Dozen Days o’ Donuts: BLURB-A-RAMA!

DONUTS FOR EVERYBODY is, truly, a collaborative project. It came to be at the writing community’s (once) favorite water cooler, Twitter, and it’s no exaggeration to say all these donuts would not existed without that forum. I acknowledge Twitter’s inseverable connection to the project in the book’s opening (in the telling of the #DonutsForEverybody origin story) and also in its epilogue. Looking back at this time (June-December 2022), I feel like these donuts happened a thousand years ago. And in terms of a social media life cycle, they did. Still, I wanted to capture some of the excitement of the moment and I thought a good way to do that would be to use tweets from that time for the back cover blurbs.

The first tweet came from Antwan Eady (yep, it was Antwan who suggested I edit INTERVIEW WITH A DONUT) and I knew immediately that I wanted to use it. I’ve been a fan of Antwan’s for a while now—I admire his writing and respect his opinion (most recently, this)—and I’ve been floored by his generosity in boosting my donuts. Antwan’s the very embodiment of community and celebration, and I knew he saw the project the way I did. In fact, in some ways he saw it more clearly, so I was thrilled when he signed off on his blurb.

Quick aside: it was Katie McEnaney’s SHEL SILVERSTEIN DONUT that inspired me to start the picture book donut series, but it was NIGEL AND THE MOON that inspired me to make the pieces as big as I wanted.

The second blurb comes from a tweet by Canadian poet, Jennifer Thomas, who offers her own gifts to the community in her “Words That Make Me Smile” series. Jennifer is another person who understood the scope of my project and the tweet of hers that I chose captured, with two well chosen words, the energy I felt every time I sat down to make these donuts. Words that make me smile, indeed, Jennifer.

I also owe thanks to Jennifer for agreeing to proofread and copyedit DONUTS FOR EVERYBODY. Particularly for her point of view on the epilogue I mentioned above. Before Jennifer’s thoughtful input, it was more of a eulogy, really. And a sour one at that. This change, which wouldn’t have happened without Jennifer’s perspective, I believe saved the book.

It’s remarkable, really, to share a project publicly in this way. On one hand it’s just me in my attic with a pair of scissors, a cutting blade, and stacks and stacks of paper. But, really, it’s so much more. It wouldn’t be the same without Antwan and Jennifer and it wouldn’t even be without all of you. My thanks to everybody.

Alright, enough mush! I’m taking the weekend off and returning after Labor Day with the final push towards the launch. I’ll see you then.

Wait… so what are these tweets? What do the blurbs say?

As usual, you’ll have to get the book to find out. 😉