As a writer, I cringe every time I hear an author say they don’t read. Well, do they really expect someone to read their work? You can only hone your craft by reading. Anyway, this is not about those that don’t read. I am curious to see how many writers/authors actually read the genre that they write in.

I don’t think anything is wrong with not reading the genre you write in, but I just want to know why. So if you are an author, what genre do you write in? And do you read that genre or do you stay away from it? Why?

Last year I entered two contests; Essence and Ebony Jet writing contest. I didn’t win. I didn’t even place where anyone could read my name and say “I know her.” But I’m not upset. I know it all comes with writing.

I remember last summer I had a publisher tell me to send her the first three chapters of my completed manuscript. I did but I never heard from her again. No rejection letter nothing. I think that was rude on her part. She could have at least sent me a form letter telling me that my story was not quite what she was looking for.

I don’t know if that’s part of the reason why I am lazy when it comes to completing a manuscript that I feel so passionate about. Did these three experiences rub me in such away that I don’t want to try anymore? I really don’t know. It’s the same thing with blogging I guess.

I have been blogging for two years and still I don’t have a steady following. There are times when I have no comments or visitors for months, but I keep at it. In a way it’s practice for the rejection letters to come once I begin sending out my manuscript to different publishers trying to get a place in their organization. I just need to stop being afraid and get it out there.

I read Bernice McFadden’s blog all the time. Today I read her blog and was motivated by her. She has been shopping a manuscript for a year and has gotten nothing but rejection letters. But she is still hopeful and sending it out more and more. She has books out there already and people are familiar with her works; so if she decides to self-publish then her audience will follow her.

What if I decide to self-publish will I gain my own following? I have friends and family who are all claiming the first autographed copy of my first published book. But I would need people who buys my work. I know I can’t get rich from being a published author but I would like to break even on the money I put into my craft.

I said all this to say, I’m still going to entire contest and maybe one day I will go ahead and self-publish, but I’m not afraid of rejections.

Are you putting yourself out there?

I should be ashamed of myself; April is poetry month and I am just now mentioning it on the 27th day of a 30 day month. I am a poet in more ways than one, but most importantly I write and love poetry.

I have many favorite pieces from many different poets. But one specific poem that I have been obsessed with ever since high school is Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

I can’t really tell you why, but maybe it has something to do with my interuption of the poem. I did extensive research on this poem for my assignment back in high school.

On a different note here is a piece I wrote.

Walk By Faith

I walk by faith with God

Do you walk by faith with the Lord?

All my strife I lay in his hands

Can you stand and say the same?

I walk by faith with my God

Do you even know how to walk or what faith is?

He never gives me too much to bear

It seems to me this is all falling on deaf ears.

Or maybe it’s possible that you just don’t care.

I walk by faith with our God

Can you come hold my hand and I will drag you along?

Wait!

Just wait a minute!

I walk by faith with the one and only God

For me all my fears and battles he fights

He’s got more strength than your little might.

So I beg and pled with you

That I won’t have to leave you so far behind me

Come and walk in faith with our God.

This is a piece I wrote many years ago, and my mother created a nice background for it. I printed it out and gave it to several family members.

What is your favorite poem? And if you’re a poet share a few lines in the comment section of one of your own piece.

please do not copy or repost my poetry without my permission.

Ever since I went natural quite a few years ago, I have noticed the cute hair jewelry women with natural hair were sporting. When I had my first set of locks (the traditional set) I had shells and did kinds of hair jewelry that I wore; I loved them. With my sisterlocks, I can’t wear the same things that I did in the past, because the locks are much thinner.

While on twitter I came across carmennc she is the creator of Tomoka’s Twist. I have been hawking her, because I like her work. She creates earrings, ties, and twists. When she posted on her blog a tie that I couldn’t resist, I immediately bought it before she could put it on her website.

Krackle is the name of this piece. Describes me to a tee. LOL. Now I’m hawking her for a twist. I cannot wait until I see the one, the perfect one for me. She has really good pieces but everyone is not for me that’s not to say that you cannot head over there and find something you like and feel immediate attraction. Head on over to her blog or website and have a look around. You never know you might see natural hair in a different light.

Here I am with Krackle holding up my beautiful locks.

A friend from high school asked me to make a 3-piece set for her to wear to her daughter’s christening this July. All she knew was that she was wearing a pink skirt; I took that and ran with it.

I prayed she would love it and that she did.

All three pieces have a combination of rose colored, fiber optic, glass, cat-eye beads. The cream is shell glass beads. And a lobster clasp to finish it off.

The necklace is 25 inches long from end to end. She wanted it to hang low. The bracelet is 8.5 inches from end to end. And the earrings are 3 inches long.

Sold

Birds of a feather flock together. The characters from T.T. Bridgeman’s Pound Cake for Sweet Pea is about a group of people all looking for the same thing, love. You know, the type of love that gives you butterflies.

When you first eat a piece of pound cake, its buttery flavor has you moaning like you are making love. Pound Cake for Sweet Pea explains what true love is all about. The analogies that are used will make you think and think some more. You will laugh sometimes and you will even cry sometimes, because this book takes you on an emotional roller coaster. Troi and Sunni are sisters, V and Kenny are brothers, and then there is also Erika, Tye and Todd. They are the main characters.

Troi owns her own bakery, where the best cakes are sold but she sells more of her pound cakes than anything else. But will her success be too much for the man that she truly loves? Will she take her mother’s advice on what love truly is? Her mother’s description of love is so intense, that it causes you to stop and think, where is my slice of that cake and do I have true love?

Kenny and V have a hard time submitting to love, due to their family history. Their mother left their father, but only V knows the real reason behind her leaving. Kenny was too young to understand and even in his adult life he will never find it out. V understands and had a few bad attempts with love and has hardened. V does not think that love can ever be in his future.

“Pound cake, just like being in love, is filling and it comforts you, especially if it’s rich and moist.” That is just a sample of the analogies used in this book. You will have to read it, to experience the rest. I highly recommend this book to everyone. The lessons of love alone will have you pulled in, but the characters are amazing. They will remind you of people in your life.

And if that is not enough the skillful writing of T.T. Bridgeman is remarkable.

I rated this 5 stars.

Smoke meeting Sunset on the Horizon is a combination of fiberoptic black and white glass beads, different shaped red stone beads; and the cross is red glass seed beads held together by a barrel clasp. From one end to the other it measures 18 inches.

Nancy Weaver’s, In Her Presence: A Husband’s Dirty Secret is a riveting, emotional, thought- provoking read. Weaver is a very talented woman when it comes to weaving words together to form the picture of the actual places and emulating the emotions that her characters feel. It is as if they all come to life right before your very eyes. In the circle of life of the Poygoode family, there lie many secrets; secrets that cause one man, Rufus Poygoode, to take a woman’s innocence from her and to claim vengeance against an aunt that abused him during his childhood years. Maebelle and her four daughters did not realize that the world they were entering would change their family forever.

Maebelle was money hungry and no matter who warned her she convinced herself that she was in love with a man that could never love her. She also thought that Rufus loved her. To her everyone was jealous of Rufus’ love for her. Her sons warned their sisters about Rufus, but they were children and had to follow their mother. In the long run her daughters, Jennifer, Jinni, Jackie and Lynn would pay for her blindness, and Maebelle just lived every day as if nothing was wrong.

Would help ever come? Or would the town’s people keep pretending that they did not know what was going on. Since this took place back in the 1950s in Mississippi, whites really did not care what was going on with black people. And the black people kept to themselves and did not get involved in other folks’ business.

I highly recommend this novel to everyone. It will play on emotions that you did not realize were deep down within you.

I rated this book 5 stars.

Teresa D Patterson’s It’s Your World, Black Girl is an awesome, fast- paced read. Patterson’s writing is very descriptive. It pulls you in from the very first line. The characters come alive very quickly. The three main characters are July Williams, Amethyst Dillard and Chiquita Fry who become friends through working for the same insurance company.

Each woman is going through some relationship issues but it all amounts to the same thing, looking for love in all the wrong places. July and Amerthys have a lot in common; their love of partying and both have two children. But what are they missing? July turned to James, he knew exactly what to say and do to get any woman to succumb to his every wish. It was for July to realize the truth versus the lies. Would she find out when it was too late? Amerthys turned to her son’s father who did something that could never be forgiven. Chiquita and Carl got married very early in their relationship. She was pregnant but was her marriage stable enough to handle trouble after trouble? Or would she be raising a baby alone? Chiquita needed to learn how to trust her husband. And Carl needed to learn how to express his feelings better.

Other than a few minor editing misses, I believe that the reader would truly enjoy this book. I highly recommend this book to others.

I rated it 4.5/5 stars.

First, I will have to confess that I did not completely succeed the first quarter reading challenge. I read 13 books, but not the 13 I said I would read. I read 20 books; 9 from my challenge list.

I’m attempting the challenge again. The 4 books from the first challenge that I didn’t get I will add them to 9 others. I am determined to complete this challenge with about 20 books read, most of them from my reading list.

Here’s my second quarter challenge list:

1. ‘Til Debt Do Us Part by Michelle Larks

2. The List by Sherri Lewis

3. The Someday List by Stacey Hawkins Adams

4. I’m Gonna Make You Love Me by Gwyneth Bolton

5. A Reflection of Me: An Anthology

6. Bring On the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins

7. Finding Your Faith by Stephanie Perry Moore

8. Believing in Hope by Stephanie Perry Moore

9. Red Light Green Light by Margaret Johnson Hodge

10. Slow Burn by Ebony Farashuu

11. Home Wrecker by Dwayne S. Joseph

12. The Cooling Board by Tamara Angela Grant

13. A Special Summer by Victoria Wells

I’ve already completed Michelle Larks’ book; almot finish with Sherri Lewis’ book. Another book not on my challenge list that I have completed is That Devil’s No Friend Of Mine by JD Mason. I am also currently reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I guess I am on my way to fulfilling my 20 book quota.

Happy reading!

BTW if you want to take part in the challenge head over to APOOO and list your books. Don’t forget to report your progress every week.