Jul 24

WHY I WROTE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS, SOULLESS LOVE?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I’m in love with crime or cops shows and the movies about them. I’ll go see or I’ll rent them at the drop of a hat. Just turn on my television, leave it on the crime channel and I’ll watch Law & Order, Hillstreet Blues, LA Law, NYPD Blue, Blue Bloods, The Shield, Red Road, Murder She Wrote, Prime Suspect (English version), Swat, Colombo, Kojac (with Ving & Telly), Gunsmoke, Paladin, The Wire, Oz, Motive, Luther and How to get away with murder for months without coming up for air. If there is a well-written crime show or movie out there, I’ve probably seen it. I’ve also been fascinated with the prince of evil, also known as Old Scratch, Lucifer, Satan or the devil and his power or lack thereof over humans. I decided write a novella that combined both of my fascinations. When I finished writing it, I realized I’d modeled my tale somewhat after Brimstone, a TV series that didn’t last long but held my attention. My novella is narrated by the corrupt, female cop, Detective Shelly Edwards AKA Francine Jackson AKA Sharon Johnson. It’s called DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS, soulless love? Thanks for reading BL. Wilson Connect […]
Jul 10

THE GOD THING

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
  I’ve been thinking a lot about God lately. I’m not sure exactly why, but I’ve been doing it. For example, two weeks ago, I went out to move my car from one side of the street to the other side. In New York City, we have something called Alternate Side of the Street Parking. Particularly in Manhattan, good legal parking spots are worth a car’s weight in gold. Even bad illegal spots are worth something until the traffic agents or the police discover them. Depending on the side of the street, the day of the week, and time of day, a car has to be moved or the owner risks a ticket, a tow, or both. I saw two older Black women in long-sleeved dresses that almost touched their ankles crossing the street as I double-parked. I immediately thought of old-school church sisters. The only thing the two sisters were missing were their Sunday-go-to-meeting church hats. They did carry copies of their religious booklets, face-out against their chests as if the papers could shield them against the sinning world they were entering. I watched the two women for a long while. They both took bench seats in the park […]
Jun 26

WHY I WROTE PERSONALS, INTERNET LOVE?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I started writing my novella in 2009. Back then, I’d been living the single life for about six years and I was growing sick of it. I wanted to find a decent, god-fearing woman who liked me as much as I thought liked her. I was ready to date again but how or where to start, I wondered? I’d heard so many horror stories about dating online. Maybe the classifieds would be better? Or how about blind dates arranged through my friends? That could work too since my friends should know what I liked in a woman, right? Or I could hang out at the Center or I-House. I’m sure I could find some attractive, interesting women at either place. If none of those options worked, there was always my last resort… the online sites. Sometime later, I thought wouldn’t it be interesting to write a story about a single lesbian’s adventures in the dating world in 2009 when social media hadn’t taken over the internet yet. My book is entitled PERSONALS, internet love? HAPPY GAY PRIDE MONTH!!!! Thanks for reading BL Wilson Connect with BL Wilson at these links: Facebook Business Page: https://www.facebook.com/patchworkbluezpress Twitter: http://bit.ly/11fAPxR Smashwords profile page: http://bit.ly/1sUKQYP […]
Jun 19

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 […]
Jun 12

COMING OUT AT 47

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I read this article from a worried parent years ago. I found the question interesting enough to write about. The mother says, “My sixteen-year-old son told me that he is gay. What should I do about it?” Today, I’d add my own experience of coming out as a lesbian. I wasn’t as young as that mother’s son was when he said, “Guess what, Mom? I’m gay.” Nope, that wasn’t me. I was forty-seven years old before I finally admitted to me that I was gay and then I admitted it to my family. Question: Isn’t 47 a little old to discover one’s orientation? Shouldn’t a person know before they reach 30 who or what they like? At 47, a person has lived over half her life in the shadows and maybe with the wrong gender as well. How is a major life change possible at that age? Permit me to explain my particular situation. I’m a Baby Boomer. When I grew up, young women were just beginning to flex their muscles. They were thinking about working in non-traditional jobs and considered living non-traditional lives. Most of the women I knew when I was a kid wore traditional clothes to represent […]
May 28

DECORATION DAY & MY UNCLE HERBIE

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
On this Decoration Day, also known as Memorial Day, I wanted to honor my uncle, a Black veteran who fought in Germany during World War II in some small way. The photo you see above was taken in 1989. I’m not sure what my son and my uncle are looking at. My son was probably grinning at my younger sister, who was taking the picture. I imagine Uncle Herbie was thinking about his big sister, my Aunt Sadie, who had just died. I tried to find a photo of my uncle alone and in uniform, but I couldn’t find one. When I was a kid, I really admired my uncle because he was s-o-o different from my father the medical doctor, who was also his big brother. Uncle Herbie was the only surviving uncle that I had. My father came from a very large family of nine kids, but only three survived to adulthood (my father, my uncle, and my aunt). He was the first one to attend college and went on to get a medical degree. In contrast, my uncle worked in a factory. I’m not sure whether the factory produced tires or automotive parts. We lived in Akron, […]
May 22

WHY I WROTE GET RECKLESS WITH THE TRUTH BUT DON’T LIE

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I know this sounds crazy but I do try to listen when my characters speak to me. I introduced several interesting characters in Two Moons Bakery and Sweet Sarah’s Bluez, I felt they wanted me to tell their stories in a novel of their own. That’s what I did when I wrote Get reckless with the truth but don’t lie. I wanted to tell the secondary characters’ stories. I was particularly interested in telling the story of the two older women from Two Moons Bakery. I wanted to explore their budding romance. How they met. Where they met. What did they do after they met? Would they hook up right away? Or how dates would they have before they ended up in bed? Where did they end up in bed? Did they have friends, children, grandchild or ex-lovers that might interfere with their relationship? How do they handle introducing the new lover to friends and family? What I really wanted to find out if older lesbians were really all that different than their younger sistahs. I tried to answer all of those questions and more when I wrote Get reckless with the truth but don’t lie. Connect with BL Wilson […]
May 15

ACTIVISTS: WHO IS KENDALL JENNER ANYWAY?

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I finally saw the famous Pepsi commercial starring the one and the only Kendall Jenner who is part of the Kardashian clan. I started thinking about what it means to be an activist. When I was around Kendall’s age, I volunteered to help the Robert Kennedy campaign for president at Ohio State University. I believed in the things he said he would do for young people, old people, poor people, Black, Brown, and white people. Mainly I thought he would get us out of the Viet Nam War. Along with multitudes of other young people, I went on trips across America to encourage people to vote in the presidential primary and then the election in November 1968. The things I saw lead me to believe America was great for some people, but for most poor people, living in America was sheer hell. The people I met lived in tarpaper shacks. I couldn’t believe that in 1968, people lived in the kind of housing I’d only seen in history books 100 years ago. The center picture is me, my son, and my co-workers gathering on September 19, 1981 to participate in the Solidarity March on Washington for PATCO, the disbanded air […]
May 08

BLACK HAIR IS PERSONAL & POLITICAL

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
I just read some trolls’ tweets about how Michelle Obama was disappointing Black women everywhere because her hair wasn’t permed or relaxed. She was wearing it natural. At first, I thought, What? Since when did Black hairstyles become anybody’s business but the wearer’s? Or at least that’s what I first thought until I started reading women’s tweets and remembering way back when I first started wearing an Afro in college in 1966. When I was a kid, there two huge things I hated about being a girl in the Baby Boomer generation. I absolutely hated wearing dresses. I hated getting my hair straightened, combed, and braided every day. My mother decided her girls, meaning my sister and me, should dress like little ladies every day. The more frilly or trimmed in lace, the better the dress was for “her girls.” My mother somehow managed to find socks trimmed in lace and hair ribbons to match our dresses. Oh, how I hated going to school looking like that. The only saving grace for me was that everybody’s mother dressed her girls exactly like my mother did with us. My mother decided that her girls better wear neatly braided hair every day […]
Apr 24

Why I Wrote Two Moons Bakery

by B.L. in Other 0 comments
Long before the L word and The Planet, I wanted to write a story about a meeting space in Central Harlem where African American lesbians and their friends could meet, mix and mingle. I envisioned telling a series of short stories about the women who inhabited the place but first I had to decide what kind of place would women want to meet and greet each other. At first, I thought about making the meeting place a bar. I decided against it because I’d always had bad luck meeting people at bars. I’m not a drinker and the smoky fog from them always gave me sneezing fits. I never met nice people I’d want to spend more than a minute talking to in a bar. For me, hanging out in bars was torture. I discovered I was allergic to cigarettes and I hated the barflies I met. I quickly nixed the idea the centralized meeting place should be a bar. The more I thought about what to write, the more I realized my story could take place in a restaurant, a sandwich/coffee shop or a small boutique store or a bookstore. My newly created meeting space needed to be someplace […]
Recent Posts
Most popular, Worth a look, Must read, Related posts, What the experts say, Q & A
Post Views