Venus Johnston

There are authors that create a character who offers up adventures that span multiple books. Trisha R. Thomas is such an author. She first introduced us to Venus Johnston in December 2000 with Nappily Ever After and six books later Venus is just as fascinating a character today as she was then. May 25, is the release of the sixth book in the series, Un-Nappily in Love. Click here to get the author's take on Venus and what the new book is all about.

By the way, Nappily Ever After is being made into a film by Halle Berry.

All the books in the Nappily series starting with the new release:

April Release from Pearl Cleage

 Just in time to be added to my spring reading list is the release (April 20, 2010) of Till You Hear From Me by Pearl Cleage.

The novel takes place in Washington, D.C. and the West End, Atlanta neighborhood that has become a character in all Pearl's books.  Offering romance, scandal and politics, Till You Hear From Me sounds like a sure thing.

Television Debut of Sins of the Mother

On Sunday, February 21, Lifetime Movie Network will air Sins of the Mother based on the book Orange Mint and Honey written by Carleen Brice. Please mark your calendar and share this info with your friends and family. I am hoping for large viewer numbers so that Lifetime and other cable channels will see that there is an audience hungry for good, well-written, and diverse stories. If you make them we will watch.

View the trailer for Sins of the Mother. 

Upcoming Literary Events in D.C. and NYC

January 28, 2010 - 6:00PM
The Hurston/Wright Foundation
The Black Book Coalition New Year Mixer!

Join us as we kick off the new year and hit the literary ground running in 2010!  Meet a host of diverse literary players from around the Washington DC metro area including: authors, publicists, publishers, graphic artists and more!

Ulah Bistro
1214 U Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009


February 13, 2010 - 3:00PM

The Hurston/Wright Foundation
A Love For All Seasons: Book Party

Join us for an afternoon with acclaimed authors reading excerpts from

love stories that have sustained Black people during the worst of times and the best of times.  
Borders Books
931 A Capital Centre Blvd.
Largo, MD 20774


February 27, 2010 - 3:00PM
The Hurston/Wright Foundation
Literary/Jazz Soiree

Join us for an afternoon of readings, book signings, and music to honor the 2008 and 2009 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Winners and finalists.

Borders Books
931 A Capital Centre Blvd.
Largo, MD 20774


March 25-28, 2010
The Tenth National Black Writers' Conference
Panels, Roundtables, Conversations, Talkshops, Readings and Storytelling
Honorary Chair, Toni Morrison
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Founders Auditorium
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Tel. (718) 270-4811
www.mec.cuny.edu/nbwc

Sugar Turns Ten!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being in the company of a great author, Bernice McFadden. She celebrated the tenth anniversary of Sugar at Brownstone Books in Brooklyn.

Bernice read the opening chapter of Sugar by request of another author Pat G'Orge-Walker (who commented to all in the room that she has yet to pick up a book with the clarity and brilliance that Sugar delivers in the first 100 words of the novel), followed by a reading from her upcoming book Glorious (I won an advanced reader copy), which will arrive in bookstores May 1.

We celebrated with words, hugs, chocolate-covered strawberries and wine. You can join the celebration by picking up a copy of the newly released Sugar for yourself or as a gift to someone else.

Thanks Trevor for the photo.

2010 NAACP Image Awards Nominations in Literature

The nominations just came in for The 41st NAACP Image Awards. The program will air on FOX on Friday, February 26. The literary categories aren't broadcast on television but check the website after the telecast to see who wins and send your congratulations to the winning authors via their website, Facebook or twitter.

LITERATURE CATEGORIES

Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction

• "Basketball Jones" - E. Lynn Harris (deceased) (Doubleday)
• "Before I Forget" - Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Agate Bolden)
• "Life is Short But Wide" - J. California Cooper (Doubleday)
• "The Book of Night Women" - Marlon James Riverhead Books)
• "The Long Fall" - Walter Mosley (Riverhead Books)

Outstanding Literary Work - Non-Fiction 

• 
  
  "Brain Surgeon": A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters With Mortality and Miracles - Arnold Mann with Keith Black, MD (Grand Central Publishing)
  
  
  
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  "Family Affair: What It Means to be African American Today" - Gil L. Robertson, IV (Agate Bolden)
  
  
  
• 
  
  "Freedom in My Heart: Voices From the United States National Slavery Museum" - Cynthia Jacobs Carter (National Geographic Books)
  
  
  
• 
  
  "In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past" - Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Crown)
  
  
  
• 
  
  "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" - Al Gore (Rodale Inc.)
  
  
  

Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author

• 
  
  "3^rd Generation Country" - BeNeca Ward (Xlibris Corporation)
  
  
  
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  "A Question of Freedom" - R. Dwayne Betts (Avery Books)
  
  
  
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  "Black Water Rising" - Attica Locke (Harper)
  
  
  
• 
  
  "Kiss the Sky: A Novel" - Farai Chideya (Atria Books)
  
  
  
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  "Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange" - Amanda Smyth  (Three Rivers Press)
  
  
  

Outstanding Literary Work - Children

• 
  
  "Child of the Civil Rights Movement" - Paula Young Shelton (Random House Children's Books)
  
  
  
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  "Negro Speaks of Rivers" - Langston Hughes (Author), E.B. Lewis (Illustrator) (Disney-Jump at the Sun/Disney Book Group)
  
  
  
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  "Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change" - Michelle Cook (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
  
  
  
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  "Peeny Butter Fudge" - Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
  
  
  
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  "Sugar Plum Ballerinas: Toeshoe Trouble" - Whoopi Goldberg (Disney-Jump at the Sun/Disney Book Group)
  
  
  

Outstanding Literary Work - Youth/Teens

• 
  
  "Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice" - Phillip Hoose (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
  
  
  
• 
  
  "Just Another Hero" - Sharon Draper (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
  
  
  
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  "Mare's War" - Tanita S. Davis (Random House Children's Books)
  
  
  
• 
  
  "Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady" - David Bergen Brophy (Collins-An Imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books)
  
  
  
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  "Rock and the River" - Kekla Magoon (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
  
  
  
  
  
  

I'm Reading...

The List by Sherri Lewis. I received this book from a relative at Christmas time (though it was a belated birthday gift). I started reading it almost immediately because the cover was attractive (a brown girl who favored me). So with the opening sentence on the backcover asking "SIngle and satisfied? I had to open the book and see what The List was all about.

It's published by Urban Christian (I've never read anything published by them before) and it is well-written and well-developed. It centers on five women (three that have never been married, one divorced and one widowed) trying to figure out why they are still single though they desire to be married. And thought this subject has been beaten with a stick, I think Sherri is presenting it in a different light, that has gotten my attention.

Gotta get back to the book, what are you reading?