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