September 9-10, 2023: Update on My Current Book Project

[This weekmarks the start of the Fall 2023 semester and my 19th year atFitchburg State. So as ever, I’ve kicked off the semester with preview posts,this time focused on ongoing challenges and leading up to this update on mycurrent book project!]

I’m notgonna lie, when I planned this series a few months back I was pretty hopefulthat I would have a real update about mycurrent book project to share in the weekend post. The short answer is thatI don’t, as the project continues to seek a home. It does so under a new nameand frame, however, as Two Sandlotshas evolved into The Celestials’ LastGame (same subtitle: Baseball,Bigotry, and the Battle for America). I believe that frame allows me tolean into the 19thcentury baseball stories and histories that are at theheart of this project, while still connecting to all the other social andcultural contexts that make the Celestials and their last game so important(from the ChineseEducational Mission and ChineseExclusion Era to the Workingmen’s Party of California, the 1877 San Franciscomassacre, and much more). I’d really love the chance to share my revisedproposal with interested agents and/or editors, so please feel free to reachout by email (brailton@fitchburgstate.edu)with any such interest and/or contacts for me. Thanks in advance!

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Fall previews or work in progress you’d share?

PPS.Speaking of baseball histories, I’m very excited to note that I’ll be talkingabout this project at the 9-OnlineVirtual Baseball Conference in October. Please let me know if you’ll bethere too!