Well, the TPC3 have been busy busy busy… Summer is book fair/festival season, and since we are authors with books to promote, it is part of our job to attend as many of these bad boys as possible. After our successful trip to Houston for the National Black Book Festival, we were at it again a mere two weeks later, but this time a little closer to home. Event #2 would bring us to Los Angeles, CA for the Leimert Park Book Fair.

We’ve been to quite a few events over the past 16 months, and this one easily ranks right at the top of the list for us. First of all, it was a great venue — hosted outdoors with lots of food, music, and sunshine for everyone to partake in. It was FREE and open to the public, which is always good for us authors, because anyone can wander in off the street and buy our books, lol. There was also a diverse array of programming – from panels, to celebrity Q & A, to musical performances. They even had a special section just for the kids, where they were focusing on children’s books and activities, and anything that promotes youth literacy gets a big ole gold star in my book. All in all, we had a wonderful day slanging books, and look forward to making this an annual stop on TPC’s book tour itinerary.

As usual, we’ve got a little video to go along with our words, you know, for those of you that are living vicariously through our adventures! 😉

Hats off to Eric Beasley and the Leimert Park Book Fair organizers for a truly stellar event… see you next year!

What’s up Southern California friends, fam, and fans! James and I have a book signing this coming Sunday, July 24th, at the NAACP Author Pavillion (taking place during the 102nd NAACP Annual Convention). We will be signing between 10am and 12pm, along with lots of other cool, famous people, so stop by and say Hey if you’re in the area!

NAACP Author Pavillion

Sunday, July 24th ~ 10am-12pm

Los Angeles Convention Center, Hall A

1201 South Figueroa Street

Los Angeles, CA 90015

TPC is very pro-multimedia, so I’ve been encouraged by my partners to shoot as much video as possible on my journeys… Couldn’t think of a more beautiful spot to check in from… So beautiful that I couldn’t decide which angle to film from, so I filmed TWO videos, one facing upstream, and the other facing downstream. My intent was to use the one that turned out better. Well, they both turned out pretty darn good, and I can’t decide which I like “better”, so I guess I’ll just post them both, LOL. 😉

The TPC-themed check-in…

And the more meditative, philosophical rant… 😉

Friends, Fam, and Fans… Just wanted to let you know that I have a book signing in Los Angeles this weekend, and would love to see you! On Saturday, June 25th, from 10am-5pm, James W. Lewis and I will be exhibiting at the Leimert Park Book Fair.

Stop by and see us!  We will be selling autographed copies of my debut novel When Love Isn’t Enough and James’ books Sellout and A Hard Man Is Good to Find!

LEIMERT PARK BOOK FAIR
4300 DEGNAN BLVD.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90008

As many of you know, last year I joined forces with two of my bestest guys to form an author services and publishing company called The Pantheon Collective (TPC). As a trio, we’re pretty tight—James is my husband-to-be and partner in all things, and Omar has always been my KINDRED. So none of us really had to think twice about coming together to start a business. The love is there, the respect is there, and as far as teams go, it just made a whole lot of sense.

Well, we were probably a bit naïve to think it would always be smooth sailing. 🙂 Yes, we are incredibly close, family even. But that closeness introduces dynamics into our relating that probably wouldn’t be as volatile if we didn’t have deep personal relationships on top of our business partnership. After all, with the intimate knowledge we have of each other, we know which buttons to push, and sometimes we say things that we might not say if our relationship was strictly “professional”… Needless to say, this dual friendship/partnership structure has had some interesting moments over the past few months.

During a particularly exasperating spell with my partners a couple of months ago, one of my pseudo-sisters pointed something out that I hadn’t even noticed on a conscious level. After several months of smooth sailing, I started getting incredibly fed up with what I perceived to be the guys tag-teaming me. We were fighting a lot, and I’d completely lost patience with both of them, to the point that I was contemplating bailing on TPC altogether. During an extensive venting session, my sister wondered if the reason I was reacting so strongly to James and Omar “teaming up”, was because it reminded me of growing up as the sole sister to twin brothers, and a long history of feeling outnumbered. As soon as she said it, this major lightbulb went on in my head. Not only had I reproduced my sibling dynamic in this business partnership, but my partners were eerily parallel to my brothers in startling ways (i.e James=Bill and Omar=Eric).

Bringing this into my consciousness really enabled me to look at the problems I was having with James and Omar in a different light. There were so many similarities. As with my brothers, I have deep, bottomless, unconditional love for these men, but that love doesn’t prevent me from being disappointed by them, or wounded by them. In fact, because of the closeness of our relationship, the wounds go deeper than they probably would if it were a stranger and I could just shake it off or delete the person from my life. I also had to do a bit of self-reflection to see how much of my rage was being unfairly transferred, from unresolved issues with my brother(s), to my current partners.

At the end of the day, like my relationship with my brothers, forgiveness always comes in time… So we fight, then kiss, make up, and move on. Before the changes thrust upon us by adulthood (jobs, significant others, distance), my brothers were the most important people in my life. There are days when I really miss them, and the closeness we had when it was just the three of us. I can’t help but find it totally amusing how I subconsciously magnetized two men to me, in their respective images, to fill a void that I wasn’t even aware that I had. I guess I’m destined to be flanked by tall, dark, and handsome men for the rest of my life. Not that I’m complaining–I suppose there’s worse things to be. 😉

I must say, the past six months have probably been the most challenging, personally and professionally, in recent memory. I’ve been working four jobs while taking a class, persistently under a deadline, chronically overextended, and depriving myself of essential, sanity-preserving necessities like sleep and downtime. There’s a reason why I haven’t been blogging much, writing much, or even responding to email — I’m just so far beyond capacity that a 10 second email response requires ten seconds I just don’t have…

Recently, I made the acquaintance of a Kindred Spirit, via another kindred spirit, who has really helped to anchor me in what is IMPORTANT. She is a godsend, an angel, someone who, rather than asking me to do more more more, faster faster faster, reminds me daily to slow down, be kind to myself, and take time out for me. Someone who supports and uplifts, rather than demands and drains. Someone who always leaves me with a smile after every interaction, and since our fated crossing of paths, has helped me magnetize exactly what I need for ME, from an African-American women’s group, to an actor for my book trailer. She is magic, I tell ya. 🙂

Throughout my life, I’ve been blessed with many wonderful (girl)friends… Like attracts like, and strong, fierce, competent, and compassionate women have always made up my inner circle. However, we’re all such superwomen that we frequently go too long without connecting, because we’re all moving pretty dang fast, keeping those balls in the air, trying to be all to everyone. There is nothing about being uber-competent that is easy. We just make it look easy.

Quite serendipitously (as it usually is when magic is involved 😉 this meeting with my new friend was followed by a quick trip down to Southern California, Continue reading →

Every Santa Cruz resident is intimately acquainted with the weekly publication Good Times. Ever since I arrived here in 1994, I look forward to Thursdays when the new Good Times is released, so I could get a peek at what Risa had to say in my horoscope, and find out what was going on around town. This Thursday, I was even more anxious to see the current issue than usual, because Good Times was running a feature on MY publishing company, The Pantheon Collective (TPC).

I sat down to do the interview several weeks ago, but this was my first time seeing the finished article.  I must say, Lily Dayton did an EXCELLENT job with the story – really hit all the high notes, and introduced TPC to the local community.  I can’t describe how good it feels to have my adopted hometown show me so much love. With every piece of press and recognition, this whole thing feels more and more REAL. It really is quite amazing how far we’ve come.

Please check out this fantastic write-up of TPC.  And thanks to Lily and the Good Times staff for their support of our locally-owned business!

And if you’re wondering how YOU can purchase some of TPC’s books (paperbook and ebook), you can find ordering information here. 🙂

I’m sorry to have to report that another Mercury Retrograde is upon us. I know, I know, it feels like Mercury was just retrograde, lol. And technically, it was. Unfortunately for us, Mercury goes Retrograde once every three months, for about three weeks. This one is set to last through April 23rd. Things will probably be a bit hectic and frustrating for the next few weeks. Just take a deep breath and blame it on the Retrograde…

Those of you that know what I’m talking about, know what I’m talking about. Mercury retrograde tends to cause malfunctions and miscommunications of epic proportions. All things that fall under Mercury’s rule (communication, transportation, travel, technology/electronics) start to short-circuit and break down. Computers crash, car trouble, we lose things, miss our plane/train/bus, have terrible arguments with our loved ones — feel free to blame it all on Mercury Retrograde. Don’t make any major decisions or purchases while Mercury is Retro — when it goes direct, chances are you will second-guess your decision. Information is just too garbled right now. They say the amount of time Mercury spends in retrograde motion corresponds to the amount of time human beings spend asleep. Mercury Retro FORCES us to slow down, even though we’re socialized to “go go go, faster faster.” The best use of a retrograde period is to sync up with the energies… Draw inward, engage in introspection. This is not the time to barrel forward with new initiations, but rather to Review, Reflect, Refine, Reorganize, Reevaluate, etc. In general, anything with a “re” at the beginning of it is a suitable Retrograde activity.

I tend to go underground during Retrogrades, and this time is no exception. I’ve actually decided to place a ban on all nonessential communication because I just don’t trust myself to NOT bite people’s heads off, lol. Just goes to show, we need to treat everyone, including ourselves with patience at this time. And take comfort in the fact that this too, shall pass…