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    Boo’d Up

    Color me happy that the 2018 Grammy Awards nominated “Boo’d Up” in the categories of Song of the year and R&B song of the year. Honestly, Ella Mai should’ve been nominated in the best new artist category. The voters also recognized the talent of H.E.R. for album of the year, best new artist, best R&B album, song and performance. Another fave of mine, Maren Morris, is up for Record of the Year for “The Middle.”

    Kendrick Lamar and Sza have also been nominated in the same category for “All the Stars” (from the movie Black Panther) along with Donald Glover’s “This is America.” It will be exciting to see which tune the voters choose.

     

    The witch Pagan and her Gargoyle boo, Karnage. Low resolution promo pic.

     

     

    Pictured: Karnage and Pagan

     

    Karnage Xian, Gargoyle royalty.

     

     

    Pictured: Pagan the witch and her lover Karnage the Gargoyle

     

    Watercolor witches – Ondine, Lilith and Pagan get the pastel color treatment in this new GIF I’ve created using GIMP, a free editing program

     

    Lilith and the vampire Yuri.

     

    Ondine and the warlock Ronin
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    The Power of Three

    This is my take on the dramatic “Power of Three” promos that are popular right now:

     

     

    The black witches I’ve created in their “Power of Three” pose. It also shows their different styles:

    From left to right: Elder witch Lilith, Pagan (middle) and Ondine (right). I’m not using the true title of the series, so I just used “witch” as a generic title.

     

     

    Lilith – all dolled up

     

    I create these promos as a way to advertise an ebook prior to its release:

     

    Pictured from left to right: Pagan, Lilith and Ondine. Three beautiful and beguiling black witches.

     

    The bat animation is from GIPHY.

     

     

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    Penny Lover

    Yay! Penny Dreadful is kinda sorta coming back!

    Cast of Penny Dreadful: Josh Hartnett, Eva Green, Danny Sapani, Harry Treadaway and Timothy Dalton

     

    Creator/executive producer John Logan has announced Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will be set in 1930s Los Angeles. Here’s hoping several actors from the original series will return, like fine as hell Josh Hartnett as wolfman Ethan Chandler:

    Josh Hartnett as the fast gun/wolfman Ethan Chandler

     

    Per John Logan: “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will have a social consciousness and historical awareness that we chose not to explore in the Penny Dreadful London storylines,” Logan said. “We will now be grappling with specific historical and real world political, religious, social and racial issues. In 1938, Los Angeles was facing some hard questions about its future and its soul. Our characters must do the same. There are no easy answers. There are only powerful questions and arresting moral challenges. As always in the world of Penny Dreadful, there are no heroes or villains in this world, only protagonists and antagonists; complicated and conflicted characters living on the fulcrum of moral choice.”

    Link: https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/penny-dreadful-city-of-angels-showtime-1203017159/

     

    Eva Green was magnificent as the tortured Vanessa Ives in the original series, which ran from 2014 to 2016 on Showtime.

    Here’s hoping Sembene, played by Danny Sapani gets a second life. I also enjoyed Timothy Dalton as Sir Malcolm Murrary, Rory Kinnear as Frankinstein/John Clare, Reeve Carney as Dorian Gray, Billie Piper as Lily/Brona, but especially Russell Simon Beale as Ferdinand Lyle.

     

    My own supernaturals:

    The rebellious witch Pagan makes an entrance

     

     

    Lovely and ancient Lilith among the crows

     

    The belle of Old New Orleans, Ondine, summons fire
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    Brujería y magia negra

    More witchcraft and black magic gifs, featuring paranormals of color:

     

    Witches 3 – Lilith, Pagan and Ondine

     

    I enjoy creating character promos in-between writing and editing my ebooks:

     

    Ondine in fire

     

     

    Lilith among the crows

     

     

    Witch on a broom – Pagan

     

     

    Ronin Bey – burning embers promo

     

    Stormfront – featuring Karnage the Gargoyle and Pagan the witch

     

    Yuri the vampire and Lilith
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    Witch Lit 101

    Or what I now call how I had to do some serious research on witch folklore, specifically on black witches. I’ll just add that the female witches I’ve created all have history spanning lives, in addition to supernatural soulmates.

    I’ve also created new marketing promos for my upcoming black witches series:

    PAGAN dressed in a modern sexy witch costume.

     

     

    The witch LILITH is greeted by the vampire Yuri.

     

     

    Pictured: The witch ONDINE and warlock Ronin Bey.

     

     

     

     

     

    Lilith, Pagan and Ondine will also be featured in the ebook Long Ago and Far Away

    Pictured: Lovers Joran and Mariah, from the time traveling erotic romance Long Ago and Far Away. Click the pic to read an excerpt.

     

     

     

     

     

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    That Old Black Magic

    They’re three very different witches with three very different paranormal males in their lives:

     

     

    Lilith is an older witch in love with a younger vampire named Yuri:

     

     

    Karnage is a Shíxiàng guǐ (Gargoyle in Chinese)

     

    Karnage Xian – 3D Gargoyle body by Dwarvencurse

     

    Karnage and his lover Pagan the witch.

     

     

    Pictured: The witch Ondine, a Fire Necromancer, and the warlock Ronin Bey.

     

     

    Jean Baptiste aka Ronin Bey

     

     

    Ronin and Ondine in Old New Orleans
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    Crazy Rich (and hot) Asians

    Gonna see Crazy Rich Asians this weekend. In the meantime I’ve been bingeing on one of my favorite action movies, Ninja Assassin

    This movie features the beautiful and talented Naomie Harris as its leading lady, and musical superstar RAIN as the male lead. South Korean born Rain is the ninja Raizo, and the film contains an awesome nod to the past with legendary martial artist and film star Shô Kosugi

    Rain was already a mega K-Pop star before he landed the lead role in Ninja Assassin. He trained for months, and grew his hair out for the part.

    The Trivago guy (actor Tim Williams) is also an extra in the film (the task force officer who lets Mika give Raizo a drink of water) during the scene below:

    Naomie Harris plays Mika, an Europol Forensic Analyst. Rain is Raizo, a ruthless, for hire assassin who goes rogue.

     

    “Oh Mika, Mika. I like you more and more” – Rain, from Ninja Assassin

     

    Naomie Harris and Rain, in the action packed 2009 film Ninja Assassin
  • #BlackGirlMagic,  Of interest

    Black Beauty: “Flexin’ in my Complexion”

    Please, please support Flexin’ in my Complexion, the brainchild and creation of a then ten year old (now eleven) entrepreneur Kheris Rogers:

    Modeling her own creation, Kheris Rogers. This image is from her website: https://www.flexininmycomplexion.com/

     

    “Kheris Rogers can’t forget the grade school humiliation. During an assignment where the students had to draw themselves, the teacher handed the shy dark-skinned girl a black crayon instead of a brown one.

    “I was the darkest of all of them,” the stunning 11 year old recalls of her classmates. “But they were all African-American.”

    Rogers had earlier transferred from another school to escape the incessant bullying. It didn’t work. Her complexion set her apart, a label she couldn’t shed.

    But now Rogers owns her label, literally. Her clothing line is called “Flexin’ In My Complexion.” The brand has caught fire among some big celebrities. . . ”

    Read the full article by Elizabeth Elkin and Ben Burnstein on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/20/health/sisters-anti-bullying-clothing-line-trnd/

     

    Kheris turned this into a teachable moment. Now her clothing line is taking off!

     

    Oscar winner Lupita N’Yongo is also proudly “Flexin’ In My Complexion.”

    Lupita_Flexing in my Complexion

     

     

    If any reader isn’t convinced that this issue is real, please read this speech by Lupita in 2014:  http://wikkidsexycool.com/2014/03/06/waiting-on-the-world-to-change/

     

    What Kheris experienced was intra-racism. Black on black bullying due to her dark skin. For others, it can be because they’re not dark (or their outward appearance, such as their hair and features don’t appear “black”, and thus, some will claim that they’re not black enough).

     

    Party poster based on skin color.  Yes, this was created by black folks.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Colorism isn’t limited to women. Males are affected also. I won’t post his before and after photos here, but baseball great Sammy Sosa is an example of how colorism can even affect someone with Sosa’s stature. 

     

     

    Representation of all the beautiful shades of brown is still needed

     

    Now, for a bit of history. Ranking black individuals is nothing new, and in America, it was practiced during slavery (lighter slaves with more white looking features worked in the Master’s home, while darker slaves usually worked in the fields). There’s the “brown paper bag test” that was used during segregation (skin color checked against a paper bag) and also a poem that went like this:

    If you’re white, you’re all right

    In you’re brown, stick around

    If you’re black, get back . . . 

     

    Ebony Magazine article from 2000: https://preview.tinyurl.com/y8e9odhu