Whew—what a week! On Monday morning I spoke with WVON host Rufus Williams, Jr. about THE WITCH’S APPRENTICE before meeting with the young Black woman producer of The Morning Show on Global TV in Canada. She asked great questions and gave me a chance to share photos of my grandmothers, which was an unexpected surprise. By the time the actual interview rolled around on Wednesday, I felt prepared and relaxed (watch the segment here). The next day I did a virtual visit with students in Roxbury, MA before being interviewed by a journalism graduate student at Northwestern. I was looking forward to a quiet weekend and maybe that’s why I chose not to share a couple of posts on social media that let me know an elected official in Virginia had a problem with one of my books. If someone I knew and respected called A PLACE INSIDE OF ME “garbage,” I’d probably be upset. But a White male conservative likely trying to exploit the ridiculous right-wing rage against critical race theory? Nope. I didn’t retweet or share his original Facebook post during the week but today the story appeared in a local VA newspaper so I figured it was time to face it head on. It may not escalate and this article indicates that educators and community members refused to pull my book from their school. But buddy isn’t done—now he wants to make it possible to remove objectionable books more quickly…I’ve got a full week ahead and I’m determined not to obsess over what *might* happen. I found out on Thursday that my editor at Random House is leaving and has handed my dragon series over to another editor who will handle Book #5, THE WAR OF THE WITCHES. I’m sad to see Diane go but I’m pleased that the publisher’s “wait and see” approach has been set aside and they’re finally committing to a contract; they did a small initial print run of 10K books and I think we’ll need a second printing soon. I’ve been working on the summary for Book #5 today and think that diving back into the world of dragons might be a good way to spend the next few weeks. Black History Month is always hectic but March will be calmer and it would be good to get the book done before MOONWALKING comes out in April. We’ve gotten two starred reviews so far and our novel in verse has been named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection! The book ends with an encounter with police…will that lead to more objections from the right? Who knows. The kids are my priority, not grandstanding politicians…