• Adult Novella,  Blog,  Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Women's fiction

    A Quiet Riot

    First, congratulations to the Jackie Robinson West team for winning the 2014 US Little League Championship!!

    2014 US Little League World Champs! They're so CUTE!
    2014 US Little League Champs! They’re so CUTE!

     

    They hail from Chicago, so go Chi-town! Next up is a formidable team from South Korea. All the teams should be proud of their sportsmanship, parental and fan support, and love for the game which was on full display.

    I think this pic shows what else I’ve been up to:

     

    RIOT small copy with watermark copy
    RIOT – A black officer is caught between the community she serves and the thin blue line she must uphold.

     

    This will be a continuing serial on my blog, but it won’t be set in Ferguson. It’ll be in a fictional town where everyone believes race is no problem, until it is.

  • E books,  New Adult,  YA Contemporary

    Throw like a Girl . . . hell, yes

    If you don’t know who Mo’ne Davis is, you should. She’s 13 years old and made history last week by being the first female to pitch a shut out in a Little League World Series game.

     

    Huffington Post GIF
    Huffington Post GIF

     

     

    090314_lad_davis_kershaw_pitch_twitter_asvn2pd3
    Mo’ne Davis and Clayton Kershaw Dodgers GIF

     

     Link to MLB.com GIF:

    Here’s that Clayton Kershaw/Mo’ne Davis pitch-off you’ve been waiting for (sort of)

     

     

    Her team lost tonight, and in order to advance they must win their next game. But when I went looking for a stock photo showing a black female pitcher, I couldn’t readily find one. So I decided to create one to go with a new YA story. Throw like a girl? If I could throw like Mo’ne Davis, then HELL, YES.

    female pitcher white background1

     

    Perfect cover with text

     

  • Adult Novella,  Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Excerpts,  New Adult

    Nothing can come between us

    I’ve stated before that I enjoy putting diverse couples together. So I plan on releasing a number of stories with male and female contemporary leads in several different, but relatable occupations.

     

    This time it’s political . . . 

     

    Ivy-League-mini-gif

     

     

    I haven’t attached an excerpt to the GIF of my novel Ivy League, but as soon as I narrow down which scene I want to use, it will be activated.

    Sade’s Nothing Can come Between Us is a safe, vague hint regarding the storyline:

     

     

    I’m still working on this post, so I’ll return later to add to it.   Sorry, I’d meant to put up my new ad that’s on Dear Author. I decided to change the female lead’s first name after the utterly senseless and tragic death of Renisha McBride. If you click the GIF it will take you to the excerpt page:

     

    Thief-of-Hearts-GIF
    Click the photo to read an excerpt from Thief of Hearts
  • Adult Novella,  Adult Novellas,  Contemporary Romance,  E books,  Excerpts,  New Adult

    Update on The Player

    I worked on another promo for the book HUI (pronounced Hway)

     

    Promo for the book Hui resized2

     

    My apologies for the watermark.

    I’m readying up The Player for release, and there are characters from other books who make an appearance in the story line. Also, the thing that took so long with that novel, is that its not just the two leads but also Ozzy, the ex husband.

    His story needed to be explored, because I didn’t want it to be the typical evil ex tale. Rappers need love too.

     

    Hui-edited-GIF

     

     

    I’ll be back to link this GIF to a short excerpt. Unfortunately, recent events have convinced me to make a change on the length of free excerpts.

    Here’s a brief teaser of HUI:

     

    First position . . .

    Hui stood there, still and imposing, like one of the many large billboards with his likeness promoting the dance company. In a repeat of the countless hours they’d practiced together his arm was outstretched and his hand was elegantly positioned, urging her to grasp it. Instead of his usual attire of a tee shirt and black practice tights, he was completely naked.

  • Contemporary Romance,  E books

    Too Close for Comfort

    Back in October of 2013, I put up an excerpt of one of my NA novels on this site and other places around the internet. The ebook title is “Before I Let Go” and its the story of a girl who has to drop out of college due to her abusive boyfriend, and how she rekindles a romance with her childhood crush, a young Hispanic male who’s wounded while fighting in Iraq.

    Well, wouldn’t you know it, but this must be a popular concept, because its already been released. By someone else. So either great minds think alike, or what the hell, I dunno.*

    *ETA: Well, this just got more effed up. Seems this same author was called out before regarding plagiarism. However I need to stress it’s my understanding that a premise, or “concept” cannot be copyrighted, so I guess that’s that.

    In any event, I don’t wanna dwell on this. I’m just hoping if it wasn’t a sheer coincidence aka mind hive sort of thing, the author/associates now realize that “borrowing” a premise isn’t cool, and that jumping over to the minority side to get your next new novel can still back fire big time, because the internet isn’t as large as some would like to believe. But what’s more important, is that I didn’t create a Hispanic male lead for nothing. It’s because DIVERSITY IS MY PLATFORM. And it’s not as simple as giving a character an ethnic last name, but part of his/her racial identity imho.

    Here’s my original blurb:

    Twenty year old Skylar Torres is back home, trying to forget a volatile college romance and hoping to reconnect with her first love, Damon Salas.  Twenty three year old Damon doesn’t recall the road side bomb that ended his tour of duty in Iraq, leaving him unable to speak his thoughts as clearly as before. Struggling with his new normal, Damon’s determined to live life on his own terms, and that includes a future with Skylar. But Skylar’s dealing with a controlling ex, while questioning her decision to stay away from Damon, in order to keep them both alive.

    I’m still gonna release my ebook, since I’ve got a digital trail (I entered the excerpt in the Wattpad contest last year). In addition, I believe the writing inside the other author’s book is totally different than mine, though her premise has similar elements. But I’m committed to this story, because I wrote it with two Hispanic leads in mind who were both trying to cope with issues that affect young people today.

     

    Please click the photo if you’d like to check out BEFORE I LET GO:

    Before-I-let-go-with-shadowed-ltrs-small-copy