Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. — Samuel Clemens
Remember when I said I greatly regretted taking on such a huge class overload for the fall? Well, it pretty much ate me for the last two months of 2024, and one of the things that fell through the cracks was this newsletter. So hello! I’m still alive, I survived the Semester of Too Many, and still wrote a few things (though not nearly enough!).
As I write this, the new year is only a couple of days old and I haven’t managed to screw up my spreadsheets yet. I am slated to begin teaching again in a week or two, but only six classes this time. I’ve added a new college to my lineup of coffee mugs: McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill. I’ll continue teaching at St. Louis Community College and at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. While I won’t be back at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville this spring, I’m still on the list and hope to return in the future.
I like New Year. It’s not up there with Thanksgiving or Christmas and certainly not with Halloween, but the idea of a fresh start appeals to me. We clear out the detritus and excess of the holidays in favor of a clean start, with new goals and renewed sense of purpose. I say this as I sit at the Desk of Endless Tasks (tm Allan Gilbreath) heavily loaded with paperwork, but I plan to hammer through it and go about the business of getting life back in order and organized after the craziness of the last few months.
Hush, let me hold on to my delusions.
One of the things that marks the turn of the year for me is the annual Hanukwanyulemas gathering of my long-running writers’ group, the Eville Writers. We get together between Christmas and New Year to socialize without our laptops for once, and to check in on our Writers Resolutions. We get to read last year’s list, have a good little laugh, and then write new goals for the new year, with fresh intent and holding each other accountable.
My list this year pretty much looks like last year’s list, to my regret. I had a very ambitious list of projects, and with the unemployment circus, the fall semester marathon, an ugly car crash (everyone is fine) and assorted other personal nonsense, most of them did not get done. If I have a real resolution, it’s to stop rolling over project after project from year to year, assuming that I’ll get to it when I have time. You could roll that thing you always meant to do year to year forever, but eventually you run out of next times, folks.
As Mr. Eliot says in this month’s header: To make an end is to make a beginning. What can we do this year to make the world a little brighter, a little warmer, a little more beautiful? What can I do?
Let’s find out, shall we?
Publicity/Appearances
Whew! When we left off, Contra was pending in Kansas City on Oct. 25-27. I got to run my mouth about book banning and the First Amendment, and while the hotel was decidedly unfriendly with many problems, the wonderful people of ContraKC made it all work and we had a fantastic time. I also appeared at a spooky gathering of authors in Granite City, Ill. hosted by the Six Mile Regional Library District, and read a short segment on stage, just like my old theater days.
There was also a side trip to Chicago for a few days with the Husbeast, but that was to celebrate our tenth (!!!) anniversary. Of course, I also took photos, so that is a future post on Patreon waiting to happen. We live only four hours from Chicago and this was the first time we’d managed to get up there except for a weekend con mumblety years ago, and you know how it is: when we do a convention, we rarely manage to leave the hotel. It was great to see Chicago again, and I couldn’t help myself: I am now a member of the American Writers Museum, which you should totally visit when next you are in the Windy City. We also did a bungee trip to Kansas City for the Disney 100th Anniversary Exhibition, because of course we did, and that will also be pending on the Patreon.
Finally, I enjoyed the holiday author fair hosted by the Hayner Public Library in Alton, Ill. in December. Many thanks to the good library folks for organizing the signing, which was my second appearance at this annual event.
Added to the schedule: I’m delighted that the proposal for a caucus panel on adjunct teaching was accepted for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference for next spring. This will be my third AWP and my first as a presenter, and I am so glad to be able to participate, especially as an academic. It also means a trip to Los Angeles in March, which is always a fun time and a healthy dose of nostalgia for me, as many of my family lived there when I was young.
Also added: Books and Brews Market will take place 11:30-3:30 on Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Old Bakery Beer Co. in Alton, Ill. Authors and alcohol, what could possibly go wrong? I’m delighted to join this event and hope to see you there! I’m also delighted to announce that I’ve been accepted once again at Dragoncon, so I’m returning to the annual crazy once more.
As you can see below, bookings for 2025 are starting to swarm. I am open to speaking engagements and conventions, but I book well in advance, so if you want me to come to your library, book club, literary festival or convention, contact kyates@donaldmedia.com.
2025 calendar:
• Books and Brews, Alton, Ill. Jan. 18
• Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 21-23
• Writers of the Riverbend, Alton, Ill. March 8 (tent.)
• Midsouthcon, Memphis, Tenn. March 21-23
• AWP Los Angeles, March 26-30
• SPJ Regional Conference, Milwaukee, April 11-13 (tent.)
• ConCarolinas, Charlotte, N.C. May 30-June 1 (tent.)
• Imaginarium, Louisville, Ky. July 18-20
• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 3-5
• SPJ Conference, Washington, D.C. Oct. 15-18 (tent.)
Journalism
So… I won a journalism award. The International Labor Press Association honored the St. Louis Labor Tribune with three national awards, and one of them went to me: best news analysis, second place. It was a piece looking at the significant gains labor has made in the last few years with more than 139,000 new members, and yet the union density in the American workforce remains relatively low compared to its historical numbers. Honestly, as a freelancer I rarely see my work submitted for awards, so it was a pleasant surprise to snag one, and for the acknowledgement of the work I’m getting to do at the Labor Tribune.
• Steelworkers: Nippon offers bribes to workers to support U.S. Steel purchase (Labor Tribune)
• Budzinski blasts proposed USPS changes (Labor Tribune)
• Higher education unions make the grade with Labor actions (Labor Tribune)
• Union leaders call on Congress to support Social Security Fairness Act (Labor Tribune)
• A hard Election Night for Democrats didn’t leave Illinois untouched (Labor Tribune)
• Battle of Virden revisited in Miners Day program (Labor Tribune)
• Senators ask hard questions about ‘golden parachutes’ tied to Nippon acquisition (Labor Tribune)
• Steve Nonn retires after 50 years of labor support and county leadership (Labor Tribune)
• Town hall focuses on fixing Illinois’ Tier 2 pensions (Labor Tribune)
• Steelworkers remain adamant against sale of U.S. Steel (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois sees highest union gains in a decade (Labor Tribune)
Note: Not all articles are available online, and some may be behind paywalls.
Fiction
All quiet on this as we are deep in edits for Blackfire Rising, which is coming in March from Falstaff Books! I’m really enjoying revisiting my Blackfire crew, especially Major Sara Harvey, who is ready to rise up and kick ass yet again. Look for a lot more on this as we get closer to release!
Patreon/Medium/Blogs
Did you know that Patreon subscribers not only get at least one free ebook a year, but you get a 10 percent discount from me and The Literary Underworld? For the latter, that applies to all books, not just mine! For a dollar a month, you really can’t beat it. Just be sure to remind us at the booth as we do not have the subscriber list memorized. If you’re not a subscriber, the base level is $1 a month! You should totally join.
I’m going to try to get more book and movie reviews up on the various sites, as I neglected that part for much of 2024 and I went hunting for my reviews that didn’t exist. I’m reading more of a mix of literary and creative nonfiction these days, but I’m still finding space for my critters that go chomp in the night. As I look at my Goodreads list, roughly half were nonfiction or literary fiction, which is a first for me.
Currently on the nightstand: Out There Screaming, a terrific anthology of Black horror fiction edited by Jordan Peele and starring such amazing writers as Maurice Broaddus, Dr. Chesya Burke, TananariveDue, N.K. Jemisin, Rebecca Roanhorse and others. So far I’m loving it. Recently finished were “When You Leave I Disappear,” a novella by David Niall Wilson; Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power and Pleasure of Reading and Writing edited by Stephanie Stokes Oliver; The Untold Story of Books by Michael Castleman; and I did not finish The Last Juror by John Grisham, a rare miss for me.
• So long 2024, and good riddance (Donald Media)
• And that’s a wrap for 2024 (Patreon, with book/film reviews)
• Happy holidays, wonderful Patrons (Patreon)
• A parable from Petunia Pigthighs (Elizabeth Donald)
• Standing in the sky (Patreon)
• Spoiler alert (Patreon)
• Poem: Time to Work (Patreon)
• In which Elizabeth wins an award… (Donald Media)
• How to survive a horror movie: 2024 edition (Medium)
• Quote: Jarek Steele (Patreon)
• Review: My Trade is Mystery by Carl Phillips (Patreon)
• True or False (Patreon)
• St. Andrew’s to hold book fair (Edwardsville Intelligencer)
Note: Patreon entries are indexed going back to its launch in 2018. I wanted new Patrons to be able to easily find the work that they’ve missed, and hopefully seeing how much work is on the Patreon might encourage some good folks to subscribe. (Hint, hint.) Seriously, subscriptions start at $1 a month, and I truly believe some of the best work I’ve ever done is on the Patreon. Check out the index here.
Photography
Photo shoots ranged all over, from Miner’s Day and Election Night to shoots in Chicago and Kansas City. All of them pending at Patreon, once I get my act together! (Hush, you in the back.) The website is sorely in need of updating, and that will be happening soon. Ish.
Almost all of the images in the galleries are available for purchase, so if you see something you like that isn’t in the store, email kyates@donaldmedia.com and we’ll get you a quote. A few might not be available for purchase due to copyright issues.
Photograph of the Month
Some of the classic books that served as inspiration for Disney movies over the years, from the Disney 100 exhibition in Kansas City.
That’s it for this month’s newsletter! Let’s all get back to what passes for normal, shall we?