Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 19

The Apprentice

Yesterday I did a virtual visit with students at the Miquon School; they’d all read Dragons in a Bag and The Dragon Thief and wanted to know when the third book would come out. I told them about publishers giving authors the thumbs up or thumbs down on new stories, and how Random House indicated they don’t want to continue the dragon series. The kids were outraged, of course, but I assured them that my agent was looking for another publisher and that I was prepared to publish the rest of the series myself. One boy, Alex, insisted that I forget about finding another publisher and just do the book myself. Sound advice! It would be interesting to see whether fans of the first two books would be willing to buy an indie title because it hasn’t worked in reverse—those who love the dragon stories don’t seem willing to take a chance on the self-published books, even though they also feature mythical creatures and a racially diverse cast of kids. For now I’m sharing the summary I developed for The Witch’s Apprentice, the next book in the series. Kids give it the thumbs up…

Sis was wrong.

Everybody knows it, but nobody wants to admit that the Guardian of Palmara—the realm of magic—made a mistake. Jaxon figures folks are probably afraid of making Sis mad—and he doesn’t blame them. He saw Sis turn into a scary dragon once before! But someone has to tell the truth. And the truth is, Brooklyn needs magic.

Sis thought all the magical creatures belonged with her in Palmara. But since Sis crossed into their world to reclaim the dragon that Kavita stole, Brooklyn has changed. Instead of sweltering summer heat, the weather has been unseasonably cold. Mama has developed a mysterious allergy, and Kenny and Vikram stopped speaking to each other after having a silly argument. Ma has been a witch her whole life but now she can’t even remember simple spells. She gave Jaxon her witch’s manual, but he can’t read it because the ink is disappearing from every page! How will Jaxon become Ma’s apprentice if no one shows him how?

Ma finally summons her sister witches to help complete Jaxon’s training. But the coven soon faces a more serious crisis—Blue is back and he’s suing Sis! Jaxon has been called to testify before the Supreme Council. Jax knows Blue can’t be trusted, but what if he’s right? What if the Guardian’s desire to keep the dragons safe puts everyone else in danger?

Lately I’ve been waking up to the sound of crows cawing in the pine trees outside my window. The seed keeps disappearing from my feeder but I haven’t seen any birds out back. I guess I imagined “country life” would include flocks of colorful songbirds, but Lancaster is still a city. Last week while I was filling the feeder I did see a heron in a neighbor’s yard, but I haven’t seen any raccoons prowling at night. There aren’t even any mice in this old Victorian house! Last night I watched a reality show about a group of English artisans who tried to recreate the arts & crafts guilds of the Victorian era. They lived in a manor house out in the country and each week were given an assignment: to recreate an object (china, wallpaper, a clock, curtains, furniture, tiles, a weathervane) using only the tools available in the 1890s. One young woman was unsure of herself and felt like an imposter, but by the end of the series she didn’t want to go home! She used embroidery to help manage her anxiety and made some beautiful things with her fellow craftspeople. Some artists thrive in isolation but you never know how you might create differently if you were forced to share space and tasks with others. Would I be a different writer if I lived in a bigger city or farther out in the country? We had an intimate but rich conversation in DC last week, and the librarians we met have since invited me and Bre to be guests on their podcast. Things like that don’t happen here in Lancaster; there’s no Black-owned bookstore, no librarians of color who want to talk about misogynoir and gender disparities in the Black community. But I have connected with some local teen poets and hope to film them reading my poetry next month. I’ve written about medieval guilds before but wonder if I could commit to a group that had a mission and guidelines about how and why to create. Networking is hard for me, so joining a collective or guild would probably help. But I’m not a joiner and quickly feel oppressed by the demands that come with belonging to any organization. I just had to update a bio for a publisher and they had three professional associations listed under “memberships.” Now I’m down to one. I’m reading a book about utopian communities and my ideal society would invest in artists—maybe not isolating them from the rest of society, but giving them time and resources to simply create. Artists still create even when they don’t have those things, but what would art look like *without* so much needless suffering? I’ve been asked to write an essay about poetry and protest—what can Black women artists teach us about revolution? I’ve gathered a few Audre Lorde quotes and know I want to start with Nikki Giovanni’s “For Saundra.” Just sent Prof. Giovanni a copy of Say Her Name, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with educators in Seattle next week when I attend a #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool meeting. I guess I should see if there’s a chapter here in Lancaster, but if there is…would I join?

So far I’m not upholding my resolution to travel less. After Seattle and Toronto, I’ll be heading to Los Angeles next month. Then I’ve been invited to speak at a college in Montreal and in March there are trips to MA and TX. Maybe I only dream of living out in the country because I think it would help me say no to these endless requests to travel. Maybe working in isolation makes me crave human connection, and that’s why I keep saying yes to speaking gigs. Maybe traveling all the time and looking at condos in Chicago is just a way of not being fully present in my life. Whatever the answer, I’ve got two days to write before getting on the plane so it’s time to get back to work!

bliss

You know what happens when I spend time alone, read a lot, exercise regularly, and stay close to home? I WRITE. It doesn’t happen right away, but after two weeks of mostly staying in and keeping to myself, I’m getting back in the writing zone and it feels SO good. Today I went out for a run, then came home and fused three unfinished poems into one. Went out for groceries again (I went to the supermarket and the farmers market yesterday) and came home to cook my New Year’s Day meal of hoppin’ John, cornbread, and pork with sauerkraut. The fridge is full, I have NO sugary sweets in the house, and the heat just came back on after being off for more than a week. Life is good! This month is going to get hectic because SAY HER NAME comes out on the 14th and I will be traveling quite a bit. But I’m really going to work at keeping every other month open so that I can get back into the routine that lets me dream and write. I finished reading GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER on Monday and as I neared the end I realized that two of my novels-in-verse are actually the same book. Just like I realized late last night that my unfinished poems were really notes for a single poem. You can’t get that kind of perspective when your head’s full of other things. Writing is 70% dreaming and I need to protect my dream time.

A few author friends have been posting their book covers from the past decade on social media. I can’t easily do that since I self-published so many titles in the past ten years, but I thought it was worthwhile to at least write it down.

2010: I was living in Brooklyn and was un/underemployed but still managed to become debt-free; Amazon Encore re-released my time-travel novel A WISH AFTER MIDNIGHT, which I had self-published in 2008.

2011: I tried adjuncting and was ready to give up on academia when I got a surprise last-minute job offer from BMCC. I joined the Center for Ethnic Studies and had three challenging but also rewarding years teaching community college students in Manhattan.

2012: Amazon Encore published my MG fantasy SHIP OF SOULS.

2013: I self-published THE DEEP.

2014: I self-published 9 of my manuscripts (ROOM IN MY HEART, MAX LOVES MUNECAS, AN ANGEL FOR MARIQUA, THE MAGIC MIRROR, FOX & CROW, THE LAST BUNNY IN BROOKLYN, THE GIRL WHO SWALLOWED THE SUN, THE BOY IN THE BUBBLE, THE PHOENIX ON BARKLEY STREET) and quit my tenure-track job at BMCC so I could write full-time.

2015: I self-published 5 more books for kids (LET THE FAITHFUL COME, A WAVE CAME THROUGH OUR WINDOW, I LOVE SNOW, DAYSHAUN’S GIFT, DEJEN VENIR A LOS FIELES) and fulfilled a dream by serving as writer-in-residence at Weeksville Heritage Center.

2016: I self-published 4 more books (THE DOOR AT THE CROSSROADS, A HAND TO HOLD, MILO’S MUSEUM, BILLIE’S BLUES) and served a second term as writer-in-residence at WHC; MELENA’S JUBILEE was published by Tilbury House; I found an agent and Jenn sold DRAGONS IN A BAG in a two-book deal to Random House, and A PLACE INSIDE OF ME to FSG.

2017: I self-published 4 more books (THE GHOSTS IN THE CASTLE, THE PHANTOM UNICORN, BENNY DOESN’T LIKE TO BE HUGGED, MOTHER OF THE SEA).

2018: I went to Sweden to research THE RING; I self-published THE RETURN and EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL; DRAGONS IN A BAG was published by Random House; we sold SAY HER NAME to Disney; I earned as a full-time writer what I had been earning as an assistant professor.

2019: I self-published FIND YOUR VOICE; THE DRAGON THIEF was published by Random House; I moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster; I found a new agent and we sold MOONWALKING to FSG.

MOONWALKING won’t be published until Fall 2021; SAY HER NAME comes out next month and A PLACE INSIDE OF ME will be published in July. I have another picture book with Flyaway Books but I have no idea where we are in the publication process. I’ve got two illustrators working on two picture books that I plan to publish this year. I’m working on a novel-in-verse set in Central PA, and my editor at Disney is considering my half-finished dystopian novella North/South. I have a writing agenda that’s as long as my arm and twenty unpublished picture book manuscripts on my computer. It’s still a struggle to get published but this is the life I wanted—I’m living the dream! So long as I continue to get the work DONE. I’m going to NYC on Friday just for the day, just to see friends, and to have lunch by myself at my favorite tea shoppe, and to catch the Betye Saar exhibit before it closes on Saturday. Gotta feed my imagination…Happy New Year!

all over the map

I just printed out another map. And I just checked condo prices in Chicago. I’ve only scratched off a third of the things on my To Do list but overall I’m having a productive break. There’s been a lot of binge watching series on Netflix but I also finished my first haibun and tidied up a couple of other poems that I started earlier in the year but never finished. I answered all of Chani’s questions for winter solstice and I posted my goals for 2020 above my desk. I haven’t worked out my five- or ten-year plans but I’ll get to those eventually. I’m printing maps because I realize I don’t know Pennsylvania very well and I’m thinking about going to Pittsburgh in February. I also agreed to visit Detroit with a friend so I’m not booking anything just yet. I said I would travel less in the new year and I intend to honor that. What can we do to help the planet? Fly less. Could I get through the year with just three flights? I’ll be flying to Seattle and Toronto in January so that would leave just one more trip for the rest of the year and I’m scheduled to present at a library conference in Texas in March. It’s easy for me to give up meat and I turn down the bottled water offered at every conference and school I visit. But travel is tricky. If I want to spend more time in Canada, then moving to Detroit makes sense. But Detroit is a city that doesn’t have strong public transit, which means buying a car. I don’t need a car here in Lancaster—would I need one in Pittsburgh? I think I could do without a car in Chicago but then the cost of renting or buying a home goes back up. What if I get an electric vehicle or a tiny fuel-efficient car? It’s not just where I live but how I live that matters. I started the online application for US citizenship but then stopped because once you apply, you can’t leave the country for three months. Another reason to stop flying…

I read for three hours today and I’m still not done this 450-page novel! Will take a break to watch the news, then it’s back to the book! I finished 3 books of poetry last week but my TBR stack is still too high. Time to start my research reading so I can finally get back to work on Carlisle…

taking up space

Light-skinned mixed-race women take up a lot of space. So I would like to share my new head shots on Facebook but already this morning I got into an awkward situation with a well-intentioned friend who remarked that she had never seen a bad photo of me. I countered that that doesn’t mean I don’t take bad photos—everyone does! But I choose not to post them on social media. We try to look our best online, right? And I scheduled this shoot with Bianca Cordova because my last head shot was a selfie that I took three years ago; I was younger, thinner, and more tanned because it was summertime. I’ve got some white hairs now and some wrinkling around the eyes; I’ve got sun spots and crinkly skin on my neck but that doesn’t negate the fact that I’m still what is considered conventionally pretty. I know that how I move through the world is shaped by colorism and lookism and ableism; I’ve written about light-skinned privilege and mulattas taking up a disproportionate amount of space in popular culture, but I am a writer and I need to manage my image. It bothers me when people pull old images of me off the internet; they generally don’t credit the photographer or ask if it’s okay to use that photograph on a flier. I think most authors put their preferred photo on their website so if you need a picture and can’t reach the author, I’d suggest you start there. I’m going to put my favorite photos from the shoot here and then I can send the link to select friends. I’m not fishing for compliments and I don’t have a confidence problem; I know what I look like and how my appearance situates me in society. If you care to leave a comment, I’d really like to know which two images are best for professional use—I want one where I’m smiling (for kid-related events) and I want one where I’m more serious. The photographer felt my eyes looked sad when I wasn’t smiling so most of the shots have me wearing a big grin but I do have a few serious options.

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remember when…

A friend posted this on Facebook earlier today and I thought it was brilliant—and just what I need as I sit down to make a plan for the new year and the new decade. I visited my last school of 2019 on Monday and as I told a staff member about my hectic schedule she said, “That’s not sustainable.” And it’s not. Not if my goal is to write full-time. I wanted this life—in Toronto I saw a photo of Black creatives living in NYC and one year later I was living that life. I wanted to become a professor so earned my PhD and did that for a while. Then I wanted to be a writer only, so that’s what I’ve become. I no longer apply for writing retreats because I designed my life to function the exact same way. I quit my job so that writing could be my top priority but twenty years in NYC turned me into a hustler; I got used to generating opportunities in order to generate income. The thing is, a couple of years ago I developed another vision for my writer’s life: less hustling, less traveling, and more time at home to write. I’m fortunate that I’ve reached a point in my career where I can live off my advances and royalties, which means I don’t need to present at several schools each month. Yet I still do. I’ve decided to raise my rates for 2020 and when offers come in, I need to learn to say NO. And I have to be smarter about scheduling the gigs I do accept. January is already eaten up with trips and yet yesterday I agreed to take on five more school visits in Philly and Wilmington, DE. Day trips, but still. Travel is so disruptive that I need almost a week to recover from a trip. And that means that when I get home, I need to have nothing else on my plate so that I can slip back into my writing routine. Right now I feel like I might scream if one more person asks me for one more thing. Even reasonable requests make me growl because I’ve pushed myself beyond my limit. *I* did that so I’m really angry with myself, not the person asking me to do x, y, or z. Today was wonderful—I only had one appointment: a virtual visit with a group of boys and their book club leader in NC. That meant I had the rest of the day to put up my Xmas tree, do my 9-minute workout, bake some more cookies, go to the post office twice, and pick up my prescription at the pharmacy. It was one of those days when I just *loved* Lancaster because everything I needed was within reach. Tomorrow I’ll pick up the book I requested at the library but I won’t open it until I finish the FOUR books I’m currently reading. I have a poem that needs my attention. I have two picture books in production and need to follow up with my illustrators. And I have my four novels vying for attention. I have an essay due at the end of next month and I need to transcribe an interview I conducted a few weeks ago. It’s a lot but I can actually get most of it done if I just make a plan and stay put for a while…give myself the silence and solitude I need to dream, focus, and finish.

My friend Edi reminded me that the winter solstice was coming up and suggested taking a moment to reflect on this transitional time in the calendar. Chani Nicholas offers these questions on her website and I’m going to use them to guide my reflecting and writing:

Some things to sit with might be: How do I want to feel about my work, relationships, body, spiritual life/relationship with myself? What old paradigm do I want to outgrow? What life affirming feeling do I want to grow into? What bonds am I ready to free myself from? What guilt, shame and self-doubt can I lay down? What actions can I take to help my self esteem and quell my self-doubt? What self-care practices can I give to myself considering the nature of my work? How can I give that which I want to cultivate? What do I need to become more sensitive to? What might I need to have a thicker skin about? How can I grow myself up so that I am moving away from thinking that the world owes me something and towards getting curious about what I can give to it?

Think I’m going to start with this one: What self-care practices can I give to myself considering the nature of my work?

in the end

When I got back from NYC on Thursday there were so many packages in the vestibule that I had to make three trips to get everything upstairs to my apartment! I’ve got a holiday book fair in Harlem next weekend and realized at the last minute that I had to supply the books myself. Then I ordered books for the seniors group at Bethel AME since I’ve been invited to present in the new year. I also wanted to donate books to a laundromat literacy program so ordered some copies of the City Kids Series. At this point, when the clerk at the post office sees me coming, she knows I’m going to ask for media rate because I’m always shipping books. But on Friday one book arrived that was just for me—the first finished copy of SAY HER NAME! It came from Tracey, the *third* editor I’ve worked with since Disney acquired the book in 2018. It’s been quite a journey, but the book finally exists and it’s beautiful! When I first started writing poems for this collection, this definitely wasn’t what I had in mind. I’m not really a fan of bright colors so it feels a bit strange to *love* the vibrant yellow that makes this little book catch the eye. Loveis Wise struck just the right balance with their illustrations; when the poems are weighty, the artwork uplifts and adds both magic and whimsy to the page.

I had a chance to show the PDF to teens in the Brooklyn Public Library Book Match program last week. I gave 6 book talks in three days and each time I was warmly welcomed by folks I’ve worked with for years. At PS 32 in Brooklyn I shared A PLACE INSIDE OF ME for the first time and was happy to see the 3rd and 4th graders interpreting the illustrations and naming important figures from Black history. We didn’t talk about the Black Lives Matter movement but they clearly recognized that the boy was grieving for a friend or family member who had been shot. I’ll have to figure out how to talk about police brutality with kids; a librarian friend pointed out the pushback HE gets as a White man whenever he wears his BLM t-shirt around his colleagues. Our first review—starred—from doesn’t even mention that SAY HER NAME focuses on Black female victims of police violence. The reviewer’s “verdict” was complimentary and I appreciate them emphasizing that the poems are for everyone: “This collection is inspirational, uplifting, and encouraging for readers of all genders. Elliott may not think of herself as a poet, but her creativity and deft wielding of rich language prove otherwise.” But this book isn’t about me. An educator left this glorious review on my Facebook page:

I read it in one sitting & it took my breath away. This [SLJ] review doesn’t do justice to the deep significance and timeliness of your collection of verses. This book is radical. It illuminates. It uplifts. It’s hopeful even as it names the structures of violence constraining erasing negating black lives. Reading your book is a sacred experience. I’ll be sharing it widely and wisely with the youth in my life. Thank you.

That kind of assessment makes my heart soar and I hope many other readers “get it” in the same way. I also hope future reviewers notice the end pages on which Loveis listed the names of Black women killed by police in the US. This isn’t a generic book about the struggles of African Americans…

One more NYC trip and then I can end the year here at home. There are Xmas cookies to be baked and I haven’t figured out where to buy a tree…but I’ve got carols on steady rotation and did a little shopping yesterday. I thought moving to Lancaster would help me travel less but so far that hasn’t been the case. As we head into a new decade, I’m thinking about the changes I need to make now to ensure that I end next year feeling less exhausted…

winding down

Whenever I reach this point in the year, I get cranky. Which is odd because the holidays are my favorite time of year and just hearing a street musician playing Christmas carols yesterday made my heart soar. I’ve been on the road a lot and I’m ready to just be home for a while—that’s part of it. I can’t seem to empty my inbox no matter how much time I spend responding to requests and invitations and deadlines. I’m grateful for the opportunities that are coming my way, and I know I’ve got to hustle now for my books to come out in 2020. But planning so far ahead makes it hard to be HERE, present and at ease in this moment. And that makes it hard to write, which also makes me irritable. I’ve been reading a lot lately to make up for the fact that I haven’t had the headspace to work on any of my novels for the past month. They’ll wait for me, I know they will, but I still resent having to set them aside. November was ROUGH and I’m glad it’s over. But December’s already filling up and two NYC trips mean getting back on the train. I’m wondering what would happen if I decided not to do any school visits for 3 months. Being at NCTE and ALAN made me realize how much I enjoy talking to teachers (this generous educator from Chicago gifted me the poetry book I’m reading now), but I was also very aware that we were talking about kids who weren’t actually part of either conference. When I think about cutting things out of my life, I don’t think removing interaction with kids would help; they energize me but dealing with all the adults required to plan a school visit can be tedious and tiring. If I moved to another country for a couple of months my inbox would probably still fill up every day…we’re so connected via the web that escape isn’t really possible. This time last year I was planning my trip to Sweden. Have I worked on that novel since? Not really. We’re about to enter a new decade and I’m nearing 50…I want to keep the things/people/experience/practices that enrich my life and get rid of everything else. Time to make a plan for 2020 that prioritizes the things that bring me joy!

cold

Mercury is retrograde and I’ve decided the planets are to blame for the misery and misfortune I’ve been experiencing lately. On my way home from Memphis I raced to catch a train in Philly and not only did I show the conductor the wrong ticket, I left my laptop in the seat pocket before getting off at Lancaster. I was able to order a replacement that evening but exactly a week later my debit card was hacked and subsequently blocked. The next morning I woke up to discover that my aunt and her wife were killed instantly in a car crash. My cousin—not my aunt’s daughter—was notified by police in the middle of the night. She shared the sad news with everyone else and then later that same day, her beloved dog died of heart failure. I had two gigs booked in NYC so went ahead with those and decided to stop by the Apple store to have my phone’s battery replaced; they damaged it and so replaced the phone, which meant I had to activate my service but couldn’t do it online and had no phone to call support so spent a few days disconnected. Probably not a bad thing since I was with family in bitterly cold Ottawa for the weekend. When my sister, her partner Khalil, and I entered the church, we were told the blue seats were reserved for family. Yet when we tried to sit, the minister scurried over to tell us we could NOT sit in the reserved section. I assumed he thought three brown-skinned people weren’t family members but that wasn’t it; we weren’t children or grandchildren of the deceased. So we tried to sit in the closest pew and he told us we couldn’t sit there either. “Where do you want us—at the back of the church?” Khalil shushed me and we sat a few rows back, far from the rest of the (White) family. I was seething but it was my aunt’s funeral…one of my cousins came over and offered to switch seats with us and then my eldest female cousin came over and basically said, “F___ him. Sit in the front pew.” So we did, and two other cousins sat next to us; if he told us to move again, he’d have to ask them as well—two White women with little kids. And guess what? Even with us taking up most of the pew, there was enough room for everyone related to my aunt and her wife. I’m sorry that this incident is what I came home thinking about…but it typifies my experience in Canada, and in so-called “progressive” majority-White spaces filled with “good people.” It clearly didn’t cross that White queer minister’s mind that he was banishing the only people of color in the family. I saw two men of color in the choir but that was it—no racial diversity in this “welcoming,” “alternative” church. Sure, they sing to “Mother and Father God” and they welcome LGBTQ folks like my aunts, but the minister didn’t consider the weight of his actions (never mind the optics). I recently read a middle grade novel about a transracial adoptee and I wondered if it would find a wide audience. After all, how many Black girls could relate to scenarios that are specific to having a White family? All Black girls know what it’s like to be misjudged and mistreated, but generally your family understands racism and believes you since they’ve experienced it themselves. That’s often not the case when your family is White. When I entered the hotel lobby, a young woman of color offered to help me check in even though my cousin was already checking us in. It’s a small thing but you never know when it’s going to escalate, which means you’re always on guard. Overall it was great to spend time with my family and we talked a lot about the traits we hope to bury and not pass on to the next generation. I’m working on a poem and will eventually find a way to express my grief. Tomorrow I have a phone conference and then a local newscaster is coming by to film a feature for Black History Month. I just sent notes to my illustrator in Hong Kong who is using our book as a way to distract herself from the escalating political crisis. My agent is once again sending out the two stories I wrote about my Caribbean uncle learning to play hockey in the 1960s. A famous hockey sportscaster just lost his job for making anti-immigrant remarks on air and racism regularly shows up at Canada’s national pastime, but will that move editors to acquire my stories this time around? Time will tell. Thursday I leave for Baltimore and then the holidays begin. Looking forward to getting a Christmas tree and enjoying some solitary, silent nights…

intentional

This morning I slept in and woke up to pouring rain. Around noon the sun came out and I decided to go for a run. The sidewalks were slick with wet leaves so I was watching my step, but when I passed a couple of tweens I heard one of them say, “That’s her—I saw her Friday! She’s famous!” Which made me laugh and I looked over my shoulder to see her rushing back to speak to me. On Friday I presented at Franklin & Marshall College for a great group of 8th graders from Reynolds MS here in Lancaster. I’ve wanted to connect with local schools ever since I got here last summer, and I’m so glad that my book birthday celebration included three book talks last week. I want young people everywhere to know that writers are everyday people—we’re your neighbors! I did a virtual visit with 5th graders in Missouri as well and tried to give them a tour of my apartment when one student asked where I write; not sure if my office and living room lived up to their expectations. On Tuesday one kid told me his favorite author wrote books using a magic typewriter! My beat-up MacBook isn’t nearly as exciting, though the students were impressed when I told them I can type close to a hundred words a minute.

I packed my bag that evening since I had to get up early on Saturday to catch the train to Philly. I walked from 30th Street Station to Tiffany’s Bakery at 10th St. and the Black women who prepared my photo cake were just lovely—all very interested in the book and wanting to get a copy for their kids. I caught a Lyft up to Uncle Bobbie’s and the events manager Munirah had everything set up. My friend Marilisa drove in from Easton and helped me cut the cake as guests started to arrive. I didn’t do much of a presentation but I read from both dragon books and talked a bit about my kawandi quilt made by the Siddi Women’s Quilting Cooperative. The kids loved holding the dolls Erica Turner crocheted, and then I signed books, hugged friends, and wrapped things up! I’m much more comfortable presenting in a dark auditorium with my slides behind me, but I think the launch was a success. I was struck by one mother who said she was reading the book to her four kids and could see just how intentional I am with my storytelling. That’s the best possible compliment because it makes me feel seen not just as a writer, but as a thinker. A librarian on Twitter said something similar last week, and those three tweets were perfectly timed and much appreciated because I finished yet another picture book on Monday and realized I now have 19 unpublished manuscripts. Even with an agent sending work out and even with the ability to self-publish my own books, I don’t seem to be getting enough of my work out there. But I *am* publishing stories that matter to me—and to my readers. And that has always been the goal. Not to be famous, but to make a living writing stories that reflect my Black feminist worldview. It helps that I have a network of BIPOC feminist scholars and artists who support me on this journey. My Philly friends came out to the launch and treated me to lunch afterwards. Then I walked along the river and took the train back to Lancaster. My phone was lit up with notifications and birthday messages…I usually prefer to celebrate my birthday on my own, but it was lovely to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. Books bring people together…

 

3, 2, 1…launch!

THE DRAGON THIEF is my 35th book for young readers! It’s my 7th traditionally published book but there’s really no difference when it comes to promotion—even if your publisher assigns you a publicist, the onus is still on the author. I don’t get that excited about a book’s “birthday”—you hope your book will have a long life and it doesn’t make much sense, after 30+ books, to make a fuss every time a new title goes on sale. So I was busy but low key. I lined up a couple of school visits here in Lancaster and the students were just wonderful (3rd graders at Hamilton Elementary pictured below). I was running around for much of the day so it meant a lot that my friends and fans on social media did much of the work for me. Librarian Christina Carter made this lovely graphic and posted it on Twitter, which I very much appreciated because it made it easy for me (and everybody else!) to retweet. Kid BookTuber Jazz, whom I met at Nerdcamp last summer, featured THE DRAGON THIEF on Snazzy Reads! I definitely felt the love for my dragons online and in person.

After my second school visit ended it started to pour; luckily friends gave me a ride to a local foundry where we celebrated the Commonwealth Monument Project and I got to meet Lenwood Sloan! Unfortunately I had to leave early so I could grab a bite to eat before our webinar with Embrace Race. Midway through our stimulating conversation about race and fantasy fiction for kids, I felt my head start to pound; I went to bed with a headache and woke with a migraine this morning. So I’ve been enjoying a day of silence and just got some more good book news that I can’t yet share…my book’s official birthday is over but I have another Lancaster school visit on Friday followed by a virtual visit with some book club kids in Missouri who filmed a birthday message and emailed it to me. On Saturday I’ll take the train to Philly, pick up my photo cake, and head to Uncle Bobbie’s. Bookstore events are always a gamble but since it’s also my own birthday, I won’t worry if it’s just me and my friends hanging out and eating cake! By the time this week ends, I will know that I’ve done my duty by my new book and will just let it live…and hopefully thrive! Another author friend on Facebook let me know that our books are in good company over at Amazon…