Publisher's Weekly has a great article from December 8th about the need for more books geared towards the black teen/YA market.

Publishers have noted that black teens will read if they have something that interests them, and that black teens have money and like to buy stuff. (Kinda like how they discovered 20 or so years ago that black adults read and will buy books if there's content they like.) But there's some good info in the article that's worth a look. Some highlights:

Wilson notes that series revolving around high school drama do well, compared to stand-alone titles. She cites the success of Scholastic's Bluford High and Dafina's Drama High series as evidence. Dafina began its young adult publishing program with the Drama High series by L. Divine and has since signed the author to a 14-book deal, with plans to publish her until 2011. Dafina is also looking to start a multicultural YA imprint.

Pocket Books ... decided to enter the teen inspiration market after noticing that the genre was underserved. The Simon & Schuster imprint reached out to its authors who write inspirational novels for adults—ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Jacquelin Thomas and Victoria Christopher Murray—to invite them to write for a younger audience.

Scholastic and Kimani Tru are also markets for YA books. Series centered around high school seems to be the most popular, though they all say they're looking for new diverse voices and a variety of settings, even historical.

If this year you're a black author looking to diversify your writing portfolio, you may want to think about the black YA market. And if you have a child in that age range, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to try being co-authors. You can build your relationship with your children and make money at the same time. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm not going to bore you with resolutions that I'll a) forget about or b)blow off. To me, this is the perfect time to look back on what I've done and make plans for the coming year, kinda sorta how businesses do at the end of their fiscal year.

Authors are worried, feeling like they're being laid seige to with lines and houses closing and consolidating, e-piracy, used book sales, and mean girl reviewers. Oh, and the economy. Now I could easily sink into the mire and wail and gnash my teeth, but I'm not going to. Why? 'Cause I can't control that crap. It's too easy to focus on the negative and get all Eeyore on life. But Goddess, doesn't that just make y'all tired?

Publishers are not going to stop buying books. That's how they make money, by buying manuscripts and putting them out there for the reading public to purchase. Maybe they won't buy as many as they normally would, but when you have folks ponying up 6- and 7-figure deals, you realize publishing as we know it will still continue for a while at least.

Case in point: I found this blog today which I heartily recommend you adding to your daily or weekly industry reading. (And if you as an author aren't doing any industry reading, please navigate to another webage now.) Mr. Rinzler's December 31st post was all about two major deals he was outbid on, and why writers should keep writing:

Those of us in the book business are both the beneficiaries and victims of an authentic passion. Editors literally fall in love with books, authors, ideas. It’s our job. I’m always prowling, scouring the print media and internet, stalking writers and creative thinkers at parties and conferences.

I still wake up every morning with acquisition anxiety. If I don’t sign, I don’t thrive.

Mr. Rinzler takes a long view on the publishing industry. The publishing world is changing and it's an overdue change. As the old saying goes, "Adapt, or die."

Which brings me to my goals for 2009. I have three titles on tap for this year, all shorts. The first is in the Coming Together anthology that will be out in a couple of weeks. It's a erotic scifi romance short that I think you'll enjoy, and the proceeds go to a good cause, Amnesty International. Then I'll have Carnivale Diabolique, an urban fantasy romance about a travelling carnival that protects us regular folks from the big bads that go bump in the night. That will be late spring. And of course, I'll be in the next White Boyz installment coming in April.

I'm sure some folks have noticed my swerve into paranormal romance and are either alarmed or encouraged or just curious about it. So I'll come clean. I've been a fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal reader since I started reading. Fairy tales fsacinated me, then comics, then fantasy. Some of my favorite books are books I read as a kid: A Wrinkle in Time, The Left Hand of Darkness,Asimov's Foundation series, everything by Anne McCaffrey. The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is one of my all-ime favorite series. Honestly, the first novel that I tried to write happened when I was 12 and was about three sisters who were protectors of a mystical land--while trying to navigate school: The Seneschals of Kirin. Where my 12 year-old self picked up the world seneschal, I have no idea. Now I'm wondering if I still have those pages in my old notebooks.

But yes, I love fantasy and paranormal. It's what I read first. If there's romance in it, it's a bonus, not a requirement for me. So this year, I'm writing an urban fantasy. It's a story idea I've been kicking around for a while, and I'm finally knuckling down and doing it. I've gotten some good feedback on it so far, and I'm hoping to make it my first New York sale. The story allows me to indulge in some of my faves: Egyptology, African gods and goddesses, History International. And I'm having a good time with it, which I think is the important thing.

Does that mean that I'm abandoning romance? No. It means I'm expanding my portfolio, my market. My goal is to be a career novelist, which means at some point having the income from being a writer outpace the expenses of being a writer. And as a writer, we have to push oursleves, and grow. Some venture into romantic suspense. Some try their hand at erotica. But the bottom line is the bottom line. So I'm going to adapt. Because the alternative isn't something I'm considering.

Uh, I mean the inauguration!

All you have to do is answer the question: "What does this inauguration mean to you?" and you could win a trip to the swearing in, the parade, and one of the balls. Oh, and you also get plane fare and hotel for two nights, for two people.

Come on, writers. Y'all know y'all want to be there. Go to: http://www.pic2009.org/page/s/tickettohistory which will divert to a fundraising page, but donating to underwrite the inauguration isn't required.

Forty years ago today, I was two months away from being born. I had no idea of the world I was close to being born into. I had no idea what changes were being wrought, how the hope of a people faltered and nearly died on a Memphis balcony. I saw newsreels and events of that time and the funeral and days that followed. When I was 18, I wrote a speech that gave my interpretation of living the dream.

For a long time I lived in blissful ignorance, thinking the job done. True, I can sit where I want on a bus, drink from the water fountain, ostensibly live and play were I wish. But when interracial couples are still looked at as an oddity, when people claim they "can't relate" to black people in love, when educated blacks are criticized for not being black enough, I have to wonder.

I think we have come a long way. But I say, as many others do, that there is a long way to go. Yes, today we have a man running for president who embodies much of the hope that Dr. King espoused. But it's still sad that in this day and age, more than eight years into a new millennium, such a candidate is a remarkable event.

You can read a very compelling article about the sanitation workers strike that led up to King's assassination here. This part stood out for me:

Soon after [the first riot], a new slogan appeared on the signs the black men carried. Four words, but they were provocative. Four words, but in that time and place, they were incendiary. Four words, but they managed to encapsulate at long last something black men had never quite been able to get America to understand.

Four words.

I AM A Man.

My wish is the same wish that I write for my characters in my books: acceptance. We want the same things: life, love, success, happiness. You can have yours. Why can't I have mine?

From Publisher's Weekly (or, as I call it, the W-T-F department):

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has blasted a new Indiana law that requires bookstores to register with the government if they sell what is considered "sexually explicit materials." The new law, H.B. 1042, was signed by Governor Mitch Daniels on March 13, and calls for any bookseller that sells sexually explicit materials to register with the Secretary of State and provide a statement detailing the types of books to be sold. The Secretary of State must then identify those stores to local government officials and zoning boards. “Sexually explicit material” is defined as any product that is “harmful to minors” under existing law. There is a $250 registration fee. Failure to register is a misdemeanor.

Given the current heat level of everything but inspirational romance, even the local drugstore will have to register on the sex offender bookseller list. (After all, it isn't fair for the Borders to have to register and not Bob's Drugstore.) Or perhaps the store buyer will offer a questionnaire to publisher reps and distributors asking if a title has teh sex in it and having them sign a declaration stating that it doesn't so that it could be sold.

Hhm, maybe this will finally get all those clinches off the covers.

My leisurely get-writing-done weekend turned into a too-busy-with-drama weekend and lots and lots of people. The lovely Emma Petersen asked me to blog for Divas of the Dark today and I said sure, and that I'd send the post Saturday night. She got it Sunday at 9 PM or so. Lucky for me, she didn't tell all and sundry that I'm a hypocrite and the blog post is up today as scheduled. I'm talking about my love of paranormal romance--and I'm giving away a copy of Dream of Shadows or a copy of Vegas Bites Back. Go forth and comment--you have until midnight tonight!

And snow again today. In Atlanta. After it was 65 degrees yesterday. It's a sign of the Apocalypse, I tell ya.

I haven’t posted in a bit, so I thought I’d see if anyone would like to read the prologue to Dream of Shadows. Instead of posting it on the blog or my website, I thought I’d make a handy-dandy PDF for you to download and read at your pleasure.

To download a copy of the prologue, just follow this link.

Yesterday was rainy and 67 degrees. Today there were snow flurries and the high is 39. Low tonight in the 20’s. And once again, I am sick. Day three of the sore throat and ears. All I want to do is curl up on my couch with the last Harry Potter book that I’ve owned for six months and STILL haven’t read.

Fortunately or unfortunately, my characters won’t let me. And I mean a lot of them. Maybe it’s the sickness, but I have characters from four separate stories all vying for attention. I sent off blurbs to my editor for the upcoming anthologies (you can check them out on my WIP page) one of which was a story I hadn’t even named the heroine for. But the story just popped into my head, clear as crystal and just as bright. I’m going to enjoy writing about Anaru and Cam. If you thought Dream of Shadows was dark, wait until you check out this premise for the anthology Carnivale Diabolique.

Right now, I’m finishing up IN WALKS TROUBLE, my story in the last of the Vegas Bites Trilogy. It was supposed to be very action oriented, but it looks instead like it’s going to be another angst-filled, character-driven tale. I hope people don’t mind, but I think my co-authors are well and truly able to deliver action.

When I get done with that, I’m going to immediately roll into RODE HARD, which is a sequel of sorts to my entry in my latest release, What White Boyz Want. Gina is sarcastic and funny and deserves her own story. Come on, her name is Regina Maria Lourdes Lieberman, and she’s a black Puerto Rican Jewish woman. She’s got to have a sense of humor.

And then, then I get to THE SHARPEST EDGE, which is my entry for Carnivale Diabolique. I really do enjoy writing novellas. I think they’re perfect for my Geminian short attention span nature.

By the way, those of you waiting for the sequel to DREAM OF SHADOWS, I need to offer my apologies. Between real-life issues and the current writing schedule, the sequel hasn’t been written yet and therefore won’t be out until late 2009 or early 2010. But the good news is that it will be A CURSE OF SHADOWS, chronicling the story of Nicole’s parents, the Romanian parapsychologist Stefan Antonescu and Arielle Legere, who became head of her family at 19. That means it will be an interracial paranormal historical romantic thriller. Confusing enough? Yeah, I’m a touch ambitious–or a glutton for punishment.

Apparently I’m sick in more ways than one.

Wow, it’s March and my Rita scores are due in three days. What’s neat is that we can log the scores in online, which I think is really cool. Still, I think I’m going to take a break from judging next year. Which of course, means I shouldn’t enter next year, but that’s okay.

Because I entered the paranormal category, I couldn’t judge that one, so I got a mix of a couple of others. Some were good, some were great, and some were okay. I read a variety of genres, so it’s not like I got a category I would never read in a million years even if all the other books were vaporized. (sob!)

But I got to thinking–I know, not a good thing–and really, this isn’t truly a reflection on the books I judged, but I miss the romance of romance books.

Now I know I’m sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, but here I go: I miss the days when you could pick up a book with romance on the spine and expect certain things: the genesis, development, and mostly maturation of a romantic relationship. Some hint of a happily-ever after. I don’t need a wedding at the end of the book, but I don’t want it to end with, “hey, let’s go for coffee,” or “You know, you’re pretty hot,” or “I think I like you,” or heaven forbid, the death of one of the principal characters.

I don’t care if there’s more than two people compiling the relationship. I don’t care if there’s hot monkey sex on page one (if it makes sense to the story, but that’s a post for another day.) Just make sure there’s a believable romantic relationship that has a clear-to-me happy ending by the time I close the book.

Is lurve and commitment too much to ask for in romance these days?

Yesterday I had the very distinct and real pleasure of being interviewed on BlogTalkRadio by Dr. Niama Williams for her “Poetry and Prose” show. You can hear the hour-long discussion and reading of No Commitment Required by clicking here.

I think I did all right. I’ve listened to a portion of it and I’m glad that I managed to sound confident and knowledgeable. And Dr. Williams actually invited me back to discuss my paranormal work! God bless her!

So yesterday, my sister and I went to the Michael C. Carlos Museum on Emory University’s campus. This museum is most famous for having the mummy of Ramesses I and donating it back to the Cairo Museum in Egypt. I went because my sister and I have both long been fascinated with Ancient Egypt, and they have a great collection. They also just opened a special exhibition of Nubian Treasures and I wanted to see it.

For $20, my sister and I got admission to the museum and the audio tour. The Nubian exhibition was great and did what it was supposed to do–made me hungry to know more about this ancient civilization that gave the 25th Dynasty to Egypt. I’ve been doing some research ostensibly for an urban fantasy and my hero is an immortal Nubian, but really I’m completely fixated on the history.

The exhibit was awesome, and I bought some books from the museum store that will further my research. There are lectures coming up later this month and next that I hope to attend as a human sponge. I won’t be able to work on that urban fantasy for a while, but I’m so glad the exhibit’s there.

After the museum, we went to the movies. Unfortunately at 4 pm, there was only one show we wouldn’t have to wait 40 minutes for: Jumper, based on a 1992 novel by Stephen Gould. Apparently Regal Theaters has abolished not only the matinee, but the $9 ticket. Jumper cost us $10 each. Add to that $7 for a large popcorn (we stopped and bought candy and sodas at a convenience store) and the movie cost more than our museum trip did.

As for the movie, all I can hope is that the book is better. Too many holes and unanswered questions. How does a guy in Post-911 America get through airport security with a backpack stuffed with loose cash? If the NSA knows who he is (Samuel L Jackson visits his apartment) then why not flag his passport so he can’t fly out of the country with his girlfriend? ANd please don’t get me started on the girlfriend.

The bottom line is, no more so-so movies for me. If movies are going to cost me $20 (I can’t go without my popcorn) then it better be a fla-damn movie from now on. Otherwise, I’m going to buy books instead.

Then you should check out some of the results of this survey that Blackromancereader posted on her blog.

Actually, if you really want to know more, you can download the full PDF yourself from here.

Some interesting points:

When asked the question Why haven't more African-American authored books gained large mainstream
readership? 62% of the respondents said that most African-American authored books are only marketed and distributed to an African-American audience.

When asked "Was the last book you read written by an African-American author?" 52% of respondents said no.

Hhm, so black people don't just buy black books. Who'd a thunk it?

When asked what was most important to their social standing, respondents listed a stable family first, a good education second.

Just the name alone makes me smile. :-)

Anyway, I'll be blogging over at the League of Reluctant Adults next week, thanks to December Quinn, AKA Stacia Kane. God help them--hopefully no one will be bored to tears.

D/S made a great post about the Carl Brandon Society and the list of books by black speculative fiction authors they recommended to be read this month. From her post:

THE CARL BRANDON SOCIETY
recommends the following books for BLACK HISTORY MONTH:
So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust
Mindscape by Andrea Hairston
Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell
Futureland by Walter Mosley
The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

As a further incentive, you can go buy these at your local Borders, which is having a Buy One, Get one for 50% off of African American studies and black fiction all this month--and you even have an extra day to take advantage of it.

Hey, if you have some suggestions for me to blog about (considering that it IS Black Folks Month and we ain't exactly representin' in record droves in science fiction or fantasy) feel free to comment here or use the (now working) contact form.

It's that time of year again, the time when people acknowledge the accomplishments of black people then promptly forget when March 1st comes around.

Okay, yeah, that was a little harsh. I've always been of two minds about Black History Month. On one hand, it's the best way to discover little known facts about black folks in the historical context of America. On the other hand, I resent that we have to have a month in which to highlight black people. In my rose-colored-glasses world, the accomplishments of all people would be covered in our schools, history books, and media. But we know that's not the case.

Which means it could and should fall to writers to show just how rich the tapestry of American history is. I personally would love to see more Black historicals.

Unfortunately, when people think of black folks and American History, their minds immediately go to two eras: slavery and the civil rights movement. It's quite easy to ignore that there were free blacks roaming the country. According to BlackPast.org, free blacks came over with Columbus during his second trip to the New World in 1494. In 1526, slaves who'd been brought to work in the Spanish colony of San Miguel de Guadape in Georgia escaped to live among the native Americans. Then there is the rich and proud history of the Black Seminoles.

One great resource was recently published, and I think would be an excellent investment for schools, libraries, and black writers. It's called the African American National Biography, and it profiles some 4000 well- and little-known black folks in American history.

One such figure was profiled in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's coverage of the AANB:

Stagecoach Mary Fields

Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Ursuline Convent, Toledo, Ohio

Stagecoach Mary Fields was a gun-toting, hard drinking, cigar smoking frontierswoman who gambled, brawled and reputedly even killed a man. Well into her 60s, she dependably steered her coach through some of Montana's harshest weather to deliver the mail.

She was also a beloved housekeeper at a convent, tended her own vegetable garden and late in life presented bouquets to men who hit home runs during baseball games in Cascade, Mont.

How could you not want to write a story about this woman?

The African American National Biography is a joint effort of Havard University and Oxford University Press, and is edited by Henry Louis Gates, Hr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, both of Havard. The eight volume set covers the lvies of some 4100 well-known and obscure people. You can order it through the Oxford University Press website for $795. I think it's worth part of an advance, and for writers it's tax-deductible. There is an online version forthcoming, and they are soliciting donations to make the collection available for libraries.

You know, with all the hullabaloo with Savage Gate, there's been a lot of bandying about of the term "fair use." You can check out fair use and copyright by visiting the site of the US Copyright Office. But here's a good explanation from the US Copyright Office's website:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

See how I attributed the quote that I used for this non-commercial use of information? That's an example of fair use. I used someone else's words with attribution. You should also note that there's no mention of "in a work of fiction" in the quote. Or anywhere else that I could find on the copyright site.

I know, that's a lot of eye-glazing content to try to understand. But what I've gleaned from various sources is that fair use requires some sort of acknowledgment or attribution of the work used. Example, Vanilla Ice got into a lot of trouble for sampling Queen's Under Pressure in his song Ice, Ice Baby.

To use someone's work without acknowledgment of some sort is plagiarism. Without the attribution or acknowledgment, the "fair user" is by default claiming the work as his own. This isn't necessarily copyright infringement, especially if it's something that is too old to be protected and is now in the public domain. Check out plagiarism.org's list of different types of plagiarism.

EXAMPLE:

Say I'm working on a historical romance in which my hero is a free man of color working the Underground Railroad and my heroine is a runaway slave who killed her master's son. To get my story right, I need to do research into the Underground Railroad, slavery, and runaway slaves. In my research I uncover a first-person account by Frederick Douglass on the Internet. Can't get much more sourced than that.

So as I'm reading this narrative, the words just touch me. Especially this part:

"I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass."

Reading this, I realize it's a powerful motivation for my heroine to not only kill her master, but to escape afterward. The words are powerful and give the reader a blunt picture of the realities of slavery. So I decide to use them.

My hero asks, "What made you kill him?"

"It was too much," she replied, her voice thin. "I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. "

She knotted her hands together. "The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin."

Tears burned her eyes, tears of righteous anger. "I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. " She stopped, swallowed. "It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. With my very soul at stake."

And my chapter continues. At no point in the story do I mention that Frederick Douglass wrote this in his autobiography either by inserting a footnote, an author's note, or a bibliography at the end of my novel. I have taken Douglass' words and put them in my heroine's mouth as if they were my own creation.

People, this is plagiarism.

EDITED TO ADD: In the just about out Vegas Bites Back, my hero is a werewolf who met Frederick Douglass. At one point the heroine notices the copious stacks of books in the hero's bedroom and asks him about them. He replies, "Frederick Douglass said, 'Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.' I took his words to heart."

That's how you attribute something you use word-for-word.

Is plagiarism illegal? Not necessarily. Douglass' autobiography is of course more than a century old, and as such is in the public domain. Any student or scholar could quote parts of Douglass' narrative in a research paper or other critique with no worry as long as they acknowledge the source. That's fair use. Taking the narrative and creating a story about escaped slave Delilah Mae Reddick is plagiarism.

Not illegal, but definitely unethical. I've besically allowed people to think my book is composed of my words. My name's the only one on it, after all. Fraud? Perhaps. Wrong? Abso-freakin'-lutely.

Perhaps there should be an Author's Code of Ethics.

Romance novelist accused of lifting work - Yahoo! News

In the online version of Romanceland, this story began early Monday on the romance reader blog known as Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books when one of the bloggers gave a Cassie Edwards novel to a friend who wanted to get her feet wet in the genre. The friend noticed some peculiar passages that were lyrically dissimilar to the author's voice in the majority of the book. So dissimilar that the reader Googled the dissonant passages and faster than you could say "Britney Spears needs help", Savage-Gate began.

Bloggers added their comments. Author loops were a-titter. Silent authors were likened to giving tacit approval/support to the plagiarist. Another large romance reader site, Dear Author (which has a couple of law-savvy folks running it) posted an involved definition of what constitutes plagiarism (which can be different from copyright infringement)

In an email to Dear Author, Penguin denied that Ms. Edwards did anything wrong or plagiarized other works, saying that it was reasonable under "Fair Use" conventions.

Interestingly enough, AP contacted John Barrie, a plagiarism expert. He looked at the passages and agreed that the material was lifted. It looked like it to my uneducated eyes, and if the expert says so, well I gotta go with the dude who makes his living fighting plagiarism.

My opinion? Word-for-word copying of someone else's work, whether it's in copyright or not, fiction or reference, and passing it off as your own word is WRONG. Either rewrite the reference material so that it's your own style, or give credit to the original author. Better yet, cover your assets and don't use it at all.

CBC.ca Arts - Romance cuts across racial lines, publishers find

Between the cat food and the diapers in most North American supermarkets lurks a haven of verdant passion.

It's the aisle for romance novels and its customer in 2007 is nearly always female, but just as likely to be a woman of colour as a Caucasian soccer mom.

Publishing houses across North American are creating new lines of romances aimed at people of Asian and African descent, according to Brian Miller, a Seattle journalist who follows the market for romance novels.

The article doesn't really tell us anything we didn't know, but hey--we're getting coverage. And we should get even more as Black History Month approaches!

(Okay, I'll admit--I'm shocked that there's a journalist in Seattle who follows the market for romance novels.)

So I get home today to find a notice on the townhouse door. The management company has a Freezing Weather policy that they wanted to make me aware of. Basically, I have to turn on every faucet in the house, both hot and cold taps, and run a stream at the thickness of pencil, until they take the signs down.

Did I mention I pay the water bill?
Did I mention I have six faucets in my townhouse?
Did I mention Georgia is still suffering from drought, and that we barely escaped having the driest year on record by five-hundredths of an inch?

Oh, and I also have to run the heat so that the interior will remain at least 60 degrees, and I have to open the cabinet and closet doors so the pipes can be heated and those areas can be warmed too.

Nice. Wonder if I get a discount for following all their rules.

But hey--it saves them from having to pay for a busted pipe. I'm so glad I can save them money.

Like everyone else, I'm wishing you a very happy new year! I spent the evening with a few close friends--I just can't stomach the crowds, especially being a height-challenged person.

Later today friends and family will descend to partake of the traditional Southern New Year's Day meal: collards, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and pork. Collards of course, symbolize the green of money, the peas symbolize the coin, cornbread symbolizes gold, and the pork...well, I suppose we could say it's extraneous money used for pork-barrel spending, but that wouldn't be fair, right?

I'm not making any resolutions this year. Why set myself up for failure and cracking under pressure? Didn't we see enough of that last year?

BTW, I've updated my main website, located at http://www.seressia.com. I thought it was time for a change, and New Year's Day seemed as good a time to launch as any. Besides, the Gemini in me won't let me keep one style for long!

Anyhoo, I hope that you'll return again and again. I've got five releases coming this year that I know of, and two of them are back to back January and February anthologies, Vegas Bites Back, and What White Boyz Want. See? No need to resolve to be more productive--that's already being taken care of!

Hhm? Maybe resolve to save more money? Good thing I'm having those collards. Let me know if you want a plate.

In The Name of the King

Okay, I know this is probably going to be a train wreck of a movie, but I'm going to see it anyway. It's got a head-scratching cast combination Jason Statham, Will Sanderson, Burt Reynolds, and Kristianna Lokken and a plot you could drive a tank through, but I don't go to the movies to learn, I go to be entertained.

Oops, now I know why it's going to suck. Director/Producer Uwe Boll has "attracted worldwide attention in the gaming community for his film adaptations of popular video games." These include Alone in the Dark (who can believe Tara Reid as a archaeologist?) and BloodRayne (which could have been a good movie, but even Meatloaf in a bad weave surrounded by naked prostitutes--to save on production costs-- couldn't save that trainwreck--and they rewarded Lokken for her open-mouthed performance by giving her a series on Scifi. Or maybe that's punishment.)

It just goes to show you that a doctorate in literature doesn't mean you know how to tell (or direct) a story.

Sigh. I think I just typed myself out of going to see this movie.

But I did see I am Legend yesterday, and I'm not really sure what I expected, but I was surprised. There were moments of laughter and moments of tears. It almost had a Pan's Labyrinth feel in that the tearjerker moments kept on coming. Oh, and Wil Smith doing pull ups shirtless didn't hurt either.