Tag: #TuesdayShares

Formation

I wasn’t going to comment on this, but I’m tired of hearing about it so I thought I’d weigh in. Hold your breaths. In fact, you may want to click that nice x button over in the top right corner of your screen. This is not something you want to hear.

Colors have always been strong symbols. Today, almost everything can be recognized or interpreted by its color. When you see red you think stop. When you see green you think go, nature, life, wealth. When you see yellow you think sunshine, light, happiness, peace. When you see pink you think girly. And then there’s black.

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Since the Black Panthers, the color Black has been resurrected to be a symbol of power, strength, and rebellion. Rebellion against a system that has defined Black people as something dark and animalistic since the institution of chattel slavery. Today, black people who wear Black are seen as people who embrace black pride and become symbols for the African American rebellion against unjust systems.

However, everything that glitters is not gold and everyone wearing an Afro is not “revolutionary”. In witchcraft, the color black was used to indicate authority and power. It also symbolizes death, fear, and (wait for it) ignorance. Like any other symbol, when you see the color black it causes a trigger in your mind. For African Americans, it causes us to think about The Black Panther Party or Blackness in its relation to Black pride in general.

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Why is Beyonce’s Formation being compared to The Black Panthers? What you saw in the half-time of the Superbowl was not a showcase of racial pride. It was not an image of strength and courage it was a coven of witches casting spells. This same thing happened back in 2014 when Solange rocked an Afro at her wedding. A group of people who are collectively worth billions of dollars held a wedding in an old crumbly building in New Orleans with chipping paint and stood like statues with blank stares. The whole thing made no sense and was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen but because they wore Afros y’all praised it like it was something profound.

Am I a hater? Yes. I hate when people jump on bandwagons because of the appearance of something that looks positive but that they have no knowledge of. You weren’t shown Black Power, you were shown Black Cat Power and any Wiccan can tell you there’s a difference. Back in the day people worshipped the Sun and Moon and considered them Gods. Later, these worshippers associated specific animals with them. Concerning the cat, they believed certain Goddesses took the form of cats (cats are very sensitive to spirits), specifically, the Egyptian Goddesses Bast. Not only are cats sensitive to spirits, but black cats were symbolic of magic and darkness after the Goddess Diana (Known as Queen of the Witches) cult was said to have went underground.

By wearing all black, rocking Afros, and throwing clenched fist into the air you were made to believe something profound happened, just the same as when Solange threw an all white wedding. White, a symbol of purification and light. Thus this wedding gave you the perception of purity.

Two Weeks Before Book Launch

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I can’t believe its two weeks before launch day! Where did the time go? In just a short while, I’ll be wrapping up The Stella Trilogy with the release of the 3rd installment. I’m excited but I’ve been keeping things pretty chill. So here’s what’s going on.

Editing

I was excited to see that my editor sent me the copy of the final edit last week. There was a lot that needed to be changed and some things I just completely took out. I am so grateful for the revision process and the extra set of eyes. I think my ARC readers are going to really enjoy the revised edition.

Ebook Formatting

I have decided this time around to pay for professional eBook formatting! I don’t want my ebooks to keep looking like: who did it and why did they do it? So, while I have the basic understanding of how to format, I think its best to let someone more experienced handle it until I can perfect the skill. I am really excited about this change and should be getting the newly formatted manuscript back this week.

Print Book Proof

I am always very excited about my print book proofs! This is the final FINAL check where I get to read the book in its print book format for one final run through. I am expecting the mailman to deliver me the copy sometime this afternoon. Of course, I’ll do a FB blast when it arrives (that one part where I stand in front of a poster and hold the book up like I just made The New York Times Best Sellers List).

Photo Collage

I am thankful for all of the people who have submitted pictures so far for my Stella Photo Collage! Or at least the first one (I’m sure more pictures will be taken in ATL). I’m going to wait until a week before launch to put it together though. I want to wait until almost the last minute for the collage because I don’t want to miss including anyone’s picture.

Atlanta Event

Primarily, I’ve been focused on the Atlanta Stella Book Signing Event taking place in ATL the end of this month. It will be a combination of my Book release for Book #3 and a book signing for all of the books in the series. I am using these two weeks to finalize my Power Point Presentation and pick up the decor for the event. Which, interestingly enough, seems to be a lot bigger than anticipated. It wasn’t exactly an event per se at first but I actually have a staff now (special thank you to the six women who have come forward to assist me on the ground!) I am also going to be in a play the day following the signing which is keeping me busy. As we get closer to the date, we are rehearsing more. I am now in practice four nights a week. Speaking of which, I need to buy more coffee.

Future Works

The funny thing is that while I have this book coming out, I’ve been focused mostly on the next project. I’m reading so many books I can barely keep up and the research itself has been mind-blowing. I would tell you more about the project itself but its somewhat on the low right now. I will say it is another short story and I think Stella’s going to get a run for her money on this one! In the meantime, I am considering a Stella Book Tour to help keep me busy as I write this next story. What do you think? Would you like for me to visit your town?

Harriet Ann Jacobs – Our Self-Published Ancestor

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By now many people are familiar with Harriet Jacobs, the African American writer who escaped slavery in 1842 after hiding in an attic above her grandmothers home for seven years. Harriet’s testimony was one of the many inspirations for the first book in my Stella Trilogy. Stella, like Harriet, was born a slave but did not know it as a young girl–not until after her mother died. But that’s not all Harriet and Stella have in common. Harriet’s biography “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was also a Self-Published book back in 1861, under the pseudonym Linda Brent.

A Story Within a Story – Crafting Chapters

Who knew that this simple realization would come in the middle of the night, as I walked along with McFadden’s Easter on the streets of Harlem and stood shoulder to shoulder under a night sky just as dark as Garvey’s skin, who spoke just a short distance from us. Though I’ve always written in such a way, it was right here on 135th Street and Lenox Avenue when it became a conscious thought and it occurred to me that I can now  implement this revelation into my writing in a much more conscious manner. And as Easter’s future husband approached us, I knew that I had to freeze the moment and write this down. She was smitten anyhow and I doubt she’d notice my absence. Surely I can put the book down for a quick, and anxious writing fix.

The words came quickly and rushed to the tips of my fingers after the sun drifted into a heavy slumber last night and the wind whispered just as calm and peaceful as my husband’s breath heaving in and out of his nostrils. I was up, of course, reading when after thirteen straight chapters of Glorious I stumbled upon a revelation I’d be more than selfish not to share.

girl-book-light-dark-reading-collage-lying-night-grass-giantI’ve personally fallen in love with short stories. It could just be the impatience of the creative mind that’s got me savoring a quick fix, but I love the fragment of writing time as compared to a full fledged novel. It’s not easier, its just the simplicity of it all I suppose. Nonetheless, whatever the urge I’ve found it tasteful to write short and to the point; where the story is over before it’s left your palette. Not in a way that’s disappointing but too delicious not to crave. A refreshing snack of literature if you will that’s got you begging for more and at the same time offended for not having been given enough. Nonetheless, I was up reading this novel when it hit me: chapters are like short stories within a story.

Though my eyes were heavy, my mind was eager and I noticed that in the best of books we are strung along by string from one point to the next in a series of small revelations all leading to one grand finale. I was reminded in that moment that more than the first sentence, the first paragraph, or the first chapter is the need to keep the story moving in a consistent thread of mini stories wrapped into one large fabric by making sure that each chapter ends as if it alone was a short story within itself. Like a cliff hanger carefully composed to force the reader on to the next chapter. That moment right before Gillespie’s cheeks explode into handfuls of balloons.

I realized that writing is like configuring one grand puzzle by crafting the pieces and deciding which shape belongs where. It is a series of steps, body parts if you will, where each member does it’s part and yet contributes to the completion of the whole. By focusing on the purpose of each chapter, what it sets out to achieve alone and how it ties into the story as a whole, I think this may in fact help us writers to make sure that our books too move along with the same grace and elegance of a McFadden, Ellison, or McMillan.