Book Progress and Administration

We are working on getting the photos.  We found one that Oxford U press already owns so that was good.   The next step will be copyediting.

I am still writing the history chapter.  It is going slowly because I have so many sources.  Someone will have to put it in some sort of order so that it flows well.  I found a time line on the African American Studies website.  I copied the pertinent items to another time line.  I have two other time lines that will have to be combined.

I still have to write the introductory chapeter and there are some women that I have to interview.

Next week I will try to interview the women.  I have given them enough time to get ready and I want to do it before the holidays.

I fianally worked on the administration part of the book.  I am now the owner of Sister Chemists LLC.  I have a tax id so that I can set up a checking account and get my royality advance.  The LLC is to manage the royalties, if any other than the advance.  Right now I need to money for the book expenses.  Some of the companies charge for the photos.

Now that the business part is done I will get down to writing next week.

Jeannette Brown

Background History

Well my assistant is working on getting photos from the book.  This means we are politely begging some of the women in the book for photos which is the best way to do it.  The publisher can scan them for printing better than we can.  The next best is to have a high resolution scan made.  Sometimes we have to pay for this service.
OK While she is doing that I am struggeling with the background history chapter.  I have a lot of information the problem is how to consolidate it into one chapter.  I will put the references at the back of the chapter for further reading.
Well since I took the Web 2.0 course which says I need to keep blogging, I am doing it.  But I also have to get back to the book.
More later.
Jeannette Brown

News about the book and other things

The good news about the book is that we are making progress!  I say we because I have a team helping me. I have hired a young woman who is studying for a PhD in African American History at Rutgers University. Her name is Shannen and she has experience in putting a book together.  We started last Friday searching for photos for the book.  I also have a young woman whom I am calling an intern, who will work for me.  She was recommended by one of the women from the Princeton Research Forum of which I am a member.  This young woman lives in Trenton, she goes to Mercer County Community College, and she wants to learn about publishing a book.  She will start next week.  So hopefully we are on track to get the book finished in December.

There is still a lot of work to do.  Besides getting the photos and the photo permissions, we have to get
permissions to use some of the text in the book and then copy edit the entire book to see that it fits into the size dictated by my contract so we have a long hard road to go.

I have dedicated all my time togetting this done.

However, as I look at the book I realize there is a lot more to say so that I have material for another book!  I have only talked about the women for whom there is a lot of public
information.  I have a list of women whom were listed in who's who in Black America that I would have to research or take their oral history.

Speaking of oral history, I did take a break to attend the Oral History Organization meeting in Atlanta last week.  I presented a paper about one of the women whose oral history had been released to the Chemical Heritage Foundation.  Her name is Reatha Clark King.   Since oral histories are private until they are released to the public, I could only talk about the women who have released their oral history.

This is not true for the book since most of the information in the book is already public.

While in Atlanta I did some research at Emory University archives.  The archives of Sinah Kelley one of the women in the book was there.  I waited through seven boxes of stuff. It was like wading through the attic of a person.  Sinah was born in 1916 so she was one of the pioneers in chemistry.  Her diary was there along with baby photos and a photo of her college graduation.  She went to Radcliff College so ten year and twenty-five year alumni books were there.  The good news is that she wrote about what she had been doing since college graduation so that I have some of her life in her own
words!  It is an interesting story.

At the Oral History conference, I took a short course in Web 2.0.  Blogging is Web 2.0 and I learned I need to blog more often.  Therefore, look for posts that are more frequent from me.

Jeannette Brown

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night

I will be walking the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk for the fifth year in a row. I have worked on this fund raiser every year since I was first diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. It is truly an inspiring evening of walking with lighted balloons, red for supporters and white for survivors and gold for those who have lost the battle.
I not only walk for myself but for all those who have suffered from blood cancers some of them in silence.

I have become a patient advocate to spread the word about blood cancer. Few people know that SEPTEMBER IS BLOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH IN NEW JERSEY.

The LLS is trying to make September blood cancer awareness month nationwide. You can help by contacting your congress person. Here is the link:Act now to make September Blood Cancer Awareness Month

The Light the Night New Jersey Team will be on Good Morning America on Channel 7 ABC on Wednesday September 22. I don't know if it is an interview or just in the audience as I have been. The show airs from 7 AM to 9 AM when I am usually exercising so I will watch it on the Internet.

I am walking the Light the Night walk on Saturday October 2 at Princeton Forrestal Village. The ceremony starts at 5:00 PM and is usually over by 9:00 PM. We walk rain or shine in warm weather and cold weather and I have had all of that.

If you would like to donate to my team my web page is :

http://pages.lightthenight.org/nj/Colonial10/jbrown_LTN45



I hope you donate the cost of one less cup of Starbucks coffee or Latte even more if your company will match.

You have until JANUARY 31 TO DONATE! Think about your tax deductions.

Remember I am walking for a cure. The researchers are close to getting cures for some blood cancers but they need money for this. Researchers are humans who have families and houses and need to eat so you will be stimulating the economy by donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!!! Think of that!

Jeannette Brown

Vacations, Book Writing, Summertime

Well two weeks ago I went on a vacation, sort of. It was supposed to be a wonderful vacation in the Berkshires with music, dance, relaxation and only a little book writing. The Berkshires are in western Massachusetts and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tangelwood. I used to go there all the time when my girl friend had her house up there. This time I invited to share my girl friends time share along with several others of her friends. We had tickets to a lot of concerts and there is going to be time for me to edit what I had written and send it off to my personal editors. At least that was the grand plan. It started off OK even though we had a two hour delay driving up due to traffic and construction in New Jersey. We got to Tangelwood in time for the preview concert, followed by a picnic dinner supplied by our overnight host and hostess. We were staying overnight, the first night at the home of one of my friends because we could not get into the time share until Saturday. Moving into the time share was ok as were the concerts at Tangelwood. Sunday night was a concert by Audra McDonald which was great.

Then came Monday. I went for a swim and came back for breakfast. My girlfriend took a walk in the woods and then decided to go for a swim in the outdoor pool, (I went in the indoor pool that opens at 8, and the outdoor pool opens at 10 AM. My friend was in a hurry because she had to leave for a meeting another part of Mass and I was going to meet with a chemist friend of mine who lives in the Berkshires. She was rushing to the pool and did not see the glass door, she thought it was open and ran into it. She fell and fractured her wrist which we found out after six hours in the ER. So that shot Monday.

The rest of the week was spent nursing her with the help of the other women that came.

But having said that, I did get some things done on the book. I took two afternoons when I sat in my "t office" on the balcony of the time share. I edited what I had written so now I have the second draft of some of writings about the women. I sent it off to a personal editor and she is looking at it. Editing is a great process, especially when you edit more than one segment of the book. You get to see the big picture and make connections between the women. It will help me write the overview chapter, but this blog is helping me do that. I did get to get away to visit with my friend in the Berkshires. I also got to take the car to see the Rockwell museum in Stockbridge Mass and wonder at the scenery.

It was about this time that my editor told me if I want a book launch in August 2011 he needs to see the book in early December not late December as I had planned. So when I came back home I started to speed up my writing. I set a new time table to finish writing in September do the back stuff in October and finally putting together and editing in November. Therefore I can't let life get in the way of my writing. That is easier said than done. I got two days of writing done last week. Hopefully next week will be better.

I take the book with me wherever I go as now I am on route to a ScienceMakers board meeting in Chicago by train. I brought the information about one woman with me to write about during the break times and on the train.

Here are some observations about the book:

• Research can now be done by Google as well as going to the library. With Googling you need to have patience because I found some good information after 25 pages. Maybe I did not ask the right questions. You can also find some of their research in Google Scholar.
  
• I am very much indebted to Dr. Winni Warren who wrote Black Women Scientists in America. Although I started my research long before she did, she was meticulous in her research and I check her references as well as the new ones I discover by googling. I have t told her this and she has encouraged me to write my book.
  
• Ebony magazine has portrayed the lives of many of the women in the book including a complete spread about a husband and wife couple who were scientists in Albuquerque New Mexico. I think Ebony was more interested in the fact that they were the Black middle class along with four others in the town at the time. The fact that they were scientists did not seem to interest them at the time.
  
• The University of Chicago was the university that many of the women went to for their Ph. D. research. It far out numbers the other institutions
  
• I will go through all of the women in the book and point out similar connections. Right now have three or more women born in 1926.
  
• I have also used genealogy in Ancestry .Com to find out more information about these women. I will tell that to Dr. Henry Lewis Gates Jr. who helped me get my publisher.
  

Well that's all for now.

Jeannette Brown

 

E

Half way through maybe

Well today, I finished the first drafts of the women that I have a lot of information about with the exception of one or two. Now I have to decide if I am going to write up woman that I don't have much more information about than is published.

I looked at one woman and sent for more information via interlibrary loan. I no longer go to the libraries to do the research I let the library bring the books to me. That way I can write and not waste time in travel. I am still taking the oral histories of women where there is not a lot of published information.

I expect to look at my first drafts while on vacation in the Berkshires and then release them to my personal editors for review. I still have a lot of the back work to do, index references etc. Book writing is hard, but fun.

Jeannette

Book Progress to date

Wow. Sorry for the long time between posts. You would think I have been busy writing but I have been busy and sometimes writing. I am not as far along as I wanted to be on this date, but I am working on it. My mentors have been pushing me to write and not procrastinate. For example I have postponed a visit to an orthopedic doctor because even though both knees bother me at times and so does my hip, I can still walk and exercise so adding another doctor to my group is not what I need at this time.

I have also been busy with American Chemical Society business. I gave four African American middle school and high school students' awards last Tuesday. I will post their photos on the website soon. These are the possible future chemists and future readers of my book or website.

I need to schedule two oral histories of two women for my book. They are both in the Washington DC area so that I can do it easily but the problem is scheduling. It seems other 70 year olds are as busy as I am.

I am also still doing some research for the book. For this, I am choosing to sit at home at my computer and let my library send me the documents by interlibrary loan as long as it exists in New Jersey. Our new Governor is cutting budgets one of them being the library budget by 74%!!!!! Penny wise and pound-foolish.

So I am going to write today Saturday, and I hope to get out into the garden later this afternoon. I cannot sit and look at the computer all day; I have to give my eyes a rest!

Jeannette

Speed Bump by Dave Coverly on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Speed Bump by Dave Coverly on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Writing and Research or both

I spent last week writing about Eslanda Goode Robeson. Wow. There is so much written about her as she was Paul Robeson's wife. That is the good news. The bad news is that everything conflicts with everything else. It is as if everyone has his or her own interpretation of her life. I guess I am writing another interpretation but some things should be facts and should agree. At least that is what I think as a scientific researcher, but that does not seem to be so. The one fact that I am talking about is when she graduated from Columbia University and when she entered for that matter. Some say she spent two years at the University of Illinois and then went to Columbia and some say she left the U of Illinois in her senior years. I have seen graduation dates from Colombia that range for 1914 to 1920! I have seen a graduation photo of her wearing an academic gown that looks like that of a PhD and not a BS, but maybe they wore those types of gowns early in the 20th Century at Columbia. She does have a PhD in Anthropology from Hartford Seminary.

Therefore, I guess I will try to solve this problem by checking with the Columbia University archives and yearbooks if they have this information. My Oxford University editors might ask me these questions so I might as well get the answers now.

Also photos. So far, there is only one photo that I will have to pay for from a newspaper. I hope to get permission to use other photos for little or no money. I am doing this as I go along so I do not have to do it at the last minutes. I may have more photos then will be printed in the book but I can use them for website that will be an addition to the book. I think I am writing for the website as what I write is long but it will be up to the editors to shorten the writing for the book.

I have been asked to do a short version of one of my women for church. I think I will write about Eslanda Robeson because of her connection to the United Church of Christ via her grandfather and there is the New Jersey connection with her husband. This will be my Black History month speech at church.

You should see my office now. Since there is so much written about Essie Robeson I have papers and books strewn around everywhere. I sit the middle of this mess and either type or ponder which version to use.

There is a budding Writers group here in the Hillsborough Library. I went out to the meeting last Thursday. Only three of us showed up and the organizer of the group did not show. So the three of us introduced ourselves. One woman writes romance novels and has published many; the other woman is a science writer for Pharma for a living and wants to start writing poetry. She brought a poem for us to review. We do not know yet what this group is going to do because the leader did not show up, but it was nice meeting those two women. My monthly lunch with the Princeton Research Forum people was canceled due to the snowstorm. That was to be Thursday also.

Well that is where I am now.

No one has answered my Black History Month quiz yet. Did I stump you?

Jeannette

Black History Month 1. African American Women in Science

I write three blogs off and on. This month I will put the same information in all three blogs, because it is Black History Month and I want to convey some information to the public.


As you know I am writing a book about the history of African Amercan women chemists so I am going to give you a quiz.

Ok. Its up to you to tell me who they are and what they did. That's a hint they are all deceased. The people who read this blog should not have a problem with this quiz.

Good Luck
Jeannette

MLK Day

Well today was supposed to be a day of service.  I chose not to go anywhere as writing this book is a service.

Since I seem to like to do research rather than write, I did some more research.  I looked up Dr Quentin Deming, Dr. Marie Daly first research partner.  I found out that at 90 he is still living!  At least he was in October when he signed the physician petition to Obama about health care. He lives in New Hampshire. I will try to call him and ask if I can do a taped interview about his work with Dr. Daly. I will see what he remembers.

I also e-mailed Dr. Lane again about the ACS taking up Dr. Daly. I e-mailed Dr. Malcolm about the video tape again giving her a copy of her seconding nomination of Dr. Daly for the Garvan medal. She mentioned the video in that nomination. Janet Bryant the new ACS women chemist committee chair said they would help with the search.

Next, I will write about Josephine Silane Yates. She is the first African American woman to head a science department.

Jeannette

MLK Day

Friday of Week II

Well guess what? I finally started writing and it was not painful at all. Thursday I spent the day procrastinating by looking for some information about Dr. Marie Daly that I had all along. I started the article about Dr. Daly when I wrote. The people who reviewed my book proposal wanted me to gear the story to young women so I started by setting up a scenario in which they would be living in the early part of the twentieth century and be a young Negro girl. I hope I did it right. Then I attached the segment that I had written about Dr. Daly for "African National Biography" I have been told that I could site myself. I changed the segment by adding more information. This segment about Dr. Daly is long, but that is OK, as I have decided for all the segments in the book I would make them longer than the final version. This way I will get all the pertinent information into the segment and we can edit it down to the right length. To me this makes sense since it would be harder to add more information than to delete it.

In some segments, I may be adding information because I will write and add more info as I do more research.

I feel good now as the weight of starting to write is off my shoulders. I was going to go to Washington DC on Wednesday to a meeting at the American Chemical Society, but since I was not able to write last week because the dog was sick I do not think I can waste the time. Writing some of the other segments will be harder because they have yet to be written. I did not write about all the women who are going to be in the book for African American National Biography.

Jeannette

Week 2 Day 1

Well I still have not written anything but I did make progress. My editor sent me the booklet for authors.  It turns out his former assistant did not send me the the most recent information about that so I was looking for a glossy photo.  The most recent information says a high resolution scanned photo will do.
 I sent the photos of Dr. Marie Daly to the archivist at Einstein College of Medicine.  The archivist sent back the high resolution photos that I can use for the book.  Now I have to make sure I have permission to use them.  I have the name of the photographer that I will credit.  I guess I have to send a form to the archivist although she said it was OK since they did not take the pictures.
I also contacted the alumni association person at Einstein for information as to how to contact students and mentees of Dr. Daly.  Dr. Daly was part of a program to get more minorities to study to become doctors called the King-Kennedy program.  I have a photo of her with some of the students in that program.
The rest of the day was spent contacting two other women who will be in the book because their oral histories are ready for their review.  I needed to get them to send it to me and the person at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in charge of the women in science oral history program.
The dog is better but still not eating well.
Jeannette

Friday of week 1

Yesterday was bad as my dog is sick and I spent time taking her to the vet and worrying about her.
Today I got back to business.  I am still working on Dr. Daly.  I managed to recive an e-mail from the archivist at Einstein College of Medicine wher Dr. Daly worked.  I am in the process of getting photos for the book.  I will also contact the alumni association to find former students of hers.
Saturday is the day I chose to catch up on housework and work on the American Chemical Society volunteer work.
Jeannette

Writing?

OK. Today was Wednesday.  If all went well I should have had the afternoon to write.  You guessed it all did not go well.  It started at 3 AM when I woke up to my dog vomiting on my cap.  She liked it up but vomited again later that morning.  I took her for a walk and then went to the gym.  My day was supposed to be a doctor's appointment after the gym and then an appointment for Shakie my dog at 1 followed by writing.
My dog did not want to eat this morning so I called the vet because she had diabeatis and needs to eat before I give her insulin.  Since she did not eat, the vet said give her a half dose of insulin.
I went to my doctor's appointment and when I came back my dog did not look good.  She was just lying and she would not get up.  I called the vet and told them I was bringing her in.  I called a friend to get someone to lift her into the car since she was not going to walk on her own.
The vet did blood tests and gave her fluids.  They think she has pancreatitis.  They sent me home with special dog food.  I have to try to get her to ear tomorrow.
So that was my day of not writing.
Jeannette

Writing day 2!

Well today was my doctor's appointment.  I got out early and home by three, in time to write.  I am reading a book of science history to give me some idea as to how to write.  The author included some conversation of the person. 
Therefor I reviewed the video that I have of Dr. Marie Daly again.  There are some segments of that conversation that I may be able to use.
I also started to do some more research into her life at Rockerfeller Institute.  I found the archives but there is a lot of stuff.  I think I will consult with the archivist as to whether it is worth a trip to Tarrytown NY to look at the archives. 
I probably have enough information about Dr Daly to write about her.
I have not heard from the people I e-mailed yesterday.  I will give them one more day, tomorrow and then bug them again.
Jeannette

New Year Start of writing

Today I started with the woman who is the reason I am starting to write a book, Dr. Marie Daly.  Dr. Daly was the first African American woman to receive a PhD in chemistry.  When I met her and found out that I thought she was living history.  She became sort of my honorary role model.  As an African American woman chemist, I decided to find out about the other women who wanted to become chemists and tell their stories.
I have done a lot of research into the story about Dr. Daly but today I decided to do some more.  There is a group in the American Chemical Society that want to have her life lifted up as a role model for other young women and men like they did the life of Dr. Percy Julian.  I don't know if we will be able to have NOVA do a video about her life, but we can have a private video made.
Today I sent e-mails to the ACS about this and to the archivist of Einstein College of Medicine where Dr. Daly worked.  I needed to get permission from the archivist to use the photo of Dr. Daly and see if they have any more information about Dr. Daly.  I also want to reach out to her students to get their stories.  There is also a professor their that wrote her memorial for the Einstein Collge of Medicine news magazine.  I would like to speak to him if he is still alive.
I also contacted the archivist of the American society for the Advancement of Sciene.  Dr. Shirley Malcom told me that she had a video of Dr. Daly speaking about her career.  Also Dr. Daly was one of the chemists that took part in the orgiginal discussion about minority women in science that resulted in the paper called "The Double Bind".  The 40th? anniversary of that paper is coming soon and I want to present a symposium about that paper and the update now at the ACS meeting in Boston next summer so I was interested in data about that.
The other place I need information from is Rockefeller Institue now University.  That is wher Dr. Daly first worked.  I will check with the archivist there tomorrow.
This is all I had time for today.  I do need to start writing, but I have already written about Dr. Daly in "African American National Biography".  In fact when I Googled Dr. Daly the article that I wrote about her came up.
It is so hard to write at home because things interfer.  For example today I was going to start early but I had to drive my housemate to rent a car since her car was totatled in an accident.  Therefore I did not get started until afternoon.  Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I have doctors appointments so my next full day is Friday.  I will try to sneak something in tomorrow and Wednesday though.
Jeanntte Brown