Posted on

October-November Linkspam

October was a blast, or at least it must have been, because I hardly remember it! Somehow each year there’s a month that just sort of disappears in a melee of overbookedness, and it’s usually October. That’s why you’re getting two months’ worth of schtuff at once!

This is my favorite time of the year. I used to delight in Halloween and then jump impatiently to Christmas, but as I grow older, Thanksgiving is growing on me. Not the colonialism and problematic history of it, but the quietness of it. The leaves turning and falling to crunch under my feet. Baking things with cinnamon and brown sugar. Cool breezes in sunshiny days that have yet to turn bitter cold and hurt my face. Preparation to spend time with my family, to snuggle in for a winter’s nap. I’ve said several times that I always feel cheated never to have a big crowd to cook for at Thanksgiving. My husband, the seventh of ten children, says I am insane for this wish. Someday I hope to prove him wrong, and have an excuse for the good china.

However you celebrate, or don’t, I hope your November is filled with cinnamon and good cheer.
 

Publicity/Appearances

SPJ Boot Camp was next up when last we spoke, and once again we survived. Each year my co-chair Tammy Merrett and I have several panic attacks as we try to get students to sign up, preferably more than 48 hours before the event; acquire enough bagels and pizza and soda to keep everyone fed and hydrated; deal with the inevitable Disappearing Guest Speaker; and actually wrangle our way through the event. My topic this year was freelancing for fun and profit, which is always one of my favorite presentations. 

Next up was Archon! This is always one of the highlights of our year, and this one might have been the one to beat for all time. We had something like seven or eight Underlords at the show, which always makes things more fun. We also had a plethora of minions working the booth – so many that I don’t think I worked a single shift! It was also our highest take ever for Archon, and maybe there’s a connection there… I should stay away from the booth more often! Seriously, we had an absolute blast, and our team was fantastic. As a bonus: I must have been in Activist Professor Mode when I filled out my form, because my panels were all about writing as resistance and how to fight book banning and why we need diverse literature and other such topics – a far cry from the usual “why vampires are sexy”! (They are, but I’m doing other things now.) Rawr! 

I’m quoted in this piece about Archon from the Alton (Ill.) Telegraph. Me famous.

Our crew for Archon! Photo by Keith R.A. DeCandido. If you’re wondering, my T-shirt says “What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.” What. It’s Shakespeare.


Following that was MediaFest, which is a joint conference between the Society of Professional Journalists, College Media Association and Associated Collegiate Press. Taking place this year in Washington D.C., I attended on a fellowship from the SPJ Freelance Community and SPJ Foundation, and I am very grateful for the honor. It’s hard times for those of us in the news biz, but when is it not?

While there, my chapter (St. Louis Pro) was honored as the outstanding small chapter in Region 7, which encompasses four Midwestern states. I realized that I have now been president of St. Louis Pro for ten years, since no one will depose me despite my best efforts. Jokes aside, it is an honor and privilege to serve the journalism community of St. Louis in this way. Here is the lovely press release SPJ sent out about the fellowship.

Also, I was there for the DC No Kings rally, and got some fun pictures of the march. I’ve covered plenty of protests, of course – I am a journalist in St. Louis – but this was by far the biggest. I also was able to hit a couple of museums – not the ones I wanted, mind you, as the National Museum of African American History was closed for the shut down. But I was able to visit the Folger Shakespeare Library and see more than 80 First Folios of the Bard’s work, and also spent a lunch break at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. (Yeah, I’m a nerd. Raise your hand if you’re shocked.)

The day after I flew home: Leclaire Parkfest. Many of you know that I am a team captain for Relay for Life, which raises money for the American Cancer Society. Parkfest is our team’s kickoff for our annual fundraising, selling used books from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church’s Book Fair to raise money for ACS. We had a great crew of volunteers and mostly lovely weather once the previous day’s rainstorms dried up, and got a healthy start to our fundraising for 2026.

There’s actually not much left for the year! Unfortunately I had to cancel my appearance at Contra in Kansas City next weekend due to a schedule conflict. Other than a quick weekend sojourn to Hannibal and Marceline Mo. – for fun, not signing anything – and a holiday signing in December, I’m done! I might even unpack. 

Next year is booking quickly, however! I’m pleased to add a guest lecture at the Ethical Society of St. Louis in January, updating on the epidemic of book banning and literary censorship in the U.S. If you are interesting in having me speak to your group on this or other issues in my areas of expertise, contact my assistant at kyates@donaldmedia.com. 

2025 calendar:

  • Books and Brews, Alton, Ill. Jan. 18
  • Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 21-23
  • International Women’s Day, Second Life March 7-9 [POSTPONED]
  • Weird STL release party/signing, St. Louis, March 7
  • Writers of the Riverbend, Alton, Ill. March 8
  • Midsouthcon, Memphis, Tenn. March 21-23
  • AWP Los Angeles, March 26-30 
  • Live author chat/book release, April 7
  • Afterwords Books, Edwardsville, Ill. April 26
  • Boozy Book Fair, St. Charles, Mo. May 10 
  • Prairie Fox LitFest, Ottawa, Ill. May 17
  • Pagan Picnic, St. Louis, Mo. May 31
  • Books and Brunch, Alton, Ill. June 21 
  • West County Barnes and Noble, St. Louis, Mo. June 28
  • Imaginarium, Louisville, Ky. July 18-20 
  • VampChat, online, July 19
  • Nerd Market, Alton, Ill. Aug. 16 (CANCELED)
  • Dragoncon, Atlanta, Ga. Aug. 28-Sept. 2 
  • Melting Pot, Granite City, Ill. Sept. 6
  • SPJ Boot Camp, Edwardsville, Ill. Sept. 20 
  • Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 3-5 
  • SPJ Conference, Washington, D.C. Oct. 15-18
  • Contra KC, Kansas City, Mo. TBA (canceled.)
  • Books, Booze and Baubles Fair, St. Charles, Mo. Dec. 13 

2026 calendar:

  • “Barbarians at the Gate: Book Banning in the U.S.,” Ethical Society of St. Louis, Jan. 4
  • Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 20-22 
  • AWP, Baltimore, Md. March 4-7
  • Midsouthcon, Memphis, Tenn. March 20-22 
  • SPJ Region 7 Conference, Milwaukee, Wis. April 10-11
  • ConCarolinas, Charlotte, N.C. May 29-31
  • Imaginarium, Louisville, Ky. July 17-19 
  • Dragoncon, Atlanta, Ga. Sept. 3-7 (tent.)
  • Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 2-4


Journalism


I’m sorry to report that Feast Magazine was shut down by its owner, Lee Enterprises. This was a surprise to me and to the editor, and I was sad to lose my only food-writing client. Granted, I have more than enough work to keep me busy, but I’m going to miss those tasty assignments. This month’s journo list is light as much of the work came toward the end of the month, and some of them haven’t run yet. 

• U.S. Steel to shut down production in Granite City (Labor Tribune)
• U.S. Steel reverses plan to scrap Granite City mill (Labor Tribune)
• Hoffman plan for fairer wages signed (Labor Tribune)

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


Fiction

One incomplete draft this month: Mirror, Mirror (Patreon)

Here’s where Blackfire Rising is currently shambling:


If you’d like a book signed and aren’t going to be in my general vicinity soon, order directly from me or Literary Underworld and indicate in your order that you’d like it signed. And if you love this book, please feel free to return to its Goodreads page and/or the bookseller of your choice to do a review! We love reviews, because we writers are needy insecure creatures. 
 

Patreon/Blogs


Check out the Patreon index here. It needs updating, but most of the entries are listed there by category. 

Did you know that Patreon subscribers 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. 

Currently on the nightstand: The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead, an amazing writer that always reminds me how much I have yet to learn. The nonfiction book is Glitch, a feminist ideology book I picked up at the women in the arts museum. Recently finished includes Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood; and Scream With Me by Eleanor Johnson, an examination of 1970s horror movies through a feminist lens. Riding around in the bag is Ursula K. LeGuin’s writing text, as I keep cribbing ideas from it for my students; and a recent acquisition, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi. Now if only I could find more time to actually read them…
 

Photography

Shoots included Washington D.C. and the No Kings march, of course. I also took plenty of shots at the Folger Shakespeare Library and National Museum of Women in the Arts, plus some pretty country roads, a haunted Halloween trail, Archon and more. All of it is pending on Patreon, when I get my act together! 

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. 

That’s it for this month! See you in December! Remember, Elizabeth Donald books make an amazing holiday gift. *subtle

Posted on

Fellowship of the… Freelancers

Now that it’s really officially official, I am honored to share that I am one of the three SPJ Freelance Fellowship recipients this year, as detailed in this press release.

“These three outstanding journalists embody the spirit of freelance work. They’re resourceful, resilient and deeply committed to telling important stories,” said SPJ Freelance Community Chair Stacie Overton Johnson. “We’re thrilled to support them as they bring their talents and perspectives to MediaFest25.” 

I have to remember to buy Stacie a drink in D.C. I’m uncharacteristically speechless.

“But Donald, I thought you were a professor!”

I am a professor, and I love teaching. I am an author, and I love writing. I am a journalist, and I love reporting. I never said a life of words was easy, uncomplicated, or single-minded. It’s more like spinning plates while riding a unicycle.

I left full-time reporting in 2018, but I never left journalism. My work has continued, writing news and features and even doing photojournalism for newspapers, websites and magazines over the past seven years, not to mention the nonfiction segments of this Patreon. I’ve reported for McClatchy, Hearst and Lee publications; for magazines like Inside Higher Ed, Current and Feast; and I’ve done regular beat reporting for my former newspaper and for the St. Louis Labor Tribune, which has employed me for the past several years as their chief Illinois correspondent on labor issues. This has enabled me to keep reporting on politics, as labor and the political sphere are never far apart in Illinois.

This is not some side gig to keep me alive in between professorial paychecks (though it fills that role nicely). I believe that if we are to teach journalism, we should keep practicing it in some form. The profession and practice keep changing, faster for journalism than in most fields, and it’s really important that we keep pace with the current state of the industry as we guide the young people who will take over for us.

That, and I really love it.

Those of you who’ve followed me for a long time know what a hard and scary decision it was to leave my newspaper and dive into academia. I likened it to jumping off the high dive without knowing whether there would be water in the pool below. Part of that trepidation was the sadness at giving up a profession I loved, using my words to inform, investigate and maybe make some small difference in the world.

Freelancing allowed me to keep the parts that I loved, to choose the assignments I wanted to write, and jettison the parts I didn’t want, like chasing ambulances, calling bereaved families, and work hours and situations that my defective body frankly couldn’t manage anymore.

MediaFest (or the SPJ National Conference or whatever we’ve called it over the years) has always been high tide for this journo-love, and I’ve never come away from the conference without a pile of new ideas, both for my own work and for my teaching. If you are a journalist and were on the fence about attending, I can’t recommend it enough. I was very sad at the possibility of having to miss it this year for financial reasons, and delighted that the fellowship will now make it possible for me to attend.

While there, I hope I can sneak over to some of the museums I’ve never seen, like the National Museum of African American History and the Holocaust Memorial. I’ve hit all the usual sites, like Ford’s Theater and the major memorials, which I’ve detailed on this Patreon and photographed. If anyone has any suggestions of new sites I should visit, please let me know! I won’t have much spare time around the conference, but I love D.C., and sightseeing – learning – is always a priority.

Once again, thank you to the good folks of the SPJ Freelance Community for their generous support, and thank you to all you Patrons who continue to make my mad career possible.

Posted on

Journalism highlights of 2024-25

It’s that time of year where we’re supposed to collect our clips and turn them in for the awards. I am a freelancer, so there aren’t that many possibilities, but as I was going through my clips, I found a few I really liked from my work .

Battle of Virden revisited on Miners Day (11.11.24). I end up in Mt. Olive at least a couple of times a year, as it hosts a union memorial to Mother Jones and remembers the Virden massacre each year. it’s a little corner of history few people think of, to remember when a work stoppage didn’t mean inconveniences of health insurance, but actually meant you could be murdered by your employer’s hired security and there were no conseqences.

Illinois and Missouri have vastly different approaches to child labor (8.5.24). While Illinois law has a number of requirements and limitations to protect children from being exploited, Missouri was considering a bill to eliminate child work permits entirely, which would leave child labor laws at the bare minimum required by federal regulations.

DNC chair candidates make their case to Labor (1.15.25). The candidates for chair of the Democratic Party mulled what went wrong in 2024 and what they believe the DNC’s focus should be going forward. Spoilers: Ken Martin won.

Steve Nonn, stalwart union supporter, set to retire (11.4.24). Pro-union public officials retire all the time, but Nonn was a lifer – he did a whole career in law enforcement, retired, and then came back as coroner and did another couple of decades instead of fishing.

Unions call for Illinois to fix Tier 2 pension (10.7.24). This one focused on a couple who both teach a few doors apart from each other, but one will retire earlier with a much larger pension simply because they changed the pensions plans before the other was hired – and it may violate federal law.

I’m really enjoying my work covering Labor and its issues, not only for the work itself, but that it keeps me working actively in journalism while I continue to teach it. I feel strongly that we need to stay on top of the changes in the industry and how it works if we’re going to teach students how to do this – we can’t teach them how it worked in 2010 or 1995 if we expect them to be ready for the hellacious media landscape of 2026 and beyond. As I’ll be teaching newswriting again in the fall, I’m looking forward to revisiting my lessons once again, and hopefully suckering another group of students into the awesomeness that is journalism.

Posted on

February 2025 Linkspam: Are ya feeling WEIRD?

You know what’s fun? Spending an hour writing your newsletter copy, only for a glitch to eat the whole thing. That kind of fits with how things are going these days, doesn’t it? Pretty WEIRD…

I know the world is burning down and reading your Facebook feed is enough to leave you hyperventilating into a paper bag, but… okay, there really isn’t a “but” there. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

Suffice to say that here at Donald Media Towers, the semester has begun without too much trauma, things are starting to pick up on the fiction front, and at the moment I am still breathing and ambulatory, which is about all that one can expect these days. Here’s to better news next month?

One thing already underway: I am participating in the easiest fundraiser ever. The American Cancer Society is hosting Read Every Day in February, and what do you know? I already read every day! I’ll be posting updates on ElizabethDonald.com, and you can donate to my fundraiser here.

Also note that I had a free article on the Patreon this week, as I have about twice as many free followers as paid on Patreon. You get SO much more content for only $1 a month, and I hope you’ll consider subscribing! Here’s the free photo essay: what’s with the gargoyles?
 

Publicity/Appearances

Usually I take January off for public appearances, for a tiny little breath of sanity before I start living out of a suitcase again. I broke precedent to add the Books and Brews Market in January, and it was probably the best one-day signing I’ve had in a decade. Many thanks to the Old Bakery Beer Co. in Alton, Ill. for hosting me and the other authors for a terrific day of bookselling and beer drinking. 

Coming up this month is Conflation, which is always one of my favorite cons and cozy enough that it’s pretty much a family reunion. I’ve been asked to speak on the topic of book banning, which is not only very timely, but one of my favorite soapboxes. Following in March is Writers of the Riverbend, followed by Midsouthcon in Memphis and then AWP in Los Angeles, all in one month! So if I look a little frazzled by April, you know why. What time zone am I in anyway?

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 
• Dragoncon, Atlanta, Ga. Aug. 28-Sept. 2
• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 3-5
• SPJ Conference, Washington, D.C. Oct. 15-18 (tent.)


Journalism


• Nippon acquisition of U.S. Steel sent to Biden to decide (Labor Tribune)
• President Biden blocks sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois completes minimum wage increase and other pro-worker laws taking effect (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois unions call for Day of Action on pensions (Labor Tribune)
• Daughter of union activist honored with MLK award (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois task force releases recommendations on warehouse safety (Labor Tribune)
• Hoffman pushes pro-Labor bills aimed at securing higher worker wages (Labor Tribune)
• Madison County Federation of Labor elects new board for 2025 (Labor Tribune)
• DNC national chair candidates make their case to Labor (Labor Tribune)
• Nippon, U.S. Steel file suit over blocked sale (Labor Tribune)
• Union bellringers raise $8,000 for Salvation Army (Labor Tribune)
• Madison County Federation of Labor, SWIL Labor Council celebrate holidays (Labor Tribune)


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

I’m happy to announce that one of my creepy short stories is being reprinted in Weird STL, an anthology coming out later this month from the St. Louis Writers Guild. (You knew there was a reason for all the WEIRD, right?) This story has only appeared in River Bluff Review, and I’m looking forward to seeing it in print again. Hopefully by the next newsletter, I should have copies in hand and will be able to offer them on the online store and through Literary Underworld.

Elsewhere, work is proceeding on Blackfire Rising, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy returning to the Blackfire world. It certainly was a lot of fun for me, and I’m looking forward to my first release with Falstaff Books. More will be posted on the blog and social media once I have a cover. So far we seem to be on track to release at Midsouthcon, with preorders launching in advance. 

Also, I participated in Authors Against Book Bans’ #UniteAgainstBookBans, reading a banned book in a bookstore. I wore my T-shirt that reads, “I survived reading banned books and all I got was smarter,” in a Barnes and Noble while reading Little Women.
 

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. 

Currently on the nightstand: Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance and Revolution in Trump’s America is currently riding around in the office bag. At home it’s Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison, and on the Kindle is An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. Recently finished is Out There Screaming, which was the Jordan Peele anthology of new Black horror; as well as reviewing some excerpts from Carl Phillips’ excellent My Trade Is Mystery, which I’m using for my composition students this semester. 

• Photography: Illinois winter fields (Patreon)
• The Bernays House (Patreon)
• Photography: Winter fields, again (Patreon)
• Review: Leave the World Behind (Patreon)
• Review: Out There Screaming (Patreon)
• Dance with the page (Patreon)
• Review: Nosferatu (Patreon)

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. Check out the index here.


Photography

Snow. Lots and lots of snow. What. I live in the Midwest, people. And my new commute has me driving through picturesque plains twice a week, so buckle in for snow, then spring fields, then amber waves of grain. This month’s pics are on Patreon at the links above, as well as a photo essay on a funky house in the town of my new employer.

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. 

Did you see this newsletter on my blog or Patreon and not in your inbox? Are you not subscribed to my monthly newsletter? For shame! You’re missing discounts and Photo of the Month and more! Sign up here, it’s free and I am way too disorganized to spam you.

Posted on

In which Elizabeth wins an award…

As a freelancer, my work is rarely submitted for awards, much less wins one. However…

From the press release: The International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) today announced its … labor communications contest winners. Annually, the organization hosts what is now the largest competition exclusively for labor journalists and communicators. Thousands of entries that tell the story of the global labor movement are judged by experts in the field across the industry.

The awards are open to all ILCA members and organizations and are given in two different classes: national/international unions, federations, councils, and allied organizations; and local/regional/state federations, central/area labor councils, and allied organizations. ILCA award categories are in general excellence, visual communications, best multimedia campaign, writing, electronic media, best use of earned media, political action, and organizing. 

In the writing category, I received second place under “news analysis” for an examination of how the explosive growth in union membership still lags behind in union density. Even as nearly 140,000 people joined unions in 2023, only about 10 percent of the U.S. workforce is represented by a union. In the 1950s, it was about one-third of the workforce.

It was quite a surprise and a great honor to be recognized for the work I’ve been doing with the St. Louis Labor Tribune. I am very grateful for the paper’s support and to the ILCA. Funny enough, tonight I have a union meeting…

Posted on

October 2024: This newsletter was not created by AI

It seems everywhere I go, I’m plagued with AI. 

Cribbing term papers is not a new invention; since the first teacher scratched out the first assignment on a stone tablet, Krog and Ug were sneaking peeks at each other’s slate. But AI has taken avoiding the work of writing to a new, shiny level, and for the first time we are seeing fellow academics hopping on board with enthusiasm because no one wants to get caught behind the 8-ball like we all were with, um, practically everything involving the internet. 

Because this newsletter is again stupid late, I am fresh back from Archon, where I was on not one but two panels about AI and the creative arts, which also delved into AI and journalism and AI in academia and the Terminator is stalking me through the mall as we speak. Quite often I feel like the lone voice crying in the wilderness about the dangers of AI, not just in terms of its ethics but what it portends for critical thinking skills and the linguistic arts. But then I spend some time with fellow writers, the majority of whom walk on my side of the street. 

I think I will be writing more about this as I move forward. It’s an odd feeling to be able to take a stand on divisive issues, after spending most of my professional life compartmentalizing my opinions to avoid the appearance of bias. But there are some subjects on which I can and should speak, including AI and book banning, which was the other topic on which I ran my mouth in Archon panels. 

I wore my T-shirt that reads “I survived reading banned books and all I got was smarter.” I think I need an equivalent shirt for AI. 
 

Publicity/Appearances

Of course, Archon is the big one this month, but it just ended! And it was a barrel of monkeys, folks. We had so much fun. We had seven Literary Underlords on site – almost eight, but one had a family emergency and couldn’t join us. Between the Underlords and our assorted Minions, the booth was well-staffed and did brisk business. In fact, it was the best-selling Archon we’ve had since I started keeping detailed records a decade ago. 

Of course, we also brought the Literary Underworld Traveling Bar. “But wait, I thought you couldn’t get a hotel room??” Yes, as of a week before the event we didn’t have a room, but thanks to the intervention of Important People, we were able to get a room and bring the bar. We are very grateful to the concom and to the other room party people who made multiple efforts to help us out.

The Traveling Bar is always a popular feature, and our fans were asking about it at the booth from the moment we opened up shop on Friday afternoon. On Friday night, we opened our doors at 9 p,m, and I began serving drinks. My poor arm did not stop moving until 12:30, when I declared a five-minute union break and rested… so that I could get back to work and pour more drinks. One visitor said, “You’re the hardest-working person at Archon,” and this is demonstrably not true as the concom does far, far more work than me. But I appreciated the sentiment (and the tips). 

Also: When I did the pre-con shopping for the very best in bottom-shelf Wal-mart liquor, I discovered this abomination:




I just took a picture of it because I thought it was funny. But 70-odd Facebook comments later, I dispatched The Man back to buy it (under his vehement protest) and stocked it on the bar.

They drank the whole bloody thing, folks. There was a succession of “dare you to” and lineups of people bolting shots with revolted expressions, but they drank it. Videos will be forthcoming when I catch up on my sleep (so, November?). 

Also this past month: We hosted the Society of Professional Journalists Boot Camp, where I spoke on the practical application of the SPJ Code of Ethics and on freelancing for fun and profit. It was a highly successful Boot Camp with a great batch of young journos meeting with our terrific pros. 

Coming up later in October: I’ll be speaking at The Bewitching Hours in Granite City, Ill. on Oct. 12, hosted by the Friends of Six-Mile Library. I’ll be doing a short reading and Q&A along with a handful of other spooooky authors, and we’ll all have our books for sale. I still haven’t figured out what I will read that is safe for all ages, as there possibly will be youngsters in the room and I do not wish to be responsible for their therapy bills. 
 

(Now am I mystery, mayhem or mischief? Don’t answer that.)


Finally: Contra in Kansas City will be Oct. 25-27. I’m a tad nervous about this one as I am minion-less, and books are heavy. But Contra is always a great time, the people are friendly, and I get to run my mouth about book banning and the First Amendment. Rawr.

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. 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. 

As you can see, 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. 

2024 calendar:
• The Mill, Granite City, Ill. Oct. 12
• ContraKC, Kansas City, Mo. Oct. 25-27



2025 calendar:
• Writers of the Riverbend, Alton, Ill. Feb. 8 (tent.)
• Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 21-23
• 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 


Journalism

This section is thinner while I’m in the teaching marathon, but it looks like spring will be lighter and I’ll be able to do more nonfiction after the new year.

• The Cookie Box brings family tradition to St. Charles County (Feast Magazine)
• Steelworkers remain adamant against U.S. Steel acquisition (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Illinois town halls to focus on reforming Tier 2 pensions (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Biden prepares to block Nippon acquisition of U.S. Steel (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Good times and high spirits at Wood River Labor Day parade (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Local leader honored for political activism (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Illinois eliminated grocery tax, but local city may bring it back (Belleville News-Democrat)

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


Fiction

We have a tentative release date for Blackfire Rising, which is the compendium of all the Blackfire stories to date and some new ones as we relaunch the series with Falstaff Books! I’m delighted to be part of the Falstaff Misfits, as our Fearless Leader likes to call us, and I am looking forward to inflicting Major Sara Harvey and her band of miscreants on new readers. Blackfire Rising compiles all the previously published novels, novellas and short stories in the series into one volume, including The Cold Ones, Blackfire, Yanaguana and more. Think of it as the author’s preferred edition, and I can’t wait for you to meet the new characters joining Sara on her misadventures. It looks like Blackfire Rising will hit the shelves in March, so more on this one as we confirm dates, get cover art and begin preorders! 

The ebook for Dreadmire was a freebie for paid Patreon subscribers, and I recently found that some folks didn’t get their ebook. All Patreon subscribers should have received a message from me, but just in case: if you are a Patreon subscriber and didn’t get your ebook, message me ASAP and I’ll get it to you. Dreadmire is, of course, available on Amazon and Literary Underworld in ebook and dead-tree versions, the latter of which is especially apropos if you’ve read it. 

I also have a limited supply of the 2024 St. Louis Writers Guild Member Anthology and the December 2023 edition of parABnormal Magazine, both of which have pieces by me, so snag them while you can!



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. 

• Archon ahoy! and all the others (Elizabeth Donald)
• Old home week (Patreon)
• A hero’s shoes (Patreon)
• Magic carpet ride (Patreon)
• Butt in chair, hands on keyboard (Patreon)
• Bookworm (Medium)

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

News photography was mostly the Labor Day parade slated above, and the cosplay at Archon that will be featured on the Literary Underworld and Elizabeth Donald blogs when I get my act together. 

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. 

Posted on

June 2024 Linkspam

With the spring conferences done and the summer tour looming, it’s been kind of quiet here in the Tower. I’ve enjoyed this uncharacteristic spell of Not Traveling, being able to settle in and bake things and write things and… cough my lungs out?

Stupid bronchitis. This is why we can’t have nice things. 

Fortunately that’s over with, though my singing voice is still a bit more Froggy the Gremlin than I care for. Summer has begun here in sunny Illinois, with the song of cicadas and the mugginess of a swamp. It could just be that I have swamps on the brain, as the anniversary release of Dreadmire will take place on June 18. Check the Fiction section below for more details, but if you planned to pre-order a signed copy, do so this week! I really love the cover and my book designer, Kody Boye, did such a fantastic job on this special edition. I hope you like it as much as I do! You’ll never look at mosquitoes the same way again…

Meanwhile, I am happy to report that my Relay for Life team has exceeded our goal of raising $3,000 for the American Cancer Society. Our local Relay celebration will take place this coming weekend, and we are looking forward to celebrating another year of birthdays for our cancer survivors. Click here if you would like to donate to my campaign. Together we can beat the Beast.

 Publicity/Appearances

Unfortunately I had to cancel my appearance on May 9 to discuss the evils of A.I. in news and publishing, thanks to the bronchitis. Rest assured that when I’m not sick, I will happily rant away about how A.I. is threatening democracy and the ability of writers to make a living. 

Coming up this month is a return to the Collinsville Public Library, which is always one of my favorite locations. When I was a young reporter working for the Belleville News-Democrat, the Collinsville Library was just up the street a few blocks from my newsroom. There were many lunch breaks I spent in its quiet, cool lower level writing penny dreadfuls, and indeed some of my early novels were begun in that library. Thus it’s always a pleasant nostalgia to participate in their author and artist fairs. I’ll also be speaking to the National Federation of Professional Women this month, discussing opportunities and pitfalls in publishing. 

I am hopeful to be able to set up an event or two in late June, as I will be traveling to Georgia and back and what is travel for if not to sell books? The details are still being worked out, so keep an eye on my Facebook and website. Meanwhile, I’m chagrined to find that the Edwardsville Book Festival, Archon, and AuthorCon St. Louis are all happening the same bloody weekend in October! I have not yet managed to perfect cloning myself, so we’ll see how that sorts itself out. 

2024 calendar:
• Collinsville Author and Artist Fair, Collinsville, Ill. June 15 
• National Federation of Professional Women, St. Louis, Mo. June 20-22
• CAFE at Spine Books, St. Louis, Mo. July 7 
• TechWrite STL, St. Louis, Mo. July 10 
• St. Louis Writers Guild, St. Louis, Mo. July 13
• Imaginarium, Louisville, Ky. July 19-21 
• Plethora of Pens, Glen Carbon Public Library, Aug. 5 
• Dragoncon, Atlanta, Ga. Sept. 5-9  
• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 4-6  

Journalism
I was happy to add new client Hearst Corp. to my roster this month with my first byline in the Edwardsville Intelligencer, which is kind of funny since I’ve been living in and covering Edwardsville for nearly a quarter century. This means I officially do some level of work for all three major news chains in our area: Hearst, Lee, and McClatchy. One more and I get bingo! 

• U.S. Steel merger postponed to December as USW accuses Nippon of empty promises (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Illinois takes action on worker safety (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Will new bill help towns rehire laid-off paramedics? (Highland News-Leader)
• Highland reopens Silver Lake after “oil” scare (Highland News-Leader)
• Highland closes Silver Lake for apparent oil spill (Highland News-Leader)
• Illinois passes bill banning ‘captive audience’ meetings (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Highland residents worried about lead in water should test (Highland News-Leader)
• Monroe County Democrats focus on redefining patriotism (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Foodie Bistro combines soul food traditions with high-end flair (Feast Magazine)
• Madison County remembers workers killed on the job (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Edwardsville kids earn bikes by reading (Edwardsville Intelligencer)
• City Hall reopens after a year of flood repairs (Highland News-Leader)
• New fallen officers memorial proposed in Madison County (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Labor council seeks nominations for Labor Awards (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Celebration of Mother Jones set for May Day (St. Louis Labor Tribune)

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

Blogs
• The PRESS Act (St. Louis SPJ)
• We will miss the RFT (St. Louis SPJ)
• In which I run my mouth on someone else’s blog (Elizabeth Donald and Patreon)
• Adult writers, child readers? (Bad Girls Good Guys)

Fiction
A reminder that preorders are about to close for the re-release of Dreadmire in its 15th anniversary edition! Read here to find out more. And if you’re interested in a free sample from my dark romp through the swamp, click here!

I also have received a limited supply of the 2024 St. Louis Writers Guild Member Anthology and the December edition of parABnormal Magazine, both of which have pieces by me, so snag them while you can!
 
Patreon/Medium
• Nevermore (Medium)
• Words that lead us into mystery (Medium)
• Review: The First Omen (Patreon)
• Review: The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adichie (Patreon)
• Poem: Once I was a girl (Patreon)
• Panic, caffeine and spite (Patreon)

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
As has been the last few months, most of my shoots have been on assignment for my freelance clients. But I do occasionally get to go see pretty things…

• Sculpture roll: Laumeier Sculpture Park (Patreon)

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

This is Loretta Williams, a reenactor portraying labor leader Mother Jones at the annual Mother Jones Festival in Mt. Olive, Ill. The original Mother Jones insisted on celebrating her birthday on May Day (the original Labor Day) rather than August when she was actually born, and requested to be buried in Mt. Olive next to the miners who were killed in the Virden Massacre after the mine owners retaliated against their strike. Mother Jones was a fascinating person, and I was delighted to write a historical feature about her that will appear in the coming weeks.
Posted on

March 2024 Linkspam: Return to the swamp

In the late 2000s, I wrote a media tie-in novel titled Dreadmire. It was a dark fantasy adventure tied to a d20 RPG published by Spellbinder Games, sourcebook by Randy Richards. The medievalesque high fantasy Randy created was inspired by the ecology and culture of the Louisiana bayous, and I found it a fascinating setting. I was hired to write a novel set in the world, a mixture of Randy’s creatures and my own machinations. It was a delightful romp in the swamp, and I was very pleased with its release. When it went out of print, Inkstained Succubus Productions picked it up for a re-release and it had a good run until Inkstained sadly went out of business.

From time to time I’d get questions about Dreadmire, and I always had to tell them their only hope was the used bookstores. However, as Dreadmire approaches its 15th anniversary, Randy and I have figured out the contracts and Dreadmire will be released once again on an unsuspecting public. 

More about this in the fiction section below, and there’s plenty more going on this month! I did some hard-news work on election coverage (and there will probably be more coming), got my first public-radio byline, did a deeper-dive in the growing epidemic of suicide among construction workers, and more! Read on…
 

Publicity/Appearances

This month was both AWP and Conflation, which thankfully had a week between them so I had a chance of catching my breath. AWP was an absolute delight, which I narrated daily in the Patreon, so check the links below for specifics. I didn’t do much in the way of photography in Kansas City, as I’ve hit that city several times to date, but mmm barbecue.

Conflation closed out the month, which is always like a big family reunion for me. I love the relaxacons, which allow me to sell books out of my room and close the door for a nap when I need it. I taught a writing workshop based on using images, which comes from some of my MFA work and the workshop I taught last year, and I’m continuing to refine it for con requests. 

Coming up this month is Midsouthcon! It was the first convention I attended as a pro, if I remember correctly, and the one I haunted as an undergrad lo these many eons ago in Memphis. We are deep in our mischief-plotting for our return to the weird Escher hotel where MSC will be hosted; the last time we were in the Hotel of Many Ramps was 2009, which doesn’t seem like it was that long ago. If you’re going to be in the area, please come by! 

2024 calendar:
• Midsouthcon, Memphis, Tenn. March 22-24 (guest author)
• Sigma Tau Delta conference, St. Louis, Mo. April 3-6 (attending)
• SPJ regional conference, St. Louis, Mo. April 13 (speaker/coordinator)
• National Federation of Professional Women, St. Louis,Mo. June 2022 (speaker)
• TechWrite STL, St. Louis, Mo. July 10 (speaker)
• Imaginarium, Louisville, Ky. July 19-21 (guest author)
• Dragoncon, Atlanta, Ga. Sept. 5-9  (guest author)
• Edwardsville Book Festival, Edwardsville, Ill. Oct. 12 (tent.)
• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 4-6  (guest author)


Journalism

• Madison County Board chair calls censure for campaign finance ethics violation ‘a lynching’ (St. Louis Public Radio, Yahoo News, Belleville News-Democrat)
• $18 million awarded to Illinois Works pre-apprenticeship programs (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Illinois workers owed more than $5 million in back wages (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Community rallies around Highland athlete fighting for life after car crash (Belleville News-Democrat, AOL, Yahoo News)
• Suicide is growing national crisis; construction workers are at high risk (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Unions added 139,000 members in 2023, but density remains stubbornly low (Portside, Popular Resistance, St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Nippon pledges not to move production jobs overseas (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Foxes Boxes union bakery celebrates one-year anniversary (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Highland plans to extend two TIF districts, create a third (Highland News-Leader, Yahoo News)
• Highland residents have mixed views of new ‘containerized’ trash service (Highland News-Leader, Yahoo News, AOL)
• United Steelworkers union files grievance over U.S. Steel’s plan to sell to Japan’s Nippon Steel (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Olin Winchester cited, fined over death of union worker (St. Louis Labor Tribune)

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

Blogs

With the new year, I started two new blog features. Each week (more or less) I have posted on DonaldMedia.com a roundup of Show Your Work: updates in the journalism world and a rundown on what was total garbage on the internet this week. Like you, I am tired of seeing rampant misinformation mindlessly reposted on social media without the simple Google search that would show it’s completely false. I also have begun posting BookNotes on ElizabethDonald.com that not only updates on the latest kerfuffle in the publishing and speculative fiction universes, but follows the ongoing issue of book banning and censorship in the U.S.

This proved to be more work than I could reasonably keep up with given the rate of freelance work I’m getting and also had to be canceled on weeks when I travel. I am considering shifting them to Substack on a biweekly schedule, but that requires more research. As always, whatever I write is offered to Patreon subscribers for free, because they’re already paying for my work. (Which is why you should totally subscribe.) I intend to keep this up, as I believe both of these topics need attention, but the format might shift as we go forward.

• BookNotes: Don’t say race (Elizabeth Donald)
• BookNotes: Nevermore (Patreon)
• Show Your Work: Zappa to me (Patreon and Donald Media)
• Show Your Work: ProPublica kicks all the ass (Donald Media)
• Show Your Work: Sesame Street News (Donald Media)


Fiction

Dreadmire is leading the news this month! If you want a taste of my dark swamp (ew), you can read the prologue here for free. The image posted above is the preliminary cover; it may see some tweaking between now and the release, which I hope will be soon. Book publishing moves faster when it’s already been edited extensively by the staff of two (2) publishers, but it still takes some time. 

Also out this month: the St. Louis Writers Guild 2024 anthology includes a short piece by me titled “Not.” I’m honored to be included in this anthology for the first time, and with a piece of literary fiction, which is a departure from my usual ghosties and beasties. You can preorder a dead-tree version here, or get it for Kindle here. 

Patreon/Medium

• Pearl-clutching at the restroom door (Medium, Patreon)
• Review: Life Signs by James Lovegrove (Patreon)
• Your obituary, brought to you by robots (Patreon)
• AWP: Onward (Patreon)
• AWP: Success is making words (Patreon)
• AWP: The poetical political (Patreon)
• AWP: The long walk (Patreon)
• Review: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Patreon)

Note: All 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

My shoots this month were pretty much work-related: union protests, lots of food shoots, a few pieces of future blackmail evidence from Conflation, some spot news photography, and KITTIES. Yes, I got to shoot a cat cafe for Feast Magazine, and it should be published sometime soon. I got to hang around adorable kittycats and eat espresso cookies for my job. Sometimes this gig rocks. 

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.

Posted on

Show Your Work: ProPublica kicks all the ass

Illinois is proposing some incentives requiring Big Tech to pay newsrooms for the content they produce, offering tax breaks and scholarships in the hopes of repopulating local newsrooms, and requiring four months’ notice before a local news organization can be sold to an out of state company.

This comes after the reveal that Illinois has lost 85 percent of its journalists in the last ten years. California and New York also are seeking to require Big Tech like Google and Facebook to support the actual journalists who do the actual reporting on which they make massive advertising profits. (This is why I always get salty when someone says, “I get my news from social media.” No, you don’t. The only social medium that has a dedicated staff of journalists is LinkedIn. The others are reposting work done by us underpaid hacks, and they’re making a fortune while we starve.) Check out the details here.

Meanwhile ProPublica is kicking ass all over the internet this week. Check it out:

ProPublica partnered with the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and the Marshall Project to uncover that a county in Mississippi has appointed lawyers for only 20 percent of felony defendants who came before the court. Approximately 80 percent of felony defendants need a court-appointed attorney because they can’t afford a private attorney, but despite the Sixth Amendment, Mississippi basically ignores the law and forces defendants to represent themselves. Against the law? Overruled by the state Supreme Court? Yes, but no one enforces it. Judges simply ignore it.

And in another report, ProPublica found a GAO report that indicates severe complications for pregnant veterans have doubled in the last 10 years, with even higher rates for Black women.

The Minnesota attorney general found substandard living conditions for dairy workers, which is a nice way of saying millions of dollars in unpaid wages, squalid conditions without heat or toilets infested with mold and cockroaches, and horrific abuses of undocumented workers because what are they going to do, call the police? If you can stomach it, here’s the full story, which ProPublica has been examining for a year – including the death of an 8-year-old boy from Nicaragua.

Elsewhere….

• Faced with the elimination of their entire budget for the student news magazine, the journalism students of Webster University are raising the money themselves as they work for free.

• The trial of Robert Telles continues with hardly anyone besides the news media paying attention. This is a public official accused of stabbing Las Vegas reporter Jeff German to death in 2022. German was investigating allegations of misconduct on Telles’ part when he was found stabbed in his front yard. Seems German got death threats from other people too, which is unfortunately pretty common in our profession, but the defense is latching onto it as exculpatory.

This Week in Total Bullshit:

• No, Google is not sunsetting Gmail. The internet would collapse.

• Believe it or not, the GoFundMe raising money to help former President Donald Trump pay his enormous legal bills is not a violation of the terms of service. GoFundMe does not allow fundraising for criminal trials, but Trump’s fundraiser is specifically for his civil cases. Thus GoFundMe has confirmed it is not a violation of the TOS, according to the corporate spokesman who probably wishes he was working for Apple this week.

• President Biden did not sign an executive order giving $5,000 gift cards to undocumented immigrants. The order listed in the viral meme is 9066, which was actually the order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt interning the Japanese Americans, so bully for the idiots in doubling down on racism. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most federal programs, except for emergency medical care which any fucking human should agree is basic.

• The Kids Online Safety Act will not require you to upload your government ID to use the internet. (Sheesh.)

• The image of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and the Minnesota attorney general was photoshopped to make the senior citizens in the background hold “Defund the Police” signs.

• Your Stanley cup is not trying to kill you with lead poisoning.

• There is no evidence that the shooter who attacked Joel Osteen’s church was transgender, nor that there is some “trans terror” campaign beginning. Fox News has altered their headline since originally “reporting” thus.

• If you are in the habit of listening to Elon Musk for health information – and whyyyyy – you should know that there is no scientific consensus that hormonal birth control makes you fat and depressed and triples your risk of suicide. There is also no scientific consensus that the same effect can be reached by listening to Elon Musk.

• Nobody tried to kill Dr. Oz for developing a cure for diabetes, which by the way doesn’t exist. (The cure, that is; diabetes sadly still exists.)

• It’s not exactly bullshit, because the Wendy’s CEO did float the idea of “surge pricing” in a conference call with investors. But since the internet exploded with “Aw hell naw” they’ve changed their minds and will not be going forward. Naturally this hasn’t stopped anyone from yelling boycott.

What ISN’T total bullshit? The Peters class action about Apple family sharing is very real, and you should click the link to find out if you’re eligible for what I’m sure will be a very tiny payment.

Finally: Enjoy this gallery of Pulitzer Prize photography and the African American experience.

Posted on

Show Your Work: Sesame Street News

• Two freelance journalists have won the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which honors work about underrepresented groups. Dara Mathis wrote “A Blueprint for Black Liberation” for the Atlantic about growing up in a radical Black commune, and Tamir Kalifa won for his photographs of the aftermath of the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Kalifa is currently stationed in Israel covering the Israel-Hamas war. It’s not immediately clear how often freelancers have won the award, which is the largest dollar prize – $100,000 – given to journalists in the U.S.

• Cook County Ill. has dropped charges against the students who placed a parody wrap around the student newspaper at Northwestern University. The newspaper had condemned the act as vandalism, but its leaders intervened to stop prosecution. Of course, “parody” is kind of a stretch, since it was a serious protest regarding Gaza. However, at least 80 Daily Northwestern alums wrote a letter arguing that charges should be dropped on the altar of free speech.

• Speaking of which… this one takes some real gall. The Los Angeles Police Department released photos of officers after they were sued over a public records request. The officers then sued the department over it alleging violation of their privacy, and the LAPD retaliated with legal action against a journalist and a watchdog group for publishing the photos. The photos that the LAPD itself released. A public statement condemning this action has been co-signed by the Society of Professional Journalists (national and the L.A. chapter); the Asian Americans Journalists Association; Latino Journalists of California; Los Angeles Press Club; Media Guild of the West; National Association of Hispanic Journalists; Radio Television Digital News Association and the Freelancer Journalist Union.

• A reporter has finally sued over last year’s police raid on a small newspaper office. If you’ll recall, police raided the office and the owner’s home because a local restaurant owner was mad at the paper. Literally. That’s all they had. “Identity theft” was the official statement, from publishing public records.

• On a lighter note, Grover of Sesame Street has apparently joined the profession. His announcement on the Artist-Formerly-Known-as-Twitter that he is now a journalist was greeted by fellow journalists with predictable cynicism.

“I regret to report a hedge fund has since purchased Grover’s paper and laid him off,” wrote S.P. Sullivan, a reporter with NJ.com. “Unfortunately, Grover was fired for not hitting his three story a day quota,” said Scott Nover, a contributing writer for Slate.

Ouch. But Grover’s not the first Muppet to join the Fourth Estate. Old people like me will remember Kermit’s many years in a trenchcoat reporting for Sesame Street News. And who could forget Cookie Monster’s tough negotiations?

And now, this week in total bullshit:

• The NOAA is not “cooking the books” on climate change. Once again, TB originates with a Fox News host who alleged that NOAA was basing its temperature collection on thermometers left on urban concrete and asphalt. Politifact dealt with this.

• Former President Trump alleged that Wisconsin’s 20-week limit on abortion access is “way outside international bounds.” However, the majority of European countries range from 10 weeks (Portugal) to 24 weeks (U.K.). Wisconsin is currently considering narrowing it to 14 weeks.

• Nope, Texas can’t secede from the U.S. There was kind of a little war about that, you might recall, if you live in a state that still lets you learn about it.

• No, radiation poisoning is not the cause of COVID-19. Also, Mr. DeSantis, the boosters do not make it more likely you’ll get COVID. Is it unconstitutional to require all voters to take a remedial science class?

And what was not (completely) bullshit? The U.S. homicide rate has declined significantly, with preliminary data showing about a 10-12 percent drop in homicide. However, PolitiFact research indicates some politicians are a little too quick to credit the crime reduction bill with the drop and there may be multiple factors behind it.