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A Slip In The Right Direction
by author and poet Rachel Berry
A Slip In The Right Direction, a coming-of-age story for tweens & teens. The story of life, puppy love, and lessons, as seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old young man coming-of-age in Chicago.
Homesick for his life and friends back home, a family move forces 14 year old Clifton Henderson, aka Slip, to grow up on the north side of Chicago. In his mind, life sucks at the moment and can't get any worse. But it does. A kidnapping by gang members, a crush on a girl playing hard to get, a strict father, a mysterious neighbor, and the gift of premonitions all help take him on a ride of life until eventually he takes A Slip In The Right Direction.
[Click the image to enter the drawing.]
Five questions that the book asks readers or society
1. What do you feel are some of the reasons that make our youth turn to gangs, and what as a society can we do to change this?
2. Can good home training and instilling family values totally prevent our kids from making bad choices?
3. Does creating a good family image mean we should push our children to make choices or responsibilities they might not be ready for?
4. How does the coming-of-age process effect boys differently from girls and then later on as an adult?
5. What are the pros and cons of discreetly involving and relaying family challenges and situations to our children when they reach a certain age, and what is that age?
Click
here to enter the drawing for a review copy of A Slip In The Right
Direction.
Transformations: Give Up The Struggle
by Renee Wiggins
We all have had our ups and downs in our lives, some more than others. But, how we end up in the end, determines how we actually see the storms. The storms help us to change to a better and stronger person. Resisting change can make the obstacles, the hindrances and the storms become even more unbearable. However, if we choose to view them in a different light, change can move us into a bigger and better job, or a more rewarding, loving relationship -it indeed can make us better.
The affirmations presented in Transformations: Give Up the Struggle can be a turning point in your life. View hardships as helpers to a stronger you. See obstacles as ripples in a pond as you move closer to your victory. Discover that hindrances are hurdles that make you jump high above the clouds. See that valleys are mere lessons that will release you from your past and help heal the brokenness. Be ye transformed by renewing of your mind. Affirm yourself-release the past, give up the struggle and move forward -TODAY!
For more affirmations, purchase Transformations: Give Up the Struggle (ISBN-10: 098256130X)
at http://www.resultsbyrenee.com.
About the Author
Renee Wiggins is the owner of Results By Renee, a wellness company based in Maryland. Her mission is to help people achieve optimum health through nutrition, fitness and supplemented with stress reduction techniques. Ms. Wiggins designs lifestyle programs for individuals and groups. She is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Massage Therapist.
Excerpt: Justice Older than the Law by Katie McCabe
Justice Older than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree
by Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Winner of the Association of Black Women Historians’ 2009 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize for best publication on an African American woman
Justice Older than the Law by Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson
Roundtree is the story of pioneering Army veteran, attorney and minister Dovey Johnson Roundtree, co-authored by Katie McCabe. This is a love song to the black family and a celebration of the eternal values that make it possible to transcend our pain and limitations. Dovey Roundtree is an icon, and her story is an inspiration to all families.
Dovey Johnson Roundtree is a retired lawyer, an Army veteran, and an A.M.E. minister. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Katie McCabe is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Washingtonian Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, and Reader's Digest, among others. Her National Magazine Award-winning article on black medical legend Vivien Thomas was the basis for the HBO film Something the Lord Made, winner of three Emmys and a 2005 Peabody Award.
» AUDIO SNEAK PEEK FROM THE BOOK
Katie McCabe reading from Chapter One, "Walking Unafraid," about Dovey Roundtree's courageous Grandma Rachel, the woman Dovey calls "the greatest warrior I ever knew." Listen here now:
http://www.audioacrobat.com/sa/WC3S5tj4
Chapter One, "Walking Unafraid," about Dovey Roundtree's courageous Grandma Rachel, the woman Dovey calls "the greatest warrior I ever knew."
Excerpt: Chapter One: Walking Unafraid
Every evening, in the tiny kitchen of the old frame shotgun house where I grew up in Charlotte, my Grandma Rachel marked the day’s end by a ritual etched in my memory with a clarity that belies the eighty years since then.
She ceased to rush, as she did endlessly in the hours between dawn and darkness, and she commenced to draw water and lay out clean towels and mix an ointment she made of turpentine and mutton tallow. I would stand, quiet, watching her heat the water on the wood stove, pour it into a metal pan, then remove her stockings and hoist her skirts as she lifted her feet into the steaming bath.
Her feet were broken. They were gnarled and twisted and horribly misshapen, with the bones sticking out in strange ways. As she lifted them into the steaming water, she winced. And I would know, though she had spoken no word and given no sign, that all day long her feet had been paining her.
How frightened I was the first time I saw those poor broken feet. I was five years old, and my mother and my three sisters and I had just moved to my grandparents’ home after the death of my father, James Eliot Johnson, in the influenza epidemic of 1919. My grandmother had scooped us up and taken us under her wing, whisking us from my parents’ house to the little parsonage where she lived with my Grandpa. All day long, she hovered over us…Like a tiny whirling dervish she moved, and so, when I first saw her grow quiet, I was startled.
Then I saw her feet, so large and misshapen they seemed to belong to another woman entirely, and I drew back, frightened. Every night after that, I’d look at her scarred, twisted feet, at the skin stretched taut over the jutting bones, and I’d want to ask her what had made them that way. But something in her silence warned me not to.
The day came, finally, as I was just beginning to mature into womanhood, when Grandma took me to her in private and spoke to me of what had happened to her feet.
A white man had broken them.
It had happened a very long time ago, Grandma said, when she was a young girl, just coming into womanhood herself…and she had seen the man watching her with a look that told her he meant to do her harm.
“The slave master,” she called him. He was the overseer on the farm near Henrietta, North Carolina, where her father worked, and when she spoke of what he had tried to do to her, a look of anguish crossed her face unlike any I had seen before or would see after.
“He was meanin’ to bother me, Dovey Mae,” she told me, in the delicate way she had of speaking about things sexual. “I ran and fought every way I knew how. And I hurt him. Then he grabbed hold o’ me and he stomped, hard as he could, on my feet – to keep me from runnin’ for good, he told me. But I kept on runnin.’”
“Wasn’t nothing to do but fight him, hard as I could,” she said. “He wasn’t goin’ to have his way with me.”
Grandma’s mother had wrapped her smashed, bleeding feet in cloth and rubbed them with the mutton tallow and turpentine ointment Grandma would use for the rest of her days. But the bones had been so crushed that her feet were forever misshapen, and so twisted that for a while she could not walk at all. When she did, it was with a swaying awkwardness that late at night became a limp.
And yet, for all of that, she had won. He had not, as she said, had “his way” with her.
I saw my Grandma Rachel fight everything with that same fierceness – poverty, sickness, injustice, and even despair. Like a mighty stream, her courage flowed through my childhood, shaping me as rushing water shapes the pebbles in its path.
Note: Excerpt used for promotional purposes. Permission given by University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS)
Read the except from Pleasure Principles by Lesley E. Hal
Warning: Adult Content and Graphic Language. Read excerpt
here.
Can Bianca keep a married couple from finding out that the person they’re cheating on each other with is her? Or will living the love-them-and-leave-them lifestyle that Rick James and Teena Marie sang about in the eighties be more fire than desire? That’s the mantra that has become Bianca Brooks’ claim to fame after being stood up at the altar by her longtime fiancé, Michael Jones, five years ago.
Since then, Bianca’s life has consisted of a steady string of bedmates and running her burgeoning event planning company, Pleasure Principles, with best friends Cody and Reggie. With love having nothing to do with her newfound lease on life, Pleasure Principles is her one and only commitment, until she meets Taylor, wife of Dallas Mavericks golden boy, Eric “All Air” Sims. A torrid affair ensues with Eric being none the wiser until he pays Bianca an eye-opening visit. During his stay, Bianca’s world is turned upside down when she finds herself in the middle of a forbidden love triangle, adding even more drama to her already flawed sex life.
Even though Eric’s being unfaithful, his insecurities run rampant, prompting him to hire a detective to see where Taylor’s infidelities lie. When given the proof he needs, all hell breaks loose and everything about Bianca’s promiscuity brings forth malicious consequences of revenge.
Pleasure Principles by Lesley Hal
ISBN-10: 0977865541
ISBN-13: 978-0977865543
Categories/genre: Erotic Thriller
This promotional excerpt is used with permission from the author Lesley E. Hal
Life Knows No Bounds: One Who Loves You More by Andrea Clinton
• Alisa is a money grubbing gold digger who sashays through her days wearing this title like a tiara. Feeling life’s all about the expensive gifts and money a man can give her, Alisa follows the steps of her mentor and basks in the glory of using men, until she stumbles upon Omar.
• Omar is an African American Muslim trying to fight his demons and find his way back to the Islamic life he knew as a child. Distraught over disagreements that divided the Muslim community a decade prior, where many Muslims became victim to inner city chaos, Omar became a product of his environment and is at the head of that chaos.
Tired of hearing her mother rant and rave about her gold digging ways, Alisa decides to take her great grandmother’s advice, "Always get a man who loves you more than you love him." Stumbling upon Omar in his brand new Cadillac, Alisa decides to make him her man, or rather, her victim, or will the tables turn? Hell erupts, splatters like geysers, while skeletons and bones fly out closets in, Life Knows No Bounds, “1 Who Luvs U More.”
Andrea Clinton: What Impact will this book have my readers?
Readers will learn about a very overlooked profession on the rise, "Gold Digging." They'll get to see that there's more than what meets the eye when women toy with men's emotions and use them for their hard earned money.
My Plight:
Some would say I was ungrateful, and I guess to a degree I was. But more than ungrateful, I was blind, too blind to see straight. Even now I can’t see what it is I should’ve done. I just know what I shouldn’t have done. And I know I wasn’t happy. I was unhappy with myself, with what was going on, and it was the unhappiness that drove me. It drove me to do things, drove me to where I am today, nowhere, with no one. Just sitting here playing the song,
I know how it feels to be lonely by Morgana King, in my head, over and over and over again.
I was a mental-mess, and I mucked things up really bad, and now they can’t be fixed. Forgive me if my story’s scrambled, but how else can I tell it when my mind is scrambled. So, when my story sounds twisted, shaky, and unclear at times, just know, so is my mind. Why else would I be sitting here talking to a Greek statue of a white woman with cellulite thighs, barely any clothing and no pupils? Yes, I’m really messed up in the head, and my nerves are shot. But that’s how it is when you see yourself as a casualty, and the world deems you the antagonist.
###
"Life Knows No Bounds: 1 Who Loves You More," Andrea Clinton's first installment in the LIFE KNOWS NO BOUNDS chronicles, is a harsh realistic portrayal of urban love and life in mid-1980's New Jersey. Alisa, a boastful, self-proclaimed gold-digger, finds herself lost in a world of love and conflict as she tries and fails to apply her great-grandmother's wisdom to her complicated love life.
Alisa is well known in her hood for her selfish, gold-digging ways. Despite aggressive warnings from her family, she has mastered the game of getting a man for everything he has and gracefully moving on to the next. But when she hooks up with Omar, she soon realizes that she has entered into a game that she is ill-equipped to play.
Omar, a young, sexy hustler from around the way, knows what it takes to get Alisa's attention. He uses his flashy car and genteel manners to lure her in, but he has so much more in store for her. They start a tumultuous love affair that's riddled with gun fights, jealousy, expensive gifts, explosive arguments, and Alisa's spoiled rotten attitude. When Alisa's antics push Omar to the limit as he struggles with the conflict of his religion and his love for her, the future of their relationship is gravely threatened. "Always get a man who loves you more than you love him", the powerful last words of her dying great-grandmother which Alisa vowed to follow. When she finally understands the meaning of those words, it may be too late, as she comes dangerously close to losing what she fought so hard to gain.
With Life Knows No Bounds: 1 Who Loves You More, Andrea Clinton has created a dynamic urban love story, decorated with realistic dialogue and hard-hitting pragmatism. The story was compelling and the characters were vibrant. Although Alisa was a spoiled brat with an ugly attitude, I found her to be relatable and worthy of my empathy. I felt Alisa's and Omar's struggle until the very end and found myself
rooting for them despite their flaws and troublesome relationship. Life is no fairytale and Clinton has colorfully portrayed that truth through this novel. I was able to thoroughly enjoy the read. I recommend this novel for those looking for an explosive urban love story with a realistic perspective.
--- Reviewed by Monique D. Mensah, The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers
About The Author: Andrea Clinton is a novelist, poet and essayist, and aspiring screenwriter/filmmaker. As a Montclair State University graduate, she
possesses a degree in English, Film and Journalism. She’s the founder and CEO of the non-profit organization, People Helping People; worked as Editor in Chief of AMISTAD newspaper, New Jersey; and is presently working on a biography and screenplay featuring the life of her uncle George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic and the Clinton family.
Visit with Andrea at the Around-The-Way Publishing, LLC website: www.AroundTheWayPublishing.com.
To request a complimentary review copy and press kit, or to purchase copies for resale, call:
(973) 280-2729. Tear sheets may be sent by email: AroundTheWayPub@aol.com.
Chocolate High by Mika
How do you say goodbye to the one you love? Is this even an option when you've invested your body, mind, and soul into your relationship?
Charisse Farrell is a successful, beautiful corporate attorney who has it all, but when the love of her life David Richards betrays her, she has to reevaluate her future.
Tempted by the desire to love again and her need for revenge Charisse is haunted by a demon from her past that turns her life upside down.
When love knocks her down, Charisse has to get back up fighting. Fighting for love!
Primary discussion points: abuse, cheating, self-discovery, embracing
love and finding faith
Audience: Contemporary Fiction; Women Fiction;
African American - Urban Life
The Little Black Book of
Success
Laws of Leadership for Black Women
Written by Elaine Meryl Brown, Marsha Haygood and Rhonda Joy McLean
In this engaging and invaluable “mentor in your pocket,” three dynamic and successful black female executives share their strategies to help all black women, at any level of their careers, play the power game—and win.
Rich with wisdom, this practical gem focuses on the building blocks of true leadership—self-confidence, effective communication, collaboration, and courage—while dealing specifically with stereotypes (avoid the Mammy Trap, and don’t become the Angry Black Woman) and the perils of self-victimization (don’t assume that every challenge occurs because you are black or female).
Some leaders are born, but most leaders are made—and The Little Black Book of Success will show you how to make it to the top, one step at a time.
About Elaine Meryl Brown
Elaine Meryl Brown, former VP, Creative Services at HBO, is an Emmy® Award-winning writer and producer who has won numerous awards in the broadcast industry.
In 2007, Brown was chosen as one of The Network Journal's "25 Influential Black Women in Business."
A favorite of Black Enterprise, she was featured in the magazine and at their Women of Power Summit. A Wheaton College Alumni Trustee and member of the Coalition of 100 Black Women (Bergen/Passaic Chapter), Brown is also the author of two novels published by One World. She lives in New Jersey. For more information on Elaine visit
www.elainemerylbrown.com
About Rhonda Joy McLean
Rhonda Joy McLean is deputy general counsel of Time Inc. and the former assistant regional director of the Northeast Region of the Federal Trade Commission. She has worked as a corporate litigator in a major New York law firm and taught administrative law at the City University of New York. She lives in New York City.
For more information on Rhonda visit http://www.rjmcareertransitions.com
About Marsha Haygood
Marsha Haygood is the president and founder of StepWise Associates, LLC, a career and personal development consultancy. She was formerly the executive vice president of human resources and administration at New Line Cinema and Orion Pictures. She lives in New York and Florida.
For more information on Marsha visit www.stepwiseassociates.com
Essence Magazine National Bestselling Novelist, Vanessa Miller, Tackles the Issue of Women Preachers in Yesterday's Promise
Christian romance novelist, Vanessa Miller, reminds us that the steps of a man, or a woman, are ordered by the Lord, no matter what plans they may make, in her upcoming release,
Yesterday's Promise. She beautifully intertwines this underlying theme as she takes on the long-standing issue of women preachers through the interaction between Melinda Johnson and her ex-fiancé, Steven Marks.
Melinda Johnson has always felt called to ministry. So, when her father, Bishop Langston Johnson, decides to step down after thirty years of leadership at Omega Christian Center, it seems only natural for her to take his place.
But Bishop Johnson feels led by God to appoint Steven Marks to succeed him, a man who is opposed to female pastors, not to mention the fact that he is Melinda's ex-fiancé.
Feeling defeated, Melinda nevertheless maintains her position as the church's Missions and Community Outreach Director. Frequent interaction with the new bishop incites bitter sparring and rekindles long-suppressed attraction, which grows only stronger when Melinda develops a relationship with Steven's precious daughter, Brianna, who's still struggling with the death of her mother.
Readers will find out if Steven and Melinda can set aside past pains, forgive each other, and learn to love again, or if their opposing positions regarding women preachers will keep them forever at odds.
Readers of Yesterday's Promise will be convinced that it is wise to cast all of their cares upon the Savior and let Him work out the conflicts in their lives.
Here is what others are saying about Yesterday's Promise:
"God is calling His people to possess the land. He is anointing individuals to go into the 'unique lands' of the days we live in to represent Jesus and proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Vanessa Miller has an end-time, marketplace ministry to the fiction lovers of the world. I salute her for doing it in Jesus' name!"
-- Kimberly Daniels, Founder of Kimberly Daniels Ministries International, Pastor, Spoken Word Ministries
"Yesterday's Promise is a wonderful reminder that God requires total obedience and is looking for men and women to arise and be counted as leaders of integrity and honor. It is a message of hope for men and women alike, who will be assured that God is faithful to accomplish all He has predestined for their lives. Promotion comes from God; He changes the times and seasons, and our times are in His hands. May you be blessed as you read this book and be encouraged that God has you in mind." -- Dr. Cindy Trimm, Best-selling author, Founder of Destiny Churches & Ministries International
Vanessa Miller is a best-selling author, playwright, and motivational speaker.
She started writing as a child, spending countless hours either reading or writing poetry, short stories, stage plays and novels. Vanessa's creative endeavors took on new meaning in 1994 when she became a Christian. Since then, her writing has been centered on themes of redemption, often focusing on characters facing multi-dimensional struggles.
Readers and critics alike have responded with overwhelming affirmation. Vanessa's novels have received rave reviews, with several appearing on Essence Magazine's Bestseller's List. Miller's work has receiving numerous awards, including "Best Christian Fiction Mahogany Award" and the "Red Rose Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction."
Her writing has also been nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Christian Fiction and as the Black Expressions Book Club Alternate Selection for the past three years.
Vanessa is a founding member of the "Anointed Authors on Tour" whose aim is to support community arts and literacy efforts.
Miller graduated from Capital University with a degree in Organizational Communication. Vanessa Miller and her family live in Dayton, Ohio.
For more information about the author, visit: www.VanessaMiller.com.
To book Vanessa Miller for speaking engagements, events, and/or book signings, please contact Cathy Hickling at 800-444-4484 x283 or by e-mail at:
Chickling@whitakerhouse.com
Wretched Saints – Spiritual Short Stories by Marc Lacy (Author), Assuanta Fay Howard (Author), and Shonell Bacon (Editor)
Between these covers may be your spark to eternal life or a ticket to everlasting
confusion ... depending on how you look at it. For we all have the greatest intentions at heart regardless of whatever we may desire to accomplish. Our faith provides energy and focus during the lifelong scamper down the path of righteousness. However, one thing that poses the greatest challenge is the fact that no human being can escape being human... til death do us part. Temptation lies behind each exit off of Heaven's highways. Detours become more alluring as construction takes place within the most crucial times of our lives - in turn, potentially providing a next day delivery service to hell's doorstep.
Wretched Saints provides a literary window through which we may possibly see traits of ourselves within one or more of the characters as they learn the hard way to listen when God is talking. Thus His signal, when digested properly allows suppression of sinful urges opening up the door, for spiritual growth.
Are you a Wretched Saint? Open the covers...and see.
Of course our desire is to walk within The Kingdom's Neighborhood, but it can be very difficult leaving the alluring amenities of home. We have the protocol down pat; especially when others can witness us witnessing. However, when backs are turned and the sun has set, the righteous hotness of the self-proclaimed saint can suddenly turn lukewarm. Although the tongue can no longer house rationalizations, we still find a way to verbally cover spiritual deficits...thus casting us further into a pit of unrighteous debt surrounded by several unused shovels.
Never What it Seems II: A Mother’s Love
by Diane Martin
Never What it Seems II: A Mother’s
Love is a story of sacrifice, dedication, and unconditional love. Dee and AJ, best friends, thrown together by circumstances beyond their control are up against their biggest challenge ever – motherhood. Dee, mother of two adopted daughters, grew-up in a household void of love. She struggles each day to juggle a career and a family that desperately requires twenty-four hour attention, but she can’t assume a role foreign to her.
Raised in a household with an alcoholic father and an absentee mother, Dee has no idea how to handle these girls who were placed into her life by God to eliminate the loneliness created by a husband, her first love, who betrayed her by living a life on the “down-low.”
AJ, her best friend and mother of one, is married to the man of her dreams. A union that birthed a beautiful little boy struggles to survive.
Born to a father who thought she was put on earth to be his surrogate wife and a mother who sat quietly by, ignoring the screams and cries for help that came from her bedroom at night, AJ wants to love her son, but can’t because she doesn’t know how. She reaches out to her husband for help, but he’s MIA due to situations beyond his control.
In a role unfamiliar to them, life and experience will take them on a journey that will lead them back to the place where it all started.
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As we take off in this new decade we hope to bring you more provocative topics
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Ella Curry, President of EDC Creations
Founder & Editor In Chief Black Pearls Magazine
Justice Older than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree 
Enjoy a Sneak Audio Peek at Pleasure Principles 
"Life Knows No Bounds: 1 Who Loves You More," Andrea Clinton's first installment in the LIFE KNOWS NO BOUNDS chronicles, is a harsh realistic portrayal of urban love and life in mid-1980's New Jersey. Alisa, a boastful, self-proclaimed gold-digger, finds herself lost in a world of love and conflict as she tries and fails to apply her great-grandmother's wisdom to her complicated love life.
How do you say goodbye to the one you love? Is this even an option when you've invested your body, mind, and soul into your relationship?
Charisse Farrell is a successful, beautiful corporate attorney who has it all, but when the love of her life David Richards betrays her, she has to reevaluate her future.
Essence Magazine National Bestselling Novelist, Vanessa Miller, Tackles the Issue of Women Preachers in Yesterday's Promise 
Never What it Seems II: A Mother’s
Love is a story of sacrifice, dedication, and unconditional love. Dee and AJ, best friends, thrown together by circumstances beyond their control are up against their biggest challenge ever – motherhood. Dee, mother of two adopted daughters, grew-up in a household void of love. She struggles each day to juggle a career and a family that desperately requires twenty-four hour attention, but she can’t assume a role foreign to her. 