Finally, Pretty Inside Out! (PIO)...

Available on Amazon has it's own blogspot!

So, I’m reading the other day about peeves readers find in books. The list-Oh My-was long. One of the peeves that humored me however, was the peeve about using ‘wrong’ words. HaHa! → This is one of my favorite writing techniques. Though I try not to make a bad habit of over-using the technique, I do love toying with words. Love it! I call it sarcasm. Got it from, ugh… my man Shakespeare… Wink. Wink. Loved it in Sedaris’ books, and rolled all over the floor laughing at Ving Rhames doing it in the movie ‘Don King: Only in America’! Hence, it also is what the phrase (from my website) “Words of Choice One Poignant Voice,” means.

I mean really? Look around a bookstore. What is that? A million books, trillions of words? They can’t all be saying it the same way, can they? I guess, so long as the story is moving, I like the idea of doing the double-take, second-glance back to reread a catch phrase ‘WATCH OUT!’ it’s not a snap-foo, in a book.

What? What was that? And so now I’m thinking. Love it!

Please Do Click Here for a lil' more insight into PIO.

One Creepy Crawly Story

Dug in my cache of stories and found a tale not shared before… and just in time for Jack-O-Lantern’s Creepy Crawly Day. The only problem with this one, it wasn’t Halloween.

It was the day after Christmas. My father had just left for an out-of-town meeting, which made it the perfect opportunity for my sister and I to go out clubbing. Our mother wasn’t as much of a stickler about our curfew. She was nothing like our father. Not only did he want us home before 2am, but he would often camp out at the window until we got home, and then punish us the following day by taking away our allowance if we missed our curfew. Once he even showed up at the club, oh how embarrassing, shouting out for my sister who darted through the crowd to avoid him seeing her. Luckily it was dark inside, and crowded, and the music was as loud as it was... coupled by the fact no one but her girlfriend knew her name.

But this night he was away. This was the year we got our double-breast maxi coats… DBs we used to call them. My sister’s was black, mine gray, and we couldn’t wait to dress up and jump in them.

So we go clubbing, leave the club… my guess is it was about our normal return home time… 3-4am… when as we were walking home this woman stopped her car and spat in this real eerie tone, “Girls, what are you doing out here this late!?! Get home and get home now.”

Right away both my sister and I start thinking about how we disobeyed our father. Feeling guilty, sharing how sorry we were, we picked up our pace. We were nearing a corner of the street that once we turned, would put us a few more blocks away from our front door, when all of a sudden this ‘thing’ appeared before us.

Okay now wait. Let me back up and better describe this thing. After the woman left us with the eerie message, in the far off distance it looked as if a white man was approaching. Given the neighborhood we lived in… and the time, it was odd, but not so odd that we gave it much thought. The eerie message was soaking up too much of our attention to question what we thought we were seeing. But as the man neared, we suddenly realized we don’t know what is approaching us.

The face obviously was painted, and it looked like fangs coming out of its mouth. Plus, it was wearing a black cape, with the widowed-peak black hair. Did I not mention it was the day after Christmas? We thought for sure we were seeing our first live vampire.

Without looking at each other, and surely without taking our eyes off the ‘thing’, my sister and I on cue began slowly counting to three. One… two… and we bolted around the corner on the count of three, just as simultaneously to us taking off, the thing spread its wings, making this hissing sound, taking off after us. We ran like Wilma Rudolph that night!

This story is not fiction. This actually happened. The thing didn’t catch us. We outran Count Dracula, or maybe Leroy the Vampire, praying every step of our run that our father was sitting by that window!

Plugging a Spot for Soul Food Restaurants!

Normally I prefer not to eat out. Between trying to get my body and taste buds acclimated to foods minus the saturated sugars, starches, and salt… and the money issue, I dine on home cooked meals. But when I had been eating out, besides cuisining down at places like Jim’s (cheesesteaks & hoagies), my other favorite spots were the Cheesecake Factory, Luther’s (primarily in Texas), and Famous Daves (Northern Virginia)!

But here recently I have some SOUL FOOD spots to add to this list!

When in DC, Georgia Brown’s is the place to be.

**Favorites**

The Charleston She Crab Soup
The Louisiana “Devil” Shrimp
The Southern Fried Chicken
The music & ambiance
& the Customer Service!

In NYC (Harlem), Sylvia’s (Queen of Soul Food) is one spot to see.

**Favorites**

The Mac & Cheese
The ambiance (a must do-see for the first time tourist)
& the customer service was a great big treat!

And in Philly, Big Daddy’s is so good to me!

**Favorites**

The Flounder
The Yams
The LARGE portions
Very clean
There are now “3” locations in Philly!
& the service is wonderful!!!

Why I Do What I Do

A while back... a long while back… I was pushing my children in a Cadillac stroller a friend of my mother’s had given me. I was young, though likely not as young as most thought I was. But I was young, too young to have two children, particularly at that day in time. Still, pushing that beautiful Cadillac stroller with my children dressed in Oshkosh, I just knew I was greatest thing since sliced bread.

Most who passed by would stop and admire my children, hesitantly look me over, and then offer another compliment about my children before moving on. That was most except this one woman. This one woman actually walked by and hissed, “that’s a damn shame! Babies having babies! What’s going to become of those kids lives!”

I can’t recall everything else the woman said… and oh, she had lot’s to say, none of it good, but although I knew many thought like she did… one reason I was so thrilled to show off my children…just waiting for someone to say it… this woman finally said what I wanted to hear, instantly firing up my nerves endings to prove children could have children and raise them.

While this post ABSOLUTELY IS NOT a pitch for children to have children, as my own children who are hardly children anymore ...being at the very tip top of the hill without offering me one grandchild, but it is a pitch to young people who find themselves in my ‘once upon a time’ station in life.

My experiences have been no more trying than the next poor girl, whether she struggled through college, struggled through military, or struggled living paycheck-to-paycheck working the nine-to-five. What ultimately makes a difference is knowing what you want, and regardless of the nays and yaes, sticking to those principles. And true, this might sound easier said than practiced, but if it helps… regardless of which station in life you’ve selected, or are passing through… when you find yourself peering over at the grass on the other side… take a moment and let Maya Angelou’s phrase resonate. “They see my glory, but they don’t know my story.” ← That’s what those are saying who are standing on the side of the grass you’re peering at. All of us have a story. All of us.

This is why I do what I do. To challenge and inspire people, both the young and mature, to start growing greener grass beneath our own feet.

NEW OEBooks Blogspots!

Leiatra's Rhapsody, Something Xtra Wild, and This One I Got Right, now inducted into the Rhapsody Series, has its own blogspot. Click here to follow the link.

Black Table also has its own blogspot. Click here to follow the link.

Soon coming with its own blogspots are Pretty Inside Out and Storytella. Also soon coming, which I know... I know... like how soon is SOON... but most of the titles mentioned above will be available by eReader. My apologies, but there were just so many necessities ahead of haggling with the eReader platforms that that part of the marketing found itself sliding down on the priority list.  

Which reminds me... just how many people are using eReaders? I see the pros and cons. While it is far more convenient traveling with one 'apparatus' to read the plethora of books I might be reading at any one time, I also love building my library with books I can touch, feel, and yes too... Smell! (Of course too, this doesn't include the issues I encountered as the publisher, having to reformat the books so that they could be converted to other programs 'decoded' by Kindle and other eReaders). I don't know whether it's just me, but the cover and the interior design of books are nearly as important as reading a group of words. It adds to the mood of the book.

I found other concerns as well. So for the time being only a few of OEBooks' titles will be made available to eReaders.