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January 2023 Linkspam

Hey, look what didn’t post! The webmaster here at Donald Media will be sacked. Wait, that’s me. – Mgmt.

Alas, the holiday break here at Donald-Smith-Gillentine Inc. was shut down on account of the Voldevirus. My husband came down with it right after Christmas, and somehow I managed not to get it or the flu, but instead something between bronchitis and pneumonia. I’d like to thank the fickle fates for choosing to hit us with this on the only ten-day stretch of the entire year when we are both off work, more or less. 

It’s been a pretty quiet December, wrapping up the semester and spending the holidays with my family. Before the onslaught of the Dreaded Plague, I spent a lot of time baking things, because that is one of my favorite hobbies. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m fascinated by culinaria, both the making and the eating, and thus it’s been a delight working with Feast Magazine this year and getting to explore haute cuisine. While I am mostly doing features with Feast, I am planning to begin restaurant reviews independently on Donald Media in the new year, as well as reviving the book reviews I kind of let slide this year. 

Oh, and one other thing. I sort of graduated.

As you’ll recall, I finished the Thesis of Doom last summer, which was my examination of the representation of journalists in film and the final requirement for the masters degree in media studies. There was no summer commencement, so officially I graduated in December, walking across the stage wearing too much “academic bling” and figuring out how to accept my diploma and shake the chancellor’s hand while using a cane. Jim and Ian were there to cheer me on, and it really was a lovely evening, even with the silliest hat in history frantically pinned to my head because my hair rejects all hats. (Seriously, there was an emergency Walgreens stop on the way to the ceremony. It was a sitcom moment to be sure.)

So that’s done, and yet I’m still here, because I have one degree to go. Much of the winter break that wasn’t spent baking or coughing was spent working on the thesis and my “Writer in the World” project, which are the final requirements for the MFA and you’ll hear more about that next month. 

Until then, happy new year, and may you have a safe, happy (and healthy) holiday as we all begin another jaunt around the sun.

Publicity/Appearances

I usually try to take much of December and January off for sanity, so all we had this month was the Collinsville Holiday Market on Dec. 2. January will be quiet, with public appearances starting up again in February. 

Next in 2023:
• Writers of the Riverbend, Alton, Ill. Feb. 4
• Wednesday Club, St. Louis. Feb. 8
• Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 23-25
• AWP Conference, Seattle, Wash. March 8-11 (attending)
• ConCarolinas, Charlotte, N.C. June 2-4 
• TechWrite STL, St. Louis. Date TBA. 
• Imaginarium, Louisville, Ky. July 14-16 (tent.)
• SPJ Conference, Las Vegas. Sept. 28-Oct. 1
• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Sept. 21-Oct. 1
• Contra, Kansas City, Date TBA. 


Journalism/Blogs

• Cleveland Heath returns to the classics (Feast Magazine)
• Highland City Hall closed for water damage (Highland News-Leader)
• One year after tornado, Amazon is rebuilding with no fines (Labor Tribune) 
• Madison County to build bike trail near Highland (Highland News-Leader)
• Ameren proposes new transmission line (Highland News-Leader)
• Highland moves forward with road projects (Highland News-Leader)
• Governor signs proclamation declaring WRA passage (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois Democrats now hold widest majority in state history (Labor Tribune)
• New medical clinic opens in Highland (Highland News-Leader)
• 10 gifts for the adventurous foodie (Feast Magazine)
• Developer to turn former printing facility into meat-packing plant (Highland News-Leader)

Note: Not all articles are available online, and some may be behind paywalls. 

Fiction

Right now I’m deeply mired in finishing a portfolio of slipstream fiction for the MFA land, and on revisions for my fiction thesis that will be going before the committee in the next few months. I also kicked off the new year by sending out every short story currently available for submission. Brace for the rejection slips! 
 

Patreon/Medium

• The books of 2022 (Patreon)
• 171 pages (Patreon)
• Poem: Seasons (Patreon)
• The original guilty pleasure (Patreon)
• One more in the books (Patreon)

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October Linkspam

Here’s hoping your Octoberfest doesn’t … bite?

Sorry.

It’s officially Halloween season, which is my favorite time of year – it would be, wouldn’t it? I’m trying to take it a little lighter this year since I’ve got so many appearances slated for later in the fall, which is how I have actual Saturdays open in October. Sort of. 

For many years I’ve wanted to do 30 days of horror movies and write them up for the blog, but I haven’t done it yet, and that year is not this year. Perhaps in the future when I’m all graduated and stuff. Remind of this next September and I’ll clear my schedule. Still, ’tis the season for spooky, and for one like me who was born with the love of the unquiet grave, it’s the happiest season of all. 

Look for signings and festivals all this fall, as I continue to chronicle my MFA adventures on Patreon and write like a mad weasel for the six or seven major projects I have going on in addition to my freelance work. While you’re at it, pick up one of the spooooky tomes we have at the Literary Underworld, even if they’re not mine. Ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go chomp in the night, all of them crawl across our pages, and there’s no better time for a good scare.

Just be sure to check under the bed before you go to sleep tonight, children. 
 

Publicity/Appearances

We kicked off September with a shoot at the Japanese Festival, which is in line behind the 20 or so other shoots I haven’t processed yet. *whistles* 

Next came the Edwardsville Book Festival, which is an all-day event in City Park and always a pile of fun – and sales were terrific. We next held the St. Louis SPJ Student Journalist Boot Camp, and I had actual students voluntarily listening to me step up on my soapbox about the application of the SPJ Code of Ethics. 

Finally, we survived one of the highlights of the year: Archon! There will be blog posts shortly about the shenanigans – and there were shenanigans – but suffice to say we had high traffic at the booth and in the Literary Underworld Traveling Bar. No sleep, but plenty of fun!

We’ve got a few additions to the calendar below, so please check it out. And for you Patrons: Anyone who subscribes to my Patreon gets a discount at the Literary Underworld booth. Just give your name (or the name you used when you registered on Patreon) to the Minion working the booth. 

Coming up:
• Leclaire Parkfest, Edwardsville, Ill. Oct. 16 (charity book sale)
• Smithton (Ill.) Public Library, Oct. 22
• SPJ National Conference, Washington, D.C. Oct. 26-30 
• ContraCon, Kansas City. Nov. 11-13 
• Books-a-Million with Cuppa Words, Edwardsville, Ill. Nov. 19
• Collinsville (Ill.) Library Holiday Market, Dec. 3


Journalism/Essays

• Pritzker makes major push for Workers Rights Amendment (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Union leaders push back against candidate’s call to reduce minimum wage (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Highland votes to give next council pay raise (Highland News-Leader)
• ‘Historically rare’: Paramedics deliver babies twice in two months (Highland News-Leader)
• Labor honors leaders at 54th annual ceremony (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• $7.6 million in economic development for metro-east Illinois (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Highland plans property annex (Highland News-Leader)
• Tyson Foods plans expansion (St. Louis Labor Tribune) 
• University to install machines in restrooms after anti-trans vandalism (The Alestle)
• Union members turn out for Labor Day celebration (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Want to know what’s happening in Highland? There’s an app for that (Highland News-Leader)

Note: Not all articles are available online, and some may be behind paywalls. 

Fiction

• “Shiny People” (Patreon)
 

Patreon/Blogs

• Last MFA standing (Patreon)
• 2022 SPJ Boot Camp! (STLSPJ)

This one is not mine, but it’s important. Please read how Rachel Brune and Crone Girls Press developed the anthology A Woman Unbecoming at the speed of light, with writers and artists donating their services for an anthology to raise money for reproductive healthcare rights. 

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September 2022 Linkspam

Whew! This newsletter is late because it’s been a typical crazy-hectic launch of a semester, and then some extra fun tossed in. Last. Year. Of. Grad. School.

For the record, I am now teaching at two universities. This semester I have two sections of English composition at one college and one section of newswriting at the other, and wouldn’t you know, they are all on Tuesday/Thursday schedules. So my general mode on those days is one of running a marathon: Commute across the river, teach my class, hustle back across the river within an hour and pray for no breakdowns on the bridges, teach another class, teach a third class, and then attend a class as a student, all without breaks for about 10 hours straight, 13-14 hours if I have a night meeting. 

People who work food service or retail are reading this and saying, “Yeah. And?” I see you, and I remember, and I salute you. I am not in the shape for this. 

This semester’s student courses are a literature course on slipstream fiction, as I’m still trying to figure out what slipstream actually is; and a workshop/seminar on “Writer in the World,” which is a writing-related service project I will develop this semester and implement in the spring. It’s a required sequence for the MFA program, but since my MFA is shutting down, the class is very small: me and one other student, as we have battled through three years of MFA courses together and are now the sole survivors. 

In other news, I’m now regularly writing for the St. Louis Labor Tribune, McClatchy and Feast Magazine, along with the assorted side freelancing work. I’m back at the Alestle as copy editor, occasional writer and baker of cookies. The Literary Underworld continues strong with two more conventions this fall. I’m president of Sigma Tau Delta and the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists, I’m captain of a Relay for Life team and will be taking over the quarterly book sale for my church next year, and I think I forgot a job in there somewhere. And let’s not forget the book tour, the Patreon and the ongoing fiction writing!

In short, it’s a rollercoaster fall, and each year I swear I’m not going to do this to myself anymore, but then I do it anyway. Whee!

Publicity/Appearances

August was intentionally light for public appearances, as I expected it would be tied up with driving a stake through the heart of the Bloody Thesis.

As mentioned previously, that was done, I received notification that my degree was approved, and I am awaiting the diploma by mail.  September includes the Edwardsville Book Festival, which is an all-day event in City Park and always a pile of fun. I’ll be speaking at (and running) the SPJ Student Journalist Boot Camp, which returns after its COVID hiatus with the help of a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.

And at the very end of the month, we have one of the highlights of the year: Archon! The Literary Underworld will be at our usual booth (seriously, we have staked our claim on that property, planted the flag and we shall call it This Land). We will also bring the Traveling Bar to our room in the Doubletree, so if you’re attending Archon, be sure to stop by and say hello!

And for you Patrons: Anyone who subscribes to my Patreon gets a discount at the Literary Underworld booth. Just give your name (or the name you used when you registered on Patreon) to the Minion working the booth. 

Coming up:

• Edwardsville (Ill.) Book Festival, Sept. 17

• St. Louis SPJ Journalist Boot Camp, SIUE. Sept. 24

• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Sept. 30-Oct. 2

• Leclaire Parkfest, Edwardsville, Ill. Oct. 16 (charity book sale)

• SPJ National Conference, Washington, D.C. Oct. 26-30 

• ContraCon, Kansas City. Nov. 11-13 

• Books-a-Million with Cuppa Words, Edwardsville, Ill. Nov. 19

Journalism/Essays

• University to install machines in men’s rooms after anti-trans vandalism (The Alestle)

• Tyson Foods plan expansion to add hundreds of jobs to region (Labor Tribune)

• With shortages at issue, Highland bumps pay for substitute teachers (Highland News Leader)

• Teenager Aria Burnside is just beginning her dessert empire (Feast Magazine)

• Highland’s shift to Republic service ‘has not gone smoothly’ (Highland News-Leader)

• ‘Farmer Joe’ is on a mission to teach young people about food gardens (Feast Magazine)

• Controversial consolidation of 911 services launches in Highland (Highland News-Leader)

• $7.6 million in grants heading to metro-east (Labor Tribune)

• Six students among the recipients of the SOAR awards (Labor Tribune)

• IDOC backs down on prison layoffs after union pushes back (Labor Tribune)

• Highland adds ADA-friendly playground to park (Highland News-Leader)

• Rally spurs support for Workers Rights Amendment (Labor Tribune)

• Highland advances multi-million school construction project (Highland News-Leader)

• Chip Markel in ‘uphill battle’ to unseat Rep. Bost (Labor Tribune)

Note: Not all articles are available online, and some may be behind paywalls.

Fiction

Most of my fiction efforts these days are focused on the upcoming thesis (again), which for an MFA consists of a collection of short stories illustrating our craft and range as well as how we have grown and developed our skills over the past three years. No pressure.

Patreon/Blogs

• Writer in the world (Patreon)

• Fiction: Springheel Jack (Patreon)

• Farewell, Sword of Damocles (Patreon)

• Fall into terror! It’s… August (Patreon and DonaldMedia)

• The Joker cans Batgirl (Patreon and Medium)

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One week only!

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been privileged to be part of the SIUE Photography Club. We haven’t been able to meet in person all that often thanks to the Voldevirus, but we’ve made good use of Zoom and even had a couple in-person workshops that unfortunately I was unable to attend.

Now we’re part of an online art show, and I am proud to have five images included. A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the photography club, which (in normal years) provides workshops and seminars, guest speakers and sometimes group outings for photo shoots.

There’s quite an eclectic collection, from cyanotypes to digital art to traditional photography. While I’d be thrilled if you buy me, of course, there’s some wonderful work by my colleagues I think you’ll enjoy.

The sale is only running for one week, so click here to shop before Sunday, May 9.

And, of course, if you want to check out the rest of my photographer, please visit my online portfolio. Most images are available for purchase through my personal shop (which also carries my books), and a limited selection is available on etsy.

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Happy Halloween!

It’s time again for “How to Survive a Horror Movie,” the annual tradition that began years before Scream came up with its own list of Rules. As detailed in the essay linked below, it began with my father the Film Professor, who wrote an actual academic article using Darwinian theory to apply to characters in horror movies, titled “Don’t Do That, You Twit!”

With my annual hat-tip to Dad, and to the many authors, fans, readers and others who have contributed to the Rules over the years, I give you the 2020 edition.

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The celebrity in the room

Grant Imahara is dead, and that’s a damn shame.

I’ve been a published author for 15 years and spent a lot of time in rooms with people much more famous than me. I’ve had the privilege of being scheduled for signings at Dragoncon and Archon and Midsouthcon and and and and … In the long tradition of SFFH conventions, they usually put someone like me next to a Super Famous Person, balancing out the crowds.

For example, one of my earliest signings was me and Anne McCaffrey. There were two people in line for me, and the line for Ms. McCaffrey stretched to Spain. This worked out nicely for me, since the layout of the room required them to walk past me when they left. Here, have a cover card!

Some of the Famous People I’ve signed with were cool or even dismissive, and no, I’m not naming names. Suffice to say one of them was outright rude and mocked the layout design on my book in front of the room, and another nearly ran me over with her scooter. Twice.

Others were sincerely friendly, and I prefer to remember them. I spent a Sunday morning chatting with Rod Roddenberry in an empty signing room, because seriously NOBODY shows up for a Sunday morning signing at Dragoncon. I told Rod about my father’s fondness for Star Trek back when he was a young airman during the original series, and how he shared it with me and now I was sharing it with my son, because Trek is a family tradition now. He was collecting stories like that for his eventual documentary on the impact of his father’s work. At my last Midsouthcon, I spent most of the signing hour getting terrific advice from editor extraordinaire Ellen Datlow (in between customers), and I’ve written before about my wonderful dinnertime chat with Terry Pratchett and his vest full of stars.

What does this have to do with Grant Imahara? Well, he and I did a signing together at Dragoncon in 2012, and because I was living under a rock, I actually had to look him up to see why there was a line to Spain for him, too. Everybody was at his table! Who was he, again?

Look, I’m a writer. I barely get my nose out of the computer, I didn’t watch Mythbusters. Except the Jaws episode, I watched that one. Giant rock, underneath, me. It was later when my friends were aghast: “You signed with Grant Imahara? He’s the cool one from Mythbusters!“

Grant was friendly and kind. His line was extensive and the other two lines were practically nonexistent, so he kept directing people to go visit us after they had gotten his autograph. The tables were set up differently by then – we didn’t share a table, just a room – but before he left he made sure to come over and greet us lowly folk and look at our work.

That was rare for a superstar, folks. There’s a hierarchy, and definitely actors and TV personalities ranked much, much higher than scribbling writers. For any other actor, I think I would have had to stand in line at their own table to exchange a few words. Authors are better attuned to the scrabbling and desperation of gaining eyes on your work at a con, but even then, the Big-Time Names tend to forget us by the time they’re the lead name in a signing. For them to acknowledge our existence was cool; to actively encourage people to drop by our tables and consider our work was damn stellar. I know I picked up at least a few sales from Grant’s fans, and I am always grateful for that kind of support.

Others knew Grant Imahara much better than I did, but by all reports his friendly, gracious nature was reflected by everyone who knew him. I know that his genuine good nature made a far greater impression on me in that one-hour signing than any number of TV shows might have had. In an era where so many people we thought were great folk have turned out to be secret monsters, it is heartbreaking to lose one of the good guys – and so very young.

Rest in peace, good sir.

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New photos: East St. Louis

East St. Louis Theater

I found this theater during a 2019 photo shoot in East St. Louis, Ill. It looked as though businesses had at least attempted to use the lower level in the recent past, and everything at ground level was covered in graffiti. But the upper level had fascinating scrollwork and artistic design. I know little about architecture, but I know that that building has stories to tell. 

There are a number of other images from my East St. Louis shoot, which was a fascinating trip detailed a few months ago on the Patreon.

See the rest of the photography portfolio at elizabethdonaldphotography.com.

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April linkspam

It’s been a weird month, but then it’s been weird for all of us, hasn’t it? We are only two weeks from the end of the semester here at Donald Media Towers. My husband is about to finish his bachelor’s degree and not-graduate with the rest of the class of 2020; I have taken an extension on Ye Olde Thesis to get it knocked out in the summer before starting my new endeavor (read the last blog post on this list, if you missed that).

I’m under house isolation for the most part, having ventured out only for such thrilling moments as medical treatments or an insurance-funded car repair that required my actual presence for paperwork. The rest of the time I’ve been in the house, sending my essential-worker husband or son out on our errands, and sooner or later I’ll get them trained on how to follow a shopping list.

Teaching is pretty much wrapped up except for student conferences and grading the final projects, and my student work is… well. Let’s just say grad students and instructors are no less prone to procrastination or the mental malaise that has gripped so many of us in this time of plague. I see all these posts saying that it’s perfectly all right not to suddenly take up a new art form or write a novel or otherwise take advantage of all this home time… but then there’s those pesky deadlines.

So two weeks from now begins the summer, and I will not have any steady gigs for this breather between one program and the next. So it’s going to be freelancing, fiction and Ye Olde Thesis. Which probably means more essays and website design, because I can procrastinate like nobody’s business.

Most of my volunteer work is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The American Cancer Society chili fundraiser/author fair scheduled for May 2 is postponed until further notice, and the Breakfastival of Hope scheduled for May 30 will likely be in August. The Cardinals ticket sale is on hold until we hear if there will be a baseball season, and right now I’m just crossing my fingers that the fall festival will happen so we can hold our annual book sale.

This has been disappointing for me, as I have lost two friends just this month to cancer and I’m more than a little pissed off about it. Rest assured our Relay for Life team will be raising money for cancer research one way or another, virus bedamned. In the meantime, you can donate here.

Essays

“Unexpected Gifts” (Medium), featuring a photo by my son, Ian Smith, because it was better than my photo by a long shot, pardon the expression. I better up my game! This one was posted on Patreon first, because Patreon always gets first dibs.

“Peace which the world cannot give, I give to you” (Medium)

Journalism

Highland High explores graduation options (Highland News-Leader)

Highland staying vigilant against coronavirus (Highland News-Leader)

Highland faces budget questions amid pandemic (Highland News-Leader)

Future of marijuana dispensaries on hold for now (Highland News-Leader)

Caterer donating meals during pandemic (Highland News-Leader)

Fiction

“Fever” (exclusively for Patreon)

(And a sooper-sekrit project I can’t tell you about until the contracts are signed. Ooo, mysterious.)

Patreon/Blogs etc.

Patreon subscribers received their annual bonus, which was a copy of the River Bluff Review, a literary magazine only distributed in dead-tree edition that included two of my stories this year. They also received a matted photograph. See what you miss by not subscribing? And there should be a lot more fiction in the coming year… for details, see below!

Elizabeth, what are you going to do when you grow up? (that itty bitty announcement here)

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March linkspam

To say the month of March was a tad unusual would be grossly understating the case. But you’re right there with me, aren’t you?

I’m fine. My family is fine. We have the enormous privilege of working and/or attending a state university. That means when my husband’s job was put on administrative leave, he kept his salary and benefits. His second job is deemed essential, so he’s still working a few days a week. My son’s job has had its hours cut, but he still has some income. And we are all working our way through the semester via the wonders of Zoom.

I have been in the house for coming up on four weeks, with a few brief exceptions: a doctor’s appointment and two brief trips for supplies when the menfolk were unavailable. Immune-compromised means I was sheltering in place before there was a state order. I am teaching my class in a Zoom chatroom, I am working my way through my final semester from home, and if the thesis weren’t a hot mess, I’d actually be just fine.

We’ll call it a learning experience for all of us.

But I am privileged. We still have money coming in, and we got a nice big tax return just in time to help us through the worst of it. We kept our health insurance – very important for a house with as many prescriptions as I do – and we are in no danger of eviction or starvation.

Not everyone is so privileged. Some of the people I know are in dire straits. There are emergency funds popping up for journalists, for artists and writers, for students, for others in my circle that are devastated by the current mess. I urge you to seek them out – and to buy work from those artists and writers, because we are all going to need a little beauty to survive this.

And give a little extra love to the journalists. They were talking about this before it came here, and people mocked them. Then they were warning of disaster, and people ignored them. Then they were reporting on the disaster we predicted (or rather, the scientists they quoted predicted) and people blamed them. Now the disaster has hit their own organizations, and they’re being furloughed and laid off even as they were risking their own lives to give you the information you desperately need more than ever.

Support journalists, subscribe to a good paper if you can afford it, and maybe hop into the comment section once in a while to say something nice about it. Don’t stay too long – the mire might get on your shoes. But a supportive, intelligent comment on a news story would make a huge difference.

If you’re a journalist who has been laid off, here are some resources to help you. If you’d like to support good journalism, pick a fund here.

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to this month. It’s not as much as you’d expect from someone who’s been mostly housebound, but may I remind you… THESIS.

Essays

An abundance of caution (Medium)

Journalism

Highland inching closer to new pool (Highland News-Leader)

Highland paramedics move to neighboring fire station during renovation (Highland News-Leader)

Highland takes steps to combat coronavirus (Highland News-Leader)

Highland citizens vote down marijuana dispensaries in advisory referendum (Highland News-Leader)

Highland bus drivers stay on salary amid coronavirus shutdown (Highland News-Leader)

Fiction

Coppice and Brake launched with a short story from me titled “Shiny People”! Here’s a blog post about it, and you can buy the dead-tree version or the ebook version right now.

And here’s a podcast of a radio interview with me and Crone Girls Press publisher Rachel Brune about Coppice and Brake, the creative process, the convention life, the changing gender dynamics in horror, and random other subjects that came to mind. Thanks to Adam Messer of WRUU for hosting me!

The River Bluff Review launched its annual edition earlier in March, including two short stories of mine titled “Dear Katrina” and “Sergeant Curious.” It’s a literary magazine and while “Dear Katrina” is part of the Blackfire series, “Sergeant Curious” has no supernatural or horror elements at all. It was an unusual honor to be selected for publication in a literary magazine outside of my usual genres. Unfortunately River Bluff Review is only available through the university.

Patreon/Blogs

Tempting to sing ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ (Donald Media)

The end is nigh… (Patreon)

The Cheshire Inn (Patreon)

That’s all the news that fits… um, except for that one other thing. That’s going to be its own blog post. Stay tuned, citizens.