In my blog last month I mentioned that the new publicist for Wildhouse Publishers wanted to promote the parenting angle of my book, The Ping Pong Player and the Professor. Despite my parenting experience, four times over, I’m certainly not a parenting expert, so I was skeptical. But the new publicist is persistent and I can’t argue with her results. She contacted the editor of Kveller, a Jewish parenting website, and they invited me to write a blog about parenting an elite athlete.
Although there is much else to discuss, such as the US Nationals that were held in Huntsville, Alabama earlier this month, one blog per month is enough for me. Especially a month that was mostly spent recovering from COVID-19. So, here is link to the Kveller blog I wrote.
The experience of writing for an official website reminded me of why I published The Ping Pong Player and the Professor with a small non-profit press: I didn’t want to lose control of the book I had written. Too many of my colleagues have told me nightmarish stories about unwanted changes to their submitted manuscripts that were forced upon them by large commercial presses. Wildhouse Publishers, on the other hand, tolerated my quirky writing and allowed me to publish an unconventional book.
In truth, Kveller barely edited the blog I submitted, which was reassuring since some of the material was cut and pasted from my book and earlier blogs. But the Kveller editors did create an entirely new title and subtitle for the blog, which took me by surprise. The title, of course, was the first thing I read when I saw it posted, leaving a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. I was especially concerned because I’m not even sure it is true that “I Couldn’t Be Prouder.” I understand that the point of the website is to kvell, but really? If Eliel had made the US Olympic team wouldn’t I have been even prouder? Definitely! Is that vain? You bet, but at least it’s honest. As I said, I’m no parenting expert.
Admittedly though, the revised title is probably an improvement over my original title (Olympic Parenting: How Anthropology Helped Me Guide an Athletic Son). And as most readers will appreciate (in both senses of the word), the Kveller blog is shorter than my regular blogs and the paragraphs are much tighter than I am usually inclined to write, which will please at least one reader (see Family, Friends, and Feasts). As one of my kids noted, these are both good developments. In fact, he suggested I would benefit from some “domestication.” I guess for the moment I’ve been tamed by editors who presumably know what they are doing. Next month, though, it is back to the feral writing life for me!
Richard Sosis 