• E books,  Historical fiction,  Women's fiction

    The Return of Black Cool & RIP Maya Angelou

    There was a time when men and women (including African Americans) wore tuxedos and gowns on stage and on television. It’s that time period that’s revisited in the novel The Queen of Comedy. There’s a free sneak peek of the novel on Amazon, and it will be available on Kindle for free on these dates: May 31st, June 1st and June 2nd.

     

    The Temptations, circa 1965
    The Temptations, circa 1965

     

     

    Maya Angelou promo picture
    Maya Angelou promo picture

    “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” – Maya Angelou  (1928-2014)

     

    The LA Times has a tribute to Maya Angelou that Dear Author listed this week:

    Maya Angelou’s TV legacy, from ‘Roots’ to ‘Sesame Street,’ ‘Super Soul’

     

     

    I’m taking a few more days to work on Queensrealm, but The Queen of Comedy will also be released in June

     

    Poster for The Queen of Comedy
    Poster for The Queen of Comedy

     

     

  • Adult Novella,  Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Scifi

    Living for the weekend

    Ahhh . . . a three day weekend. I’m working on new, diverse book covers with Asian leading men and readying QUEENSREALM for release.

    Love and political intrigue
    Love and political intrigue

     

    ETA: If you’re a self-pubbed author and you don’t know how to use Photoshop or Paint.net( free software), or Adobe elements, try to get someone to teach you. Stop by a local college art department and offer to pay someone to tutor you. It’s an investment that will save you money over the long run. Covers do matter, especially when faced with showing a heroine of color. The ability to manipulate an image to more closely resemble your book’s characters (if your female lead is brown in the book, then she should be close to that color on the cover. IR readers do notice and many are becoming quite vocal about seeing cover models with more variety in their skin tones and hair texture). The model below is actually a blending of two stock  images I bought:

     

    Human right lawyer Jada Guyett from the erotic suspense ebook HERE and NOW
    Human rights lawyer Jada Guyett from the erotic suspense ebook HERE and NOW

     

     

    I think its very important that minority writers not fall complacent enough to think we can’t stumble into “othering” another racial group, or fall into the trap of making our own culture the exotic. There was an interesting discussion on Dear Author regarding the use of food to describe minority characters, in a way that is sometimes different than the description of white characters. I’ve seen this in a number of books and some readers don’t care for it, so that’s something I keep in mind when writing.

    I tend to use Saturday as the time to work on covers and promos. There are a number of scifi novellas I’d like to release this summer:

    ID- They put a barcode on her ass and a bounty on her head.
    ID- They put a barcode on her ass and a bounty on her head.
  • E books,  New Adult,  YA Contemporary

    Why more writers of color need to enter the ABNA’s

    This year my book HEAVEN once again made it to the quarterfinal round of the ABNA’s (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards) which meant the book was reviewed by someone contracted by Publisher’s Weekly. Long story short, I can use snippets of the review when promoting the novel. The ones I plan on using are  “straight forward and emotionally raw story”  and  “starts off strong and develops a genuine emotional connection between Nevaeh and Joshua.”

    The ebook HEAVEN
    The ebook HEAVEN

     

    I’ve had a great run with this novel. It reached #1 in a couple of sub-categories on Amazon (the category dance on Amazon is tough enough for indie writers, but especially frustrating for YA indie writers whose leads are characters of color. That’s a whole ‘nother post that I have to rant about).

  • Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Novella,  Scifi

    Movers and Shakers

    There are a number of sequels to RUSH which follow several characters and introduce new ones. First up will be Daniel Semboga’s love story:

    Make Me Yours. African American divorcee fall for her Somali Bantu college professor.
    Make Me Yours. African American divorcee falls for her Somali Bantu college professor.

     

    Then there’s Rory and Roxie’s love story. Roxie’s an exotic dancer who assists Rory (from RUSH) after he finds out his late dad owned Wallbanger’s, the strip club that plays a central part in the mystery of Turk’s disappearance and several other murders:

     

    Rory and Roxie in a sequel to RUSH

     

    Gauge and Keisha’s story concerns a threat to her life. She needs protection based on what and who she knows. He makes her laugh. Who knew loving a biker could be this fun? Or so dangerous?:

     

    Gauge and Keisha small copy

     

     

    Gauge and Keisha's RUSH sequel
    Gauge and Keisha’s RUSH sequel

    There’s also a love interest for Boner and two more characters, plus the continuation of the main couple, Aiden and Aaliyah’s tale. 

    RUSH

     

    I’m re-editing Razher: Rise of the Gargoyles and Gaijin’s ending

  • Adult Novella,  Adult Novellas,  Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Scifi

    Woman is Boss

    That’s the fictional hit song of a Trini rapper named Ozzy AKA The Great OZ from The Player. This ebook is part of my Caribbean Queens Series.

    The Great Oz, from T&T
    The Great Oz, from T&T

    Caribbean Queens Promo2 smaller copy

    I’m releasing excerpts from all three books (excerpts from The Player and Love and Baseball are already up on this site). Next comes Game.Set.Love. featuring Tristan “Didi” Botha and Sinead Landon, two tennis doubles pros who fall madly in love. Carnival is what connects all three heroines. Sinead is from Jamaica,

  • Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Excerpts,  Historical fiction,  New Adult,  Scifi

    Last Day for FREE excerpt downloads on Amazon

    Thank you, thank you THANK YOU! To all those who’ve tweeted and spread the word about the free Sneak Peek downloads this weekend. Since these are excerpts from novels, there was no way to know if any readers would be interested. So I’m very happy about the progress of The Scifi Sampler:

     

    FREE rankings for Excerpts on 5/11
    FREE rankings for Excerpts on 5/11

    Multicultural Scifi is another passion of mine. And QUEENSREALM is the next book coming out, so I hope all those who like to read scifi or futuristic military tales, or read about hot alien virgin heroes, or even THE ONE books (but this time a woman of color saves the world), well, I hope this book will appeal to those who like conflicted, but kick ass heroines.

    The "Allies" of QUEENSREALM
    The “Allies” of QUEENSREALM

     

    A new excerpt from QUEENSREALM:

    So this was where Banks threw the dissidents. They never escaped. He just had the Bog devour them,

  • Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Historical fiction,  New Adult,  Paranormal romance,  Urban Fantasy,  YA Contemporary,  YA historical,  YA Paranormal

    NA Sneak Peeks are FREE this weekend!!

    The following New Adult Ebook Excerpts are free for downloading this weekend (Saturday May 10th and Sunday May 11th).

    Here’s your chance to read about the volatile bad boy Derek Keane from the NA contemporary The Stone Boy:

     

    The Stone Boy
    The Stone Boy featuring lovers Nicole and Derek

     

     

    JUKEBOX has The Burr Brothers, Eli and Johnny, two rockabilly teens who switch musical genres to perform as soul men, and along with the female classmate they both love, all three make history in the process.

     

     

    JUKEBOX principal characters. Eli, Simone and Johnny
    JUKEBOX principal characters. Eli, Simone and Johnny