Oct 10

TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT CANCER

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I was re-reading through my notes about a workplace memoir that I’d written and published through a small independent publisher in 2008. I’d been collecting materials to write a book about where I worked and the heart-felt journey I’d made while working there. While reading my notes, I found something that captured my interest. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to add the information to the second edition of my workplace memoir, Mr. Jefferson’s Piano & Other Central Harlem Stories, or simply write another short story to post on my blog. When I opted to write a short story, suddenly, I traveled back in time. According to my workplace diary, Monday, October 13, was Columbus Day and a civil service holiday. Today was Tuesday, October 14, 1997. I read the diary note I’d written to my partner. I am so sorry. I know I promised I’d go to the PTA meeting but I can’t. As I read that note, I remembered thinking how I couldn’t say what I felt. Instead, for the past five weeks, I pretended I wasn’t worried about a damned thing. At forty-nine, I’d gotten my routine mammogram five weeks ago. I always hated the way that […]
Oct 01

THE BIG C, IS THERE LOVE AFTER CANCER?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
In The Big C, is there love after cancer? Sloan Watson, confirmed female lothario, meets her match when she finds a new employee, Attorney Anita Davis, bent over a toilet bowl early one morning. Anita confides a terrible secret about her health to the tall, good-looking maintenance person, who doesn’t know what to make of the beautiful woman’s secret, but she wants to know her name. Anita is attracted to Sloan but has too many complications at home to act on the attraction. Fate keeps throwing the two women together and Sloan finds herself caring for Anita despite her vow not to become involved, as she is carrying past baggage of her own. Can Anita overcome her initial distrust of Sloan’s playgirl personality and allow her to help her get through the difficult battle she has ahead? Will Anita allow Sloan into her life once the medical crisis is over? Will Anita have the courage to walk away from her destructive home life and find the happiness she deserves? Will she survive the devastating effects of The Big C?   ASIN: B01M1RPH9A (Kindle Version $2.99) ISBN-13: 978-1537735405 (Print Version $12.99) ISBN-10: 1537735403 (Print Version $12.99) Here are the links for […]
Sep 19

WHY I WROTE: Dutch Chocolate4: Home is Where the heart is

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
Years ago, long before the girl power, Black Girl Magic and the Me-Too movements, I watched Angela Jolie in the movie Laura Croft Tomb Raider. I was in love with movies again. I thought. Wow! Finally, an attractive woman in a lead role where she carries everything. She played the role of an adventurer, normally inhabited by a man. Think Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones series or Nicholas Cage in the National Treasure series, both men played adventurer roles. Their movies were quite popular with moviegoers. Wonder Woman made to the movies and even Oprah was impressed enough to sponsor the ultimate “Wonder Woman themed party. While I liked the idea of a powerful, heroic female star, something was still missing. I didn’t see me when I watched WW. When Marvel brought Luke Cage to Netflix and it was so popular, I thought yay! Finally, a handsome Black man was starring in an adventure series that was popular enough to warrant a second-year renewal. Then came Black Panther which sealed the deal for me. Folks of all races went to see the movie and raved about it afterward. It drew international appeal and acclaim as third most watched and […]
Sep 12

WE ALL BE DIFFERENT NOW!

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
We all be different now that Trump was to be our 45th President of these United States of America. I feel like I did when 9-11 happened. I was working four blocks away from ground zero. I watched as it happened. I felt so horrified, helpless, and unable to do anything to stop those planes from crashing into the towers, but I wanted to stop it. I wanted it to be a movie or a made-for-television movie that I could turn off at will. But it wasn’t a movie; it was real. Over three thousand souls died that day in New York City. The next day, 9-12, I felt sad, hopeless, and depressed as I tried to call friends and relatives to see if they were okay while they did the same to me. I wondered what would happen next to our country. What would happen next to the City? Years ago, my car was broken into for the first time. I was in shock. At first, I couldn’t believe I had anything in my car that somebody could want badly enough to break out a window. Immediately, I felt shock, then I was stunned, and finally, I was hurt […]
Sep 05

IT’S UPSIDE DOWN DAY, WEEK, MONTH, AND YEAR

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
This was written before we knew Roy Moore didn’t become a senator. I understand he’s going to run for the same seat again with 45’s support again. May God help us. “We better unite because this is how we stand,” Dan Rather said on AM Joy on November 11, 2017. He was speaking about Americans and how tribal and divisive they have become about major issues such as racism, sexism, the presidency, the economy, and healthcare. I didn’t understand exactly what he meant until I thought about it. Or maybe it was after Hurricane Harvey pounded the news media that brought Rather’s words to my mind again. I’m not speaking about the horrendous storm that damaged Florida and Texas and avoided Puerto Rico, which got hammered and then steamrolled by another type of malignant neglect. But that’s a story for another day. The hurricane I meant was Harvey Weinstein the accused alleged sexual predator haunting young women with dreams of would-be stardom. That hurricane led the other hurricanes: Alabama senatorial candidate Judge Roy Moore, who I’ll focus on. There are also accusers for actor Kevin Spacey, Senator Franken, media talking-heads Charlie Rose and Mark Halperin, Congressman John Conyers, and New […]
Sep 01

DUTCH CHOCOLATE4: HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
In my fourth novel of the Dutch Chocolate Series, a member of Dutch’s team is in serious trouble. It’s been 18 months since the bears left the farmland Dutch and her crew now jointly own. Dutch and her cousin Bonita gave each member of the crew their own piece of the farmland. Everyone but Nurse Dora Day has built a permanent home on the land they own. Dora is a true city girl. Born and raised in the city, she won’t accept the plot of land Dutch offers because her wife Mattie has no desire to move upstate to the boonies. Mattie is a physical therapist and her clients live in the city. She’s determined not to move upstate. Dora is deeply in love with Mattie and has been for sixteen years they’ve been married. She wants whatever Mattie wants which means they still live in the city. One night, Dutch receives an odd call from Dora who doesn’t sound at all like herself. Dora claims she’s in Riker’s Island hospital which is a part of the city’s corrections system. She’s charged with the murder of her wife Mattie. Dora claims she can’t remember what happened the night of her […]
Aug 22

I Wanna Get Next To You; the loving story Miss Nonni & Courtney

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I Wanna Get Next To You; the loving story Miss Nonni & Courtney In the eleventh novel of the Forever Woman series, I Wanna Get Next To You: the loving story of Miss Nonni & Courtney, Miss Nonni meets Courtney aka Corky while babysitting Percy and MB’s new baby. Their attraction to each other is undeniable, but not everyone approves of this budding romance, least of all Maria, Miss Nonni’s granddaughter. Corky is hesitant to become involved with Miss Nonni, not because of their age difference, but because Maria is so against her grandmother becoming involved with an obvious playgirl. This infuriates Miss Nonni, who has to point out that she is a grown woman! Things come to a head between Maria and Corky, and, sadly, Miss Nonni is forced to take sides. Will Miss Nonni have to choose between family and love and marriage, or can Corky smooth things over? Read I Wanna Get Next To You and find out Available on Kindle and Smashwords now. Release date was 6/1/21. ASIN: B095283W6H (Kindle Version $2.99) ASIN : B0952QL5FN (Print Version $11.99) Here are the links for: I Wanna Get Next To You, the loving story of Miss Nonni & […]
Aug 15

WE BE TRYING TO FIND COMMON GROUND

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
When Walter Scott’s murderer might be set free, I was horrified. I knew something funny was going on when I heard a juror, I believe the same person who hung the jury, wrote a letter to the judge. In the letter to the judge, this juror claimed he or she was feeling pressured to change their vote. Keep in mind in this state, communication between a sitting judge and a juror who is not the foreperson is not allowed.   I’m not sure what the judge said to the letter writing juror, I do know the jury foreperson told the judge they were deadlocked but that the jury wanted go back and try to reach a unanimous decision. In South Carolina, a judge cannot legally send the jury back a third time decide a defendant’s fate but if the jury volunteers to continue, apparently a judge can allow them to go back and try to reach a decision. I just pray the officer who murdered Walter Scott doesn’t go free because one person said he or she couldn’t make up his mind. Meanwhile, his or her eleven fellow jurors felt there was enough evidence to find for a guilty verdict. […]
Aug 08

WHAT DOES PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE MEAN?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
When I was a kid living in Ohio, I could count on two or three things always happening to me. If it was summertime and school was out, my mother would send my siblings and me outside. We played outside all day after we finished our daily chores which included weeding my mother’s flower garden planted by our house and the large patch of vegetable garden, growing yards away from our lawn. If it was the fall and school was in session, I knew two things. The school’s cafeteria would serve the slimy, nasty-tasting olive-green canned peas I hated. I’d ended up missing lunch recess because the lunchroom teacher believed in the motto “eat everything on your plate” and I didn’t. The second thing that was a guarantee was that I’d start my day just as the other children in my class did, by pledging allegiance. I never thought about the words. I just memorized them. I stood up and faced the American flag hanging in the corner of the classroom every morning. Then I placed my right hand over my heart and repeated the memorized words about the flag and the republic. I knew what a flag was because […]
Aug 01

Why I wrote: I Wanna Get Next To You

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
In my series Forever Woman, I introduced a character Miss Nonni in Ferrelli’s Restaurant which was Volume 5. She was the elegant older woman who dispensed wisdom and sage advice to the rest of the women who inhabited the series. She was also the grandmother who raised Maria Ferrelli the current owner of the restaurant. While the reader learned she spoke a blend of Italian. She was born and raised in Sicily. She understood English but spoke a rudimentary form of it, leaving out adverbs and adjectives and sometimes even verbs. In the beginning, when I first added Miss Nonni, she seemed to float into a room make her pronouncements and predictions then leave almost like a spirit ghost. She was very elegant with her stark white curly hair almost arranged like a halo. She had an arrow straight posture that hopefully reminding readers of an ivory queen. When she extended a hand to touch people’s hearts, she seemed to read their deeply buried emotions. Later on, in future books, Miss Nonni liked to do interesting things. She drove a family bread truck in Sicily. She loved to garden. Her family grew its own herbs and vegetables in the old […]
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