My New YA Novel: An Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contender

I know, I know...I abandoned my blog a long time ago. But now that my new young adult novel K My Name Is Kendra is being considered for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, I need a place to express in my own words how I feel about this honor...

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! That's how I feel. And if I had a mic nearby, I'd sing you a song.

So up to five thousand writers submitted their books in the Young Adult category. Only a thousand made the first cut based on their pitches. Two hundred and fifty of us made the next cut (announced on March 22nd...I was in the hospital at the time...lifted my spirits) and are now Quarter-Finalists. Only fifty of us in the YA category will make the next cut to be announced on April 26th. I hope hope hope to be one of those that advances to the Semi-Final round. But even if I don't, the feedback I'm receiving on my work gives me validation that writing is indeed something I'm meant to do! I thank everybody for their constructive criticism.

Keep in touch. I'll write again soon...

Quick Updates

So much has been going on that I simply don't know where to start! But since it's late and I'm tired (having just returned from a monthlong sojourn to my home state Connecticut), I'll just give some quick highlights:

My new young adult novel K My Name Is Kendra is finished! It's amazing, though, how you think you have a solidly written project until you go back with a red pen and edit yourself. So even though the book and my first round of edits is complete, I still see a few holes in my timeline that I need to adjust before handing it off to a real editor. Even still, October is the scheduled release month. In fact, the book release party is scheduled for October 17th in my hometown in Connecticut. I may live in Northern Virginia now, but I can't think of anyplace else I'd rather release this next book. More on that later.

Quick shout-out to the young ladies of Won Myndz, a teen organization founded by Julia Moore (owner of the Universal Hair Salon) of Norwalk, Connecticut. I met with them last week at the fabulous new Tribeca Coffee House in South Norwalk, and we spent a few hours together chatting about a few of the things on their minds. I introduced them to my character Kendra (they loved the excerpts I shared from the book...phew), and we even did a little singing towards the end of our session. Talented ladies these...and ambitious! I know Julia will do her best to continue to nurture them and guide them toward fulfilling their dreams.

Lots of other stuff in the works. I'll keep you posted as I can! Exhausted. Going to bed now...

The DeShawn Snow Foundation

I can't write a book like K My Name Is Kendra without also providing a list of resources to which I can direct my young readers. There are many such organizations, I'm finding in my research, and some of them were founded by celebrities. The Joyful Heart Foundation (founded by Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay) is one of my favorites. There are many others that I'll be adding to the Resources section at the back of the book when it's published, but one that most recently caught my attention is the DeShawn Snow Foundation, which I learned about in an Essence.com article profiling the cast members of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Say what you like about the ladies (I only know what I read because I don't watch the show), but anyone who uses their celebrity status to provide a safe haven for troubled teenage girls of color deserves a round of applause for such efforts.

Excerpt: K My Name Is Kendra

Meisha gets quiet again for several moments, and then she finally gets around to asking about Uncle C.J., which I figured she would sooner or later.

“Has he been around lately?” she asks as she digs around in her purse. I get the feeling that she doesn’t really need anything in there. That she just really wants to hear about him, but she’s playing it off like it’s a casual question.

I don’t have too many memories from way back in the day, but I do remember clearly how tight Meisha and Uncle C.J. had been the summer before he was drafted out of college to play pro football. He lived in our basement back then, and he used to take her everywhere with him and buy her whatever she wanted. They laughed a lot together and always seemed to be sharing some private joke none of us ever got. She would pronounce his name seej and he started calling her babygirl. I remember wishing he would call me that.

“He doesn’t come into town much,” I say, trying to think of a way to change the subject because I don’t want to talk about my uncle right now. And I definitely don’t want to think about what happened the last time I saw him a few months ago.

He had come into town to do some pre-game interviews with the Redskins one Saturday and had stopped by the house unexpectedly early that morning to invite my father to go with him. Daddy was so excited that he didn’t even answer his brother, but he was upstairs and in the shower within seconds. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him move so fast in my life.

Mama was out grocery shopping that morning, Jada had spent the night at a slumber party, and Philip had gone to watch Aris coach the local high school track team, so it was just me and Uncle C.J. in the livingroom once Daddy went upstairs. He sat down on the couch beside me and started asking me how school was and what my favorite subjects were. He wanted to know if I had any hobbies and what I liked to do for fun. After I answered all his questions, he told me how much of a young lady I had become since he last saw me, which had to have been about three years ago, I think, because Mama always seemed to have something to do outside the house whenever he called to say he was in town and wanted to visit with us, and she always took me with her. Then he asked me if I had a boyfriend and I told him I didn’t―that Mama was not having that. He laughed and said that with a body like mine, Mama was right to keep boys from around me. Something about the way his eyes dropped to my chest and then down to my hips made me really uncomfortable. I was glad I could use the excuse that I had to get dressed to meet Nita. I got out of there quick and fast.

“But he does come around sometimes?” Meisha presses.

“Every now and then,” I say. I figure she must really miss him, so I promise to call her the next time he stops by.

She nods and then stares off into the distance like she’s lost in a memory, probably thinking about all the fun she used to have with Uncle C.J. I promise myself right then and there that I’ll never tell her about that day three months ago. Especially the part about him popping into my room a few moments after I had left him sitting downstairs on the couch. He had claimed that he’d come up to see what was taking my father so long, and that he’d made a wrong turn at the top of the stairs. But the way he looked me up and down as I stood in the middle of my room in my bra and panties told me he was no different than the boys Mama was trying to keep from coming around me. Then he had called me babygirl and asked me if I wanted to hang out with him some time. Stupid me said okay, because I just wanted him to leave.

He had stepped into the room instead, though, closing the door behind him softly as he mumbled something about giving me a hug, since it would probably be a while before we would actually see each other again. I remember trembling as he held me because it just didn’t feel right. He didn’t do any of the nasty things I’d heard boys at my school whisper about. But he did hold me too close for too long, and his hands moved over my bare skin in too many different directions for an uncle hugging his not-even-sixteen-year-old niece, especially when she’s not dressed in anything more than a bra and panties.

We both heard the shower in Daddy’s bathroom shut off down the hall, and that’s when Uncle C.J. pulled away. He gave me a soft kiss on the cheek, put his finger to his lips as if to tell me we had some secret to keep, and then he was gone.

I’m not sure why, but I cried for half an hour behind that. I never told anyone about it. And I wasn’t going to do it today, especially not to someone who loves him the way Meisha obviously still does. I can’t break her heart like that. If she wants to see her favorite uncle again, I will just have to put my personal feelings aside to make sure they get together to catch up on old times.

More than anything, I want to see Meisha laugh the way she used to with him.

end excerpt

The Book I Want to Self-Publish

The name of my next book--the most important book I know I'll ever write--is called K My Name Is Kendra. Written in the first-person voice of a 15-year old teen, it's the story of a young lady whose low self-esteem and depression leads to her becoming the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a young uncle. The subject matter is tragic, but the message is ultimately an uplifting one.

So this is the book I want to self-publish. I've given up trying to get any sort of book deal. I don't mind self-publishing. I get to control everything, and I like that. But doing so costs a grip of money, as you can imagine. Why is why I keep trying different things to raise the money. Hopefully soon, something will hit!

Anyway, since my website is currently down (it's a luxury I can't currently afford), I've returned to blogging and will be posting excerpts from the book in the hopes that someone of note will take note and assist me in getting this book on shelves and me out on tour.

Enjoy the read. And feel free to drop comments here.

HOTGIRLS, Inc.

I love the work of this group: Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations. Founded by Dr. Carla Stokes, Ph.D., M.P.H., the purpose of this non-profit Atlanta group is to improve "the health and lives of black young women and girls by providing health education, youth development, media literacy, and technology programming".

I'm hoping to introduce my upcoming young adult novel K My Name Is Kendra to them personally.

Meanwhile, check them out here.

Teenage Girls Bill of Rights

Found this at the Joyful Heart Foundation site (mentioned below). Every girl should follow this code for their personal safety.

Diggin' This Site: Joyful Heart Foundation

I learned of this site when I was doing research for the Resources section of my upcoming book, K My Name Is Kendra. I decided to include the section when I reached the halfway point in writing the book. After all, how can I tell the fictional story of Kendra and dedicate it to real-world sexual abuse victims but not include information on where these survivors can go to heal?

So the Joyful Heart Foundation is one of the several organizations you'll see listed in the back of the book as well as at my site. Its President and Founder is none other than actress Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fame, who started the non-profit in 2002 with the goal of helping "survivors of sexual assault heal their minds, bodies and spirits and reclaim their lives." As I suspected before even reading the rest of her statement, she was moved to do so after beginning her role on the show. Emails and letters from real-life survivors touched her, and from this was born Joyful Heart.

Take a few moments to visit the site for yourself, or pass the link along to someone who needs the healing.