Saturday, September 3, 2011
End of Book Production
Friday, June 17, 2011
The best laid plans of mice and men and editors.
I have been waiting for it by catching up on my blogs and finances. The problem is the deadline was June 30, which is the date I leave for the church conference and I thought I could go work free. Now I don't know what will happen. Oh well.
This is another learning experience in writing a book. Hurry up and wait.
Writing the book was another experience. I had to get permission to publish from all the living women. I sent them what I wrote and they rewrote it so most of the living women wrote their autobiographies in my book, which is great. I also took some of the oral histories of the living women which will be archived in the Chemical Heritage Foundation. They had to approve the transcript of the oral history before I could use it. So even though I had the oral history on my computer I could not use the information from it until it was approved. I got into trouble with one woman because of that. I wrote her story from the publication which was available to me. When I sent it to her she said that it was all wrong and the published book was wrong! How was I to know that! She had the transcript of her oral history but she did not take the time to read it. So after three months of having this in her possession she decided not to be in the book because I was on deadline. I was so mad because she is a Spelman professor and the cover of the book shows Spelman women. I will not give her name because she apologized to me and we are still friends. I have only one Spelman woman in the book.
Two other women dropped out at the last minute because they did not want to review what I wrote. I was upset about that, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Another woman I had scheduled a telephone oral history. I wanted to visit her in person but I had a hard time getting in touch with her to schedule the visit. So I was ready to take the oral history and when I called she said she was busy and could she write something and send it to me. Oh well. What she wrote I already had from a published book so I just used it.
Those were the trials and tribulations of writing a book about living people. The dead ones are easier unless I hear from their relatives. I did speak to the widower of one of my women about his wife. I got a lot of background information from him.
I intend to write another book, now that I know how to do it. I have a list of women that I will have to find by genealogical studies, but that will be fun.
Jeannette Brown
Sisterchemists LLC
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Good News about the Book Progress
What I want to talk about now is the production schedule. I got an e-mail from my production editor and the printer about the schedule. Tomorrow June 16 I should receive the copy edited copy of the book. I have until June 30 to accept or correct the book according to what the copy editor wants. This will be the only time I can make major changes to the book. I have alerted all the women who wrote their own stories that I might be calling upon them to accept or make changes. We have to keep to the schedule as it is very tight.
Next the book will be typeset for printing and I will receive the galley proofs on or about July 23. I can only look at the galleys for major spelling errors but I can't make major changes then. I also will have to write the index of the book. I could not do this before because I did not have the pages. I hope that part will go well since I have never done this before, but that is like a lot of things about book writing that are new to me. I have until August 23 to get this done.
From then on the book gets printed by October 16 and publication date is December 15. Which means you will have books to give out as Christmas gifts! I will give books to all the women and or their relatives in the book. If they want more I will sell them to them at my author's price.
I am very excited about this but I have a lot of work to do between now and the end of the summer, so vacation is over.
Jeannette Brown
Sisterchemists LLC
Friday, February 4, 2011
Copyright permissions
I just spent two days trying to chase down the publisher of a book that I cited for permission. The author holds the copyright but the publisher gives the permission. Well the publisher has changed since 1994, it was bought out by another publisher. Actually the book was published by a small publisher in Boston who I guess sold it to a bigger publisher for distribution. I contacted the author's assistant and found out that she was ill and I should go to the editor of the small publisher which I did.
Her's where the fun begins. I went to the publisher and they use a service called RightsLink or Copyright.com. I just spent three or more hours fighting with their website trying to get the information to the publisher to aceept or reject. I created an account with Copyright.Com only to find that when I wanted to submit my information it was =gone! It had been deleted from the server. Well I did this three times and then I picked up the phone and called them. The man who answered submitted the information on my behalf and had the same problem.
So now it is up to the IT people to figure out what went wrong! When I signed up for the account on Copyright.com it kept giving me the wrong city when I put in my correct zip code. It gave me a town in Massachusettes and not New Jersey! I worked my way around that one.
So here I sit with more stuff to edit and I am exhausted!
The good news is that I did get written permission from the author of Black Women Scientists in American to use information that I cited from her book! She has been supportive of my work all along so I am excited about that. She want's a copy of the book. I will drive to her house and present it in person. She is now disabled since she had a stroke about two years ago.
In spite of the fact I have no money I want to hire a student to do some of the typing and follow up for permissions that my former assistant did. I have to get this book out!
OK. Back to the real world.
Jeannette
PS I am glad the weather is bad as I go nowhere anyhow. My life revolves around book, music, knitting and dinner.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
MLK' s I Have a Dream Speech done by 4th grade students
I thought it was so cute that I put it here in this blog. Here is the YouTube link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_1NYYKixM
Here is the PBS News Hour link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june11/dream_01-17.html
I like the News Hour version best.
Enjoy.
I posted this on my church blog, it is fitting on this blog as well.
Jeannette Brown
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Book Progress to Date
I am e-mailing and snailmailing the stories of the living women to them for permission to publish and also for their editing if they want. Then I will compile all the stories in the book.
Then the work begins because I can already see the word count will be too high. I may just send it off to my editor for him to make the cuts. The longer version will be posted on the website I have been told.
I have finally received my royalty advance and I have been asked to supply art for the book cover so this is going to happen!
I have taking some similar books out of the library and purchased one to see what format for the book should be. I am learning a lot about book publishing and editing on the fly. My next book, if any will be better.
I am looking forward to a vacation for a while after this and then launch into the next project.
In order to releive my stress, I will go back to having a massage and I go to Yoga practice at the Y every Friday. It is a Yoga class at 6:15 Am on Friday, but noone shows up but me. So I have free private lesson. The instructor does not mind. Sometimes she needs it as well.
That's all for now.
Jeannette
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Book Progress to Date and Happy New Year
timely manner.
she does have time, her fee is $100.00 per hour. I do not have money like that. Academics can write grants to support their publications and have graduate students who may work for them for nothing or very little. Independent scholars have a problem. I did note that the National Academy of Science send out proposals for independent scholars to write a book. That is how Margaret Rossiter got her money for her books about women in science. However, if they are doing this now, I do not have the time to write the proposal and wait for funding. I suppose I should have been writing when I was at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, but I was still doing research then. In fact, I love research, I hate writing. I guess
that is the problem! I write like a chemist is trained to write in the passive voice. It is so hard to change that.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Book Progress and Administration
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
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Background History
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
Sunday, November 7, 2010
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
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night
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
Thursday, August 5, 2010
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
Monday, July 5, 2010
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
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
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
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Black History Month 1. African American Women in Science
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.
Good Luck
Jeannette
Monday, January 18, 2010
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



