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Recent Professional Highlights

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James Patterson

James Patterson wrote an account of his battle for LGBT employment opportunity with North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms. See "Supreme Job Blow to Jesse Helms" at https://glreview.org/heres-my-story/ I wrote a 5,000 word manuscript, rather boringly titled "Jesse Helms and LGBT Employment Protections," during Pandemic Spring. When an editor for Gay and Lesbian Review contacted me it was October, LGBT History Month, and October 11 is National COming Out Day. October was the right month for my manuscript. at 5,000 words it was not the right length for the publication. On a tight deadline, I had to reduce the manuscript to 1,500 words, I would have preferred a longer piece, but this version of my manuscript turned out fine, I think. I remain hopeful for my 5,000 word or more manuscript on this subject. I concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court accomplished what Congress failed to do which was to legally settle, for the moment, that LGBT workers are protected against discrimination by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The actions Helms took against me and others in the 1990s were, I argued, presented a political hold by Helms, who died in 2008, against a legislative remedy. Associated website

Pete Croatto

Pete Croatto's first book, "From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-day NBA" was released December 1 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. The book, which received a starred review from "Publishers Weekly," tracks the National Basketball Association's rise from an afterthought in American sporting life to an international cultural and business behemoth during the 1970s and 1980s. Croatto found an agent for the book's proposal at ASJA's annual conference in 2017. Associated website

Deborah Lynn Blumberg

As a board member for Houston's WiVLA (Women in the Visual and Literary Arts), I'm spearheading a virtual exhibit that our group is doing in partnership with Holocaust Museum Houston. Our writers and artists have worked together for months on the collaborative exhibit, which includes visual and literary pieces. I conquered my fear of appearing in video for the exhibit; the intro features me set up with a lavalier microphone delivering a short speech in my backyard! I also wrote a fiction piece for the exhibit that's related to my historical fiction novel in-progress. [FOR THE URL- The exhibit URL will be coming soon! If someone from ASJA reaches out to me, I will send the url as soon as I get it. It will also be on the HMH website - https://hmh.org] Associated website

Charlotte Libov

My seventh book, "Fight Back: Beat the Coronavirus" was published on July 7. It is a primer on what is known about the coronavirus, in terms of how to protect yourself from becoming infected, what to do if you become ill with COVID-19, how to strengthen your immune system and how to deal with the emotional impact of the pandemic. It was written with my-co-author, Dr. Chauncey Crandall. Associated website

Angela Bonavoglia

Angela Bonavoglia's essay, "Blindsided," appears in the new anthology to be published by Beacon in October. "Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment and Healing", edited by Richard Blanco, Caridad Moro, Nikki Moustaki, and Elisa Albo, has a foreword by Joyce Maynard and an afterword by Anita Hill. A dedicated website featuring online interviews with various contributors is planned. Associated website

Angela Bonavoglia

Angela Bonavoglia's essay, "Blindsided," appears in a new anthology to be published by Beacon Books in October. Entitled "Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment and Healing," the anthology has a foreword by Joyce Maynard and an afterword by Anita Hill). Associated website

Jennifer Billock

My next book, "Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee," will be published on November 2 by The History Press. Also, I just became a Certified Tea Specialist!

Candy Harrington

Candy B. Harrington recently released her latest national park access guide, Barrier-Free Travel; Death Valley National Park for Wheelers and Slow Walkers. The guidebook includes detailed information for wheelchair-users and slow walkers on the trails, attractions, and lodgings in and near this popular national park. Associated website

Ilima Loomis

My newest book, 'Ohana Means Family, was published in February by Neal Porter at Holiday House. This picture book with acclaimed illustrator Kenard Pak tells the story of a family cultivating kalo (taro) to make into poi, a traditional Hawaiian food. The cumulative rhyme in the style of "The House that Jack Built" introduces readers to an important aspect of Hawaiian culture and celebrates how food connects people to the land, the environment, and each other. This book received starred reviews in Kirkus and Booklist. Associated website

 

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  • A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.
    – Sidney Sheldon
  • A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.
    – Kenneth Tynan
  • A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self–addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.
    – Ring Lardner
  • A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.
    – Marguerite Yourcenar
  • All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary – it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
    – Somerset Maugham
  • Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
    – Christopher Hampton
  • Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.
    – Lawrence Kasdan
  • Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research.
    –Wilson Mizner
  • Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
    – Flannery O'Connor
  • I just wrote a book, but don't go out and buy it yet, because I don't think it's finished yet.
    – Lawrence Welk
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    – Douglas Adams
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    – Stephen Wright
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    – Robert Benchley
  • It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
    – Andrew Jackson
  • Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.
    – Richard Curtis
  • No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self–deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.
    – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
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    –Somerset Maugham
  • Writing a novel is like paddling from Boston to London in a bathtub. Sometimes the damn tub sinks. It's a wonder that most of them don't.
    – Stephen King
  • Writing a novel is like spelunking. You kind of create the right path for yourself. But, boy, are there so many points at which you think, absolutely, I'm going down the wrong hole here.
    – Chang–rae Lee
  • Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
    –Samuel Johnson