I’m Officially Salty

Aging, imposter syndrome, useful skills for creatives, and the book ban news

I’ve had these ceramic salt and pepper shakers for about 40 years. Nicked, broken, and glued. Somewhat like me.

Hello friends!

Tomorrow is my birthday and I will officially be a senior citizen, so I’m trying to lean into that. Not easy! TBH, not loving it. Deep breaths.

Here's a photo of me with some friends enjoying an outdoor book event for Exit Prohibited a few weeks ago. In an effort to accept aging, I’m going with my natural hair, which is now salt and pepper. As I told an acquaintance, I’ve become pretty salty. She thought that was a good thing.

I’m in the center with my salt and pepper hair. On the left is Linda Rhoades and on the right is Robin Longfield. We are longtime writing buddies.

I got to be the featured local author at the Upland City Library for the month of June. That was sweet and kind. There was a little display of me and some quotes from my chapbook The Morality of Dogs and Humans. In September, I get to participate in an event there that’s all about dogs—and what could be better than that? ❤️

At my niece’s wedding, my brother told me he saw my HuffPost essay featured on Google News and recognized the photo of me at age twelve. I thought that was funny. I’d vetted the essay with my sisters because it includes them, but I forgot to tell him about it. It was viral enough that he found it.

Thanks to

Sari Botton

for featuring that essay in her

Memoir Land

weekly roundup. She always includes lots of excellent personal essays, so I am honored. If you’re a fan of personal essays, check Memoir Land out. 

My book contract arrived for my YA novel about a girl escaping a polygamist cult. I’m excited about starting the publication process. It looks like the novel will be available this coming May. More on that later. 

Imposter Syndrome and what a writer/creative needs

I have an online interview with Bold Journey. I think my answers might be useful for people working on creative projects, so I’m adding the interview here. 

Hi Victoria, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

Imposter Syndrome is recurrent. I work on keeping it in check as I move through each project. I think there’s a lot of pressure in any kind of endeavor to do something bigger or better the next time or we think we are failures. Instead of thinking of things that way, I try to remember that each project has its own heart, its own center. 

One of things I find very helpful in keeping Imposter Syndrome at bay is to cut out anything that is based on ‘How do I make people like me?’ (Trying to garner social media likes, comments, and followers, etc.). That’s a way to produce stress, not a way to produce creative writing. Instead, I always try to focus on ‘What will I write that will help me gather with—be in conversation with—like-minded people?’ It’s a lot more satisfying.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Focus is an interesting thing for me in that I’ve made a career in author-adjacent spaces. It’s easy to think of this as wasted time in terms of the creative life. That would be a mistake because my writing ideas don’t come from sitting at a desk in front of a computer. They come from my interaction with the larger world.

I spent many years as an educator in high schools. I’m a passionate reader, and, as both an English teacher and a teacher librarian, I was able to share my lifelong love of books. Some of my published stories are about what it’s like to help teens, mostly with issues unrelated to the classroom (e.g., those who are being abused). 

Being in the library was particularly meaningful because I could bring a diverse collection to teens and meet them where they were at without having a required text.

To create a library collection that served a diverse student body, I had to read a lot of book reviews and a lot of books themselves. In doing that as well as in talking with the teens about what they wanted, I came up with the idea for my upcoming YA novel about a girl escaping a polygamist cult. The novel will launch in 2025. (Publishing is a slow game!)

The novel I’m currently querying is about book banning in a public high school. (Well, like all novels, it’s really about relationships, but it’s centered on book banning.) Book challenges and parents upset with curriculum choices are something I’ve lived repeatedly. My experience gave me the idea for the book.

What I’m saying here is that sometimes you do work that you might resent for taking time away from your creative journey. But it becomes part of your creative journey. It sparks the idea for the work of art or the story or the novel. It informs the story. 

As for what I’m doing that’s new: I started a Substack weekly newsletter entitled “Be a Cactus.” (Creative people need to be a bit ‘prickly,’ I think). Querying my book-banning novel is a lot of pressure, so I wanted to have a low-pressure conversation with readers and writers about writing-related things, including publishing. And I also wanted to share weekly news on book bans and challenges happening in the U.S. As I mentioned in discussing Imposter Syndrome, it’s a focus on like-minded people.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

One skill and two qualities that are vital for writers are:

Distillation
Compassion
Endurance

I believe these three are useful not just for writing, but for any endeavor. 

Accept all ideas before narrowing them down. But the trimming, the sculpting, is just as important. 

Creative ideas are served by compassion. It helps the writer move work into a space that connects that work with others.

Endurance allows for overcoming failures. Publishing is a long game and repeated rejection is a rite of passage. But even before the publication phase of a project, endurance matters. There’s a saying among writers that ‘writing is rewriting.’ Over and over. In many creative endeavors, success is all about altering the pattern repeatedly.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played an important role in your development?

I love that you asked this question because—books! 

The book that helped me develop as a girl was Little Women.¹ While it’s a kid’s book and fairly saccharine, it introduced me to the idea that girls deserve to have their own creative space. It introduced me to a girl whose family was supportive of her efforts. 

As a young adult, I read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. It’s a more mature, deeper dive into the discussion of women’s status. While the educational opportunities for women have improved since Woolf’s time, the essential fact remains: a woman, particularly one involved in a creative endeavor (in her case, writing), must have her own money and space in order to create.

Spiritual Abuse

I've been thinking a lot about autonomy and abuse by spiritual leaders since that’s what my upcoming novel is about. If you are trying to work through some of that, check out

STRONGWILLED

.  The last two posts:

Chapter 8: Adolescence and the Illusion of Choice

“RAP movement's use of the illusion of choice—by giving teens pre-approved media—in order to stop natural teenage autonomy-seeking in its tracks.”

Most recently, the topic was the connection between eugenics (looking at you, James Dobson) and the evangelical movement. 

Chapter 9: Children of the Positive Eugenics Movement

As you can see, this week the spiritual abuse beat goes on: 

Texas megachurch pastor resigns amid allegations he sexually abused a minor from the Washington Post

Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church, is accused of inappropriately touching a girl over several years in the 1980s, starting when she was 12 years old.

Morris was among a group of evangelical pastors and leaders who served on an unofficial faith advisory group for the Trump administration. The group, whose members fluctuated, would come to the White House for briefings and pose with Trump for photos. While their actual influence on policy wasn’t clear, the public images were powerful for conservative Christians who had felt unseen by previous presidents. Trump was among a roundtable of top White House officials in 2020 at Gateway, where he called Morris and another church leader “great people with a great reputation.”

Library and book challenge/ban news 

Before we look at book challenges, let’s note this, from Jane Friedman’s blog, by Kate Stewart: Free Resources for Writers at the Public Library These resources actually work for many tasks and are not just for writers. NoveList is great for readers who are looking for the next good book. Have a look.

On to the book challenges and bans

Trouble in Censorville: Teachers Describe Trauma Inflicted in the War on Education from PEN America

This is well worth the read. Teachers who are targeted for using materials about racism and more. An art teacher who is accused of pornography because they drew nude figures as a student in a college art class. Just so crazy. Trouble in Censorville is a book of oral histories. Tomorrow is the publication date and Censorville.com will go live with a number of videos, including recordings of the educators — or actors portraying them — reading their full testimonies, as well as an exclusive interview with Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America. 

States That Have Banned Book Bans: Book Censorship News, June 14, 2024. From Book Riot

Several states nationwide have floated legislation to curtail book bans this year. Some of those bills, like the one proposed in Utah, were not only voted down but were superseded with bills that actually further fuel book bans. Other anti-book ban bills, however, made their way successfully through to law.

Let’s take a look at the states that have addressed the right to read and access materials at the library by law.

LGBTQ+ librarians grapple with attacks on books - and on themselves from the Washington Post 

Worldwide Pride Month events are underway but they are coming at a time when many people who identify as LGBTQ+ say they are facing increasing difficulties at work, ranging from being repeatedly misgendered to physically assaulted.

Texas librarian's big stand against book bans from the San Antonio Current

In Llano County, a local librarian fought back against censorship, prompting a federal court fight and national recognition but losing the job of her dreams.

Ron DeSantis just put the co-founder of a book ban advocacy group on Florida's state ethics commission from Yahoo News

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is putting the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which pushes for book bans, on the state's Commission on Ethics.

The Culture Wars Came to a California Suburb. A Leader Has Been Ousted from the NYT

Voters recalled a Southern California school board president after his conservative majority approved policies on critical race theory and transgender issues.

“People are moving here so they can put their kids in the school district,” said Jeff Pack, whose One Temecula Valley PAC led the recall effort. “They don’t want all this partisan political warfare, this culture war stuff getting in the way.”

Across California, conservative board members elected as part of the same wave that swept Mr. Komrosky and his colleagues into office are facing similar recall efforts.

Official book bans are dangerous but soft book bans are worse from the San Francisco Chronicle

In the following multi-part Statehouse File special report, Sydney Byerly examines the history of, motivation behind and varying reactions to Indiana's recent embrace of book banning. It includes some interesting details about the history of book bans in US schools. From TheStatehouseFile.com Franklin College's Pulliam School of Journalism

Not a novel idea: The lasting narrative of book bans—Part I in a series 

Not a novel idea: The lasting narrative of book bans—Part II in a series

Not a novel idea: The lasting narrative of book bans—Part III in a series

Not a novel idea: The lasting narrative of book bans—Part IV in a series

ACLU and ACLU of South Carolina Sound Alarm on Sweeping New Book Ban Law from the ACLU

Titled “Uniform Procedure for Selection or Reconsideration of Instructional Materials,” this regulation was crafted by Ellen Weaver’s South Carolina Department of Education and sets a statewide policy banning books that contain descriptions of “sexual conduct” and “excretory functions.” This broad definition could be used to remove a vast range of literature from South Carolina schools, including classics like The Canterbury Tales,² 20th-century masterpieces like 1984, and even children’s books like Everyone Poops.

“Superintendent Weaver is seeking to hand unprecedented power to pro-censorship groups, overriding students’ freedom to read as well as parents’ right to direct their own children’s education,” said Josh Malkin, advocacy director at ACLU of South Carolina. “At a time when we can’t afford to lose more educators, the superintendent’s book banning policy would place mountains of paperwork and a threat of punishment on the backs of public school teachers and librarians. We’re calling on the superintendent to walk back this dangerous and draconian regulation.”

What’s going on in South Carolina is worth a deeper look. Check out the

Popular Information

Substack’s South Carolina poised to impose draconian censorship regime on school libraries to see just how frightening and far reaching this new law is. 

Iowa Senator Tells Schools Use Moms For Liberty’s BookLooks, Book of Books to Remove Books from Book Riot

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa issued an injunction on SF 496 in December related to the Penguin Random House lawsuit. This meant that the portion of the bill related to book bans could not be enforced until a decision in the case was made.

Despite the injunction, Iowa schools have been banning books in line with the vague and broad language in the bill since the start of 2024. The Des Moines Register, through open records requests, found that of the 3,400 books removed from school districts prior to the injunction, 2,000 were still not available to students. Among those unavailable to students include books that are common curriculum titles, including The Handmaid’s Tale, Slaughter-House Five, and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Other books include popular targets by groups like Moms For Liberty, such as And Tango Makes Three, Identical, Tricks, New Kid, 19 Minutes, and more.

Perhaps it comes as little surprise that it has been the work of Moms For Liberty via their BookLooks website and Polk County’s Book of Books which have become a guidepost for several school districts in the state, thanks to one of the State Senators who championed the bill.

Authors Against Book Bans Officially Launches from Publishers Weekly

Right-wing group gets Anne Frank's Diary and other Holocaust books taken from Texas school from Raw Story

Superintendent Carol Perez agreed to the demands to remove 676 books, including a number of books that address the Holocaust and antisemitism.

"In Mission, the long list of books on the chopping block includes a recent illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary; both volumes of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir 'Maus'; 'The Fixer,' Bernard Malamud’s novel about a historical instance of antisemitic blood libel; and 'Kasher in the Rye,' a ribald memoir by Jewish comedian Moshe Kasher," the report said.

What I’m Reading

Agave Blues by Ruthie Marleneé

Lots of magazines in airport waiting areas

1. I had an essay on my experience with Little Women published in

The Books That Made Us

. It’s here. 

2. I taught high school English for a dozen years. A few times, my sophomores read “The Miller’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales. There’s a wildly funny moment where a hopeful lover begs for a kiss from the carpenter’s wife, Alisoun. She is already having an affair with another man. In darkness, she sticks her butt out the window to allow her ‘nether’ eye to be kissed. Maybe if I had a class reading this today, I’d be fired. But hey—the object was to read literature from outside the US. All the kids liked it, the parents didn’t object. We got through a medieval tale and part of the Western canon to boot. Not bad.