I Wrote a Book! Here’s a Cake! 🍾

Cover reveal 😀 🎉 My new novel “Keep Sweet” is on preorder; plus book ban news

Here’s the cover of my upcoming novel Keep Sweet. I love how it encompasses ideas from the book: a girl living in a patriarchal cult dreaming of escape.

I Wrote a Book! Here’s a Cake!

Hello Friends,

I know we’re still in a crazy place, but I’m working on celebrating this week. First I’m going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with family. I’m making soda bread and this Chocolate Irish Cream Cake that I found in the NYTimes cooking section. Here’s a gift link to the recipe in case you, too, want to celebrate with a boozy cake.

May your blessings outnumber☘️

The shamrocks that grow,☘️

And may trouble avoid you☘️

Wherever you go.☘️

The bigger thing I’m celebrating: My novel Keep Sweet

My novel Keep Sweet is now available for preorder. It officially launches on June 21. However, if you order it from the publisher, you’ll get it in May. And I’m making beautiful fabric bookmarks as thank yous for anyone who orders Keep Sweet directly from the publisher. You can order it from all the usual suspects¹—Amazon, B&N, Bookshop.org. However, I receive nothing (literally) from books ordered in those places. Those places get 55% discount and since small publishers don’t have the scale to absorb that discount, there is nothing left for me. Friends, I am more worthy than Jeff Bezos. Truly. 😊

Here’s the back cover description:

Fourteen-year old Elizabeth Warren lives in the “Community” with her father, four mothers, and sixteen siblings. Their prophet heads the cult, controlling all aspects of the community members’ lives. When he announces that Elizabeth must marry her older cousin, she joins forces with her twin brother, her older sister, and two good friends to alter her fate. With the prophet always two steps ahead of their plans, Elizabeth realizes she must confide the dark secret of her life.

Here’s the link for preordering. I would be so grateful for your support!

What I’m reading

In the craziness of the past several weeks, I’ve been wasting time doomscrolling when I would have been better off reading. I had put Lazarus Man by Richard Price on hold at the library. I waited a long time to get it, and when it came, I’d forgotten where I’d seen the recommendation. I read 80 pages and found that the writing didn’t connect me to the characters. I moved on to another book. However, the idea of a group of neighbors in a building that collapses is interesting to me. Here’s the description from the dust jacket:

East Harlem, 2008. In an instant, a five-story tenement collapses into a fuming hill of rubble ... As the city's rescue services and media outlets respond, the surrounding neighborhood descends into chaos. By day's end, six bodies have been recovered but many of the other tenants are missing. In Lazarus Man, Richard Price ... creates intertwining portraits of a group of compelling and singular characters whose lives are permanently affected by the disaster.

That reminded me of a book I loved, Night of Fire by Colin Thubron. Night of Fire takes place in a single night when an old Victorian mansion burns due to an electrical fire. It was the first book I discussed on Substack before I had subscribers, so you likely haven’t seen that post. It’s here.

I also waited for Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America, which I had on hold. I’m always interested in books on religion (the good, bad, and the ugly) and on cults. I’m about 100 pages in. Here’s a bit of the publisher’s summary:

In Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America, author Talia Lavin goes deep into the beliefs that motivate the Christian right, from its segregationist past to a future riddled with apocalyptic visions. Along the way, she explores what motivates anti-abortion terrorists; the Christian Patriarchy movement, with its desire to place all women under absolute male control; the twisted theology that leads to rampant child abuse; and the ways conspiracy theorists and extremist Christians influence each other to mutual political benefit.

For Lent, I’m reading Henri J.M. Nouwen’s With Burning Hearts. As it happens,

Jeannine Ouellette

, who writes the beautiful writers’ resource Writing in the Dark, quoted Nouwen this week on forgiveness:

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”

Part 2: Library and banned book news

This is on education and on. Free speech—but not specifically about books. I just found it so jaw dropping that I wanted to share.

West Ada teacher stands firm after she’s told to remove ‘Everyone is welcome here’ signs from the Idaho Statesman

Sarah Inama, a 35-year-old world civilization teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School in Meridian, said the signs have been hanging in her class since she started working there four years ago. One of them reads, “Everyone is welcome here,” above hands of different skin tones. The other reads, “In this room, everyone is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued,” with each word highlighted in a different color.

In emails shared by the district with the Idaho Statesman, Marcus Myers, the district’s chief academic officer, told Inama to remove the signs because they violated Idaho’s Dignity and Nondiscrimination in Public Education Act, as well as school policy, which requires signs to be “content neutral and conducive to a positive learning environment.”

Draw Me a Controversy: On the Banning of Beloved Children’s Book Author Eric Carle From LitHub

Lisa Tolin Explores How “Draw Me a Star” Was Swept Into a Dangerous Culture War

The couple is indeed handsome, drawn in Carle’s trademark, flat collage style. Alas for children in school districts in Florida, Iowa, and Texas, the couple is also naked. The book has been banned in at least four school districts since 2021, and other schools have covered the handsome couple in paper clothes.

Rockingham County [VA] School Board permanently bans 6 more books from classrooms, libraries From WHSV 3

The 57 books listed for temporary removal in January 2024 were flagged for “sexually explicit content, explicit language and violence,” said board member Matt Cross, who was chairman at the time.

In an interview in 2024, Cross said the list of titles came from parent complaints, and not from interest group Moms For Liberty. However, when cross-referencing the school board’s list with a book review database from a Tennessee chapter of Moms For Liberty, WHSV found that the majority of the books on the list were also on the Moms For Liberty database.

Many of the books on the database contained LGBTQ+ themes.

The six permanently removed:

• “Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston

• “The DUFF” by Kody Keplinger

• “Felix Ever After” by Kacen Callender

• “Fade” by Lisa McMann

• “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins

• “Tilt,” by Ellen Hopkins

Of the seven titles proposed to be banned Monday, “Stars in Their Eyes” by Jessica Walton was the only one to be retained.

Several other popular titles, including the “The Art Racing in the Rain,” “Thirteen Reasons Why” and “Sold” were previously permanently banned. (Note: I’ve discussed both Thirteen Reasons and Sold in previous posts, linked here.)

Fearing federal DEI policies, Waterloo schools [IA] withdrew from African American reading event From the Des Moines Register

Nearly 3,500 first graders from 73 schools across Iowa virtually joined the University of Northern Iowa's 19th annual African American Read-In, seeing a magic show, participating in a reading of a New York Times bestselling book and a draw-along with the book's illustrator.

But the first graders in the Waterloo Community School District weren't among them. The district withdrew from the event, citing federal directives that condemn diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

Missouri Secretary of State pauses funding for OverDrive, used at K-12 libraries from KSHB 41

In his announcement Monday, Hoskins took aim at a program called OverDrive, which provides K-12 students access to ebooks, audiobooks and magazines through their school library.

Hoskins based his decision on “allegations regarding inappropriate materials accessible to minors.”

Hoskins release did not provide any additional information regarding the allegations in the news release. …

The MLA [Missouri Library Association] says at issue is a platform on OverDrive called Sora, which provides eBooks and electronic materials for school libraries. The MLA says materials accessible within Sora are “individually selected by Missouri librarians for K-12 students.”

The association goes on to point out that because the materials are electronic, librarians are able to categorize access based on a student’s age, such as an elementary school student being unable to access electronic content meant for older students.

SD Senate replaces ‘locking up librarians’ bill with appeal process for obscenity determinations From South Dakota Searchlight

The South Dakota Senate gutted a bill Monday at the Capitol that would have subjected librarians to criminal prosecution for disseminating obscene material to children, and replaced that language with a requirement that school and public libraries allow for appeals of their determinations on obscene material.

1. Do you love Casablanca?