Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 2

Author responds to backlash by publishing new children’s book

WKRN covers the publication of my picture book Chicken…Wonders Why? Watch the full report here.

“moonscape”

On Saturday I had a chance to speak with Sarah J. Donovan, editor of the open access anthology Just YA. One of my poems was included and after reading it aloud, I explained my motivation for writing “moonscape.” I don’t know how anyone could look at the devastation in Gaza and think of the moon, but when a reporter called the war zone a “moonscape,” that poem took shape in my mind. You can find the poem and this interview over at EthicalELA.com.

 

The Map of Doors

Yesterday I watched an odd Welsh series about a boy who accesses his ancestral magic by knowing how to cast spells in his indigenous language…an hour later I was hammering out the outline for Book 7 and by the end of the day, I’d written over 3000 words! I think deactivating my Facebook account was a good idea and I’m no longer surrendering my whole day to half a dozen streaming platforms (canceled or paused Netflix, Britbox, Apple+, and Prime, which leaves Acorn and Hulu). Is it too late to reclaim our brains? My friend in Toronto sent me an article about the reverse trend towards “old-fashioned” flip-out phones because people are realizing that smartphones are interfering with the way we want (and used) to live our lives. AI is the worst, I think—last night on the news there was a report about AI “hallucinating” and making up phrases (including racial terms) when used to transcribe medical notes. MS Word now offers an AI icon on every document that you can’t get rid of, though you can stop them from scraping your content by changing your privacy settings. Things seem bleak…why do so many people NOT want to use their minds to generate original ideas? A principal recently shared that a 5th grader asked why he should learn to write an essay when the computer can do it. If our society is structured around productivity and saving time, then of course it will be hard to impress upon students the value of creativity and originality—because those things take time and can’t always be monetized…

As a writer, I enjoy solitude but I see how social media creates the illusion of community; for this introvert, it’s helpful but not necessarily healthy. Getting involved in the community where I live takes more effort but I’m going to try. I’m sticking with Instagram for now but will try to just post events there and blog here more often. I finished this puzzle last weekend and decided to try a 3-month subscription to Completing the Puzzle. My first puzzle should arrive this week and hopefully I can pace myself instead of standing at the dining room table for hours on end until my knees and neck ache…once I’m done, I return it in the same bag and they send me another puzzle. Seems environmentally sound and a good way to save money since most puzzles cost $30 or more and you’ll likely only complete it once before storing it away.

Am I in denial about what Trump is doing to our country? No. Writing and puzzling can be forms of escape but mostly I’m trying to keep my mind sharp. Now is not the time to get lulled into complacency…

peace at last?

I woke up this morning to an email letting me know my latest collection of poetry is now available (it’s on Amazon and should be on Bookshop soon). Later in the day, news broke of a ceasefire deal in the Middle East. News reports this evening show Israel is still bombing Gaza but there were also scenes of people celebrating in the streets. I want to feel hopeful. There’s a lot of work ahead but if we could, at the very least, have peace for a few weeks…the healing process could begin.

I won’t say I’m proud of this slim volume; editing it certainly revealed to me my limitations as a poet. I used to say I only wrote poems when I was angry and I spent a lot of the past two years in a state of rage. But I now know that it’s possible to reach a point where you can’t even find words for your fury. The title of this collection is one of many poems I choked on…

I’m not sure how much poetry I’ll write in 2025. I have a couple of gigs this weekend, including an author panel on Sunday (register for the link here) but I also quit a couple of kid lit groups earlier this month. I’m hoping to turn back to writing for adults this year and submitted a grant application that would enable me to finish one of three unfinished novels. I’ve requested the foreign rights for Books 1-3 in the dragon series from Random House so it’s possible that those books will have a second life overseas. And it’s also possible that the publisher waited too long and missed the “middle grade moment” in foreign rights. Not going to worry about it now. I need more peace in my life, too.

 

Happy Holidays!

I just listened to my weekly horoscope and Chani encouraged us to use this week’s winter solstice to reflect upon the most humbling moment of the past year. Might need to journal about that because there were quite a few! But I put myself out there recently and applied for a long-shot opportunity instead of hemming and hawing over the very slim odds. Found out that I didn’t get the arts fellowship in Helsinki and soon it’ll be time to set a writing agenda for 2025. Not giving up on my Viking novel but will need to find another way forward. My friends from Toronto visited Hyde Park last week; I baked while they were here (gingerbread bundt cake, left) so I could send them home with treats and now there isn’t much left to do…send a few holiday cards, figure out Xmas dinner. I got a new puzzle at a local museum so will give that some of my attention when I’m not writing. I feel lucky to end the year this way—coasting at last after a year that felt very uphill.

My latest newsletter went out yesterday; you can read it here. Not sure I’ll post again until 2025 so wishing everyone a peaceful holiday!

no pity parties on Thanksgiving!

Most of yesterday was great—I baked the cornbread, I met with yet another new doctor who seems on point, and I exceeded my step goal by walking home (and getting a little bit lost). But in the middle of the day, I had an unfortunate encounter with a gatekeeper in NYC that made me think for the hundredth time that there’s no future for me in the US publishing industry. Of course, I haven’t yet found another arena to operate in so that leaves me feeling stuck. But last night, instead of surrendering to self-pity, I started thinking about projects I could finish before the end of the year: my Danish fairy tale “The Night Butterfly,” the final dragon book The Map of Doors, and a new collection of poetry. Then I sat down and wrote for the first time in months! That energy has carried over to today and since it’s supposed to be quite cold here in Chicago, I’m looking forward to spending the weekend glued to my laptop.

I haven’t had a proper cold since before the pandemic but this one dragged out for two full weeks. I managed to do a few things at the start of each day—shopping or baking for the holidays. On one outing I picked up this puzzle and thoroughly enjoyed being screen-free for several hours. The situation in the Middle East has seemed hopeless for so long but there is now one peace deal and there may be another for Gaza. Peace on Earth might yet be possible…

Next week I have my last gig of the year. If you’re in or near Oak Brook, please join us at the Barnes & Noble for a conversation about banned books. December 3 is Giving Tuesday; like me, you’ve probably already been blitzed with requests for donations but if you grew up with a library in your school, I hope you’ll consider helping this school build a library filled with social justice-themed books. You can make a donation here.

wheel of fortune

The original (non-Disneyfied) fairy tales often don’t have happy endings. They do, however, still contain lessons. I’ve been off chocolate for three weeks and have only had one migraine—the day Trump was announced the next president of the United States. Not the happy ending many of us hoped for but there are plenty of lessons for Democrats to learn. I wasn’t surprised by Trump’s re-election, though his gains among people of color are troubling. How do we find a way forward when millions of Americans apparently don’t share the same values? I can’t say I’m finding answers in the Danish fairy tales I’ve been reading but it’s a good way to step back from the endless post-election analysis. Once my migraine cleared I decided I would start Xmas early this year. I haven’t put up any decorations yet but I’ve watched a couple of holiday movies, I started listening to carols this afternoon, and I ordered some new ornaments on Etsy last week. I brought some back from Denmark, too, so now I just have to wait for Whole Foods to start stocking live Xmas trees.

On Saturday I scheduled my annual birthday tarot reading and had forgotten that my lifetime card is the Wheel of Fortune. You add the numbers of your birth date, which in my case leads to 10; 1+0 would equal 1, The Magician, but Owen explained that that’s my soul card; ten in the major arcana is the Wheel of Fortune and I drew that card again this morning. When the world starts spinning out of control, find something fixed to focus on. Nature is a great place to find constancy and continuity, despite the disruption caused by climate crisis. It’s still quite mild here in Chicago, which I don’t love, but I looked out the window today and the leaves were golden against a pewter sky. Then the wind picked up and the sky was blue once more. Cycles remind us that chaos isn’t permanent. I’m focusing on my traditions to keep me grounded as everything spins around me. December has become my month of denying myself nothing and I might start that tradition a little early, too! But the Swiss chocolate advent calendar is out of the question now that I see what it’s like to live migraine-free…

dreaming in Denmark

A week ago I was in Copenhagen! October was a challenging month so it was nice to get away even if only for a couple of days. I’m trying to write a fairy tale inspired by the color wood cuts of Walter H. Williams, an African American artist who moved to Denmark in the 1960s. Copenhagen today is very different from the city Walter would have encountered but I wanted to get a sense of the culture that seemed so welcoming to a Black man sixty years ago. I found some black and white films from the 1960s and I watched a Danish documentary about Bornholm, the Danish island that seems to have inspired Walter to start depicting Black children in his work. This morning I watched Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Andersen—a 1952 American technicolor musical I remember watching as a kid. It was and wasn’t surprising to see half a dozen Black men suddenly appear near the end as guards (?) in Orientalist attire. I found myself counting Black people during my two-day visit to Denmark but I didn’t get a chance to speak with anyone. Most of what I learned came from my two tour guides, one of whom was Danish and Kurdish. Growing outside of the city was challenging—everyone in her school was blond—but she feels less conspicuous in multicultural Copenhagen and can’t imagine ever leaving Denmark. Their immigration policy is controversial yet Palestinians are their largest minority group. I have a lot to learn and Edi let me know that 60 Minutes will be reporting on “Denmark’s sudden wealth” tonight…

I picked up several collections of Andersen’s fairy tales and think I’ve found a way to weave strands of his stories into my own. Not going to worry about permissions at this point. It has been months since I’ve written anything new so I’m just going to focus on crafting a tale that picks apart the tangled histories of Black people in the US, Denmark, and St. Croix. My friend Rosa was just there doing research on Queen Mary; her statue is no longer on display in Copenhagen but a woman who helped lead a labor uprising that saw fifty plantations burned should definitely appear in my story…

Autumn newsletter

I’m trying to convince myself to go for a run…my instincts are turning me in the opposite direction—I’d love to make an apple crisp, pour myself a cup of tea, and snuggle up with a good book—but my friend arrives tonight from Nova Scotia and the house isn’t going to clean itself. Plus it’s STILL hot and sunny here in Chicago; we desperately need rain and I desperately need some autumnal weather to match my mood. Switching to IngramSpark from KDP has not been a smooth transition; there are lots of reasons to complain about Amazon but their print-on-demand platform is MUCH better than Ingram’s. The paperback is finally ready but the hardcover is not—sorry! Hopefully it will be available by the end of the week.

All the latest news is in my newsletter, which you can find here.

honored…again

For the fourth time (!!!), I have been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award! You can find the complete list of 265 nominees here. It’s an honor each time but I do wish I could find out who my “secret Santa” is…

Just finished working on a Fall newsletter. This month has been full of doctor’s appointments and I just booked a November trip to NYC. But once Thanksgiving is over, I will be in FULL holiday mode. The heat has come on and this morning the windows were fogged up—soon the fog will turn to frost and it’ll be time to trim the tree!