Many thanks to all the readers of my books. I’ll have new offerings out shortly, like a novella featuring the sister-witches of Long Ago and Far Away:
Pagan, Lilith and Ondine, the sister witches from Long Ago and Far Away.
Sister witches Lilith, Pagan and Ondine
Meet Lilith, the oldest and strongest of the three. Her heart belows to the vampire Yuri:
Pictured: Lilith and Yuri. Also pictured: Yuri and his brother Maxxim
Dear readers,
You’ll never know how badly I wish this story had a happy ending. As a writer, I get the ability to craft a tale that can have a HEA or a HFN (happy for now). Not so in real life. You see, the cancer that ravaged my mom these past few years has finally silenced her bright light.
I wouldn’t be where I am today without her, or my dad. She was the rock of the family, the woman who schooled me on what life was like during segregation. She not only told it like it was, but she told it like it is.
I don’t mind sharing my stories, but I’m pretty guarded about my private life. Still, I take comfort in the knowledge that her pain has ended. Rest in peace, Mom.
Posted in #BlackGirlMagic, Adult Novellas, E books, Scifi, Uncategorized
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I dunno. But I know one thing, NOT UP IN HERE!
Meet Leonidas Sinclair. Fighter. Lover. World saver. A raider of the land, sea and skies.
The wait is almost over . . .
Pictured from left to right: Kadek Noam, Janhoy 1st Class. Upper right: The Child King, Tydaris Ridae, Cura Rigis Divine. Lower Right: Leonidas Sinclair, Man of Many Centuries. Steampunk model with braids by Photographer Kit Stolen
The Mad Queen of OFFWORLD
Alessia from OFFWORLD
The Way We Were. I found these really cool old photos that depict the black middle class:
Black culture in the 1930s
In their Sunday best:
Young boys in 1941
My condolences and prayers go out to the families affected by the horrible, senseless tragedy in Manchester, England. As a parent, seeing pictures of those beautiful youngsters and adults whose lives have been cut short brings back my own loss of a child.
Whether the loved one is in Syria or England, or the US, the pain never goes away. May God give strength.
About that Into the Badlands finale
This GIF of Veil and Sunny is by Yemme:
The 2nd season finale of Into the Badlands – Total viewers: 1,369 million
18-49 rating : 0.5
Link: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-cable-ratings-may-21-2017/
Season 1 finale -Dec 20, 2015 – Total Viewers: 2159 million
18-49 rating: 0.8
Considering the almost two year gap between the first and second season, Into The Badlands had decent ratings for its 10 episode second season. Since the show was must-see TV for my family, just about every television in my household was tuned to the Into The Badlands marathon on Sunday. And after the Cleveland Cavaliers blew a 21 point lead over the Boston Celtics, I was really hoping Into The Badlands would give me a finale I could put on repeat viewings.
Alas, it was not to be. Someone at AMC (the show is owned and bankrolled by AMC) or with the executive production staff of ITB decided to kill off the only person who was able to make the usually morose hero, Sunny, smile. And show some damn emotion. Veil was the woman Sunny loved enough to fight his way back to.
Veil, portrayed by actress Madeleine Mantock.
That’s the kind of hard love that romantics live for. That’s the kind of shit that has a woman saying, “You better bring it like Sunny.”
Only . . . Sunny is now a single parent, much like the old westerns of yesteryear, Bonanza (Ben Cartwright had sons Adam, Hoss and Little Joe by three different wives who’d died), The Virginian and The Rifleman. And like several classic Disney movies (The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast) the saintly, but dead mama trope card was pulled.
Not only that, but the show walked a tightrope with another trope, where the black character proves how “good” they are with a selfless act. Literature is rife with this trope, as it usually afflicts characters of color (see Gunga Din, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Imitation of Life -book and the films).
It’s also important to note that US shows would use the dearly departed mama trope to garner not only sympathy, but a revolving door of attractive female guest stars to pair with their widowed lead actor.
From fairy tales that added an evil step-mother to the mix, to often told cultural stories highlighting the adventures of a father and child left to navigate the cold cruel world together, killing mama off has a long history in both literature and film.
In the case of ITB, Veil was still nursing her infant son. Which means Sunny will need to find a total stranger (female of course) who is also nursing. Chances are that task will fall upon either Lydia or Jade to find a willing surrogate, but I suspect the show will probably gloss over this or omit it all together since it brings up a host of other “things that make you go hmm.”
In this feudal future, women are either sex slaves (called Dolls) Cogs, Clippers, or Barons. There may be male dolls, however I don’t recall seeing them. Veil was the rare exception. She was a healer/doctor and could read. Her backstory was that Quinn, having found her as an infant, had given her to a couple who were indebted to him to raise.
Veil had her own shop in town where she’d been working on an assortment of artificial limbs and mobility devices for cogs. As a healer, Veil had taken an oath to save lives. However, she wasn’t above giving Tilda, one of the Widow’s clippers, the means to poison the woman. Veil also possibly prolonged her own life by pretending Quinn’s brain tumor was in remission (he murdered Veil’s parents once her father initially diagnosed Quinn’s ailment. In typical Quinn fashion, he couldn’t have anyone know that he was dying, so he got rid of the only two people who could reveal his secret).
Veil’s demise had been foreshadowed ever since she told Sunny she was pregnant (Sunny warned her that the penalty was death, probably because he was a Clipper, and Clippers weren’t free men). Sunny also had a nightmare while he was at death’s door about Veil’s death. In addition, another Clipper (Moon) warned him of his own family’s murder, and that in their line of work, having loved ones was a liability.
Okay, I get that. However what’s puzzling is why the show decided to dumb down the ultimate fighter, Sunny, and turned Quinn into someone harder to kill than the Terminator in order to make Veil’s death happen. Listen, I even have reservations on the show killing Quinn. I’ve been a fan of actor Martin Csokas for a long time. He chewed the scenery with his chilling, over the top delivery, so a new villain will have a hard time besting Martin’s characterization.
Martin Csokas as Quinn
Both Sunny and Quinn took so much physical abuse that I wondered if they were robots instead of people. Sunny survived two explosions (one at The Widow’s compound, then when he entered Quinn’s underground lair, fighting off flaming arrows that pierced his shoulder blade and a leg). He’s also stabbed in the lower abdomen by a sai wielding Quinn, after he slices and dices his way deeper into Quinn’s underground hideout with Bajie’s help. To set up Veil’s demise, Sunny’s somehow unable to deliver a death blow throughout the battle with Quinn, even after missing the mark during the season one finale. This mars an otherwise terrific fight to the death sequence, where Martin Csokas (or his stunt double) more than holds his own against the Badland’s best clipper.
Sunny delivers a blow that would’ve killed any other mortal. But Quinn takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The lighting and cinematography on this scene is gorgeous.
I’m happy that Into the Badlands was renewed for a third season, but the heart of the show has just been ripped out and stomped on, imho.
I’ve got a few issues to clear up with the formatting of my ebooks, so I’m changing the release dates (hey, I do all this by my lonesome, in addition to working 9-5).
Wish I could devote more time to writing and self-pubbing, but I can’t.
I’m going to clear these issues up and still plan for a release this month.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank a techie friend for helping me retrieve files that went down with my old computer’s hard drive.
RIP Prince.
His Purple Majesty, the one and only PRINCE
The hairstyles of Prince through the years:
From Slate Magazine, 2014. Artist Gary Card chronicles the various hairstyles of PRINCE. Click the image to be re-directed to a larger portrait
It’s also in GIF form:
It’s that time of year again. I call it March Madness, which loosely coincides with the college hoops March Madness.
For a set amount of days I’ll have a selection of my Sneak Peek excerpts listed for free on Amazon.com (including new ones). I use these excerpts for promotional purposes. My Elite Eight starts on March 20th.
Pictured: Comedienne Honi Hawkins, upper left. Her nephew, stand up comic David Latimore (center) from the ebook The Queen of Comedy
A couple more edited photos for my WSC Romance Image Gallery
Edited stock photo, changed to show IR couple.
I’ll have another excerpt from TQOC posted shortly.
While I ready The Player and HUI for release, I thought I’d share something I found via Dear Author (by way of BuzzFeed). Please take a moment to look at these (which are just a few of many) stunning photos of Nigerian Brides! I’ve left the instagram account info on the photos, so if you want to pop over to bellanaijaweddings to leave a comment, you can.
TCB is an older term that means Take care of business. It can be heard on Aretha Franklin’s classic hit “Respect.”
I’ve got a number of books to release, one of which is IVY League (but not before HUI, The Player and At Last)
The ballerina IMANI from the interracial romance HUI
WARNING this is just a rant, so excuse me while I scream ARRAGHHH!!
Why do some publishers do this? Why do they completely ignore the diversity of their reading audience and also diverse writers?
Before I self-published in 2012, I was and still am a voracious reader. Yet some publishers still choose to ignore people of color and other groups whenever they advertise their authors.
Note to Montlake. Crowing about your new releases that only show white couples is an EPIC FAIL. Think of the message you’re sending, that this is the only target group you either care about or that you don’t have any books ready for release that celebrate diversity.
If either one is the case. GET ON IT, quickly. If playing with the big boys of publishing means exclusivity and not being inclusive, then I repeat, think of the message that you’re sending.
Montlake isn’t alone in doing this sort of thing, so this rant also goes for other big publishers out there who fill their front web pages and newsletters with book covers that inadvertently (or purposely) tell the reader that the only romance worth having is when the couples are of the same race, or that you can never have enough covers showing model worthy white lovers. What about Asian cover models? Or African? Or African American? Or First Nation, just to give a few examples of the under-represented.
Or bi-racial, like the President of our country?
This is 2014, not 1940. Why Montlake, did I click on your site to see a WTF wall full of this:
****I decided against posting any screen shots. This is no fault of the authors themselves, and I don’t want this rant to be viewed as such.****
Okay, I’m done. And yes, I feel a bit better now 🙂
Posted in E books, New Adult, Paranormal romance, Uncategorized, YA Fantasy, YA Paranormal
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I was so excited when I saw this poster, because I thought WOLVES would be a weekly TV series starring Jason Momoa.
It’s not, but who knows? Perhaps it will be. Right now its a soon to be released film about werewolves.
I couldn’t resist doing some photo editing:
I love Werewolves, and I’ve been a fan ever since the old black and white classic with Lon Chaney Jr. started playing on television. Lon wasn’t a Werewolf though. He was a Wolf Man. But his angst over becoming a monster by the light of the full moon and hurting the woman he loved was way before the whole Interview with the Vampire and Twilight craze (No surprise that I was team Jacob from the get-go).
More interracial covers are coming from WSC books with the protags physically together. I think I may have stumbled onto a pretty good technique for recoloring photos and editing. There are a number of steps involved in matching the skin color of the model, but I’ve made new covers that I hope look a bit more natural, especially when the photos are enlarged:
Another edited photo of mine for an upcoming novel featuring an Asian leading male.
This new GIF promo will be moved to the sidebar:
Okay, so tomorrow, (Friday May 2nd ) **correction **. I had to change the dates. The freebies start on Saturday May 3rd until May 5th. there will be a free multi-chapter promo ebook release of RUSH. The download on Amazon will be FREE for three days (Friday Saturday, Sunday and Monday). It will be FREE.
The Sneak Peek of RUSH is currently for sale on Amazon at .99 cents, but the free promotion starts tomorrow.
Hopefully, readers will want to purchase the full book. If you can, please spread the word.
Why should you read RUSH?
Motorcycles. Money. Mayhem. RUSH
Come for the romance. Stay for the storyline of a motorcycle gang member who tries to balance his love for a Somali Bantu refugee with his criminal lifestyle.
From the novel:
“All it took was a timid finger to graze over my balls and I had a surge of lust. I started pumping like I’d been energized. Aaliyah crossed her arms around my neck and held on for the ride of her life, because I was hitting her spot hard. How did I know it was getting good to her? Because for the first time she was matching me thrust for thrust and moan for moan.” – Aiden “Ghost” De Lucca of RUSH
The Sweet Sixteen teams in the NCAA tournament will be set this week, but I’ve gone ahead and picked my final four Sneak Peeks for Amazon.com:
RUSH
Motorcycle gang member Aiden falls for Somali Bantu refugee Aaliyah, in the ebook RUSH
Scenes from RUSH
GAIJIN
A free woman of color is enslaved in 1860s Japan
Click for larger image:
Gaijin – A Colored Maiden’s Voyage and Recollections of Japan in the 1860s
Miss Brighton’s School for Exceptional Young Ladies
Miss Brighton’s School for Exceptional Young Ladies
A time traveler must alter the past to ensure the world has a future
And the final Sneak Peek slot goes to . . .
Download December was such a success, it’s being repeated with our own romance March Madness! Starting March 18th to March 20th, free downloads of several ebook excerpts will be available.
Multi-chapter excerpts that are called SNEAK PEEKS (these excerpts are much larger than the free views available on this site) will be up at Amazon. Get a first look at several released and soon to be released books:
Trinidad beauty queen falls for NFL player
The Player
Miss Brighton’s School for Exceptional Young Ladies
Please spread the word as WSC spreads the love this March!
If someone questions why there’s a need for more diverse representation (for example book covers and content) but also in other forms of media besides publishing, please refer them to this heartfelt speech by recent Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o. Nyong’o spoke at Essence magazine’s Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon, after winning the Best Breakthrough Performance award. She recalls a letter she got from a young girl, and how she could relate:
“ . . . I too remember a time when I would turn on the TV and only see pale skin. I got teased and taunted about my night shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter skinned.
“The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself before I was in front of a mirror, because I wanted to see my fair face first. And every day I experienced just the same disappointment at being just as dark as I had been the day before.
“I tried to negotiate with God. I told him I would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what I wanted. I would listen to my mother’s every word and never lose my school sweater again if he just made me a little lighter. But, I guess God was unimpressed with my bargaining chips because I never woke up lighter.”
“ . . . And then Alek Wek came on the scene. A celebrated model, she was dark as night,” she said, adding: “I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman that looked so much like me as beautiful. Now I had a spring in my step because I felt more seen, more appreciated by the far-away gatekeepers of beauty.”
Posted in Adult Novella, Contemporary Romance, E books, Uncategorized, Women's fiction
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I’ve put up excerpts from The Player and The 13th Step.
The Player
The 13th Step would be categorized as women’s fiction, though there is an erotic relationship in the book. It’s also part suspense and features an older heroine (she’s forty-five). Click either photo for a blurb and an excerpt.
More to come . . .
So . . . I finally linked the GIF I’d created for RUSH to a free excerpt page. Instead of putting up the same GIF on this post, I’m linking it to the new photos of Aaliyah and Aiden that I’ve edited:
My breasts are like new buds on a tree, yet men continue to stare, wondering aloud what delights I hide from them under my hijab. I have two arms and two legs like other girls, but sometimes my classmates taunt us, saying we have horns and tails and no one stops them, not even my teachers. Students join in the laughter, making me think that high school will be hard, even harder than the refugee camp. There I knew what I faced each day. I knew when my stomach spoke, only food would quiet it. But here, there is always something new to learn. And each day I must choose between what is haraam – forbidden, unlawful – and halaal.
– Aaliyah, from the ebook RUSH
Aaliyah and Aiden
Over at Dear Author, Jane is taking requests from readers (and authors) on What’s Not Being Published that You Want to Read
There are a number a really good suggestions, and for any author who wonders where the idea for their next great novel might come from (not just in the romance genre) this wish list may be just the thing. I had fun matching up what I’m either currently working on or have already released with many of the requests.
I got pretty close with RUSH. But perhaps other novels like QUEENSREALM, Gaijin, and Valerius Rex might be of interest for those who requested more Scifi and historical romance with diverse characters.
Valerius Rex, a sword and sandals tale set during the Crusades
Oops! I can’t forget JUKEBOX Volume One, since its set during the racial upheaval of the 60s, and features a male lead who goes from being a Rockabilly singer to a Blue Eyed Soul Man. Eli Burr pairs with the daughter of rights activist, and they become the first interracial male/female duo in Pop music. While Eli has to hide his sexual orientation once he becomes a teen idol, the female lead ends up getting death threats and has the pressure of representing her race in a positive light, because that was VERY important back then.
Dare to go There:
I’ve put up a couple of brief excerpts tonight, where the stories start with uncomfortable scenes. I don’t want to say much more than that, but the excerpts are from the ebook novellas The Player and Love and Baseball.
Love and Baseball.Canadian First Nations teen falls for Barbados beauty
Both ebooks are contemporary romances. Here’s how Love and Baseball starts:
They called it a Ghetto Blast, and the frat house hosts were wearing afro wigs, holding beer and giving each other fake gang signals. Some were even posing for pictures, calling out to one another and those entering the house with “fo shizzle, my nizzle.”
Click the image to get the full sized spread:
Should anyone question why this is news, please read this article:
Girls on Film: Women of Color, Move to the Right
By Monika Bartyzel Feb 02, 2012
Vanity Fair isn’t known for getting its annual Hollywood Issue right. Each year we are graced with a thick, Tinseltown-studded release of widely recognized talent and new faces the magazine swears will hit it big. But many consider recognition from Vanity Fair a curse. A good number of these fresh actors never make it beyond the work that got them cover recognition in the first place – actors like Skeet Ulrich, Fairuza Balk, Gretchen Mol, Rufus Sewell, and two-time cover girl Selma Blair. But these cover-starring choices aren’t just about hot names with potentially successful careers; it’s also a matter of hotness and whiteness.
Link:
Besides the debut of The Men of Hilton Hall serial, the novellas You Give Good Love and RUSH will be released early this month (I’m working hard on making it this Wednesday, Feb 5th).
There’s also the side bar blog post of The Tools of Seduction, where I list the scenes from some of my books that have the leads coming together in various romantic ways.
First though, here’s a brief excerpt from You Give Good Love, where the Russian/African American heroine Marina Roth gets her first glimpse of Eric Decker:
Marina, from YOU GIVE GOOD LOVE
Excerpt from You Give Good Love:
Okay, okay. My daughter says nobody cares about their meeting. She wanted me to post something a bit more erotic:
“I’d worship every part of you,” his said, while his thumb circled her nipple with a maddening, airy touch. Worst of all, he stopped just when she could feel herself clinch. “But I can respect that we just met, and you don’t know me-”
Damn it. She wanted him to stuff his mouth with her breasts. She wanted his face buried in her crotch. “Oh will you just shut up.” She fisted his collar, pulling his face to hers. Now this was a man who knew how to kiss. Her hands moved to span his chest so she could touch every muscle, from his six pack abs to those hard as rock pectorals. She could swear he groaned once his lips left hers. Sugar, we’re going down. ‘Cause his perfect orb of a head was descending right where it could do the most good. And the most damage.
Here’s the “meeting” excerpt:
With their bout moving fast and furious, she managed to nick him in the cheek with a counterpunch. In response he gave her a wicked smile. At least he was smart enough not be a braggart. There was no macho posing, no beckoning with his fingers for her to bring it. That kind of posturing was only done in the movies. In a real fight, the cooler head and skill set usually triumphed. But the operative word was “usually” because they were both at a disadvantage with the amount of people boxing them in.
Busy dancing out of the way as he attacked, she couldn’t help wondering what the hell they fighting for. On a hunch, Marina gave him the universal sign for stop. With her arm outstretched she held up her palm. Her other hand snaked around to her backside and the waistband of her pants, where she pulled out a 9mm. With both of her arms raised above her head she gave him an choice. And a way out. Contemplating her offer, his satiny black as night brows lowered, almost blocking out large upturned eyes that were just as dark. Then he backed just far enough out of reach to give her reason to hope.
Posted in Contemporary Romance, E books, New Adult, Paranormal romance, Uncategorized, Women's fiction
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First, here’s the link to a three chapter excerpt from the upcoming ebook RAZHER, Rise of the Gargoyles excerpt
I love men, I cannot lie. I find them fascinating, at times infuriating and oh so SEXY. So while I’ve got ebooks pairing African American heroines with white males, rest assured that I haven’t forgotten men of color. There are more ebooks coming out with male protags of Asian, African, African American, Hispanic and First Nations heritage. I’m also starting a series based on five males who share a dorm (suite) in college, but I think it will be in serial form, and housed on this site for the first few chapters.
My goal is to tie in characters from other books who pop up every now and then. I’m also still editing away, because a writer’s work is never done, especially if you write and edit your own books (like I do). I’m also working on promos so that I lessen the eye strain of editing text only, and here’s a peek at a few of them:
