Mother, artist/activist, friend? Apparently not

It must be exhilarating and exasperating to be Alice Walker's daughter. But I didn't really think about that much until today, when reading this story in the NYT about Rebecca Walker. To recap - she's partnered with a man, she has a two-year-old and lives in Maui (on Maui).

And she's estranged from her mother.

And she is being really honest. And, I think, rude and insensitive. Here's the quote I'm talking about:

The most incendiary notion in "Baby Love" may be that, for Ms. Walker,
being a stepparent or adoptive parent involves a lesser kind of love than the
love for a biological child.

In an interview, Ms. Walker boiled the
difference down to knowing for certain that she would die for her biological
child, but feeling "not sure I would do that for my nonbiological child."

The article refers to her previous, female partner (but does not name her, even though she's famous and it's well known that they were together) and the woman's son. Who Rebecca helped raise during the years they were together. I was really taken aback that she would a) think like that b) express it and c) put it out there for all the world to see, even this teenager.

I was really interested in reading her book and may still get around to it. But this really made me pause.

New writers to visit
I saw this blog today by three mystery writers - it's called Crime Sistahs.

Those sisters pointed me to a survey on racism and publishing at Karen Scott's web site.