Newsletter #70 — Separate is Not Equal
November 15, 2023
Newsletter #70 — Separate is Not Equal
Scholastic Press Book Fair Outrage — Scholastic Publishing imposed a "separate but equal" strategy on authors by segregating books about Black history and LGBTQ lives from other books at Scholastic book fairs across the country. In the 21st century how could anybody believe that separate is equal? I guess if you want to appease those who seek to suppress freedom of speech and access to a wide variety of books, you might take this approach, as Scholastic did.
It's good to see that this approach backfired because authors, teachers, and librarians stood together and demanded an end to this outrage. Scholastic Press has backed down and said it will not employ this tactic in 2024. Here's an article on the subject.
Newsletter Ghost! — When I tried to publish my previous newsletter, #69, I ran into difficulties on my website. The newsletter title simply failed to appear in the left-hand block of my web site, no matter what I did. Therefore I was very worried about what would happen when I pressed the Publish button . . . would my newsletter go out to subscribers? Or would it just sit there, invisible and uncooperative?
I wrote to tech support at Authors Guild and explained the situation. Unfortunately, because I encountered this problem just a day or two before November 1, when I wanted to publish my newsletter, they couldn't get back to me in time.
I pressed Publish, and my newsletter did go out to subscribers. But it refused to appear on my website, and it refused to appear when the Authors Guild website techs looked at it. They, like I, could sense it was there: a virtual space was being occupied, but the occupant was invisible. (Hmmm . . . this did happen on Halloween.)
As things stand now, the Authors Guild is working on the problem. I hope they have it fixed soon.
Margaret Nabel — My first two books were fiction (She's on First; Dirty Proof), and then came nonfiction (Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball). It was with the publication of Women at Play that I learned something: When you publish a nonfiction book, you are forever responsible for it. Questions and requests come to you frequently, even decades later. I am always happy to help because I do, in fact, feel responsible for the things I discovered/unearthed and brought to public knowledge. And sometimes generous offers come to you. I just heard from a great-nephew of Margaret Nabel (New York Bloomer Girls) and he offered to share some discovered-in-the-attic [literally] photos with me. I said I'd love to see them, and he sent them.
It is really wonderful to be able to see Margaret's face better, as I can in the photos he sent: usually it was under a cloche hat or baseball cap, in the shadows. Also, one of the photos is a domestic photo of Margaret inside a living room with her brother. This could be the first woman-baseball-player domestic photo I've seen. Such a good feeling to see another side of these barnstorming women.
Keywords— MyNovember 15 blog is on my experiences with keywords.