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May Linkspam

I am haunted by geese.

Anyone who’s ever been to my alma mater, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, knows that the deer and the geese own the campus and we just borrow it from them. You aren’t a true member of the SIUE family until you’ve been chased by an angry goose. For the freshmen, that usually comes pretty quickly, as some wit will try to chase geese and they find out why the upperclassmen warned them not to do that.

My current employer also has geese – so many geese, all over the campus and somewhat disgruntled because we are in a state of crazy deconstruction. At least four older buildings are being torn down in the waning days of the semester, and if it’s distracting for us safely ensconced in our classrooms, imagine how the geese feel.

One particularly creative solution to the goose problem has been to place small ceramic statues of coyotes around the campus. There was one outside my window this morning, but by the time I thought to get a picture, someone had moved it. Or did they?

It’s possible the end of the semester has us all a little loopy.

Also, The Disgruntled Geese is my new band name.

Classes end this week, and then I have a few weeks of … uh, spare time? Sort of? Before the summer conventions begin, followed by my summer school classes. There’s more going on that I can’t talk about yet, but just cross your fingers for me, folks.

In addition, this month was the quarterly St. Andrew’s Book Fair, I attended a Belleville screening of The Librarians (a highly recommended documentary on book bans), plus I got to meet Terry Tempest Williams, adding to my collection of favorite authors I’ve personally met. Keep coming to St. Louis, amazing writers!

Finally: By this time next month we will be in Relay for Life. Longtime readers know I have been a team captain for Relay for more than 20 years, raising more than $60,000 for the American Cancer Society. Go here to help support our efforts and fight the cancer beast.

Publicity/Appearances

It was a pretty light month, intentionally so after the melee that was March. (Say that three times fast.) I did get to finally pop over to Indianapolis for MoCon, the writer symposium founded by the terrific Maurice Broaddus. I have been trying to get to MoCon for approximately forever, but there always seemed to be something in the way! As it was I only made it for Saturday and Sunday, but it was so worth it to hang with Maurice and other friends and colleagues, including Dr. Chesya Burke, Gary Braunbeck, and others. 

Me and Maurice. I am cool by association. 


Coming up in May: ConCarolinas in Charlotte, N.C.! I’m delighted to return after a short hiatus and see all the cool kids on the East Side.

2026 calendar:

If you are interested in having me speak to your group or attend your convention or other event, contact kyates@donaldmedia.com. 


Journalism

• UIS faculty strike suspended pending vote (Labor Tribune)
• UIS faculty go on strike as contract negotiations stall (Labor Tribune)
• Madison County Labor honors leaders and volunteers (Labor Tribune)
• Former congressman unloads on Trump administration at Democratic fundraiser (Labor Tribune)
• Granite City steel plant resumes production (Labor Tribune)
• UIS faculty vote to authorize strike (Labor Tribune)


Fiction

The new St. Louis Writers Guild anthology is now available! You can buy it directly from me at this link, and be sure to indicate in the notes if you want it signed. I should also have it in hand at personal appearances this summer while supplies last. 

Here’s where Blackfire Rising is currently shambling:


If you’d like to buy a book and aren’t going to be in my general vicinity soon, order directly from me or Literary Underworld and indicate in your order if 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/Medium

You should know that I have started a new feature on the Patreon: Poem of the Day. It’s on the free level, so you can click without fear. Each weekday, visit patreon.com/edonald and you’ll get a fresh poem, sometimes by me but usually by much better poets. You still have to subscribe to read the essays and travelogues and fiction, but it starts at only $1 a month, so consider joining! Even joining on the free level gets the Poem of the Day emailed to you, so wins all around!

• It’s alive! (Elizabeth Donald)
• Gimme a break (Donald Media)
• RIP LitHub podcast (Patreon)
• Writing the dreams: Terry Tempest Williams (Patreon)
• In which Star Trek turns into theology… (Patreon)
• A eulogy for Ethical Fred (Patreon)

I am not listing all the “poem of the day” posts as there would be too many, but you can see them by going to Patreon and scrolling. They’re free! 

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: Make Me Rain by Nikki Giovanni, a collection of poems and prose. On audio: Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, in which Margaret Atwood spills all the tea. Up next is Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn, the first chapter of which caught me at the store and it is now waiting its turn on the nightstand. 

I don’t want to tell you how many I snagged at the Greater St. Louis Book Fair, for myself, for the office, and for the St. Andrew’s Book Fair. Suffice to say I contributed well to the cause.

Recently finished: The End of the World As We Know It, the anthology based in the world of Stephen King’s The Stand; The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison; When Women Were Birds: 54 Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams; This Telling by Cheryl Strayed; March (a graphic novel about the civil rights movement) by the late U.S. Sen. John Lewis; Bad Date by Ellery Lloyd; Two Women Walk Into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed; and approximately one zillion freshman essays.

Photography

Nothing this month other than a few snapshots at MoCon and of Terry Tempest Williams! I hope when I’m between semesters I might be able to do some real photo shoots again. I did get to do a news video of former Congressman Poshard for the Labor Tribune – just like old times!

Almost all of the images in the galleries are available for purchase (except those licensed to clients), 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. 

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Gimme a break

Oh internet, sometimes I love you.

Sometimes you’re a festering boil on the ass of humanity, and I despair of the future of the species. But then someone actually kit-naps (sorry) 12 tons of KitKat bars, like that’s something they can just fence somewhere, and the internet goes to work.

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February Linkspam: Where is February going?

Happy almost Valentine’s Day!

Somehow I blinked, and it was Feb. 11 and I hadn’t sent out a newsletter yet. Who’s running this show? Those responsible will be sacked – oh yeah, that was me.

As you can tell by the seriously-delayed newsletter, the semester is rolling. Three of my four classes are working on a fiction project, which delights me no end, and most of the students are really active and engaged and they have such fun ideas. I could get used to this four-class schedule, folks. (So why is the newsletter so late? Um, I was eaten by a grue. It was very sad.)

As previously announced, I’m joining the Read Every Day in February Challenge for the American Cancer Society as my team kicks off our Relay for Life fundraiser. Of course, the joke is that I read every day anyway, so it’s not exactly a challenge! I’m on my sixth book of the year and counting, so click here to donate and support cancer research and patient services. 

Publicity/Appearances

My appearance at Books & Brews at the Old Bakery Beer Co. in Alton, Ill. was postponed from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7 because SNOW. Like approximately everyone in the U.S., we got buried under an avalanche and they actually canceled classes for a day. My Memphis readers are now snickering, as I believe they were off two weeks and counting. Here, friends: have a snowball. 

Coming up in February is Conflation, the first convention of the year for me and for the Literary Underworld. Conflation was hit with its own snowball: with three weeks to con, the blizzard froze the pipes at the host hotel and it was basically destroyed. The entire hotel is closed indefinitely; it’s not remotely habitable. The con organizers (who at Conflation are referred to as The Goddesses) managed to find a new hotel, negotiate a reasonable contract and get us all moved over there within ten days. People, I am in awe. And delighted that one of my favorite cons is going forward! If you’re in St. Louis, you should absolutely join us. I’ll be the one in the “I Heart the 80s” T-shirt (it’s a long story). 

I’ve been asked to speak this time on the representation of journalists in film, which longtime readers will recall was my masters thesis. I haven’t spoken on this topic in a long time, so I guess it’s time to update. Generally when I’m asked to talk about this at cons, it’s in the form of advice for writers, on how to write journalist characters without getting us wildly wrong. These days, it’s a little more into cultivation theory, which like all media theories is pretty much blatantly obvious to anyone who’s been on the internet for 15 minutes. I’ll see if I can’t make it a little more interesting to the non-writer, non-academic crowd.

In the meantime, we are prepping for AWP, which is nerd prom for the literary/academic set. It’s about 10,000 writers, poets, professors, students and other word geeks, and we’re descending on Baltimore this year. This delights me for several reasons: I used to live in Baltimore and loved it, and my subsequent visits have been delightful. (I miss Berger cookies!) Jim gets to come with me (as “disability assistant,” which I am totally calling him all five days we are there) and he has never been to the eastern seaboard except for our Disney trips. Unlike me, he is a big seafood fan, so if anyone has Baltimore suggestions that are walking or Lyft-ing distance from the Inner Harbor, please drop me a note! In the meantime, I’ll be participating as vice president of the Adjunct Writers Caucus, and looking forward to our discussions.

Finally, I’m glad to share that contracts have been signed for Midsouthcon, ConCarolinas and Dragoncon, so my craaaazy schedule is now updated. March is going to be the hardest month, but it also has spring break, so we’ll call that even. 

2026 calendar:

If you are interested in having me speak to your group or attend your convention or other event, contact kyates@donaldmedia.com. 


Journalism

I’ve finally set up my Authory portfolio, which collects all my news articles. It’s pretty much the most recent stuff, since MuckRack inexplicably stopped collating my pieces and my first portfolio program went belly-up. I do not have luck with this, but let’s hope that Authory sticks around and keeps working! When I have some spare time (tee hee) I’ll upload some of my older articles.

• Illinois union leaders call out Trump’s selective funding freeze on childcare, family assistance (Labor Tribune)
• Alton Steel closes suddenly, laying off 253 workers (Labor Tribune)
• Law firm investigating whether Alton Steel violated WARN Act (Labor Tribune)
• New Illinois laws will impact workers, residents (Labor Tribune)
• Work continues at Workers’ Memorial as city repairs sinkhole (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois Congresswoman votes against ICE funding; AFL-CIO offers immigration response training (Labor Tribune)
• Counter-protester causes incident at MLK Day, anti-ICE demonstration (Labor Tribune)
• Local labor councils celebrate holidays, calling for unity (Labor Tribune)
• AFSCME signs up 50,000 cultural workers (Labor Tribune)


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


Fiction

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

• Happy birthday, Langston Hughes (Patreon)
• It starts small (Patreon)
• Cyborgs report to class (Patreon)
• Review: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (Patreon)
• Review: Dear Ms. (Patreon)
• Review: 50 Pies for 50 States by Stacey Mei Yan Fong (Patreon)
• Breaking out of the compartment (Medium)
• 2025 in review (Elizabeth Donald)
• Subtext Like White Elephants (Donald Media)

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: Nothing! No, I am reading. But it’s currently The Short Stories of Langston Hughes, edited by Akiba Sullivan Harper, and it’s on the iPad so I can take it to work with me. I am also trying something new: audiobooks. Yes, I’ve tried them before, but I always got annoyed anytime someone tried to read anything to me. However, my schedule this semester has me spending approximately 8-10 hours a week in my car, so I’m listening to some books these days. I mean, LitHub turned their podcast into a monthly event, so a girl has to do something to stay awake… This week it’s Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture, an essay anthology edited by Roxane Gay and including Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union, among other writers less famous. It’s a hard listen, but definitely important. 

Recently finished includes People Like Us by Jason Mott; Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng; and Graceful Burdens by Roxane Gay. I may just work through everything Roxane Gay has ever written this winter, as I want to be her when I grow up. 

Photography

• Frozen ghosts (Patreon)

Almost all of the images in the galleries are available for purchase (except those licensed to clients), 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. 

And that’s it! Have a good (rest of) February, folks, and I’ll see you on the road!

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Subtext Like White Elephants

Recently my good friend Sean Taylor ran one of his writer roundtables discussing subtext, possibly inspired by me lamenting my students’ dislike of Hemingway in our discussion of “Hills Like White Elephants.” For what it’s worth, they didn’t like Allen Ginsburg either.

I answered Sean’s questions and he included my comments in his roundtable. Here is the uncut version of my contributions to Sean’s excellent website, as was previously printed on Patreon. You should totally subscribe.

  1. Dialog. How important is the stuff your characters don’t say or avoid saying to each other in your work?

If my characters are as close to living, breathing humans as I can make them, the things they don’t say are wildly important – just as they are for us allegedly-real people. When a married couple sits at the dinner table and says nothing but “pass the salt,” that tells us a great deal about their relationship, their thoughts and feelings, the comfort level they have reached (or not) between them. There are many times when we feel spurred to speak and do not, either for fear of social or professional consequences, adherence to behavior norms in society, or our own personal tendencies; a person who is generally conflict-avoidant may remain silent when insulted, even as they are burning to speak – or shout – on the inside.

All of these should come to play in our characters, if we are to make them real. The worst thing you can do is an “As you know, Bob…” where a character explains the blatantly obvious to a person who already knows this information. A little subtlety goes a long way.

2. Characterization. How often do you use the uncharacteristic action or thought in your characters to hint about something deeper in their character? Feel free to include examples from your work. 

First, you need to establish a character’s personality before something can seem uncharacteristic. Breaking those characteristics should be done judiciously. If everyone treats your character as an unflappable badass, and we see her go through situation after situation without breaking a sweat, it raises the stakes significantly when she finally faces a moment where she falters, and emotion stops her, even for a moment. Likewise if you have a panicky character who cannot get himself together, who freaks out at the slightest challenge, then you can give him a moment of bravery that becomes more profound for being unexpected.

This has to make sense, however: having a character act wildly uncharacteristic can read as false to your reader. You need to give it context and show us why your heroine falters at that critical moment, or else they throw the book across the room and shout, “She wouldn’t do that!” And there needs to be a consequence to that uncharacteristic action, to underscore its importance. That can be an external consequence levied from other characters, or internal, in a subtle shift within the character’s personality and mindset. A character who is not changed by the end of the story is a flat paper doll. 

3. In general, do you consider your writing to be dependent on subtext or do you prefer to just “put it all out there” and not make readers work too hard to dig into your theme, characters, etc.?

I think subtext naturally grows out of a story, if it’s told well. Fiction is essentially a cooperation between writer and reader, and everything I write is going to be filtered through my readers’ viewpoints and emotions. Thus if I put all my energies into THIS IS AN ALLEGORY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE UNITED STATES, it’s going to be too obvious and the reader is going to be bored. “But where’s the story?” he asks. Sometimes the subtext is less subtle, and then you have five generations of college students debating what the hills really mean in classrooms across the country. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either – that gets back to that cooperation, and how readers will see what you’ve written in different way.

I’m not sure that really answers the question, but that’s because “it depends” isn’t a very satisfying answer. All art has meaning, even if it actively tries to avoid meaning; whether it is an intentional allegory by the writer or an accidental reflection of the culture that created it, all art carries its subtext, if only we are awake enough to see it. 

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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

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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.

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Just a temp

Best temp in Chiswick!

Funny thing happened on the way to the semester launch: One of my employer colleges got a big uptick in enrollment, and they needed (wo)manpower quick. An application and interview later, I was offered and accepted a one-year temporary contract as a full-time professor. 

Longtime readers know that this is the end goal, the thing I’ve been working toward for eight years now. It’s why I left full-time reporting to go to grad school, why I earned two masters degrees, why I’ve been toiling in the adjunct vineyards since graduation. It’s the endgame. 

Needless to say, I’m over the moon.

Q: Wait a minute: temporary?

A: Yup. I’m the temp from Chiswick.* After one year it could be extended, rolled into a permanent position, or I could be rolled back to adjunct next year. I’ll have to jump off that bridge when I come to it. 

Q: So you’re just teaching a normal number of classes?

A: Nope! I still have two adjunct classes at another college for which I was contracted this fall, plus one overload class at my main employer, so it’s one more semester of crazy overload. But then I get to teach just one full-time load, which honestly feels like a vacation at this point.

But in the meantime, I finally have a full-time job again, and a regular salary that will provide us with a little stability. It’s a really wonderful development, totally unexpected and very welcome. 

Q: So you’ll only have one job?

A: Of course not. I’ve still got Donald Media, with my freelance journalism, photography, editing and other miscellaneous shenanigans. That’s the wonderful thing about freelancing: you can scale your work load up and down according to the needs of the moment.

Q: You’re not gonna stop writing books, are you?

A: Absolutely not. I have much more trauma to inflict on you! Next year’s book is a space opera and I think you’re going to love it. In fact, if you are on the Patreon, it has some excerpts from the work in progress already.

Q: So the Patreon is continuing?

A: Of course. The Patreon has been some of the best writing I’ve ever done, especially in the nonfiction realm. I have no intention of mothballing it and giving up my travelogues, photo essays and rants. And I continue to be so grateful for the wonderful Patrons who continue to support me with their subscriptions. 

Q: Anything else going on?

A: I’m so glad you asked. On the same day as the job offer, I was informed that I am receiving the SPJ Freelance Fellowship for 2025, which will fund my attendance at MediaFest next month in Washington D.C. I’m delighted to be joining my colleagues at the Society of Professional Journalists and continuing the important discussions facing our profession. I am so grateful to the Freelance Community for this honor, and am looking forward to thanking them in person in DC.

Thanks for bearing with me, loyal readers. It makes such an enormous difference to have your support, and to know that you keep coming back to read me. Here’s the year of the temp!

* Only Doctor Who nerds are going to get this joke.

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August 2025 Linkspam

It is a universal truth among academics that when Aug. 1 rolls around, the panic hits.

We all begin the summer with the best of intentions. We will finally have time to read that giant backlog sitting on the TBR pile. We will unearth the surface of our desks and sort out the chaos that piled up during the previous year. We will reorganize our lesson plans and readings, update our assignments, and everything will be orderly and make sense by the time the fall semester hits. 

And sometimes we will also publish a new novel and go on a mini-tour for it, teach two summer school classes, move offices, work on the next novel and generally keep spinning at nearly the same rate as a full academic semester. 

August 1 has arrived, and suddenly my calendar is filling up with mandatory conferences and meetings and seminars and luncheons, which is definitely going to impact that whole “sort out the chaos” concept. As I write this, I am three weeks away from launching seven classes at three colleges, and one week of the three has been cleared for family, so…

Yeah.

Be nice to the professors. We are in panic mode. 

Publicity/Appearances

It’s an honor just to be… yup, once again I did not win the screenplay award, this time for Grow Old With Me. Seriously, it’s always a thrill to make the finalist list, even if I am now the Susan Lucci of the Imadjinns. While at Imaginarium – which was a total blast, awards notwithstanding – I was interviewed by VampChat, a fun podcast centered on… you guessed it… vampires. It was delightful to chat about the toothy ones, even if I had to out myself not only as Team Louis but also Team Angel. And if you have any idea what I’m talking about, you should definitely check out the podcast here. 

Up next is the big ‘un: Dragoncon! I’m boggling that we’re already at Dragoncon time, and wrangling my logistics for another solo trip to Atlanta for me and 100,000 of my closest friends. Watch the website for my full schedule, which will include extra signings this year. Due to Southwest’s changing policies regarding checked luggage, I will be bringing/shipping a limited number of books, so if you are definitely planning to get something from me, be sure to preorder it so I set aside a copy for you. You can do that on the store website or by emailing 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 (tent.) 
  • Archon, Collinsville, Ill. Oct. 3-5 
  • SPJ Conference, Washington, D.C. Oct. 15-18 (Tent. canceled)
  • Contra KC, Kansas City, Mo. TBA (tent.)

2026 calendar:

  • Conflation, St. Louis, Mo. TBA 
  • AWP, Baltimore, Md. March 4-7
  • Midsouthcon, Memphis, Tenn. TBA (tent.)


Journalism

One of my big summer projects has been shifting my nonfiction portfolio from Contently to a new portfolio site. For some reason MuckRack no longer pulls my articles, and Contently has decided not to verify me (no explanation given). I’ll let you all know when that process is done. Sadly, a number of my better articles since going freelance have now disappeared off the internets, which is one of those annoying side effects of the modern age. It’s been a long, long time since I kept a stringbook… and it’s probably around here in this hazmat site of an office. Right next to Jimmy Hoffa.

• Democrats, Labor leaders sound alarm over cuts to social safety net (Labor Tribune)
• Illinois teachers’ unions protest withholding of federal funds (Labor Tribune)
• Webb steps down as Madison County Dems elect new chair (Labor Tribune)
• SIBA awards record number of grants for vocational education (Labor Tribune)
• Budzinski, United Steelworkers demand voice for Granite City in Nippon deal (Labor Tribune)

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


Fiction

Did you figure out I have a new book out? Have I been too subtle? Dying to buy this book? Of course you are! Here’s where it’s currently shambling:

Direct from Elizabeth Donald, signed

Literary Underworld, signed

Falstaff Books

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble


If you’d like the 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. Also, Amazon will only start recommending your book to other customers once you have at least 15 reviews, or so I am told. 

Meanwhile, I have been cranking away at the next book, Banshee’s Run. It’s space opera and so far I’m enjoying the hell out of it. It’s an idea I’ve been playing with for a long time, and I’m so glad it’s finally going to see print… probably next year.
 

Patreon/Medium/Blogs

• Freedom Day 2025 (Patreon)
• Kentucky Book Conventions (Patreon)
• Imaginarium ahoy! (Patreon)
• WIP: Banshee’s Run (Patreon)
• The Chicago Guy (Patreon)
• Independence Day (Patreon)
• Poem: Aurora (Patreon)

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 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: A Low Country Heart by Pat Conroy, one of my favorite lyrical Southern writers. On the iPad is Wilderness Tips, a collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood. And I finally found my copy of Nasty Women, a collection of feminist essays, which had gotten buried in the magazine pile over the last few months. This month’s reading included Never Flinch by Stephen King, the latest of his Holly Gibney series; and a re-read of The Stand, because apparently I must re-read early King for life. 
 

Photography

Shoots this month included a trip to the Gateway Arch, which has been renovated for ten years and we finally got around to seeing it. I also did some practice shooting at the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is always photogenic. I collected the best moments there in this TikTok vid.

Also on TikTok: Kentucky authors strumming the chords at Imaginarium, and an Independence Day celebration of a different sort. 

For more information and for the Photograph of the Month, sign up for my monthly newsletter! Resistance is futile.

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And the nominees are…

Me! 

I am happy to announce that my short-form screenplay, Grow Old With Me, has been named a finalist in the Imaginarium film festival screenplay competition. I am told that there were more entries this year than they’ve ever had, and I am truly honored to be among the finalists.

The screenplay is based on a short story of the same name that appeared in my second collection, Moonlight Sonata. It’s a bit of a departure – still speculative fiction, but it’s a quieter, more melancholy piece that works almost like a frame story, wherein the central character is not necessarily the protagonist. It was an interesting challenge to translate it to film.

This is the third screenplay that has been honored as a finalist at a competition, and I’m really encouraged by the success in this medium, even as unproduced screenplays are a dime a thousand. 

The Imaginarium Film Festival will take place July 18-20 in Louisville, Ky. I’ll be there teaching three workshops: my ongoing seminar on book banning in the U.S., a workshop on building writing habits that stick, and “Death, Taxes and Freelancing,” which I’ve done annually for the Eville Writers to help new writers learn to manage the money part of being a freelance writer. 

If you’re in the vicinity, I hope you’ll come by and say hello! When I’m not in panels or workshops, I’ll be at the Literary Underworld table. See you in Louisville!

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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.