaper so I figured it was time to face it head on. It may not escalate and this article indicates that educators and community members refused to pull my book from their school. But buddy isn’t done—now he wants to make it possible to remove objectionable books more quickly…I’ve got a full week ahead and I’m determined not to obsess over what *might* happen. I found out on Thursday that my editor at Random House is leaving and has handed my dragon series over to another editor who will handle Book #5, THE WAR OF THE WITCHES. I’m sad to see Diane go but I’m pleased that the publisher’s “wait and see” approach has been set aside and they’re finally committing to a contract; they did a small initial print run of 10K books and I think we’ll need a second printing soon. I’ve been working on the summary for Book #5 today and think that diving back into the world of dragons might be a good way to spend the next few weeks. Black History Month is always hectic but March will be calmer and it would be good to get the book done before MOONWALKING comes out in April. We’ve gotten two starred reviews so far and our novel in verse has been named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection! The book ends with an encounter with police…will that lead to more objections from the right? Who knows. The kids are my priority, not grandstanding politicians…

Global TV’s Morning Show

Watch my 2022 Black History Month interview with Jeff and Carolyn here.

last week’s launch…

…exceeded my expectations! On Tuesday I had a phenomenal conversation with Jehan Giles at The Salt Eaters Bookshop out in Los Angeles. How I wish I could visit the store and meet Hazel and Asha in person instead of on screen. We’re still trying to put up a staged reading of Say Her Name here in Chicago but if Omicron weren’t raging across the country, I’d fly out and hold a reading in their amazing art space. I realize I want to start small with the play—have a local reading and then decide if I want to scale up. Really, I want to reach young people and they’re glued to their screens, not going to the theater. Maybe a non-narrative film with different actors performing the poems makes more sense than putting on a play…that was one conversation I had last week and it will continue when I meet with my team on Thursday. On Wednesday I gave three book talks at a school in Brooklyn and then I had a Zoom meeting with the Black woman producer of Chicago Tonight’s Black Voices. That interview took place on Friday after I signed about sixty books at Seminary Co-Op Bookstore here in Hyde Park. They handled orders from Thursday’s launch event at the University of Chicago Lab School—over one hundred students tuned in from home with their families! Needless to say, by the time I reached the end of last week, I was exhausted…but also very grateful for all the people who made the launch such a success. The interview aired Saturday night (you can watch it here) and a couple of days later I got a snarky 3am email from a rightwing troll…one of Trump’s minions, no doubt, wondering why I don’t write a children’s book about things that matter to him (violence against the police). Yesterday I got a nice email from a special education teacher who struggles to find “mirror books” for her students, and I did a virtual author talk for 180 appreciative students in MO. A couple more meetings this week and then some time to rest and write before the Canadian press events start next month…

Chicago Tonight’s Black Voices

Watch my interview about the Dragons in a Bag series with host Brandis Friedman here.

Educator Night

THE WITCH’S APPRENTICE launches in two weeks! Join us at The Salt Eaters Bookshop for a virtual Educator Night (register here). I love talking to teachers and appreciate how stressful the return to school has been for so many. I’m looking forward to having a casual conversation about using inclusive fantasy fiction in the classroom with artivist/educator/librarian Jehan Giles. Hope to see you there!

Stay tuned for details about a future event at Loyalty Books on February 2. You can also order a signed copy of Book #3 in my dragon series from 57th Street Books here in Chicago. I’m just about to turn in edits for Book #4 and can’t wait to talk to readers about the next stage in Jaxon’s journey!

everything old is new again

Last week I got my author copies of The Witch’s Apprentice. I had a moment of excitement and then I opened the book and the dedication to my cousin was missing and my Kenyan friend’s surname was misspelled in the Acknowledgments. I’m partly to blame because in all our rounds of revisions, I didn’t catch the error or the omission. Hopefully both can be fixed before the next print run but nothing can be changed at this point so I set the box aside and had a quiet Christmas. Yesterday I started reading the novel and, as always, it felt new. Publishing is so slow…I finished Book #4 in October and have to turn in edits on Monday; we’ll go through several rounds and I won’t hold that book in my hands until 2023! By then, I’ll have forgotten what I wrote. On Monday I turned in final edits for Moonwalking and at this point, I’m totally over that book. That’s generally how I feel after countless passes and changes. I don’t feel pride or a sense of achievement—just annoyance at those tedious but necessary tasks. So reading Book #3 now is a relief and a pleasure. It isn’t perfect but kids can hold this pretty, purple book in their hands and reunite with Jax and his friends.

Last week I didn’t work on a new novel as hoped but I did write an op-ed. I titled it, “Here Be Dragons: Critical Race Theory in Black Kid Lit” but it got changed to something much longer. I can’t seem to load the full article on my laptop but hopefully you can. The complete op-ed is over at Blavity. I also recorded a fun interview with Jed Doherty for the Reading with Your Kids podcast. That episode will go up in the new year but I taped another discussion with author/educator Kate Narita for her podcast Chalk + Ink and it’s available here.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting and setting goals for 2022. How should we assess the past year? We made it! Basic survival matters when you’re living through a pandemic. Did we thrive? Grow? Give to others? I didn’t have any books come out in 2021 and I didn’t take any trips; I wrote a lot but that’s starting to feel inadequate or redundant. My vision board remains incomplete so I’ll be thinking about my intentions going forward. This new variant makes me feel justified in staying home but with two books coming out next year, I need to stop hibernating and prepare to venture out into the world once more…here’s hoping we all take into 2022 the lessons we learned over the past year.

new vision

I can always tell when I’m “in the zone” creatively. I finished my first graphic novel yesterday and am really pleased with how The Boy in the Lake turned out. I sent it off to an editor friend but feel ready to keep on writing. I generally do write over Xmas and hope I don’t experience a “postpartum” slump now that the graphic novel is done. I had guests over a few nights ago and while giving them a tour of the apartment, I stopped for a moment in front of my 2021 vision board. It was surprising to look at it and realize that a couple of things had moved from the realm of dreams to reality. I wanted to buy a condo in a charming old building in Chicago and did that this fall; I wanted a black room in that new home and I’ve got that, too. I don’t think I’ll do another vision board workshop for 2022, but I might search for a couple of new images to paste over the goals I’ve already achieved. I’m looking forward to Chani Nicholas’s comprehensive horoscope for the year ahead, and will probably do her journal prompts for the winter solstice. But I also want to write something right now, while the world feels sunny and my sensitivity is heightened, mostly in a good way. For the past few days I’ve been tearing up while watching TV—commercials, cartoons, crime dramas—almost any kind of content can set me off. The world seems exceptionally beautiful when I’m in the zone and I hear things I might normally miss. The other day I was at the sink and heard a single bird chirp that was new to me; I peeked out the window and saw a chickadee at the bird feeder. Mostly I have sparrows but sometimes there’s a female downy woodpecker out there, too. I went to the Japanese garden last week for the first time since our cold snap; the lagoon had a thin sheet of ice over the water and I didn’t see any blue herons but I did see a kingfisher for the first time. And a cardinal couple led me along the path, flitting from tree to tree, chirping at each other—or at me. Today I took a long walk along the lake up to Bronzeville to see Santa and his reindeer; I didn’t stay for the trap carolers but got some cake and some Senegalese food before coming back to Hyde Park. My Lyft driver and I talked about how much we love Chicago and as soon as I got home, I turned my Xmas lights on. I’ve had carols playing since Thanksgiving and have started my holiday baking. I think I’ve struck the right balance when it comes to helping the sister living at the bus shelter. I requested a wellness check but the Salvation Army called me to report that she declined assistance. When I asked her myself about going to a shelter, she refused to even look at me so I’m going to leave that alone for now. One agency told me there’s a two-year wait for housing right now…so I’m trying to support her in other ways.

Last week I gave four book talks via Zoom and remembered why I went on hiatus for three months. It’s not the best way to connect with folks but at the end of yesterday’s presentation, a sweetheart named Zoe told me my books were her mirrors. Then her mother emailed me to say that Zoe and her brother sat down to write their own books as soon as our hour together was over. I just read an article on how to use social media to support a book launch—ugh. By industry standards I’m definitely NOT an “influencer” but I’m still sowing seeds…