Pearl Cleage is coming to the blog!

Big news: Pearl Cleage is doing a Q&A with the Pajama Gardener! She answers questions about her plays and books and her writing process. I will post our discussion Monday May 5. Spread the word and stay tuned!

To recap, the contest will be launched on May 3 and Pearl will visit us on May 5. May is looking great!

Quirky? Who me?

The fabulous Ladylee tagged me for a meme. Here are the rules:

Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules in your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged

My quirks (well 6 of them that I can share here, anyway):

1) I enjoy the sound of my husband chewing popcorn. At night, if I’m lying around reading a book and he starts to eat a bowl of popcorn, it’ll put me right to sleep. It’s very relaxing. I've been known even to ask him to make popcorn so I can listen to him eat it.

2) I have to keep everything I need to know in eyesight. So that means piled on my desk, pinned on corkboards, written on a white board or on a million sticky notes around my desk. My clothes are mostly in piles in my bedroom or hanging on the back of the closet door or the bedroom door (where I can see them). Seriously, if it’s out of sight I forget about it. Halloween candy can hide out until next Halloween as long as it’s put away. This is how bad it is: I’ve “found” clothes I actually forgot I owned because they were hung in my closet. I’ve bought a pair of shoes EXACTLY like ones I already had at home because I forgot I had them because they were in the back of the closet.

3) Since my friend Diane enjoys this quirk of mine so much, I’ll include it. Even though I no longer do it. I used to cross out the candies in the See’s Chocolates catalog I didn’t like and circle (and sometimes number in order of deliciousness) the candies I did like. Since I only have sugar-free or low-sugar chocolate now (Dagoba is the best!), it kind of takes the fun out of the See’s catalog.

4) I like raisins and bread. But I only like raisin bread if there aren’t too many raisins in it.

5) I lost the ability to tell right from left (without a lot of thought and then I’m still wrong half the time) after my mother died. When giving directions, she used to have to pretend to sign her name to figure out which way was right and which was left. (She was right-handed so the hand that was moving was the right hand.) Before she died I didn’t have a problem with it.

6) We feed our cats every 3 hours. We can’t leave food down all day because Vishnu will eat until the food is gone or he explodes, whichever comes first. But Hazel spent the 10 years before Vishnu came to live with us (a dark day in Hazel history) eating 60 3-bite meals a day. So if she “meal feeds” twice a day, she barfs. The compromise is small meals throughout the day. Whether we trained the cats to eat every 3 hours or they trained us to feed them every 3 hours, I couldn’t tell you. But I’d put money on the cats.


What an exercise this would be for developing characters!


I’ll tag Sustenance Scout, Mary Ann, Lafreya, Urban Conjure Woman, Gina Black, and Kwana.

Events for the merry, merry month of May

This Thursday (May 1) at 7 p.m. I'll be in Fort Collins at The Reader's Cove. Northern Colorado folks, please join me!

Saturday, May 3 I'll launch a contest on the blog--another way you can get a signed copy of Orange Mint and Honey. (listen up, Demon Hunter!)

Friday, May 9 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. I'll be at the Underground Railroad Bookstore in Green Valley Ranch (NE Denver) for a discussion about mother-daughter relationships and a book-signing.

Sunday, May 11 Give mom a copy of Orange Mint and Honey.

Monday, May 26 I'll be swimming in a vat of margaritas for my birthday. Whoo hoo!

Thursday, May 29 at 5:30 I'll be signing at a reception for African American booksellers at BEA in L.A.

Saturday, May 31st (Time to be announced) I'll be at the Leimert Park Book Festival in L.A.

What are your plans for May?

Congratulations Lafreya!!!

This is just the best news! Lafreya has an agent for her novel! Lafreya was one of this blog's first readers and commenters, a friend of the blog since I started it. I'm so happy for her! Go over to her site and read about what it was like when she got the news--and congratulate her!

Lafreya, can't wait to BUY YOUR BOOK and feature you on my blog!!!

And kudos to Josephine Damian for spreading the news!

Poet Mark Strand in town

Mark Strand will be at the Lighthouse Writer's Spring Studio weekend, May 3 and 4. Strand is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, former US Poet Laureate, and one of the leading writers of his generation. His work--both poetry and prose--is wonderfully nuanced, dreamlike, and reverberant. Of his work, Harold Bloom has said "These poems instantly touch a universal anguish as no confessional poems can," and Louis Gluck has said that his work "infuses a wry tenderness; the wit we have come to expect has developed into a wildly supple instrument, a sort of celestial shrug. Poetry at this level manifests profound wisdom."

The New Yorker has written: "A poet of commanding intellect and haunting imagery, he catches glimmers that hover at the furthest reaches of consciousness." The New York Time Book Review wrote, "Strand's poems resonate with a shimmering sense of the infinite that befits his stature... His apparently simple lines have the eerie, seductive ring of the inevitable."

Here's one of his best known poems, just to give you a taste of his work.

Eating Poetry
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man,
I snarl at her and bark,
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.


For more samples of his work, check out the Lighthouse blog.

Gardening for peace

NOTE: Commenter #4 can still get a copy of Orange Mint and Honey!


Pearl Cleage's latest book Seen it All and Done the Rest is, of course, wonderful. One of the things I love about her books is there's always at least one character who still believes in peace, love and understanding. The character in this latest is Abbie, who we've seen before in Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do. In this book Abbie lobbies for starting a peace garden:

"We have to find a way to do whatever it takes to reclaim our country. And it doesn't have to be something big. It can be something that seems small. Something that helps you remember the good things. Focus on your neighbors. Focus on the mountains behind your house. Focus on any grandbaby you can find. Focus on music you sing with other people. Focus on growing something. That's why we're making a garden here and that's why we're going to call it the Martin Luther King Peace Garden Number One. Because if we can grow sunflowers on Martin Luther King Drive, maybe we can grow sunflowers in Baghdad, too."

Amen.

I haven't planted sunflowers in a while, but this just might be the year for them again. I'm going to plant for peace this year, what about you? Anybody else up for having a peace garden?

Tell you what, be the first person to leave a comment here that you'll plant something, ANYTHING, for peace this year and I'll send you Pearl's book.

Be the second person to tell me you'll plant for peace and I'll send you a copy of Walk Tall, which has a bright, cheery sunflower on the cover and words of peace inside.

I'll send the third person a copy of Orange Mint and Honey because that has a peace garden (of sorts) in it too.

Peace.

A little East Coast swing

Philly was fun. Actually, my signing was in Willow Grove, a suburb of Philly. On Friday, my cousins and I planned to go to Media to see a friend of mine and then drive down to a botanic garden. You know, me being "the pajama gardener" and all. Well, Shirley got VIP tix to go to a rally in Center City for Obama. Garden schmarden. Whatev. We went to see Obama! (Leslie and Kieran don't hate.)

Now if Obama looks a little flat and two dimensional here it's NOT because he's made of cardboard. They've been campaigning hard in PA and the man was a little tired.

Okay, so this isn't the real Obama. They had cardboard cut-outs of Hillary, Barack and McCain at a store in the 30th Street Train Station. Guess who everybody (except one little girl) wanted their picture with? VIP tix gave us access to the same block where he was speaking. The rally was on Independence Mall, which is about 3 blocks long. It was packed. The estimate in the paper the next day was 35,000 people. I swear I got tears in my eyes at the sight of a black man who could actually be president speaking between the buildings where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written.

He spoke about 20 minutes and knocked it out of the park as far as we Obamaniacs were concerned. (I'm a proud member!) The best part, though, was after the official rally when all 35,000 of us were leaving we continued the party. We chanted "Obama!" and "Yes we can!" and waved and screamed and folks honked their horns as we marched up Broad Street to City Hall. There was so much energy and enthusiasm and, yes, hope in the crowd of all colors, ages, classes, abilities, genders, you name it. As one woman next to me said, "We drank the Kool-Aid. And oh it comes in so many diverse flavors." I piped in that it certainly was refreshing. Then his motorcade went by and he rolled down his window and waved at us. Folks really lost their minds! I started to worry for the man as people chased his car.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure and honor of speaking to the Expressions and Exchanges Book Clubs. My cousins put together this event for their book clubs and friends, sorority sisters and relatives. These sisters are readers and it was so satisfying to know that people were actually getting what I was trying to say.

What a wonderful turnout and discussion we had! Thank you, ladies!!

Some members of the Exchanges Book Club, which has been meeting for more than 20 years!

Some members of the Expressions Book Club, which has been meeting 14 years. I was the first author they had at one of their meetings when Walk Tall came out.

I love this woman!

Sorry! This used to be a video of Michelle Obama on The Colbert Report. She was gracious, funny and so smart. Love her! You might still be able to find it on Comedy Central's site.

Love from Philly!

Barrels of fun!

Just returned from Kris Radish' reading at the Highlands Ranch Tattered Cover. After an hour on the road, because Highlands Ranch is friggin far and because I can't read directions, I made it for what was a really fun evening. Kris handed out presents (one lucky reader got a t-shirt) that tied in to her books. She talked about her latest book Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA and talked a bit about what her idea of paradise is. She didn't wear the ears for the whole signing. Just till she got our attention.

Kris is a genius at branding herself and her books. Lots for a newbie novelist to learn there. She had women in the audience who had come out last year and have read all her novels. (This is her first hardcover.) One reader even brought Kris a bottle of wine! Now, that's a loyal audience! Cough. Not that I'm hinting to my readers or anything.

Speaking of my readers, tomorrow night at 7 p.m., I'm going to be at the Southglenn Library, 7500 South University Boulevard (Dry Creek and University), where I will read to, sign for and ply my audience with treats. I promise it will be loads of fun! I'll leave the house at noon to make sure I'll be there on time! Hope you can make it.

I got home in time to watch The Daily Show. Jon Stewart's take on having an "elitist" president was funny and EXACTLY the way I feel. I want a president way smarter and way better than me!

Now on to The Colbert Report, which is being broadcast from Philadelphia UNTIL I GET THERE of course, when the show returns to NYC. Damn you, Colbert!

Cover art

My editor has her first meeting with the design crew for Children of the Waters today. Seriously? Already?! Yep. We're currently scheduled for release this time next year. So now's the time to get started.

Over the weekend, I spent some time cruising book covers to see what I liked. I also looked on stock photography sites for images that could apply to my story. I emailed my ideas to my editor who will share them with design. However, as most of you probably know, they're only suggestions. The publisher gets the final say about the cover. My editor has been very good about keeping me in the loop, though, so I hope my ideas will at least give the designer a place to start. Children of the Waters is about connection, race, identity and what really makes a family. So an image like this could work.

One of the characters in my story has an ancestor altar. I made one and took a photo of it. I think a similar (professional) picture could make a compelling cover.

(The jigsaw puzzle pieces are a key element of the plot.)

This novel has spiritual and mystical aspects in it, so I'd love an image that speaks to that (and like puzzle pieces flower petals are a recurring image in the story).

Then I saw this lovely image on Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez' blog, and I'd be open to an illustration or painting too. Interestingly, her post was about an ancestor shrine and she mentions her late grandmother...readers of this blog might remember the late grandmother plays a part in my story!

I'm curious: What kinds of covers grab your attention?

My Town Monday: You call this art?

Denver has a new piece of public art. It's located at Denver International Airport, which since I am traveling often to promote my book I get to see way too much of. Our public arts folks are googly-eyed over it, but I find it hideous. Even worse than ugly, it doesn't mean anything to me. It's supposed to be about movement and power. OK. So why is it blue? Why does it have Satanic red eyes? And thick black veins going through it (which this picture spares you from)? I'm not inclined to be one of those people who think art should mean something obvious. Or should always be "pretty." But boy this mustang doesn't do it for me.

And it's not our only piece of not-so-great public art. We also have a big blue bear (we like big blue animals for some reason), which peeks into the Convention Center. It's cute. And amusing. Ha, ha, a big blue bear is looking inside at all the conventioneers. But...art?

However, my votes for the worst public sculptures are these:

These stick-figure dancers hang out in front of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Whatever planet these folks are from, can we send them back? Please. Perhaps these "big giant heads" (which Hubby actually likes) located in City Park can help them find their way home.

Anybody moved by some public art in Denver or somewhere else?

Have you bid yet?

The ebay fundraisier for the Dunbar Village victims ends Sunday. Last chance to bid on signed books and help with your poems, stories, novels and other projects from writers who know what they're doing.

Thanks to all who've already bid or sent checks!!

Kris Radish coming to town

How could you not love a writer named after a vegetable? Just like her name, her writing is fresh and delicious. Kris will be at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 15th reading and signing her new book Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA. What better way to start spending that tax rebate than buying a book (or bidding on getting your own writing reviewed by an expert!)?

From Kris' website:

Welcome to Paradise and the hilarious, inspirational, and sizzling hardcover debut of author Kris Radish. Searching for Paradise in Parker PA is a story of how one woman's search for happiness within her marriage -- and within herself -- turns a whole town upside down.

When Lucky Lipton wins a trip to Paradise -- a.k.a. Costa Rica -- his wife Addy hopes they will be able to turn their marriage around. But on the day of their departure, Lucky fractures his back tossing their luggage into his truck. With the husband she barely knows anymore parked indefinitely on the couch, Addy decides its time to make big changes-and drastic choices.Addy begins a crusade to revive her dreams -- and she takes the women of Parker, Pennsylvania along for the wild ride.

Soon Parker men will realize they'll have to step up to the plate to keep their wives and lovers happy. And an entire town is about to learn that to reach Paradise, you must travel through your heart-and to get there, you might not even have to leave home.

Kris is asking readers to share their ideas of paradise. Mine involves a hammock, turquoise waters, smooth beach, warm sun, and drinks with umbrellas in them. What's yours?

Dunbar Village

Monday is when Travis and friends blog about their towns. Today, I'm blogging about my virtual town: my blog community and the power of banding together across the internet. We've all helped each other immensely. I'm making a pitch today for us to help someone else:

Tayari Jones has put together a fabulous fundraising auction to help support the victims of the Dunbar Village crimes. (If you don't know the story, gang members did something really, really, terrible to a mother and her son. If you have a strong spirit, you can read about it here. If you don't have a strong spirit, just take my word.)

Many creative folks have joined with Tayari (myself included) to offer autographed books and services for writer-types (like manuscript critiques!). Please go over to ebay and bid. There's something for everybody who reads this blog. I've donated a signed copy of Orange Mint and a review of a nonfiction book proposal.

Tayari, George Saunders, Nichelle Tramble,Sarah Schulman, Laila Lalami, Joy Castro, Martha Southgate, D. Nurkse, and Honoree Fanonne Jeffers are offering fiction manuscript critiques. Check out that list!!

If you just want to write a check to help the family, here's where to send it:

Individuals who would like to donate money to the victims can go to any Wachovia Bank and donate to the St. Ann’s Victim’s Assistance Fund. Donations will go directly to the mother and her son.St. Ann’s Catholic Church will accept donations. Checks can be made payable to the "Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund - St. Ann’s". Donations can be mailed to: St. Ann’s Catholic Church, 310 N. Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401.

Fascinating look at the writing process

This is a short video of Donna Grant and Virginia DeBerry talking about how they write together. Really interesting look inside 2 successful writers' (though they count themselves as 1 author) lives. In a fit of generosity I gave a cousin my copy of Gotta Keep on Tryin'. Now I gotta get another copy!

Thanks Connie Briscoe for letting me know about it! (Psst, Connie has lots of other good info for writers at her blog on writing and publishing.)

Message from the Authors Guild

Amazon tightens grip on long tail


Last week Amazon announced that it would be requiring that all books that it sells that are produced through on-demand means be printed by BookSurge, their in-house on-demand printer/publisher. Amazon pitched this as a customer service matter, a means for more speedily delivering print-on-demand books and allowing for the bundling of shipments with other items purchased at the same time from Amazon. It also put a bit of an environmental spin on the move -- claiming less transportation fuel is used (this is unlikely, but that's another story) when all items are shipped directly from Amazon.

We, and many others, think something else is afoot. Ingram Industries' Lightning Source is currently the dominant printer for on-demand titles, and they appear to be quite efficient at their task. They ship on-demand titles shortly after they are ordered through Amazon directly to the customer. It's a nice business for Ingram, since they get a percentage of the sales and a printing fee for every on-demand book they ship. Amazon would be foolish not to covet that business.

What's the rub? Once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the "long tail" of publishing -- the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator. Since Amazon has a firm grip on the retailing of these books (it's uneconomic for physical book stores to stock many of these titles), owning the supply chain would allow it to easily increase its profit margins on these books: it need only insist on buying at a deeper discount -- or it can choose to charge more for its printing of the books -- to increase its profits. Most publishers could do little but grumble and comply.

We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors -- since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher's gross revenues -- and publishers.

We're reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon's bold move. If you have any information on this matter that you think could be helpful to us, please call us at (212) 563-5904 and ask for the legal services department, or send an e-mail to mailto:staff@authorsguild.org?subject=RE%3A%20Amazon%20Tightens%20Grip%20on%20Long%20Tail%3B%20Info%20Requested

Rights for furniture-lovers

A few years ago I was one of the Colorado Voices writers in the Denver Post. It's an opportunity for "regular" people to write op-ed pieces. One of the essays I wrote was called "Don't Defend My Marriage" and it was about the fact that the arguments against gay marriage are the same old ones they used against interracial marriages not so far back in the day. (As I noted in my essay Colorado's anti-miscegenation laws weren't repealed until 1957...six years after my house was built.)

As you might imagine, I got emails. Boy did I get emails! My favorite was from someone who was apoplectic about the idea that allowing same-sex folks to marry would not only lead to man-and-beast nuptials, but where would it end?! he or she wondered. "Why don't I just marry my couch! What would you think of that?!"

Hubby had the best response. In his deep seductive voice he asked, "Is it a leather couch?" We laughed. A lot. But now this guy makes me realize that perhaps my e-mailer was on to something. Perhaps I reacted too quickly. So I've thought long and hard about this and I want to note for the record that what goes on in the privacy of someone's house between consenting human adults and pieces of furniture is none of my business. And if the human adult and the picnic table should decide to get married one day, who am I to stand in their way?

The dirt is calling

It rained in Denver last night, a strange occurrence, but one global warming will have us getting used to. The rain pleased the daffodils, tulips and scila flowering all over. And it made me want to get back to the dirt. The week before I left for VA, I was able to do some cleaning up in the yard--raking leaves and such--and it felt good. It felt soul-renewing. Sacred.

So I'm reminded of an article by my friend Stephanie Rose Bird on Sacred Gardening for Conjuration.

Here's an excerpt:

By conjuring natural and spiritual energy, knowing the language of flowers, trees, certain deity and elementals, a magical garden is easily within in your reach. Having strong intent—knowing and owning your purpose—promises the desired outcome.

Read the whole article at Divine Caroline, a site that I'm planning to spend more time at.