Visit the Bookstore!

December 13, 2008 by admin · Comments Off 

Before you leave today, now’s the time to load up on books by all our spotlight authors, workshop presenters and even attendees.  So, Don’t forget to stop by the BOOKSTORE.  Remember, books make great gifts!

Filed under: Book Clubs, Book Showcase, Event Info & News, Promo & Resources
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Participants Only – List Your Link!

December 13, 2008 by admin · 26 Comments 

Okay, listen closely.  This is a link only post. (And this is for those who actually participated, so we can have everyone’s info in one spot.) If you do NOT follow directions, you will be deleted.  If you DID NOT participate, you will be deleted.  Also, do not include your pitch or your book title, your company bio, or any of that for this post.  So, please follow my lead and share your link and the info as shown. 

(Did I say you will be deleted if you don’t follow directions?  LOL.  Just wanted to say it one mo’ time.)

Example: 

RAWSISTAZ Literary Group – http://www.rawsistaz.com  (Book Club)
Maya Angelou - http://www.mayaangelou.com (Author)

(And it is okay to post more than one link in a reply vs sending a million replies.)

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Book Clubs, DAY 6 (SATURDAY), Event Info & News, General Forum, Promo & Resources
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Author Spotlights (Saturday)

December 12, 2008 by admin · 4 Comments 

Our Spotlight Authors today are Aundrea Lacy, Gil L. Robertson IV, Regina Louise, and Darrell King.

Aundrea Lacy – http://luvsbrownies.com
Author’s Bio: Aundrea Lacy, born and raised in San Francisco, has been a model, a television journalist, and a marketing executive for Fortune 500 companies. She earned her MBA from Golden State University. In 1996, she went from baking brownies for friends to building her own online bakery business, Luv Brownies. In addition, she gives career presentations for girls and women from around the country.

Gil L. Robertson IV – http://www.notinmyfamily.com
Gil L. Robertson IV is a journalist whose work has appeared in Essence, Billboard, Black Enterprise, the Source, Los Angeles Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution, among others. He has appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show, CNN, and BET, and his syndicated column, The Robertson Treatment, appears in over 30 newspapers, reaching more than 2 million readers across the country.

Regina Louise – http://www.reginalouise.com
Author’s Bio: Regina Louise has been a keynote speaker at numerous foster care and social workers’ conventions across the country. She has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, the CBS Early Show, and the Tavis Smiley Show, and a one-woman play version of her story was produced by the Sacramento Theater Company in May 2007. A successful businesswoman and salon owner, she currently lives in Berkeley.

Darrell King – http://www.myspace.com/dak1968
Mr. Darrell King, Sr. has been writing ever since the age of eight. His first published work of fiction was penned during the fall of 1976 as a student of Mary Field’s Elementary School on South Carolina’s Daufuskie Island. This effort, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Hobbit,” was both written and illustrated by Mr. King and was published in the school’s quarterly periodical, “The Daufuskie Kid’s Magazine.” Mr. King went on to write several unpublished stories and numerous poems, several of which were published in the 1995-1996 “Poetry Anthology” by the National Library of Poetry in Owings Mills, Maryland. During the 90s, Mr. King was attracted to and inspired by the lurid tales of inner city crime and drama that he read on the pages of novels by great writers such as Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim. This, coupled with an enduring appreciation for the hard-edged, yet enlightened lyric of the era’s gangsta rap icons like Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Easy E and others prompted Mr. King to begin writing his very own stories of urban crime and inner city drama.

Filed under: Author Spotlights, DAY 6 (SATURDAY), Panels & Workshops
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Book Spotlight Ad – Every Woman Needs a Wife

December 11, 2008 by admin · 22 Comments 

If you can’t view this eBlast, visit http://www.rawsistaz.com/Naleighna-Kai-eBlast.jpg.

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Book Clubs, Book Showcase, Day 4 (THURSDAY), Promo & Resources
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Spotlight Authors (Thursday)

December 10, 2008 by admin · 24 Comments 

Today’s Spotlight is on authors Robert Greer (via interview only), Byron Harmon, Nicole Bailey-Williams, T. L. James and M. LaVora Perry. Thanks for joining us.

Please introduce yourselves and tell us about your experience in the literary world. Also, how do you separate your literary life with your personal life?

Attendees…leave your questions and comments below.

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Day 4 (THURSDAY)
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Author Spotlight – Robert Greer

December 10, 2008 by admin · 1 Comment 

David Greer was unable to participate in the conference “live” but wanted to join us, so we have interviewed him below.  He is the author of BLACKBIRD, FAREWELL.  Also, visit his website at http://www.robertgreerbooks.com.

ROBERT GREER
Review & Interview done by Alice Holman

(Click here to read the review)

1. When did you begin writing and did you start with CJ Floyd? And, do you have another position, other than writing, that occupies your time?  I began my writing in college where I was a journalism and chemistry major.  I did a lot of feature stories that were primarily sports interview stories for newspapers including The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Oxford Press, and The Columbus Dispatch.  I eventually went on to become a doctor and I have done considerable scientific writing in the interim. I started writing fiction while I was in my mid-30s, beginning with short stories. I wrote several short stories before going on to earn a master’s degree in creative writing from Boston University.  I really didn’t start writing my CJ Floyd mysteries or medical thrillers until a year or so after I finished that Masters program. I have since written a dozen or more short stories and ten novels. 

2. Have you always been into mysteries? Do you use other genres also?  My time is occupied, aside from a being a writer, with being a pathologist and research scientist at the University of Colorado’s Medical Center where I teach and do cancer research.  I am a diagnostic pathologist so that a large portion of my time is spent diagnosing everything from cancer to warts. 

I haven’t particularly been a mystery fan all my life.  I like all forms of literature. My favorite form of literature is the short story followed closely by the essay. Some people are surprised that novels are not my favorite literary form. I read a lot of suspense fiction, western history, and history in general.

3. How did you invent CJ Floyd as the bails bondman? CJ Floyd came from what you might call my era and America’s last real war. He’s an African-American hero who is a war veteran. I decided to make CJ someone who struggles with the fact that he spent two tours of duty as a machine gunner on the back of a 125-foot navy patrol boat in the Mecong Delta during Vietnam. He carries the baggage of that war with him always. He’s a loner and he’s generally uncomfortable with other people except for his very closest friends. Yet, he can step inside any world—the corporate world, the backwoods and mountains of the west, or the big city streets of America. I decided to make him a bail bondsman because it allows him to have a foot in both the criminal and criminal justice world. He surrounds himself with a cadre of characters who help him, including his former secretary, Julie Madrid, who is now his attorney, Julie’s son and CJ’s godson, Damion Madrid, his partner in the bail bonding business, former marine intelligence sergeant Flora Jean Benson, and cowboys, mobsters, and street people.

4. Are you from Denver, Colorado ? (as in native – born and raised?)  No, I’m not from Denver. I was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Gary, Indiana. I’ve lived in Denver for thirty-five years and consider it home.  I have a strong western sensibility and actually own a cattle ranch in Wyoming although I live in Denver. 

5. You frequently use the surrounding areas for your settings: are you, as many Coloradans are, a part time mountain dweller? If so, where in Colorado do you spend your time?  I love using the west as a backdrop for my novels in particular the Rocky Mountain west, including Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. For many years I owned a ranch outside of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a ski town. I sold that ranch after my wife died some six years ago and bought a ranch in Wyoming. I spent a great deal of time writing my novels at my ranch outside Steamboat and now spend time writing at my ranch in the Laramie Mountains of Wyoming. I try to spend as much time as I can at the ranch during the summer but generally when winter hits I spend most of my time in Denver. 

6. Are you preparing another delicious CJ Floyd book for your reading fans?  I just finished the outline for my next CJ Floyd novel which will be released in 2010. My novel for 2009 is not a CJ Floyd mystery or medical thriller, but a literary novel entitled SPOON which deals with a half-black, half-Indian clairvoyant cowboy who is criss-crossing the Rocky Mountain west trying to find his roots. He stumbles across a struggling cattle ranching family in Montana and helps rescue their ranch from the grips of a drought and the grasp of a coal-mining company. Although I’ve written literary short stories in the past, this is my first literary novel. The next CJ Floyd book, the 2010 book deals with the death of a pawn shop broker who like CJ Floyd, collects antique porcelain license plates.

7. How long does it take you to write one of your mysteries?  It takes me approximately ten months to write one of my novels. I generally spend 2-3 hours every day working on the book and 4 hours or so each day on the weekends.

8. Do you have any advice for budding writers?  For me, writing is a job and the one piece of advice I might offer to novice writers is that in order to become a successful writer you must keep your bottom glued to the chair. 

9. How long did it take for your novels to break into mainstream America? My first novel was successful in terms of sales, but I don’t think it was until I wrote my fourth novel, LIMITED TIME, a medical thriller, which hit the LA Times Best Seller List, that I suspect the novels became part of the American mainstream.

10. What’s next for you? I plan to write a memoir and love story about my relationship with my late wife.  It’s been difficult to get off the drawing board because of the sadness that still remains, but I will ultimately tell the story.

11. Any last words?  Readers keep reading, and for budding writers, please accept your task as a job.

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Day 4 (THURSDAY), General Forum, Panels & Workshops
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Book Spotlight Ad – The Knees of Gullah Island

December 10, 2008 by admin · 10 Comments 

Can’t view this eBlast?  Visit www.rawsistaz.com/dwightfryer-eblast.jpg

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Book Clubs, Book Showcase, Promo & Resources
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Spotlight – Poetry & Non-Fiction

December 9, 2008 by admin · 15 Comments 

Today’s spotlight is on Poetry & Non-Fiction and our spotlight authors are: RJ Poet, a. Kai, Ms. T, & Vanessa Johnson.  Please share a bit about yourself and why you’ve chosen to write in your chosen genre.  We’d also like to request each of you share a sampling of your work.

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Day 3 (WEDNESDAY)
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Spotlight Authors (Tuesday)

December 8, 2008 by admin · 20 Comments 

Today’s Spotlight is on authors Ana’Gia Wright, Pynk, Trice Hickman, Terra Little, & Dyanne Davis.  Ladies, please stop through and tell us a bit about yourself and your books.  Feel free to be as detailed as you’d like.  We’d also love if you’d share some tips for other writers & tidbits your reader fans may not know.  :)  

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Day 2 (TUESDAY)
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Author’s Book Promo

December 7, 2008 by admin · 54 Comments 

If you’re an author, this is the spot for your to promote yours latest book(s).  Be sure to list the book title, a brief synopsis, genre, your website link, and purchase details.  Please DO NOT post excerpts.  If you have a link to one, share that instead.

Filed under: Author Spotlights, Promo & Resources
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