I Ain't Said Nothin' But A Word...

I’ve decided that I need to revive my random thoughts segment. There’s so much going on and sometimes just a random thought about a subject is fitting. Y’all might remember how this works. Every so often a thought will cross my mind but never quite make it into a full-blown post. I call them DRIBBLINGS, just haphazard, trivial stuff that passes through my thoughts. And so, I DRIBBLE! A father in Louisville boarded a public-school bus to verbally assault a child. (Video HERE .) He says it was out of character for him, but that his daughter has been bullied and because the school has taken no action, he’d been pushed to his limits when allegedly his daughter was smacked by another little girl. NO! In fact, HELL NO! I’m not buying that bullshit. He showed his true colors. No grown ass man would even consider calling a child a bitch and think that’s okay. No father of a daughter would be okay doing this unless he has absolutely no respect for women in general. He called that little girl ...

USA Today Bestselling author Farrah Rochon has been on my bookshelf since her New York Sabers series. It was one of the first romance series that made me doubt my own writing. Because Farrah Rochon can tell a story like no one’s business. She’s also one of those authors who is on point with every detail surrounding her books. From the creative idea to publication and marketing she doesn’t miss a single beat. Her writing is her business and I’ve learned much from her. Farrah has taken plotting a story to a level that still mystifies me. I was not a student who passed her class and I’ve taken her plotting workshop a few times. She is that good and I still don’t come close! Farrah has been such an inspiration. She continually challenges all of us in this literary game to write better, promote smarter, and put only our very best on the table. She sets a higher standard with each and every book she writes, pulling us up and over that bar along with her. Those of us who admire her may go...

Today’s Diva Spotlight is shining on historical fiction author Dr. Piper G. Huguley . If you’ve not read any of her books, you’re missing out. With amazing story-telling skills Huguley is able to take us back in time to bear witness to the untold stories of amazing African American Christian characters. She educates, enlightens, and allows her readers to escape into historical experiences that have been largely left out of traditional history books. Huguley is out here doing the Lord’s work with her stories, and I greatly appreciate her ministry. I adore Piper Huguley. I'm blessed to call her a friend and a sister of my heart. I aspire to be just like her when I grow up. She is an educator by profession and has influenced many a young mind to excel at whatever they desire. She a woman of Southern gentility, her grace, patience, and serene spirit reflected in the words she paints on paper. She epitomizes the very essence of #BlackGirlMagic. I was honored to share a book with her...

Good morning! I'm so excited about this new series, DIVAS ON MY BOOKSHELF! Today, I’m thrilled to talk about the incomparable Vanessa Riley . Vanessa Riley is one of the most prolific writers I know, and this is not my first-time sharing news of her books and upcoming releases. My last posts are HERE and  HERE . I aspire to Vanessa’s level of creativity. I am always captivated by the sheer beauty of her words. She can take the 26 letters of the alphabet and string together stories that are transformative. I love me some Vanessa Riley ! Most recently I finished Island Queen , for the third time! Based on the incredible true-life story of Dorothy “Doll” Kirwan Thomas, a free Black woman who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies. Vanessa Riley breathed life into each character and her portrayal of Doll’s staunch determination to rise above her circumstances and reign was absolutely riveting. This writer’s ability t...

Many have heard me tell the story of being a romance snob before I became a romance author. I did not read romance, believing those happily-ever-after stories were a waste of good ink on even better paper. Boy, did I get that one wrong! It was after the publication of my first romance book, when die-hard romance readers came for me, that I discovered my shortcomings. It seems I’d written a good book, but it failed the romance litmus test. To write romance and write it well, I needed to figure out what I’d been missing. So, I began to read romance and discovered these incredible stories of love and life written by amazing women, and even a few good men. Some of these stories included characters who sometimes looked like me and sometimes didn’t. The joy I experienced was like nothing I’d known before. It surpassed my favorite chocolate cake and the occasional romp between my silk sheets. Well, maybe not the silk sheets, but definitely the cotton ones! But I digress. Eventually, I got bet...

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. For those who celebrate I pray that it was everything you wanted and needed the day to be. Although I had a very pleasant day, it is always a bittersweet experience for me. Since birth, my sister and I have gone to church with our mother every Mother’s Day. Unless of course I was living out of the country on an island, or the sister was away in college. Yesterday, we came together with my granddaughter in tow to continue that tradition. The Pretty Princess and I rose early to make it in time for service at Morehead Avenue Baptist Church to get the word from mommy’s pastor, Reverend Charles C. Barnes, Sr. My mother was ecstatic and that brought me much joy. I don’t take it for granted that at her age, with her declining health, that we are immensely blessed to still have her here with us. Brunch followed. We laughed and reminisced and our time spent together was a breath of fresh air for my spirit. For many, many years I have claimed six children. The ex-...

I love a great historical novel a nd ISLAND QUEEN by renowned author Vanessa Riley is one that should not be missed. And now it's on sale!!!  Learn more he re:   https://bit.ly/IQsaleDV Island Queen  is a  remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true-life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies. Accolades for the story and for the author have been sweeping!   “Richly detailed, vividly depicted, and sweeping in scope, Island Queen is historical fiction at its absolute finest. A stunning must-read!”  — Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba   “Island Queen is the magnificently reconstructed life story of Dorothy "Doll" Kirwan Thomas, whose fascinating legacy of grit and success desperately deserves to be better known. With lush prose and raw emotion, Riley vividly ...

 I was feeling myself today. I woke early, nothing hurt, and I felt ready to take on the world. The Pretty Princess hopped out of bed without being prodded and she too greeted the new day with a bright smile and no grumbling. I had two quick errands to run this morning, so after dropping the Princess off to another day in second grade, and the Paw off to the groomers for a much-needed haircut, I made a quick run to the post office and then to the library. Errands complete I decided to swing by my favorite store for a quick browse. I reasoned it was early, there wouldn’t be a big crowd and I might have an opportunity to shop the aisles in peace. It was my lucky day! One elderly woman entered before me. Two staff members greeted us, and we had the entire store to ourselves! In times of a pandemic this was an epic moment! The other woman headed in one direction, and I headed in the other. We passed each other in the home goods section, avoiding all contact. And then I turned down ...

  Dear Santa Claus, How are you doing? I pray this finds you safe and well. As I write this, I know you were just spotted in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. You’re expected to arrive in Bolivia shortly. I’m envious. You’re still able to travel around the world. Many of us can neither afford that luxury nor are we willing to take the risk travel holds today. I have no doubt that you are vaccinated and boostered. We all know this pandemic is nothing to play around with. I always air on the side of caution. Better safe now than sorry later. Just make sure you keep a mask close in case you bump into anyone along your trek tonight. It’s been quite a year, Santa! After 2020 there was expectation and hope that this year would move us past viruses and quarantines and return us to a semblance of normalcy. That didn’t unfold in the way we’d anticipated. We are still plagued with illness and loses, and things are far from the normal we all remember. We now have Omicron, a new variant t...

I respect my limitations. I know there are some things I’m just not good at. Although my intentions are always good, I regularly fall short of full and total success. Much like this blog that I seem to regularly forget about, I’m bad about calling people and keeping up with them. My inability to remember and acknowledge birthdays and anniversaries defies logic. Some things come to me after-the-fact and by then, it’s usually too late. My social etiquette skills are just horrific more times than not. I have a bestie who never forgets an important date and regularly follows up with the appropriate card or acknowledgement. She sends the perfect gifts when a loved one is lost and never misses a celebration of someone’s accomplishments. She has regularly put me to shame, and I’ve always envied her ability to make what seems unfathomable look so easy. Lately though, I think she’s given up the ghost and I can’t much blame her. Hell, why call folks who don’t try to call you? This Thanksgivi...

 Yesterday was a good day! I love book events. I'm also partial to book clubs because book club members are pure joy! Yesterday, I was honored to visit with the Round Table Readers Literary Book Club . It was their first post-pandemic, in-person book club meeting and my being able to pull up a chair to the table and talk books with them made my heart sing! It was also two years ago today that Round Table Readers also hosted me. Their book choice had been STALKED BY SECRETS , the fourth book in my To Serve and Seduce series . They had great questions, challenged my thought process, and taught me a thing or two. They always hold me accountable with my stories and I try not to disappoint. The conversations were engaging and the laughter abundant. Of note, I've given up playing the trivia games. I never win and most leave me in the dust with the old school music and movie questions. It's amazing how much I don't know or remember! I'm also a tad biased when it comes to ...

I love a good love story and my sister-author-friend Synithia Williams has done it once again with her newest Jackson Falls novel CARELESS WHISPERS . Anyone familiar with Synithia and Jackson Falls and the Robidoux family have been waiting with bated breath for Elaina Robidoux’s story and Synithia does not disappoint. She brings the sexy, the messy, and the drama to the pages making this a delightful, page turner that you will not want to put down.    I asked Synithia about writing the romances she writes.   “My life is pretty routine. I get up in the morning, get the kids ready for school (virtually currently), work a day job, prepare dinner in the evenings, and spend time with the family before bed. But, right before bed, I get to do something amazing. I sit down in front of my laptop and I get to write sexy, messy, romantic stories. I’m not surrounded by drama, lies, secrets, and glamours settings (my seven tiaras excluded) but I get to let my imagination run wild ...

Let me preface this rant with an apology for my French. For those of you who are sensitive to bad language, I’m sorry, but sometimes I cuss and I wasn’t interested in watching my language for this post. 2021 is the year to deal with your shit! And I am saying that with my whole chest! I had a conversation with a relative lately who was nasty for no other reason than she could be. No one has ever called her out on her nastiness. She low key attacks friends and family because she is broken and refuses to deal with her own shit, so assaulting loved ones has become her behavior du jour. Her husband endures most of her abuse. Most men would have gone out for a loaf of bread and stayed gone. But he continues to endure her tantrums and violent outbursts. To some degree he enables her bad behavior because he loves her and he wants to be there when things get better between them. I wish him well with that, but I don’t see it happening if she doesn’t start dealing with her shit. This woman...

Baby New Year, hello! And Happy Birthday! Let me forewarn you, this isn’t your typical welcome and hello letter. I usually save my end of the year rants for Santa Claus, but I gave him a break this time. I’m sure he was inundated with Santa letters this year with the needs list for many being astronomical. After the year we’ve all had I knew he probably couldn’t handle much more bitching and complaining. Not that I ever bitch or complain. Except maybe about that pony he never did deliver, but I digress. We are all in a weird space right now and the pressure on your shoulders to get the new year back on track would break the best of us. You don’t have that option. To be blunt, if you screw up, we will come for you. Your predecessor blew it big time, in unfathomable fashion. Hell, all you really need to do now is stand still, keep quiet and not break anything to do a better job than he did. Seriously, no fast moves or loud noises are allowed this year. We desperately need some peac...

We bring our family home to die. I used to think it was only a Southern thing because it was only in the South where I saw that done. Today, we will bury a family patriarch. Two weeks ago, we brought him home from the hospital to die. We knew his time was coming to an end. Doctors and nurses had told us so. But we still held out hope that once he was home, under the loving care of family, that his condition would turn around and our beloved Papa Mook would be his cantankerous self again. That he would go back to loving on his “sweet, sweet girls” and finding fault with the sons who never learned how to sharpen a knife properly. God’s plans were not his family’s plans. Sitting hospice is never an easy thing to do. You worry over the little things. A raspy cough will make your heart race. You worry for their comfort and pain and the things they can no longer convey to you with their words. You count your loved one’s every breath. You sit and you wait for the inevitable and you pray t...

The state of North Carolina has become a coveted battleground state for the 2020 Presidential election. Depending how the voting numbers inevitably fall could make or break either one of the candidates. This election will also show the world what North Carolina is made of; what we value, and what North Carolinians would like to see for themselves and their bretheren moving forward. Good or bad, this election will say much about the people who live here. I have deep roots in North Carolina. My father was born and raised here. It was my grandparent’s home. My ancestors were enslaved in this state. The racial climate was why my father fled North Carolina. He’d been fourteen the first time he was picked up and held by Durham police. He’d been walking home from the local golf club where he had worked a summer job caddying for the club’s wealthy, white members. He’d made two dollars that day and was excited to take his earnings home to his mother. It brought him joy to feel like he could c...