Category: General Topics

Interracial Blog Feature – Update

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So just a quick update. I have not yet set a date for this feature because I’m still organizing the interviews. I will schedule them when I’m done and post that schedule here before months end. I have decided to host this feature this October time permitting. There is still room for possibly one more slot for anyone who is interested. The idea was sparked from the release of my new book, “Beyond The Colored Line”.

Click Here for the original post to understand what this feature’s all about.

Thanks so much for your time and yall be great.

 

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(So… this isn’t about me but since were talking about loovvee, I just thought I’d mention it….guess who got roses yesterday? That’s right, your looking at her)

Use What You Got

To enhance productivity…

shutterstock_87396893From the moment the sun drifts away into its secret chamber, until the moment it rises again, fresh from having used the night to rejuvenate the energy it now pours into our window sills, every day is new. And with newness comes an opportunity to start fresh. Opportunities to revise, reflect, and enhance. Opportunities to grow. What great possibilities await us for tomorrow? What possibilities are there today? Every day ain’t beautiful, but everyday can be productive. What I’ve come to learn is to take advantage of what I understand and use that toward improving on my day, my business, or even my personal endeavors. We spend so much time looking out, that we forget to look in. Often, when you hide something in plain sight, it becomes amazingly difficult to find, and I suppose the same is true for our individual lives. Many of you possess talents that you could use toward the enhancement of your writing or of your books. Take Book Trailers for instance. With the exception of some major movie production, I would never pay for a Book Trailer. Not because I do not think they are worth it. A book trailer can help push someone off the edge where the cover just did not work for them. But I will never pay for one because I make my own videos. I am familiar with computer software that could assist me in being creative in that aspect. In this way, I am using what I got to enhance productivity and that also saves me money. I can take this skill and apply it to so many different aspects of my life. From blogging to lessons, to book trailers to movies, whatever it is that requires this need.  For a moment, think about what you can do that will help improve your day by looking into what you already know how to do. Increase productivity by learning to tap into skills you already possess.  You’ll be surprised.

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(OK so, I just realized that this post was just one long drawn out definition of what it means to be creative. Interesting.).

Upgrade Your Value

 

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Sometimes we base our self-worth on what we see; what him and her and they perceive to be important. Played against the heartstrings of others, the media is direction to our chorus. Splattered images of what success looks like echoes off the tops of dreams we conjure under the blankets of perception. We reminisce on fantasy like the touched up portraits of celebrities. It is the pride of a man serving seven years in the military. His Purple Heart medallion waves and smiles at passerby’s before he does. We know not what beats inside his chest, just the striking forest green of his uniform. It shines like it does on the TV and in the magazines, and our jaws drop with awe. This is a man who could not have received more awards. Could not have been a better example of an outstanding citizen. But when the uniform comes off, and the glory of sacrifice cripples away into the concrete; when the intoxicating fragrance echoes off the numbing high of a man now staggering to the next corner. When the alcohol melts this Purple Heart against the insides of his soul like skin clung to flesh, what is left of the perception now upon him? What of this hero turned homeless Veteran? Does his value weaken like the washed up fade of an army uniform? Or is he now nothing more than another brother worthy of our disrespect?

Today, I encourage you to upgrade your value. Be not limited to the rotting fabric of tangible things. Be not awed by the signs of achievement and circumstance. Hurry not to praise people only when they have accomplished something society thinks is worthy of your respect. Judge instead the content of a person’s character. Judge their resolve, their kindness, and their warmth. For these, if truly possessed by them, will never rot away.

Must Reads

I think I’m gonna start incorporating more book recommendations to this blog. I want to build a neat bookshelf but I’m not sure if there’s much room in here. I’ll have to move the furniture around, don’t want it to get all crowded and whatnot. So anywho, every now and again I’ll recommend a book I think will provide a thought provoking jolt if you will, to our daily lives. Most of them will, naturally, come from my very own book shelf.

Today’s Must Read is:

Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by Lerone Bennett JR.

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“Before the Mayflower” traces black history from its origins in western Africa, through the transatlantic journey that ended in slavery, the Reconstruction period, the Jim Crow era, and the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in an exploration of the complex realities of African-American life in the 1990s. Here is the most recent scholarship on the geographic, social, ethnic, economic, and cultural journey of “the other Americans, ” together with vital portraits of black pioneers and seminal figures in the struggle for freedom, as well as additional material on historical developments in the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years.”
Find it on Amazon

New Facebook Page

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Hey guys,

I have set up a new Facebook page to help navigate you to my Author Website. I would like to fill my PBS Blog timeline with more blog material to be on accord with this blog instead of using it for everything.

For this reason you can stay in touch with my publishing projects through it’s own page.

Your support is most appreciated and a widget will go up tonight when I return from errands with the hubby.

 

Like Literary Korner Publishing by following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/literarykornerpublishing

 

Thanks a million! 🙂

The Clouds Outshine the Sun Today

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The clouds outshine the sun today. They have somehow managed to rise from their floating thrones and to share their crown with us. There’s a splash of brightness in the air, but I am convinced it is not the sun; it is the clouds. And as the day looms with the kind of gloominess that gives off fatigue, I cannot help but wonder how many of us search ourselves in the  shadows. In places where we are left with the ambiguity of image, and grow like a silhouette of flesh. Sometimes writing is gloomy like these clouds, light enough to swing suspended in the air but with rain drops too heavy to see. Illuminated, and yet barely understood. But the clouds outshine the sun today and inspiring writers  have managed to reach the ground and nourish souls with their words. Writers, who emerge from behind obscurities like clouds, have come down from heaven to purify the air and make footstools of the soil, that their readers may eat.

Thank You

Good Morning beautiful people…

I want to take this time to thank those of you who volunteered to review Beyond The Colored Line. I am just getting back in town so I ask your patience as I catch up to my emails. I am still allowing room for more reviewers for those who are still interested. Email me at ahouseofpoetry@gmail.com for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As stated this is a short story so it won’t take up too much of your time. Thanks again.