Tag: #MondayBlogs

Stop Being So Negative

Dear Bloggers,

You can learn a lot just by how people interact with you. You can discern if they are bitter people, upbeat people or extremely self-conscious. Believe it or not, this does not change when it comes to online writing / relationships. If every time you respond to others its in a way that is heavy, the spirit of negativity will emit from your pores faster than you can cover it up with a smiling emoji.

We all have experiences we’ve had to endure in this world and that we do endure and the abuse covers all angles. However, it is no reason to be lacking in compassion or rather consideration for the feelings of others. That said, stop being so negative in your interactions. By negative I do not mean standing firm on your opinions or just being open and honest. This isn’t about what you write on your blog; its your blog and I won’t tell you how to run your blog. I’m speaking more so along the lines of responding in general to those around you. We all have not so good days, but if every time I see your interactions you have this negative vibe then I’m just going to take you for a negative person. This, I might add, is a key destroyer of relationships. No one wants to be around people who are constantly complaining or speaking ill about everything let alone befriend them. Is there reason bitterness comes out of your mouth when you open it? Please, do not feed this to me. So I’m saying this not from a personal encounter or anything but just as a reminder that we should be more conscious of the things we say sometimes because energy invested comes back. You can at least be happy about waking up this morning.

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Now, I’m off to the kitchen. Raisin Brand Crunch is calling my name…

Writing 101: Assignment #11 – Update Your Readers – If We Were Having Coffee Right Now

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If we were having coffee right now…I would not take you to Starbucks. Or dunkin donuts. I would instead invite you to my home where our voices would carry from the kitchen table to the living room sofa, where there are no TVs for a reason (you’d have to go in the TV room for that). And after coasting our mugs and dimming the lamp, which we don’t need much of because of the morning sun, I would bring my legs in and dig into the sofa. I’d probably grab the couch pillow and here we would begin.

If we were having coffee right now… I would ask you if you like the way I redecorated the blog. I don’t usually experiment with themes too much but I wanted to move the furniture to the right side of the room and make my pages more visible. I fell in love with this really cute peach and white button theme. If you’re a guy I would ask you why you just rolled your eyes.

If we were having coffee right now…I would ask you about your favorite post and if my quantity of posts annoys you. I think we’ll laugh about this for a while until you begin to annoy me and I change the subject. “What’s your favorite kind of posts? Poetry? Quotes? Short stories?” Speaking of poetry I really miss the Open Mic. I would like to go back to the stage sometime in the near future. You’re welcomed to come see me perform.

If we were having coffee right now…I would tell you how excited I am for my end of the year road trip. I’ll be visiting a mom of mine in Roswell New Mexico, a place I’ve never been. I will tell you that we’re planning a sleepover and that I’m very excited. I’ll probably start smiling really big because going to see mom means I have an excuse to be a kid again. You would probably smile before rolling your eyes because I am now reaching for the photo album. This could go on forever.

If we were having coffee right now… I would tell you about the 3rd Installment of my short story trilogy called Stella, which releases in February. I would take you back down memory lane, passed the cotton fields of the first Stella and beyond the colored line of her granddaughter the second Stella and smack down in the middle of the road where we look at the life of Joseph McNair, Stella’s son. (Please see the home page to see what this book is about). I’m excited  to get my book over to the editor before I conduct my final proofread. I’m still trying to decide on a venue for the release party and book signing. Speaking of book signing, I intentionally decided to wait until after I finished the series to have one for Stella.  So I’m looking to do an event where I can discuss all the books. I’m really behind far as planning goes but I hope to have more event details prepared by next month. I’m also planning to attend the Black History Month Parade in Atlanta in February. So now I’m not sure if I want to release it there or here at home. In any event, I have to finish counting up the cost so I can start my fundraiser. I am also still working on my business plan. Time permitting I can get that finished by next year as well so I can get the ball rolling on looking into some grants.  We’ll see where that goes.

If we were having coffee right now… I would offer you a business card and thank you for hanging out with me and offer you more coffee before we wrapped things up. We stand, laughing like two college friends because your funny. We’d stroll over by the coat hanger and, if you’re a woman, we’ll both have our hands on our hips with our heads tilted slightly to engage in more conversation. By the time we do make it to our jackets we only just open the door. We’ll probably talk a bit more before actually walking through it. If your a man who is married to my new lady friend I’d ask you if you would mind warming the car. You’ll do it. We all know this could go on forever.

If we were having coffee right now… I would wave goodbye to my new blog friend who was so kind as to meet me in person, in my home, over a cup of coffee.

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Confessions of an Old School Reader

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EC Book Shelf #1

I try, really I do, but I can’t seem to get into a good novel by staring at a computer screen. I’ve done it, but it just doesn’t compare to the real thing.  There is something much more intimate and provoking about holding a book in my hands; feeling its cover, running my fingers across the pages, crisp and sharp; the smell of a fresh book that has never been opened, and the potency of the ink when it jumps off the pages; that new smell from brand new books, like cradling a new born in the crook of your arms. So precious and delicate that you almost don’t want to open it. Don’t want to destroy the perfect foundations by bending it’s shiny flaps or causing a crease. In your lap is the weight of your favorite coffee cup, the modest light of the lamp, and a world waiting for you to enter it. To touch and feel the tangibility of book bindings is to go on a creative high of possibilities. All the way down to when you close a book after coming home from the journey and daydream about the revelations and alternate endings. You can end an eBook but you can’t close it. That big red x in the corner won’t do it justice either. I can’t breathe in deep and close my eyes while holding an eBook in my hands. I can’t stare at the front cover as if there’s more to come or fold the pages over. Highlighting isn’t as fun either. Perhaps the best thing about hard-copies is that these books are much more prone to immortality; they will go back for years and years to come. I smile sometimes at the books of my youth that are still found hanging around, too naïve to be read again with the same zeal but too precious to do away with. The satisfied glory of having been read, watch your favorite collection stand and shine beautifully against the backdrop of the book shelf, a time machine right there in your bedroom.

Writing 101: Assignment #6- The Space to Write

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Step #1: The Early Morning Wake-Up Call

The best time to write is an hour or two after the sun has risen and the birds congregate on my windowsill with their songs. The sky is still a combination of yellows, orange, and reddish highlights, all tap-dancing on the clouds. I write best when the wind is still waking up and blowing lightly, just enough to sway the leaves. When the air smells like you just bought it from the store this morning. That first early morning wake-up, after morning prayer, and just when the creative juices are new and fresh. This is my ideal time of day to write.

Step #2: Coffee

Freshly brewed dark roasted Folders that grab my throat by its hinges and engulf my body before racing to the tips of my fingers. I arise to the occasion of the coffee cherry. After teaching and tutoring a few years back, I developed a love (addiction?) for coffee. Back when my daily routine consisted of chasing three and four-year-olds around the room and getting on my hands and knees to see which monopoly piece I would be. And now, the coffee bean must accompany me in the next phase of our adventure.

Step #3: Solitude

Give me neither food nor noise. Lock me away from society. I no longer live here. Put me inside a quiet place. Though I would much rather be somewhere in the country, swallowed up by trees and grassland, my home office will have to suffice. Where I shackle myself to solitude and feed from its delicacies. My fingers march to the beat of songs that can only be heard inside my head. I am not here in this office. I am in another place. That place where only writers go. I’m an introvert by nature, but writing is when I am the most adventurous. Let the rushing sound of my heart and the beating of keys be the only noise in the world worth paying attention to at this moment. Please, I beg of you, dare not shatter my concentration with the world and its worries, for I am not of the world.

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#8: Respect Award

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Thank you Lisa for paying it forward, as you always do, by nominating me for my 8th Blog Award, The Respect Award. I am truly honored about this award in particular because it’s something I strive to extend everywhere I go. I do not hesitate to give and it sometimes perplexes people but it is real. I’ll give you the shirt off my back if need be because that’s just the kind of person I am and its not fabricated. I strive to keep it real at all times and to give the same kindness and the same peace to everyone around me while at the same time remaining firm. I am kind but I am not naïve , thus discipline and firmness is just as critical to me as being a peacemaker only because these are the qualities of a good leader. In short, I appreciate you appreciating me and I hope that I can continue to display the same kindness to all of my bloggers in general; those who follow this blog today and on into the future.

Here’s a little history on The Respect Award:

The Respect Award was created by Robert Goldstein, who says:

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Clarion Alley 2012

“The “Respect” Award is my personal award for fellow bloggers who consistently reach out to other bloggers, offer support, are kind, struggle to understand differences in people, and who treat themselves and other people with kindness and respect. You don’t have to do anything for this award. You can choose to copy the Award Picture and give the award to the people who have earned your respect or you can do nothing. This is my way of saying thank you. You have earned my respect.”

Writing 101 – Assignment #1: Why I Write

I bleed words for a living. How did this come to be? At what point did I decide that I would write? That I would be a writer. Since I have always loved to write, it is challenging to pinpoint the exact moment I felt compelled to confide in words as a source of strength. My life has not been perfect in childhood, and having attended eight different schools before High School, I developed a love for reading. Ah, there it is. I write because I love to read. There are deeper reasons why I write but this is the starting place. Reading has always been my foundation. I could not trust in people so I trusted in books. Ironic isn’t it? For authors are people too. Nonetheless, by the age of twelve I developed a love for stories. Understand that my love for stories and my love for reading are two separate occasions. I have always, and still do, love to read. But it is that moment I took notice of how stories were written that I began to love stories. The emotion of the characters, the surrounding landscape, and even the way the words tippy toed across the page fascinated me. I wanted to be part of this process on a level that went deeper than reading. I wanted to become an architect of this kind of skill and just like that I began to write stories of my own.

Today

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Today my love for writing and my purpose for doing so have spun into greater depth as I have experienced many different things, traveled many places, and interacted with many different people as opposed to when I was a girl. I write today not so much to merely entertain, but to do so while also educating. I write to free individuals from the limited ways we tend to think and to feel. I hope to provide a kind of “edu-tainment”, a made-up word meaning to educate through entertainment. Everyone wants to learn but it does not have to be dull. We all wish to enjoy ourselves as we learn and I hope that my books can provide and has provided this kind of nourishment. In short, my reasoning for writing has developed but at its core it has remained the same. I love writing because I love reading and every book I read is inspiration to write.

If I Could Build a Time Machine

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Who I am today would melt away like falling snowflakes during freezing winters upon meeting the ground, for I would tear down the foundations to everything that built me. I would go back to change everything that makes me strong today. Arrogantly and ignorantly, I would rearrange days to fit my own endeavors; whatever pleases me that I will do. And those who’ve caused me pain I would exact vengeance. I would avoid hurt as if running from a plague, and strategically erase all traces of my own crime scene. Indeed, if I could build a time machine, I would fill my life with days of sunlight and sorrow would be a stranger to me. Childhood, Adulthood— I doubt if I would know the difference, for innocence and naiveté would cover me like fine linen. As such, my shoulders would not know what it’s like to bear heavy loads. My smooth skin would easily chip away at the sight of danger, my mind would know nothing of sacrifice, and in times of distress I would flood my bed with tears. They would fall dangerously from my eyelids like liquid apologies for not knowing the zip, slither, snap, and thump of a broken heart; for not understanding the crackling crunch of a spirit defeated; for pulling back the wounds of wisdom only to create outlines of invisibility, for I would cease to exist.

Don’t try to build time machines to go back to relive mistakes. Everything you are and everything you’ve endured is what makes you who you are today, flaws and all. That said, never linger on old wounds so much that you wish to go back. What is done is done. Meanwhile, the future has plenty of room for change. Embrace it.