Jan 18

HISTORY & WHO TELLS IT

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
The picture above was taken in 2015 around Thanksgiving. The shadows you see are my mother and me. We’re watching what’s left of our home being torn down. It’s a complete surprise to us. We both thought when she sold it to a nice young white couple for a great deal less than she imagined, the house … our house would be there forever. It just wouldn’t belong to us any longer. Two other unique houses built by the first Black families to live in this township, just outside of Akron, Ohio, were gone too. My home and my history as well as the homes and histories of the two other Black doctors had been torn down and buried in the in the grassy earth. Permit me to explain by going a bit backwards. My mother sold our home eight years ago in 2010. She’d been trying to sell the ranch-style home for years. She couldn’t get the asking price for it. Since the area my mother lived in had been zoned for commercial as well as residential use, she thought it would be easier to sell her house. Unfortunately for my mother, Ohio was one of those states that […]
Jan 11

WADE IN THE WATERS

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I’m not one for religious symbolism but the more I hear about foreign involvement in our democratic election system, I keep thinking of a song I used to hear in church Sunday mornings. I was a kid back then. Everybody knows baby boomer as kids couldn’t say. “Mom, Dad I’m not going to church. It’s Sunday morning. I think I just sit this visit out. I don’t like how that old guy wearing that long robe talks to us. He’s always screaming about devils and doing bad stuff from that platform he stands on. You and Dad might like him but he scares the mess out of me. Today, I’ll just sit home and do something that makes me happy. Watching Sunday morning cartoons makes me happy so I’ll be doing that today, okay? I’ll see you both when you get back from church if I’m not napping, right?” No way was that conversation going to fly with my parents back then. In fact, the only thing flying would be my butt into next week. That would be after I was released from the children’s ward of the hospital where my father’s opened can of whup ass sent me. So […]
Jan 01

The Queen’s Secrets, A family full of them!

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
The Queen’s Secrets: a family full of them: It’s a story about a magical land called Cashmeria and one of the families who lived there. The current ruler of the largest country Phanon is Queen Winnifred. She is the only female ruler of the five states. Queen Winnifred is a tough woman who can fight, hunt and track good as any man. She trained two daughters to be just like her. She is also a greedy woman who loves power and expansion. She believes the more land a country has, the stronger that country was. Or the more land a country could grab or steal, the safer and stronger that country was. Queen Winnifred is constantly at war trying to expand, grabbing more and more land from neighbors who hated her. Neighboring country-states were sick of Winnifred’s invasions, mini-land grabs. Most of all they were sick of wars with her. War were costly in both lives and money. They unite against her and try to kill her and take all her lands. The Queen’s Secrets, A family full of them! Is available on Kindle, Draft2Digital and Smashwords. ASIN: B0G1VSZ383 (Kindle Version $3.99) ASIN: B0G1YDSLCW (Print Version $12.99) ISBN-13: 979-8274127745 (Print […]
Dec 28

WHY I WROTE: The Queen’s Secrets, A family full of them!

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I believe in my dreams. I have had enough of them over the years, to hope they come true. I guess I could claim most of my dreams since I retired, have come true. I always wanted to live long enough after I retired to write all the books in my head. I wanted to bring them to life. What I mean by that is, I dream sometimes the romance books that I write. I have theses scenes in my head. When I wake, I try to write down what I remember of my dreams. If I am lucky, I can write all that I remember. If I am doubly lucky, I have the dreams in a proper series. That means I dream parts one, two, three, four, five, six and so on in order. Lately I’ve noticed this happens whenever I have trouble resolving some situation in my book and on paper. That’s when I work on the situation in my dreams. I admit it might take me weeks of dreams to resolve the situation in my books, but somehow it does get resolved. I would not have this dream writing thing any other way. For all you dreamers, […]
Dec 21

HISTORY & WHO TELLS IT

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
The picture above was taken in 2015 around Thanksgiving. The shadows you see are my mother and me. We’re watching what’s left of our home being torn down. It’s a complete surprise to us. We both thought when she sold it to a nice young white couple for a great deal less than she imagined, the house … our house would be there forever. It just wouldn’t belong to us any longer. Two other unique houses built by the first Black families to live in this township, just outside of Akron, Ohio, were gone too. My home and my history as well as the homes and histories of the two other Black doctors had been torn down and buried in the in the grassy earth. Permit me to explain by going a bit backwards. My mother sold our home eight years ago in 2010. She’d been trying to sell the ranch-style home for years. She couldn’t get the asking price for it. Since the area my mother lived in had been zoned for commercial as well as residential use, she thought it would be easier to sell her house. Unfortunately for my mother, Ohio was one of those states that […]
Dec 14

LOSS

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
The picture above is a view of the Hudson River during a stormy day. The fog is partly covering the New Jersey shoreline near the Palisades. The road with the cars on it is the West Side Highway. It’s one of the major highways in Manhattan that runs along a body of water called the Hudson. The other roadway that runs alongside a river is the FDR Drive on the east side, running along the East River. The bridge located over the West Side Highway is one of the entrances to Riverbank State Park. When I look at this picture, I think that’s how I feel. Sometimes, I’m sunless and kind of foggy, as if my brain is on permanent default. I get lost in the fog. There are no lights to help guide me to the light or a better day. My sister died six months ago. She was two years older than I. We didn’t speak daily. I’m not much of a caller. I never have been one to call first. If you call me and I’m in the mood, I will talk your ear off. My sister and I would talk on birthdays and winter holidays like […]
Dec 01

The Queen’s Secrets, A family full of them!

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
The Queen’s Secrets: a family full of them: It’s a story about a magical land called Cashmeria and one of the families who lived there. The current ruler of the largest country Phanon is Queen Winnifred. She is the only female ruler of the five states. Queen Winnifred is a tough woman who can fight, hunt and track good as any man. She trained two daughters to be just like her. She is also a greedy woman who loves power and expansion. She believes the more land a country has, the stronger that country was. Or the more land a country could grab or steal, the safer and stronger that country was. Queen Winnifred is constantly at war trying to expand, grabbing more and more land from neighbors who hated her. Neighboring country-states were sick of Winnifred’s invasions, mini-land grabs. Most of all they were sick of wars with her. War were costly in both lives and money. They unite against her and try to kill her and take all her lands. The Queen’s Secrets, A family full of them! Is available for pre-order on Kindle, Draft2Digital and Smashwords 11/17/25. The release date is 12/02/25. ASIN: B0G1VSZ383 (Kindle Version $3.99) […]
Nov 23

WHY I WROTE: COUCH 4 SALE. How 2 sell a couch and get the girl too!

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I wanted to tell the story of a woman caught between a demanding and bossy aunt who raised her and less bossy but still demanding nurse receptionist who works for her. She feel squished between the two strong women in her life and she doesn’t know how to get breathing room. While she is a grown woman over 35, a pediatrician with her own practice, she still lives in a brownstone with the aunt who raised her. She rarely goes on dates because she’s too busy with work. In the doctor’s office, while the doctor maybe the woman who signs the checks, it’s her nurse/receptionist who runs the office. The nurse also redesigned and modernized the look of her office against her objections. When her nurse/receptionist posts her favorite purple couch for sale on the internet without her permission, it’s the straw that breaks the doctor’s back. The doctor fires the nurse over the sale of her couch but not before the nurse quits. They argue back and forth. The nurse packs up and leaves. She won’t return unless the doctor sells the couch the next buyer who drops by. The doctor’s aunt hears about the quitting AKA firing and […]
Nov 16

GB

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
Something very unusual is happening in my life right now and I’m not sure what to think about it. Do I like it or not? I’m used to living alone and doing my own thing. It’s been that way with me for years … at least 15 of them and counting. Perhaps, I should back up a minute and tell you a little bit about myself, or rather, my status in life. I’m a new grandmother. There, I said it … the word “grandmother.” My grandkid calls me GB, which is shorthand for Grammy B. should back up a minute and tell you a little bit about myself, or rather, my status in life. I’m a new grandmother. There, I said it … the word “grandmother.” My grandkid calls me GB, which is shorthand for Grammy B. I always thought if I was one, I’d be the coolest grandma alive. I’d drink a little wine, smoke one of those skinny cigars, and give free advice about anything from love and marriage to raising kind children. In my mind, I’d have just right the figure to wear the latest clothes. I’d know all the words to the latest blues, hip-hop, or […]
Nov 09

Letter to my granddaughter

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
The photograph on the left was taken on the way to my sister’s Going Home Service in Maryland in December of 2017. That’s my 100-year old mother reading a menu at a seafood restaurant. She has a cellphone in the pocket of the jacket she’s wearing. She never leaves home without it and the emergency medical alert chain around her neck. She uses her cellphone to call folks like me; her two other children; six grandchildren; her AKA sorority sisters; friends and her neighbors. The photograph on the right was also taken in December of 2016. That’s my 3.5-year old granddaughter in reindeer clown makeup. We’d just returned from the main branch of the NY public library at Fifth Avenue. We had gone to NYPL’s Christmas Open House for children. There she is relaxing with her mother’s cellphone in a chair made just her. (That’s what I told her as her mother; and I put the two chairs together). As she sometimes does, my granddaughter is watching one of her favorite movies. She loves Sophia, Frozen, Pound Puppies and so many more kiddie movies I can’t remember. At nearly four, she can scroll down screens; she can enlarge or reduce […]
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