When I was a kid in Massachusetts, school started after Labor Day. I was floored when my family moved to Baltimore, where classes began at the end of August, and then to Tennessee, where school inexplicably opened by the middle of August and where did my summer go?
I have friends whose kids are now starting school in the first week of August, and it’s so hot here in the sunny Midwest that I can’t imagine trying to pay attention to algebra while ducking those ugly sunbeams. Then again, I can’t really imagine paying attention to algebra in the first place, as my junior-high report cards will indicate.
Being out of grad school and also not having any kids in school anymore, I still find that back-to-school mentality settling in, and I’m not just talking about the terror of developing a syllabus for eight (8) separate English comp classes. Look out, freshmen: apparently I am teaching all of you this year.
Walmart aisles are filled with black-and-white composition books, glue sticks and No. 2 pencils. (Has anyone ever seen a No. 1 pencil? Okay, Google says it’s a soft lead more often used by artists and this is what happens when you set a reporter on a simple essay…) My inbox is full of “fun lunch ideas” from the cooking sites that look like they’d take more time to prepare than a full dinner with sides. Ads are full of folders and highlighters and notebooks and calendars and planners and a plethora of other objects that make us think we can learn something and organize our lives.
One of the most fun activities of the year for me and my son was the annual trip to buy school supplies. He always wanted superheroes on his lunchbox and notebook covers, and he acquired a mystifying fondness for mechanical pencils that has lasted into his adulthood. I could throw no stones, however, because I fell in love with the PaperMate Write Bros. pen at my first newsroom and have stocked it to the exclusion of all else throughout my career.
It’s funny, the things we latch on to.
As school looms (too early!) and panicked professors put away their research and knitting to drag out the syllabus again, I find myself wanting to buy school supplies. With three (3) offices and potentially four, I have no shortage of supply closets to raid, and yet I find myself cruising for the particular cubicle calendar, that one notebook that is going to be the saving grace of the Fall Chaos and make sense of the schedule, the lecture, the pile of grading lying in wait.
Recently, when cruising through Walmart’s endless cardboard display bins of big fat toddler crayons and erasable markers, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia for shopping with the excited little boy who needed that Blue’s Clues pencil holder and a multicolored nap mat for kindergarten.
As I searched through the pens, a mother with three little ones was trying to corral the herd to pick out their notebooks, and the kids darted in front of my scooter. She apologized and I assured her it was fine.
She gave me a harried mother’s smile and said, “Can you tell we’re really over this?”
I smiled back and said, “And here I was just thinking, I wish I could be doing it again.”
“Oh god, really?” the poor mom exclaimed. To be fair, I never had three at once.
“Yup. You’ll miss it one day, believe it or not,” I said, and wished them well as I got out of their way.
Publicity/Appearances
It was a busy month for going places and talking, which is pretty much my full-time life these days. In July, I spoke to TechWrite STL about learning as a lifelong endeavor, not only for us as writers but as human beings and citizens. It went very well, considering that many of them already have multiple degrees and understand the psychological benefits of continuing education beyond the career implications.
I also spoke to the St. Louis Writer’s Guild at their community partners fair, presenting on the Eville Writers and the Literary Underworld. It’s my honor to run both groups, and I was warmly welcomed by the Writers Guild, of which I have been a member for a few years but hadn’t yet made an in-person meeting. It was great to meet them in person and talk shop with people who understand the creative life.
Of course, the big event of the month was Imaginarium. Jim and I sojourned to Louisville, and Jim was primarily booth babe this year because he forgot to fill out his guest author paperwork. We had a few laughs over that, but since I was doing a lot of panels and workshops, it worked out for the better. I presented a workshop on taxes and money management for freelance writers, another workshop on “The Art of Legal Prostitution: Selling Your Books at Cons and Shows,” and a literary lecture on Edgar Allan Poe and “The Raven,” which was surprisingly popular as a much more academic subject than we usually see. I also appeared on a panel about AI and ethics – I behaved myself – and another on literary fiction, which meant that I got to trot out the MS in media theory AND the MFA in the same weekend. Spoiler alert: I did not win the screenplay competition, but I had a great time nonetheless! A full write-up is linked below on Patreon.
As I’m running a tad late, the first event of August has already happened: I spoke to the Glen Carbon Public Library’s writing group about the MFA and its benefits for writers. There’s a lot of misconceptions about the MFA and the process, and I enjoyed sharing my experience with the group.
Also coming up shortly: Dragoncon! I’ve had the wrong dates on the newsletter for the last um seven months or so, but they’ve been corrected and my flights are for the right weekend, thank Zod. I’m looking forward to a return to Hotlanta and will be participating in the author Gather on Friday night, if you’d like to pick up some books from me. I will also have a reading and signing (TBA) and would be glad to meet you!
For other events in the fall: We have still been unable to snag a hotel room for Archon. We will still be there and the Literary Underworld will have our usual booth, but unless we can book a room in the host hotel, there will be no room party. We are as disappointed as you are! But we will still be there.
Also note that Contra in Kansas City has changed weekends and hotels. This actually makes it slightly more convenient for me, as I have a lot going on in early November. Follow their Facebook page for further details.
2024 calendar:
• Plethora of Pens, Glen Carbon Public Library, Aug. 5
• Dragoncon, Atlanta, Ga. Aug. 29-Sept. 2
• SPJ Boot Camp, Edwardsville, Ill. Sept. 21
• Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 4-6
• ContraKC, Kansas City, Mo. Oct. 25-27
2025 calendar:
• Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 21-23
• Midsouthcon, Memphis, Tenn. March 21-23 (tent.)
• AWP Los Angeles, March 26-30 (tent.)
Journalism
• Illinois and Missouri have vastly different approaches to child labor (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Highland car crashes have doubled in a year. What police are doing about it (Highland News Leader)
• Senators, steelworkers join to voice concerns over U.S. Steel purchase (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• National Police Association asking you for donations? Don’t fall for it (Yahoo News)
• IFT names new political director to go after Tier 2 pension reform (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Roadwork requires boil order for Highland neighborhood (Highland News Leader)
• Gov. Pritzker, Labor leaders cut ribbon on Emerson Park safety center (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Madison County workers’ memorial spared by giant sinkhole (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Sinkhole reroutes Labor Day parade and picnic (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• A new Zen garden arises in Glik Park (Highland News Leader)
• $21 million in new construction projects coming to Edwardsville (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
• Korte Rec Center temporarily closes for renovations (Highland News Leader)
• Labor, family and friends mourn Labor activist and steelworker David Dowling (St. Louis Labor Tribune)
Note: Not all articles are available online, and some may be behind paywalls.
Blogs
• BookNotes: Adults only, and read only what we say (Elizabeth Donald)
• BookNotes: It’s a hell of a week in Book Land (Elizabeth Donald)
• Imaginarium ahoy (Elizabeth Donald and Donald Media)
• Dreadmire rises from the dead! (Elizabeth Donald)
• Caffeinated Writer: Shaw’s Coffee (Donald Media)
Fiction
Dreadmire is live and roaming the earth! Click the image to buy the book, and if you’re interested in a free sample from my dark romp through the swamp, click here!
It’s also available on Amazon, of course.
I also have 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
• Indiana Jones and the Real Blasphemy (Medium and Patreon)
• The second shift (Patreon)
• Freedom Day 2024 (Patreon)
• It’s an honor just to be nominated (Patreon)
• Imaginarium ahoy (Patreon)
• Uber explorer (Patreon)
• Recovering journalist (Patreon)
• Bookworm (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. Pending is a photo essay on Jefferson Barracks, as well as whatever I snag at Dragoncon…
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.