Hello, all:
Okay, about the title. I know you're asking yourselves the question, "How can this be a sequel when I never saw the initial post?"
I'll answer by way of explanation and by sharing. In this, my personal blog, I posted When Characters Attack. Sort of... on August 21, 2006. In that posting, I talked about a rather incensed gentleman named Bryan Livingston, who sent me an e-mail, because he happened to bear the name of the villain of my first book, Back to Life (Read the original post that follows for the outcome of the exchange).
Just when I thought the Bryan Livingston affair was a fluke... it happened again. On April 18 of this year, I opened my e-mail box and saw the name Marc Guerrieri. Again, I was like, "Okay..."
Here's what he had to say:
Log on to the May 17th posting at Blogging In Black to read the rest...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
April 20, 2007: "Today, we are all Hokies..."
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has declared today -- Friday, April 20, 2007 -- a statewide day of mourning for the victims of the April 16th tragedy on the Blacksburg campus Virginia Tech.
This hit me particularly hard. After all, I live in the state of Virginia. I'm wearing my maroon and orange today as a symbolic gesture and praying that, in these trying times, we will all find the strength to go on and to find meaning in the senselessness of thirty-three deaths.
This hit me particularly hard. After all, I live in the state of Virginia. I'm wearing my maroon and orange today as a symbolic gesture and praying that, in these trying times, we will all find the strength to go on and to find meaning in the senselessness of thirty-three deaths.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
April 17, 2007: Luck is Where the Book Nerd Meets the Radio
Allow me to channel my Inner Guy and tell you about The Book Squad. This is the back story of how I got on the radio.
It all started when poet extraordinaire Kwame Alexander invited me to speak at the 2006 Capital Bookfest. There, I met Karyn Langhorne, signing copies of her book Diary of an Ugly Duckling (hilarious and poignant; you should read it). I had lunch with her and her family after we’d done our bit at the Bookfest, and, as one tends to do at these things, promised we’d get together, as we were both local. Over the next few months, we’d exchanged autographed copies of each other’s books and corresponded via snail mail and e-mail. Nothing too eventful. So, imagine my surprise when, early this year, she asked if I’d like to join her in hosting something called The Book Squad, a show where we would, as the tagline says, “track down the hottest authors and bring them in for questioning.” Once we’d worked out the thorny details, I said yes.
I confess; my motives weren’t exactly pure...
To see the rest, go to Blogging in Black, where I now post on April 17th...
It all started when poet extraordinaire Kwame Alexander invited me to speak at the 2006 Capital Bookfest. There, I met Karyn Langhorne, signing copies of her book Diary of an Ugly Duckling (hilarious and poignant; you should read it). I had lunch with her and her family after we’d done our bit at the Bookfest, and, as one tends to do at these things, promised we’d get together, as we were both local. Over the next few months, we’d exchanged autographed copies of each other’s books and corresponded via snail mail and e-mail. Nothing too eventful. So, imagine my surprise when, early this year, she asked if I’d like to join her in hosting something called The Book Squad, a show where we would, as the tagline says, “track down the hottest authors and bring them in for questioning.” Once we’d worked out the thorny details, I said yes.
I confess; my motives weren’t exactly pure...
To see the rest, go to Blogging in Black, where I now post on April 17th...
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
April 3, 2007: My Brush With Greatness
Okay, so I'm, like a Dancing With the Stars freak! And when I'd heard that Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey was going to be one of the contestants this season, I almost crapped a brownie.
Here's why. I'd actually met Shandi at the Infinity Publishing Conference in October 2004, in Valley Forge, PA. I was a guest speaker, and she was there signing her book, The Furrtails, which Infinity published. The proceeds were going to help find a cure for muscular dystrophy, I believe. So, she was a nice lady.
Flash ahead to the present day and Shandi 2007. She got eliminated from Dancing With the Stars tonight... just about the time I remembered I'd had this snapshot somewhere:
Here's why. I'd actually met Shandi at the Infinity Publishing Conference in October 2004, in Valley Forge, PA. I was a guest speaker, and she was there signing her book, The Furrtails, which Infinity published. The proceeds were going to help find a cure for muscular dystrophy, I believe. So, she was a nice lady.
Flash ahead to the present day and Shandi 2007. She got eliminated from Dancing With the Stars tonight... just about the time I remembered I'd had this snapshot somewhere:
Yes, she's as tall in person as she looks on TV. I'm 5' 7", lying to myself and in two-inch heels, and she STILL could've set her drink on my head.
Speaking of drinks, some conference attendees were at the bar one night, just before the drunken karaoke (I'm not posting those pix!) when Shandi breezed in. The guy I was standing next to wasn't impressed. "Who's that, Miss USA?" he asked.
"Yeah," I answered.
He looked Shandi over and scoffed. "Too skinny for me," he commented.
I, a resigned endomorph, could've kissed him on the mouth. Pennsy boys, God bless 'em!
But alas, to the rest of the world, Shandi is the picture of perfection.
And, Miss Shandi, even though you didn't make it to the finals of Dancing With the Stars, something tells me that you're gonna be all right...
Monday, March 26, 2007
March 26, 2007: Come Join Me on MySpace
I'm such a late adopter when it comes to technology. For someone who touts podcasts of her show The Book Squad, I don't even own an iPod. EGAD!!!! I can just feel my cool points decreasing right now.
I think I learned my lesson with a super-buggy version of Windows 95, spending my hard-earned money to beta-test Bill Gates' crappy product. So now, I just lay back in the cut and let all those other early adopters beta test stuff for me and separate the chaff from the wheat.
Take MySpace. Like a lemming, I joined last year and hadn't been the most diligent person on the planet with it. But now I've seen how so many of my writer friends have these tricked out pages and are working it. So, I decided to give it another chance.
If you're on MySpace, hit me up here and be my friend:
http://www.myspace.com/wendycoakleythompson
No pressure, though. Don't want to be that friend...
I think I learned my lesson with a super-buggy version of Windows 95, spending my hard-earned money to beta-test Bill Gates' crappy product. So now, I just lay back in the cut and let all those other early adopters beta test stuff for me and separate the chaff from the wheat.
Take MySpace. Like a lemming, I joined last year and hadn't been the most diligent person on the planet with it. But now I've seen how so many of my writer friends have these tricked out pages and are working it. So, I decided to give it another chance.
If you're on MySpace, hit me up here and be my friend:
http://www.myspace.com/wendycoakleythompson
No pressure, though. Don't want to be that friend...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
March 25, 2007: Why I'm Thankful They've Buried Anna Nicole Smith
I mean, don't get me wrong. It's tragic when anyone dies, especially someone as young as Anna Nicole Smith. I was less than a year old when she was born, so when, on February 8, I'd heard she'd died at 39, I was like, 'There but for the grace of God..."
Then the invariable media circus began. Now you know I'm notoriously of Bahamian descent. I spent a good chunk of my life there. The bulk of my family lives there. So, I was quite distressed by saw unfold on TV over the weeks that followed after Anna Nicole's death. I'd heard that someone in Nassau had expresed this sentiment: Thank God she died in Florida, because if she'd died in the Bahamas, we never would've heard the end. I can't help thinking that that person was right. People still haven't gotten over what happen in Abaco with Aaliyah in 2001 -- despite the fact that it was a coked-up pilot and an overweighted plane that killed her, and not her geographic location. Anyhu, I digress...
When I heard Entertainment Tonight correspondent and media whore Mark Steines say during Anna Nicole's funeral that she'd put the Bahamas on the map, I wanted to do an Elvis and shoot the TV! Had Steines not been giving himself his own colonoscopy for a good number of years, he'd have realized that the Bahamas, extra of a suicide blonde looking for love in all the wrong places, has been known for quite sometime to explorers, tourists, bankers, and sportsfishermen -- and to us! -- for centuries. It was even the place to which famously Nazi-loving Edward and his divorcee wife Wallis Simpson retreated after he'd abdicated the throne. The Royals, embarrased by his behavior and by that nasty Nazi-sympathizing business, threw him a bone and made him the Governor General of the Bahamas.
This is not to say that some of my people didn't play a role in the world thinking them idioits. There was the cheering and booing of people entering the funeral and the courthouse as she was buried and as folks tried to decide what conga line into Anna Nicole's vagina could've produced her unfortunate, now motherless daughter. Then seeing the very dark Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shane Gibson, in bed with this aggressively white woman (i.e., Anna Nicole) made me cringe! I think in a previous blog entry, I'd mentioned that my agent, when pitching a story of mine, had been told that people don't know anything about "Jamaica." I wanted people to know more about a country that's only a forty-five-minute plane ride from Miami. But I sure didn't want them to come to know the Bahamas like this.
But the damage has already been done. I can only hope now that the rest of this drama -- the eviction of Howard K. Stern from a house that wasn't Anna's to begin with, the discovery of the Baby Daddy, etc. -- can be played out in a more dignified manner, in a manner that gets folks remembering that the Bahamas was the place of Christopher Columbus's first New World landfall on the island of San Salvador, not the place that Anna Nicole Smith used to wipe her ass with in the last days of her tragic life.
So, yes, I'm happy that Anna Nicole Smith has been laid to rest from a life that was rife with trouble and was way too short. But I'm also hoping that the ancestral home can get back to normal and recover from the klieg light of infamy that burned white hot on it for a moment in time.
Here's hoping...
Then the invariable media circus began. Now you know I'm notoriously of Bahamian descent. I spent a good chunk of my life there. The bulk of my family lives there. So, I was quite distressed by saw unfold on TV over the weeks that followed after Anna Nicole's death. I'd heard that someone in Nassau had expresed this sentiment: Thank God she died in Florida, because if she'd died in the Bahamas, we never would've heard the end. I can't help thinking that that person was right. People still haven't gotten over what happen in Abaco with Aaliyah in 2001 -- despite the fact that it was a coked-up pilot and an overweighted plane that killed her, and not her geographic location. Anyhu, I digress...
When I heard Entertainment Tonight correspondent and media whore Mark Steines say during Anna Nicole's funeral that she'd put the Bahamas on the map, I wanted to do an Elvis and shoot the TV! Had Steines not been giving himself his own colonoscopy for a good number of years, he'd have realized that the Bahamas, extra of a suicide blonde looking for love in all the wrong places, has been known for quite sometime to explorers, tourists, bankers, and sportsfishermen -- and to us! -- for centuries. It was even the place to which famously Nazi-loving Edward and his divorcee wife Wallis Simpson retreated after he'd abdicated the throne. The Royals, embarrased by his behavior and by that nasty Nazi-sympathizing business, threw him a bone and made him the Governor General of the Bahamas.
This is not to say that some of my people didn't play a role in the world thinking them idioits. There was the cheering and booing of people entering the funeral and the courthouse as she was buried and as folks tried to decide what conga line into Anna Nicole's vagina could've produced her unfortunate, now motherless daughter. Then seeing the very dark Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shane Gibson, in bed with this aggressively white woman (i.e., Anna Nicole) made me cringe! I think in a previous blog entry, I'd mentioned that my agent, when pitching a story of mine, had been told that people don't know anything about "Jamaica." I wanted people to know more about a country that's only a forty-five-minute plane ride from Miami. But I sure didn't want them to come to know the Bahamas like this.
But the damage has already been done. I can only hope now that the rest of this drama -- the eviction of Howard K. Stern from a house that wasn't Anna's to begin with, the discovery of the Baby Daddy, etc. -- can be played out in a more dignified manner, in a manner that gets folks remembering that the Bahamas was the place of Christopher Columbus's first New World landfall on the island of San Salvador, not the place that Anna Nicole Smith used to wipe her ass with in the last days of her tragic life.
So, yes, I'm happy that Anna Nicole Smith has been laid to rest from a life that was rife with trouble and was way too short. But I'm also hoping that the ancestral home can get back to normal and recover from the klieg light of infamy that burned white hot on it for a moment in time.
Here's hoping...
Monday, February 26, 2007
February 26, 2007: What Martin Scorsese and Three 6 Mafia Have in Common
Remember last year's Oscars, when host Jon Stewart, who was keeping score, announced that in the Oscar tally, Three 6 Mafia had one; Martin Scorsese had zero? Well, all that changed last night when Martin Scorsese received a long-deserved Oscar as Best Director for The Departed -- a movie I didn't see, but hey, that's what DVDs are for, right?
With the exception of Borat, I hadn't seen ANY of the movies nominated this year. I remember the days when my sister, Chrissie, and I would take a fistful of dollars and spend the entire day at the movies. Flash ahead ten years. With responsibilities of The Plantation, trying to find time to write, and my duties as co-host of The Book Squad, I hardly have time to clean my house (which is a mess) or play with my dog (who, God bless him, is patient with his owner).
I thought Ellen DeGeneres was hilarious! When she came out with that vacuum and started cleaning up, I thought my hour had come. I also did think all the right folks won (Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Al Gore, etc.). I thought that Eddie could've cancelled Christmas the moment that P.O.S. Norbit hit the screens. I was especially excited when Miss Jennifer Hudson got her Oscar. I could just hear her saying in her head, "F*ck you, Simon Cowell!" I want to have the year she's having. From discounted and down-and-out to Oscar winner. I wonder what the equivalent of that would be in the book world?
Now I'm bleary-eyed from a lack of sleep, because, typically, the shit ran over. They could've cut that crappy Road to the Oscars mess and started the show a half-hour earlier, so that those with us with jobs could still get our pop culture groove on and still been able to function on the J-O the next day.
Every year, I swear I won't be taken in by Awards season. Every year, I'm wrong. I think I keep watching, because it helps me keep my eye on my prize... and my focus squarely on my own dreams. There's no way I can look away from that!
Until next year...
With the exception of Borat, I hadn't seen ANY of the movies nominated this year. I remember the days when my sister, Chrissie, and I would take a fistful of dollars and spend the entire day at the movies. Flash ahead ten years. With responsibilities of The Plantation, trying to find time to write, and my duties as co-host of The Book Squad, I hardly have time to clean my house (which is a mess) or play with my dog (who, God bless him, is patient with his owner).
I thought Ellen DeGeneres was hilarious! When she came out with that vacuum and started cleaning up, I thought my hour had come. I also did think all the right folks won (Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Al Gore, etc.). I thought that Eddie could've cancelled Christmas the moment that P.O.S. Norbit hit the screens. I was especially excited when Miss Jennifer Hudson got her Oscar. I could just hear her saying in her head, "F*ck you, Simon Cowell!" I want to have the year she's having. From discounted and down-and-out to Oscar winner. I wonder what the equivalent of that would be in the book world?
Now I'm bleary-eyed from a lack of sleep, because, typically, the shit ran over. They could've cut that crappy Road to the Oscars mess and started the show a half-hour earlier, so that those with us with jobs could still get our pop culture groove on and still been able to function on the J-O the next day.
Every year, I swear I won't be taken in by Awards season. Every year, I'm wrong. I think I keep watching, because it helps me keep my eye on my prize... and my focus squarely on my own dreams. There's no way I can look away from that!
Until next year...
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
February 14, 2007: The Grinch Who Stole Valentine's Day
I hate Valentine’s Day.
I know it’s strange for someone who writes relationship fiction to feel this way. But I do hate Valentine’s Day. And I’m cool with that. Life is filled with many contradictions that run deeper than my personal feelings for a manufactured holiday.
I’m past being envious when I see happy couples strolling around. I’m past wanting to smash them in the face. As I got older, I realized that there was nothing wrong with me because I didn’t get an arm full of flowers and a box of heart-clogging candy on the one day of the year that Hallmark or whomever designated was the day for it. Flowers and candy on February 14th seem to mitigate a multitude of sins that occur on the other three-hundred-sixty-four days of the year. Hey, I’m sure even O.J. bought Nicole flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day.
To read the entire blog entry, go to the February 14th posting at Blogging In Black...
I know it’s strange for someone who writes relationship fiction to feel this way. But I do hate Valentine’s Day. And I’m cool with that. Life is filled with many contradictions that run deeper than my personal feelings for a manufactured holiday.
I’m past being envious when I see happy couples strolling around. I’m past wanting to smash them in the face. As I got older, I realized that there was nothing wrong with me because I didn’t get an arm full of flowers and a box of heart-clogging candy on the one day of the year that Hallmark or whomever designated was the day for it. Flowers and candy on February 14th seem to mitigate a multitude of sins that occur on the other three-hundred-sixty-four days of the year. Hey, I’m sure even O.J. bought Nicole flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day.
To read the entire blog entry, go to the February 14th posting at Blogging In Black...
Thursday, February 08, 2007
February 8, 2007: Don't Forget...
Listen to Karyn Langhorne and me on The Book Squad, tomorrow at noon, at www.wmet1160.com.
Our guest include poet Kwame Alexander, prolific romance author Karen Rose Smith, and Sherry Argov, author of Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart.
My kind of precursor to Valentine's Day.
Join us, won't you?
Monday, February 05, 2007
February 5, 2007: Trying to be the Queen of All Media!
Hey, folks.
One of my fellow bloggers on Blogging in Black spoke recently in her post about signs, about how she wondered whether Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith's historical SuperBowl first could be interpreted as a sign that we, as a people, would succeed this year.
I sure hope so. Because my good friend and fellow multi-culti author Karyn Langhorne presented me with a unique opportunity -- to host a radio show about books and publishing with her. I jumped at the chance. On Friday, February 2, Karyn and I hosted the inaugural broadcast of our radio show called The Book Squad on www.wmet1160.com.
In case you’re wondering, The Book Squad is a fast-paced, high impact hour in which Karyn and I interview authors and dish about trends within the publishing industry. There’s also the 12:15 pm segment on the show called "Buy it or Burn it." You can call in and give your own recommendations on what's hot and what's not. Our version of the radio deejays' Pump it or Dump it,' or 'Slam it or Jam it.'
That Friday, the mountains didn't crumble. The seas didn't roar. Nobody asked us to go to DisneyWorld. But we had the best time, dishing about books and Hollywood with Denise Nicholas, the author of Freshwater Road, a phenomenal book about a Black girl from Detroit going down to Mississippi to register voters during Freedom Summer. And we got people excited about talking about books -- I think.
So, I hope my fellow blogger is right, that, for Karyn and I, this is one of our Tony/Lovie moment. You can join us too, if you'd like. No pressure. We're on Fridays from 12 noon to 1 p.m. at www.wmet1160.com. You can also check out The Book Squad website and blog.
Come and join us.
P.S. Congrats to Tony Dungy and The Indianapolis Colts. Thanks for the inspiration!
One of my fellow bloggers on Blogging in Black spoke recently in her post about signs, about how she wondered whether Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith's historical SuperBowl first could be interpreted as a sign that we, as a people, would succeed this year.
I sure hope so. Because my good friend and fellow multi-culti author Karyn Langhorne presented me with a unique opportunity -- to host a radio show about books and publishing with her. I jumped at the chance. On Friday, February 2, Karyn and I hosted the inaugural broadcast of our radio show called The Book Squad on www.wmet1160.com.
In case you’re wondering, The Book Squad is a fast-paced, high impact hour in which Karyn and I interview authors and dish about trends within the publishing industry. There’s also the 12:15 pm segment on the show called "Buy it or Burn it." You can call in and give your own recommendations on what's hot and what's not. Our version of the radio deejays' Pump it or Dump it,' or 'Slam it or Jam it.'
That Friday, the mountains didn't crumble. The seas didn't roar. Nobody asked us to go to DisneyWorld. But we had the best time, dishing about books and Hollywood with Denise Nicholas, the author of Freshwater Road, a phenomenal book about a Black girl from Detroit going down to Mississippi to register voters during Freedom Summer. And we got people excited about talking about books -- I think.
So, I hope my fellow blogger is right, that, for Karyn and I, this is one of our Tony/Lovie moment. You can join us too, if you'd like. No pressure. We're on Fridays from 12 noon to 1 p.m. at www.wmet1160.com. You can also check out The Book Squad website and blog.
Come and join us.
P.S. Congrats to Tony Dungy and The Indianapolis Colts. Thanks for the inspiration!
February 5, 2007: Black History Month
Hello, all.
As you know, this is the month where America reflects on the achievements of its citizens of African descent. Even though I think this should happen year-round, having a month to raise consciousness is a good first step. I'm not going to be like Chris Rock as Nat X and complain that it's the shortest month of the year. I do believe the decision was made to honor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays fall in February to honor their impact on us as a people.
So, celebrate and be mindful. Hopefully, one day, our accomplishments will be seen as part of the tapestry of American History. Call me a cock-eyed optimist! :-)
As you know, this is the month where America reflects on the achievements of its citizens of African descent. Even though I think this should happen year-round, having a month to raise consciousness is a good first step. I'm not going to be like Chris Rock as Nat X and complain that it's the shortest month of the year. I do believe the decision was made to honor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays fall in February to honor their impact on us as a people.
So, celebrate and be mindful. Hopefully, one day, our accomplishments will be seen as part of the tapestry of American History. Call me a cock-eyed optimist! :-)
Friday, January 19, 2007
January 19, 2007: I'm a Fantastik Femme, Y'all!
I've been invited onto the 2007-2008 Femme Fantastik Tour, started by best-selling authors Lori Bryant-Woolridge (Hitts & Mrs.), Nina Foxx (Just Short of Crazy), and Carmen Green (What A Fool Believes).
They'll be on the tour, as well as Reshonda Tate-Billingsley (I Know I've Been Changed), Trisha Thomas (Nappily Ever After), and Yours Truly, aka, The Kid.
The tour visits military installations, in support of our brothers and sisters in uniform throughout the year. I come from an Air Force family, so I'm very excited about giving back in this fashion.
Watch this space for further tour details, like locations, dates, and times. Perhaps we'll be in your town sometime during the year.
More to follow...
They'll be on the tour, as well as Reshonda Tate-Billingsley (I Know I've Been Changed), Trisha Thomas (Nappily Ever After), and Yours Truly, aka, The Kid.
The tour visits military installations, in support of our brothers and sisters in uniform throughout the year. I come from an Air Force family, so I'm very excited about giving back in this fashion.
Watch this space for further tour details, like locations, dates, and times. Perhaps we'll be in your town sometime during the year.
More to follow...
Sunday, January 14, 2007
January 14, 2007: Do Dreams Have a Sell-By Date?
In 1988, when I was in my serious Anglophile phase and deep in the music of the new British Invasion, Julia Fordham, one of my favorite British singers, released a self-titled CD (For Six Degrees of Separation trivia buffs, a young Caron Wheeler sang backup on this CD before she blew up with Soul II Soul, who sang – you guessed it – Back to Life.). One of the hits from the Julia Fordham CD was Where Does the Time Go.
Flash ahead fourteen years. January 2002, in my thirty-sixth year on earth, I’d had it with being an intellectual sharecropper, tilling everybody’s field but my own and swore that by the time I was forty, I would be living my life as a writer. In the interim, I diligently pursued the dream, got a book deal, and published two decent-selling books. So, I asked myself, at 12:01 am, on December 27, 2006, when I officially entered my fourth decade, why was I still working for The Man instead of being able to support myself as a writer like I’d wanted?
To read the rest, check out my January 14th post at Blogging in Black (ain't I a tease?)...
Flash ahead fourteen years. January 2002, in my thirty-sixth year on earth, I’d had it with being an intellectual sharecropper, tilling everybody’s field but my own and swore that by the time I was forty, I would be living my life as a writer. In the interim, I diligently pursued the dream, got a book deal, and published two decent-selling books. So, I asked myself, at 12:01 am, on December 27, 2006, when I officially entered my fourth decade, why was I still working for The Man instead of being able to support myself as a writer like I’d wanted?
To read the rest, check out my January 14th post at Blogging in Black (ain't I a tease?)...
Monday, January 01, 2007
January 1, 2007: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, everybody!
Don't hate. I'm still languishing down in the Bahamas, enjoying a beautiful sunny day. Actually, I wish I were languishing. I've been working feverishly on my NaNoWriMo entry, polishing it up so that I may share it with you(se) later this year. Since the book is set in Nassau, I'm using my surroundings as food for The Muse.
Sadly, I return to frigid D.C. on Wednesday. So, I must get all of my Vitamin B (a.k.a., Bacardi) in in two days. Pray for me! :-)
All the best to you and yours for this new year.
More to follow...
Don't hate. I'm still languishing down in the Bahamas, enjoying a beautiful sunny day. Actually, I wish I were languishing. I've been working feverishly on my NaNoWriMo entry, polishing it up so that I may share it with you(se) later this year. Since the book is set in Nassau, I'm using my surroundings as food for The Muse.
Sadly, I return to frigid D.C. on Wednesday. So, I must get all of my Vitamin B (a.k.a., Bacardi) in in two days. Pray for me! :-)
All the best to you and yours for this new year.
More to follow...
Sunday, December 24, 2006
December 24, 2006: Happy Holidays to You From the Bahamas!
The announcement that I spend Christmas in the Bahamas is generally followed by a cavalcade of folks hatin' on a sistah. Yes, as I look out the window, I see palm trees swaying in a gentle breeze. I've traded in my winter coat for a deliciously brief --but not obscene -- sundress. Last night, I got re-acquainted with my friends Bacardi Anejo and Coke at a house party. So, on the surface, it seems like I've got it made in the shade.
However, I tell folks please, don't envy me. The holidays are the holidays. And you know what I mean. Small wonder that more Swedes tend to kill themselves during the holidays than at any other time throughout the year. Just one of those useless factoids you learn in college. Just how you go home to your folks and get grilled, trust me, the same thing happens to me. Only it's warmer here. My relatives still expect me to bring home "a nice boy" and give me "The Face" when I arrive empty-handed. I keep getting asked, "So Wendy, is this 'The Year.'" I know they don't mean The Year of Living Dangerously. Instinctively, I know they're asking if the new year is the year that I'd actually settle down. I'm getting it especially now that I turn forty in three days. Aunts tend to say, "Gyal, don't eat too much peas and rice. Man don't like woman who too fat." My mother tends to supervise the installation ofanything electronic that I bring home, not letting the fact that she is the least technical person on the planet to get in the way.
I say this to say that "The Family Coakley"and "The Family Thompson" is more or no less dysfunctional than The Family Stone, one of my recent favorite Christmas movies. The older I get, the more I come to love and appreciate my family's quirks and well-meaning comments. Because the truth of the matter is, I am unmarried. I do weigh more than I would like to. Invariably (as much as I hate to admit it sometimes), I do get something valuable out of my mother's seemingly endless critiques. And I'm sure if I died in the house, someone in my large-ass family would find me and mourn me. I don't really get that in America. America can be very big and sometimes rather impersonal for a single Black female.
So, as you guys make your way home for the holidays, believe me when I say that I know that, geography aside, your relatives are going to tax your patience. They're going to make you want to reach for that extra glass of hooch. But think, as I am now, of my friend Catherine, who lives in Denver, was in D.C. visiting, and, because of the blizzard, was only able to make it home yesterday. And love your family. Appreciate them. Because they're probably the only people with whom you can be your true, unguarded selves ... whether you want to be or not!
Merry Christmas. Happy Hanakkuh. Happy Kwanzaa. What ever you celebrate. Much love to you all.
However, I tell folks please, don't envy me. The holidays are the holidays. And you know what I mean. Small wonder that more Swedes tend to kill themselves during the holidays than at any other time throughout the year. Just one of those useless factoids you learn in college. Just how you go home to your folks and get grilled, trust me, the same thing happens to me. Only it's warmer here. My relatives still expect me to bring home "a nice boy" and give me "The Face" when I arrive empty-handed. I keep getting asked, "So Wendy, is this 'The Year.'" I know they don't mean The Year of Living Dangerously. Instinctively, I know they're asking if the new year is the year that I'd actually settle down. I'm getting it especially now that I turn forty in three days. Aunts tend to say, "Gyal, don't eat too much peas and rice. Man don't like woman who too fat." My mother tends to supervise the installation ofanything electronic that I bring home, not letting the fact that she is the least technical person on the planet to get in the way.
I say this to say that "The Family Coakley"and "The Family Thompson" is more or no less dysfunctional than The Family Stone, one of my recent favorite Christmas movies. The older I get, the more I come to love and appreciate my family's quirks and well-meaning comments. Because the truth of the matter is, I am unmarried. I do weigh more than I would like to. Invariably (as much as I hate to admit it sometimes), I do get something valuable out of my mother's seemingly endless critiques. And I'm sure if I died in the house, someone in my large-ass family would find me and mourn me. I don't really get that in America. America can be very big and sometimes rather impersonal for a single Black female.
So, as you guys make your way home for the holidays, believe me when I say that I know that, geography aside, your relatives are going to tax your patience. They're going to make you want to reach for that extra glass of hooch. But think, as I am now, of my friend Catherine, who lives in Denver, was in D.C. visiting, and, because of the blizzard, was only able to make it home yesterday. And love your family. Appreciate them. Because they're probably the only people with whom you can be your true, unguarded selves ... whether you want to be or not!
Merry Christmas. Happy Hanakkuh. Happy Kwanzaa. What ever you celebrate. Much love to you all.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
December 19, 2006: Film Rights to "What You Won't Do for Love" Optioned
Being born on December 27, I've always been sensitive about getting my birthday gifts, along with those for Christmas. But those days are over, folks! Just I just got the best Christmas-slash-fortieth-birthday present ever.
Rainy Friday Films, Inc. of Chicago has optioned the film rights to What You Won’t Do For Love, my second child! As they say in Publishers Marketplace and Publishers Lunch, I stuck “a nice deal” with Detra D. Thibodeaux, Rainy Friday Films' President and CEO, to make the book into a cable television movie. Child, God is good -- all the time.
To say that I'm ecstatic isn't the word. This whole experience is clearly a case of luck being when opportunity meets preparation. You all know I've been going through some seismic career shifts. Here are the facts. Kensington Books, my publisher at the time, had decided to not offer me another book deal. Additionally, though Book Expo America (BEA) was held in D.C., and I'm a local author, my publisher decided not to have me sign in the Author's Pavilion, which would've provided invaluable visibility. Nonetheless, I attended BEA at my expense and took in many of the interesting events that were going on throughout the conference. One such event was a rather interesting luncheon featuring TV anchor Lynn Sher, former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, and political pundits Arianna Huffington, Pat Buchanan, and Andrew Sullivan. It just so happened that I took the seat next to Ms. Thibodeaux at that luncheon. We got to talking, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I am very hopeful at this point in my life as a writer. I do pray to see Chaney and Devin come to life. I also believe that this is just the beginning. It just goes to show the veracity of something JadeAlex, one of the commenters on Blogging in Black offered in response to my posting this month:
Amen.
Rainy Friday Films, Inc. of Chicago has optioned the film rights to What You Won’t Do For Love, my second child! As they say in Publishers Marketplace and Publishers Lunch, I stuck “a nice deal” with Detra D. Thibodeaux, Rainy Friday Films' President and CEO, to make the book into a cable television movie. Child, God is good -- all the time.
To say that I'm ecstatic isn't the word. This whole experience is clearly a case of luck being when opportunity meets preparation. You all know I've been going through some seismic career shifts. Here are the facts. Kensington Books, my publisher at the time, had decided to not offer me another book deal. Additionally, though Book Expo America (BEA) was held in D.C., and I'm a local author, my publisher decided not to have me sign in the Author's Pavilion, which would've provided invaluable visibility. Nonetheless, I attended BEA at my expense and took in many of the interesting events that were going on throughout the conference. One such event was a rather interesting luncheon featuring TV anchor Lynn Sher, former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, and political pundits Arianna Huffington, Pat Buchanan, and Andrew Sullivan. It just so happened that I took the seat next to Ms. Thibodeaux at that luncheon. We got to talking, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I am very hopeful at this point in my life as a writer. I do pray to see Chaney and Devin come to life. I also believe that this is just the beginning. It just goes to show the veracity of something JadeAlex, one of the commenters on Blogging in Black offered in response to my posting this month:
We are formidable and persistent. Our future is bright. This is a great time to be a writer!
Amen.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
December 14, 2006: Black Unity, the Cultural Mulatto, and Jamaican Lite
Quite the interesting week we’ve had as a people! First of all, there was that Wall Street Journal article Dividing Lines: Why Book Industry Sees the World Split Still by Race, in which the author, Jeffrey A.Trachtenberg, raised the issue of whether or not the last bastion of racial segregation – bookshelves – would forever limit our earning potential as writers. I wasn’t even aware that we folks rated with the WSJ. Then, of course, there was John Ridley’s December Esquire magazine piece, The Manifesto of Ascendancy for the Modern American Nigger, that literally left me with my mouth hanging open in complete surprise. As I head to The Bahamas to spend the holidays with my family, I begin to extrapolate the themes raised in the two articles (i.e., stunted potential, black unity or the lack thereof, positive versus negative representations of us as a people, etc.) into my own life as a writer.
As you know, I’m famously of West Indian descent. I think it’s the law that you must be if you’re black and born in Brooklyn! My Bahamian parents moved to New York, had my sister and I, and, craving warmth, the beach, and possibly an endless supply of rum drinks, did the reverse migration thing and headed back to Nassau. Thus began my life as a cultural mulatto, straddling two worlds. When I moved back to the States – this time across the Hudson to Jersey – I was subject to some of the dumbest questions people could ask about a country that’s only a ninety-minute plane ride from Miami. Here’s a sample: “Do you wear grass skirts?” “You’ve actually been on a plane?” and my personal favorite, “Say something native.” Back in Nassau, I’d be accused of being too American, especially about how I “tawked” about my “dawg.” Nonetheless, as much as I do love America, the Bahamas is my ancestral home… the facilitator of my Muse. This is why multicultural characters predominate in my fiction. Unfortunately, this warrants me very little support from my fellow Bahamians.
You can read the rest at my December 14, 2006 posting at Blogging in Black.
As you know, I’m famously of West Indian descent. I think it’s the law that you must be if you’re black and born in Brooklyn! My Bahamian parents moved to New York, had my sister and I, and, craving warmth, the beach, and possibly an endless supply of rum drinks, did the reverse migration thing and headed back to Nassau. Thus began my life as a cultural mulatto, straddling two worlds. When I moved back to the States – this time across the Hudson to Jersey – I was subject to some of the dumbest questions people could ask about a country that’s only a ninety-minute plane ride from Miami. Here’s a sample: “Do you wear grass skirts?” “You’ve actually been on a plane?” and my personal favorite, “Say something native.” Back in Nassau, I’d be accused of being too American, especially about how I “tawked” about my “dawg.” Nonetheless, as much as I do love America, the Bahamas is my ancestral home… the facilitator of my Muse. This is why multicultural characters predominate in my fiction. Unfortunately, this warrants me very little support from my fellow Bahamians.
You can read the rest at my December 14, 2006 posting at Blogging in Black.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
December 5, 2006: What You Won't Do For Love in Mass Market Paperback TODAY!
Hey, y'all.
Just a shorty to kvell, which my Jewish friends tell me means to swell with pride. My second baby, What You Won't Do For Love, hits the stores today in mass market paperback. Sure, that cuts my royalties practically in half, but if all of you reading this go out and purchase a copy, then I'll be able to make the shortfall up in volume.
How's that for refreshingly honest? :-) Seriously, thanks for the love and support over the years. I sure do appreciate it.
More to follow...
Just a shorty to kvell, which my Jewish friends tell me means to swell with pride. My second baby, What You Won't Do For Love, hits the stores today in mass market paperback. Sure, that cuts my royalties practically in half, but if all of you reading this go out and purchase a copy, then I'll be able to make the shortfall up in volume.
How's that for refreshingly honest? :-) Seriously, thanks for the love and support over the years. I sure do appreciate it.
More to follow...
Friday, December 01, 2006
December 1, 2006: NaNoWriMo - I WON!
Hey, my peoples!
I've resurfaced, after having much of the month of November on lock down, trying to finish my NaNoWriMo novel.
It was hard as all get out, and I'm sick as a dawg (a cold), but I did it. I hit 50,000 words about ten days before the end of the competition. I could've uploaded the novel and gotten credit for having written the 50 grand, but I wanted to finish. I started to get scared, though, that something would happen (just 'cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you), with computer crashes, cable service outtages, etc. So, on November 27, I uploaded the novel to the National Novel Writing Month website and won with a total of 73,652 words.
I was stoked, but for me the goal was not just to write 50,000, but to finish. Finish, I did on November 29 at 9:07 pm. I was hacking, and sneezing, and unable to breathe properly, but I did it!
I am very pleased with myself ("No shit!" I can hear you say). To finish a novel of that size in a month was just crazy! I was telling my friend, author Karyn Langhorne, who also won the competition, I have no excuse now to not get peddle to the metal and bring all of those ideas that I have to fruition.
My only regret is that I couldn't have fulfilled my promise to blog every day. If I was serious about my promise to eat a bug if I hadn't blogged daily, I guess I'd be having an interesting dinner this evening. But I figured, one challenge at a time. And finishing the novel was the more serious one. I'm off the hook. No mucking stables, or cleaing kitty litter boxes, or dog sitting, or watching small children.
Thank you, Lord! For everything...
I've resurfaced, after having much of the month of November on lock down, trying to finish my NaNoWriMo novel.
It was hard as all get out, and I'm sick as a dawg (a cold), but I did it. I hit 50,000 words about ten days before the end of the competition. I could've uploaded the novel and gotten credit for having written the 50 grand, but I wanted to finish. I started to get scared, though, that something would happen (just 'cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you), with computer crashes, cable service outtages, etc. So, on November 27, I uploaded the novel to the National Novel Writing Month website and won with a total of 73,652 words.
I was stoked, but for me the goal was not just to write 50,000, but to finish. Finish, I did on November 29 at 9:07 pm. I was hacking, and sneezing, and unable to breathe properly, but I did it!
I am very pleased with myself ("No shit!" I can hear you say). To finish a novel of that size in a month was just crazy! I was telling my friend, author Karyn Langhorne, who also won the competition, I have no excuse now to not get peddle to the metal and bring all of those ideas that I have to fruition.
My only regret is that I couldn't have fulfilled my promise to blog every day. If I was serious about my promise to eat a bug if I hadn't blogged daily, I guess I'd be having an interesting dinner this evening. But I figured, one challenge at a time. And finishing the novel was the more serious one. I'm off the hook. No mucking stables, or cleaing kitty litter boxes, or dog sitting, or watching small children.
Thank you, Lord! For everything...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
November 15, 2006: NaNoWriMo - Day 15
This is the beginning of Week 3 of NaNoWri, and I have to ask myself, like the British singer Julia Fordham: Where does the time go? Next week will be Thanksgiving, and the following week, I -- hopefully -- will have a 50,000 word novel.
I'm well on the way. I have written 36,051 words. That means I only have 13,949 more words until I reach my goal. My fear is that there's more story than words I need to reach the deadline. But I'll worry about that later.
I'm soldiering on.
Wish me luck...
I'm well on the way. I have written 36,051 words. That means I only have 13,949 more words until I reach my goal. My fear is that there's more story than words I need to reach the deadline. But I'll worry about that later.
I'm soldiering on.
Wish me luck...
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