Writer Wednesday: An Evening with Toni Morrison

I still LOVE President Obama!!

President Obama is the United States President. That means he has to look out for ALL Americans not just African Americans because he happens to be African American. Do you want him to only address the problems in AA community? Do you want him to address the problems in ALL communities? He has to help everyone not just a special population. I am tired of all these "so called scholars" talking about he is not doing enough for AA? What are you doing? What are they doing to help themselves? Who is he doing enough for? Did you think 8 years of disaster can be cleaned up in 4 years? He is doing the best he can with the hand he was dealt!!

Can you answer my questions?

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

Why Can't Literary Fiction Sell a Million in a Week Like Lil Wayne?

Bernice L. McFadden is a literary fiction author of many novels. However, the first book I read by her was Glorious . Shame on me! I know. The book changed my life. This woman is a master story teller. I locked myself in my room and read the book in hours. Not because it was so easy that a 4th grader could do it. But because I was totally engaged and held captive by her writing style and the story's plot. The main character, Easter is a fictionalized character parallel to the literary genius Zora Neale Hurston. After reading that book, I have been on a mission to read everything Ms. Bernice has written. EVERYTHING!! She has become one of my favorite authors.

Now, if you follow me on twitter you know leading up to Lil Wayne's release of Da Carter 4, I tweeted for months and on the day of I tweeted all day about the CD. I also told everyone I came in contact with about the CD. I even had a Lil Wayne Party. Got a T-shirt. Fan? Yes, I am. Well, I plan to support  the new release of Ms. Bernice L. McFadden's new book, Gathering of Waters , like I did for Da Carter 4. Gathering of Waters will be released on January 31, 2012. It is available for pre-order NOW on AMAZON.

Do you want writers to disappear? Let me rephrase. Do you want GOOD writers to disappear? NO! WE DON'T! So, we as readers need to take a STAND for writers. They have to eat good just like rappers and singers. I am in full support of this novel. I know and stand firmly on my security that this book will be also a MASTERPIECE!!

Before I tell you about the book, I want to know: Why can't literary fiction sell 1 million in a week like Lil Wayne? Thoughts? Will we rush to the stores in mass numbers to purchase books, especially literary fiction?

I know, I was at Best Buy before it opened to buy Da Carter 4. But, I do the same for books that I am expecting or I pre-order them. Do you? Will you?
Here is a little about the book:

GATHERING OF WATERS is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.

TASS HILSON AND EMMETT TILL were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.FORTY YEARS LATER, AFTER THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River.

The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion. GATHERING OF WATERS mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

"In her new novel, Gathering of Waters, Bernice McFadden brings her own special vision to the unfortunate story of Emmett Till and his murder in Money, Mississippi. This moving and magical novel, which traces the generations leading up to and away from that horrible night in 1955, drew me in immediately and swept me along through its richly imagined world. I couldn't stop reading, caught up as I was in that enticing place between truth and fantasy, the here-and-now and the what-was, the living and the dead, the ugliness and the beauty, the hatred and the love. What a rich chorus of voices Bernice McFadden has fashioned from this place called Money."--Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever

You may be aware that recently Emmett Till has been brought back to the forefront of the American consciousness with the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. In addition, a marker was placed on the Mississippi Freedom Trail in memory of Emmett Till and Emmett Till's casket was put on public display at the Smithsonian.
OH & THERE IS MORE!!
This book, also by Ms. Bernice will be reissued, The Warmest December (with forward by James Frey of A Million Little Pieces)
"Now and then I forget things.... One day last week I forgot that I hated my father... " McFadden's graphic, poignant second novel charts the resonating legacy that alcoholic parents pass on to their children through the cycle of addiction and domestic violence. Narrator Kenzie Lowe, an African-American woman in her 30s on welfare, has used alcohol to repress the memories of abuse she suffered growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, caught in the physical and emotional grip of her whiskey-swilling father, Hyman Lowe. Seamless transitions between Kenzie's past and her present life anchored by AA sessions imbue this difficult tale with dramatic suspense. Its cathartic message of forgiveness and recovery will elicit tears.

"Riveting. . . . So nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes."— Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate author of Beloved


Gathering of Waters and The Warmest December will be released in USA, Canada and the UK on January 31st, 2012.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE GREAT WRITERS.

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

Why is Carleen Brice Going to the ebook?

I read Carleen Brice's first novel, Orange Mint & Honey . This book was a very good read. I usually give the author a 30 page trial. If I can feel engaged in 30 pages, I'm in 'till the end. It caught my attention within the first few pages.

ORANGE MINT & HONEY by Carleen Brice:

Raised by an alcoholic, Shay finds it hard to forgive her mother’s past neglect but that is exactly what her mother is asking–forgiveness. Shay returns to find her mother has made a transformation. Nona is now an employed homeowner replete with Martha Stewart living, a healthy lifestyle and a flower and herb garden. She is also the mother of another daughter, five-year old Sunshine. Shay watches as her mother is the epitome of motherhood as she dotes on Sunshine, something that was lacking when Shay was a child.

Want to know what happens next?

I'm sure you do. There is a sequel. Check it out!!

Why did Carleen choose to publish her next novel as an ebook?

Read on.

You don't need me to tell you that the ground is shifting under writers' feet. You can feel it yourself. So I'll leave off the primer about how publishing is changing due to technology and the economy and who knows what else.

I do want to point out, however, that while the changes can be scary or confusing, there's also plenty of exciting things going on in publishing now. Developments that present big opportunities for writers. One of them is the growth in ebook sales.

My first two novels were bought in a two-book deal and published by One World/Ballantine, an imprint of Random House. My first novel Orange Mint and Honey did well--won awards, got made into a TV movie and had respectable sales. My second novel Children of the Waters suffered from the sophomore novel jinx. I don't know what happened, but it didn't find its readers. Was it the cover? The lousy review PW gave it? (I must note that it got plenty of good reviews) Bad timing? Bad luck? Who knows?

Either way, Random House and I had a parting of the ways. I was already working on another novel and had an editor at a different house ready to buy it based on reading an excerpt and proposal. Then she had a parting of the ways with that house (as did my former editor at RH). Rather than go out to other houses with a proposal, I decided to finish the book first. So I've been writing it (am hoping to ship it off to my agent in the next month or 2).

In the meantime, readers were asking me for a sequel to Orange Mint and Honey. I figured with an ebook I could write it and get it to loyal fans quickly and inexpensively. So I wrote a bunch of it--about half--and a really detailed 35-page single spaced outline.


That's where I was in the process when Victoria Christopher Murray invited me to participate in her new online publishing venture called A Chapter a Month. Victoria is a New York Times bestselling author with a heckuva mailing list and promotional machine. That sounded great. On top of that, she's giving authors a very fair share of royalties, and she sends royalty statements monthly. That's right: monthly.

I talked to my agent about it and she called the model "brilliant." That was enough for me. So now I'm in the ebook business. The first chapter of IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING, the sequel to ORANGE MINT AND HONEY is now exclusively available at A Chapter a Month for .99. I hope you'll check it out. (Click here to buy.)

One of the benefits of the shifting ground is that the book biz isn't so either/or anymore. These days the same author might e-pub, self-pub a paperback, and traditionally pub, depending upon the type of books she's writing and the goals she has for them. This makes me optimistic. And so does the belief that no matter how the medium of delivery changes, people will always be interested in stories. After all, we've been telling one another stories since the beginning of time.

I'm curious--how many other SheWriters are publishing ebooks? How's it going? What tips do you have for someone like me who's an ebook newbie?

What do you think? Will you buy? Will you read?

Something GOOD!!

Good books keep READING. Good reading keeps me COMING Back. First off, I read some wonderful books over the summer break. I took a break from the mystery/thriller world and read some literary fiction. Here is a run down:

SUGAR by Bernice L. McFadden: 

In language that is by turns lyrical and stark, and with a cadence that invokes the rhythm of the storytelling to which she grew up listening, Bernice L. McFadden brings vividly to life a 1950s Southern black town. Sugar, her first novel, is a powerful exploration of the sometimes unrelenting depths of grief and despair, the seeds of hope that can grow in even the bleakest of circumstances, and the role that love and friendship can play in helping us find redemption within ourselves.

I do not know where I have been. This book was a GREAT read. I fell in love with SUGAR LACEY as I read this page turner. The only reason I did not finish this book in hours was because I have to go to work. But it could have easily been done. McFadden kept me wanting more and more. She fed my soul with her beautiful storytelling abilities.

THIS BITTER EARTH  by Bernice L. McFadden:

The sequel to SUGAR. Born out of wedlock and raised by Sara and May, two sisters who run a brothel in small-town Arkansas, Sugar returns one freezing winter night nearly dead, her belly sliced open. The stalwart sisters stitch her up without asking too many questions, but Sara, troubled by conscience, finally reveals what she knows about Sugar’s parents. Bertie Mae Brown was a shy young woman in love with Joe Taylor, an itinerant railroad worker. Their love triggered inexplicable jealousy in Shonuff Clayton, a handsome, dangerously unstable man who also happened to be Sara’s lover. What Sara doesn’t reveal: She was the one who collected a few strands of Bertie’s beautiful hair and Joe’s sweaty handkerchief for Shonuff, who then paid an obeah woman to put a curse on Bertie and Joe and all their descendants. Bertie gave birth to Sugar after Joe moved away and married Pearl Taylor. But Joe couldn’t escape the curse: his daughter Jude was murdered.

After reading SUGAR, I was determined to find out Sugar's fate. This book provided the examinations of Sugar's live. He faith that she developed in herself and the warming caring family she always wanted.

WENCH by Dolen Perkins-Valdez:

Each year, Lizzie travels with Drayle to a resort in Ohio for the summer, spending her time catching up with her friends Sweet, Reenie and Mawu.  However, this isn’t an ordinary vacation – all four of these women are slaves, but also mistresses to their masters.  In Wench the reader learns about the plights of these women, their fears and doubts, but also their hopes and dreams of freedom.

I found this book NYT Bestseller very interesting. It shared the link between history and fiction. It was well-written and entertaining. I found it very interesting that Reenie actually felt love for her master and did not want to run away from the resort. This book shows the psychological issues of slavery.

ORANGE MINT & HONEY by Carleen Brice:

Raised by an alcoholic, Shay finds it hard to forgive her mother’s past neglect but that is exactly what her mother is asking–forgiveness. Shay returns to find her mother has made a transformation. Nona is now an employed homeowner replete with Martha Stewart living, a healthy lifestyle and a flower and herb garden. She is also the mother of another daughter, five-year old Sunshine. Shay watches as her mother is the epitome of motherhood as she dotes on Sunshine, something that was lacking when Shay was a child.

This book was a GOOD read. I couldn't wait to see when and where Shay would really tell Nona how she felt. And guess what? She did  it at a church. Really? Yes! I guess when "your heart gets heavy" you have to "let go." This book was made into a LMN movie, Sins of the Mother. This story tells of a young woman who finds herself while finding her new-changed mother. God can change anybody, that's what I think about when I describe this book. Forgiveness is a very important theme in this book. Will Shay forgive Nona? Read it yourself!

The MOVIE!!

I ask that you support these authors and other African American authors. Keep them writing.

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

 

Dear Lil Wayne, 'show me' How To Love - Lil Wayne (Tha Carter IV)

This is my song! Waiting on the Tha Carter IV! This man never fails me with his music. I love this song & he is singing his heart out.

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye to Oprah Winfrey by Jimmy Kimmel and Boyz II...

Bye to the Oprah Winfrey Show & Hello to the Oprah Winfrey Network!!!!

Always Love Oprah,

B. LaShera GLAZE

Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg

This should be interesting!

The book that made me LOVE Toni Morrison

When I read this, I knew I loved Ms. Morrison!

Song of the Summer:Kelly Rowland - Motivation ft. Lil Wayne

Independent Bookstores

Hey World!

Independent Bookstores (Independent anything) needs your help. I found from this http://ow.ly/4Xime that there are independent bookstores in my area. You can too!

There are two in my area:

Capital Book & News Company
1140 East Fairview Avenue
Montgomery, Alabama 36106-2109
(334) 265-1473

http://www.capitolbook.com/

The Book Cellar
7939 Vaughn Rd
Montgomery, Alabama 36116
334-356-5879
http://www.bookcellaronline.net/

Try them out. Indies support local authors when Big Chains ignore them because they are unknown.
There are some in your area. Why not check?

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

What's up this summer?

Summer is coming. What am I doing? I am praying to take some trips with friends. Taking two grad classes. Spending time with my BABY. Reading. Writing. and Thank God I am Working.

Keep the blessings coming God.

As I reflect, this time last year I was working a job that I hated. I wasn't making much. I was stressed and my hair does what it always does when I'm under stress-come out.

Now, I am blessed to be doing better and to be still working and working a job that I don't mind going to. A cute hair cut. And I'm happy and so very blessed. I have my health & strength. I also have my mind. I have my family & friends who love me very much. Love them too!

I am blessed to be able to pay my bills on time and not beg and borrow(as Mother would say). All my praises go to JESUS.

I hope eveyone's life is rich & productive. Keep the faith. We are all in this together!!!!

Can you tell that I am Happy and Blessed!? 

One day all will know my name,

B. LaShera Glaze

Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family & The Mo'nique Show

Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE & SUPPORT Tyler Perry. I respect his struggle and support his art. Plus, I love Madea! This pistol popping Woman is a force to be reckoned with! I enjoy the family issues and the messages in his plays and movies. He is the true definition of success. No matter your situation or your background, YOU TOO can make it.

I also watched him on The Mo'nique Show last night. He is very intelligent and speaks with such grace and confidence. He talked about Spike Lee and how much he can learn from him. They can learn from each other. Tyler respects Spike and wants nothing more than to end the conflict and work on future projects. He also said that we as a Black race are the only ones that bring our own race down. We have to do better because other races are looking at us. This is a A Good Way to take a STAND, Mr. Perry!

Go see & support Tyler Perry's movie. He has done a lot for the community and has helped many African Americans in HOLLYWOOD.

Synopsis:
Madea, everyone's favorite wise-cracking, take-no-prisoners grandma, jumps into action when her niece, Shirley, receives distressing news about her health. All Shirley wants is to gather her three adult children around her and share the news as a family. But Tammy, Kimberly and Byron are too distracted by their own problems: Tammy can't manage her unruly children or her broken marriage; Kimberly is gripped with anger and takes it out on her husband; and Byron, after spending two years in jail, is under pressure to deal drugs again. It's up to Madea, with the help of the equally rambunctious Aunt Bam, to gather the clan together and make things right the only way she knows how: with a lot of tough love, laughter...and the revelation of a long-buried family secret.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/madeasbighappyfamily/

Lastly, let's support OUR girl Mo'nique (http://www.bet.com/shows/the-monique-show.html) . She did an great and entertaining interview with Tyler Perry. Every night she makes MAGIC!

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

Bernice L. McFadden in Atlanta, GA

Dear Friends,

On Saturday April 16th at 1:45- 3 p.m., Bestselling author Bernice L. McFadden will discuss her journey as a writer and those authors who influenced her .

The meeting location:
Atlanta Writers Club meeting
Georgia Perimeter College - Dunwoody campus
2101 Womack Road
Dunwoody, GA 30338
Building NC, Room 1100 Auditorium

After the meeting, there will be a book signing at Eagle Eye Bookshop:

http://www.eagleeyebooks.com/index.html

Following a book signing at Eagle Eye Bookshop, Bernice McFadden will have dinner with a group of AWC members at Athens Pizza across from Eagle Eye at 6:30 p.m.

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

Happy Diva Day Aretha- My favorite song: Respect

Sapphire, author of Push, is back! The Kid (JULY 5th)

The Kid follows the son of Claireece "Precious" Jones, the sexually abused, illiterate heroine of Push. This coming-of-age story focuses on Claireece's son as he navigates the mean streets of New York City that threatened to swallow his mother whole. While Push ended with Claireece finding out she was HIV-positive, her son doesn't have the disease. What he does have, however, is the soul of an artist, which he hopes will keep him alive. http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/sapphire-to-publish-push-sequel-the-kid.php

This book will be released on July 5, 2011. You can pre-order is NOW on AMAZON http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Sapphire/dp/1594203040 .

True Destination: Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden

True Destination: Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden: "This has been a long time coming. After reading this book so many months ago, I thought about what I wanted to say about this MASTERPIECE. I..."

Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden

This has been a long time coming. After reading this book so many months ago, I thought about what I wanted to say about this MASTERPIECE. I have read the reviews and agreed with each one. I have read TONS of books but there are only two books(literary fiction) prior to reading this that I became so captivated by the writing style & the characters that I read the book in hours. The books are The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Push by Sapphire, and now Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden. 

I have also read many "Bestsellers" and thought to myself, Is this what sold millions in the first days of publication?   Ms. McFadden truly deserves more praise than she receives.

Glorious  is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden's rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.

Here are a few passages from this amazing book:

"Girl, every place the same as here,they just go by different names. Anyway, I'd rather stay here and deal with devil I already know." (32)

"When she caught Easter staring,which was often, she would snort, "This here my cat, I got a right to pet it." (40)

"There was entirely too much pussy under one roof and she didn't want to dangle additional temptation in front of her husband." (72-73)

If I 'low that, the rest of these girls up here will feel they could do the same thing, you hearing me?" (76)

"And the fact that her babies were conceived in her mind and not her womb did not make any less alive, any less beautiful, any less loved, or any less glorious." (101)

You can find out more about this author and all of her books on her website http://www.bernicemcfadden.com/.

Support her because she is truly a valid asset to the LITERARY WORLD!

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE

Worthy Writer

A writer's work that is worth checking out! Joseph Cook @No_Dreams_Told (twitter name)  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/jcook41787

Joseph Cook's Books and Publications Spotlight

www.lulu.com

"I only write in hopes that someone is inspired from my works. I just want to live by way of my craft, my baby. For my poems are of me as if I birthed them myself, and I just want to be a better provider/father/writer. Thank you for your interest." Joseph Cook

From his work Heartbreak. Rebirth. Evolution:

"You see, he placed my heart where my mind should be."
B's review: I like that fact that you feel that your heart controls your actions and thoughts. Your heart can lead you to any place that may feel save, but is it? That's when your mind should come in, but you are thinking with your heart.......Your own voice, your own power!

Everyone please share in this wonderful poetry experience with Joseph Cook!

Always,

B. LaShera GLAZE