Thanks to Lafreya's suggestion, today I bought a copy of The Hero With an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa by Clyde W. Ford. In the Tattered Cover, I opened to the chapter about the ancestors' voices because the ancestors speak to one of the characters in Children of the Waters, my next novel, and I was immediately blown away.
From The Hero With an African Face:
"The rumbling traveled closer and closer--one, then two, then three, then layer upon layer of voices; a cacophony of humans not moaning or sighing but talking among themselves. I strained even harder to hear, when suddenly a message shot forth from the darkness, ricocheting off the earthen walls, bouncing back and forth over and over again in time with the rhythm of the sea.
'Whatever you do, my son,' the voices seemed to say in unison, 'make your life count for us....'"
From Children of the Waters
"They say when ghosts come around the room goes cold. It was the opposite with the ancestors. When they were near, Billie felt the air around her and the blood in her veins warm. Then she would get a message. The ancestors would speak in one voice, neither male nor female. It was a voice without sound, more like a thought that entered her mind, but wasn’t her own.
Today she felt the familiar warmth spread through her. Trying to control life is like trying to hold water in your hands, was the message she received today. Daughter, tell your man the truth and the healing will continue. Wait too long and healing will slip through your fingers."
Hmmmm. Is it just me or are those passages a little similar? Interesting, huh? Maybe there's something in the collective unconscious about how we relate to those who've gone before.
Anybody else do any talking to their ancestors? Or ever hear your ancestors speak to you or through you?
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
First Novelist Award!
I'm happy to announce I won the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association! This award "acknowledges outstanding achievement in writing and storytelling by a first time fiction writer." So honored! All the winners are named here.
Win Free Books!
We're giving away children's and YA books over at White Readers Meet Black Authors. Check it out!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Obama inspires book-seller
Obama Draws a Crowd at Eso Won
By Wendy Werris -- Publishers Weekly, 1/21/2009 7:25:00 AM
On a balmy Southern California morning that stood in sharp contrast to the frigid weather in Washington, D.C., Eso Won Books in South Los Angeles hosted a “Barack Breakfast” for more than 80 customers. Three big-screen televisions were perched on podiums around the store, which was transformed into a friendly neighborhood restaurant with enough tables and chairs to accommodate the large group of celebrating diners. Co-owner James Fugate organized the elaborate meal, which was cooked by him and two long-time Eso Won employees and served buffet-style in the front of the store. The gathering started at 8:00 a.m.
“This is definitely one of the top events we’ve ever had,” said Fugate, whose store also hosted President Bill Clinton during his book signing tour in 2004. “I’m on the verge of tears right now.” Eso Won has been fighting an uphill battle to stay in business for the last two years. After observing its twentieth anniversary in 2008, co-owners Fugate and Tom Hamilton announced the imminent closing of the store last winter. The community, including neighboring schools and the L.A. City Council, rallied around it, however, and gave Eso Won a reprieve from what many believed would be its demise.
“Obama’s inauguration makes me more determined to stay in business,” Fugate said. “This administration brings with it new ideas that I believe will take us and the whole country in a new economic direction. We are overjoyed today.” A self-proclaimed “Obama nut,” Fugate also noted, “Maybe I haven’t been the best businessman in the past, but now I want to do everything I can to make the store run better. I want to start paying my publishers on time so our stock situation improves. We’ll also hold more community events here in addition to our regular author appearances.”
Eso Won’s customers have supported the store through good times and bad. “This place is like a university of sorts,” said Kali Alexander. “There is a wealth of information here, and it’s a great place for our four children to come for sustenance for their souls and minds. I’ve spent so much money at Eso Won over the years that I feel like I own stock in the store.” Customer Donald McClure added, “Eso Won is a place to come to exchange ideas. It’s very important to this community.”
Fugate is betting on two forthcoming books about the inauguration to be bestsellers at Eso Won. He has two hundred copies each on order of Obama’s inaugural address and Elizabeth Alexander’s poem, Praise Song for the Day, which she read at the inauguration. “All the indies are doing well with the Obama merchandise, the books and sidelines. He’s brought a new atmosphere to our store. This is a transcendent moment,” Fugate exclaimed.
By Wendy Werris -- Publishers Weekly, 1/21/2009 7:25:00 AM
On a balmy Southern California morning that stood in sharp contrast to the frigid weather in Washington, D.C., Eso Won Books in South Los Angeles hosted a “Barack Breakfast” for more than 80 customers. Three big-screen televisions were perched on podiums around the store, which was transformed into a friendly neighborhood restaurant with enough tables and chairs to accommodate the large group of celebrating diners. Co-owner James Fugate organized the elaborate meal, which was cooked by him and two long-time Eso Won employees and served buffet-style in the front of the store. The gathering started at 8:00 a.m.
“This is definitely one of the top events we’ve ever had,” said Fugate, whose store also hosted President Bill Clinton during his book signing tour in 2004. “I’m on the verge of tears right now.” Eso Won has been fighting an uphill battle to stay in business for the last two years. After observing its twentieth anniversary in 2008, co-owners Fugate and Tom Hamilton announced the imminent closing of the store last winter. The community, including neighboring schools and the L.A. City Council, rallied around it, however, and gave Eso Won a reprieve from what many believed would be its demise.
“Obama’s inauguration makes me more determined to stay in business,” Fugate said. “This administration brings with it new ideas that I believe will take us and the whole country in a new economic direction. We are overjoyed today.” A self-proclaimed “Obama nut,” Fugate also noted, “Maybe I haven’t been the best businessman in the past, but now I want to do everything I can to make the store run better. I want to start paying my publishers on time so our stock situation improves. We’ll also hold more community events here in addition to our regular author appearances.”
Eso Won’s customers have supported the store through good times and bad. “This place is like a university of sorts,” said Kali Alexander. “There is a wealth of information here, and it’s a great place for our four children to come for sustenance for their souls and minds. I’ve spent so much money at Eso Won over the years that I feel like I own stock in the store.” Customer Donald McClure added, “Eso Won is a place to come to exchange ideas. It’s very important to this community.”
Fugate is betting on two forthcoming books about the inauguration to be bestsellers at Eso Won. He has two hundred copies each on order of Obama’s inaugural address and Elizabeth Alexander’s poem, Praise Song for the Day, which she read at the inauguration. “All the indies are doing well with the Obama merchandise, the books and sidelines. He’s brought a new atmosphere to our store. This is a transcendent moment,” Fugate exclaimed.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Dreams fulfilled
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and in memory of my grandfather and my mother who are smiling today wherever they are, from our writer-in-chief Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father:
"I rose from the couch and opened my front door, the pent-up smoke trailing me out of the room like a spirit. Up above, the moon had slipped out of sight, only its glow still visible along the rim of high clouds. The sky had begun to lighten; the air tasted of dew.
Look at yourself before you pass judgment. Don't make someone else clean up your mess. It's not about you. They were such simple points, homilies I had heard a thousand times before, in all their variations, from TV sitcoms and philosophy books, from my grandparents and from my mother. I had stopped listening at a certain point. I now realized, so wrapped up had I been in my own perceived injuries so eager was I to escape the imagined traps that white authority had set for me. To that white world, I had been willing to cede the values of my childhood, as if those values were somehow irreversibly soiled by the endless falsehoods that white spoke about black.
Except now I was hearing the same thing from black people I respected, people with more excuses for bitterness than I might ever claim for myself. Who told you that being honest was a white thing? they asked me. Who sold you this bill of goods, that your situation exempted you from being thoughtful or diligent or kind, or that morality had a color? You've lost your way, brother. Your ideas about yourself--about who you are who you might become--have grown stunted and narrow and small.
I sat down on the doorstep and rubbed the knot in the back of my neck. How had that happened? I started to ask myself, but before the question had even formed in my mind, I already knew the answer. Fear. The same fear that had caused me to push Coretta away back in grammar school. The same fear that had caused me to ridicule Tim in front of Marcus and Reggie. The constant, crippling fear that I didn't belong somehow, that unless I dodged and hid and pretended to be something I wasn't I would forever remain an outsider, with the rest of the world, black and white, always standing in judgment.
So Regina was right; it had been just about me. My fear. My needs. And now? I imagined Regina's grandmother somewhere, her back bent, the flesh of her arms shaking as she scrubbed an endless floor. Slowly, the old woman lifted her head to look straight at me, and in her sagging face I saw that what bound us together went beyond anger or despair or pity.
What was she asking of me, then? Determination, mostly. The determination to push against whatever power kept her stooped instead of standing straight. The determination to resist the easy or the expedient. You might be locked into a world not of your own making, her eyes said, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped. You still have responsibilities.
The old woman's face dissolved from my mind, only to be replaced by a series of others. The copper-skinned face of the Mexican maid, straining as she carries out the garbage. The face of Lolo's mother drawn with grief as she watches the Dutch burn down her house. The tight-lipped, chalk-colored face of Toot as she boards the six-thirty a.m. bus that will take her to work. Only a lack of imagination, a failure of nerve, had made me think that I had to choose between them. They all asked the same thing of me, these grandmothers of mine.
My identity might begin with the face of my race, but it didn't, couldn't, end there.
At least that's what I would choose to believe.
For a few minutes more I sat still in my doorway, watching the sun glide into place, thinking about the call to Regina I'd be making that day. Behind me, Billie was on her last song. I picked up the refrain, humming a few bars. Her voice sounded different to me now. Beneath the layers of hurt, beneath the ragged laughter, I heard a willingness to endure. Endure--and make music that wasn't there before."
And, check out this poem, written by David J. Rothman for President Obama.
"I rose from the couch and opened my front door, the pent-up smoke trailing me out of the room like a spirit. Up above, the moon had slipped out of sight, only its glow still visible along the rim of high clouds. The sky had begun to lighten; the air tasted of dew.
Look at yourself before you pass judgment. Don't make someone else clean up your mess. It's not about you. They were such simple points, homilies I had heard a thousand times before, in all their variations, from TV sitcoms and philosophy books, from my grandparents and from my mother. I had stopped listening at a certain point. I now realized, so wrapped up had I been in my own perceived injuries so eager was I to escape the imagined traps that white authority had set for me. To that white world, I had been willing to cede the values of my childhood, as if those values were somehow irreversibly soiled by the endless falsehoods that white spoke about black.
Except now I was hearing the same thing from black people I respected, people with more excuses for bitterness than I might ever claim for myself. Who told you that being honest was a white thing? they asked me. Who sold you this bill of goods, that your situation exempted you from being thoughtful or diligent or kind, or that morality had a color? You've lost your way, brother. Your ideas about yourself--about who you are who you might become--have grown stunted and narrow and small.
I sat down on the doorstep and rubbed the knot in the back of my neck. How had that happened? I started to ask myself, but before the question had even formed in my mind, I already knew the answer. Fear. The same fear that had caused me to push Coretta away back in grammar school. The same fear that had caused me to ridicule Tim in front of Marcus and Reggie. The constant, crippling fear that I didn't belong somehow, that unless I dodged and hid and pretended to be something I wasn't I would forever remain an outsider, with the rest of the world, black and white, always standing in judgment.
So Regina was right; it had been just about me. My fear. My needs. And now? I imagined Regina's grandmother somewhere, her back bent, the flesh of her arms shaking as she scrubbed an endless floor. Slowly, the old woman lifted her head to look straight at me, and in her sagging face I saw that what bound us together went beyond anger or despair or pity.
What was she asking of me, then? Determination, mostly. The determination to push against whatever power kept her stooped instead of standing straight. The determination to resist the easy or the expedient. You might be locked into a world not of your own making, her eyes said, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped. You still have responsibilities.
The old woman's face dissolved from my mind, only to be replaced by a series of others. The copper-skinned face of the Mexican maid, straining as she carries out the garbage. The face of Lolo's mother drawn with grief as she watches the Dutch burn down her house. The tight-lipped, chalk-colored face of Toot as she boards the six-thirty a.m. bus that will take her to work. Only a lack of imagination, a failure of nerve, had made me think that I had to choose between them. They all asked the same thing of me, these grandmothers of mine.
My identity might begin with the face of my race, but it didn't, couldn't, end there.
At least that's what I would choose to believe.
For a few minutes more I sat still in my doorway, watching the sun glide into place, thinking about the call to Regina I'd be making that day. Behind me, Billie was on her last song. I picked up the refrain, humming a few bars. Her voice sounded different to me now. Beneath the layers of hurt, beneath the ragged laughter, I heard a willingness to endure. Endure--and make music that wasn't there before."
And, check out this poem, written by David J. Rothman for President Obama.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Winner of JACK WITH A TWIST!
Iamafirstgradeteacher is the winner of JACK WITH A TWIST! Congratulations! Please email me at carleen (at) carleenbrice (dot) com with your mailing address.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
New lit journal looking for submissions
Mythium Literary Journal, a new journal of contemporary literature is seeking submissions. From the journal's site:
We are a brand new journal dedicated to the literary narratives of the cultural voice, either indigenous or diasporic. We print bi-annually and take submissions on a continuous basis (our inaugural issue is set for FALL 2009!) We look forward to your participation!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Virgin for sale
Have you heard this one yet? A 22-year-old named Natalie Dylan (or at least that's the name she's using) is auctioning her virginity to the highest bidder in order to pay for grad school. Wow. If I was a different writer, Orange Mint and Honey would have been a very different kind of story. Shay wouldn't have had to move back in with Nona. She could have just sold "her lady flower" (as a guy on Fox News put it) and paid off all her debts and been back at school the next day. And I would probably be raking it in right about now.
Where did Ms. Dylan, a women's studies major, get the idea? From her sister who works as a legal prostitute in Nevada. I guess if you're going to sell yourself, getting the most buck for the bang is smart.
Can a book deal or a Showtime series be far off?
Where did Ms. Dylan, a women's studies major, get the idea? From her sister who works as a legal prostitute in Nevada. I guess if you're going to sell yourself, getting the most buck for the bang is smart.
Can a book deal or a Showtime series be far off?
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Welcome Brenda Janowitz + book giveaway!
Attention chick lit fans: I've got a good one for you here. Brenda Janowitz' JACK WITH A TWIST. Good thing to know about Brenda: she loves to give away books on her blog. And she's graciously offered to give a copy of her new novel to a Pajama Gardener reader! So if you want a chance to win a FREE COPY leave a comment here. On January 15th, Noon MST I'll draw a name at random from all the commenters and Brenda will send you a book!
Here's the nutshell version of JACK WITH A TWIST:
A little pre-wedding anxiety is normal for every bride, and Manhattan attorney Brooke Miller isn’t worried. She’s got the loving support of the world’s greatest guy, so planning her nuptials should be a piece of cake.
But that was yesterday.
Today, Brooke’s landed her first big case and has just discovered that the opposing attorney is none other than her fiancé, Jack. But that’s okay. These two professionals aren’t going to let a little courtroom sparring get their legal briefs in a bunch.… Right? Wrong! Now Jack’s pulling every dirty trick in the law books, and Brooke’s starting to suspect that maybe he isn’t the man she thought he was. Warring with her fiancé at work and at home, Brooke realizes that she’ll have to choose between the case of her life, or actually having a life.
A little pre-wedding anxiety is normal for every bride, and Manhattan attorney Brooke Miller isn’t worried. She’s got the loving support of the world’s greatest guy, so planning her nuptials should be a piece of cake.
But that was yesterday.
Today, Brooke’s landed her first big case and has just discovered that the opposing attorney is none other than her fiancé, Jack. But that’s okay. These two professionals aren’t going to let a little courtroom sparring get their legal briefs in a bunch.… Right? Wrong! Now Jack’s pulling every dirty trick in the law books, and Brooke’s starting to suspect that maybe he isn’t the man she thought he was. Warring with her fiancé at work and at home, Brooke realizes that she’ll have to choose between the case of her life, or actually having a life.
Sounds funny, right? Brenda's a lawyer by day and novelist by night. A native New Yorker, she's had a flair for all things dramatic since she played the title role in her third grade production of Really Rosie. When asked by her grandmother if the experience made her want to be an actress when she grew up, Brenda responded, “An actress? No. A writer, maybe.”
Brenda attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Human Service Studies, with a Concentration in Race and Discrimination. After graduating from Cornell, she attended Hofstra Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and won the Law Review Writing Competition. Upon graduation from Hofstra, she went to work for the law firm Kaye Scholer, LLP, where she was an associate in the Intellectual Property group, handling cases in the areas of trademark, anti-trust, internet, and false advertising. Brenda later left Kaye Scholer to pursue a federal clerkship with the Honorable Marilyn Dolan Go, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York.
Brenda attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Human Service Studies, with a Concentration in Race and Discrimination. After graduating from Cornell, she attended Hofstra Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and won the Law Review Writing Competition. Upon graduation from Hofstra, she went to work for the law firm Kaye Scholer, LLP, where she was an associate in the Intellectual Property group, handling cases in the areas of trademark, anti-trust, internet, and false advertising. Brenda later left Kaye Scholer to pursue a federal clerkship with the Honorable Marilyn Dolan Go, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York.
Since her clerkship, Brenda has worked as a career counselor at two New York City law schools, where she published a number of articles on career related issues in publications such as the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal. She currently lives in New York with her husband.
Brenda is the author of JACK WITH A TWIST (Engaging your adversary and other things they don’t teach you in law school) and SCOT ON THE ROCKS (How I survived my ex-boyfriend's wedding with my dignity ever so slightly intact), as well as the short story BASED ON A TRUE STORY. You can learn more about Brenda at http://www.brendajanowitz.com/.
Brenda is the author of JACK WITH A TWIST (Engaging your adversary and other things they don’t teach you in law school) and SCOT ON THE ROCKS (How I survived my ex-boyfriend's wedding with my dignity ever so slightly intact), as well as the short story BASED ON A TRUE STORY. You can learn more about Brenda at http://www.brendajanowitz.com/.
It seems she's found a new way to write about being lawyer that isn't crime fiction. Not that there's anything wrong with crime fiction, I'm just saying good on her for doing something a little different.
Now, here's my chat with Brenda:
Q. Who do you picture in your mind when you write?
A. I don't really picture anyone in my mind while I'm writing, but a favorite thing for me to do with friends who've read the book is to cast the movie in our minds.
I'd love Drew Barrymore for Brooke, and Fran Drescher as her mom. For Jack, I could see a lot of my Hollywood crushes playing the part: Adam Sandler, Jack Black, or Paul Rudd would be perfect. (Yes, I like me a funny guy.)
Q. Who do you picture in your mind when you write?
A. I don't really picture anyone in my mind while I'm writing, but a favorite thing for me to do with friends who've read the book is to cast the movie in our minds.
I'd love Drew Barrymore for Brooke, and Fran Drescher as her mom. For Jack, I could see a lot of my Hollywood crushes playing the part: Adam Sandler, Jack Black, or Paul Rudd would be perfect. (Yes, I like me a funny guy.)
Q. What's been your biggest surprised about getting published?
A. That writing the book is the easy part! I had no idea that once I finished writing my book, that the real work would then begin. As you're writing your first novel, you tend to think that that's the hard part-that once you finish, fame and riches await.
In reality, it's a long road to getting your grand opus published, and there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved with getting it onto book shelves and then marketing it.
Presumably, fame and riches will be there at some point, but it's a hard long road to get there!
Q. What's the main thing you hope people take away from your book?
A. I had a ton of fun writing this book, so I just hope that people have fun reading it!
Q. Art or entertainment? Is one more valid or important than the other?
A. I think that both are important when writing books. We want to entertain, and we also want to tell the story beautifully. So, it's a balance we should all try to strike, I think.
Q. What comes most naturally for you to write, dialogue? plot? character? And what's hardest?
A. I love writing dialogue, and it's what comes most easily for me, by far. Plot is always tougher for me-I always work hard to take the reader on a journey, and it's so important to deliver on everything you've built up, and to give them something memorable and satisfying.
A. That writing the book is the easy part! I had no idea that once I finished writing my book, that the real work would then begin. As you're writing your first novel, you tend to think that that's the hard part-that once you finish, fame and riches await.
In reality, it's a long road to getting your grand opus published, and there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved with getting it onto book shelves and then marketing it.
Presumably, fame and riches will be there at some point, but it's a hard long road to get there!
Q. What's the main thing you hope people take away from your book?
A. I had a ton of fun writing this book, so I just hope that people have fun reading it!
Q. Art or entertainment? Is one more valid or important than the other?
A. I think that both are important when writing books. We want to entertain, and we also want to tell the story beautifully. So, it's a balance we should all try to strike, I think.
Q. What comes most naturally for you to write, dialogue? plot? character? And what's hardest?
A. I love writing dialogue, and it's what comes most easily for me, by far. Plot is always tougher for me-I always work hard to take the reader on a journey, and it's so important to deliver on everything you've built up, and to give them something memorable and satisfying.
Thanks Brenda and good luck with JACK WITH A TWIST!
Friday, January 02, 2009
Denver rally for Obama stimulus package
Ok, Obamamaniacs, are we ready? Here's our chance to support our guy now that he's (almost) in office. ACORN is sponsoring a rally here in Denver on Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 12 Noon in support of President-elect Obama's stimulus package. From Move On.org:
I'll be there. Denverites, will you join me?
President-elect Obama's first goal is to fix the economy. He's calling on
Congress to pass an economic recovery plan that invests in green jobs, health
care, clean energy, and tax cuts for working families. Obama's plan is a
rejection of decades of failed economic ideology from Reagan to Bush. But the
old guard in Congress is already kicking and screaming. Now, we have a choice:
we can help pressure Congress to do what's right, or we can sit idly by.
Our friends at ACORN are organizing a rally in Denver to support
Obama's economic recovery plan. Can you come help Obama win his first big
fight?
What: Rally to support Obama's economic recovery plan
Where: State Capitol (in Denver)
When: Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, at 12:00 PM
I'll be there. Denverites, will you join me?
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