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lovers join us on Monday and Wednesday nights at 8pm EST for the most stimulating
conversation on the planet. Meet new authors, hear the latest literary news and
fellowship with other book lovers! Call into the literary themed radio show at
646. 200.0402.
We are so excited about this issue of Black Pearls. This entire
issue is dedicated to our featured authors and bookclub partners. We shine the spotlight on guest columnists from
our newsletter, we are showcasing our bookclub
presidents, our authors shared special book
excerpts for you, as we bring you
inspiration and good cheer. Let us know of any books you would
like to see, email me here.
Black Pearls Magazine is a free digital magazine committed to inspire, encourage and empower a international group of readers.
Our mission is to provide information that is essential, enlightening and entertaining.
We believe in Giving the Gift of Knowledge! We are here to bring you those
extraordinary literary jewels, Black Pearls, that are sure to bring you and your love ones much pleasure and empowerment.
Ella Curry, editor-in-chief
Black Pearls Magazine
President of
EDC Creations Media Group
EDC Creations website: www.edc-creations.com
The Olympian, An American Triumph
by Craig T. Williams
John Baxter Taylor Jr., The Olympian - (Book Trailer)
History buffs, sports fans, and those seeking a bit of nostalgia will love this book and should share it with others for the holidays.
The Olympian is a triumphant story based on the life of John Baxter Taylor
Jr., a graduate of Philadelphia’s Central High School and the University of Pennsylvania and one of the first members of the Sigma Pi Phi fraternity.
This chronicle of Taylor’s extraordinary Olympic experience is filled with love, passion and the achievement of a dream against all odds. One hundred years after the fact, the first African American gold medal winner’s amazing story is captured in this poignant historical novel.
Please visit the Craig T. Williams’ website to learn more about him and to purchase a copy of the book that we’re chasing. Purchase book at:
www.theolympian.net
The Olympian by Craig T. Williams
ISBN-10: 1450261051
ISBN-13: 978-1450261050
Purchase book at: www.theolympian.net
About the Author
Craig T. Williams, Founder of Vintage World, LLC A New Jersey native, author Craig T. Williams wore many hats before becoming a writer. At Syracuse University, Williams majored in business but always held a deep fascination for the study of history.
Williams is a second generation General Contractor/Construction Manager, working for Pride Enterprises, Inc., a business he started in 1996. Providing construction services in the public sector throughout the US, its clients include the Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the General Services Administration, Pride Enterprises’ services include renovations and additions, infrastructure and design/build projects. As President and CEO, Williams was honored as the Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. He has also established a protégé firm, Fidelis Design and Construction, LLC, which has exhibited an explosive growth.
Having always been inspired by classic, heroic tales like that of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and The Lord of the Rings, he became exceedingly aware that most of these stories did not feature heroes that he resembled. As such, Williams has made it his mission to tell classically heroic stories that feature a diverse cast of heroes. Propelled by a passion for research, Williams’ signature is Historical/Fiction. Of his new writing career, he says “it was like grabbing that loose piece of thread on a sweater and pulling and you keep on pulling till suddenly, you have the whole thing in your hands.”
It is through his latest business venture, Vintage World, LLC. that Williams marries his passion for writing with the drive to chronicle the lives and achievements of those exceptional men and women who he believes have been overlooked in the pages of world history. A multimedia arts and entertainment company, Vintage World maintains a methodology that is the literary equivalent of an archeological dig, with an ultimate goal to unearth a lost mythology whose timeless heroes will entertain, educate and empower generations to come.
The first fruit of this ambition, The Olympian: An American Triumph, takes readers on a journey with Dr. John Baxter Taylor, Jr., growing up at a time of great racial divide, yet rebelled against all odds, becoming the first African American to win a gold medal at the 1908 Olympian Games. Having brushed away the dust of time to share this great story, Williams’ telling of Dr. Taylor’s legacy is the first of several projects bringing back to life forgotten heroes.
How Do I Find My Genealogy?
By Amanda L. Miller
Genealogy Research Tip 1: Interview Family Members
The very best genealogy resource for discovering more about your family is, well, your family. If you have elderly ancestors that are still alive and their memory is still good, inquiring them about your family can help you cover years of family ground in just a few short hours-as well as give your living relatives a chance to reminisce. Besides, getting your great grandma to dig out the old film projector or the family photo albums can be quite a bit of fun. Here are a few sample interview questions you might ask your elderly relatives to learn more about your ancestry:
1. What do you know about our surname?
2. Is there a family cemetery?
3. Has anyone in our family compiled a family tree?
4. Do you have some old films or family photo albums?
5. Do you have any old family letters, or journals, or diaries?
6. How did your parents meet?
7. Do we have a family Bible?
There are over 150 more family interview questions in the Family History Questionnaire provided by the Lake Township Historical Society at Ancestry.com's
Rootsweb. Make sure you take detailed notes-jotting down dates, names and places as your relatives divulge info about your family's history. Better yet, record your interviews with family members so that you can refer back to them later and save them for future generations. Some recording devices you might consider carrying with you on your interviews with your relatives include a video camera, a tape recorder or a smartphone with recording ability.
Genealogy Research Tip 2: Investigate Records
Useful genealogy information can be found through proper records research. There are a variety of records to explore, providing pertinent information that can help you trace your family tree. From vital records like birth, marriage and death records to ships' passenger lists; you can glean a lot of genealogical info about the names, dates and places of your ancestors and discover clues to help you map your family lineage. Here's a brief outline of records that often contain genealogical information.
• State & Federal Census Records
• Courthouse Records
o Social Security Records
o Land Records, Property Records & Deeds
o Wills & Probates
o Vital Records
o Immigration & Naturalization Records
o Criminal Records
o Civil Records
• Church Records
o Baptism Records
o Marriage Records
o Funeral Records
• Ships' Passenger Lists
• Military & Pension Records
• Cemetery Records
You can find these records in many places. Several of these records can be conveniently accessed for free online via government websites like
The National Archives & Records Administration (archives.gov) and The Library of Congress
(loc.gov). Several websites also contain billions of records to help you conduct thorough genealogy research.
Government institutions such as courthouses, town halls, and libraries are also excellent places to begin your records research. In fact, many libraries even have special collections of genealogical material that are often maintained with the aid of historical or genealogical societies. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Daughters of the American Revolution house some of the largest genealogical library collections in the United States and are free to the public, making them ideal places to start your genealogy research.
Churches sometimes keep records such as baptisms and christenings, marriages, and funerals. If you have a family Bible in your possession, that could help you locate a specific church to begin your records search. Otherwise, start your records research at churches close to where your ancestors resided. Once you locate the church or churches that are most likely to have your family's records, contact the church's office and ask whether they have any records about your ancestors and how you might obtain them.
Genealogy Research Tip 3: Read Newspapers
One of the best genealogy resources is newspaper archives. Newspapers contain many of the records noted above, as well as the news that was happening during the times that your ancestors lived. The historical context that newspapers provide can help to recreate the story of your family's past. Newspaper obituaries and death notices offer clues and details about your deceased relatives, as well as names and sometimes details about their immediate and extended families. Newspapers also contain news articles about your ancestors, information about family reunions, and interesting facts and stories that can aid in filling in the details on your family tree.
Many current newspapers are readily available online, and local newspapers can still be delivered in paper form directly to your doorstep. You can access old and discontinued newspapers in libraries, at educational institutions and online.
GenealogyBank (genealogybank.com) has one of the largest collections of digitized United States newspapers available online for genealogy research.
Genealogy Research Tip 4: Hire a Genealogist
If you want to explore your family's past but simply don't have the time, you may consider contacting a professional genealogist to trace your family tree. You can find genealogists for hire through professional genealogical organizations and societies in your area and beyond. Start your search for a professional genealogist online at the
Board for Certification of Genealogists (bcgcertification.org) and the Association of Professional Genealogists
(apgen.org).
From interviewing surviving family members to investigating records for genealogical info, these genealogy tips and resources will get your family sleuthing started. Remember to document all of your findings. Have fun uncovering your ancestry and good luck!
About
the Author Amanda Miller writes on behalf of GenealogyBank. Discover the story of your family history in over 1 billion searchable genealogy records.
Original
Article Source
Power Down: A Parent's Guide for Responsible Media
A Call to Action for Parents to Turn Off the TV and Spend Time with Their Children
Power Down Campaign: Technology Fast
-- The Raising Him Alone Campaign and Urban Leadership Institute have officially launched the
Power Down Campaign! Power Down is a campaign focused on teaching parents strategies and coaching them to become better monitors of the technology used by their children. Parents who closely monitor and limit the time their child/teen spends playing video games, watching TV and surfing the Internet increase the likelihood that their child/teen will spend more time engaged in socially redeeming activities. Those activities will likely include arts and crafts, homework and other educational exercises.
With the rapidly increasing popularity of reality television, millions of children and teens are exposed daily to a new brand of television that highlights a variety of anti-social behaviors including fighting, excessive cursing, drug use, underage drinking and sexually illicit escapades. While some reality shows promote real competition and chances to win everything from recording contracts to chef positions at exclusive restaurants, the majority of them distort images of healthy lifestyles.
The Power Down Campaign, through its Parents’ Responsible Media Guide developed by David Miller, co-founder of Urban Leadership Institute, is asking families to participate in a “Technology Fast”. The goal of the “Technology Fast” is to get parents to turn off the TV and not allow their children to participate in technology over the weekend. In other words, during the “Technology Fast” parents should not allow their children to surf the Internet, use their cell phones, watch television, play video games, send text messages or engage in social media including Facebook and Twitter.
Within the
Parents Guide are suggested activities to help parents plan a technology-free weekend. The “Technology Fast” is not intended to punish children or force them to have a boring weekend. Instead, it’s designed to bring families together encouraging children to do without technology for a weekend while the family participates in other fun, educational activities.
Officials of Raising Him Alone and Urban Leadership Institute ask parents to support our effort by participating in a
“Technology Fast” during the following four weekends:
• March 2-4, 2012
• June 1-3, 2012
• September 7-9, 2012
For more information on the Power Down Campaign, please visit us on Facebook,
click
here.
Freeman,
the new novel by Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes place in the first few months
following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Upon learning of Lee's surrender, Sam--a runaway slave who once worked for
the Union Army--decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on
foot to return to the war-torn South. What compels him on this almost-suicidal
course is the desire to find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and
their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi farm to which they all
"belonged."
At the same time, Sam's wife, Tilda, is being forced to walk at gunpoint with
her owner and two of his other slaves from the charred remains of his
Mississippi farm into Arkansas, in search of an undefined place that would still
respect his entitlements as slave owner and Confederate officer.
The book's third main character, Prudence, is a fearless, headstrong white woman
of means who leaves her Boston home for Buford, Mississippi, to start a school
for the former bondsmen, and thus honor her father’s dying wish.
At bottom, Freeman is a love story--sweeping, generous, brutal,
compassionate, patient--about the feelings people were determined to honor,
despite the enormous constraints of the times. It is this aspect of the book
that should ensure it a strong, vocal, core audience of African-American women,
who will help propel its likely critical acclaim to a wider audience. At the
same time, this book addresses several themes that are still hotly debated
today, some 145 years after the official end of the Civil War.
Like Cold Mountain, Freeman illuminates the times and
places it describes from a fresh perspective, with stunning results. It
has the potential to become a classic addition to the literature dealing with
this period. Few other novels so powerfully capture the pathos and
possibility of the era particularly as it reflects the ordeal of the black
slaves grappling with the promise--and the terror--of their new status as free
men and women.
Meet
Miami Herald 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr.
In a career spanning 35 years, Leonard Pitts, Jr. has been a syndicated
columnist, a college professor, a radio producer and a lecturer.
But if you ask him to define himself, he will invariably choose one word.
He is a writer, period.
BPM: How did you get started?
A: Well, I began to think of myself as a writer from the time I was five years
old, which was a good thing, because it gave me a lot of time to be bad at it.
I started sending poems and stories to magazines when I was 12 years old, first
became published when I was 14, and first got paid for being published when I
was 18. I spent the next 18 years working primarily as a music critic for
a variety of magazines and radio programs.
I was editor of SOUL, a black entertainment tabloid,
did freelance work for such magazines as Spin, Record Review and Right On!,
co-created and edited a radio entertainment news magazine called RadioScope and
was a writer for Casey Kasem's radio countdown show, Casey's Top 40.
BPM: What is your average work day like?
A: There's no such thing. What happens during any given day depends on what I'm
working on at a given time, whether I'm traveling or not. I've written
columns on occasion in airport waiting rooms. I never can tell.
My deadlines are Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I usually spend those days slaving
over a hot computer. I spend Mondays and Wednesdays gathering ideas, doing
any necessary research, and sometimes getting a jump on the writing.
Friday is a housekeeping day, usually used for taking care of tasks I've
neglected the rest of the week.
BPM: What advice can you give aspiring writers?
A: Practice your craft. Then practice it some more. After you're done with that,
take a little more time and practice. This is the only sure route to learning
your craft.
There is, in other words, no trick, secret, or magic formula that will make you
good. Unfortunately for them, most writers are very good at finding excuses not
to write. This is because writing is not enjoyable. As some sage once put it:
"Writing is not fun. Having written is.
So what is required of the would-be writer is that he or she first develop the
discipline to apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair and start
putting words down on the screen. You will be awful at first, then a little
better. In time, perhaps, you will become good. And sometime after that,
assuming you possess the basic gifts for it, you will become great.
Time not spent writing should be spent reading. Read constantly and
promiscuously. Read writers whose work you admire and try to figure out how they
do what they do and what it is in their work that makes it achieve whatever
effect it does. Read writers whose work you dislike and try to figure out
what they're doing wrong so that you can avoid making the same mistakes.
Also: It's important to invest in the tools of your craft. In making an
investment, you prove – to others and, more importantly, to yourself – that
you are serious about this thing. To that end, you need a workspace –
doesn't have to be fancy, but it ought to be yours and accessible to you on a
regular basis. You need a word processor or computer; a good dictionary,
an almanac, a copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style, and a thesaurus.
You need a copy of Writer's Market, which is a directory of magazine publishers.
It lists the kind of material they're looking for, the contact persons and the
prices they pay.
Also, get yourself a subscription to Writer's Digest; it's a
monthly magazine that deals with the craft of writing, but also the business of
it. The magazine provides a great crash course for young writers.
Finally, assuming you have any cash left over, you might want to pick up a copy
of Stephen King's On Writing. It's a memoir of the craft that I found
inspirational and instructive
BPM: How does syndication work? What advice can you give writers about
getting their column syndicated?
A: Syndication is like cable TV. You've got your basic channels and your
premium services, like HBO, for which you pay extra. Similarly, if your work
goes out over the wire service to which your paper is a contributor, it's
available to any other paper that is a subscriber. When you sign a syndication
arrangement, your column becomes an HBO, a premium service that must be
purchased separately. As the columnist, you split that fee with the
syndicate handling your column.
As for advice, I don't know that anything I could tell you would be of much
value. I was blessed enough that my column became a big hit on the Knight-Ridder
wire and I was approached by a syndicate that wanted to sign me. I never had to
go out looking for a syndicate in other words. I remember, my one fear at the
time the syndication push was launched was whether editors would be willing to
pay separately for something they had been accustomed to receiving for free.
If you're interested in syndication, I suppose the best thing to do would be to
contact the sales departments at some of the big syndicates (Tribune Media
Services, Washington Post Writers Group, etc.) and inquire about their
submission requirements.
I'd also suggest that, if you want your column to be accessible to newspapers in
other places, you not focus too narrowly on local affairs. I always resisted
writing solely about events going on in my backyard; I felt that if something
interesting was going on someplace else, I should have the freedom to comment on
it.
The
Stalker Chronicles
By Electa Rome Parks
Pilar is
back, and this time it's all about revenge.
Tall,
dark, and handsome bestselling male author Xavier Preston thought his
nightmare—in the form of Pilar, a fanatical stalker/fan—had finally ended.
Little does he know it’s only beginning.
When Xavier met Pilar, he got much more than he bargained for. What started out
as an erotic one-night stand quickly turned into a dangerous game of obsession
and pain, with both parties playing to win. Then she simply disappeared.
Stunning Pilar hasn't gone away, though. In fact, she has been very near,
watching his every move and patiently waiting for him to realize they were meant
to be together forever. She still believes they’re soul mates, and the only
option for her is “Until death do us part.” If she can't have Xavier, then
no one can. Now no one is safe—not his friends, and definitely not him. Revenge
can be a real killer...
The
Stalker Chronicles by Electa Rome Parks
Prologue
It was getting easier and easier now.
She moved quickly and efficiently throughout the spacious three-car garage. She
wanted to remove any traces of evidence that she had ever been there. She had
always been good at simply disappearing and being invisible. That was easy.
She was definitely more confident, and it showed in her cool, calm, and
collected demeanor. She was no longer afraid of being caught, because the urge
to punish those who had hurt her was stronger, much more overwhelming, and
urgent. She probably couldn’t stop herself even if she wanted to---she was
operating on pure animal instinct. The need to survive and protect herself by
any means necessary overrode anything else. Fight or flight. And she had long
been tired of running.
There had been others over the years, more than she could count on one hand.
They were mere vague gray memories that occasionally crossed her mind, like one
might think of a stray pet one owned as a child, but she dismissed the images
just as quickly. She never held on to them for more than a few fleeting moments
in time. Denial was her refuge.
Only one had successfully escaped her sharp talons and womanly wiles. Or had he?
Maybe she let him get away, just that one time. She hadn’t determined which.
Sometimes she thought of him, when her mind wasn’t a jumble of darkness,
discontent, and madness. There were moments. . . .
She missed him, yearned for his special touch, the touch that only he could
deliver with precision and skill. His touch brought heat and desire. His lies
brought pain and sorrow. She hated that he escaped her grasp, or that possibly
she let him walk away, unscathed. She still considered him her soul mate, the
one who made her complete and safe and sound. She yearned to feel complete,
because most days she realized she was broken and damaged beyond repair.
However, she couldn’t think of that one just yet. Not now. That would come
later. The strenuous act of positioning this one just right was over. Now she
had serious, delicate cleanup work to complete. Within seconds, that one, the
one who got away, was pushed to the dark, cold recesses of her mind. Forgotten .
. . for now.
It was painstakingly slow work because everything had to be absolutely perfect.
She had observed and respected what a perfectionist he was. He thrived on it.
She softly snickered to herself and had to catch herself before it became an
all-out rambunctious laugh. He didn’t look too perfect right now, slumped
behind the steering wheel of his black BMW like a deflated, tossed-aside bag of
rags and bones. Another snicker escaped. She tightly clamped her gloved hand
down over her mouth to stop it, to keep it from spilling forth.
When he was discovered—hopefully, within a day or two—she wanted him to
appear perfect in death. That was the least she could do, because she honestly
felt she owed him that much. With a gloved hand, she carefully took the
typewritten note out of his jacket pocket, typed from the personal computer in
his home office, and gently placed it next to him on the soft leather passenger
seat of his car. Laughter escaped freely and drifted into the still air.
Intimate Conversation with
Willard Jenkins
Willard Jenkins is a Washington, DC-area based
journalist, concert & festivals producer, broadcaster, and arts consultant.
He has been published in numerous publications, both nationally and
internationally, on the subject of black music in general, jazz music in
particular. He serves as the artistic director of the 32-year old Tri-C JazzFest
(Cleveland, OH) and two annual concert series for Tribeca Performing Arts Center
(New York, NY) and has consulted with numerous arts organizations across the
country. Since 1989 he has been a radio programmer at WPFW in Washington, DC,
and has been a broadcaster since 1973 and is a former television producer-host
for BET.
Willard Jenkins is also the coordinator of the National
Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Live grant program. Willard Jenkins
contributed to the recent biography of NEA Jazz Master David Baker, as well as
two chapters of the book Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing ("How the Apollo
Theater shaped American Entertainment"). The subject of his first book,
African Rhythms (Duke University Press; Composed by Randy Weston, Arranged by
Willard Jenkins), is NEA Jazz Master pianist-composer-bandleader Randy Weston, a
native of Brooklyn, NY.
(Willard Jenkins-left; Randy Weston-right, at the annual Jazz Awards)
BPM: Tell us about your journey becoming a published author. Do you have
anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to become an
author?
As a young writer I started writing for publications as an undergrad for the
black student newspaper The Black Watch at Kent State University. Post-grad,
while working in the corrections profession, I began writing for the (daily)
Cleveland Plain Dealer on the subject of jazz music, an interest which I'd
developed primarily from the influence of my father's excellent record
collection.
My writing was very much encouraged by my parents, and my
father being a newspaper man who matriculated from the "black
dispatch" (Pittsburgh Courier, Cleveland Call & Post) to daily
newspapers in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, he enabled the opportunity at the Plain
Dealer. From there I wrote for local weekly "alternative newspapers,"
and eventually for the leading monthly jazz publications and international
journals. In the late '90s I determined to begin writing books and my
relationship with NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston blossomed into my writing his
as-told-to autobiography African Rhythms (Composed by Randy Weston, Arranged by
Willard Jenkins).
BPM:
Introduce us to your book, African Rhythms. On Kindle or Nook? African Rhythms is the autobiography of Randy Weston, a
pianist-composer-bandleader born in Brooklyn, NY who has been honored for his
contributions across the globe. However this is not a "jazz book" in
the strictest sense of that genre in that this book is the story of an artist
whose pursuit of the spirits of our ancestors has taken him to places well off
the established so-called jazz circuit.
Mr. Weston has performed in unusual venues - for example at
Shinto Shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan where no live music had heretofore
been performed; for the Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury; for the royal
family of Morocco; he's been a U.S. State Department, United Nations, and UNESCO
performing arts emissary; he has collaborated with ancient African music and
cultural traditions; he developed the African Rhythms club in Tangier, Morocco
in 1969, the first of its kind on the African continent, and he produced the
first jazz-based festival on the African continent.
Unlike many of his peers, when he sought foreign vistas he
didn't migrate to Europe, he instead relocated to Africa - specifically the
North African country of Morocco. While there he communed - and eventually
recorded & toured - with the thoroughly unique Gnawa spirit music
brotherhood, descendants of the same African ancestors who made the Middle
Passage, whose ancestors instead made the trek to slavery across the Sahara
Desert to North Africa.
The way this book project germinated is an interesting story. In 1998 Randy
Weston participated in the world-renowned Montreal Jazz Festival as one of that
festival's "Invitation Series" artists. I was at the festival on
assignment from JazzTimes magazine. Mr. Weston performed four consecutive nights
on the festival in different programs and band configurations. The fourth night
was to be his collaboration with the Gnawa Master Musicians of Morocco, however
my wife Suzan and I were scheduled to fly home that afternoon (and miss that
culminating concert) after having been in Montreal for 10 days. That morning
prior to our afternoon flight, coincidentally the festival hosted a press
conference with Randy Weston.
After the press conference we walked up to greet Mr. Weston
and tell him how much we had enjoyed his three nights of concerts. When my wife
told him we were leaving that day and would miss his final concert, he grew
serious and exclaimed "...but you can't leave, we're going to Africa
tonight!"). While I stood there chatting with Weston, my wife slipped away
and returned a few minutes later to announce that she had re-booked us into our
hotel, changed our reservation to the following day, and that we were staying
for that night's concert! My relationship with Randy Weston blossomed from
there.
Intimate Conversation with
author Pat Tucker
Hello
Pat it gives me great pleasure to have you on the couch with me today! The Black
Pearls readers are in for a literary treat. By day, Pat Tucker Wilson works as a radio news director in Houston, TX. By
night, she is a talented writer with a knack for telling page-turning stories. A
former television news reporter, she draws on her background to craft stories
readers will love.
With more than fifteen years of media experience, the
award-winning broadcast journalist has worked as a reporter for ABC, NBC and Fox
affiliate TV stations and radio stations in California and Texas. She also
co-hosts the literary talk show, “From Cover to Cover,” with ReShonda Tate
Billingsley.
Known as one of the fastest writers in the country, Pat has wowed editors with
her ability to turn out five to ten thousand words a day. But it's not just
quantity that has Pat at the top of her game. The quality of her stories is what
keeps the readers coming back. A much sought-after ghostwriter, Pat gets her
greatest joy in creating her own stories. She is the author of six novels and
has participated in three anthologies, including New York Times Bestselling
Author Zane’s Caramel Flava.
A graduate of San Jose State University, Pat is a member of the National and
Houston Association of Black Journalists and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. She
is married with two children. Visit www.authorpattucker.com
BPM: Tell us about your journey to becoming a published
author.
I burst onto the literary scene as an independent publisher/author back in 2003.
My self published title When Loved Ones Lie was my pride and joy, and I was so
proud of it. Unfortunately, the book was not picked up by a mainstream
publisher, but that didn't stop me. Armed with determination and a sample
chapter of a book I wrote specifically for a small press, I headed to Book Expo
America. After making a few connections, and following up weeks later. I landed
not one but two book deals. And that's how my journey to becoming a published
author began.
BPM: What are the holidays like for you and your family? What are you the
most thankful for now?
I'm most thankful that my entire family is healthy, of good sound mind and have
quite a bit to be thankful for. We actually enjoy being around each other and
rarely fight. The holidays are a wonderful time for my family, because I have
small children. The holidays are special because it's an exciting time for them.
This year my family will spend some time doing a community service project that
I hope will help the children understand how fortunate they are to have a loving
mother and father who work hard to provide for them.
BPM: Can you tell us about the best holiday experience you have had in life?
I'm sure there has been many awesome events! My family is spread out, from Belize, to Los Angeles, and Seattle,
Washington. The best holiday experience for me was the last time my entire
family traveled to Houston to spend the holidays with my immediate family. We
didn't do anything extraordinary, but the simple things we did took on a
completely different meaning because we were together.
BPM: When did you get your first inkling to write, and how did you advance
the call for writing? Who helped to influence you the most?
I've been writing for as long as I could remember. Early in life I knew I'd make
my living as a writer. I wanted to become a journalist at the age of 12 and from
that day forward, everything I did was working toward making that happen.
Unintentionally, my mother helped influence my passion for both reading and
writing. As a kid when I was in trouble, my punishment was being sent to my room
with nothing but books, a notepad and pencils.
Intimate Conversation with
Andrea Clinton
Andrea Clinton
is the niece of legendary George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic and is presently working on a biography featuring George and the Clinton family; she is a high school English teacher, Novelist, Poet, Essayist, and aspiring Screenwriter/Filmmaker. Andrea is a Montclair State University Graduate who’s achieved a degree in English, Film and Journalism. She’s the founder and CEO of the non-profit organization, People Helping People; Editor in Chief of
AMISTAD newspaper; and in June 2011, the first novel in Andrea's "Life Knows No Bounds" series, "One Who Loves You More" was picked up by a producer to be adapted into a theatrical production. Presently, Andrea is gearing up to put many of her short stories that were published in magazines and newspapers, up on eBooks. A Blessing and a Curse by Andrea Clinton
In "A Blessing and a Curse" Malika has the life every woman wants, a hardworking husband who makes it happen financially; kids, both adopted as well as biological; her career as an artist with partners who own an art gallery; nice house, nice neighbors and the gift of foresight. Malika couldn't ask for much more, until her gift of sight and infrequent ability to read minds opened her up to her husband's disgust, followed by his uncaring desire to leave her. She can't figure it out, what has gone wrong? But a well needed vacation helps her find her worth but to what detrimental end? BPM: How do you view the past 20 years of Black literature?
We have made a remarkable impact in literature: you see more African American authors published by traditional publishers or starting their own publishing companies; Urban Lit has kicked down the door, so to speak, with African Americans monetarily showing and proving Urban Lit.'s worth as well as setting the tone and the schematics of what the genre is about, contains, etc.; and much of our contributions are revealing our relevance in the industry and that we do have a voice and a huge audience.
I'm noticing other impacts we've made in Romance, Horror and other genres, where it is being accepted by publishers that the writing might be a little different in the African American's world. I believe book clubs and avid readers of all races, etc. are showing via sales that African Americans DO read and that we love a good book like the rest--African American authors are exhibiting we have what it takes to make it happen in the industry and that we too play a vital role in publishing good and great books as well as contributing to great sales .
BPM: Where do you think Black literature is headed? Will ebooks change the direction?
Black literature is headed for greatness. I believe we are opening up the eyes of publishers and readers of various races and with books like, "The Color Purple," and many others, we're showing there is just as much interesting drama, mystery, etc. in African American books as it is in any other. I believe finally, you'll begin to see more African American authors published by traditional publishers and respectfully with publishing contracts that are comparable to that of great non African American publishers.
eBooks, yes, they are changing some things but much like the Internet, but things will remain a little scattered before they are put into a perspective that is great for the author as well as the publisher and/or eBook company/service. Presently, a book sold for $.99 only offers the publisher 35% (35cents) per sale, with approximately 25% of the 35 cent going to the author. So, the publishing companies aren't seeing much from the sales, nor is the author.
This is one of the first issues that will be rectified as publishers have to deal with overhead and more. Authors at some point may not feel it's worth it, which may become an issue for publishers and the eBook companies (and Print on Demand).
So,
before it's all said and done, big publishers being the survivors that they are, will form a sort of union or meeting of the minds and will put pricing into a better perspective that will find favor on all involved.
Unfortunately, I don't think the small publishers will have an impact unless they all band together and produce a united front. But, I'm no sure how soon that will happen.
BPM: Looking back over the past 20 years of Black literature, what have you observed?
Wow! I've observed so many changes. With people in general now able to easily become authors and self publish due to digital printing being more affordable, along with a few other things, I've seen more African American authors than ever. However, I've noticed just as many authors leave authoring. After writing, paying for editing, layout, book cover, printing, selling, placing books on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, etc. and then committing to book tours, these authors soon retire.
With the industry changing in technology, pricing, and an antiquated industry totally flipping the script, nothing is settled and there are more innovations on the rise, changing the publishing industry every day. This is hard on the new self-published author. Whether or not this trend I've noticed will continue remains to be seen, but I believe we all learn to respect publishing and authoring books after the experience. Purchase
A Blessing and a Curse by Andrea Clinton
Andrea Clinton Website: www.AroundTheWayPublishing.com
A Blessing and a Curse Paperback: www.Amazon.com/shops/cupcakestatus
A Blessing and a Curse Ebook: www.amazon.com/Life-Knows-No-Bounds-ebook/dp/B003JMELPG
Breaking the Ties That
Bind
by Gwynne Forster
One young woman is about to learn what tough love is all about. . .
Thirty-three-year-old
Kendra Richards just can't escape her reckless mother's endless requests for
money that will never be repaid. Again and again, Kendra rescues Ginny despite
the advice of her own father—a man who left Ginny and her cheating ways long
ago. Kendra knows her mother is troubled—what she doesn't understand is why
she can't tell her no—until she happens to meet psychologist Sam Hayes. . .
Smart and sexy, Sam offers Kendra the answers—and the love and romance—she's
been looking for. She's finally happy—until Ginny turns up for another
handout. But this time the situation is desperate, and the stakes are higher
than ever. Now, Kendra must finally decide if she's willing to lose everything
for a woman who has nothing to give. . .
"Wise and wonderful as it points out, once again, the importance of honesty
and appreciating what you have while you have it."—Publishers Weekly
on A Different Kind of Blues
"Touching, thought-provoking, and will make you think twice about ever
keeping secrets from the one you love." —Kimberla Lawson Roby, New
York Times bestselling author on If You Walked in My Shoes
About Gwynne Forster
Gwynne Forster was born
in North Carolina, grew up in Washington, D.C., and has lived, studied and
worked in New York City ever since she came of voting age. She considers herself
a humanitarian, a perspective that she inherited from her mother, a high school
principal, and which she also attributes to her work and education in the social
sciences, more specifically, demography. Her fiction writing reflects her
training in the sociology of the family and her understanding of inter-personal
relations. It should not be surprising then, that quite a few of Gwynne's novels
and novellas are set within the context of the family.
Gwynne relaxes best when she is near—but not in—the water. She loves boating
and would spend hours fishing daily if she could. Oddly, she never learned to
swim, and she always wears a lifejacket when boating or fishing. Her bedroom
faces a river, and if she didn't work, she would spend a lot of time sitting in
the bedroom gazing at the water and the passing boats. Moving water, she thinks,
is soothing and relieves stress.
Gwynne Forster is national best-selling and award-winning author of eight novels
of general fiction, forty-five romance novels, and six novellas. All of her
mainstream novels and several of her romance novels have been featured in Black
Expressions Magazine.
Among her many awards and forms of recognition, Gwynne is most proud of her
election in 2006 to the Affaire de Coeur Magazine Hall Of Fame, the Lifetime
Achievement Award given her by Romantic Times Magazine in 2007, and her
selection by Harlequin to participate in its Warm Hands, Warm Hearts project
with the St. June Children's Research Hospital.
Fiction writing is Gwynne Forster’s second career. She holds bachelors and
masters degrees in sociology, a master’s degree in economics/demography and
has additional graduate credits in journalism. As a demographer, she is widely
published. She is formerly chief of (non-medical) research in fertility and
family planning in the Population Division of the United Nations in New York and
served for four years as chairperson of the International Programme Committee of
the International Planned Parenthood Federation (London, England). These
positions took her on official business to sixty-three developed and developing
countries. Gwynne sings on her church choir, loves to entertain, and is a museum
hopper, gourmet cook and avid gardener. She enjoys classical music, opera, jazz
and blues with her husband with whom she lives in New York City.
I'm a sucker for an acronym. Don't you just love a handle
that you can remember when you need it? Here's one I needed for this fact of
life: DRAMA.
We all have it, drama. Or course, we don't start it (ahem), but we sure bob in
the wake of it when someone else does. It can be pretty disconcerting and
disrupting, discouraging and stressful. So I was thinking about it and the
Father blessed me with a handle. Hope it helps you, too.
D = Do your best to calm the
waters. What's the best way to do that? Stay out of it and
don't talk about it. "Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a
quarrel dies down." (Proverbs 26:20) and "Like one who grabs a stray
dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own."
(Proverbs 26:17) If the drama directly involves you, then add:
R = Rest in your position:
your biblically based, Holy Spirit led, prayed up position.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths
straight." (Proverbs 3: 5-6) You may find in your praying that you have
played a part in the drama, the cause of the trouble. If so then add:
A = Acknowledge your wrongs.
Confess, repent, ask forgiveness and make restitution if need be. "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness."(1 John 1:9). If that doesn't diffuse
the situation, then add:
M = Maintain your peace.
Don't let the drama be yours, mine, and ours. If folks persist in living in
upheaval, then let it be theirs. "You will keep in perfect peace those
whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you." (Isaiah 26:3) In any
case, add:
A = Always forgive.
Whether they ask for it or not, always walk in an attitude of forgiveness.
Matthew 6:14: "For if you forgive other people when they sin against
you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
Remember, however:
"Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers
harm." Proverbs 13:20. (Birds of a feather...uh huh.)
Every theatrical production starts the same way. Someone creates it.
Don't let it be you. "...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life:
You should mind your own business..." (1 Thess. 4:11) Now there's a
novel idea!
About the Author
Jody Day is a freelance
writer based in West Texas. Her passion is showing the love of Christ through
poems, devotionals, articles and books. Her works are published in Mature
Living, Christiandevotions.us, and The Old Schoolhouse. Article
Source. CHRISTIAN
WRITERS
Copyright 8/30/2011. All Rights Reserved.
10
Tips To Making Lasting Changes In Your Life
By Farah Risoen
If you are going through midlife changes, life transitions,
or just want to take your life to the next level; here are 10 simple tips to
making lasting changes and start living your best life:
1. Make a Commitment - Commit
yourself 100% to the change you want to make or create, and make the change a
MUST. That means no more excuses!! Step up and do whatever it takes!
2. Be Specific - Make
sure you are very specific, exact and clear about the change you want to make or
create. The more concrete your goal, objective or intention, the easier it is to
achieve it.
For example, if you're 150 lbs and want to lose 20 lbs; instead of saying:
"I want to lose 20 lbs" or "I want to lose weight",
say: "I intend to weight 130 lbs in three months, releasing 1.5 - 2
lbs each week."
3. Focus on Solutions - Again!
No more excuses. Let go of what you can't do... Instead focus on the solutions
and what you CAN do! For example, if you want to exercise, but you keep saying
to yourself: "I don't have time to go to the gym or work out"; then
STOP saying that, and make the time!
Come up with 2-3 possible solutions and options like getting up an hour earlier,
or ridding your bike to work...
One of my clients used to get up at 4:30 in the morning to be at the gym by
5:00. At the time, this was the only time she could fit into her schedule to
work out, and since she had already made a commitment to herself (and me!), she
just did it!
4. Schedule it -
Schedule your action items into your day! When you schedule things, they
actually happen! So if you want to get up earlier to go to the gym, then
schedule your workout time. My client used to get up at 4:30 am, be at the gym
by 5:00am, workout until about 7:00am, get home, shower, get ready and be at
work by 9:00â?¼! Remember... When you schedule things, they become part of
your routine!
5. Do it Everyday - Create
a daily practice. The more you make you what you want part of your daily life,
the faster you'll get in the habit of just doing it. For example, if you want to
live a more healthy and active lifestyle, then do a little something each day:
Go for a walk during your lunch; take the stairs instead of the elevator
whenever possible, or substitute green vegetables for bread or white rice at
dinner.
6. Find a Role Mode -
Look around you and find
someone who is already made the change you want to make or create! If you want
to lose weight, make more money, start a business, be more kind, patient,
forgiving, grateful or determine, study people you know who are already
successful and embody those qualities.
The Road to Publication
by Gwynne Forster
At book
signings, writers conferences, in correspondence and at my lectures, the
questions that readers and aspiring writes ask me most often is how I got
started writing novels and, since I have a full-time job, where do I get the
time. More often than not, the questioner wants to become a published author or
thinks she or he does. For the most part, these are pipe dreams. When I question
them, their replies invariably impress me that their major hindrance is not lack
of savoir faire or of time, but of motivation and, occasionally, also of genuine
interest.
How can I say that? Ms. Jane Doe wrote me that she was dying to become a
published author, that she dreamed about it all the time. Yet she confessed to
never having written one line of fiction. Why? In her forty-one years of
existence, she hadn’t had time. One African American woman came to my
book signing and asked me, "How can I write like Terry
McMillan?" I assured her that I had no idea and advised her to
contact Ms. McMillan. Neither of these women burns to write, only to reap
the rewards that the successful writer is presumed to get. If you think
you want to write a novel or a short story, but can’t get started, examine
your true aims. Look closely at your priorities for, as we shall see, therein
may lay your problem.
Back to the question as to how I got started. To begin with, my profession
requires that I write and that the writing be of academic quality, so the act of
writing, though in a different vocabulary, is second nature to me. After a story
played around in my mind for months, I decided to write it down. That crude
effort hooked me on novel writing, proved to me that I could write a full length
novel. Pumped up with excitement about my newly discovered "talent", I
decided to write one that would sell. I bought some books on fiction writing,
studied them and made up my mind to become a published author. I began Sealed
With A Kiss on January 2, 1994 and sold it October 21 of that same year.
Addressing the problem
The operative phrase here is made up my mind. Having done that, I did not
equivocate. How do you manage that if you have a full-time job and a family,
I’ve been asked. I am not the exception; fifty percent of the fiction writers
I know manage this. Let us suppose that you aren’t fooling yourself, that you
have the talents, the imagination required of a novelist, but just can’t get
started. Ask yourself why. In discussing the matter with would-be writers,
I’ve been given numerous excuses most of which boil down to lack of will.
You want to write, but you can’t find the time. Not so. People who want to
write, who burn to write and need to write do that. They write. To claim you
can’t find the time is to mislead yourself. The problem lies in how you use
the time that you have and whether you are willing to make some sacrifices. I
suggest that you keep an accurate record of what you did each minute of your
waking hours and analyze seven days of records. You will get some surprises.
How much time did you spend watching television, looking at mail-order
catalogues, chatting with friends who telephone you, surfing the internet or
chatting with strangers on-line, critiquing someone else’s manuscript? What
did you do at the hairdresser’s, while waiting at the doctor’s or
dentist’s office, riding public transportation, waiting for and traveling on
trains or airplanes? You could have spent the time writing.
One prominent
African American romance writer wrote her first published novel entirely on the
subway while riding to and from work, because that was her only opportunity to
write. Another rises at four in the morning to write at a time when she is
guaranteed privacy and works until six-thirty when her family demands her time.
Have you stretched yourself in order to write? How many hours and how many
opportunities have you squandered?
Writer's Tip - Every Word Counts
By Sherryle Kiser Jackson
Who knew there was a standard size as far as word count for trade paper back novels?
I found out when my editor announced to the listserv of talent on the rooster after our inaugural year (2007) that our books are as a whole too wordy.
Apparently a good size for a novel like mine was between 65,000-85,000 words.
Wow, I thought, my first novel, Soon and Very Soon, was over that at 96,205. Some brought to question the contract that said up to 100,00.
As it turns out that wasn't a suggested marker, but it would be mine.
I was writing The Manual, I mean - THE MANUAL, as the name suggests I was already at that point at 147,000 words and counting as I wasn't finished that draft. I must of thought I was Wally Lamb as the book neared 400 pages. A corporate manual was thick, right? I was in the thick of it, totally attached and in love with every character, every line, every word, and in its precise order. It was a blow. I was on point with my deadlines and I even considered sending it in and hoping my editor wouldn't notice the extra verbiage.
Alas, sensibility took over and I sent her a courtesy email. I told her my dilemma and asked very graciously did she want to read it and tell me what she thought could be cut or did she want to give me more time to bring it in under count. Guess which one she choose?
We all know it's the author's job to clean up their manuscript as much as possible. SO, here began the arduous task of cutting the fat of the book by 40,000 words. It wasn't like I could just whack off the last 4 chapters of the thing. The characters had revealed where they were going and the ending was set in stone. I just had to go through every line of dialogue, every event in the plot, every thought and piece of narration and relentlessly get to whacking. At first it felt as if I was losing an appendage, an appendix or something similarly vital. I literally made the decision, used the highlight feature with my mouse and closed my eyes as I pressed delete. I must have re-read the novel over 5 times with edits each time and it was still too lengthy.
I checked in with my editor and she told me to go through this time and think about the flow of the novel. Each chapter should advance the plot, not slow it down. There are only certain chapters that you camp, meaning where you take up residence and give the needed background information or research that either reveals motivation of characters or explains phenomenon occurring in the novel. The other chapters you march right through with fast pace, page turning narration. Her advice reminded me about the writing reference, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, with such pearls of wisdom such as, 'Readers don't require direction, but rather distraction,' and don't be afraid to cut anything that doesn't fit or make sense, even it is your favorite line, or as my editor Joy says, " even if it really happen to your best friend."
It all became clear to me, and easier. I became Edward Scissorhands with the copy and delete button. I stripped down minor characters who were morphing their way to major character status. I cut out a date scene set at a posh DC dessert bar that had decadent items to drizzle under a Godiva chocolate fountain.
This wasn't your classic ice cream and malt shoppe. I remember painstakingly describing the ambiance down to the track lighting and the delectable down to the buttery coating-all gone. The guys she was dating was gone so the spot had to go also. It was liberating, and I found a leaner, more concise story with only my basic plot structure and themes remaining.
ABOUT SHERRYLE
Sherryle Kiser Jackson,
author, teacher, wife and mother, continues in her pursuit of being a fresh
voice in Christian fiction. Her triumphant debut novel, Soon and Very Soon
(Urban Christian, 2007), was followed up by her sophomore release, The Manual
(Urban Christian, 2009).
Soon
After marked the return of her franchise characters: Pastors Willie and Vanessa
Green, and the Harvest Baptist Church saga. Sherryle’s
fourth novel for Urban Christian, Taylor-Made, was released July 26, 2011. She
lives in Maryland with her husband and two children.
Sherryle Kiser Jackson is available for radio and blog interviews and
tours, signings, speaking engagements, etc. To schedule her, please
contact her directly at: sherrylek@aol.com.
Urban Books titles are available wherever books are sold and via online
retailers. Taylor-Made
by Sherryle Kiser Jackson is now available for order on Amazon.
7 Ways to Promote Your eBook on Facebook
And Build Your Author Platform
By David A. Horne
Facebook is a powerful marketing tool for authors. Once you know how to use Facebook's features to your advantage, you will be able to build your own presence on Facebook.
Like Twitter, Facebook has developed into more than just a social media site for posting useless content.
Professional marketers and corporations have teams that are solely devoted to developing their online presence via social media.
Here Are Seven Ways Facebook Can Help Authors Promote Their eBook
Create an Author Profile Page
Your author name will also become your brand. Create a profile page on Facebook and share your achievements and successes with your friends.
Leverage the Power of "Word of Mouth"
Ask you friends to join your page and then again ask them to recommend you to their friends. This form of viral marketing will help to build your list of followers.
Search and Join Related Groups
When you join a group, you are allowing others to take notice of you and your own profile. If you join the right groups that contain your target market then they will also be likely to check you out if you have something to offer. Become active on the site with informative posts and build your reputation as an expert.
Create a Fan Page for Your eBook
This page is specifically devoted to your eBook so stay focused on your goals with this page. You can provide samples chapters, give tips and information, provide links to other valuable resources, tell them about you the author and build the profile and following for your eBook.
Advertise for Direct Engagement
It will cost you to advertise on Facebook but the return may just be worth it. Consider you options and create your advertisement so it reaches your ideal customer.
Post Excerpts of Your eBook or book
This is a great way for potential readers to sample your eBook. If they like what they read then they will buy your eBook as they will want to know more.
Post Literary Events
Use the events' tab to list all upcoming events that you are participating in from public speaking engagements, library visits, signings, to the release of new videos, audio interviews or eBook announcements.
These tips will get you started on Facebook in promoting your eBook and building a fanatical following. There are many more great tools you can use so be sure to do your research and learn from those authors who already use Facebook for marketing.
About the Author
"eBooks International" is a global media company that is focused on empowering writers and authors to write, promote, publish, sell and profit from their eBooks.
eBooks International owns and operates
http://www.eBookAuthorAcademy.com
which has been helping writers become successfully published authors since 2004.
Original Article Source, here.
Legends &
Leaders
Tantalizing stories, memorable characters, provocative storylines are all here!
We bring you the hottest titles released by the most talented authors, writers, and poets of the craft.
Join us in daily
book chats on Facebook, listen to incredible audio book
previews, and help us expose great books to the world. These
pages are filled with glorious books and author introductions! We have more than
enough to entertain and educate you all month long.
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself.
She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group, The Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, November 2007).
Jacqueline is the author of Searching for Tina Turner and Passing Love (releases January 25, 2012).
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry?
In the middle of finishing my last draft of Searching for Tina Turner, I began to research agents. I divided my list into choices based on what I knew and wanted from an agent, and then I started sending two or three query letters at a time. I contacted about a dozen agents before one said yes, but it took about six months of rejection letters (which I kept). Once I got an agent, the second round of submissions began. This is where an agent tries to sell the book to a publishing house. We worked on a list of editors who liked the kind of story I’d written and then the agent pitched the book. There’s nothing a writer can do at this point, except wait to hear from the agent. I wish I could say there was a bidding war for my novel, but there wasn’t. I’ll always remain grateful to my agent (who no longer represents me) and Karen Thomas (an editor at the time) for putting together a book deal with Grand Central Publishing.
BPM: How do you feel about self-publishing?
I have several friends who have chosen to self-publish. Their reasons vary from the desire to avoid traditional publishing bureaucracy to wanting an aging parent to see their work in print. Self-publishing has changed. Companies such as Lulu and
iUniverse produce high-quality books and offer services to create a professional product. They assist writers with editing, artwork, book style and more. After writing, an author’s sole job is to work as his or her own publicist to increase visibility and generate sales. Yet, in that area, I feel that the self-published and first time, conventionally-published authors face the same challenges.
Even though my novel was published by a major publisher, as a first-time author, when it came to publicity I had to be involved. It’s the author’s responsibility to form a partnership with her publisher and to actively participate in the publicity campaign. Regardless of how a writer’s book is published, it remains his/her responsibility to make sure that the manuscript is in tiptop shape before submitting it to a prospective publisher.
BPM: What is your definition of success?
Success comes in stages, and we have to take the time to appreciate (and celebrate) each one. The first time I printed out a copy of Searching for Tina Turner, I felt successful. I’d accomplished my goal. I wanted to write a book, and I did. That was the beginning of my journey and I celebrated success at every point—from getting an agent to seeing my book displayed on a shelf in a bookstore to writing my second novel.
Success is fan mail, it’s Googling your name and giggling over all the positive hits, it’s a Facebook fan page with followers. It’s the inner peace I have because I’m doing what I love.
At the National Book Club Conference this past July, a woman came up to me.
“Miss Luckett,” she said, the smile on her face beautiful and wide. “I just loved your
book!” That, to me, was success—acknowledgement and appreciation of my work.
BPM: How has your writing style evolved over the years? What stimulated your growth?
When I look back at some of my first short stories, I cringe not so much at the writing, but at the craft—or lack of it. But I admire the guts I had to send the stories out. The rejection letters strengthened my determination. Since those days, my style is the same, but my writing has become more polished. I don’t have an MFA, but I’ve taken many workshops and writing classes. I worked hard to learn craft, and that’s an ongoing process. My writing has gotten stronger in the two years since I wrote my first novel.
The Finish Party, my writing group, has had a great influence on me. I’m blessed to be in this group of eight women who are masters of craft and critique. They’ve been both teachers and avid supporters. We workshop each other’s projects and that process has improved my writing. I admit that there are times when I
didn’t like their feedback, but once I returned home, I'd rethink their comments and realize that, nine times out of ten, they’re correct and my writing is all the better because of them.
BPM: What have you realized about yourself since becoming a published author?
Occasionally, I suffer from the old demon of self-doubt. Author Carleen Brice (Orange Mint and Honey) recently asked a group of authors how they fought self-doubt.
I was surprised by the responses of the authors, who were all very accomplished. At first, my doubts were about my writing. Now I feel more comfortable about my ability to write and tell a good story.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it all worthwhile?
Searching for Tina Turner emphasized the importance of self-worth, reinvention and accepting new challenges. I wanted readers to know that life doesn’t end when you get divorced or reach your fifties. I want them to accept the challenges and possibilities offered by these new chapters in life. It took me about two years to write my first novel. Knowing that readers “get” my messages, love my descriptions of
settings, and are eager to see what comes next for me, makes all the writing effort worthwhile.
BPM: Do you have any advice for people seeking to publish a book?
It’s still a challenge to get published. Persistence is vital. For the most part, writers need agents to present their work to publishers. Even before you look for an agent, make sure that your story is tight, your craft is on point, and your manuscript is in good shape. If editing isn't a strong point, find someone to edit for continuity, grammar and typographical errors.
Research agents who represent authors whose work is similar to yours in style, story and genre, and develop a list. Know an agent’s submission guidelines. Then start sending query letters. Your query letter is as important as your manuscript, so make sure to write a compelling (but short) letter to the agents you choose. If an agent takes the time to offer a few suggestions, consider revising your manuscript and move forward. Agents know what it takes to sell a book in today’s market. Don’t be discouraged by rejection. There are plenty of stories about bestsellers that were rejected multiple times (Harry Potter, for example) before the right agent saw the potential for success.
BPM: If you were not a writer, what would you be? What are you passionate
about?
I recall having this conversation with my sister a few years ago. At the time, I felt like my many passions were posts in a pinball machine, and the ball never landed or stuck to one spot. I addressed my concerns about having so many areas of interest in an article for the Huffington Post (February 2010). When my sister suggested I could pursue of all the things I loved but that, for the time being, I needed to focus on one, I felt as if a burden had been lifted from my shoulders.
Besides writing, I love photography, cooking for my friends, and interior design. When I dabble in these little passions, I’m able to expand my creativity.
I take hundreds of pictures when I travel. I love to photograph people in the midst of daily life. In many ways the camera invades privacy, so I’m always considerate and polite. I engage potential subjects in conversation and ask permission, but I’ve also been known to sneak a few candid shots every now and then. Design is another form of creativity for me. Sometimes I work with a friend to stage homes for sale and that helps to satisfy my urge to redecorate. As far as cooking goes, I don’t enjoy cooking for one as much as I do putting together meals for my friends. Fortunately, they love my cooking. I don’t have a specialty, but I’m well-known for my apple pie.
BPM: Introduce us to your book and the main characters. Do you have any favorites? What genre is the book? On Kindle or Nook?
I’m so excited about PASSING LOVE. I love the all the characters, and I love the setting—Paris, it’s one of my favorite places in the world.
In PASSING LOVE the reader follows the story of two women who go to Paris believing that that city will change their lives. From the start, I knew the story would be about two women, one in the present and the other in the past.
Nicole is the character in the present who’s discontent with her ordinary life and her married boyfriend. She’s not a timid woman, just a procrastinator who has always wanted to go to Paris. With the encouragement of a friend, she finally makes up her mind to go.
Ruby’s story is told in the past and post World War II Paris when Black Americans were drawn to that city for the racial freedom they couldn’t find in the United States. Ruby is the complete opposite of Nicole. Ruby is gutsy and can't wait to leave her tiny southern hometown and see the world. She’s a risk-taker daredevil, and she’s my favorite because she does whatever it takes to make her life an adventure. Unfortunately, she steps on people in the process.
My goal was to make Paris come alive and to share history and details about the city. I want my readers to become impatient and as excited about Paris as Ruby and Nicole are. Some might define PASSING LOVE as women’s fiction, and while it definitely is a story about women, there’s history and a story that’s not just for female readers. PASSING LOVE will be available to readers in all formats: electronic and trade paperback. The Audio version releases in
March, 2012.
Passing Love will be available online and at major and independent bookstores everywhere. We encourage readers to ask a bookstore to order copies of PASSING LOVE if they cannot find it in their local store.
Preorders
are available now.
BPM: What inspired you to write this book,
Passing Love?
I wanted to explore what it takes to live a life filled with risk and how risk played into race, love and personal interactions. When I first started writing, I worked on a collection of short stories about a small town in Mississippi. Ruby comes from that town. I was curious to see what kind of female character rebelled against the south, Jim Crow and her mother’s religious beliefs, and what she would do once she escaped those confines.
BPM: Have you ever experienced writers block?
I'm not sure if getting stuck in the direction of the story is the same as writer’s block, but there were times when I had to stop and try to balance out the two women’s stories so that they were both equally interesting. But, that’s part of the writing and revision process.
BPM: Are any scenes from the book borrowed from your world or your experiences?
Except for the little knickknack shop that Nicole visits, all the places in Paris are real—the cafés, the jazz clubs, the Opera and the crepe vendors. Because I enjoy Paris so much, I wanted to give Nicole that same sense of wonder and awe that I have every time I visit the city. I took several tours of Paris to learn the history of black expatriates and jazz. Most of my research took place in 2008. I travelled to Little Africa and wandered the streets amazed at the culture within a culture. I explored the streets and buildings and took lots of pictures in order to recall images and places. During my visit to Paris, I stayed in a beautiful apartment on the quai next to the Seine in the 6th arrondissement (one of 20 municipal administrative districts), which I used as a model for the apartment that Nicole rents. Though I’d stayed in this area twice before, it was amazing to learn all the Black history of that area.
Intimate Conversation with Patricia Haley
PATRICIA HALEY is the award winning, Essence #1 bestselling author of eight faith-based novels, including her latest series with
Broken, Destined, and
Chosen . She’s a full-time senior project manager with an engineering degree from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago . She is a born again believer and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Patricia lives with her loving husband, Jeffrey, and their beautiful daughter in the Chicago area.
BPM: What books made a difference in your life?
Two books have especially impacted me over the years. I read “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by
Dr. Maya Angelou when I was in the 8th grade. I was intrigued to see a little
black girl on the cover. In the early seventies, there weren’t a lot of books out there written by and about
us, African-American women.
The second book is “This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti (my all time favorite) which was the first faith-based novel that I read. It was a page turner and I was amazed at how the book could be so entertaining while incorporating a heavy dose of religious themes. When I finished the 400+ page book in less than a week, I was hooked. It forever changed my prayer life and what I look for in novels. I guess, in a way, my novels mesh the two with African-American characters and faith-based themes. You could say that I write what I enjoy reading.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it all worthwhile?
My purpose for writing is to glorify God while entertaining and reaching every single person that needs to be encouraged and/or inspired. So, as an author, I am blessed to hear many stories about readers who have been encouraged, positively impacted, or genuinely entertained by my books. There is no greater satisfaction for me than knowing someone’s day has been improved or faith strengthened as a result of my writing. It makes the literary journey worthwhile for me.
I’ll never forget a specific situation. I was doing a literary event in Ohio . Everyone had purchased books and I was ready to leave. A young lady came up to me and said she couldn’t afford a book but
wanted me to sign her postcard. Instead I felt led to give her a book and told her to send me the money later. Honestly, once I left, I didn’t expect to hear from her again. Exactly a year later, I got a card with the money inside. She noted that I had met her at the lowest point in her life, at a time when she needed someone to believe in her. When I gave her the book on faith, it lifted her spirits. I don’t always give away books. I sure am glad that I did that day. Encouraging others, that’s what it’s all about for me.
BPM: How would a new writer get started writing a manuscript for the first time?
I'm often asked how to get starting writing a manuscript. After years of writing and committing to diligently improve my craft, I can honestly say that the best way to get started is simply to put the first word on the paper. It's as simple as taking one step. Don't worry about the editing, grammar, how the book will get published, who's coming to your first book signing or what the sequel will entail. Don't get caught up with the many roadblocks (often times quite legitimate reasons why you can't get going.) Press forward. If you have a burning need to write, then I challenge you to pursue your calling and write that someone else might be inspired, encouraged, or blessed by your efforts.
If your goal is to either get published or to self-publish, my advice is to do your homework. Writing is the creative side. Publishing is all about business.
You can quote me on this. "The only commonality between any two successful authors is not the quality of their writing, or the genre, or the story line, or their marketing plan. The only commonality is that they finished their manuscripts. Will you be among that list of successful authors?" To each new writer, I say, "Take care and be blessed."
Intimate Conversation with Lutishia Lovely
Lutishia Lovely is the award-winning, best-selling author of sixteen novels. The Business Trilogy, her latest work, combines two of her passions: writing and food. This series (All Up In My Business, Mind Your Own Business
and Taking Care Of Business) centers around the Livingstons, owners of a soul food dynasty called Taste Of Soul—where sizzling scandal and delicious drama are always on the menu.
Find out more about this series and Lutishia at her website: www.LutishiaLovely.com.
Also please sign up for her newsletter, where readers are treated to contests, updates, excerpts from upcoming novels, contests and
more!
BPM: What makes you powerful as a person and a writer? What drives you to write?
What makes me powerful as a person and a writer is my connection to and constant communication with Spirit, the ultimate creator! Through this connection, and the beliefs I hold as a result of it, I know that God is all there is, that everything is possible, and that our beings are so powerful that everything we think and speak ultimately comes to pass. In short, our words (thoughts and spoken) create the world we live in.
BPM: How do you define success?
Being happy, healthy, living comfortably, sharing love and giving back.
BPM: What have you realized about yourself since becoming a published author?
I’ve learned a lot about myself. For one thing, I have more stories in me than I ever dreamed and that with all of my knowledge of oneness with Spirit, I am still more than I imagined. I’ve learned that when I don’t think I can write another word, I can actually write pages. And I’ve realized how much I enjoy using my gift to enrich others lives.
BPM: Besides the creative process, what is the most gratifying aspect of being a writer?
I am living my dream. I get to wake up every day and do what I love. Now granted, some days I may not like every aspect of it. The job of being a successful author is not for the faint of heart. But every time I finish a book that I’m proud of, or read letters about how my book has changed someone’s life, or why someone stayed up all night because they couldn’t put the book down, I’m reminded why I work so hard.
BPM: Share with us one thing most readers don’t know about you?
Because of the succulent meat dishes described in The Business Trilogy, many people would be surprised to know that I’m basically vegan! The descriptions and tastes so vividly portrayed in my writing comes from memory, research and a wild imagination!
Intimate Conversation with
Mahayana Isabelle Dugast
Mahayana
Isabelle Dugast, Ph.D. Metaphysical Science grew up in Chamonix Mont-Blanc,
France. She originally qualified with the Association of Natural Medicine
in 1993 in the UK, before she moved to Ireland, Cork, where she now resides.
She is an “Agent of Change” and the founder of The Academy of Luminaries.
She offers individual consultations and seminars where she transmits tools that
allow people to fully eliminate self-limitations and tap into their inner
potential, the source of all successes.
BPM: Tell me about your writing background. How does one become a successful
author/novelist?
With serious love for communication, dedication and perseverance! This is my
first book, originally written in 2007. I submitted it to many publishers and
got rejected MANY times... Always with notes of encouragement and perseverance,
which gave me the courage to put all the money I had at a time into
self-publishing in 2009. I then realized that writing was the easy part, the
rest (marketing, etc) was incredibly hard work, especially as an unknown author.
However, I carried on looking for agents/publishers and was signed up by
Eloquent Books in 2010, which was absolutely fantastic. Staying power has been
essential and believing in myself is equally important.
BPM: Why do you write? What drives you?
I write because of my heartfelt desire to communicate with people and offer
empowering tools that can benefit the reader. I much prefer to experience direct
contact with people during seminars but writing allows the information to travel
far and wide and be accessible to all, so this makes writing very inspiring for
me.
I feel that we have given our power away far too long, essentially for lack of
information, so I am dedicated to giving people information and resources so
they can grow into more of who they are, begin to trust themselves again and
become fully self-empowered. One of my favorite key phrases for this book is
‘‘Real success unfolds from within’’: inner harmony is inner success,
inner success is the root of all other successes in my view. We are human
beings, not human doings...
BPM: Name three things that it takes to make a successful person, in your
opinion?
Being connected (you and God working together!), inspired effort, surrender.
BPM: Finish this sentence- "My writing offers the following legacy to
future readers..."
My writing offers a legacy of personal truth and self-empowerment to readers.
With basic information and a renewed contact with their inner self, one can live
in peace, trust, gratitude, beauty, simplicity and enjoy daily, natural
abundance.
BPM:
Introduce us to your new self-help book Anti-Aging Secrets: The Complete
Self-Rejuvenation Manual for Conscious Men and Women.
‘Real success unfolds from within’ - Anti-Aging Secrets: The Complete
Self-Rejuvenation Manual for Conscious Men and Women is a gift to self and
others, and was created to fully empower YOU, the reader. Nourishing at every
level, this book is a gift of health and awareness. The gentle care and nurture
of the body becomes both a spiritual journey and a refreshing panacea to the
mind and emotions. The end result is a more youthful, energized and joyous body
and overall experience of life.
BPM: Who did you write this book for and why now? Why was this book important
to create?
I really just wrote this book for myself at first, as I would have loved to find
all the included information about each topic in one book. That is why I call
this book a gift to self first, and then others! I also love practicality and
had little spare time as I am a single mother of three boys, so I only share
things that really work. Added to this, I felt that writing this book was the
best use of what little spare time I had at home, having committed all my energy
to raising the boys for nearly 10 years, which brought me into my early forties.
I decided that it could be a good idea to put all the information from former
workshops, which were very successful, into a book format. I felt that writing
would also help me to rebuild my career and stay on track using my own advice!
On a spiritual note, this whole experience gave me a way to enjoy the journey
while not getting attached to the outcome. I have felt a sense of fun,
adventure, purpose and a deep experience of gratitude for all the
synchronicities so far!
Intimate Conversation with author Ericka William
Ericka Williams
is a tour de force, a phenomenal woman. She is a compassionate person who not only cares about herself and hers, but she cares about humanity. All of her books are themed to show the unlimited access of human beings to redemption.
She uses societal ills, her own experiences, and real situations that we all face, to show that their is a light at the end of every tunnel, if you take God's hand and let him lead the
way
Ericka Williams is a humanitarian, a mentor, a public speaker and above all, a Child of God.
She is a Christian, spreading the message that Jesus saves; no matter who you are, what you've done, or what other people think of you. She may not fit the mold of a "saint", but she sure is a believer and she knows that we all only have the obligation to spread the Word, the way that we personally know how.
Ericka is a mother of two, an elementary school Language Arts teacher, an actor, a director, and a producer of short films.
Ericka continues to write books, act, and prepare to fulfill her dream of having her books turned into films.
You may contact her at: erickawilliamsinfo@yahoo.com.
BPM: Tell us about your journey becoming a successfully published author.
Do you have anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to
become an author?
I have become an author as a result of feeling very strong about the fact that
as a people, we are too complacent and mentally bound. I try to change our
thinking by showing us our ills. When my cousin died I became an author.
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry? What road did
you travel?
Initially I used a subsidiary publisher. I then met my publisher, Life Changing
Books at the Harlem Book Fair, and then I started my own company, ESharan
Publishing. It is important to learn all facets of the business.
BPM: What is your definition of success?
Accomplishing your goals makes you successful. Your goals should be prioritized
from small ones to big ones. As you check them off, you will get more and more
focused and better and better at accomplishing them.
BPM: Success leaves clues, whose clues did you follow on your journey?
Success teaches you that it is not something to take for granted. It is
something that you must appreciate and not be obsessed over. Success comes in
big and small packages, and it comes and goes. Sometimes you must fail to
appreciate when it comes back around.
BPM: What books or authors made a difference in your life?
Acts of Faith by Iyanla Vanzant. It taught me that I have all the ingredients
within me to realize my dreams and to be content and have inner peace.
BPM: How has your writing style evolved over the years? What stimulated your
growth the most?
I went from writing linear stories to rollercoaster rides, stories with twists
and multiple dimensions. I like the fact that I was able to step out of myself
and write about a murderous as much as I despise murder. I did not want to be
pigeon holed.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it all
worthwhile?
Definitely meeting people and traveling across the country. I love book club
meetings the most when the members know the books’ every detail.
BPM: Do you have any advice for people seeking to publish a book?
I advise people not to worry about editing at first, to just “write the
book.”
Sharon Rhodes was born and raised in Opelika, Alabama. She entered the
United States Air Force shortly after high school. While in the Air Force she
obtained a B.A. in Business and Management from the University of Maryland and a
M.A. in Public Administration from Central Michigan University.
She retired from the Air Force in 2009 as a Logistics Manager. She currently
lives in Bossier City, Louisiana with her husband Richard and son DreVon. She
enjoys reading and planning events.
BPM: Tell us about your journey becoming a published author.
I've always wanted to write a book but never thought I could actually do it. By
being in the military, raising a family and trying to get my education it didn't
allow me the time to explore writing at first. But I decided to make time when I
was diagnosed for the second time with Breast Cancer. I told myself I needed to
set a goal and stop putting it on the back burner. So I set my mind to it and
achieved my goal.
BPM: How do you feel about self-publishing?
Since this is my first book and I self-published, I can speak on the subject. In
the beginning it's an easy process. You control your own timeline and all the
aspects of creating your novel such as the book cover, whether you want
paperback or hardback and when to release the book. However, getting your book
out to the masses is a different story. You have to devote as much time to
marketing and promoting your book as you did in putting it together. I will
consider looking into the traditional method of publishing for my next book.
HIRE POWER: How to Find, Get, and Keep a Job
by Andrea Foy
Hire Power is a how-to guide that steps you through the process of landing the job you want—yes; want—to knowing when to leave for better opportunities. Geared toward the workplace neophyte, this book provides insight for the experienced employee too.
In Hire Power you will learn:
** Basic business etiquette
** The elements of a resume
** How to complete an application
** Appropriate and inappropriate attire for an interview
** How to deal with coworkers, bosses and customers
** How job performance can lead to great appraisals and promotions
HIRE POWER: How to Find, Get, and Keep a Job
Excerpt: Chapter 3 - Applying for a Job
The first thing you want to do when starting a job search is DREAM! Take time to decide what you want to do. Back in my parents’ day, people worked for the same employer and to what time it regardless even if they didn't like the job. Nowadays the average is seven jobs before retirement. Whether it's a desire to go to college after post-high-school employment, a planned career change or loss of work due a volatile economy, employer/employee loyalty has waned. A little preparation while not employed will do wonders for your career and life.
Mind mapping is a great exercise to help organize employment options. The process starts with a broad theme and then incorporates brainstorming to narrow the focus. Use a sheet of paper or poster board and colored pencils to write what you like or want. For example, if you like animals right to work ANIMALS in the center of the paper and then circle it. From the circle draw several lines so that appears to be a sun with rays. The brainstorming component considers different professions that deal with your like: animals. Write each profession-veterinarian, pet store owner, rescue shelter, as well as just, dog trainer, groomer, etc.-on a different sunray.
The next phase of brainstorming looks at each profession in more detail. Consider what the job entails and what it takes to acquire the job. Let's start with veterinarian. Draw several lines under the veterinarian sunray. Words like COLLEGE, INCOME, SICK PETS, SURGERY, EMPLOYEES, etc. will be placed on those lines. Repeat the process for each profession until you have developed a, good list of information. If you choose to study veterinary medicine for eight years, you can work as a receptionist at animal clinic to gain experience and be close to your like.
Even if you're not in dire need of a job, do not go to the first company that offers you a position. Do your research. Compare and contrast. Evaluate pay them benefits; analyze the location of travel and aspects. Consider work hours and your availability. You would do yourself a disservice by accepting the job that makes you miserable.
Apply for a job at a company where you'd like to work. Do the employees seem happy? What is the business’ appearance? Does the company to promote from within? Can you envision management or even owning the business over time? Is the location easily accessible by car or mass transit? Begin with the end in mind. Think about the future beyond tomorrow. You may have to spend a lot of time away from family and friends so may not why not make the work environment almost as enjoyable as being at home.
Far too many people take a job for the money and end up disappointed, frustrated and miserable. To make matters worse, they transfer that dissatisfaction to their co-workers making the workplace a difficult environment for others.
Simplify your life. Be proactive and go where you want to work versus where you have to work. Applying anywhere for financial reasons only doesn’t it benefit you or your employer. Research companies in which you expect to excel. How can you best help the company?
About the Author
Andrea Foy
is an author, speaker and coach. She conducts workshops and seminars on topics such as: Women in Management, Leadership Skills for Women, Professional Presentation Skills, Self Esteem, Assertiveness, Diversity, Leadership Skills and Business Etiquette. Ms. Foy has been certified by the Professional Woman Network as a Professional Coach and Diversity Consultant.
Ms. Foy’s knowledge of business and professionalism comes from over 20 years of customer service experience working for companies such as McDonald’s, Sears, Delta and USAir Airlines, American Express Financial Advisors, Sharkey’s Modeling and Talent Agency the Federal Government. She is a member of Professional Women’s Network and the National Black MBA Association.
Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Foy has authored her first book, has a Bachelor’s in Communications from Wright State University and is working on her Master’s Degree in Business and Technology specializing in Management and Leadership from Capella University. She is also an Advanced Communicator with Toastmasters International.
Desperate Times… Breed
Desperate People by
J. Tremble
History
has shown us that human beings are capable of almost anything when times become
desperate. We can find governments closing factories, sending work overseas,
destroying small towns and companies, and firing loyal employee’s with
decades of service to keep profit lines. On other pages of history are stories
of neighbors stealing from one another, people being reduced to eating out of
garbage cans or starving, and even the killing of loved ones for insurance
money. All these things are terrible acts of humanity, but they still can’t
compare to the betrayal of true love.
Many
of these things can be traced back to one simple thing, money. If money is the
root of all evil, then money is an amazing instrument. It is used in so many
powerful ways. A person may be punished by the removal of it. Others are
rewarded with a bonus or raise.
People spend most of their lives working to acquire money to purchase items
that we either need or want. The only problem is that we buy what we want so
much that we have to beg for the things we need. But what happens when we can
no longer beg. Where do we turn when no one is left to solicit from? That
answer may be answered with another question, could you find the strength to
sell your spouse?
In Bedroom Gangsta, that question is tested and answered. When Seven is
disgusted with being broke and all the dreams promised by her husband Bryce
aren’t coming true. Seven develops a scheme that involves something he
husband would never consider. Pick up Bedroom Gangsta and see if you
could ever stoop so low that it would have you turn into your own spouse’s
pimp.
About the Author
J. Tremble
is a product of the Washington DC public school system. He graduated from
Woodrow Wilson High School, and received his B.A. in Psychology in 1993 and his
Masters in Elementary Education in 1999. He has worked the last ten years as a
proud, sixth grade math teacher.
Jay
is a loving father, devoted husband, and active participant in his community,
who also works with foster care youth in an independent living program.
Jay
is a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, in addition to being the author
of five best-selling novels, Secrets of a Housewife, More Secrets More Lies,
Naughty Little Angel, My Man Her Son, and his latest release, Bedroom Gangsta.
For more information on J. Tremble visit- www.lifechangingbooks.net
Bedroom
Gangsta by J. Tremble Seven, a gorgeous, retired exotic dancer is fed up with her broke and
boring lifestyle. The dreams promised by her husband, Bryce aren’t
coming true, and Seven’s heart longs for the endless supply of cash she was
forced to give up. When the bills aren’t getting paid and they soon face
eviction, Seven wants to return to her old ways, but Bryce refuses. However,
unbeknownst to him, Seven has a scheme up her sleeve that involves something
he’d never expect. Once the money starts to flow, vows are eventually broken,
and unconditional love gets put to the test.
Become
Yourself by
Electa Rome Parks
“Ordinary, brown braided woman with big legs and full lips, become
yourself.”
Wow!
The first time I heard Phylicia Rashad’s character speak those words
with her gravely, powerful voice that demands attention, speaking
straight, no chaser, from her soul. . . from a place of knowing, from a
spiritual realm in the For Colored Girls trailer. . . I literally
experienced chills up and down my spine as if they were saying, pay
attention. This is a lesson in life. I was speechless, mesmerized and
empowered to action. Two little words: Become Yourself.
Become
yourself.
I have been trying to accomplish that task my entire life. You hear me, my
whole life. That has become my subconscious quest and divine mission. Only
in recent years has it become my mantra, repeating it over, again and
again in my head. I embrace it with a depth and passion as my own.
I desire to be the best mother, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, friend. . .
person. . . that I can be. I owe it to myself and I owe it to those around
me, the ones I touch with my spirit on my path to discovery and wisdom.
Become
yourself.
Something supernatural screams directly to my soul, with a mind of its
own, challenging me to make a difference. A positive difference. Life is
too precious to live and pass through in the blink of any eye, and nothing
has changed. That is simply not acceptable. You were simply a blink when
you should have been a bang. The world should be a better place simply
because you were here.
Words, especially robust, passionate ones spoken from a place of wisdom, a
place of knowing. . . words that speak to strength and coming into one’s
rightful self. . . they wrap me cocoon-like in colorful, vibrant silks as
they caress my mental palette and stroke my very soul with the
possibilities. Something primal, from generations after generations gone
by, remembers who I am suppose to be. And I embrace it because I recognize
its power.
Become
yourself.
I want to embrace my essence, live up to my fullest potential and beyond.
Each year of my life, I’m changing, growing, and evolving. That’s a
good thing. I’ve come to realize there is power in my words. They touch
people. They make people feel. My words incite emotion. A higher power has
lovingly bestowed that gift upon me and I gladly accept it and all the
responsibilities that go with it. Find yourself so that you can become.
Become
yourself.
What a beautiful world we would live in if we all did as much. We could
create a world of miracles and harmony. A utopia. Yes, such simple words,
but oh, how powerful upon closer examination, scrutiny and understanding.
I have a glorious destiny to live out, so do you. Become the beautiful
spirit you were meant to be. . . you don’t have to be extraordinary, you
can be ordinary, brown-braided. . . simply look within.
About
the Author Electa Rome
Parks lives outside Atlanta, Georgia and is the best-selling
author of six acclaimed novels, The Ties That Bind, Loose Ends, Almost
Doesn't Count, Ladies' Night Out, These Are My Confessions (anthology) and
Diary of a Stalker. Dubbed a "book club favorite," avid readers
have embraced Electa's true to life characters that tackle prevalent and
heavy hitting issues that take them on an emotional roller coaster. The
self-proclaimed Queen of Real, Electa has been a frequent guest on radio
shows, nominated for many industry awards and interviewed by
numerous newspapers and national magazines. Electa is currently following
her passion and working on her next novel and first screenplay.
Of Mothers, Daughters and the Wounds That Shape Us…
Written by Anjuelle Floyd
- View original
blog.
Injury to the mother-daughter relationship rents a profound wound, and gives rise to serious strain between both daughters and mothers.
Does my mother love me?
Why does my daughter hate me so much?
Why doesn’t she love me? A question often asked by both daughter and mother.
And for the daughter, “If mama doesn’t love me, when who will? Or who can?”
These questions and more along with the associated feelings of worthlessness, anger and ultimate hurt, usually possess an ancestral quality.
The emotional trauma that both mother and daughter experience and inflict each upon the other stands rooted in a history of tense relations between the mothers and daughters from generations past in the family.
Bringing awareness to the fact they live embroiled in a larger we of interactions that came before them offers the first part of healing.
“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Psalm 51:5
The iniquity in to which all women and men are born contains the hurt and pains of past generations, words wrongly spoken, acts committed without concern of affect, hatred born and nurture out of a love, we hold for those with whom we sleep, live and eat, and that is greater than that which we hold for God and ourselves.
Sin lies in our refusal to acknowledge how much we hurt.
One can argue whether we as humans are correct or wrong in living and loving as we do, or whether the adoration we hold for those who hurt us so deeply, even approaches actual love.
One truth remains.
We hurt terribly and it pains us immensely when those we hold in high esteem, fathers, mother, husbands, wives, brother, sisters, etc. do not accept us as we are, shaped and molded by the aches and emotional pains borne by the bodies and souls of those who came before us.
No relationship evidences this more than that between mothers and daughters.
Intimate Conversation with Janie De Coster
Janie De Coster's love of reading is what inspired her to take a step into the writing world. She pens stories of real life drama. She wants to connect with her readers on a level they can relate to.
Janie De Coster is a native New Yorker who now resides in South Carolina.
Janie is working on several projects. Her upcoming release Broken Commandments
with Parker Publishing is slated for November 2011.
BPM: Tell us about your journey becoming a published author. Do you have anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to become an
author?
Janie: My journey into becoming a successful author has been a long and tedious road. Like so many green authors I thought all you had to do was finish your
manuscript, send it out to the agents and here comes the book deal. What a rude awakening for me. I'd learn writing was a business and a tough one at that. Learning the publishing world, and I still have a long long way to go, has taught me a lot about polishing your work before it leaves your desk.
All in all writing has been fun. The way I sums it up, it's like a pregnant mother laboring through her pains. Once you hold your novel in your hand you know the work was well worth it. To answer the second question, the only person I remember that gave me a hint that I had a knack for writing was my English teacher
Mrs. Pernall back in 9th grade. She told me my poems was beautifully expressed and I should do more.
BPM: What is your definition of success?
Janie: My definition of success is doing what makes me happy and sharing it with others.
BPM: Success leaves clues, whose clues did you follow?
Janie: I think that would have to be my mother. Even though she is no longer with me, she has instilled in me about going after my dreams will take me through the rest of my life. She was a strong woman who had very little education but she taught me strength and perseverance which I think helped me greatly in my writing journey.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it worthwhile?
Janie: The benefits that I've been blessed to experience is when someone walks up to me
with a glow in their eyes and a wide smile say "You are really an author." It's like you are a celebrity on the red carpet.
BPM: Finish this sentence- "My writing offers the following legacy to future readers..."
Janie: "My writing offers the following legacy to future readers because I believe it will inspire them, turning a deaf ear to those who are negative and taking hold of courage and faith as their helpers and they too will achieve their dreams.
Honoring Your Mind, Body & Spirit
by Sharon R. Wells
Today, Creator, help me to see my physical body as a living temple where you live. Help me to respect my body, to love and honor my body. I know that to treat my physical body with respect, love, and honor is to respect, love and honor your creation. Help me, Creator, to give my physical body whatever it needs to live in perfect health, harmony, and happiness with you. Amen. ~Don Miguel Ruiz,
"Prayers - A Communion with our Creator"
We are God's perfect creation and He has designed our bodies to signal us when we reach a physical, spiritual or mental overload. Life has conditioned us to keep pushing on even when our health is deteriorating. We ignore the signs due to fear of jeopardizing our means to survive. The fear is so paralyzing that we keep going, going and going like the energizer bunny. It is only when our bodies bring us to a complete halt, then do we listen. This includes our mental and spiritual health
as well.
Just recently, I stopped tapping into my source of power, forgetting who is really in charge. I tried to take on the world single handedly neglecting to keep my mind and spirit fed. As a result, I experienced a mental and spiritual meltdown. It wasn't until then when I realized that I was not honoring myself. Honoring myself means loving myself enough to know when I need to stop and take care of me. I have been guilty of making everything and everybody else a priority, and putting myself last. I wasn't nurturing my spirit and wore myself down mentally and
physically.
Staying healthy requires finding balance in your life and tapping into your power source daily to draw strength. Just as we feed our physical bodies, we must also feed our minds and spirits with prayer and meditation to stay centered and balanced. This will give our physical bodies strength to go on, but with balance.
As much as our lives require us to keep moving no matter what, neglecting ourselves sabotages our fruits of labor. Whatever we are working towards becomes useless if we're not physically strong and healthy to enjoy it.
I now know the importance of listening to my body and staying in tuned with every part of me. We all want to live a long and healthy life, therefore it is vital that we honor ourselves in every way.
If we live well, eat well and stay tapped into our power source, we will be well.
Love, Eat, Pray!
ABOUT SHARON R. WELLS
A native of Philadelphia, PA, Sharon R. Wells is a writer, radio show host,
entrepreneur, motivational speaker and CEO/Founder of Angel Wings Publications,
LLC, a corporation that provides resource information for sexual and domestic
abuse victims. Through the website and the newly released "Without
Permission" Wells provides a forum of encouragement, spiritual healing and
self-awareness to help victims overcome obstacles that have plagued their lives
as a result of sexual and/or domestic abuse.
Radical Self-Love Requires Radical Self-Acceptance
by Author, Ann Thomas, Esq., CPCC
To radically accept yourself, you must embrace and come to peace with all parts of you: the beautiful, the damaged, the powerful, the remorseful, and the divine.
Radical self-acceptance means seeing yourself for all that you truly are - neither with rose-colored glasses nor with muddied glasses, but with a clean, clear accurate lens. There are 5 components to radical self-acceptance: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and sexual.
Radical self-acceptance of your physical form. This means to see your body from a loving point of view. This is the place where you get to notice how beautiful and amazing your body is. Notice where your body curves and where it angles. Pay attention to the parts of your body that you normally neglect. Be mindful of your organs and how they serve you. And notice from a place of compassion what you don't like about your body. If it is something you can change, begin to visualize how you want it to look and feel. If it is not something you can change, send that part of your body love, and ask the Divine to help you embrace that part of you.
Radical self-acceptance of your mind. Your mind is both the holder of infinite possibility and infinite doubt. The same mind that can visualize a goal is the same mind that can derail that goal by producing a fear-based thought. Mental self-acceptance requires you to become aware of the full spectrum of your mind. Once you are aware, you can cultivate a healthier mind by choosing healthier thoughts and eliminating negative ones.
Radical self-acceptance of your emotional being. Part of accepting our emotional being is recognizing that we experience a painful emotion (anger, sadness, shame, etc.) so that we can fully appreciate its opposite. You would not really know joy if you haven't experienced pain. You cannot fully cultivate compassion, if you have never experienced shame. No, you cannot rid yourself of pain. But, you can work to reduce the intensity with which you feel it. One way to reduce the intensity is to accept and pay attention to the wounded parts of us (whether it's a wounded child, teenager, or adult). By doing so, we decrease the chance that those parts of us will create unpleasant situations that force us to pay attention to it.
Radical self-acceptance of your spirit. This means honoring the divine within you. All that is good and divine is not outside of you. The Divine flows within and through you! But, we tend to forget that. We think we are separate from the Divine. We believe heinous things about our worth - thinking that, essentially, we are not good enough. Radical self-acceptance of your spirit is KNOWING that your true essence is divine.
Radical self-acceptance of your sexuality. This means fully embracing your sexuality. I am not just talking about your sexual orientation - I am talking about fully allowing yourself to have intimacy with your sexuality. To stay connected to your body and spirit. Many women I know (especially survivors of sexual assault, molestation, or incest) either underplay or overemphasize their sexuality. This is in part because of the messages and stereotypes we receive about our sexuality as women. The same is true of the stereotypes of men, where men are encouraged to be hypersexual to "prove" their masculinity. But, neither extreme is loving. What is loving is to embrace the fact that our sexuality is an expression of and a portal for our divine energy. As a result, we must act on our sexuality from a place of integrity.
As you can see, the common thread to radical self-acceptance is to see yourself holistically, from a place of love and compassion, and most importantly without judgment.
About the Author
Ann Thomas, Esq., CPCC, is the author of 101 Affirmations for Radical Self-Love (available on Amazon.com), a certified life coach, and the founder of Evolving
Goddess. Visit the Evolving Goddess website at: www.evolvinggoddess.com to get a complimentary copy of the special report,
Surviving Rejection: A Step Toward Radical Self-Love, and learn more about Ann's retreats, workshops, and private sessions.
As a certified life coach, Ms. Thomas caters to women ready to take charge of their lives and cultivate the “Goddess” within.
She founded Evolving Goddess a company which is “devoted to teaching women around the world how to connect with their divinity and love and accept themselves unconditionally and without judgment”.
Her supportive EG Newsletter includes personal notes, recommendations, events section, feature article, and an Evolving Goddess homework assignment for readers to work on. Sign-up for her newsletter at
www.evolvinggoddess.com.
Great Exercises + Less Time =
Better Results
By Shaila Strayhorn
Great Exercises + Less Time = Better Results
7:00am- Wake up
7:30am-Shower and get dressed
8:00am- Wake up kids
8:15am- Make breakfast and lunches
8:40am-See kids to bus stop
9:00am-Head to work
12pm- Have lunch
5pm- Leave work
5:30pm- Pick up the kids from baseball and soccer practice
6:00pm- Cook dinner
6:30pm- Eat dinner
7:00pm- Help kids with homework
10pm- Try to get the kids in bed
11pm-Get me to bed
Start over next day
While this may not be your daily schedule, many of you can relate in one
way or another to having to juggle several different things at once. Finally by
the end of the day or after you have managed to get your children to sleep, all
forms of energy have left your body. Not only has your energy decreased, but you
realize that with each year that you and/or your children get older the less
amount of time you have for yourself.
One survey conducted within Britain asked 3000 customers within a super market
about their overall schedules. It was determined that working parents average
about 90mins a day to themselves (however, I am sure that many of you may argue
otherwise). With everything that a working mother and father have to do to keep
their household in order, the last thing on their mind when having any kind of
free time is going to the gym and working out.
Is it therefore possible to find a happy medium between being able to stay in
shape without it interfering too much with your daily schedule? The answer
is….YES! Here are a few exercises that you can do during your daily routine.
While at Work
•Inner Thigh- Place full water bottle, towel, or stress ball between
thighs. While sitting up tall and keeping abs pulled in begin squeezing bottle,
towel, or ball half way. Repeat for 15-20 reps
•Leg Extensions- While sitting in a chair lift one foot of the floor
until it is level with your hip. Hold leg in this position for 20 seconds and
then relax. Repeat with other leg
•Tricep Strength Training- Place hands on the edge of chair and walk
your feet out until you are hovering one foot from the floor. Begin using your
triceps to left your self up and down.
•Bicep/Tricep Curls- Use a five to ten pound dumbbell or a water bottle
to do curl arm so hands are touching shoulders (also known as arm curls). Also
with dumbbell or water bottle in hand, place arms over head and begin lifting
dumbbell/water bottle above your head
•Chair Squats- Stand straight up, with feet the width of your chair.
Slowly begin lowering your body until you are in squat position with hips
hovering over your chair, hands on your hips, and knees at a 90 degree angle.
•Abdominals- Keep abs contracts for a period of 30 seconds as tight as
you can and then release. Repeat this step.
Other ideas for staying in shape while in the work place include:
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Park further away from your work place to increase your amount of
walking
• Make sure to drink plenty of water and pack something health for lunch
• Use a pedometer or calorie counter to keep track of how many steps you
take during the day as well as how many calories you burn. (Note: with the
pedometer try to aim for 10,000 steps a day).
• Substitute your office chair for an exercise ball to reduce back pain
and conduct exercises while at the computer.
When at Home
1. Calf Raises- Anytime you may spend standing on your feet be it to cook
dinner, wait in line, ect. can be spent strengthening your calf muscles. Simply
raise yourself up on the ball of your feet and then lower yourself back down.
Try and see how many you can do in 1 min.
2. Leg Lifts- Lay on the floor on your side. Lift the leg you are not
laying on so that it is level to your hip and lower it back down. Do about 20-30
reps on each leg
3. Old Fashion Crunches- Lay on your back and place feet on the floor.
(Be sure there is no space between your back and the floor). Place hands behind
head and lift your lower body with your abs.
4. Plank Positions- Lay on your stomach with your feet tucked under you
and place your hands on the floor so they are directly below your shoulders.
Lift yourself up so that your body is arms length from the floor. Make sure that
your body is in a straight line and abs are contracted. Hold this position for 1
min.
5. Lunges- Standing straight up, place one foot out in front of you as
far as you can go. Making sure that your back stays erect slowly lower yourself
down so that the knee of the leg behind you is an inch from the floor. Raise
yourself up and repeat sequence on the opposite leg. (This is exercise is also
effective while holding dumbbells).
These exercise tips are not to say that you should not go to the gym. However
when your schedule may not permit you to go to the gym, these tips can be an
effective technique for muscle toning, strength training, increasing your energy
and stress management. Be sure before engaging in any of these activities,
consult with your physician first.
About the Author
Shaila Strayhorn is a
current graduate student at The University of Michigan School of Public Health.
She is pursuing a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration on general
epidemiology. Her long time goal is to obtain her doctorate within the field of
public health and lead research projects focused promoting public health with
minority populations. Shaila is a Phi Beta Kappa and magnum cum lade graduate of
the Spelman College. In her spare time she enjoys writing, exercising, and
spending time with her family and friends.
A Fish a Day Can Keep the
Doctor Away
We
have all heard the saying that “An apple a day can keep the doctor away.”
However, the saying also holds true for consuming the recommended amount of fish
or other foods rich in omega-3s as well. By making sure that you get the proper
balance of omega-3s within your diet, you significantly boost your immune system
and prevent your chances of contracting chronic diseases . Here are answers to a
few questions that you may have regarding omega-3s and how they can benefit your
overall health.
What are omega-3s?
Omega-3s are fatty acids found within specific foods we eat. They are also known
as essential fatty acids, because they cannot be produced within the body.
Therefore it is our responsibility to make sure we supply our bodies with a
healthy balance of omega-3s in order to improve our overall health.
What foods possess
omega-3s?
Omega-3s can be found in fish oils found within such foods as krill, algae,
tuna, salmon, and sardines. They are also found within flaxseed which is in
breakfast cereals, breads, and walnuts. Lastly they are also found in
fruits (such as cantaloupe) and vegetables (such as broccoli, spinach,
cauliflower). It is recommended by the American Heart Association, that
Americans consume fish rich in fish oils at least 2xs a week to get an effect
amount of omega-3s within their diet.
How can omega-3s improve
my overall health?
Omega-3s are also good source of “brain food” because it is rich in
essential fats needed for the body to function . As a result of omega-3
consumption, it has been shown that concentration and memory are improved as
well as the overall functioning of the brain and nervous system . Omega-3s can
also slow the development of plaque around the arteries, hypertension, and
stroke. Moreover omega-3s can reduce inflammation which is beneficial in lower
the risk of such diseases as diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and even depression.
Foods and/or supplements rich in omega-3s are also imperative for pregnant
women. Studies have shown that having a diet rich in omega-3s while expecting
can prevent miscarriage and improve the development of your baby . Babies who do
not get enough omega-3s can develop nerve problems. However, be sure to consult
your doctor before taking/consuming omega-3s as they can alter their hormone
levels.
Is there such a thing as
too much omega-3s?
Studies are still being conducted on this topic. Too many omega-3s can lead to
excessive bleeding during injury . Also if one is allergic to fish, they should
consult their physician before taking foods containing fish oils.
What is the difference
between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids?
Omega-6 fatty acids can be found in eggs, vegetable oils, seed oils, poultry,
and other dairy products . Similar to omega-3s, omega-6s are also incapable of
being produced within the body. Omega-6s can assist in lowering cholesterol and
supporting the skin while omega-3s are more beneficial in reducing health
disease . Americans normally get too many omega-6s within their diet, too much
of this fatty acid can cause clot formation within the blood. A healthy balance
of omega-3s and omega-6s within your diet can inhibit the possibility of blood
clots within the body.
How can I learn more
about omega-3s and how it can improve my health?
•Speak with your physician about taking fish oil supplements or pills rich in
omega-3s.
About the Author
Shaila Strayhorn is a
current graduate student at The University of Michigan School of Public Health.
She is pursuing a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration on general
epidemiology. Her long time goal is to obtain her doctorate within the field of
public health and lead research projects focused promoting public health with
minority populations. Shaila is a Phi Beta Kappa and magnum cum lade graduate of
the Spelman College. In her spare time she enjoys writing, exercising, and
spending time with her family and friends.
Fiction
Writers
Share this spirit filled issue with at least 10 friends and co-workers.
Would you like to be a guest blogger? We are now seeking virtual tour stops! If you want to be added as a stop on our literary tours, contact
me today. Just email Ella Curry with any questions or comments
at: elladcurry@edc-creations.com.
New
York Times bestselling author Mary B. Morrison believes that women should
shape their own destiny. Born in Aurora, IL, and raised in New Orleans, LA, she
took a chance and quit her near six-figure government job to self-publish her
first book, Soulmates Dissipate, in 2000 and begin her literary career.
New York Times bestselling author Mary “HoneyB” Morrison,
with millions of fans, has established herself in the publishing world with
novels that bring the soulful, sexy, and totally uncensored voice of black women
to readers everywhere.
Mary “HoneyB” Morrison has published sixteen novels, including her
newest release, The Eternal Engagement, to be released on July 26, 2011 by
Dafina Books, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp. Writing under the pen
name HoneyB, Morrison released Single Husbands and Married on Mondays
with Grand Central Publishing. In her novels, Mary addresses relationships,
sexuality, and social issues in entertaining and thought-provoking ways.
Mary’s books have appeared on numerous bestseller lists, and she’s a
frequent contributor to The Michael Baisden Show.
Leslie Small (producer and director) along with Jeff Clanagan (producer/CEO of
Codeblack Entertainment) will be at 15th Annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF),
with New York Times bestselling author Mary “HoneyB” Morrison to announce
their seven-picture deal based on Morrison’s Soulmates Dissipate series. This
is the first of seven films to be produced by Clanagan, Small, Morrison, Jesse
Byrd, Jr., and Dawn C. Mallory that will be based on the author’s works. With
the announcement of this feature film deal, Mary will blaze a sizzling new trail
by bringing to film stories of the African American experience that have made
her one of the most poignant and popular authors writing today.
For more details, visit Mary online at www.marymorrison.com.
BPM: Readers, join me in welcoming New York Times bestselling author
Mary B. Morrison. Mary, your journey to publication is a remarkable one.
As mentioned earlier, you left your career with the government to pursue your
dream of writing. What first inspired you to become a writer and storyteller?
Simply put, my soul mate. When we parted after I say, ‘five’ he says
‘seven’ years, I knew I had to write Soul Mates Dissipate. The title
remained the same for seven years before I actually wrote the book. I didn’t
write our life story but I wrote the storyline of two soul mates meeting, then
later struggling to hold on through infidelity and deception, and finally
parting ways but never parting hearts.
BPM: What advice would you give women pursuing their own
dreams or struggling with the decision whether to take a risk to change their
lives or careers in some way?
Eddie Murphy inspired me tremendously. I haven’t met him yet but I saw him
during his standup RAW tour in Oakland years ago and he said, “In order to
move forward in life you must let go and never look back.” I took his advice
when I quit my near six-figure Federal government job in 2000. I could’ve
taken a leave of absence from my job just in case I didn’t make it as a
writer. I could’ve kept my job while I was writing.
If a woman is a full-time employee, single-mother or wife constantly cooking,
cleaning, and daydreaming about what if she didn’t have to wear so many hats
she could do what she really wanted to do, then that’s the woman I’d tell,
“Stop putting your needs and desires last.” As Russell Simmons
says, ‘Do You.’ If you struggle to do everything, you risk doing
nothing well. Let go of the things and the people blocking your
blessings so you can grow. Confront your deepest inner fears knowing
that you are worthy of greatness.” Life is filled with risks. In
order to succeed you must take chances, have faith, and believe that the Creator
will provide all that you need.
BPM: Let's go inside Mary's World for the
next questions. With so many writers putting books on the shelves today.
I have to wonder if it's a true calling to write or greed. What drives you
to write? Passion or the financial benefits?
Passion and the love I get from my fans. Writing is a form of art. I love
sitting at my computer and watching my stories unfold. The things my characters
do, amazes me sometimes.
BPM: You have created a strong brand with the HoneyB. movement
and the books. How do you define success?
Doing what you want to do and doing it well. My son and I executive
produced my first stage play, Single Husbands. We co-wrote the script. I
financed the entire production. We were hands on from start to finish. Our
success depended on us doing our part. The director, cast, music composer
(D’Wayne Wiggins), and everyone that helped made our production the best
sold out stage play in Oakland in over ten years. No one is successful
alone. I don’t take credit for my success. I give it to my family,
friends, fans, and publishers.
Behind the Pen: Meet Monique
Miller
Monique Miller is a native of North Carolina. She is a member of the Divine
Literary Tour (DLT) a non-profit organization which brings together Black Greek
Authors from across the nation for a cross-country tour to promote literacy.
Monique's creative writing landed her a placement in the 2003 Black Expressions
Book Club's Annual Fiction Writing Contest. Monique’s novels include Quiet
As It’s Kept, Redemption Lake, Soul Confessions and Secret Sisterhood.
Monique lives in North Carolina with her family.
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry? How do you
feel about self-publishing?
Miller: My advice to writers is to network with other writers and like minded
people. I have met many people who were aspiring writers like me and have since
gotten book deals. My break into the industry happened because of some
networking I was doing. An author friend of mine submitted my manuscript for me
and I was blessed to have it chosen.
Self-publishing
can be an avenue for writers who want to self-publish, or for people who have
not gotten a book deal with a publisher. It is my belief that when someone
self-publishes they need to make sure their work is the best quality work they
can put out there, from the cover, to the editing and so on. A self-published
work shouldn’t look like it is self-published. An author with some of the best
self-published work I’ve seen is Trice Hickman.
BPM: If you were not a writer, what would you be? What are you passionate
about, besides writing books?
Miller: If I weren’t a writer and could be anything else, I think I’d like
to be a photographer. I love to take pictures. I just wish I had a real camera
with more than 8.1 mega pixels right now.
BPM: What books or authors made a difference in your life?
Miller: In the early years as a child, I loved to read books by Judy Blume and
V.C. Andrews, John Saul and James Patterson. Their books transformed me from
reality into their fictional worlds. I loved to read because of them, there was
nothing like reading a good book with a great plot. Now I love to read well
written books by authors like Jacquelin Thomas, Kimberla Lawson Roby, Tananarive
Due and currently I am hooked on books by David Baldacci – I love mystery and
suspense.
Fiction Writers
Check
out our Black Pearls Magazine blog and online newsletter for the latest literary news and
events. Explore
the newsletter
here today.
Paige
Donahue has always resented her sister, Camille. As children, Camille got the
good grades, friends, and their parents’ love, while Paige received hurtful
criticism and no real affection. Now, as adults, Camille lives in a gorgeous
home with her husband, Pierce, and their two beautiful children, while Paige is
stuck in a small condo she can barely pay for. But enough is enough, and
soon—by planting seeds of doubt in Camille’s and Pierce’s
minds—Paige’s plan of stealing her brother-in-law begins to work perfectly.
Until Pierce makes a stunning decision and drives Paige to an even more
desperate scheme…
Book excerpt from SECRET
OBSESSION
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Paige Donohue glanced around the elegant dining room and literally wanted to
die. She hated visiting her sister, she hated all that Camille had been blessed
with, and most important, she hated her. In fact, she always had, ever since
childhood, thanks to the way their parents had doted on Camille and treated her
like she was just a bit more precious. They’d gone out of their way,
confirming the idea that Camille was the better daughter, their golden child so
to speak, and that Paige was the very least of their worries. They’d even as
much as told Paige this very thing on several different occasions—maybe not
directly, of course, but their actions had made their feelings dreadfully clear.
Such as the
time when she’d turned sixteen, and they’d told her how they simply
couldn’t afford to give her the same pricey, sweet sixteen party they’d
given Camille, just two years before, since they now had to save all their money
for Camille’s graduation gala. Worse, they’d never even apologized for it
and had merely expected Paige to accept their decision. They’d expected her to
do the same thing she’d been forced to do when they’d purchased Camille that
brand new SUV right before she’d left for college but had convinced Paige that
there was nothing wrong with driving her sister’s hand-me-down, ten-year-old
Camry when she’d graduated—that is, since Paige would only be traveling ten
miles down the road to a junior college.
It was true
that Camille had done much better than Paige in high school, and yes, Camille
had practically breezed through Marquette with honors, and right after, had
immediately been hired by one of Chicago’s top advertising firms. But had that
given George and Maxine Donahue the right to treat their younger daughter like
she didn’t matter? Had it been okay for them to boast about Camille’s high
accomplishments to anyone who would listen and then constantly compare those
accomplishments to all that Paige had failed at? Had it been okay for them to
insist that maybe if Paige had been just a tad more like Camille, they’d have
been a lot prouder of her?
Even today, Paige still hadn’t forgiven them, doubted she ever would, and
pretty much kept her distance. From her parents, anyway, because when it came to
Camille, Paige had always visited her regularly and never let on how she truly
felt about her—not once. They did everything sisters should do together, and
Paige went out of her way letting Camille know that she loved her and would give
her life for her if she had to. She’d done all of this for years because she
needed her sister to love and trust her completely. She needed her to trust her
so much, that she would never suspect what was coming. Paige had denied herself
for fifteen agonizing years, partly because she didn’t want to hurt Crystal
and PJ, her adorable niece and nephew, but as of a few months ago, they’d
turned ten and twelve, respectively—meaning they were older and wiser and
would handle things a lot better now. They would still be hurt, that much she
knew for sure, but not devastated.
Paige smiled at her sister, then at her flawless-looking brother-in-law, Pierce,
and then at the children. She lifted one of the freshly-baked dinner rolls from
the basket, set it back onto the table and pretended she couldn’t be happier.
“So, how’s business this month?” Camille asked Paige, referring to
the public relations firm Paige had founded shortly after being laid off from
her previous job.
“Not bad. I’m still working with my three ongoing clients, and I just
contracted two short-term clients a couple of days ago.”
“That’s really great, sis,” Camille said and Paige could tell Camille was
genuinely happy for her. Too bad Paige could barely stand the sight of her—too
bad Paige envied everything about her sister, including her beautiful, extremely
thick, off-black, shoulder length hair and her ridiculously-toned,
five-foot-ten-inch frame. Even sitting down, there was no mistaking how
statuesque and attractive Camille was, and suddenly, Paige felt ill. So much so,
she wanted to leave. But she knew escaping the situation wouldn’t help her,
and she pulled herself together.
“I think it’s wonderful how you were able to start your own business and
find so much success with it,” Pierce said. “Truly impressive.”
Book Review written by
Ann Stephens
Rate: 5-stars
One of the lucky people that won this book as a pre- release. As with all
Kimberla Lawson Roby books this was an excellent read!!!
Book Review written by
Monique Real Page Turners
Rate: 4-stars
I won a pre-release copy of this novella and I'm so glad I did. Secrets destroy
but the truth shall set you free. Great read.
Lutishia
Lovely dishes up a decadent helping of love, lust, greed, and secrecy in this
riveting tale of a family's soul food dynasty...
Life is good for the Livingstons. Business is booming, Taste of Soul
restaurant is launching a West Coast division, and Bianca Livingston and her
brother, Jefferson, are vying to head it up—which means their long simmering
rivalry is about to boil over...
Having completed a culinary course in Paris—along with a hot love
affair—Bianca feels more than ready to take the reins in L.A. Her parents'
insistence that she marry a man of their choosing only fuels her ambition.
Jefferson is hoping the position will free him to be with the secret L.A. love
his family would never approve of. But the two soon realize that between their
meddling cousin, Toussaint, and the return of an enemy bent on crushing the
Livingston empire, they aren't the only ones in this competition. And when
company money mysteriously starts disappearing, they'll find it's hard to run a
business when no one can mind their own...
Chapter One from Mind
Your Own Business
"Why can't a woman be on top?" Bianca Livingston demanded,
tossing shoulder-length, straightened hair over her shoulder. She stood over her
older brother as if ready to strike, looking totally capable of kicking butts
and taking names. Her quick smile, short stature, and girly frame had caused
many men to underestimate her—to their peril. But anyone seeing her
now—shoulders back, hands on hips, her perfectly tailored black suit and
four-inch heels adding to her aura of power—would believe her capable of
running almost anything. "I'm as qualified to run the West Coast division
as you are, even more so, matter of fact."
"You're
qualified to run the kitchen, maybe," her older brother retorted. Jefferson
suppressed a smile. He'd taunted his sister from birth, and he did so now. Her
fiery personality was the perfect foil for his laid-back teasing. But even with
his ongoing provocations, this time Jefferson's antics masked the seriousness of
his quest. He had every intention of being the Livingston who moved to LA to
establish the Taste of Soul restaurants both there and in Nevada.
But unlike most
Livingstons, he didn't like confrontation or competition. He'd quietly made his
bid to step away from his cushy position in the finance department to run the
West the same way he cooked his ribs: low and slow. "Isn't that why
you spent the last nine months in Paris?" he queried to underscore his
point. "Learning the fine art of cooking so that you could give our soul
food some class?"
Actually, Bianca had fled to Paris to get away from the chain around her neck
otherwise known as fiancé Cooper Riley, Jr. But only one other person knew this
truth—her cousin, Toussaint Livingston. Initially, forestalling the marriage
everyone else believed was a fait accompli was also why she'd expressed interest
in running the West Coast locations. But now, after months of talking with
Toussaint, who, besides being her confidant and a Food Network star, was also
the ambitious brainchild behind their company expanding out West, Bianca wanted
to relocate to put her mark on the Livingston dynasty and make the West Coast
Taste of Soul restaurants shine.
Bianca replied, "Need I remind you that I have not only a culinary
certificate from Le Cordon Bleu, but also an undergrad and a graduate degree in
business administration?"
"No, little sis, you don't need to remind me." Jefferson's smirk
highlighted the dimple on his casually handsome face, his sienna skin further
darkened by the November sun. His deep-set brown eyes twinkled with merriment.
"But do I have to remind you that I have double masters in business
administration and finance?" Jefferson had been the first Livingston in two
decades to follow up his stint at Morehouse with two years at Wharton's School
of Business.
Bianca, knowing that she couldn't go toe to toe when it came to her brother's
education, tried a different route. She walked away from Jefferson and sat in
one of the tan leather chairs in the artistically appointed office. Reaching for
a ballpoint pen that lay on his large and messy mahogany desk, she adopted a
calmer tone, yet couldn't totally lose the petulance in her voice.
"Jefferson, the only reason Dad is promoting the idea of your heading up
the location is because you're the oldest."
"And the son, don't forget about that. You know Dad doesn't want to see his
baby girl fly too far from the nest."
"Okay, probably that, too," Bianca conceded. It was no secret that
when it came to her father, Abram "Ace" Livingston, she was the apple
of his all-seeing eye.
"Besides, how are you even considering relocation when you've got a fiancé
champing at the bit to get married? Cooper has been more than patient with you,
Bianca. Not many men would let the woman they love move to the other side of the
world, even if it was, as you successfully argued, for the union's greater good.
What did you call it? Increasing your company value and the marriage's bottom
line? As if being a Livingston isn't value enough? No, Bianca, Cooper allowed
the wedding to be pushed back once already. He's not going to delay it a second
time. And you know he isn't moving to LA."
Tears unexpectedly came to Bianca's eyes. She abruptly rose from the chair where
she'd been sitting and walked to the window. The glory of the day, boasting
colorful autumn leaves framed by a sunny blue sky, was lost on her. "You're
probably right," she said, quickly wiping her eyes. "If everyone has
their way, in six months I'll be married and in nine have a baby on the
way." But how can I marry Cooper after what happened in Paris?
"Hey, sister, are you all right?"
Bianca jumped. She hadn't heard Jefferson rise, hadn't been aware that he'd
walked from his desk and joined her at the window. "Actually, no, if you
want to know the truth. Jeff, I—"
"Hey man, oh, Bianca, I'm glad you're both here." Toussaint Livingston
burst into Jefferson's office, and now rushed toward his cousins on the other
side of the room. The seriousness of his countenance took nothing away from a
face that models would envy, along with six feet, two inches and almost two
hundred pounds of delectable dark chocolate. "We need to roll to y'all
parents' house right now. Emergency family meeting."
Their conversation forgotten, both Jefferson and Bianca turned at once, talking
simultaneously.
"What's the matter?"
"What's going on?"
Bianca's heart raced with concern. "Why are we meeting at Mom and Dad's
house, Toussaint, and not in the conference room?"
Toussaint turned and headed for the door. "That's what we're getting ready
to find out. I'll meet y'all there."
Fifteen minutes later Toussaint, Jefferson, and Bianca joined their family
members in the living room of Ace and Diane's sprawling Cascade residence.
Toussaint's parents, Adam and Candace, and his brother, Malcolm, were already
there. The trio from the office was the last to arrive and as soon as they sat
down, Ace began speaking.
"We've got a situation," he said without preamble. "Somebody's
stealing company funds."
Reactions were mixed, with bewilderment and anger vying for equal time.
"Who is it?" Bianca demanded, ready for battle though the culprit
remained unnamed.
The family members looked from one to the other, a myriad of thoughts in each
mind. Who could it be? How did this happen? Is the guilty party somehow
connected to someone in the room? One family member even pondered the
impossible: Is the thief one of us?
"What kind of money are we talking about?" Toussaint
asked. "Hundreds, thousands ... more?"
"A couple hundred thousand," Ace replied, his tone somber and curt.
Again, responses were symphonic.
"What the hell?"
"Who could do such a thing?"
"Oh, hell to the N-O. We're not going to take this lying down."
"You're absolutely right, baby girl," Ace said to Bianca. "We're
not going to stand for this, not at all. Nobody steals from our company without
feeling the wrath of a Livingston payback."
Please explore all the books on the sidebars,
click on all the links and most of all, share what you learn today with your
network. I so appreciate every person that visits Black Pearls. Enjoy this special magazine designed with each of you in
mind.
Self devaluation comes from the deposit of shame, guilt and compromising personal integrity into the bank of self-worth.
Whenever I have made a decision that went against my gut instinct or core value I devalued my self-wroth. Each time I do this I withdraw from the bank of self and became decreased in my self-value until my bank became deficient. This deficiency shows up in my life as lack of funds, not enough-ness in love and affection and self imposed starvation. I of course know my worth is more than I have been accepting so then I deposit the false currency of shame into the bank of self-worth because when I feel worthless shame is an acceptable substitute to love.
Accepting the valueless currency of shame in to my bank of self-worth lets me write the checks of guilt to the world because I know what I am giving is a valueless currency of non self-worth. When I use this currency in my interaction with the world I am compromising my personal integrity which in turn continues to deposit shame into my bank of self worth to write the checks of guilt and the compromise of my integrity. This is a viscous cycle.
In order to break the cycle I must first stop writing bad checks. When I am writing a check it is to get something which I desire, love, respect, attention, sex, etc...... First order of business is to stop all action and sit down and create a budget. This means that I will have to live off of whatever deposits of love I have inside. If I am emotionally bankrupt then I will stop the spending of emotional funds that I do not have until I have sufficient funds to withdraw from. It may appear to others that I no longer give and am only taking, taking, taking but I will instill trust into my bank of self-worth by being honest with myself about what I can spend right now.
Once I see what I am bringing in I can look clearly at the currency and see it clearly says "In God I TRUST." I realize that, that is the currency I can bank on and deposit. I can make that a daily deposit into my account of self-worth. Through acceptance and work that instills value and self-worth I can budget what I can expend and value my "self" enough not to go beyond my budget. I will reinvest my dividends into more self-worth and value and before you know it I will have a bank account that is worth billions. I live from the overflow of love that is inside and invaluable.
Thought For Today:
When I compromise my integrity I make my-self valueless. When I feel valueless I deposit shame and withdraw guilt. When I spend from guilt I reinvest worthlessness.
Today's Affirmation:
I recognize behaviors, thought patterns and beliefs that support self-worth and self-love. I deposit only the emotional, physical and spiritual currency that is
"In God I Trust" and accept no counterfeits.
To become a follower of Ki Mani's spiritual articles, affirmations and prayers, please visit her Blog Spot:
http://kimanidivine.blogspot.com.
Ki Mani Prays - A Prayer for Guidance
The infinite Expression of life is my expression right now. It is God that is this Expression moving through my very being. Whenever I am in need of direction and guidance I turn toward the inner compass of the All knowing indwelling presence of the Christ within and receive the answers to my questions. I do this through prayer. I do this through meditation. I do this through daily readings of words and affirmations that uplift my spirit. I also do this through the action of inaction.
The bible says to "be still and know" in this stillness I know I am led and guided in the direction that is in alignment with my higher self, my holy-self.
This "Self" is connected to the Divine and has not nor ever can be severed from Gods grace. This
"Self" has never felt the pain of loss or the fear of insecurity.
This "Self" knows her/his place in the Kingdom and is always in communication and communion with God. I surrender my questions now to this "Self" I surrender my thoughts and ideas, and everything I am unsure about to this "Self" and follow the directions that are given. I make it my daily intention to check-in with God and surrender my will to thy will so that earth will be a reflection of heaven. I accept the possibility of experiencing heaven right now. I acknowledge it is the fathers' great pleasure to give me the desires of my heart. I seek to always be in alignment and trust now that my source is leading the way. God is my guide and I am guided in the direction of my highest good for good. Amen
It was the summer of my first year in junior high when my mama did the most
un-cool thing that a mother can do to a closet country girl trying to act like a city chick…she planted a garden.
What? Are you kidding?
A garden in the backyard of our newly built home in the small Kansas town of three-thousand where I grew up. How do you tell your peers that you can’t meet with them in the local grocery store parking lot and ride up and down 6th Street (to honk and wave at the same people about six zillion times) because you’re picking weeds from among the lettuce plants, or digging holes for sticks to help tomato vines stand? Soooooo not cool, Mama!
But that was me, twelve with a bullet (yep, I started kindergarten at four years old) and totally frustrated that my mother didn’t understand how she was seriously messing with my oh-so-fly reputation. It seemed to not bother her at all, she simply asked me to grab the box of seeds and follow her out to the yard where she dug little holes about a foot apart, and I dutifully planted, with an appropriately pre-teen scowl on my face a garden that included onions, greens and tomatoes.
I should give a little background here. Although I grew up in the Midwest I am, at heart, a country girl. Many of my weekends were spent about seven-hundred miles from our Kansas abode, in Arkansas, hanging out with my grands. My grandmother had a beautiful garden and I enjoyed many meals that came directly from her planting, sowing, and cooking hands.
In fact, when in Arkansas, almost all of our food came from the land and directly from the farm: the vegetables from the garden, the eggs from the henhouse, and the meat from the pasture…or the front yard. I believe that the seeds of my vegetarianism were planted the first time I saw my grandmother ring a chicken’s neck! Imagine the trauma when hours later I run into the house, smell a tantalizing odor, ask what’s for dinner and hear the answer…chicken. I walk into the kitchen, raise the top on the pot on the stove and look down on the plucked, boiling memories of the bird that had run for its life, even without a head. Needless to say, there was no fowl for me that night and, after getting past that experience and eating it for a long time, no meat of any kind for the past decade.
But back to the oh-so-not-cool garden.
The summer passed, filled with serious softball tournaments (my dad was the coach), trips to Arkansas and my first crush on the boy with the afro who lived across town. And then, in August, something magical happened. The tomato plants came into maturity, with these huge, bright red globes of juicy goodness hanging on the vine. I have one very clear memory: my going out to the garden (yeah, the oh-so-not-cool one), plucking a perfectly formed, ruby red tomato off of a vine, and going into the kitchen. There, I rinsed off the fruit, reached for the salt shaker, poured a little of the white stuff on it and took a bite. I just have three words for what I felt and tasted. Oh. My. God.
I’d initially intended to simply taste the tomato and then, as any reasonable person with brought-upsy would do, slice it up, put it on a saucer and eat it with a fork. Never happened. Before I knew it, I’d gobbled up that delicious tomato, with juice sliding down my arm and my mouth, and in the moment realized what a little bit of heaven might taste like.
In short, the oh-so-not cool garden that my mama planted that fateful summer ended up being one of the fondest memories of my twelfth year on earth. And I’ve never since eaten a tastier tomato.
About the Author
Lutishia Lovely is the award-winning, best-selling author of sixteen novels. The Business Trilogy, her latest work, combines two of her passions: writing and food. This series (All Up In My Business, Mind Your Own Business
and Taking Care Of Business) centers around the Livingstons, owners of a soul food dynasty called Taste Of Soul—where sizzling scandal and delicious drama are always on the menu. Find out more about this series and Lutishia at her website:
www.LutishiaLovely.com. And please sign up for her newsletter, where readers are treated to contests, updates, excerpts from upcoming novels, contests and
more!
Sustainable Work Future
Are We Outsourcing the Great American Dream?
By Dr. Daryl D. Green
In more than 900 cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, protesters take civil disobedience to the streets. This movement,
Occupy Wall Street, can be traced back to a few dozen protesters camped out in front of the New York Stock Exchange on September 17, 2011. At the root of this issue is a feeling that large institutions such as the financial sectors are taking economic advantages while depraving the majority of citizens with this same good welfare. In this scenario, governments take a laissez-faire attitude toward economic opportunities for all citizens.
Across the world, many companies are outsourcing their major work functions rather than perform them in-house. Today's businesses have built elaborate systems for better efficiency and effectiveness. Yet, they are driven by the quest for increasing profitability. Robert Jacobs, Richard Chase, and Nicholas Aquilano, authors of Operations & Supply Management, suggest that operations management has been a key element in the improvement in productivity in businesses across the world. Many times executive focus on the major expense to operate - labor.
It's a simple equation: productivity equals outputs divided by inputs. If organizations can reduce their inputs for their operations, they can increase output (more profit). Therefore, companies seek to reduce their inputs to obtain 'more get. Two of the chief strategies are to outsource non-core functions abroad or add new technologies to generate new efficiencies. These strategies are aimed at reducing labor costs, primarily people.
Since 2000, over 3 million U.S. jobs in the manufacturing sector have been moved abroad to countries like China and India. Yet, few executives worry about the aftermath of outsourcing initiatives. The remaining workforce is shell shocked and stressed since they are required to do the work of the laid off workforce. Sadly, many supervisors feel that these workers should be happy to have a job.
Movements like Occupy Wall Street may get political leaders and media pundits to consider unintended consequences of corporate greed. Gareth Jones and Jennifer George, authors of Contemporary Management, maintain that one of the most important resources in all organizations is the human capital component. Therefore, organizations must stimulate their workers while outsourcing key components of their organizations abroad for greater efficiencies. Many people wonder if American's businesses cannot compete in manufacturing and other high tech industries, will they forever forgo the Great American Dream for next generation of workers.
About Dr. Daryl Green
Dr. Daryl Green
provides motivation, guidance, and training for leaders at critical ages and stages of their development. He has over 20 years of
management experience and has been noted and quoted by USA Today, Ebony Magazine, and Associated Press. For more information, you can go to
www.darylgreen.org
Second Chance: Working Women
Return to School
By Dr. Daryl D. Green
With the economic downturn, many individuals are turning to
universities to retool their skills and abilities to become more attractive to
employers. With roughly 15 million people unemployed, people are looking for new
job strategies.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, approximately
90 million individuals participate in some form of adult education each year,
including training and basic education offered outside of traditional higher
education. Yet, non-traditional students make up the fastest population of those
returning to school.
In fact, 40% of American college students (almost 6 million people) are 25 years
of age or older. This article examines practical and proven strategies to better
assist working women in their transition to higher education.
Economic Plight
Economic troubles make career planning more difficult. Since November 2009,
America has lost 7.2 million jobs, with the unemployment rate topping 10%.
Companies have shed 11,000 workers from their payroll. State agencies have had
to lay off or furlough workers. Millions of Americans are now waiting longer for
food stamps, unemployment checks, and disability payments. Margaret Simms of the
Urban Institute notes, "The length of the recession clearly has put a
strain on the resources that states bring to bear." Therefore,
our lives continue to unravel as things we depend on disintegrate before our
eyes.
Today's women comprise more than half of the labor force. According to the U.S.
Labor Bureau, mothers with older children (6 to 17 years of age) are more likely
to participate in the labor force than mothers with younger children (under 6
years of age). Furthermore, unmarried mothers have higher participation
rates than married mothers.
The Right Strategy
Working mothers need practical, proven methods if they are to make a successful
transition to college life. Yet, many working women find various obstacles that
prevent them from reaching their dreams. Noriko
Iwanaga Chapman, a Japan native, is a working professional with over 16
years' experience in the automobile industry. As a young, single-parent Baby
Boomer, Chapman understands the demands of caring for elderly parents and
raising a young family.
Chapman was preparing to enter graduate school when he encountered a severe
obstacle. Chapman notes, "In 2009, when being diagnosed with cancer,
I was devastated by the life-threatening disease and unknown future. A
year later, I have survived and gained my health back for a second chance of my
life." Overcoming the health challenge, she was able to start
graduate school at Lincoln Memorial University while balancing work and family
life.
Her first book, Second
Chance, fully utilizes Chapman's "can do" attitude to
assist others in her community. Likewise, the right strategies can help
encourage a working mother who is straddling the fence when considering
returning to school.
Intimate Conversation with Tameka Williamson
Tameka
Williamson, an Independent Certified Coach, Trainer and Speaker for The John Maxwell Team, received a BSME degree from Southern University and a MBA from Webster University. She has served in several operational and managerial roles with major Fortune 100 Companies. Couple her professional leadership experience with her civic duties; she’s led many endeavors focused on Professional Development, Business/Career Coaching, Youth Programs, Non-Profit Management, etc. Tameka is focused on living out the purpose God has ordained for her life.
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry? What road did you travel? How do you feel about self-publishing?
My journey to becoming a published author was truly God inspired and led. It was definitely not a path I ever thought I would pursue. My initial plan after college was get my PhD in Engineering, open my own engineering consulting firm and become a part-time college professor. Oh how that has changed. The book idea was first dropped into my spirit in 2007 based on a passion I had about educating our youth and their level of preparedness. Some college friends and I had many conversations regarding the caliber of kids we were encountering during recruiting fairs on college campuses. How they not only lacked professionalism, drive and leadership, but also the fundamentals necessary to hold a basic conversation in pursuit of a job.
So, I had an unction to do something about it. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I started the process, but because of bad timing in my professional life, I had to put it on the back burner. Low and behold, 2009 came, I was blessed to be laid off of my job and God reminded me about the task I started and never finished. It was time to get back to my purpose and focus on what I was passionate about. From there, I restarted the process and totally immersed myself in researching and writing the book day and night until it was finished. God did the rest, opened doors and provided so that it could be published in excellence and paid for.
BPM: What is your definition of success?
Many people define success in terms of material possessions – big house, expensive car, designer clothing. This is not success if you had to borrow to get it, and if your liabilities far outweigh your assets. I tell people Success is different for every person. It is contingent upon many variables such as a person’s background, vision, desires, etc. They will then use these characteristics to establish life goals. Once those goals are established and accomplished, it can be a piece of the puzzle that leads to one’s overall success. For example, a graphic designer can deem their life a success if they landed the Senior Designer position at an Advertising Agency. Where on the other end of the spectrum, you can have a thriving MBA graduate with aspirations to become a VP/SVP with Coke before owning their own franchise to a person who simply want to have zero debt (house, car and student loans paid off) and 1 year of savings as their measurement of success. The bottom line is, don’t let the world or other people define your success, but you be the one to dictate what success means to you. Better yet, be a person of value and significance in your family, church, job, community etc.
Sarita
Mandanna is from Coorg, the stunning setting of Tiger Hills. Often described
as the ‘Scotland of India’, beautiful Coorg is famous for its hills and
coffee plantations, and Sarita’s family traces roots here for centuries.
Sarita has an MBA from Wharton, and was a private equity investor in New York
before moving to Toronto in 2010.Tiger Hills is her debut novel. Long-listed for
the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize, it is being translated into 14 languages
world-wide.
BPM: What makes you powerful as a person and a writer?
Determination. Each of us has it within ourselves to realize our passions.
Writing Tiger Hills was an act of obsession for me. It took five years, working
on the “night shift” – 11 PM through 3 or 4AM virtually every day, while
working during the day as a private equity investor. The only thing that kept me
going was the determination to finish the story and to tell it in the best
possible way I knew how.
BPM: What compelled you to write your book, Tiger Hills?
I began writing about 7 years ago, after a particularly trying week at work.
Wanting to do something entirely different and non-numbers driven for a change,
I came home, booted up my laptop and began to write. Those initial paragraphs
became a short story, and I found that I enjoyed that process so much that I
wrote six more. That was the start, to jumping off the deep end and trying my
hand at a novel.
BPM: Sarita introduce us to your book, Tiger Hills and the main
characters.
Tiger Hills is a multi-generational epic spanning the years between 1878 through
after WWII. As the first girl to be born to the Nachimandas in over sixty years,
beautiful, spirited Devi is adored by her entire family. She befriends Devanna,
a gifted young boy whose mother has died in tragic circumstances.
The two quickly become inseparable, 'like two eggs in a
nest', as they grow up amidst the jungles, rolling hills, and rich coffee
plantations of Coorg in Southern India; cocooned by an extended family whose
roots have been sunk in the land for hundreds of years. Their futures seem
inevitably linked, but everything changes when, one night, they attend a 'tiger
wedding'. It is there that Devi gets her first glimpse of Machu, Devanna’s
cousin, a celebrated tiger killer and a hunter of great repute. It is the
tangled relationships between these three that sow the seeds of a heartbreaking
tragedy that has consequences for the generations to come.
WHERE WILL YOUR
JOURNEY TO MONEY
AND MARRIAGE LEAD YOU?
by Taffy Wagner, DMin
We’ve
all heard the story about how many young women have dreamed about their wedding
day (keyword – wedding) for as long as they can remember. Mind you not every
woman has that dream but there are many that do end up in that category. Let me
assure you, I was the woman that didn’t fall into that category.
I was raised by a single mother who did it all and as a matter of fact, for the
longest time my desire was to be a single mom. Why? She made it look somewhat
easy even though we had times of struggle. My mom doesn’t hesitate in telling
me in how she prayed to God that desire would be taken away because she knew
from personal experience it was a HARD road.
As a young woman out on my own and having grown up in a single parent household,
I would be careful in choosing a lifelong mate. Hmmm, yes I was quite naïve
when it came to dating. Having served in the military for eight years and
watching dear friends in relationships with money situations, having been in a
few relationships of my own and then returning to the civilian community… the
lessons to be learned were many.
Looking back, I realize the journey of money and marriage can start at a very
early age. It doesn’t start when you are standing there at the altar in front
of your future spouse. This journey truly begins when you are single, living
life on your own and making financial decisions whether good or bad because that
financial history follows you into marriage. Let’s be honest, that is where
the “honeymoon can come to a screeching halt”. Did you hear
those tires as you read that?
How you handle paying your bills? What has been your history with credit
cards? Are you a proponent of buying now and paying later on “borrowed
money” when you are not even promised a job tomorrow? How many couples in your
family or close friends have you witnessed getting divorced because of money?
Did you vow to yourself that if you ever got married, your marriage would not
end up like that?
You may be reading this, already married and having experienced some financial
issues that you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Would you be brave enough to share
those lessons or do you remain silent while your sister or niece who’s the
bride ignores obvious red flags when it comes to money and her fiancé. It’s a
known fact that money is one of the top three reasons for divorce, so why
aren’t more people talking about it prior to marriage? FEAR! Fear does a lot
to family members, friends and even colleagues – it will keep them from
sharing the truth and watching some marriages take place that shouldn’t or
ones that should be delayed if the hard topics were discussed.
Money talk throughout marriage is a lifestyle. It is not a one time
conversation. When couples stand before their designated wedding officiator,
taking the vows “For Richer or For Poorer” are probably the most serious
vows they could take. Yet, in this day and time husbands and wives are focusing
more on “I” instead of “we” or what’s best for “US” as a unit.
Where will your journey to money and marriage lead you? For those of you
that have dreamed about your wedding or even your son or daughter’s wedding, I
have a question for you? Have you ever dreamed about their marriage? Share with
me what that looks like, especially when it comes to money and marriage. Stay
tuned because next we will continue this journey together at the point of
engagement!
About Taffy Wagner, DMin and Certified Educator in Personal Finances
Dr. Wagner is the author of Bride and Groom Money Talk FAQ, Debt Dilemma and
Homebuyer’s Helper (How to Have and Hold on to your House). She is also a
premarital and post-marital financial counselor that conducts seminars on
personal finances. Wagner is the financial advisor for www.Blackbride.com
and financial columnist for Weddzilla.com. She is available to speak at
seminars, conferences and small groups. You can contact her through her site at www.BrideandGroommoneytalk.com
Loving Two People At the Same
Time
Is It Truly Possible?
by Trice Hickman
My
debut novel, Unexpected
Interruptions, chronicles one woman's search for happiness as she
embarks upon a life-changing journey filled with love, betrayal and secrets!
The book also explores hot-button social issues like interracial dating,
skin-color bias, and class stratification—all of which make for pretty
interesting discussion. But these issues soon take a backseat to the troubling
quandary the main character finds herself embroiled in, when she falls in love
with two men…at the same time!
The main character, Victoria Small, is a smart, savvy young black woman
who’s ready to leave her cushy corporate job and fulfill her life-long dream
of starting her own business. And after many failed attempts, she’s also
ready to test her hand at love again. On her road to professional and personal
fulfillment she finds herself falling for two men—one black, one
white—both determined to have her. As Victoria's involvement heats up with
both men, her carefully crafted life begins to slip out of her control.
Love triangles aren’t always about promiscuity, or how many notches one can
put on his or her belt. These relationships can be very complex (and
sometimes, dangerous), and like Victoria, oftentimes the individuals involved
find themselves in a struggle between their head and their heart. In some
cases, there are people who’ve been in loving relationships with their mates
for many years, but can’t let go of that one special person from their past.
Or, for some it’s about loving people who bring them happiness in their own
unique ways.
In the continuing tradition of the hit novel HOT BOYZ, celebrity, sex, money, and violence are all components of the long-awaited sequel called
HOT GIRLZ, a family drama that explores the lives of three women, Mercedes, Venus, and Sequoia, the wives of wealthy brothers, Mason, Claude and Torino Wilson.
This time its seven years later as the housewives return to tell their stories. The ladies quickly prove that even with their fancy cars, big homes, designer clothes, and luscious spending sprees, the scandalous drama still continues in the upscale neighborhood of Ladera Heights, California.
About the Author
Marissa Monteilh
(Mon-tay), a former model, talk-show host, Fox-TV news reporter, and commercial actress, is the best-selling author of eight mainstream novels and two novellas.
Marissa also writes erotica under the pseudonym, Pynk. Originally from Los Angeles, she lives with her family in Atlanta, Georgia.
Visit the Marissa Monteilh Website: www.marissamonteilh.com
Purchase Hot Girlz: Hot Boyz Sequel
ISBN-10: 0970414129
ISBN-13: 978-0970414120
Purchase from Amazon
Hot Girlz: Chapter 1 Sneak Peek
Mercedes
“. . . the seven year itch . . .”
He was younger.
Pop!
There he goes, popping into my head again, Mercedes Wilson said to herself.
He was probably the same age that the female Titleist representative was when Mercedes’
husband of almost two decades, the father of her two children, the one and only famous pro-golfer Mason Wilson, decided to cheat on her seven years ago while on tour in San Diego at Torrey Pines.
Mercedes figured it out while watching a professional golf tournament on television with their daughter, Star. Mercedes noticed the bright red hair of the white woman who followed Mason like a love-struck puppy. Seeing the woman made the hairs on the back of Mercedes’ neck stand straight up. The hairs on the woman’s head and the strands of hair in Mason’s red Benz were exact. Mason won the U.S. Open Golf Championship that day, but he nearly lost his wife. He claimed to have had casual sex with the woman whenever he lost a tournament. Win or lose, Mercedes made it clear that his behavior was unacceptable, and that sex with someone other than one’s spouse is never casual.
After intensive family counseling and much prayer, Mercedes forgave him. She warned him that if he ever violated their marriage vows again, she would take the kids and leave him in a heartbeat. Nevertheless, she had to accept the fact that after all the years of their union, her famous husband, Mason Wilson, was an adulterer.
And now, it was Mercedes who played hide-and-seek with the notion of infidelity herself.
Things would have been fine if that young member of the Los Angeles City Council would have simply stayed the heck out of her head.
She tried convincing herself that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas . . . and what happened in Vegas was that she had an encounter with an elected official named Ryan.
She wanted to still believe she could practice what she preached seven years ago about being faithful. Mason may not have had another affair since then, but this time, the seven year itch was biting the hell out of his wife, and it bit hard.
Pop!
“Good morning, Cedes.” Mason greeted his wife using the nickname he had given her when they first met in college back at U.S.C.
The sound of Mason’s voice propelled Mercedes from the past into the present on this summer morning in July. The sun hadn’t quite shared its offspring with the world. There was not a cloud in the azure sky. The usual summer breeze from the Pacific had not yet breathed its usual breath.
From the backyard, the barking from their new blue-pit, one-year-old, blue-eyed Nadia, served as their regular good morning hello. Their chocolate lab, Kailua, who was a true family member, passed away at the age of eight from lymphoma. Though devastated, the family decided it was best to get another dog right away, and it seemed that the new dog, Nadia, bonded to Mattie more than anyone else. Mattie, the beloved matriarch of the family, mother to Mason, Claude, and Torino Wilson, was bedridden for years and living in Mason and
Mercedes’ home, suffering from vascular dementia.
Sporting a cognac-colored shoulder length bob and wispy bangs, Mercedes spoke while heading to her oval desk in the downstairs office of their five-bedroom home. She was dressed in an off-the-shoulder purple dress with gold high heels.
More
Secrets More Lies
by J. Tremble
More Secrets More Lies tells the sexy, erotic tale of a scorned wife with a
new attitude.
Secret,
the wife of Tarron, a cheating business-man is out to re-claim her son,
and husband who left her for Victoria, a woman specializing in seducing men.
Tarron eventually finds himself caught in a web of lies, seduction and deceit.
While he fights his brother in a custody battle for a child
that is potentially not his, and disputes embezzlement charges at work, his
sweet Victoria is up to her old tricks again. No one knows Victoria's
underhanded intentions until she does the unthinkable. When her scandalous
sexual agenda is exposed, she has to come clean and choose her lover, which will
cause problems for everyone. . .
A successful career. A beautiful wife and children. . .and his pick of the
sexiest women in town. It seems Tarron has the best of both worlds as he manages
to indulge in wild nights out with his lover and quiet nights at home with his
family. But the party is about to end. . .
When Tarron's cheating ways are revealed, his cool-headed wife, Secret, handles
it like a pro. That's partly because, true to her name, Secret is hiding some
bad behavior of her own. And now, as Secret starts to really live out her own
fantasies, neither she nor Tarron may be ready for the explosive consequences. .
.
SNEAK
PEEK: Secrets
of a Housewife
Chapter
One
Just like any other Tuesday evening, Tarron watched his son Terrance at football
practice. Tarron's hard, sculpted body was pressed against the south side
goalpost when his phone rang. He knew the number very well. It was the number of
the pay phone that his wife normally called from on her nights to pick up
Terrance from practice. Tarron wondered how his wife could be on the field
and not come over and speak to him face-to-face. He also wondered why she'd be
at practice on his night.
"Hey, baby," he said as he answered the phone.
"This isn't your baby, but your Peekaboo," the seductive voice
replied. "I know I shouldn't be here, but I couldn't resist. How about you
walk into the wooded path behind the pay phones and come warm my buns?"
Tarron felt his heart drop into his stomach. He began to look around, to his
right, then to his left. His pulse raced out of control. This excitement made
his shaft hard. He pressed END on his phone and jetted toward his destination.
The bulge in his pants screamed to make it to the end of the wooded path. With
every step he took, small beads of sweat formed on his cheeks.
He was halfway up the path when he felt a hand pull him into a covered patch.
Before he could speak, Victoria grabbed his curly locks and began to kiss him
softly on the lips. The kissing got hotter as he slowly slid his frozen
fingertips down her back. Victoria felt chills glide down her spine. Instantly,
Tarron became aware of the nakedness underneath her black miniskirt. "Oh
hell," he cheered.
Despite the cold November breeze, their excitement for one another caused sweat
to drench their foreheads. His zipper slid open as he rubbed his pelvic area
firmly against hers. There was extreme passion in the way he kissed her. Nothing
like the friendly kisses he gave Secret. It was as if he had walked for days in
the burning hot sun in an African desert and her lips were the water he
desperately needed to survive.
Consequences of Loving Freely
in 2011
by C. J. Hudson
Your head starts to spin. Your throat gets dry and your
entire life flashes before your eyes. For months you’ve ignored the nagging
cough that has persisted. Then, after finally deciding to go to the doctor,
reality gut punches you as the doctor informs you that you are HIV positive.
After the numbness wears off, you start to wonder who you contracted the deadly
virus from. For all intents and purposes, you have just been handed a death
sentence. Then you leave out of the doctor’s office wondering when it will
turn into full blown AIDS.
It is estimated that more than one million people are living with HIV in the
USA and that more than half a million have died after developing AIDS.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die from complications due to AIDS.
African Americans accounted for the largest proportion of people living with an
AIDS diagnosis in 2008 at 42.6%. It has pretty much ripped the heart from the
family structured environment that was so prevalent in earlier years.
Now, in the year 2011, it is more important than ever to be careful. With all
the information available via the Internet, pamphlets, and magazines, there is
no reason not to be educated. Even urban fiction novels are starting to get the
message out. One very educational, as well as entertaining book is my new
release Next Door Nympho. I take you on a journey detailing the dangers
of being promiscuous. Next Door Nympho shows readers that sex can be the
most dangerous form of pleasure if not taken seriously.
Unfortunately, the unprotected sex boom shows no signs of slowing down. Until
we start looking at this crippling disease through concerned eyes, we will
continue to crumble under its deadly hand. I think we can all agree that most of
us like sex. But the thing that we need to remember, now-a-days, is that sex is
no longer safe. Back in the old days if you had unprotected sex, Gonorrhea was
the most common disease you would catch. You would go to the doctor and get
either a shot in the behind or some penicillin pills to get cured. HIV/AIDS has
no cure. You can’t go to the doctor and get a shot to clear it up. All you can
do is take the medication that is prescribed for you and wait for the disease to
claim your life.
V.I.P. Confessions of a Groupie
by Azarel
V.I.P. is an explicit tale of a beautiful woman determined to make it in the music industry.
Faced with jealousy and lies, Royce is lost in the world of sex, money and turmoil.
One issue after another, she realizes that trying to accomplish a dream in a treacherous industry isn't working.
Royce ends up selling her soul and body, hoping to catch that big break. In comes G , a sweet talking, producer who guarantees her fame.
Little does she know...fame comes with a high, deadly price tag.
About Life Changing
Books
Life Changing Books, better known as LCB, established in 2003 has become one of the most respected Independent Trade Publishers in the book industry. LCB offers a variety of African-American literature including Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction, Urban/Street Literature, Teen Fiction, and a host of other categories.
CEO, Azarel
Smallwood, launched the company with the release of her self-published title, A Life to Remember, and from there has continued to sign and promote best-selling authors such as
J. Tremble, Tiphani Montgomery, and Danette Majette.
A leader amongst small press publishers, Azarel Smallwood was awarded the EDC
Creations' Publisher of the Year Award at the 2011 Atlanta Chocolate
Social.
In 2008, Life Changing Books restructured its relationships with wholesale establishments across the United States and abroad; because of
that, in 2011 the company has celebrated many successes. Most recently, Miss KP was honored for her debut novel, The Dirty Divorce as
Urban Book of the Year by AAMBC.
LCB has gained notoriety for producing four best-selling sequels over the past five years; Bruised 1and 2, The Millionaire Mistress Series, the Dirty Divorce Series, and the One Night Stand series. In addition, the company announced in late 2010 that it secured a deal to have The Millionaire Mistress books and Secrets of a Housewife re-published with Kensington Books for sale to
Wal-Mart for a limited time. Life Changing Books has soared in the literary world and continues to build relationships both in and out of the community.
Currently, LCB has nineteen authors and offers outside distribution to selective projects. To date, the company has published
fifty-three books. The success of LCB is a team effort starting with outgoing authors, and a progressive management team.
Connect with Azarel
Azarel, CEO of Life Changing Books
Follow Azarel on Twitter: @CEOAzarel
Website: http://lifechangingbooks.net
Tracey Robbins has it all: money, successful, business, and a closet a girl would kill for.
St. Louis is her playground as everybody who wants to be somebody tries desperately to be in her circle.
However, living the young, black, and privileged life comes with perks that could turn the purest hearts wicked, just for a chance to be like her.
The unannounced arrival of Tez, a sexy seemingly no good thug, sends her life in a downward spiral that no one saw coming.
Soon after, she finds herself the center of a devious plan to ruin her life.
Betrayal runs deep as the people the closest to her begin to show their true colors.
With her back against the wall, she finds love in an unlikely pair of arms.
Will that love be enough to save her, or will she remain lost in the pursuit of wealth?
Seven, a gorgeous, retired exotic dancer is fed up with her broke and boring lifestyle. The dreams promised by her husband, Bryce aren't coming true, and Seven s heart longs for the endless supply of cash she was forced to give up. When the bills aren't getting paid and they soon face eviction, Seven wants to return to her old ways, but Bryce refuses.
However, unbeknownst to him, Seven has a scheme up her sleeve that involves prostitution even though she won t be the one turning tricks. Once the money starts to flow, vows are eventually broken, and unconditional love gets put to the test.
About the Author
J. Tremble is a product of the Washington DC public school system. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, and received his B.A. in Psychology in 1993 and his Masters in Elementary Education in 1999. He has worked the last ten years as a proud, sixth grade math teacher. Jay is a loving father, devoted husband, and active participant in his community, who also works with foster care youth in an independent living program.
Jay is a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, in addition to being the author of five best-selling novels, Secrets of a Housewife, More Secrets More Lies, Naughty Little Angel, My Man Her Son, and his latest release, Bedroom Gangsta.
For more info on Jay Tremble visit- www.lifechangingbooks.net
Another One Night Stand
by Kendall Banks
Zaria is back and more ruthless than ever in this sequel to One Night Stand.
Part 2 of this series holds nothing back as she navigates through this back-stabbing, cold world.
On the run, Zaria first has to develop a street-savvy mentality and then uses her body and new look to survive the rough streets of Philadelphia, PA.
Convinced that all men are dogs and responsible for ruining her life, she holds a deep hatred inside, but lives in the lapse of luxury behind the gates of a wealthy man s home.
Zaria quickly transforms into survival mode, and plays the sexy newcomer into her web of deceit.
A note to every man on earth...Zaria is unstoppable and searching for you!
Kevin Kennard gazed into the precious face of his newborn son, the offspring of the intoxicating love he shared with his wife,
Simone. Closing his eyes, Kevin whispered a prayer of thanks. Life had given him a second chance at happiness far greater than anything he'd fathomed from inside the concrete walls of his prison cell.
While Kevin and Simone bask in their familial bliss, those scorned by their union collect the pieces to their shattered hearts and plot the couple's demise.
Darkness hovers the Kennards when their newborn baby becomes the target for revenge.
A tidal wave of fatal events stifles the sanctity Kevin and Simone have come to cherish.
Kevin had promised those he loved that his gun-toting days were a thing of the past.
But with nothing else to live for, he journeys to find the person responsible for the devastation reeked in his world.
Someone will pay for what they've done to his family, even if it cost Kevin his own life.
In the award winning novel,
"Two Tears in a Bucket," Kevin and Simone reminded us how powerful and lasting the bonds of love can be. But can it weather, Another Tear?
Meet the Author
Traci Bee
is the award-winning author of the Kindle drama chart topping, Two Tears in a Bucket. When she’s not writing, Traci enjoys karaoke and spending time with her family. She currently resides in Waldorf, Maryland with her husband and kids and is working on two novels; the final installment to the Two Tears in a Bucket Series and A Nickel for A Kiss.
This story is about the unattainable "American
Dream", when the only dream hopeless and uneducated men have is to steal
someone else's "Dream Come True."
Based
On Actual Events...
The Robbin Hoods are burglars. They are hood stars who are living the good life
splurging their money on women, fast cars, jewels, nice homes, trips, and drugs.
Chance was from Brooklyn. His mother moved him and his siblings to New Jersey
for a better life. They moved to the suburbs where the dangers and crime of city
life were not supposed to exist.
Very early on his family learns that the have-nots are
surrounded by those who are successful; as opposed to the projects where
everyone is struggling. Chance chooses a life of robbery to support his mother
and siblings. The "crew" started out robbing houses in their town and
the surrounding working class and middle class towns.
What started out as a petty crime with teenagers who would cut school and break
and enter into houses, on foot, turned into a multi-million dollar empire when
the crew took their craft to a higher level. They graduated from boys to men,
who made millions of dollars when they began venturing into exclusive upper
class neighborhoods. The Robbin Hoods is about what happens when you take from
others, instead of building your own.
Amazon Reader Book Review by L.
Taylor
4.25 Rating for The Robbin Hoods by Ericka Williams
A drug addict mother, younger brother, sister and dead father, Chance Major has
been thrown into being head of the household at an early age. His mother's
abusive drug addict boyfriend is the only male figure he's known for too
long...so they move for a better life. Chance takes the responsibility of taking
care of his mother and siblings seriously. Drug dealing not being his thing; he
takes to breaking, entering and taking from those who have to support his have
not family. Chance has smarts but he uses them for his illegal activities.
'You do the crime, do your time...come back and start all over again'. Chance
and his crew do just that; only on a higher level, until......
Ms. Williams has written a very good story of how these young Black men became
addicted to B&E...they found a niche in life and got overly comfortable in
it. How and why? In my opinion because they had no blue print or guidance on how
to be a responsible man. No father's shoes to walk in...so they walked in their
own...drew up their own blue print along the way.
Chance is the perfect example of a lot of our young men that are imprisoned for
more years than they are old...the result of the man that helped create them
decide to leave them (sometimes before they are born) to fend for themselves.
Without the guidance of a male figure in their lives, young men make choices
that they think make them a MAN, money and women, but find it has only two
consequences...death or imprisonment.
Good job on a story that sends a message...1.Stop blaming others (even the white
man) and put the blame where it goes...irresponsible Black fathers and 2.Stop
going in raw dog.....use a condom or practice abstinence.
Ericka
Williams has had a passion for writing since junior high school. She
attended Howard University and graduated from Rutgers University. Ericka's first
dream was to become a journalist, but she began a teaching career instead.
Ericka has been a Language Arts teacher in Paterson, NJ, since 1998.
Ericka is also a mother of two, an actor and independent
filmmaker. Her hobbies are movie going, roller-skating, and traveling. Ericka
has written five novels on various subjects, but all of her novels touch on
social issues and overcoming personal conflicts. All of her novels have a moral
or lesson.
BPM: Tell us about your journey becoming a successfully published author. Do
you have anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to
become an author?
I have become an author as a result of feeling very strong about the fact that
as a people, we are too complacent and mentally bound. I try to change our
thinking by showing us our ills. When my cousin died I became an author.
BPM: What is your definition of success?
Accomplishing your goals makes you successful. Your goals should be prioritized
from small ones to big ones. As you check them off, you will get more and more
focused and better and better at accomplishing them.
BPM: Success leaves clues, whose clues did you follow on your journey?
Success teaches you that it is not something to take for granted. It is
something that you must appreciate and not be obsessed over. Success comes in
big and small packages, and it comes and goes. Sometimes you must fail to
appreciate when it comes back around.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it all
worthwhile?
Definitely meeting people and traveling across the country. I love book club
meetings the most when the members know the books’ every detail.
BPM: How much does “word of mouth” play into the success of your book?
What grassroots strategies have you used to spread the word about your book?
Word of mouth is very important and I do it all from driving around with books
in my trunk and going to Laundromats, barber shops, nail salons and beauty
parlors; to calling back people who call my voicemail to meeting people in
parking lots to bring them my books.
A
Blessing and A Curse
by Andrea Clinton
In "A Blessing and A Curse" Malika has the life every woman wants, a
hard working husband who makes it happen financially; kids, both adopted as well
as biological; her career as an artist with partners who own an art gallery;
nice house, nice neighbors and the gift of foresight.
Malika couldn't ask for much more, until her gift of sight and infrequent
ability to read minds opened her up to her husband's disgust, followed by his
uncaring desire to leave her. She can't figure it out, what has gone wrong? But
a well needed vacation helps her find her worth but to what detrimental end?
Malika
finds a different type of groove in her story, A Blessing and A Curse.
Intimate
Conversation with Andrea Clinton
Hosted by BAN Radio Show
Previously an English teacher and high school principal, Andrea Clinton
is a Novelist, Poet, Essayist and aspiring Screenwriter and Filmmaker. Andrea is
a Montclair State University Graduate, who's achieved a degree in English, Film
and Journalism. She's the founder and CEO of the non-profit organization, People
Helping People, Inc., whose mission is to help citizens become independent and
self-sufficient; Andrea is Editor in Chief of AMISTAD newspaper and magazine;
and is presently working on a biography and screenplay featuring her uncle, Rock
and Roll Hall of famer, George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic and the Clinton
family.
Struck with Lupus in 2002, Andrea decided that if she were blessed to live, she
would bring her countless stories into fruition by publishing them for the world
to read. Her first novel is one of five in the first volume of, "Life Knows
No Bounds." Andrea began this chronicle to exhibit to the world and address
through fiction, the many directions life leads us in, regardless of which class
we belong to. Andrea also set out to express to the world that life isn't after
anyone in particular, it just doesn't know boundaries.
With the goal of helping people to understand and accept life, Andrea is said to
write with that same creative gene and knack that made her uncle George Clinton
the musical great that he is. See her many book reviews that support Andrea
Clinton as a creative and entertaining great writer on the rise.
BAN: You have overcome many obstacles in life, how do you stay focused and
keep writing? Do you have days when you just want to give up writing?
Many. In fact, it’s the reason I’m just now publishing. I had heard so many
horror stories about the book industry that I ran like a chicken for many years,
sharing my stories in magazines and newspapers as well as with friends. Even
when professors encouraged me to send my work out to authors I wouldn’t
because it seemed too cut-throat and I wasn’t up for the task. After all the
research I did and an agent who seemed rough around the edges, I just did away
with the thought. But, when I was struck with lupus in 2002, I regretted having
10 or more year old stories that received rave reviews, but were all packed in
trunks and storage boxes. It was too heavy on my mind as I lay sick that I never
published, nor attempted to. All this, while laying and worrying about dying
from lupus. So when I was well, a publicist I’d consulted with at that time
said with having lupus and being fearful of not having the time to live to
publish my finished books, I should self publish. Thus, the 1st book in the
“Life Knows No Bounds series.”
BAN: Name three people who inspire you and the community. Dr. Cornell West because he’s attacking issues. He knows we sleep and
he’s right there in the trenches with that gong in our ears saying, “Wake
up! See what’s going on around you!? Look, it’s right there.” He’s
really giving us the 411, and often times many others when he’s on shows like
Bill Maher.
Monique, because she is truly one of us and showed us when she was doing
comedy shows, on Apollo, telling plus size ladies to love themselves and she
even took it to a TV show and a movie. Then topped herself by winning an Oscar
and topped that with a TV show where she’s putting the spotlight on others and
helping them promote their projects. Monique is good people and we need that.
Also, whether people realize it or not, I believe Russell Simmons inspires
us. In the front of our mind we may not give it too much thought but, you see a
man who came from the same neighborhood we everyday folk come from, where he
made it from scratch and still moving ahead, it makes you want to get back up
when you fall down; he delivers hope just by doing his own thing.
BAN: How did you start your writing career? Who influenced you the most?
I think I knew I wanted to be a writer when my grandmother, a teacher who
specialized in Early Childhood Education, gave me books to read to her at around
six years old. After each story I read, I began to sit and tell her stories. So
one day she gave me a pencil and paper and said, "Here, sit down right here
and write your story." I did, and a few years later when I was reading a
play for homework, she introduced me to writing plays. Experiencing those
different ways to tell stories, I knew at that point I was going to be a writer. BAN: What do you want to accomplish as a writer?
My plan is to do a lot with my writing. I have a few screenplays I’m holding
out until I get a few books published. A few of them I wrote with Queen Latifah
in mind, our families know one another. I would like to do a few screenplays for
Latifah, Sean Blakemore and Treach and a few others such as: Jada Pinkett-Smith
who I fully support; Will Smith in his Sci-Fi adventures; and Laurence Fishburne,
Robert Dinero and Al Pacino, all of whom I admire, and many more. Also, I would
like to bring some of my books to life in screenplays and stage plays.
Intimate Conversation with Mike Warren
BPM: Tell us a little about yourself. Do you have anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to become an author?
OK Ella, my name is Mike Warren and I’m the author of “A Private Affair” “Sweet Swagger” and my latest release, “Sir, Yes Sir.”
I have been writing professionally for the last 6 years and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I have a Bachelor Degree in Telecommunication from Morgan State University and a Masters Degree in Communications from Towson State. I am fortunate to be in a dedicated relationship and a proud father and I still live in Baltimore, Maryland.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it all worthwhile?
Mike Warren: I would love to say it’s the money and the attention but it’s not. Some of the benefits that makes it worth while is when I get that email from a young person who might be struggling with their sexuality and they tell me how much they have learned about themselves while reading my books. Another benefit is when I get a call from a soldier whose been in Iraq or Afghanistan and they let me know that I’ve just told their story and how much my novel took their mind off the war and being away from home.
BPM: Do you have any advice for people seeking to publish a book?
Mike Warren: My advice would be to check the book stores and look at some of the books that are in your same genre and look in those books and find the publishers website. Go to those websites and check to see if they accept unsolicited manuscripts? If they do, check and see how they prefer their submissions and send yours to them.
Pound 7 Project
Founder Monique D. Mensah
Pound 7 is comprised of seven talented authors of different genres, embarking on a journey, never traveled before in the literary world.
They are pulling together to write one dynamic story, . . . And the Plot Thickens, but there's one catch: they won't discuss the plot between them; so no one knows what's next.
Starting October 7th, the Pound 7 team will post a new chapter of . . . And the Plot Thickens on the their website,
www.Pound7.com, every week until the story is complete, taking readers along on this wild ride into the unknown. With seven unique voices, readers can expect drama, horror, paranormal thrills, suspense, erotica, urban flavor, psychological twists, and even a little romance.
The team will offer cool contests and incentives along the way to keep things fresh and exciting.
The completed novel will be made available as an e-book by the end of this project.
Seven authors, seven distinct voices, one story. No one knows what's next . . . And the Plot
Thickens.
Pound 7 Authors:
Monique D. Mensah
Dark Drama/Psychological Thrillers
Nakia R. Laushaul
Inspirational Fiction
Dasaya Cates
Dramatic Suspense
Jumata Emill Jones
Paranormal Mystery/Thriller
Traci Bee
Urban Contemporary
Pheare Alexander
Psychological Horror
Gregg Burton
Romantica
Visit the official
website for more details and to follow along: www.Pound7.com
From
the bestselling author of Double Dippin’ and Big Juicy Lips—a story about
three friends with three different paths to the same goal: a husband, despite
the dismal odds.
Desperate to be married, Vangie, Nivea, and Harlow are all on a quest to get to
the altar. Dumped by her economically challenged fiancé, Nivea begins a
destructive course of action, as she begins to self medicate with excessive
amounts of liquor.
When Vangie’s deadbeat baby daddy resurfaces and begins courting her with
unrestrained zeal and spending quality time with their young son, she thinks
that they have finally healed their troubled relationship.
After a horrifying childhood, Harlow believes she has finally found true love
when she becomes engaged to savvy businessman, Drake Morgan. But Drake may have
a secret that will destroy Harlow’s only chance at happiness. Though
holding distinct views and relying on diverse strategies, will any of these
women find love, happiness, and commitment or will they discover that happily
ever after is an unattainable dream?
Excerpt from Put A Ring
On It by Allison Hobbs
Call it a woman’s intuition. Call it a sixth sense, but instead of driving
home after work, Nivea felt an urge to swing by her fiancé’s old apartment.
When she rolled up in front of the building where Eric used to live, she gave
the place a smug look. Eric’s former apartment building was a dump. She had no
idea why he been so resistant to the idea of moving into her upscale townhouse.
But that was water over the bridge. She had introduced Eric to a better
lifestyle and she was proud of that fact.
Nivea did a double take when she noticed the Highlander parked at the curb. Her
heart rate began to accelerate when she recognized Eric’s license plate.
What’s he doing here? He’s supposed to be working overtime.
With the motor running, she jumped out of her Mazda and removed a couple of lawn
chairs that were holding someone’s nicely shoveled parking spot. Brows joined
together in bafflement, she parallel parked, cut the engine, and then got out.
Nivea peered up at the second floor apartment that Eric had left six months ago
when he’d moved in with her. She could see the twinkling colored lights that
adorned a Christmas tree. She frowned at the Christmas tree. It was the first
day of December, too soon to put up a tree in Nivea’s opinion.
Eric had sublet the place to one of his unmarried friends. Which one? She
couldn’t remember. Feeling a rush of uncomfortable heat, she unbuttoned her
wool coat, allowing the frigid evening air cool her. There had to be a
good explanation for Eric being here. Something really innocent. He didn’t
have to work overtime after all, and decided to stop by and visit his buddy, she
told herself.
Even though moving into Nivea’s townhouse was a step up for Eric, it had been
hard convincing him to give up his crappy bachelor’s pad. She was so elated
when she’d gotten him to agree to move in, that she hadn’t bothered to
question him about the details of his rental transaction.
But she was concerned now. Carefully, Nivea climbed the icy concrete steps that
led to the front door. Inside the vestibule area, another door, this one locked,
prevented her from forcing her way to Eric’s old apartment. She read the name
that was centered above the doorbell of apartment number two: D. Alston.
Who the hell is D. Alston? She jabbed the doorbell twice, and then pressed the
button without letting up. She heard a door open on the second floor. “Stay
right here. Let me handle this,” Eric said gruffly.
Who the hell is Eric talking to? Eric thumped down the stairs, causing a
vibration. At the bottom of the stairs, he looked at Nivea through the large
window pane that separated them. She expected a smile of surprise, but Eric
gawked at her, displeasure wrinkling his forehead.
He turned the lock, cracked the door open, and poked his head out. “Whatchu
doing here, Niv?”
“I should be asking that question. You’re supposed to be at work!”
“Yeah, um . . .” He scratched his head.
“Who’s renting the place now?”
“Uh . . .”
Refusing to give him time to gather his thoughts, she pushed the door open, and
zipped past Eric.
“You can’t go up there, Niv.”
“Hell if I can’t!” Nivea took the stairs two at time, the heels of her
boots stomping against the wooden stairs. Eric was up to something, and she had
to know what the hell was going on.
Eric raced behind her. He roughly grabbed her arm. “You outta pocket.”
She yanked her arm away and spun around. “Let me go, Eric!” Eric was a big,
stocky man, but she gave him such a violent shove, he fell backward, stumbling
down a couple of steps.
Black Mafia Widow
Thelma Wright
Shares Her Story in New Book
"With Eyes From Both Sides - Living My Life In and Out of the Game"
The
words "queen pen" and "boss lady" can conjure up many
images. One might think of an icy, cold-blooded gangstress who is heartless
about the business at hand. Yet, the sparkling, green eyes belonging to Thelma
Wright paint a different picture. Though rumored at one time to be the most
powerful and dangerous Black woman in Philadelphia, discreetly running a
bi-coastal drug empire that her husband left behind, Wright's green eyes reflect
a pensive view. Peering into them, we feel the love, the loss, the pain and the
retribution of a mother, a wife now widowed and a yes, even a friend. Simply
stated, Thelma Wright was married to the mob ... the Black Mafia to be exact.
But nothing is ever that simple.
With her poignantly, introspective release of "With Eyes
From Both Sides - Living My Life In and Out of the Game" as told to
and written by C. Alease, the former boss lady invites us not only into her
world, but into her mind, her heart and her soul. The woman, quietly heralded by
some as the Black Griselda Blanco, minus the murder, was on the lead track of
the notorious Black Mafia, a gang which ran Philly's drug trade throughout the
'80's and into the '90's. Married to drug kingpin, Jackie Wright, one of the top
heroin wholesalers in the city at that time, Wright was privy to a life that on
the surface, most would envy.
Like Blanco, Wright was respected as a no nonsense woman who stayed on top of
the product. At her peak, she was grossing top dollar and living the high life,
attending championship fights via private jets, going on European shopping
sprees and driving a fleet of customized Mercedes Benzes. She also enjoyed
taking cruises to the Bahamas and speed boating in Miami.
"With Eyes From Both Sides" however, Wright takes us
beneath the surface of the fast lane into the real. The product of a middle
working class Black family, Wright attended Catholic school and was a star
athlete as a child. Life was never difficult for her and she came from a stable
and loving, two-parent home. Wright's story is not your typical tale of abuse or
abandonment.
Jasmin
Darznik was born in Tehran, Iran. A former attorney, she received her Ph.D.
from Princeton University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. She is a professor
of English at Washington and Lee University and has also been a visiting
professor of Iranian literature at the University of Virginia. THE GOOD DAUGHTER
is her first book and will be published in twelve countries.
Book Spotlight--The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life Quote from book: We were a world of two, my mother and I,
until I started turning into an American girl. That's when she began telling me
about The Good Daughter. It became a taunt, a warning, an omen.
Jasmin Darznik came to America from Iran when she was only three years old, and
she grew up knowing very little about her family's history. When she was in her
early twenties, on a day shortly following her father's death, Jasmin was
helping her mother move; a photograph fell from a stack of old letters. The girl
pictured was her mother. She was wearing a wedding veil, and at her side stood a
man whom Jasmin had never seen before. In this sweeping, poignant, and
beautifully written memoir, Jasmin weaves the stories of three generations of
Iranian women into a unique tale of one family's struggle for freedom and
understanding. The result is an enchanting and unforgettable story of secrets,
betrayal, and the unbreakable mother-daughter bond.
BPM: Welcome Jasmin! This wonderful story all started when you
found an old photograph of your mother as a very young bride. The man beside her
was not your father. That must have been a life changing moment for you.
Absolutely. Apart from the shock of learning she’d been married before, it was
as if I was encountering a different woman altogether. The mother I knew was
fierce, strong, and utterly unsentimental. She used to tell me that if I
didn’t behave, if I became an “American girl,” she’d go back to her
“Good Daughter” in Iran. As a child I’d felt confused and ashamed of her
strict foreign ways, and as a young woman I resented her for them.
By the time I found the photograph, I’d almost completely broken off my
relationship with her. I’d left home and I had no interest in going back to
what I thought of as “her” Iranian world. But here, suddenly, was proof of a
life she had totally hidden from me. Who was this man and why hadn’t she told
me about their marriage? I couldn’t push these questions from my mind. And for
a long time I just could not square the mother I remembered with the vulnerable
child bride staring back at me from that picture.
BPM:
At first, she refused to share any information with you, but months later, she
made a series of cassette tapes in which she revealed that she had not only been
married before but had also been forced to abandon her firstborn daughter in
order to escape a life of neglect and abuse. What was it like for you to learn
that?
I was floored. For me, learning the truth about my mother completely upended my
understanding of my family’s past. I’d always assumed the 1979 Iranian
revolution was the reason we left Iran for America. The revolution was
definitely part of why we’d left, but now I understand that the reasons were
at once more painful, intimate and far more cannily obscured than I ever
imagined.
Not only had she kept her marriage and divorce a secret, but apart from what I
thought of as this totally fictional “Good Daughter,” she’d also kept a
sister secret from me. I felt confused and also deeply betrayed, but the
revelation of her secret marked the beginning of knowing her more fully and more
compassionately. As a teenager and young woman I had bitterly resented her
protectiveness, but I understand now that the surrender of her first daughter
totally shaped—I’d even say warped—her love for me.
Marc
Lacy, author of three books and producer of four CDs, is a nationally
renowned, award winning poet/author and a lecturer. He has performed all over
the country at many national literary events and spoken word venues. Along with
writing and performance, Lacy utilizes his wordsmith talent and poetic flair as
he facilitates lectures and conducts workshops concerning writing,
communication, love and relationships. Lacy credits his faith in God and love of
family for his success in the literary industry.
BPM: Tell us about your journey becoming a successfully published author. Do
you have anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to
become an author?
My journey in "author-dom" has been a trying, yet rewarding
experience. I've seen many things out there on the road within the literary
world which would make anyone cringe at becoming an author. But through prayer
and learning to roll with the punches, I'm humbled at the fact that I have an
opportunity to write books...period.
Being that both of my parents are heavily into reading and writing (via
education and occupation), they were heavily involved in my inaugural
publication, "The Looking Heart." It was a blessing to have them as
vital support as I journey down the path to being published.
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry?
Years ago, I had a strong desire to get my poetry out there to be viewed by the
masses. Thus I took the self-publishing route to make it happen.
BPM: What is your definition of success?
My definition of success is one advancing and becoming established in their
field, to the point at which they can convey to the next person, the basic
formula needed that would enable others to advance within the same field and
other areas as well.
BPM: Success leaves clues, whose clues did you follow on your journey?
I actually took bits and pieces of knowledge from several successful authors
(too many to name) and also from others (outside of publishing) who were
successful with their entrepreneurial endeavors as well.
BPM: What books or authors made a difference in your life?
There have been many; but The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley was one
of the most inspirational books I've ever read.
BPM: How has your writing style evolved over the years? What stimulated your
growth the most?
Well being that I am most noted for poetry and spoken word, a lot of people are
shocked when they find out that I've written a short story book. And now that
I'm working on a full novel, I can honestly say that I have segued from high
action poetry to high action/suspense in fiction.
Running from Solace by Nakia R. Laushaul
"She passed a hard candy over her shoulder as though whatever was in the
tiny wrapper was supposed to make it all better. I clutched the peppermint in my
hand and buried my face in the hard leather seat while she explained what was
going to happen to me. She promised that I'd be safe from then on."
And so begins the journey of Naomi, whose amazing story picks up where the past
and future intersect. As Naomi struggles to hide the ugly physical and emotional
reminders of her childhood that insist on haunting her dreams, she crosses paths
with a young boy, Xavier and his bad-tempered mother, Mona, who share an
interesting story much like her own.
Excerpt from Running
from Solace, Chapter One: Naomi
Once, she flung a heavy ashtray at my head and blood spewed onto my new pink
summer dress like red polka dots because I didn't respond to her calling me,
"Naomi! Naomi!" I was trying frantically to reach her special ashtray
with the real stinky cigarettes in it from underneath the bed, so I barely heard
her the first time. From the tone of her voice I could tell she was getting mad,
but I almost had the golden colored ashtray in my hand when I heard her say,
"If I call you one more time!" That did it for me; I knew I was
getting a whooping. I took my time walking back into the living room.
"Don't make me call you again, Naomi!" Mama said just as I approached
her.
I left a small distance between us as I presented her with what she had been
impatiently waiting for. She went crazy. Mama hit me right on top of my head
over and over again with the ashtray.
"You ungrateful little bitch!" she yelled repeatedly in my face.
I tried to cover my head with my arms, until they grew tired and I gave up. Fury
danced in her eyes and spit sprinkled over me like morning mist. My eyes burned
from the tiny flecks of ashes that fell from the ashtray. I tried closing them
tightly. Warm blood trickled slowly down my forehead and penetrated my eyelids
and cooled the burning sensation.
"Yeah, you must like gettin' hit!" Mama screamed so loud I
wanted my ears to close. I preferred the times when she whooped me and she was
silent. Out of sheer luck at some point during the beating, I passed out. I
usually did. Thank God.
Intimate Conversation with
Fourth Sunday Book Club
BPM: Give us a little history on the 4th Sunday Book
Club.
The 4th Sunday Book Club was founded in the 1994 by six professional
African-American women from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area . These women
shared a desire to read books of quality and substance and formed a loosely
structured book club simply referred as “the book club”. The objective
was to read books written by African-American authors. Over time the club
diversified to include at least one non-fiction book per year and has grown
beyond solely African-American authored works.
The book club, which met on fourth Sundays, soon found that contemporary
literature did not reflect them or their lives. Motivated by this realization,
the club began writing its own book. The result is Fourth Sunday: A Journey
of Book Club, which was written under the pseudonym B.W. Read and
published in May 2011 by Strebor Books for Simon and Shuster. In honor of the
success of the book, “the book club” was renamed “4th Sunday Book Club.”
The 4th Sunday Book Club has grown in membership and purpose. The club
now has 13 active members. However, it remains an unstructured, intimate club
where books are our connection and our bond is our strength.
BPM: In your opinion, why is reading important in our lives?
Reading is important because it exposes us to experiences and information we may
not otherwise encounter. Reading helps us to become more educated and well
rounded. Books, like "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle,
influence lives at an early stage and have lasting effects.
BPM: Are you satisfied with the legacy books written by African American
authors will leave our future generations?
NO and NO. For the past 20 years or more, books written by black authors that
are profiled or placed front and center by bookstores and the media are
classified as “Urban Literature.” Most often found under this classification
are books that reflect the urban hip-hop culture, baby mama drama, hustler, or
mad black woman perspectives that feed the majority’s opinion. Contemporary
books are capturing the moment, the flavor of the month, sometimes for shock
value. Only a few of these books will be classics 20, 30, years from now.
Books of depth and substance are painted with this broad
monolithic “Urban Literature” brush and are too often looked over when books
get promoted. They are ultimately lost to the readers and we are left with a
legacy of more widely read black books that stereotype us, our lives, and our
desires.
Intimate Conversation with Exquisite Ladies Book Club
BPM: Give us a little history on your organization. How
many members do you have?
Exquisite Ladies Book Club: Sisters joined in literary bliss!
President: Te'Amo Edwards
Vice President: Shanowya Jackson
Exquisite Ladies Book Club (ELBC) is based in Camden, NJ and was
founded in December 2010 by Te'Amo Edwards. Currently, we have 8 active
members and growing. ELBC is the acronym for Exquisite Ladies Book Club. The
name for this book club came about several years ago when a few of my
girlfriends on-line and myself wanted to have a social forum/book club for
females. We thought of the environment as being a place where females could go
to vent, uplift, and encourage one another so Exquisite Ladies was absolutely
befitting as the title of the forum. While the forum started out as a Yahoo
group and later became an official forum it didn't last more than a year or
so. I kept my passion for wanting a book club and in December 2010 I started
ELBC once again on Meetup. Our 1st meeting was conducted in January and we had
5 members show up and we have been doing well since. We're still growing and
encourage other females to join.
BPM: What is the vision/mission for your organization? Do you host events
during the year? Donate to charities or provide any service for the community?
Our Mission and Purpose is to provide a comfortable setting for a group of
diverse readers and discuss African American fiction and nonfiction novels.
Unite as sisters and socialize together for book discussions and other events
in the community. Support new and upcoming authors by reading, reviewing,
inviting authors to our discussions, and attending book signings. Although
ELBC is dedicated to African-American females, we will not exclude non African
American authors or members. We come to the group as equals. All have an
opportunity to read and express thoughts and feelings. This is also a great
way for us to get to know new people, enjoy stimulating discussion and most
importantly discover wonderful books. Above all, let’s learn from each other
while sharing our thoughts and ideas.
We're still in our first year so we're learning the ins and outs of
maintaining a successful book club. Our goals for next year are to implement
community service projects, plan at least 1 literary event on an annual basis,
and expand to have 12 active members at every discussion. Right now we do plan
different outings outside of our monthly discussions to keep the members in
touch and continue building bonds/friendships.
Intimate Conversation with Coffee Beanz N Readz Book Club
BPM: Welcome! Please share with us the history of
the organization. How did you get started?
Hi my name is Sheridan Akens founder of Coffee Beanz N Readz Book Club
but you can call me Mz. Coffee Bean. I was born in Los Angeles CA. and
moved to Texas at an early age. I currently reside in Houston , Texas where
I’m raising two beautiful daughters. I’ve always had a strong passion for
reading, so it was no surprise when I began my search within the city to find a
book club to join. But to my surprise I found this task somewhat challenging. So
I decided to do the next best thing and start my own club.
Because of my cheerful spirit and the strong family-oriented
values bestowed upon me, I made the choice of this not being just a club but a
SISTAHOOD. The name Coffee Beanz N Readz was created from my thoughts of
snuggling up with a good book and having a smooth cup of coffee. The two
together are a great blend and well the ladies are the whip cream on top. The
club is a way for each “Bean” to get away from the hustle and bustle of
everyday life. A place and time where you can sit, relax and savor a great
discussion with your “sisters”.
Sheridan Akens, President and Founder Coffee Beanz N Readz Book Club
“Enhancing your passion for reading”
Intimate
Conversation with the Diverse Divas Book Club
The Diverse Divas Book Club (referred to as “The
Diverse Divas”) is a group of women that reside in the Washington , DC
metropolitan area who have been friends for many years and some are family
members. They formed their book club in 2004. They originally started with
thirteen members. Four of the original members are no longer actively a part of
the group, but are always welcome to return. They later welcomed two additional
members, so currently their membership stands at nine.
The Diverse Divas decided on the name for their club because they are a diverse
group of women from diverse backgrounds, in diverse professions, and they read a
diverse genre of books. They come together for friendship, fellowship, reading
enlightenment and fun! In addition to their book club name, they decided it
would be fun to have "alter ego" Diva names that match their
personalities, professions or interests. The members are Glenda Barlow (Bossy
Diva), Sharon Brown (Natural Diva), Regina Hunter (Quiet Diva), Patsy Lee (Real
Diva), Doxie A. McCoy (Foxy Diva), Kelli McCoy-Burkett (The Diva), Shari L.
McCoy (Deputy Diva), Tira McPhail (Baby Diva), and Marianna "Brandy"
Raynor (AKA Diva).
BPM: Give us a little history on your organization the Diverse
Divas.
The name of our book club is the “Diverse Divas.” We started our book club
in 2004. We are a group of women in the Washington, DC metropolitan area who
have been friends for many years and some are family members. One of the members
approached another member about wanting to form a book club, and the rest is
"HERSTORY!"
We are nearing the end of our sixth reading cycle. We originally started with 13
members. Four of our original members are no longer actively with us but we have
a saying in our book club: "Once a Diverse Diva, always a Diverse
Diva." We later welcomed two additional members, and currently, our
membership stands at nine.
We have no leader or officers in our group, but whatever
decisions or activities we do, we attempt to reach a consensus and go with the
wishes of the majority. We have one member who has volunteered since the book
club's inception to compile a summary or debriefing of past book club meetings,
provide updates to the reading cycle with book club meetings dates, as well as
group member demographic information.
We decided on the name "Diverse Divas" by a majority vote after
members submitted various suggestions. We are the Diverse Divas because we are a
diverse group of women from diverse backgrounds, in diverse professions, and
read a diverse genre of books. We come together for friendship, fellowship,
reading enlightenment and fun!
In addition to our group name, we thought it would be fun to
have "alter ego" Diva names that match our personalities, professions
or interests. The group members are Glenda Barlow (Bossy Diva), Sharon Brown
(Natural Diva), Regina Hunter (Quiet Diva), Patsy Lee (Real Diva), Doxie A.
McCoy (Foxy Diva), Kelli McCoy-Burkett (The Diva), Shari L. McCoy (Deputy Diva),
Tira McPhail (Baby Diva), and Marianna "Brandy" Raynor (AKA Diva).
Former members include Sherry Battle, Patrice Britt (A Diva), Denise
"Peaches” Moore, Sandy Mapson, and Hope Ramsey.
We also have a "Calling Call"... When you need to capture the
attention of one, two, or all of the Divas, simply say "Divas," and
the response will be "Holla," and you have our attention!!
Connect with the Diverse
Divas Book Club
A Dollar Saved
by Mary Monroe
My
most memorable ex-boyfriend was very creative when it came to saving money. He
escorted me to parties and funerals of people we didn’t know just so he could
“treat” me to a free meal. At each event he would stuff my purse with food
to take home. He drove a twenty-three-year-old Ford and lived in a “boot
leg”, free rent, Section 8 apartment (it was in the name of a
shady relative who used several aliases). What my ex-boyfriend couldn’t
scavenge from the items that people had set outside for the city crew to pick up
and dispose of, he got from flea markets, yard sales, and his unscrupulous
associates. His apartment contained more stolen property than a police
warehouse. I gave him a new shirt for his birthday that year. He returned
it to the store, exchanged it for a cheaper one, and kept the change.
Why did I date such a creep? Well, not only was he cute and a very
good lover, he provided some good material for me to write about. He
dumped me when I refused to help him pull off a phony accident insurance scheme
(he had “choked” on a buffalo wing bone in a bar during the
“buy one drink, get free snacks” happy hour).
I dated another miser who made the previous one look like Santa Claus.
This man used to urinate in a bucket and empty it in his backyard so that his
toilet wouldn’t have to be flushed too many times. He liked to keep his
water bill low. His “gifts” to me included a paperback book
autographed to him from an author I didn’t like, and a well-worn wig that his
ex-wife had left behind.
This man was too frugal even for me. I realized that when he recycled some
left-over snacks from one of my book signings and sold them to his friends!
These two former lovers inspired the cheapskate fiancé of my character Annette
Goode in my third novel, God STILL Don’t Like Ugly.
I know females who are almost as cheap as my two exes. One borrows money from
me, pays me back with a post-dated check, borrows the same amount from me again,
gives me another post-dated check, and so on. There is a fifty dollar loan that
has been “floating” back and forth from me to her for two years. When this
woman gets runs in her pantyhose, she cuts off the legs and wears the panty part
for underwear. When we go out to eat, she brings along a calculator to figure
out who owes what.
I don’t see anything wrong with people being frugal. I like to save money,
too. I cruise yard sales, discount stores and flea markets. I pay for groceries
with coupons, and I recycle as many things as possible. A few years ago,
while I was shopping in a drugstore that was about to go out of business, I
stumbled across the sale of the century: brand-name toothbrushes for a PENNY
each. I purchased a hundred. For three years, I included one in the gift bags
that I gave out for Christmas.
I travel extensively so I collect a lot of hotel “gifts.” You know those
cute little condiment containers that you get when you order room service, and
those cute little bottles of lotion and shampoo in the hotel bathrooms. I have
not had to purchase ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, sugar, steak sauce, soap,
shampoo, or lotion, in years.
However, when those items are on sale, I pick up a few--but only if I have a
“buy one, get one free coupon.” I am not a pauper and I do like to do
extravagant things. I love shows like The Lion King, David Copperfield, Cher,
and anything by Cirque de Soleil. Therefore, one of my favorite places is Vegas.
When I do that city, I do it in style!
Scattered Lies III is
Available for Fans of Scattered Lies I & II
Madison
Taylor Returns with "Scattered Lies III " the Explosive Finale to the
Scattered Lies Series!
It's not often that a new author can hold a reader's attention through a
series of separate releases, yet fiction writer Madison Taylor; the mastermind
behind "Scattered Lies I" and "Scattered Lies II" has
managed to do just that! With the creation of her literary trilogy from
Influential Writers Publishing, she has cultivated a mounting fan base that is
quickly developing into a cult following. Taylor will finally quench the
curiosity of swelling inquiries when she releases "Scattered Lies
III" on July 1, 2011, culminating the surging suspense created with her
two previous novels.
Developing her storyline on the concept that success built on a foundation of
lies is not really success at all, Taylor has compellingly intertwined the
lives of five successful urbanites to create an intriguing tale of suspense,
passion and mind-boggling plot twists. Where "Scattered Lies I"
initiated the theme of "Where lies are the reality of the truth" and
"Scattered Lies II" followed up with "Lessons can't be learned
when lies prevail," "Scattered Lies III" drives the point
home with "The Truth Finally."
In "Scattered Lies III" the five protagonists, chameleon Denise
Taylor; rap icon, Tony Flowers; the sophisticated Gabrielle Brightman, pop
diva Christina Carrington and the gorgeous young Morgan Marciano continue with
their separate but intersecting lives, finally coming to terms with their
masked actions of dishonesty and deceit. Madison cunningly immerses us into a
world rich in urban fantasy while driving home inescapable life lessons.
"Scattered Lies III" drips with drama, dances with danger and rivets
with retributions as one
by one; truth uncovers a trail of viciously scattered deceptions, destroying
everything in its path.
"There comes a time in our lives when redemption is the only chance of
salvation," conveys Taylor, and for our beloved characters in the
Scattered Lies series, 'Scatter Lies III' is the climactic conclusion to
situations that finally had to play themselves out. My readers have patiently
waited and anxiously anticipated 'Scattered Lies III' and they will not be
disappointed. By the same token, new readers will be able to come on board
with 'Scattered Lies III' and still enjoy a great story as well as get the
lesson."
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Seeking Book Reviewers EDC
Creations seeks to add avid readers to our community as book reviewers. We would
like readers to share their honest opinions about the books they read. You do
not have to be a professional writer, we want to feel your passion for reading.
Reviewers receive books from EDC Creations’ publishing partners monthly.
You can review our policy for book reviewers by
clicking here. Email Ella Curry for more details at: edc_dg@yahoo.com
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Seeking
Book Club Interviews Ella
Curry and EDC Creations celebrates the rise of book clubs in the publishing
industry. We host monthly tributes and parties for our featured book clubs. You
too can become a Black Pearls Bookclub Star! Request that your book club obtain
a interview and receive a gift bag of books!
Your book club and network of friends are invited to check all the great authors
in the Bookclub Reading Room and to explore
the magazine for your next featured book of the month. Email Ella Curry for more
details or to request the interview questions at: edc_dg@yahoo.com
The
Black Pearls Magazine family
would like to take the time to thank each of you for
joining us monthly in celebrating the best in literature and the arts. Our
team of writers, bookclubs and authors are so humbled that you have allowed us
entrance into your life. It amazes me each month as I check our subscribers how
many of you deem us worthy of your time and support.
We
appreciate each of you for telling 10 people about the magazine and for driving
people to this site. YOU make Black Pearls the magnificent publication that it
is, by sharing the Gift of Knowledge!
Please
know, as we prepare each issue for you, we look for those stimulating
conversations, the most thought provoking articles and most of all, the best
books on the shelves. We want each page of this magazine to add value to your
lives! Your comments and feedback are welcomed. Join our
blog and share your news, advice and wisdom with the other readers. Tell us
what you want to read too!
As we enjoy this new decade we hope to bring you more provocative topics
and life empowering books to shape your lives. We have contests for the readers
and more interactive sections added to the magazine. Let us know what you think
of the fresh new content by emailing
us here. Thank you!
Ella Curry, President of EDC Creations
Founder & Editor In Chief Black Pearls Magazine
About the Author
Ki Mani Prays - A Prayer for Guidance
A New Jersey native, author Craig T. Williams wore many hats before becoming a writer. At Syracuse University, Williams majored in business but always held a deep fascination for the study of history.
Meet
Miami Herald 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr.
In a career spanning 35 years, Leonard Pitts, Jr. has been a syndicated
columnist, a college professor, a radio producer and a lecturer.
But if you ask him to define himself, he will invariably choose one word.
He is a writer, period.
Tall,
dark, and handsome bestselling male author Xavier Preston thought his
nightmare—in the form of Pilar, a fanatical stalker/fan—had finally ended.
Little does he know it’s only beginning. 
BPM:
Introduce us to your book, African Rhythms. On Kindle or Nook? 
Hello
Pat it gives me great pleasure to have you on the couch with me today! The Black
Pearls readers are in for a literary treat. 
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself.
She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group, The Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, November 2007).
Jacqueline is the author of Searching for Tina Turner and Passing Love (releases January 25, 2012).
BPM: Introduce us to your book and the main characters. Do you have any favorites? What genre is the book? On Kindle or Nook? 
PATRICIA HALEY is the award winning, Essence #1 bestselling author of eight faith-based novels, including her latest series with
Lutishia Lovely is the award-winning, best-selling author of sixteen novels. The Business Trilogy, her latest work, combines two of her passions: writing and food. This series (All Up In My Business, Mind Your Own Business
and Taking Care Of Business) centers around the Livingstons, owners of a soul food dynasty called Taste Of Soul—where sizzling scandal and delicious drama are always on the menu. 
Mahayana
Isabelle Dugast, Ph.D. Metaphysical Science grew up in Chamonix Mont-Blanc,
France. She originally qualified with the Association of Natural Medicine
in 1993 in the UK, before she moved to Ireland, Cork, where she now resides.
She is an “Agent of Change” and the founder of The Academy of Luminaries.
She offers individual consultations and seminars where she transmits tools that
allow people to fully eliminate self-limitations and tap into their inner
potential, the source of all successes.
Ericka Williams
is a tour de force, a phenomenal woman. She is a compassionate person who not only cares about herself and hers, but she cares about humanity. All of her books are themed to show the unlimited access of human beings to redemption.
She uses societal ills, her own experiences, and real situations that we all face, to show that their is a light at the end of every tunnel, if you take God's hand and let him lead the
way
Sharon Rhodes was born and raised in Opelika, Alabama. She entered the
United States Air Force shortly after high school. While in the Air Force she
obtained a B.A. in Business and Management from the University of Maryland and a
M.A. in Public Administration from Central Michigan University. 
About the Author
Injury to the mother-daughter relationship rents a profound wound, and gives rise to serious strain between both daughters and mothers.
Janie De Coster's love of reading is what inspired her to take a step into the writing world. She pens stories of real life drama. She wants to connect with her readers on a level they can relate to.
Janie De Coster is a native New Yorker who now resides in South Carolina.
Janie is working on several projects. Her upcoming release Broken Commandments
with Parker Publishing is slated for November 2011.
ABOUT SHARON R. WELLS
About the Author
We
have all heard the saying that “An apple a day can keep the doctor away.”
However, the saying also holds true for consuming the recommended amount of fish
or other foods rich in omega-3s as well. By making sure that you get the proper
balance of omega-3s within your diet, you significantly boost your immune system
and prevent your chances of contracting chronic diseases . Here are answers to a
few questions that you may have regarding omega-3s and how they can benefit your
overall health.
New
York Times bestselling author Mary B. Morrison believes that women should
shape their own destiny. Born in Aurora, IL, and raised in New Orleans, LA, she
took a chance and quit her near six-figure government job to self-publish her
first book, Soulmates Dissipate, in 2000 and begin her literary career. 
Monique Miller is a native of North Carolina. She is a member of the Divine
Literary Tour (DLT) a non-profit organization which brings together Black Greek
Authors from across the nation for a cross-country tour to promote literacy. 
It was the summer of my first year in junior high when my mama did the most
un-cool thing that a mother can do to a closet country girl trying to act like a city chick…she planted a garden.
Tameka
Williamson, an Independent Certified Coach, Trainer and Speaker for The John Maxwell Team, received a BSME degree from Southern University and a MBA from Webster University. She has served in several operational and managerial roles with major Fortune 100 Companies. Couple her professional leadership experience with her civic duties; she’s led many endeavors focused on Professional Development, Business/Career Coaching, Youth Programs, Non-Profit Management, etc. Tameka is focused on living out the purpose God has ordained for her life.
Sarita
Mandanna is from Coorg, the stunning setting of Tiger Hills. Often described
as the ‘Scotland of India’, beautiful Coorg is famous for its hills and
coffee plantations, and Sarita’s family traces roots here for centuries.
In the continuing tradition of the hit novel HOT BOYZ, celebrity, sex, money, and violence are all components of the long-awaited sequel called
HOT GIRLZ, a family drama that explores the lives of three women, Mercedes, Venus, and Sequoia, the wives of wealthy brothers, Mason, Claude and Torino Wilson. 
CEO, Azarel
Smallwood, launched the company with the release of her self-published title, A Life to Remember, and from there has continued to sign and promote best-selling authors such as
J. Tremble, Tiphani Montgomery, and Danette Majette. 
Ericka
Williams has had a passion for writing since junior high school. She
attended Howard University and graduated from Rutgers University. Ericka's first
dream was to become a journalist, but she began a teaching career instead.
Ericka has been a Language Arts teacher in Paterson, NJ, since 1998.
Previously an English teacher and high school principal, Andrea Clinton
is a Novelist, Poet, Essayist and aspiring Screenwriter and Filmmaker. Andrea is
a Montclair State University Graduate, who's achieved a degree in English, Film
and Journalism. She's the founder and CEO of the non-profit organization, People
Helping People, Inc., whose mission is to help citizens become independent and
self-sufficient; Andrea is Editor in Chief of AMISTAD newspaper and magazine;
and is presently working on a biography and screenplay featuring her uncle, Rock
and Roll Hall of famer, George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic and the Clinton
family.
BPM: Tell us a little about yourself. Do you have anyone in your life that was heavily influential in your deciding to become an author?
From
the bestselling author of Double Dippin’ and Big Juicy Lips—a story about
three friends with three different paths to the same goal: a husband, despite
the dismal odds. 
The
words "queen pen" and "boss lady" can conjure up many
images. One might think of an icy, cold-blooded gangstress who is heartless
about the business at hand. Yet, the sparkling, green eyes belonging to Thelma
Wright paint a different picture. Though rumored at one time to be the most
powerful and dangerous Black woman in Philadelphia, discreetly running a
bi-coastal drug empire that her husband left behind, Wright's green eyes reflect
a pensive view. Peering into them, we feel the love, the loss, the pain and the
retribution of a mother, a wife now widowed and a yes, even a friend. Simply
stated, Thelma Wright was married to the mob ... the Black Mafia to be exact.
But nothing is ever that simple. 
Jasmin
Darznik was born in Tehran, Iran. A former attorney, she received her Ph.D.
from Princeton University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. She is a professor
of English at Washington and Lee University and has also been a visiting
professor of Iranian literature at the University of Virginia. THE GOOD DAUGHTER
is her first book and will be published in twelve countries.
BPM:
At first, she refused to share any information with you, but months later, she
made a series of cassette tapes in which she revealed that she had not only been
married before but had also been forced to abandon her firstborn daughter in
order to escape a life of neglect and abuse. What was it like for you to learn
that?
Marc
Lacy, author of three books and producer of four CDs, is a nationally
renowned, award winning poet/author and a lecturer. He has performed all over
the country at many national literary events and spoken word venues. Along with
writing and performance, Lacy utilizes his wordsmith talent and poetic flair as
he facilitates lectures and conducts workshops concerning writing,
communication, love and relationships. Lacy credits his faith in God and love of
family for his success in the literary industry.
My
most memorable ex-boyfriend was very creative when it came to saving money. He
escorted me to parties and funerals of people we didn’t know just so he could
“treat” me to a free meal. At each event he would stuff my purse with food
to take home. He drove a twenty-three-year-old Ford and lived in a “boot
leg”, free rent, Section 8 apartment (it was in the name of a
shady relative who used several aliases). What my ex-boyfriend couldn’t
scavenge from the items that people had set outside for the city crew to pick up
and dispose of, he got from flea markets, yard sales, and his unscrupulous
associates. His apartment contained more stolen property than a police
warehouse. I gave him a new shirt for his birthday that year. He returned
it to the store, exchanged it for a cheaper one, and kept the change. 
The
Black Pearls Magazine 