Why Fiction Matters: Haiti

Praying for Haiti

During my childhood my mom would send my brother and I to Avon Park, Florida for the summer. While there we attend a summer bible study at a local baptist church and was introduced to Haitian immigrant kids who became our summer friends and frienenemies. I was curious about Haiti, I had never heard of the island until then. I've featured her here on the blog After I grew up and moved to Atlanta I was introduced again to the Haitian community when I met my ex-fiance Gaspard. Naturally, I went to the library to learn more and was introduced to the wonderful writings of Edwidge Danticat.She won the American Book Award in 1999 for The Farming of Bones. However, my favorite novel is The Dew Breaker, which on my first book review blog back in 2004 here.

The story is about an American sculptor, who learns that her father was  a "Dew Breaker," a member of the Tonton Macoutes, a group of volunteers who tortured and killed thousands of civilians under the regimes of François and Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti. Incredible story.

My favorite lines...

I immediately regret the question. Is he[father] going to explain why he and my mother have no close friends, why they’ve never had anyone over to the house, why they never speak of any relatives in Haiti or anywhere else, or have never returned there or, even after I learned Creole from them, have never taught me anything else about the country beyond what I could find out on my own, on the television, in newspapers, in books? Is he about to tell me why Manman is so pious? Why she goes to daily Mass? I am not sure I want to know anything more than the little they’ve chosen to share with me all these years, but it is clear to me that he needs to tell me, has been trying to for a long time.

“We have a proverb,” he continues. “One day for the hunter, one day for the prey. Ka, your father was the hunter, he was not the prey.”

 If you are seeking a great read about this torn island, I recommend any of her works.

And no... I will not respond to Pat Robertson' s statement regarding the Haiti earthquake, because it's beneath me.

Trailer Park Tuesday: Why Did I Get Married, Too?

Tonight's Trailer Park Tuesday Movie Spotlight Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married, Too? Four couples reunite for their annual vacation in order to socialize and to spend time analyzing their marriages. Their intimate week in the Bahamas is disrupted by the arrival of an ex-husband determined to win back his recently remarried wife. Releases April 2, 2010.

Trailer Park Tuesday: Facebook Addiction

Happy Tuesday! In honor of New Year's Resolutions our Trailer Park Tuesday spotlight is Nnamdi Osuagwu's Facebook Addiction. Since Facebook opened its gates to more than college students in 2004, its mission to “make the world more open and connected” has done more harm than good for many. Some users have forgone their relationships and responsibilities, in order to Facebook. Parents have reached out to school counselors, corporate HR departments have sought work performance psychologists, and couples have turned to marriage counselors to help their spouses overcome social media addictive behavior. In fact, this past week Facebook Detoxing has been trending online as a top New Year's Resolutions for 2010.

Does the Beloved Community Exist in Christian Publishing?

 

"Too much is given, much is required." Luke 12:48

I want to believe that Christian Publishing is better than mainstream publishing, but it's getting harder to believe by the year, which is sort of sad since this year has just begun.  Yet within eleven days into 2010 I have heard some heart-breaking stories from published Christian authors that blow my mind. And what I read from literary agents blogs, Christian publishing event planners emails, and what Christian readers are buzzing about on Facebook it gets worse. The distance between Christian Publishing and mainstream has gotten shorter, not regarding content, but on what it deems is worthy.
One constant in particular...placing African American authors in the Publishing Ghetto. Huffington Post Leonce Gaiter describes this ghetto as black imprints when he rips into Publishing Weekly article "African-American Books in Today's Marketplace" with his counter "Rejecting the Publishing Ghetto."

However, the PG goes deeper than that. It's not just the creation of separate, but not equal imprints, but it is also a mindset that African-American's letters aren't universal, marketable, noteworthy to Americans, all of them. So from the onset--even before we query an agent or editor, even before we write a word--there is an understood that are works are of little value.
For Christian Writers this Ghetto mentality also means that our works are no value to The Kingdom.
And I refuse to believe that,although I continue to receive more evidence to the contrary.

Continue reading "Does the Beloved Community Exist in Christian Publishing?" »

41st NAACP Image Award Nominees for Literature Announced

 The 41st NAACP Image Awards announced it's  Nominees for

Literature Categories

Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction

• "Basketball Jones" – E. Lynn Harris (deceased) (Doubleday)
• "Before I Forget" – Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Agate Bolden)
• "Life is Short But Wide" – J. California Cooper (Doubleday)
• "The Book of Night Women" – Marlon James Riverhead Books)
• "The Long Fall" – Walter Mosley (Riverhead Books)

Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction 

 

• "Brain Surgeon": A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters With Mortality and Miracles – Arnold Mann with Keith Black, MD (Grand Central Publishing)
• "Family Affair: What It Means to be African American Today" – Gil L. Robertson, IV (Agate Bolden) [Big Kudos, to my buddy, Gil. He is a national treasure & has been helpful to my career]
  
• "Freedom in My Heart: Voices From the United States National Slavery Museum" – Cynthia Jacobs Carter (National Geographic Books)
• "In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past" – Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Crown)
• "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" – Al Gore (Rodale Inc.)

Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author

• "3rd Generation Country" – BeNeca Ward (Xlibris Corporation)
• "A Question of Freedom" – R. Dwayne Betts (Avery Books)
• "Black Water Rising" – Attica Locke (Harper)
• "Kiss the Sky: A Novel" – Farai Chideya (Atria Books)
• "Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange" – Amanda Smyth (Three Rivers Press)

Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Auto-Biography

• "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud" – Dr. Cornel West (SmileyBooks)
• "Michelle Obama" – Deborah Willis (W. W. Norton)
• "POPS: A Life of Louis" – Terry Teachout (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• "Shooting Stars" – LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger (The Penguin Press)
• "Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne" – James Gavin (Atria Books)

Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional

• "Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man" – Steve Harvey (Amistad)
• "The Conversation: How Black Men & Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships" – Hill Harper (Gotham Books)
• "Down to Business" – Clara Villarosa with Alicia Villarosa (Avery Books)
• "Start Where You Are" – Chris Gardner (Amistad)
• "Your Money or Your Life" – Alvin Hall (Atria Books)

Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry

• "Bicycles" – Nikki Giovanni (William Morrow)
• "Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry" – Camille Dungy (The University of Georgia Press)
• "Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem" – Mitchell L. H. Douglas (Red Hen Press)
• "Mixology: National Poetry Series" – Adrian Matejka (Penguin Group)
• "Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall" – Melba Joyce Boyd (Wayne State University Press)

Outstanding Literary Work – Children

• "Child of the Civil Rights Movement" – Paula Young Shelton (Random House Children's Books)
• "Negro Speaks of Rivers" – Langston Hughes (Author), E.B. Lewis (Illustrator) (Disney-Jump at the Sun/Disney Book Group)
• "Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change" – Michelle Cook (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
• "Peeny Butter Fudge" – Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
• "Sugar Plum Ballerinas: Toeshoe Trouble" – Whoopi Goldberg (Disney-Jump at the Sun/Disney Book Group)

Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens

• "Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice" – Phillip Hoose (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• "Just Another Hero" – Sharon Draper (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
• "Mare's War" – Tanita S. Davis (Random House Children's Books)
• "Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady" – David Bergen Brophy (Collins-An Imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books)
• "Rock and the River" – Kekla Magoon (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)

 The awards will air live February 26, 2009 on Fox at 8PM

The Human Heart in Conflict with Itself

A conversation with award-winning author Richard Doster

Richard Doster is the editor of byFaith magazine. He’s been published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is winner of the 2006 and 2008 Evangelical Press Association’s Award of Excellence, and was a Christy Award finalist for best first novel. His work concentrates on Southern fiction: exploring the history, religion, family relationships, sense of community and place, and social tensions that characterize his home region.

In honor of Rev. Doctor Martin Luther, King, Jr.’s birthday, I wanted to chat with Richard about his second novel, Crossing the Lines (David C. Cook).

Doster takes the reader beyond racial stereotypes and reveals the extraordinary nobility of those willing to fight and sacrifice so all Americans can enjoy equality and justice. Continue reading at Christian Fiction Online Magazine Now... then tell me what you think about the rebooted column at CFOM.

#1 PR/Marketing 2010 Book Marketing Tip: Benchmarking Social Media Activity

Happy New Year!

For those of you who didn't live under a bubble last year we experienced a paradigm shift in literary marketing. Public Relations activity trumped Advertising. The down economy, the saturation of books in the marketplace, bookstore and print publication closings left us with little money and outlets to advertise our great books. However, Social Media Services gave us a new playing field that bypassed many gatekeepers and went straight to our market, book buyers. Unfortunately, many of us destroyed our fan based and brand because we don't understand New Media Marketing and have yet to become educated on how to use it. Sure there are many social media rockstars, gurus and authorpreneurs(my most unfavorite new word of last year) who will sell you that they have the magic formula to cracking the converting social media activity into book sales code.

They don't.

Others will try to sell you that their social media marketing kit is the only way to successfully market your book.

Impossible.

And the others will tell you that the only way to sell your book is online.

Ridiculous.

Since we're starting the new year off with reflective and receptive hearts, heed my words: Benchmark your literary PR efforts, especially the social media kind.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How am I measuring my social media activity success?
• How much of that activity converts into book sales?
• Which efforts are successful?
• How many publishing gatekeepers have I connected with and have forged relationships via social media that have improved my sales contract goals?
  
• How can I improve in all areas of social media marketing?
• Have my content become viral, if not, why?
  

If you don't know the answers to those questions, then your goal for this year is to get the necessary education, tools, and help to know those answers as soon as possible.