Wishlist Wednesday

I'm back with a second edition of Wishlist Wednesday.   So, let's get into it. 


I've heard nothing but great things about this book.  Plus, I'm interested in finding out what my Love Language is.


I am a huge Bethenny Frankel fan.  We have so much in common that it's not funny.  I'm dying to read her debut fiction novel and see if it's as good as her nonfiction works.


I hear this is the must have motherhood and pregnancy book of the moment.  


There's been some hoopla surrounding this book too. Can't wait to read it. At first I saw it in my local library and wasn't really feeling it.  But after reading a few reviews by readers who actually purchased it and read it just for the heck of it, I've decided I want to give it a read.


Love Tina Fey! Enough said there.


Would you put any of these reads on your wishlist?

Wishlist Wednesday

I love, love, love books!  Like seriously, if I could I would probably live in Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million.  And now I'm branching outside of James Patterson more, I'm finding that I've been missing out on some really good stuff.  So, I recently overloaded my bookshelf with some new goodies to the point that it's bursting at the seams literally.  And since I don't have any place to put another bookshelf to house new books, I decided to keep track of the books I want to read with Wishlist Wednesday.

Not to mention, buying books can get super expensive.   So Wishlist Wednesday will be getting distributed to family and friends for Christmas to help support my reading addiction.  Here's what my wishlist this week.


I really want to see what the hype is about with this book. It's been sold out at the bookstores and there's a reserve line a 100 miles long at the library.


Okay.  So, I may still have a touch of a James Patterson addiction.  However,  this series is AWESOME!  Can't wait for the new Alex Cross movie to come out.


No, I still have not read this book.  And I'm holding out on seeing the movie until then.


I used have the biggest crush on Colin Powell as teen. I mean he was pretty handsome for an older guy. Not to mention, he was a man in a uniform and with some power!  I think this is going to be a good read. 

What's on your wishlist?

Let's Catch Up

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Did you miss me?  I know it's been months since my last post.  I somehow got locked out of my account and Google makes you jump through a million hoops to get back in.  I thought I was going to have to send them a DNA sample or something.

Anyways, I'm glad to be back in business.  Since my last post I've written and published the first book in my children's series, Adventures of Moo & Bud.  The book is called Moo and Bud Go On An Easter Egg Hunt.  For right now it's only available as a Kindle read because I'm still on the hunt for an illustrator.  Whoever I end up working with, I need them to be in for a long partnership because this is a series that I hope keep writing for a few years. 

Now, I'm back to business working my first two print novels.  With the release of those, I'm looking forward to hosting meet and greets.  I think it's very import for authors to make that in-person connection with readers.

Also, I've lined up some pretty good summer reads.  I'll be sharing more about that later.  I've finally started to really venture of my James Patterson zone and read other authors on a regular basis.  In addition, I'm looking forward to enjoying some summer festivities with the family!

What have you been up to?

The Fear of Disappointment

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Well, February has come and is almost gone.  To my dismay, I am not closer to finishing my first solo book than when I started it months ago.  Call me crazy, but my fear of disappointing readers has me at a stand still.  You see having co-authored my first book, all the pressure wasn't on me to make it great.

Writing an entire book alone is a totally different experience.  I've caught myself second guessing my talent and storyline.  But I know that deep down writing is what I'm supposed to be doing.  It's the one thing that has always been constant in my life.  It's the one thing has always given me great joy.

I now have an even greater respect for all you other authors out there.  Anyways, I'm putting my foot down and finishing what a started.  Nobody ever said that this journey would be an easy.  And I'm certainly not going to quit now.  There's too much out there I want to achieve.

So, by the end of this month, I will have finished and published my first solo piece!  I'm excited, nervous, scared and all that jazz.  But most of all, I'm determined to overcome my fear of disappointment!

How did you overcome your fear of publishing your first solo piece?

Let's Celebrate

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Yes, it's February already and with it comes Black History Month!  I hope that you all will stop by your local libraries and check some good reads on Black History.  We went yesterday picked some.  Last night we read Fishing Day by Andrea Davis Pinkney.

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Do you celebrate Black History Month?  If so, how?


Allow Me To Introduce Myself

I feel like the new kid on my first day of school as I sit composing this first blog post.  However, it is that you came to end up here on my website, thank you for staying and taking the time to look around.  I do hope that you will come back often and get to know me.  And while we're on the subject of getting to know me, I've taken the liberty of interviewing myself below.  (Is that too cheesy? I hope not, but oh well.)


The Interview

Where are you from?
The Carolinas. I guess that makes me a bit of a Southern Belle.

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When and why did you begin writing?
I started writing when I was kid.  I had such an interest in books and the enchantment they created that I wanted to create writings that held that same effect to some degree.  And as I grew up and went through different stages of my life, writing took on more than just something I did for fun. It became an outlet and a way to escape from the parts of my life I hated but couldn't change.  Today, I write to inspire, help and offer others an escape.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I think it was when I wrote a history paper for this contest in elementary school that I first considered myself a writer.  I had researched and researched my topic (Civil War, I think) and I put my so much time and effort into taking my notes and making them this beautifully crafted paper.  I wrote five whole pages and that didn't include the annotated bib we had to include with it.  I worked two whole weeks getting my wording down.

When the day of the award ceremony came, I was home sick with strep throat.  I was so mad because I would have to wait a whole extra week to find out if I won or not.  Well, that next week came and I went back to school.  I was super excited to a shiny certificate waiting on my desk.  I had won honorable mention, but to me it felt like first place.

What was my first published piece?
My first ever published piece was a feature on album releases that I wrote for my high school newspaper.  I felt so giddy when I saw it and my name under the title.  Since, my high school days, I've been published on Yahoo! Voices and most recently co-authored a survival guide for moms called This Is How We Do It.  I am so thankful to the book's editor for giving me the opportunity to have in on this project.  Motherhood is something I'm very passionate about in my personal life.


What authors/books inspire me?
I'm a huge fan of James Patterson.  This man has THE bestselling series about an African-American (Alex Cross) and he's not even African-American.  I find this such a great accomplishment because he has truly nailed some of the cultural aspects without giving in to stereotypes.   I find that once I pick up a James Patterson, there's no putting it down.

I fell in love with Jane Eyre in 9th grade.  That book was the ultimate romance novel for me and taught me some much about love and acceptance.  I'm also inspired by Tony Morrison. She's a freaking genius!!  The fact that she addresses the social issues and problems in the African American community with such boldness just astonishes me beyond belief.

I've always been a huge fan of Shel Silvertstein.  I do feel like we lost him way before his time.  Where the Sidewalk Ends made me fall in love with poetry.  As of late, I've been dabbling in a few works by Sandra Bricker, Virginia Smith and Deborah Grace Staley.

What's next for you?
Well, at the moment I'm currently working on finishing up a fiction piece.  It's been a challenging process because now that I'm a published author, I feel the pressure is on to get another project out there, especially one that is a solo project.  Not to mention, that fiction seems easy to master but it's not.  You really have to captivate your readers and maintain their attention.  It's my greatest fear that this book won't up to my expectations.

But I think all authors feel that way about their books for the first couple of years.  You strive for perfection, but it doesn't exist.  At the end of the day, fans are either going to love or hate what you've written. End of story.

Any last words of advice?
If I had to give advice to anyone wanting to become a writer, it would be to believe in your craft.  Writers don't get nearly as much respect as we need to.  So, it's going to be up to you to keep yourself motivated to keep moving forward until you reach the success you want.