Meet the Paynes

In celebration of the premiere of the first season of Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne,” the Mall at Stonecrest will host a kick-off event featuring cast members of the show “House of Payne,” on Saturday, June 2 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. near lower level near Macy’s. Fans of Tyler Perry are invited to meet members of the cast during an exclusive meet and greet as well as register to win tickets to Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne” Series Premiere which will be held at AMC Stonecrest on Monday, June 4. The show airs on TBS.

Visit Stone Crest at www.mallatstonecrest.com. for more info.

RIP Checker Fred

Actor Carl Wright, who starred in Soul Food, Barbershop and Big Momma's House, has died of cancer at the age of 75.

In Barbershop he played Checkers Fred--the old man in the barbershop who plays Checkers all day. On Big Momma's House he had a crush on Big Mama and wore that sear sucker suit all over town. :) What I find so awesome about him is that his movie career began in 1972. I guess its never too late to make a difference. His bright eyed smile and humor will be missed.

Read more about him here.

For Your Writing/Reading Pleasure

Around this time every year I suffer a mid-year writing crisis where I cringer over how far away I am from my writing dream. Do you do this? What do you do to stop it?

For me I take a writing break and sink myself into a story that I've been longing to read. And then I write it myself. This summer I'm writing a self discovery story about two best friends, who switch places with each other's lives for the summer. I'm a good storyteller, so I will not bog myself down with too many rules. My challenge in fact, is to write with very few rules at all. I simply want to write simple sentences, build simple people into 3D, and write a simple simple and fun and deep summer tale. The kind I like to keep in my beach bag.

What story are you writing just for your reading pleasure?

And...I am still taking nominations for best summer reads. Thanks everyone for their submissions so far.