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I don’t have to travel till Saturday and I am SO relieved! Seattle was wonderful and I had a nice trip up to Toronto, but I am very glad I’ll be at home for most of this month. I’d really like to write tonight but I finished an essay yesterday and just feel drained…time to soak the sponge and feed my imagination. In Toronto I visited Another Story Bookstore and picked up a couple of books by Canadian authors ($43 CDN for 2 paperbacks!!) so will try to get some reading done this week. The cost of living in Toronto is no joke. A 1BR is now averaging more than $2000/month and mailing a t-shirt to my friend who lives just outside the city cost $20. And that was regular post—not express! Riding just one stop on the express train cost $5. It would take a big adjustment if I ever moved back, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. The weather was cold and gloomy, but I was pleasantly surprised by the warm reception I got at the OLA Super Conference. I don’t think most of the librarians I met had ever heard of me before, but they stood in line to get a signed copy of SAY HER NAME. I didn’t see many people of color, which was disappointing, and I had mixed feelings about being a Forest of Reading nominee when I’ve never been published in Canada. So my book isn’t really Canadian…*I* am, and that makes me eligible for certain awards. But it feels like we’re letting the racist Canadian publishing industry off the hook by embracing authors who are publishing in the US. Another Story is such a beautiful bookstore—and everywhere you turn, there are books by and about BIPOC. I took photos of several displays when I realized that almost all the books were by US authors. It’s not the store’s fault—they can only display what’s being published. I’m grateful that they’re carrying three of my traditionally published books, and I think they’ll order my indie titles for those who are interested. But what’s to be done for the reader who wants Black Canadian content? I worry that proximity to the US and access to African American authors will make it easy for Canadian publishers to shrug off demands for more Black Canadian kid lit authors. Will I ever be published in Canada? I don’t know. The latest Diversity Baseline Survey from Lee & Low shows that the US publishing industry is still overwhelmingly White. Canada, as far as I know, doesn’t even bother to track racial disparities in its literary community.

Time for bed. I’m looking into visiting an Amish farm this week since that’s the setting of my latest novel. I did a Twitter chat this evening with college students in TX, and on Friday I’ll do a virtual visit with 2nd graders in Boston. Wednesday I meet with the teen poets at The Mix. And Saturday is our event at Uncle Bobbie’s. Then I’m off to CA for the week! And THEN I have a stretch of open days. February has one extra day this year and I’ll need it!