This is a reminder to tune into The PBS Blog every Thursday starting tomorrow 10/8/2015 until the end of this month for my Interracial Blog Feature. In this series, I will be interviewing four individuals who are in Interracial Relationships. Each week, they will be sharing with us their experiences beyond the colored line, the ups, downs, joys and triumphs. Each person provided a different perspective into the subject of race and its influence on relationships. Not only did it provide me with a history lesson but we all learned something in the process. They have sent me pictures of their beautiful families and handled each question with intellect, honesty, and fierceness! I love that.
The Interviews are scheduled to post every Thursday morning (starting tomorrow) until the end of the month at 8:00p CST. I can’t wait to witness your support of my friends and to show you what they had to offer.
I have a treat for you! It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in #BeWoW and I am elated to discover that Ron has deemed BeWoW to be an acronym, not just for Be Wonderful on Wednesday, but also Be Writing on Wednesday! Whoop. He has also teamed up with my girl Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday. So, for this reason, today’s post is a two part Special where I combined both together. I hope my post is sufficient for both. Here’s a basic overview:
‘And that means “Be Writing on Wednesday to Be Wonderful on Wednesday and make the world a better place to visit.” You do this by sharing your inspirational and positive posts, books, poetry, even favorite get you movin’ music videos. You use #BeWoW as a hashtag on Twitter and as tag, if you like, on your post so people can find all of the offerings in the WP Reader if they want to go that route.’
That said, my positive blog share has to do with my finished book cover to the second edition of my novel.
In part two, I am revealing the cover to a novel I wrote three years ago. In 2012, I wrote my first novel, The Aftermath, a Sci-Fi Thriller. I have since taken it off market and have not added it to my website. I have taken it down because I am revising it and will be re-adding it to my collection under a new edition very soon. The cover design is by Clarrisa Yeo of Yocla Designs. Her work is amazing and I highly recommend her for your next project. (She is not accepting any new clients at this time but she has some great pre-mades ready to go) Below is the Book Cover Reveal along with some reviews I received from those who have read the book at its initial launching. (If you would like to receive a free PDF to review this book just send me an email. Please know you will receive an unedited copy as the revision is not finished). I am only revealing the cover at this time and not the entire layout, front and back. (Hey, gotta save something good for when it releases hee hee).
So, without further ado (please click on the image to see it bigger. The larger file wouldn’t show so I had to go medium) here’s what I’m writing this #BeWoW:
“I just finished the book. Excellent EC. When I got to Chapter 29-33, wow….I don’t want to spoil it for the others but you did a great job.”
– Annette, California
“This book holds great suspense! Love it! Excellent read, but this should be a movie! Highly recommended for all readers!”
– Vivian, Shreveport, LA
“Woooow! This book had me gripped from page one lol… I finished reading it a couple days ago… well done!! I thoroughly enjoyed it. …. stay obedient, encouraged, determined, motivated and inspired…”
– Abiyah, UK
“What a wonderful book. From page one I was hooked. Wonderfully written EC, It was an awesome book! For those that do not have it, it is a must read.”
– Constance, Fort Wayne, IN
“When is the movie coming out? The Aftermath is an action packed book, and I am just in the beginning.”
– Leahe, Detroit MI
Who Willie Lynched your mentality?
Who put you under a spell?
Why you let them teleport you back to slavery?
They could have at least made it look good
didn’t have to hang you on the block
in your own hood
from your own trees
could have bridged the gap
between the souls you “sold” for rap
could have at least duct taped pieces of the truth
so you didn’t look like the signs of the times
didn’t have to trade your crown
for nursery rhymes
spill your blood on the ground
like wasted time
look how intoxicated you are
don’t know the difference between what truth and being real is
Is we being real?
There’s a reason that last line ain’t grammatically correct
gotta spit truth a lot truthful than that
since when did speaking the Kings English
ever define being black?
since when did we become something called Black?
what is that?
if you gonna spit truth
you gotta come much harder than that
and much deeper than black
you see even your conscious rappers
ain’t wrapped tight enough
can’t baptize deception in muddy waters and call it clean
can’t metaphysical the spiritual
and call it revolutionizing the struggle
can’t call it consciousness if you still sleeping
but rebellion the only thing around here get played
and you the only people around here being played
why I still hear rappers remixing they own graves?
who put yall under a spell?
don’t know why prison statistics don’t start with the prisons
outside of jails
but then again
I guess we can’t all spit truth
the records will never sell
It has become a cliché to talk about how e-book distribution has leveled the playing field for indie authors and made the publishing environment more democratic. But accessing the library market remains somewhat more difficult for single authors with just a few titles.
While indie authors can gain some access to libraries by making their books available through major library distributors, that doesn’t mean that those books will be purchased. In many ways, getting self-published titles into libraries hasn’t changed since the e-book revolution: authors still have to prove that they have quality products that fit the collection. And, unfortunately, authors still face the stigma of self-publishing: there’s a long history of patrons offering to donate handwritten poetry collections or memoirs to their libraries. Though some libraries work with their communities to publish…
Excellent post. I really enjoyed reading this. My favorite line: “I don’t want to write about what everyone else is writing about. I don’t need to sit at the cool kids table to feel good about myself.”
Some of you may have heard that I have a book on schedule to be released around Christmas. It’s my debut novel, written with an author by the name of P.S. Bartlett. A book related to that novel is being released Oct. 5. It’s called Jaded Tides and it is book 2 in the pirate tales series and the third book leading up to her amazing Blue Diamond: The Razor’s Edge that I absolutely loved so much that Bartlett and I became friends and ended up writing a book together. Here today is a guest post by my partner in print. Over the next few days you will be seeing several posts about her here on Ronovan Writes. Now, onto our guest post today by Award Winning Author, P.S. Bartlett.
The Kind of Writer I Want To Be
I’ve believed since I dedicated myself to this journey two…
Welcome back to another segment of Movie Night Friday, where I present some of my favorite movies and why I love them, now coming to you every other week.
Today, I would like to discuss the movie Hancock. There are actually a number of Will Smith movies that have profound symbolism but I will start with this one.
Hancock is a movie about a Superhero named Hancock (Will Smith) who everyone hates because of his lack of self-control. Though he is helping the city of Los Angeles, he is also destroying it, leaving damage everywhere that he goes. Hancock’s problem is not how people feel about him, Hancock’s problem is that he doesn’t care, or at least he acts like it. After saving the life of a PR executive (Jason Bateman) and meeting the man’s beautiful wife (Charlize Theron), he realizes that he may have a sensitive side after all. It is then up to the executive to train him to embrace his sensibilities and use his Super Hero status in a way that is helpful, and not harmful, to mankind.
Now that we got that out the way, let’s look at some key points here because the movie is funny but it reveals so much more. I try not to get so caught up in watching movies and TV shows exclusively for its entertainment factor because there is so many lies told through television (tell a lie through a vision) but there is also a lot of truth in these movies as well, especially by way of comedy. You see we must stop letting people define the way that we think. Stop calling everything a conspiracy just because your pastor or your society says its not truth.
One of the obvious things is that Hancock is a Super Hero. In today’s society, we have come to accept them as normal human beings with supernatural abilities. In one scene, Charlize’s character states something interesting:
“Superheroes, Gods, Angels.. different cultures call us by different names.”
There’s some truth to this. The Superhero movies have a duality to them.
#1: Fallen Angels
The first side to them is that they are the story of The Gods or Fallen Angels.
When movies have plots where the Superhero’s intermingle with humans and have children, known as Demi-Gods, it is a movie / TV show telling you the story of the Nephillim or Giants. Nephillim means from heaven to earth they came, to signify the Giants origins as they are the children of the Gods. While many deem the Nephillim to be Fallen Angels, this is not so. The Nephillim are not the Fallen Angels. The Nephillim are the offspring of the Fallen Angels by way of angelic and human relations. You saw this in Hancock being that Hancock is a God (or Fallen Angel).
One of the first scenes in the movie shows a young lady and her friends checking out Hancock as he is getting drunk at a bar. The woman follows him home and joins him in his trailer. The young lady is excited to lay with him because she knows that he is a Super Hero. This is not far-fetched. Women have been known to flock to the bed of the Gods. The bible tells us:
Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, Gen 6:2 That the sons of Yah saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of Yah came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
The Sons of the Most High are the angels
The Daughters of Men are the human women
They Took Them Wives -The Gods or Fallen Angels married the Human women (Wedding ceremonies today are mimicked from the ceremonies of the Gods marriage to human women)
Went in Unto Them – Had Sex with Them
And Produced Children – Gave birth to Giants
Hancock takes place in the city of Los Angeles. (The Angels)
The Giants were a combination of flesh and spirit: Spirit from their fathers the Gods and flesh from the human women they took as Gods. There is evidence of Giants in the history of man.
“There were Giants in the earth in those days…”
“There were Giants in the earth in those days…”
“There were Giants in the earth in those days…”
“There were Giants in the earth in those days..and also after that.”
“There were Giants in the earth in those days..and also after that.”
Let’s move on.
This is only one aspect of the Superhero movies. The next side may be considered controversial but it is what it is.
#2: His-Story
Another aspect is that of the African American. A lot of these Super Hero movies are incorporating pieces of his story. They are embedding messages that indicate that we are a people of power. If you think this is a stretch, let’s just let the movies speak for themselves. Let us take a look at some things in Heroes Reborn that are worth noting. Heroes Reborn is an excellent TV show picking up from its 2006 original Heroes.
The show is about humans with powers and there are quite a few African American themes. The Evo’s as they are called (Evolved Humans) are being persecuted and have to flee for safety. They are hunted down by dogs and other forms of torture. The most striking resemblance to our history however is the Underground Railroad. Not only is this system being used as a place of escape and safety for the Evo’s, but they are fleeing North to Canada. And the woman who is shown being led to the Underground Railroad in the Season Premier just happens to be a black woman and her black son. If you are not familiar with how The Underground Railroad was used or that blacks fled slavery north to Canada, I highly recommend you Google it and catch up to 2015. Or is this just a coincidence?
In the first X-Man, the woman who turns blue is ashamed of her color and the way that she looks. The saying she adopts is “Mutant and Proud”. But I suppose I’m stretching again huh? And that just happens to be strikingly familiar to “I’m Black and I’m Proud”.
There aren’t many black faces, but many of these shows are the stories of black people. That’s just the truth.
Anywho, that’s it for this weeks segment of Movie Night Friday.
Hancock is a funny movie, an educational one too. Check it out.