Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 7

here’s…Chicken!

Before CHICKEN WONDERS… WHY? even went on sale yesterday, there was a bit of buzz thanks to reporter Maranda Whittington at WKRN. I had just finished doing a podcast interview last Thursday when she emailed to see if I would be willing to talk about the inspiration for my new book; you can watch her two-minute report here. Attempts to ban books haven’t stopped in Sumner County and now some folks are even trying to dissolve the library system! I’m donating fifty copies of the new book to the communities that rallied to defend A PLACE INSIDE OF ME and hope they’ll be successful in defeating future book bans. I had a chance to read aloud some of CHICKEN on Reading to the 246, a Sunday evening podcast hosted by an educator in Barbados. Today I met virtually with students in Hamilton, Ontario and then with a local writer who invited me to nominate local shops for his column in Chicago Magazine. Tomorrow I leave for TX, returning Thursday afternoon—which means spending a lot of time in transit for *one hour* with kids in Houston. I’ll probably miss my puppetry class again…but I’m meeting with a puppeteer friend on Friday morning and will try to spend the rest of the day catching up on my project. This past weekend I flew up to Montreal to see the exhibit Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music. It was -40 degrees! I’m almost ready to self-publish PERENNIAL—just waiting on the final proof. February feels stressful and it’s only the first week of Black History Month; I’ve got four more virtual school visits, three panels, and a poetry workshop on the 28th. But yesterday I booked my three-week trip to Scotland so at least I have something to look forward to in March…

Book 4’s Birthday!

Root beer is Ma’s favorite beverage so it has become a launch tradition to crack open a bottle, but I went out this morning and came up empty…today I’ll be heading up to Evanston to meet with a small group of young writers and later this month I’ll be signing THE ENCHANTED BRIDGE at Booked but otherwise, we’re having a fairly low-key launch. The social media giveaway is over but you can read a fun Q&A at The Nerd Daily and join us on the 21st for a live interview with Ellie at FourOneSixLove. I spent the weekend working on my next poetry collection, Perennial, which means I’ve got three books on the go right now…I meet with a Canadian film company later this week—still hoping to have my dragon tales on screen!—and my puppetry class starts Thursday evening. It was so nice to have a quiet holiday but now it’s time to shake off the silence and solitude! The Chicago Puppet Festival starts soon and I bought tickets to three shows; three friends have a birthday on the 26th and a Brooklyn buddy is visiting this week. Hope I have the social stamina to survive these next few weeks! It’s definitely going to be hectic. I’ll be traveling to TX in early February but everything else will be online. For events that are open to the public, follow me on social media and if you’re having trouble signing up for my newsletter, please email me: info@zettaelliott.com. The dragon series is nearing 400,000 copies sold so thanks to all my readers for your continued support!

Balthazar’s Gift

Christmas is my favorite holiday because the stories behind it are so appealing. I kept my annual tradition and watched Scrooge (1951) on Xmas Eve—after I’d spent a few hours working on “Ousmane’s Dream,” a new picture book story. When I went to see the Neapolitan creche at the Art Institute earlier this month, the caption annoyed me; I didn’t take a photograph of it unfortunately but it was something to the effect of, “European artists started to depict Balthazar as Black around the same time as the trans-Atlantic slave trade took off.” There were free and enslaved Black people living in Europe during the Middle Ages, and all I could think about was Mansa Musa, king of the Malian Empire, whose incredible wealth stunned the medieval world after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. Why would artists base a person of wealth and status—a magus, a king—off a slave? I’ve always been fascinated by Balthazar so decided to write a story about his childhood. Problem is, I want to include Mansa Musa and the university at Timbuktu. How do I write a Christmas story about two events that are over a thousand years apart? Is it possible to write about the nativity without promoting Christian supremacy? I’m a bit stumped about how to end my story, but think I’ve found a way around those two problems. The protagonist is no longer Balthazar; it’s Ousmane, a young student at a madrasa in Timbuktu who’s given a gift of gold when Mansa Musa stops in the city to visit the mosque. The gold coins bring on insomnia and Ousmane’s teacher urges him to seek a cure at Buktu’s well. Timbuktu supposedly got its name from the woman, Buktu, who owned a well (or “tin”) there; the well attracted travelers and the settlement that sprang up around it became an important center of trade: gold from Mali, salt from the Sahara, and slaves from the south. The other character in the story is an enslaved boy named Adu…and right now I’m trying to connect Balthazar’s gift of myrrh to Ousmane’s use of the king’s gold to free Adu. I thought I needed an angel but decided to use Buktu instead—she’s my ghost of Christmas past—and I’m managing the time lapse by having her relate Balthazar’s journey. Adu plays a drum so I’ve got my little drummer boy, and the star of Bethlehem even makes an appearance. Is it a Christmas story? I don’t know. That was my goal but it no longer feels like my priority. I kept seeing images of Mansa Musa from a book I couldn’t recall and a quick online search pulled up the picture book illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. I’d love to have illustrations that are just as magical in my book! I parted ways with my agent earlier this month so I’m not really thinking about where this manuscript will go; I could offer it to editors I already know or I could try to self-publish it. Purple is making great progress with Chicken Wonders…Why? but things have stalled with Blue Boy. My author copies of Book #4 arrived last week and January will mostly be about launching that title; I have to make a promotional video this week (ugh) and may have some media opportunities in Canada. I’m renovating the master bathroom at the end of January and heading to Texas for a kid lit event in early February. Everything else will be done online (register for VirtuousCon here !) except for our educator event here in Chicago on 2/21. Right now the plan is to spend March in Scotland…but this week I just want to finish my story and set some goals for the new year. I always find Chani’s prompts useful—maybe they’ll be productive for you, too:What experiences, habits, or patterns from 2022 do you want to let go of?What feelings emerge as you do so?What is one thing you learned over the past year for which you are thankful?

yinzers

Menopause brain was in full effect this weekend! The poor waitress had to follow me outside because I pocketed my copy of the receipt for brunch and then, before leaving, picked up the merchant’s copy as well. When presenting I rambled a lot, and lost my train of thought, and blurted out remarks that didn’t match the moment. When I pulled my hair back on Sunday, I saw a lot more white hairs and figured folks at the restaurant would think I was Noa’s mom, though in this picture we look more like sisters. Brunch on Sunday was the first time we met, though our book came out in the summer of 2020. Hopefully she’ll be invited to future festivals since she’s a Pittsburgh native and one of the few Black woman illustrators working in kid lit today. Kate’s Book Bash was great and Pittsburgh was uncharacteristically sunny after a few showers Saturday morning. I pushed my introvert self to socialize more than I normally would and it was good to connect with old friends and to meet some new authors. I led a writing workshop for members of the regional SCBWI and then manned my table for another couple of hours before heading downtown to the Xmas market. I haven’t got a tree yet but I picked up some more ornaments and spent the evening at the B&B debating whether or not America is in decline. Believe it or not, I don’t think it is…we have some intractable issues, sure, but I don’t think folks here understand what it’s like to live anywhere else in the world right now. Even wealthy European nations are struggling with skyrocketing energy costs and inflation is so high that many sectors are striking over the holidays just to earn a living wage. Yes, Trump damaged our institutions and the population is extremely divided, but the US is still a powerful, wealthy, energy-independent nation. We produce most of the food we need, and our economy is still generating hundreds of thousands of jobs despite rumors of an impending recession. The midterms prove that even conservatives are turning away from the right-wing nut jobs trying to destroy democracy. I look at what’s happening in the UK and I think twice about moving over there. Even with the pressure of having to select a new healthcare plan in the next week or two, I recognize that being a full-time Black feminist writer probably wouldn’t be possible in Scotland or Canada or New Zealand. I’d have free healthcare in all those countries, but I’d have to sacrifice a lot of other things—including financial independence. I just got an offer to do a big school presentation in Canada and they’re offering less than a third of my usual rate. I offer a sliding scale for Title I schools but that isn’t the case here—authors simply aren’t valued in the same way up there. As hard as I have to hustle down here, at least there’s some kind of payoff…and I have the support of a small but determined community of Black writers. Would I be willing to give that up? No. Could I build a comparable future/community in another country? I think it would be very difficult and I don’t have the same outrage that motivated me to speak out and self-publish over a decade ago. Purple is making great progress on CHICKEN WONDERS WHY and we’re almost done with the first sketch for BLUE BOY. I think I’m going to self-publish more books in 2023; we haven’t sold any of the projects my agent sent out this year, which means all that material is just sitting on my computer. MOONWALKING made another year-end list today: Kirkus Reviews’ Best Middle-Grade Books. But even if it manages to win an award in January, I don’t think that will significantly alter my prospects. And yet…I still have hope! Before turning in on Saturday night, I asked my fellow debaters to share something that made them feel hopeful about the US. I gave the answer I always give: “This is a nation of dreamers.” As bad as things get sometimes, we never stop imagining a better way forward…

growth edges

I just received a thoughtful email from Owen at Nonna Terra. He was reflecting on the year that was and looking ahead to 2023. It’s that time, I guess…the holidays are fast approaching, which means those dreaded book lists are appearing online. I’m happy that MOONWALKING made it onto the NYPL’s 2022 Best Books for Kids, but know that so many excellent titles get overlooked every year. THE WITCH’S APPRENTICE made it onto The Globe & Mail’s holiday gift guide, and there was interest in that title at NCTE last week. I wasn’t sure anyone would come to my morning signing; the exhibit hall was huge and felt a little empty at 10:30am, but folks joined the line and all the books were signed and given away. The next day Lyn and I signed 80 books in 40 minutes…and our afternoon panel was great. It was good to see friends in person but I definitely felt less enthusiastic than I have in the past. NCTE has always been one of my favorite conferences to attend because who doesn’t love English teachers?! And you get to mingle and interact in meaningful ways. The crowd was smaller this year, I think, but then it isn’t cheap to spend half a week in Anaheim right before Thanksgiving. I’m lucky that Macmillan paid for my expenses, and I got to spend a couple of days in the Bay Area with friends before shifting into conference mode. Came back to chilly Chicago last Saturday night with no internet at home and no service on my phone…getting that resolved took more time and energy than it should have but it made me sit with myself for a while. I don’t generally feel addicted to social media and am not at all worried about Twitter’s demise since I rarely use the platform. But I’m thinking more these days about *why* I spend so much time alone. I’m an introvert, I need solitude to write…I have all sorts of legit-sounding reasons. But Owen’s email and Chani’s weekly horoscope asked me to consider my “growth edges.” There are quite a few areas in my life that need work but I was surprised to find myself talking so much about family last week. One friend asked if I still have dreams and aspirations—she’s one of the most creative people I know but is having a dry spell, and I immediately linked her question to the stressful year she’s had. I tell kids all the time that writing, for me, is 70% dreaming and I fiercely protect that dream time. I practice avoidance more than I should…and the biggest source of stress in my life has always been family. So I avoid the family I was born into and haven’t built a family of my own. I look at my friends who are struggling and their concern is primarily for others—their kids, spouse, and/or parent. They put their loved ones’ needs first and that doesn’t leave a lot of time or energy to focus on their own needs or goals. During Friday’s panel at NCTE, one author shared that she wrote a seven-book series about a happy family that loves doing things together and rarely faces adversity—that wasn’t her reality as a child but she wanted that reality to at least exist in her books. Others on the panel talked about having difficult childhoods and facing racism without the tools they needed to defend themselves. All those experiences find a way into their work, but we didn’t talk about the challenge of finding time to write and breaking into a business that’s often hostile to people of color and Indigenous writers. Virginia Woolf wrote about women artists needing a room of their own; of course, she had wealth and servants to deal with a lot of her material needs. In some ways, the poor might dream more vividly than the wealthy—or perhaps they dream out of desperation. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and “great suffering produces great art”…this is an ongoing conversation about resources and trauma and what it takes to be an artist in this world. If your material needs are met, you don’t have to waste energy worrying about how the rent will be paid and where your next meal’s coming from; but you might also lose some of the drive that propelled you to be creative. I lost internet access for one day and saw how many folks relied on free wifi in cafes and the public library; it shouldn’t be, but it’s a luxury in this country to have reliable internet access in your home. I wanted this writer’s life and I worked hard to achieve it, but so many privileges make my current lifestyle possible (and easy). A friend recently lost her job and I’d love to see her leave NYC and try a new field. But it’s not easy to take risks and find or follow your passion when life feels precarious. If you have people depending on you, and if you don’t have folks to fall back on, you can’t afford to risk too much…and if you grew up feeling insecure, it can be hard to accept and believe that you’re finally secure. Precarity in my childhood caused a lot of anxiety and I still grapple with its lasting effects. I’m risk-averse in some situations and at other times, it’s commitment that terrifies me—settling down, having a steady job, slipping into a holding pattern, being bound to someone by a sense of duty. In one class I used to challenge my college students to prove that love *wasn’t* a form of enslavement for Black women! So these prompts that Owen shared today really resonated with me. He’s scheduling sessions now and I’m thinking about doing another 90-minute reading with him. I usually try to write something about goals and growth for the winter solstice; these questions are tough but important—a good place to start:

What emotional thresholds approach us? What are our growth edges, especially in terms of our personal relationships and our capacity for collective interdependence?Which patterns, behaviors, and practices have been protective partners to us, but now might be holding us back from moving more deeply into authentic connection & living by a love ethic? Which of these patterns, behaviors, and practices are we ready to shed? Which do we still need in order to feel safe?How might we bring more love and compassion to ourselves and one another as we work to balance our need for safety and protection with our need for more authentic connections?

I made a list of my own for The Reading Culture podcast; host Jordan Lloyd Bookey asked really thoughtful questions during our interview and she invites all guests to make a reading list. Mine focuses on middle grade fantasy fiction set in Chicago—you can find it here.

letter to readers

We’re preparing to launch Book 4 in the dragon series and my editor asked me to write a letter to readers—here it is:

compass

I thought I’d spend my 50th birthday in Scotland but plans changed unexpectedly and I got home on Monday instead. I’m still fighting jet lag—there’s something about flying westward that really messes with my body clock. Glasgow is six hours ahead of Chicago, so it wasn’t easy to do three virtual school visits while I was over there. The last one wrapped up at 1am on Friday and I struggled to get up later that morning to catch the train to Aberdeen. Luckily the station was just a few steps from my hotel and I was able to get a direct train. A woman with a support dog sat next to me for part of the trip and her dog slept on my feet. A sweet baby guzzled two bottles of milk across the aisle…it was very civilized, very soothing. The fields we passed were full of sheep and cows and goats and then suddenly the North Sea appeared on the other side of the tracks. I don’t feel like I have a lot to say about my trip (check my Instagram account for photos and details) but my head is still there and that’s made it hard to adjust to life here in the US. There are babies and dogs here in Chicago, and the leaves are much prettier here—probably because we don’t get rain every single day. The grass literally is greener over there but the main difference is watching the news every night and not seeing a report of one single shooting. I came home to yet another mass shooting, this time at a performing arts school in St. Louis. A seven-year-old was shot and killed here in the city while washing his hands at home and he’d just lost his father a few days earlier. The weekend is about to begin, which means by Monday, there will be reports of more shootings. This morning NPR did a report on some type of “switch” that allows pistols to be turned into machine guns. WTF?! This is our normal. I want a new normal.

I didn’t do anything special for my birthday on Wednesday but yesterday I redeemed my gift certificate for a ninety-minute solar return tarot reading and ancestral ritual session with Owen at Nonna Terra. He had several different decks but as soon as I saw the crow, I picked The Gentle Tarot, which is Indigenous-designed. This was only my second reading and I was encouraged not only to present my concerns and questions but to invite my ancestors or guides from various regions of the world. What did I feel coming up for me? Direction. I feel like I keep finding (or placing) myself at crossroads and don’t really worry that I’ll make a wrong choice but don’t know how to prioritize the need I see around me. In Scotland I was thinking a lot about Nevis and the connections between enslavers from Glasgow and plantations in the Caribbean. Then on a walking tour I found out about a particular family, the Stirling Maxwells, who built a stately home and filled it with priceless art using wealth derived from the enslavement of Africans in St. Kitts-Nevis. I went to the Pollok House website and discovered I had missed the deadline for a storytelling residency! I spent Tuesday afternoon updating my CV and sent it off anyway…I don’t really need a paid residency and it’s likely meant for Scottish writers, but it’s still my dream job: spend time in the house, mine the archives, and then create a suite of 4-6 stories, 2 of which would be published for young readers. I tracked down the tour guide who first told me about a runaway enslaved boy named Frederick last August. Turns out the child had nothing to do with the Findlays or the sale of tobacco…so do I rewrite my story? Or leave it as is and extend my author’s note to explain the discrepancy? I met with the scholar who proved that Frederick had been trafficked from the Caribbean by James Watt, famed Scottish inventor. I went to the People’s Palace to see the engraved silver slave collar that once circled the neck of an enslaved boy. I also saw a reproduction of the portrait of a wealthy Glaswegian family that owned an enslaved boy but had him painted out of the picture when it was no longer fashionable to flaunt your exploitation of a child. There are so many stories…the Viking exhibit in Aberdeen was incredible, even though the most interesting parts of the hoard couldn’t be displayed due to their delicate condition. There was a lidded pot filled with objects that seemed to have been assembled over a hundred years, which means it was likely an heirloom passed from one generation to another before it was buried in Scotland. The pot was wrapped in textiles that trace back to the Silk Road in Central Asia! It would be so easy to connect that pot to my Scandinavian girl from Iran/Iraq and her Arabic ring…I met with my agent yesterday and she ran through the long list of finished projects we haven’t yet sold and unfinished projects she’d like to send out to editors. But right now I’m thinking about Vikings and the triangular trade and children trafficked by Scottish inventors. I could stay put and finish those other projects, all of which are set here in the US. Or I could go back to Scotland (I’ve blocked off February and March…) or I could go back to Nevis for the first time in a decade and do my own research, write my own suite of stories for adults and kids. What’s a girl to do? The tarot session was really affirming. Owen reads the cards with a lot of compassion and he made no predictions but did sense that I was moving toward liberation—that’s what the Death card signifies. Transformation, claiming more space, realizing we can free ourselves from oppressive systems. I took lots of notes and just kept nodding because everything that came up rang true. Owen called it “cheerleading” because the cards confirmed what I already know about myself, the patterns in my life, the challenges, and the solutions. Did I end the session knowing which path I’m meant to follow? Not necessarily. But I do feel like I’m moving forward, growing, setting boundaries, and learning how best to use my gifts. After some very full days in Scotland, I took it easy on my birthday but did enjoy some of the presents I gave myself—like a new teacup and this shiny Labradorite necklace I got at the art gallery in Aberdeen. I’m breaking in my new glasses—first pair in forever that isn’t purple!—and we got the go-ahead from the condo board so renovations begin on Monday. Can I handle the chaos? Of course, I can. I’ll have to! Just the nudge I need to get out of the house and visit all the museums in Chicago…

new edition

New Edition was one of my favorite groups as a teen but this post isn’t about Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, and Ralph (and Johnny, for the later fans). I decided last spring to issue a second edition of MAX LOVES MUÑECAS! The illustrations took longer than expected but Bria DuBose did a great job bringing new energy to the narrative. It will take about a week for the new edition to show up at Ingram but once it’s there, your favorite indie bookseller will be able to order the book for you. I got a little teary rereading it…a rather prominent editor once assured me there was no market for this story about Honduran boys learning to make dolls in the 1950s but I’m glad I ignored her. MAX is one of my top-selling Rosetta Press titles…I’ve just ordered a bunch of copies and will be doing a giveaway later this month, so stay tuned!

I haven’t done a newsletter in a while and someone recently let me know that the form on my website isn’t working. My web designer stopped developing websites and mine is about due for an overhaul…so bear with me! I think most folks follow me on social media at this point but I will do a few more newsletters for the folks who prefer all the news at once in their inbox.

 

what counts

I went for a run this morning and felt so peaceful and happy afterwards as I ambled around the Japanese garden. Someone set the bridge on fire so it’s boarded up, forcing me to change my usual circuit. Today I spotted two Great Blue Herons and stopped mid-meadow to photograph a few flame-colored trees. Then I got home and realized I’d forgotten to put on my pedometer—so no credit for the 10K steps I took before 10am. And that’s okay! I have to stop measuring everything I do. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve worked on a novel. Yesterday I got the final pass for Book 4 and just added one sentence to preserve continuity with Book 5. I’m thinking about working on the prequel but I’ve been focused on my apartment lately. Yesterday contractors came and did a great job fixing up my office. This morning I see a couple of issues that weren’t addressed but it just felt so good to have people I trusted working efficiently and professionally. The other contractors I managed to reach haven’t even gotten back to me with their bids so I’m sticking with the crew that came yesterday. I thought I could afford to do both bathrooms this fall but will just focus on the guest bathroom for now. It could take up to a month to gut the room and replace the tub with a walk-in shower but at least I can still use the master bathroom. I leave next week for Scotland and have made some plans but my days will mostly be open.  Make space…that has been a theme for me this fall. It’s not like I have anything planned—I just want room, space to dream, time to explore. I’ve been burrowing, which is easy when the weather turns cool, but will go see Eve Ewing tomorrow evening to hear her talk about the stage adaptation of her poetry book 1919. This weekend is Open House Chicago so I might tour some of the historic churches in my neighborhood. Took a Hyde Park architecture walking tour last weekend. I’m not a total hermit but it’s tempting…

SAY HER NAME has been taken off the shelves in a county in TN and another county is resisting a challenge to A PLACE INSIDE OF ME. I heard from Hendersonville parents and a school principal recently—all expressing their love for my book and determination to push back against book banners. Our #BannedBooksWeek panel last month was recorded by the ACLU of VA—you can watch a captioned clip here. It’s frustrating to have titles meant to empower young readers pulled off the shelves but I’m very grateful for all the folks on the front lines fighting to ensure kids keep their right to read. That’s what counts.

 

September

It finally feels like fall! I had high hopes for this month but October’s nearly here and my To Do list hasn’t changed much. I got back from Toronto on Tuesday and ate half a box of candy…even though I vowed to lay off sweets after seeing my A1C go up again. I’ll have to go back on statins since my cholesterol spiked when I went off them in January, and my potassium levels are high—so no more banana bread. I didn’t get to talk to my doctor before she went on vacation so I’m waiting for her call now and suspect I know what she’s going to say. I knew my iron was low and picked up a bottle of Floradix but will probably need another supplement. I just need to do better! I exercise regularly and my weight is okay but these numbers remind me that good health takes conscientious living. I’ve had the blues for most of this year, which is unusual; I blame menopause but will take responsibility and stop self-medicating with sweets. I’ve ordered in a lot, too, and so will try to cook more often this fall. I make poor choices when I travel and I’ve been taking more trips this year. The Telling Tales book festival was wonderful despite the rain, and I got to see my mother a couple of times before her ward shut down due to COVID exposures. She’s working at feeding herself and not using a tube for nourishment or medication; hopefully we’ll see some progress. My school visit on Tuesday went well; my publisher arranged everything and I got to the school early to sign the hundred books provided for students by First Book Canada. Quick-thinking teachers solved the technical troubles that came up, my new laptop’s battery lasted the whole weekend (I forgot to pack the charger), and the beautifully diverse students were fully engaged. I didn’t try to squeeze a lot into my down time but still came home tired—that could be the anemia. I remembered to bring my US passport this time so had no trouble getting back into the country. Dentist yesterday morning, story time in a Bronzeville garden yesterday evening. Contractor came by today to give me an estimate and it took him so long to take notes on the two bathrooms…I’m sort of dreading his estimate. But he’s the only one who even returned my call and I need to get some work done sooner rather than later since the radiators came on today and the one in my office leaks. It’s brisk here in Chicago! This is the weather I’ve been waiting for and I’m happy to bundle up when I go outside or curl up under a blanket while watching TV. I keep reminding myself that I didn’t squander the summer but I’m between books now, have turned in all my edits, and need to dive into something new. My flights to and from Glasgow were canceled so I had to move my trip up. I’ve now heard back from two Scottish publishers with whom I shared “Blue Boy;” both have been polite but my illustrator seems to have dropped off the map. I don’t expect everything to magically fall into place once I return to Glasgow but it would be great to meet some folks in person. I’ve scheduled another walking tour and hope to line up one school visit. I’m flying through Dublin to avoid the chaos at Heathrow. One editor warned me that it’s already cold so I’ll be prepared for the weather this time around. Saw this thistle atop a lakefront planter in Toronto and it reminded me of the brooch I bought last month. Bre won’t be there when I return to Glasgow so I’ll have to push myself to connect and build community. And not stuff myself with shortbread…