Category Archives: African-American Novels

Dreams That Won’t Let Go

Dreams That Won’t Let Go
by Stacy Hawkins Adams
ISBN: 978-0-8007-3268-4
January 2010; $12.99

I finished this book a few weeks ago but waited to post my blog entry during the tour dates. Indigo Burns is planning her wedding with fellow photographer and soul mate Max. Her life seems good, but, beneath the surface, there are familial problems lingering in her life. These problems are stewing, simmering, waiting to erupt because these complications have been around for several years! Indigo’s brother Ruben is back in town with his blind wife and young son. Indigo’s parents hover over Ruben, ignoring her and her other sibling. Ruben’s recent move has caused both happiness and sadness within the Burns family and it takes pastoral intervention for the parents to see the errors they’ve made in raising their children/grandchildren.

Indigo and her siblings lost their parents in an auto accident years ago, which caused a lot of disharmony in their family. They were raised by their grandparents, and the grandparents did not always make the best decisions about the upbringing of their grandchildren.

I think a lot of people can relate to this novel because it deals with issues that most of us face within our own families. The book also stresses that we need to lean on God in order to overcome the problems that may cause a burden between ourselves and our siblings and parents.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

ESSENCE BESTSELLING AUTHOR RELEASES NEW BOOK:
Sometimes you have to come home to discover who you are…

Essence bestselling author Stacy Hawkins Adams
releases the final book in her popular Jubilant Soul series: Dreams That Won’t Let Go.

Readers have followed along with the Burns family of Jubilant, Texas as they’ve experienced heartaches, celebrated new faced life-changing choices and learned how far faith can carry them through it all.

Now in Dreams That Won’t Let Go, everything seems to be going along perfectly for Indigo Burns: Her wedding preparations to the man of her dreams are under way and her career as a photographer is a success. Even her family seems to be doing better than ever—all except her brother Reuben who no one has seen in years. But that’s about to change, because Reuben has decided to move back home to Jubilant, bringing with him all his unspoken secrets and upsetting all of Indigo’s best-laid plans.

As the family struggles to deal with the pain of the past and find healing, Dreams That Won’t Let Go illustrates that despite what has happened in our lives, there is always a second chance where love conquers all.

Stacy Hawkins Adams is a writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the author of several novels, including the Essence bestseller The Someday List and Worth a Thousand Words. All of Stacy’s novels have been bestsellers in Black Expressions Book Club.

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books that bring the Christian faith to everyday life. They publish resources from a variety of well-known brands and authors, including their partnership with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Hungry Planet.

For more information, visit www.RevellBooks.com.

Bloomsbury Publishing

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Remember when I blogged about African Americans on bookcovers here?

I didn’t want an African-American on my bookcover because I was worried about my sales figures. I wanted a more generic cover with scenery versus having a person on the cover.

I recently came across this blog post which tells of Bloomsbury Publishing placing a Caucasian female on the cover of a YA book, but the character in the story is really African American. Bloomsbury has stated that they did this because books that have African Americans on the cover don’t sell. However, it is deceiving to place the Caucasian on the cover when the main character in the story is Black. Bloomsbury received a lot of flack for doing this and has since changed the cover to more accurately depict the main character.

However, they did the same with yet another YA title, not depicting the character as a person of color on the cover.

It’s shocking that they did this. It would’ve made more sense to do a generic cover without people…

This Black/White book issue looks like it’s a problem that’s going to be around for a long time.

Do you think Bloomsbury was justified with what they did?

I don’t think they should have portrayed the main character as someone of another race. It’s misleading to the reader…it’s the same as lying, which I think is wrong. You don’t want to deceive the consumer…

I know I was complaining about my cover having an AA person on the cover…BUT, I would never want my publisher to place a Caucasian person on the cover when my characters are African-American! I’m pleased with my cover. I’d just heard that the books within the series that had generic covers had great sales figures. Since I’ve never seen any of the 3-in-1s with AA covers, I wasn’t sure how the sales figures would pan out since my cover is going to be “different” than the others…

~Cecelia Dowdy~

John’s Quest – Some Kind Words

Pastor Bernard Boulton – Author Interview

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1. When did you first began writing?

My earliest memories of me writing were when I was a little boy around ten years old. I would write stories about my living in other places. My cousin Yvette, who gave me a love for reading, would write poetry and I wrote some poetry as well, following her example.

2. When did you first decide you wanted to see your book in print? That was my ultimate vision as I was writing Do You Wanna Be Made Whole? As I wrote it I wanted to see it published.

3. I Believe you’ve self published your novel? Could you share how you went about doing this?

I felt led to self publish for several reasons. First I had written a novel in 1992 and had a secured an agent in 1993 but he wasn’t able to secure a deal for me. After that I lost my interest in writing and some years later I lost that manuscript in between moves. After I had written Do You Wanna Be Made Whole? I was praying about trying to sell it to a publisher or to publish it myself when I attended a writer’s conference in Virginia Beach. The facilitator was a young woman named Renee Bobb and the thrust of the conference was on self publishing. After that conference I was inspired to self publish. Another person who has been inspiration to me in self publishing is Dr. Linda Beed, one of the moderators on the BWCHRISTIANLIT Yahoo group. Linda has shared a wealth of knowledge with the group and with me personally about the intricacies of self publishing.

4. Linda does share a wealth of knowledge with her Yahoo group members. Did you choose a certain company, did you incorporate yourself, or did you go through some other process to get your book in print? With Renee’s help I choose Lightning Source as my printer and she has given me many helpful recommendations in this process. Renee has also written and published a manual on self publishing.

5. I’ve heard Lightning Source recommended by others for self-publishing services. Could you tell us a little bit about your journey to becoming a pastor?

I started preaching when I was seventeen years old. I preached my first sermon on March 25, 1984. I knew early in the ministry that I would one day pastor a congregation and I was elected to my first church in September 1993. I have been a pastor to three congregations in the states of West
Virginia, Virginia and Texas. I have been at this church in
southern Virginia for eight years – which is a unique situation in itself. I was elected to this church in September 1994 and I served as pastor until April 2000 when I left to go to Texas. The church elected me a second time in November 2006 and I returned in February 2007. It is very rare in this denomination to pastor the same church twice.

6. What is your novel about?

This novel is about an older pastor, James Maxwell who is a father type to the following characters: Theo Dexter, Michael Cain and Adam Jones. Each of these men are experiencing life crises that are threatening to derail them. Each of them turns to Pastor Maxwell for help and he walks with them through the process of wholeness.

7. Where did you get the idea for your novel?

I’m not really sure where I got the idea because it was a long time ago when I first started writing my book. I started writing this story at the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004. My mother had died in June of 2003 and I was writing with a lot of pain so it’s very possible that this story was the result of me dealing with my own brokenness.

Thanks for stopping by today, Bernard!

If you want to know more about Pastor Bernard Boulton, visit his website. You can also read an excerpt of his book at his web address.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Should Publishers Get Rid Of African-American Imprints?

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I read an interesting article linked on this blog post. I’ve blogged about a simliar topic in the past here, here, here, and here, and wonder how the sales will be on my next novel since an African-American woman is on the cover and the book will be released into most major stores: including Walmart and most bookstores that carry Christian novels.

Last summer, when I was at the Romance Writers of America conference in Washington D.C., I was talking to my roommate, author Rachel Hauck. I told her about the stigma of African-American novels – some White people think the stories are for “us” not “them”. Plus, if there are Black people on the cover, the book is sometimes automatically shelved in the African-American section – and some Whites don’t search that section for reading material.

The flipside is, if my book is shelved with White books, therefore placing my title in front of White readers, they still might not buy my novel, but, then again, they might.

I told her that I hoped that my publisher would not place a person on the cover. I’d mentioned that I’d seen that some of the covers for the 3-in-1s had just scenery, no people. That’s the way I wanted my novel to look. You see, I’d heard that Barbour’s 3-in-1s sell really well, and I figured if I had a cover without people, like the other contemporary releases, then the sales figures that those books had would somewhat guarantee that I’d share the same sales numbers. (I know there are no guarantees at all, I was only speculating, hoping to increase my chances of getting some great sales.)

Rachel suggested that I let Barbour know what I wanted on my cover. Since I had not seen my cover yet, I figured there was still time to make my wishes known. I did contact them and gave them some samples of covers that I liked for other contemporary 3-in-1s.

I did get my cover a few weeks later. And here it is. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably already seen this cover a gazillion times:

I love the cover, and felt it captures the essence of the stories and looks better than what I’d suggested. Upon further research, I did discover that Barbour changed their convention for designing the covers for the 3-in-1s for the contemporary series that will be released in 2010. Prior to the 2010 releases, the cover always had scenery, but starting in 2010, the covers now have a person (either man or woman) on the cover. For their historicals, it appears they were already using the convention of using a person on the cover of their 3-in-1s in 2009 – so no major changes for the historicals.

Here’s some examples of the 3-in-1 covers for contemporary series for 2009:

Here are some examples of the NEW 3-in-1 covers for contemporary series for 2010:

I think the marketing department did a great job with the 2010 3-in-1 covers! They look beautiful and I think that having the people on the cover captures the power behind the story more than having just scenery.

HOWEVER, I’m wondering how my book will be shelved? For example, I visited Walmart over the Christmas holiday. Most Walmarts have the 3-in-1s shelved together, but since mine has an African-American woman on the cover, will it be shelved with the other 3-in-1s in the inspirational section, or will it be shelved in the African-American section? If somebody comes to Walmart each month to buy the 3-in-1s and mine is in the African-American section, instead of with the rest of the 3-in-1s, then I doubt they’ll know my book exists and I might lose a sale. I did notice that there were some African-American inspirational titles shelved in the African-American section.

ON THE FLIP SIDE, if my book is shelved in the African-American section, I could capture those readers who only read African-American books. They might go to the AA section only, without browsing the rest of the sections, not knowing that my book could be shelved amongst other books.

I believe the ideal solution would be to shelve it both places, but I highly doubt that’s going to happen!

I need to stop worrying about this because it’s all in the Lord’s hands. And before you say, “All of this shouldn’t matter, a book is a book…” well, don’t say that. It does matter. I’ve seen the way some African-Americans and some Whites read books. The sad fact is sometimes they do base or buy a book depending upon race. 🙁

Do you think I’m worrying about nothing?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

A Letter About Milk Money

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I recently received a letter from a reader regarding my novel, Milk Money. The reader made the following comment in her letter:

I would have enjoyed the story more if you hadn’t continually commented to the color of people’s skin as though it was an oddity. I don’t see that in books about Caucasians.

Here was my response to this reader:

If you read a lot of books written by African-American authors, I’ve noticed we do tend to mention skin color more. Why? I suppose skin color is more of an “issue” with us, a way of life. Our skin color comes into play more often than with Caucasian characters simply because we are Black, living in America, and there are things that may happen to us (Blacks) that might not necessarily happen to Caucasians, because of the color of our skin. I know skin color has been a HUGE factor in my life – I lived in an all-white area and I felt ostracized a lot of the time because of my skin color. So, I guess I’m saying that with most Blacks, we’re probably going to mention skin color more frequently when we’re writing about African-American characters. I hope my explanation helps!

Do any of you read novels written by African-Americans? If so, do you think we mention the color of people’s skin more than Caucasians? I know when I do it, it’s not intentional, that’s just the way that I write! I also notice we use food as adjectives to describe people’s skin: mocha-colored, chocolate, toffee, caramel-colored, etc.

Feel free to share your thoughts!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Secrets And Lies By Rhonda McKnight

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Secrets And Lies by Rhonda McKnight

Faith Morgan is struggling with her faith. Years of neglect leave her doubting that God will ever fix her marriage. When a coworker accuses her husband, Jonah, of the unthinkable, Faith begins to wonder if she really knows him at all, and if it’s truly in God’s will for them to stay married.

Pediatric cardiologist Jonah Morgan is obsessed with one thing: his work. A childhood incident cemented his desire to heal children at any cost, even his family, but now he finds himself at a crossroads in his life. Will he continue to allow the past to haunt him, or find healing and peace in a God he shut out long ago?

About the Author
Rhonda McKnight owns Legacy Editing, a free-lance editing service for fiction writers and Urban Christian Fiction Today (www.urbanchristianfictiontoday.com ), a popular Internet site that highlights African-American Christian fiction. She’s also the vice president of the Faith Based Fiction Writers of Atlanta. Originally from a small coastal town in New Jersey, she’s called Atlanta, Georgia home for almost twelve years.

Rhonda, tell us how you came up with the idea for this story?
I woke up one morning and these people were talking in my head, or rather arguing. (LOL). I thought this could be interesting, turned on the creativity, and came up with the “issues” in their marriage. I also did a lot of research about heart disease. Jonah is a pediatric cardiologist and that’s central to the story. I knew absolutely nothing about heart disease before I wrote this novel.

Who is your ideal reader?
I think most people will think my ideal reader is women who are married. While I think the book will definitely appeal to married women, I’d love for single woman who are thinking about marriage or waiting on Mr. Right to read the book. There is a valuable lesson for single women in the story. Faith chose to overlook a very important issue prior to her marriage to Jonah. This issue becomes a huge source of pain for her. Ten years later her ideal black man has her pulling her hair out.

Name something about the book that will appeal to readers?
I think readers will find it appealing, because more than half of it is written from Jonah’s point of view. My informal research amongst readers has taught me that women readers love stories that are written from a man’s perspective. Like most men, Jonah is complex. He’s a love to hate kind of guy. People will love him because he’s dedicated his life to physically healing children, but he’s emotionally and spiritually sick himself. What a burden for Faith. Faith’s pain will have some folks shaking their heads at Jonah.

When’s your next book being released?
My second novel, An Inconvenient Friend comes out August 1, 2010. I have a nasty little character in Secrets and Lies who gets her own story, and what a story it is. She’s up to no good. Can she be redeemed?

How can readers find out more about you?
Readers may contact me at my website at www.rhondamcknight.net. I love for people to sign my guestbook and share their thoughts about the story. I’m also a complete Facebook addict. You’ll definitely find me there more than you should at www.facebook.com/rhondamcknight

I’ve enjoyed having you on my blog today, Rhonda! Readers, check out Rhonda’s story! Go to a bookstore and pick up a copy today! I just received my copy from Amazon a few days ago and I look forward to reading it and reviewing it on this blog!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

What The Bayou Saw by Patti Lacy

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What The Bayou Saw by Patti Lacy
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Kregel Publications (March 24, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0825429374
ISBN-13: 978-0825429378

From Amazon.com:
Product Description
The past can’t stay buried forever Rising author Patti Lacy’s second novel exposes the life of Sally, set amid the shadows of prejudice in Louisiana. Since leaving her home in the South, Sally Stevens has held the secrets of her past at bay, smothering them in a sunny disposition and sugar-coated lies. No one, not even her husband, has heard the truth about her childhood. But when one of her students is violently raped, Sally’s memories quickly bubble to the surface unbidden, like a dead body in a bayou. As Sally’s story comes to light, the lies she’s told begin to catch up with her. And as her web of deceit unravels, she resolves to face the truth at last, whatever the consequences.

==
This book was deep and moving! I could see a bunch of women reading this novel and then getting together for coffee and cookies while discussing it. Patti hits on some tough issues that we face here in America, which include bigotry and rape.

Sally suffered a traumatic childhood experience when she was twelve – which resulted in someone’s death. Her secret African-American friend, Ella, has also carried this secret. Both women have suffered greatly because of this incident, and Sally started lying as a youngster to cover up her forbidden friendship, and to hid the tragedy. Amidst the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the rape of one of Sally’s community college students, her memories are set free from her mind, making her stop and think about how her years of actions are affecting her life and the lives of others, including her husband’s! I think Sally lies so much that she no longer realizes that she’s doing it!

I don’t want to tell too much of the story by giving away too many details, but, I think you should run out and buy this book today if you haven’t already done so! You won’t be disappointed!
The book also made me pause and think about my own childhood. Sally moves into a new area when she’s around eleven or twelve, and I was ten when my family moved to a new area. It was strange, being the new Black kid in the neighborhood. People acted like I was a martian from outer space or something! When I graduated from high school, I was the only Black female in the class! Racism is something that I’ve experienced in my life and Patti touched upon this issue in a realistic way.

Great story! You should read it!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Offended? Cast Of Characters For Sins Of The Father

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I think I may have offended one of my blog readers with my review for Angela Benson’s novel, Sins Of The Father.

Anonymous made the following comment on my blog:
Bastard? Interesting word to use. I didn’t know anyone still used that word. I wonder if God sees them as bastards. I’m guessing no. You might want to consider seeing them as God seems them.

When I used the word bastard, I was thinking of the way I used to see it used in old-time TV shows, plus, Angela Benson (the author) used the word herself in the novel at least a few times? I recall the wife of Abraham – Saralyn – used the word, and it was obviously in a distasteful manner. I was comparing the novel to TV, and that’s a word that I used to see crop up on TV drama shows.

The first time I heard the word bastard was when I was about ten or eleven. It was summer time, and you’ll recall on my soap opera post that I was bored out of my mind during those hot summer months. When I was ten/eleven, I wasn’t reading romance novels or watching soap operas yet, but I did watch a great deal of television. I was watching old black and white reruns of The Big Valley. Remember, these were re-reruns. I believe when The Big Valley first came on the air, I wasn’t even born yet. Anyway, it’s about this family living on a ranch or someplace like that, and the show had a western theme. Heath (A character played by Lee Majors. I really remember Lee Majors as the Six Million Dollar Man – that show DID air during my time – I remember it well in the seventies.) shows up at the ranch, and another character, can’t recall his name, demands to know who Heath is. Heath’s response is, “I’m your daddy’s bastard son.” Then they break out in a fight (kind of like Angela had Isaac and Michael doing in the boardroom at Abraham’s company – see, I told you this book was just like a TV show!) Anyway, I turned to my mom, and asked, “Mom, what’s a bastard?”

She told me it’s a child who’s born to parents who are not married. But she went on to say, “It’s not a nice word, and I don’t want to ever hear you say that word.”

Suffice it to say, I never used that word, until yesterday’s blog post, so, if I offended anybody, I didn’t mean to…honest! Nowadays, there is no stigma to being born out of wedlock. I don’t even know if there’s a term used for children born to unmarried parents? Single unmarried mothers are common nowadays and I believe bastard was a word used more back in the eighteen and early to mid nineteen hundreds, perhaps? I know tons of people born to unmarried parents, and I know a lot of children born to unmarried parents and I don’t think of them as bastards…honest! When I read Angela’s book, that was the first time I’d seen the word bastard in ages.

Now, on to another subject! Wendy commented and asked:
Cecelia said:
I think the entire book should be placed on TV. Seriously. I felt like I was reading a script for a movie and I was ready to cast the actors for the parts.
Wendy’s question:
>>who would you cast as characters for the parts?

Who would I cast?

Abraham would be either Harry Belafonte or James Earl Jones.

Saralyn would be Diahann Carroll.

Issac and Michael? Well, remember in this soap opera post I talked about twins (or a variation of twins) being used in the soaps? Well, Issac and Michael would be played by the same person! Although they are not twins, they look an awful lot alike! I’d cast Shemar Moore to play both roles!
Deborah? Hmm. I’m not sure! Anybody have any suggestions on who should be cast as Deborah? I don’t know who I’d cast for the lawyer, the man that Deborah has a crush on, the man that’s old enough to be her daddy! I also don’t know who I’d cast to play Deborah’s and Michael’s mom! Anybody have suggestions for that?
Okay, I usually don’t blog about a book for more than a day! The few comments that came in sparked me to blog about the book again. If you enjoy soap operas and drama and TV, then I think you should check out Angela’s novel.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Sins Of The Father

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I mentioned this novel the day before yesterday. So, as promised, I’m posting my review. This novel reminded me of a soap opera because it had a lot of drama and real-life issues. Abraham is a successful businessman, but, he’s in the same boat as a lot of men (and women, nowadays) – he fathered a child before he got married. However, he was seeing two women at the same time and he married the one with the most wealth. Saralyn, his wife, hates that her husband has now turned soft-hearted and wants to unite with the children he had out of wedlock. I think the entire book should be placed on TV. Seriously. I felt like I was reading a script for a movie and I was ready to cast the actors for the parts. The drama between Abraham’s son, his wife, and his illegitimate children gets murky when Abraham’s in a serious accident, and is in a coma. Running his company is no picnic, but the characters need to learn that they need to forgive one another for all that’s happened in the past.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

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