My father…

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My father ended his tremendously heroic battle with cancer yesterday. Since I have few words right now, I am sharing an email that my father sent to me three years ago when I was struggling with my colicky newborn baby. As the email shows, my father was simply wonderful…

“Very much remember the day you were born and how excited we were and how much you cried!!! You were such a trooper, though, in your first year – a trip to Texas – and – a move to the Buckeye state. And, now with your little girl in tow – in the immortal words of Pitbull – ‘it may be tough from time to time – but every day above ground – is a great day!’ Both your Mom and I are so very proud of you and looking forward to our babysitting assignment.” (4/16/15)

My family is heartbroken without him here. He was our superhero. We have lost our captain.

BOOK CONTRACT!

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I am excited to announce that I have signed a book contract with a scholarly press (University of Nebraska Press) for my manuscript, Gendered Citizenship. I worked with this press last summer when they published my article in the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers. Now, I just have to finish the book!

When I am not caring for my kids, I will have to focus on my book manuscript. So, sadly enough, I will not be able to post as many blog pieces. Sorry! But, I promise to update my blog as much as possible. In the meantime, I have plenty of of well-researched and interesting pieces that have already been posted. Please check them out. I hope to post something new in the not-so-distant future. Thank you for understanding. 🙂

Hamilton

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My husband and I were lucky to have a date day this week. (He leaves for Italy today.) For our date, we saw Hamilton at the Kennedy Center in DC. Everyone that has the ability to see Hamilton, should see it. I wish more people had access to it. The musical is phenomenal. My plan is to have a more in-depth review of the show here on my blog in the upcoming month. (Once I find time away from caring for my kids and writing my book.) I promise my review won’t be all praise and that I will have some critical comments. But, for now, I want to say that on a fundamental level, the show opens doors. Go see it, if you can and step through those doors. Be in the room where it happens

My Book

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The other day, while I was preparing my two-year-old son old for his afternoon nap, my three-year-old daughter looked up at me and asked what I had been working on earlier in the day. That day had been one of my workdays, a day in which I have a sitter come to watch my kids for three hours while I work in my home office.

Looking at my daughter, I gave her a sly smile and asked: “Holland, did you know mama is a doctor?”

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On the Process of Writing: Tips and Suggestions

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Wow! It has been a while. I am sorry for the delay in posting. As I have written about before, things are crazy right now. My husband is traveling constantly, so I have been solo-parenting a lot. When I am not taking care of the kiddos, I have been focusing my energy on my book manuscript. (I do not have much of a life outside of parenting and writing. Seriously.) My goal is to have a reasonable grip on the manuscript before I send my proposal materials to the editor who I have been communicating with since last fall.  Because the book has been taking up the majority of my time outside of parenting, I decided to do a post about writing tips and suggestions.

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