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I Met Toni Morrison

Let me tell you about the time I met Toni Morrison. It’s been a while, so my years may be a bit off, but she visited the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale, I believe in 1989 or early 1990. I helped to set up the luncheon and I remember the buzz of anticipation from everyone because TONI MORRISON was coming to have lunch with us.

I don’t know what I was expecting. No, that’s a lie. As an impressionable twenty or twenty-one year old, I expected Ms. Morrison to come floating in about six inches above the floor, escorted by men in dark suits, sunglasses and earplugs. Because certainly, such a famous author needed bodyguards to avoid being mobbed in the street, right?

To my surprise, Ms. Morrison peeked in, as if she wasn’t sure this was the right place to be. Then she came in smiling at everyone, her salt and pepper dreadlocks pinned on her head. And she asked us to call her Toni. Yeah right.

I remember that she was quiet. When she shook my hand, she put both of her hands on mine and looked directly in my eyes. I’m not saying she was personable, in fact she was a bit on the shy side, but she made a connecting with you. I’m just glad I didn’t jump up and down, squealing “It’s Toni Morrison, it’s Toni Morrison and she told ME to call her TONI!!!!!”

I don’t care for many of her books. Some may say that “oh, you just don’t understand the Black experience”. For those who may say that, remember that no one’s experience is the same. The Black experience is not monolithic. But I digress. The point is, not that I liked her books, but that she was a published author and I MET HER. That’s all that mattered. I was simply in love with the fact that she took a chance, wrote from her heart and got published.

Which is why, I suppose, I write. I don’t write for others. I write for what I like, for what I enjoy reading. And I think that makes the process so much more fun. It’s not about sales. It’s about my personal accomplishment.

So, there’s my story. That’s how I met Toni Morrison!!

And you know what made me like her even more? She went back for seconds!!!

Getting out of the Box

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When I first entered the wide world of writing, the first thing I discovered was, for such a creative medium, there were a ton of rules. Some of the rules contradicted each other, others made no sense in certain genres.

I’m honest. I’m the dude in the movie “I, Robot” who yells out “What about the rules?”. Following this, I strove to follow each and every rule set out by the “learned writers” on the websites and books that I read to hone my craft.

This isn’t going to be any big reveal to anyone, but I learned something very simple. There are no rules. Write what makes your story work, BUT, be willing to compromise.

I’ve always read that a short story should have a conventional story structure, much like a novel. I tried to squish all the parts of a novel into a 5k story and failed miserably, ending up with a rushed, hurried mess that I eventually had to expand into full length novellas.

One day, however, I stumbled upon website that talked about modern short stories. This fine chap of a writer suggested that the short story need not have all the parts of a novel. As I read this blasphemy, I gasped. “What about the rules!!” As I read further, what he wrote made a lot more sense. He told me to think of the short story not as a mini-novel, but as a snapshot of the characters’ lives at one point in time.

Boy, did the light blink on and burn steadily then. The structure rule for the short story, the brick wall I had been beating my head against, now was gone, vanished. Of course, I understood I wasn’t going to write a story about someone going to the grocery store, then coming home and unpacking the groceries. But if while the person was at the grocery store, his wife was at home sharpening a knife with which to meet him at the door, then we’ve got ourselves a party.

I write all this to say to you writers out there: Know the rules. But don’t let the rules keep you from being creative.

That being said, I was able to actually write a story under four thousand words for Mocha Memoirs Press’ 31 days of Steamy Mocha. It’s about summer and a pool and a helpful neighbor.

Swimming Lessons at Amazon: On a warm summer day, a normally prudent woman makes a drastic change with the help of too much caffeine and her hot, younger neighbor.

Write with heart.

Dahlia

thesultryscribe

Coming Soon – The Wisest Maiden

Writing is easy compared to the editing process. It’s difficult to take words that you’ve already written, that you’ve already determined that they say what you want them to say, then tweak them to make them more evocative. But I tell you, the hardest part of the process of getting a book into e-print is the blurb. So, here is the “work of art” that made me pull my hair out in the space of fifteen minutes:

After she is forced into marriage with a powerful ruler who deflowers and kills his brides, Issalia is compelled to use her wits to avoid the executioner’s axe. But can she avoid having her heart captured by the deeply wounded king?

You have no idea (or perhaps you do) how difficult that was to write!

Without further ado, here is the cover reveal and longer blur for The Wisest Maiden:

The Wisest Virgin – Liquid Silver Books – August 13th

Blurb:

Betrayed by his first wife, King Toridesh gives his new brides no
chance to deceive him. After he marries a virgin of his choosing and
consummates the marriage, he has them killed.

As an only child, Issalia has been sheltered by her parents in an
attempt to shield her from their king’s murderous intent. When her
mother falls ill, Issalia refuses to allow their market-stall be
closed for the day, knowing that this one day of income stands between them
and poverty.

While in disguise, the King spies the lovely Issalia in the
marketplace and takes her as his next bride. Will Issalia
succumb to the fate of the virgin brides before her or will she be
able to break the King’s curse?

See the Pinterest board.

Missing New Orleans

It’s barely ten a.m. and the temperature outside as I type this is already 82 degrees. Yep. It’s totally summer. I’m glad. The hot weather gives me an excuse to stay in and write. Strike that last. I’ll use any excuse to stay in and write, who am I fooling?

Weather like this always reminds me of the time I spent in New Orleans, back in the early nineties, way before Hurricane Katrina and the casinos. When it was hot like this, and that was all the time during the summer, you could go out to the daiquiri drive thru and get a strawberry daquiri. That’s right. In New Orleans, there were shops in strip malls that sold at least 10 different flavors of ALCOHOLIC daiquiris.

<—–Yes. Alcoholic slurpees. You’d go in (or drive up) and order the one you wanted. Then you would drive off home sipping at your daiquiri WHILE YOU DROVE. Yes. Awesome, right? Oh, for you teetoalers out there, there was always the Bahama Mama down at the faaaaar end of the row and the server would always sigh heavily and cut their eyes when they had to serve up one of those.

That large jar? That’s for tips. Yeah, not gonna happen. I just cleaned out the change holder in my Toyota to buy this daiquiri, boss. There’s nothing left for you, sorry. By the way, um, you’re NOT a waitress. You’re getting paid at least minimum wage.

Also, I think there was a ton of a lot more going on in those shops than I was aware of back then. People (guys) were always hanging around. And not the cool kind either. The kind that would ask you for a “ride”. Uh-huh. That’s another blog post.

Now I have to settle for a strawberry banana smoothie from Burger King. No alcohol. Le sigh.

When the heck is New Jersey going to get a daiquiri shop. I’d even give up the drive thru.

Schools out!

After a year of having most days to myself, schools out and intense mommy time begins. The past week has been such a whirlwind of concerts, graduations and carnival days that I’m plum tuckered out.

However, there is always, always good news on the horizon. My story: The Wisest Maiden has been contracted by Liquid Silver Books. How happy am I to be able to join that family!

For your reading pleasure, here is the blurb:

Betrayed by his first wife, King Toridesh gives his new brides no chance to deceive him. After he marries a virgin of his choosing and consummates the marriage, he has them killed.

As an only child, Issalia has been sheltered by her parents in an attempt to shield her from their king’s murderous intent. When her mother falls ill, Issalia refuses to allow their market-stall be closed for the day, knowing that one day of income stands between them and poverty.

While in disguise, the King spies the lovely Issalia in the marketplace and demands she become his next bride. Will Issalia succumb to the fate of the virgin brides before her or will she be able to break the King’s curse?

It’s a fairy tale with sensual elements set on the backdrop of a desert kingdom. I had the best time writing this. Oh, and by the way, here’s the cover:

I think the cover artist did an awesome job!

So look for The Wisest Maiden in mid-August.