Sep 20

WHY I WROTE: THE GUARDIAN & HER CAPTAIN, Agatha & Bonnie

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
Suppose for all your life, you thought your parents were your birth parents. Like the good daughter you were, when they took sick, you never put them in a hospice or a nursing home. Instead you took care of them in the only home you knew. Months after they died, you promised yourself you sort through their things clothes and papers one of these days. You hated thinking about the last days of your parents lives. You finally decided to sort through your parents things. You start with the paperwork in the small safe your parent left behind. To your amazement you discover, you aren’t who you thought you were. You were adopted. You find other paperwork that implies the parents you thought were your blood parents were paid to take care of you since you were a year-old baby. The house you lived in was part of the payment to raise you. You find birth two certificates. One certificate has your current name the only name you’ve known. It claims there was one birth at the hospital. The other birth certificate has all kinds of redactions the hospital’s name, your mother’s name, the number of births all are redacted. […]
Sep 13

SO THIS IS REDEPLOYMENT

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I wrote this 2009. I think it still applies today with so many folks losing or have lost their jobs. Much has happened since my last post, so it’s difficult to know where to begin. but I’ll certainly try. Laura, a sweet woman, a dear friend, and coworker, got caught up in the city’s layoff cycle. If the mayor has his way, she’ll be gone, just another terminated provisional (a worker who isn’t civil service) victim biting the city’s budgetary dust and soon to be standing in the unemployment line. Her story is like so many provisionals working in city government. Laura relied on a mentor to get her a job with the city. Through various connections and or political patronage, she got a city job. She moved up the career ladder, never giving a second thought to taking civil service exams that might keep her job in a financial crisis. “Why take a test?” she’d say to anyone who would listen. “Civil Service tests are expensive,” she’d add. After all, she’d only be working the job for a short period until she found something better. Two or three months on the job turned into a year and then a […]
Sep 06

WHO AM I?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I’m a weaver of dreams. I’m a writer. I’m a published author. I’m a blogger. I’m a senior citizen. I’m a former city real estate manager. I’m a curriculum developer. I’m a Sloan Award winner. I’m a middle-class woman who was under-employed. I’m a teacher without a classroom. I’m a Black lesbian working in a world of white straights. I’m a history buff. I’m an observer of human nature. I’m the daughter of a college professor and a medical doctor. I’m the sister of a college professor. I’m the sister of a copywriter for the Akron Beacon Journal classified ads. I’m the sister of a church elder/deacon in New Mexico. I’m a mother of an adult child. I’m a School of Visual Arts Alumni. I’m a College of New Rochelle Alumni. I’m a Baruch Alumni. I’m also a member of AARP, Triangle Publishers, Harlem Alliance, The Studio Museum of Harlem, and the NYPL’s Schomburg Research Center. I’m a DC37 Union member. I’m also a member of The National Writers Union (NWU). I’m an Amazon reviewer and forum member. I have an author’s page on Amazon, Author’s Den, and Smashwords. I’m on Twitter, Linked-in, Facebook, and Goodreads. The above list of […]
Aug 23

WHY I WROTE: THE GUARDIAN & HER CAPTAIN

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
WHY I WROTE: THE GUARDIAN & HER CAPTAIN, Agatha & Bonnie, a story of hate and love (Jimson Murders Volume1). Suppose for all your life, you thought your parents were your birth parents. Like the good daughter you were, when they took sick, you never put them in a hospice or a nursing home. Instead you took care of them in the only home you knew. Months after they died, you promised yourself you sort through their things clothes and papers one of these days. You hated thinking about the last days of your parents lives. You finally decided to sort through your parents things. You start with the paperwork in the small safe your parent left behind. To your amazement you discover, you aren’t who you thought you were. You were adopted. You find other paperwork that implies the parents you thought were your blood parents were paid to take care of you since you were a year-old baby. The house you lived in was part of the payment to raise you. You find birth two certificates. One certificate has your current name the only name you’ve known. It claims there was one birth at the hospital. The other […]
Aug 16

SHOPLIFTING WHILE BLACK?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I watched the Starbuck’s video of the police arresting the two young Black men charged and found guilty of being Black while hanging out in a place that allows it. The video had me thinking about my own experiences. I’m a baby boomer. I’m Black. I’m probably twice as old as the young men in the Starbuck video. I’ve probably had twice as many similar experiences as those young men have. I loved to sew. Years ago, I used to make all my own clothes and my son’s clothes until he was a pre-teenager. I sold the clothes I made, including jumpsuits, business suits, and handbags on consignment in small shops and street fairs. I also made quilts, slipcovers, and upholstered my existing furniture. On a regular basis I bought fabric and trimmings, which included zippers, snaps hooks & eyes, Velcro, fusible hemming material, buttons threads, and iron-on or sew-in interfacings. I’d usually go to my favorite neighborhood fabric stores or go to Delancey Street or West 38th and 39th between 7th and 8th Avenue in the Fashion District. I’d heard of a new store in the Fashion District that specialized in trimmings, handmade lace, piping, iron-on embroidery, decorative patches, […]
Aug 09

DISPOSABLE EMPLOYEES

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
DISPOSABLE EMPLOYEES Wednesday, April 29, 2009 It was Wednesday April 29, 2009. I was listening to an old song by Don Henley as I drove along the FDR heading home from work. The main song chorus goes something like this: Kick ‘em when they’re up. Kick ‘em when they’re down. Kick ‘em all around. And I thought, Hey, Don, you took the words right out of my mouth. That’s exactly how I feel every time I go to work now. When did I become a disposable employee? When did I become somebody you could blow your nose on and then cast away like a used tissue? A worker that you could squeeze and squeeze like that last drop in a packet of ketchup until there was no energy or spirit left—just an empty shell to dump in a corner trash can until it retired. When I first started working for the queen bee, the work was a challenge. I love being challenged and so I loved coming to work. Why was it challenging? I was a writer who wasn’t confident in her skill set yet. Oh, I knew that I could write. My master’s degree from an excellent 4-year college […]
Aug 01

THE GUARDIAN & HER CAPTAIN, Agatha & Bonnie, a story of hate and love

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
In The Guardian & Her Captain…, Dr. Sophie Jimson delivers a young woman’s baby in the rear of a taxi. Shortly after, the doctor is murdered by a phantom man that witnesses can’t describe. The Phantom, with the newborn in his arms, escapes, but an off-duty policewoman, Lieutenant Agatha Crist, grabs the baby from him. The baby is returned to the mother and the policewoman is hailed as a hero for rescuing the child. Agatha soon finds out that Dr. Jimson happens to be her fraternal twin. They were supposed to meet for the first time to end their lifelong estrangement. Agatha is distraught and insists on being part of the murder investigation team, despite her captain’s objections. As the investigation proceeds, it becomes clear the lieutenant needs as much protection as the new mother. The lieutenant’s supervisor, Captain Bonnie Smyth, steps into the case to protect both women. As the two women bump heads, sparks fly. Will they fall in love or continue the hatred they’ve been exposed to for generations? The Guardian & Her Captain: Agatha & Bonnie, a story of hate and love, (Jimson Murders Volume1), is available for pre-order 7/16/20 on Kindle and Smashwords. The release […]
Jun 22

WHY I WROTE: IF YOU THINK YOU’RE LONELY NOW, Val & Tyla’s story of love and devotion.

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I always thought when a person broke her back, she’d be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of her life. She’d be like Christopher Reeves, the man who played Superman, confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. She’d need help sitting up, talking, eating bathing and using bathroom facilities. Her life would no longer be hers. She’d need to make room for the helpers. As for personal privacy, forget it. She’d better get used to not having any, not with the host of things she could no longer for herself. In doing research for this book, I learned permanent paralysis from a broken back is not necessarily so. It depends on which parts of the spine are damaged and how badly the damage is. The closest I’ve ever been to being confined to a bed, was when I had a gastric bypass. At the time, my doctor and I determined, I need to lose weight before diabetes, high blood pressure and gout overtook my body. I had no idea how much pain the surgery would cause. I couldn’t stand up straight. I stayed in bed for days because of the pain I felt every time […]
Jun 15

SWEARING IS GOOD FOR YOU Some

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
Some forty plus years ago, I was pregnant. At the time, I had two bouts of false labor, during which my husband at the time rushed me to the hospital. We were excited that I was finally having our first child. And the baby was the son he’d wanted for so long. We grabbed the go-bag I’d prepared. My husband drove like a crazy person. He was trying to make sure we made it to medical help before I gave birth in the street, in our apartment, or in my husband’s car. The hospital sent us home, saying it was false labor. They were right. I didn’t deliver then. A few days later, after my husband put his car in the shop, I felt labor pains again. This time, the hospital kept saying I wasn’t dilated enough, but they thought I would be soon. A few long hours later, I was the delivery room and I was miserable. I’d been in labor fourteen hours. My pelvis had locked for some reason and my son couldn’t get through the birth canal. I was screaming so loud and cussing so fiercely, folks in the waiting room told my husband to get a […]
Jun 08

IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE GAY…

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
“First of all, I am not writing this note to start a fight with you, or to judge you. It is just a question that has been on my mind. From what I have read, there is a school of thought throughout the LGBT community that being gay is not a choice that gay people make. It is something that they are born with, and they know from a very early age that they are gay. It is not something that they can turn on or off like a light. If this is true, why did you marry me? If you knew in your heart that you were gay, wasn’t marrying me and then having a child with me wrong?” Those were the words in my ex-husband’s email that got me to thinking. I wondered how I might answer him. This should be easy, I thought. I’m a writer. I use words to present my arguments and defend myself, don’t I? I answered my own question with a loud YES, I can do this. Jump forward six months. It was late August, hot and humid, but I still hadn’t answered ex-husband’s email. I asked a couple of friends what to […]
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