Langston Hughes photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936.

We are already in February, the second month of the year, which means it’s  Black History Month, a time when we celebrate the achievements of black folk here in America. Every year, I take the opportunity to feature a few famous African American authors, and as I was about to make my pick, I came across a list of famous Black authors born in February.

One of them is Langston Hughes, famous playwright, novelist, poet, and social activist with whom I share the same birth date – Feb. 1. This illustrious scribe was born of mixed heritage – his paternal great-grandfathers were of European descent, while his maternal great-grandmothers were African American – Hughes took pride in his African-American identity and stressed this in his work.

Langston’s early years

While in high school in Cleveland, Ohio, Hughes wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. He wrote his first piece of jazz poetry — a literary art form in which the poet responds and writes about jazz — “When Sue Wears Red” while still in high school.

Hughes’ first book of poetry “The Weary Blues” (1926) features the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which became a signature poem. In 1930, he won the Harmon Gold Medal for Literature for his first novel, Not Without Laughter. Hughes went on to write many short stories, novels, essays, works for children, autobiographies, and plays, and later formed a theater troupe in Los Angeles.

Langston’s influence on young black writers

Although a major influence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Hughes was highly critical of other Renaissance men such as W.E.B Du Bois and others who, he felt, were too accommodating of Eurocentric values and culture. In addition to his literary prowess, Hughes’s racial consciousness inspired and united black writers not only in America but around the globe.  He had a major influence on writers  such as Jacques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Aimé Césaire.  Hughes was greatly admired by young black writers whom he discovered and introduced to the publishing world. One such example is Alice Walker author of The Color Purple, who was also born in February.

Of course, I don’t believe in astrology, but I’ve heard it said that people born in February are creative, and this list certainly seems to bear this out. So, let’s take a look at some of the better-known Black authors and some of my favorites born in February :

Black authors born in February

  • Feb. 1 – Langston Hughes, Angela Joseph
  • Feb, 2 – Joseph S Cotter – one of the earliest African-American playwrights to be published.
  • Feb. 6 – Bob Marley
  • Feb. 9 – Alice Walker
  • Feb. 12 – Jacqueline Woodson
  • Feb. 14 – Frederick Douglass
  • Feb. 15 – Beverly Jenkins, Elizabeth Acevedo
  • Feb. 18 – Audre Lorde, Bebe Moore Campbell, Elizabeth Nunez, and Toni Morrison
  • Feb. 20 – Trevor Noah
  • Feb- 23 – W.E.B. Dubois

It would not be fitting for me to end this article without leaving you with a few lines from The Negro Mother, a poem by Langston Hughes, which I find very touching and which, I believe, is so pertinent to these times.

Excerpt from The Negro Mother

All you dark children in the world out there,
Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow –
And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my pass a road to the light
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.
Lift high my banner out of the dust.
Stand like free men supporting my trust.
Believe in the right, let none push you back.
Remember the whip and the slaver’s track.

 

Angela is the author of the Egypt series, Love, Lies, and Grace, and her newest release Making Music Together. 

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Tackling Racism and Inequality in Education and Beyond

 

Education, Non-Fiction

Date Published: June 1, 2023



Education is a cornerstone of society, one that shapes the future of our communities and the world. But despite its importance, the education system is riddled with challenges and inequalities that prevent many individuals from receiving a quality education. This book aims to address these challenges and offer practical solutions for improving education outcomes.


About the Author

Dr. Rodger E. Perkins Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 22, 1979. Raised by a single-mother in upstate New York, he later attended Temple University in Philadelphia, PA where he received a B.A. in Psychology, and a B.A. in Criminal Justice. He also holds advanced degrees in Law/Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from California University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Perkins is a veteran of both the United States Army and the United States Air Force. While in the Army, he served as an Infantryman with the 10th Mountain light Infantry Division located at Ft. Drum, New York and with the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. While in the Army, he attended Air Assault School, Airborne School and Ranger School prior to his separation in order to complete his academic studies on a full-time basis.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Dr. Perkins commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force in 2006, and served as a law enforcement Special Agent and later as a Counterintelligence Agent. He has conducted and supervised multiple operations in Germany, Qatar, Ethiopia, Italy, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey, and France. He has multiple deployments in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

In 2014, Dr. Perkins was assigned to Quantico, Virginia where he supervised world-wide espionage, counterintelligence and criminal investigative operations in the Integrated Collections and Operations Nexus for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. In 2015, Dr. Rodger Perkins received a promotion to serve as an Intelligence Liaison Officer to the Defense Intelligence Agency, located in Reston, Virginia.

Before his military separation in 2018, Dr. Perkins served as a Senior Military Advisor to the senior leaders of the Department of the Air Force. He has advised on over 250 critical oversight issues, oversaw a $5 billion program budget, and authored policy recommendations pertaining to sexual assault investigations in the Department of Defense, policies concerning Special Access Programs and sensitive Department of Defense agendas.

Currently, Dr. Perkins is a private consultant for an international security company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Additionally, he is an educational administrator at a charter school in Washington, D.C. and a humanities teacher.

Awards & Accolades:

2 Air Force Meritorious Medals, 3 Air Force Commendation Medals, 3 Air Force Achievement Medals, Army Combat Action Medal, 3 Overseas Deployment Medals, 4 Army Commendation Medals, Army Achievement Medal, Top Gun Award & Sharpshooter Medal.

 

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Lately, I’ve been reading posts by authors about their novels having a bit of YA, a bit of detective, a bit of this, that, or the other. When I read such posts, I find myself thinking, good for you. A few years ago, I would not have thought that. I may have been horrified, because all the conferences and workshops I attended taught us how to write the genre-specific novel.

While I greatly appreciated those lessons —they helped me hone my craft—I found that once I began to draft my novel, I couldn’t stay in the little cubby hole I was expected to stay in. My characters kept getting involved in situations that involved occasional deviations from the cubby hole. After writing Coming Out of Egypt, I often agonized over whether the novel was a “mash-up” or truly a women’s fiction novel.

In my newbie haste to put my ideas down on paper, I never thought to research the women’s fiction genre. In fact, it was one of my critique partners who told me that my story was unfolding like women’s fiction. To this day I am grateful to her because I realize it’s the genre in which I feel most comfortable and the one in which I feel I can best reach my desired audience.

A google search for the definition of women’s fiction states: “Women’s fiction is an umbrella term for books that are marketed to female readers, and includes many mainstream novels, romantic fiction, “chick lit,” and other subgenres.” Another article points to the fact that “a male character can be the focus of a women’s fiction novel. The key is whether or not the male character faces issues of modern life that follow core themes of women’s fiction: home, family, interpersonal relationships, parenting, etc.” Another factor to consider is whether or not the story appeals to a female audience. Who is the target audience for women’s fiction?

Which brings me to another important point about genre writing: the audience. Now that I have a bit more experience, I realize that I must consider my audience when planning my book. In one article Using Genres To Write Successfully, the author states, “You can be creative and play with the conventions of genres. You can combine, blend, or even “mash-up” genres into new ones. Genres are stretchy. But if you are going to go against your readers’ expectations of the genre, you need to do so consciously and for a specific purpose.”

So, when a person picks up a book, she first does so because of the cover, which usually conveys the book’s genre. If however, when she begins to read, the contents don’t meet her expectations, she may not finish the book. Or, the book may so grab and hold her interest that she cannot put it down despite the fact that it strayed somewhat from the conventions she is accustomed to.

The writer of Using Genres To Write Successfully goes on to say, “Movies that flop often fail to follow a recognizable genre or—even worse—they follow a common genre in a trite way. A movie that follows a genre formulaically feels painfully predictable and shallow.” I would add the same goes for books.

Even though I no longer agonize over whether I followed the conventions when I wrote Coming Out of Egypt or the other two books in the series In the Wilderness and In the Promised Land, the positive reviews I gained helped to convince me that my audience was satisfied.

Still, in my newest book Love, Lies, and Grace, I tried to follow the formula, while maintaining my creativity as much as possible. I hope you will be satisfied.

Since writing Love, Lies, and Grace, I have written and published Making Music Together, a Christian romance, and while I tried to stick to the genre rules, I couldn’t help but include a bit of mainstream fiction as well. I think it turned out quite well and reader response seems to support this. Click on this link to get your copy and leave a comment, or better still, a review on Amazon.

While I worked on the plot of Making Music Together, I didn’t give serious thought to the ancestry of my characters even though I like portraying ethnic groups that are different than myself. For example, in the Egypt series, the two main characters, sisters, are of Hispanic descent. It was easy writing about them because their parents hailed from Venezuela, the country that neighbors Trinidad and Tobago, where I was born.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

In Love, Lies, and Grace, the two main characters, husband and wife, Brian and Grace, are African Americans. I mixed in two Caucasians and two characters of mixed race. Again, writing about the thoughts, feelings, and cultural norms of these characters was as simple as it had been with the previous books.

Then came Making Music Together, and I really went off the charts. Having written about major ethnic groups in my previous books, I decided to portray Mark my main character as a contemporary African American man with a mixture of Gullah and Native American genealogy. This proved challenging, but as I researched the genetic background of the Gullah people, I discovered that they exhibit a small mixture of European and Native American genealogy as well, so I included European ethnicity into his mother’s ancestry.

I also discovered that the Gullah people who were brought as slaves from West Africa to the Southeastern coastal region of America have a Caribbean connection that includes elements of West Indian folklore, music, and language. Since I was born in the Caribbean, I was inspired to dig a little further. I discovered that the food, music, and language of the Gullah people bear striking similarities to those of the Caribbean. For example, rice remains a staple food in the Caribbean as it is for the Gullah people. In Making Music Together, rice is featured in most of the meals mentioned in the book. Other popular dishes you will come upon that are also eaten in the Caribbean are okra, shrimp, green vegetables, and peas. The term “creole” often used to describe a blend of dialects spoken in some of the islands is also referred to in the Gullah language.

People of mixed races tend to identify with one race more than the other. Although Mark identifies more with his maternal heritage, he refers proudly to his deceased father as a Native American and Gullah descendant. He also reflects on how much he misses him and how his father taught him about God and how to fish. Mark’s Native American heritage is expressed in the artwork in his home — the Native American baskets that decorate his wall and the Native American rug in front of his bed.

Is there a connection between the Caribbean and Native American or American Indian ethnicity? You bet. When Columbus discovered Trinidad in 1498, he came upon the Amerindians, as they were called, the indigenous people of this little postcard. They originated from the neighboring mainland of Venezuela and Guyana. It is believed that these people had been living here for about 7,000 years before Columbus arrived. Even though they became extinct by 1550, their cultural expressions are perpetuated during the annual carnival when masqueraders parade on the streets. The “Red Indian” or “Wild Indian”, dressed in elaborate headpieces reminiscent of those worn by authentic Indians on the American continent, remains one of the traditional features during the Carnival parades.

Painting of a Native American Image by prettysleepy

So why did I choose to make my protagonist a hybrid of Gullah and Native American culture? As I said in the beginning, I simply wanted to write about someone from an ethnic group I have not previously written about. But by researching the history of the Gullah people and Native Americans, I learned more about my own heritage and that of African Americans. I learned that there are more similarities between us than differences; more that connects us than what divides us; more to celebrate than to bemoan. I believe this knowledge has enhanced my creativity and has helped to add some depth to my work. I plan to expand on the cultural expressions of Mark’s ethnicity in the coming books.

Since November is Native American Heritage Month, I am making it my duty to learn more about Native American culture by reading books by Native American authors. I’ve just begun reading — or rather listening to — Five Little Indians by Michelle Good. Let me encourage you, if you haven’t done so yet, to pick up a copy or copies of books by Native American authors, not just this month, but as often as you can. These books will greatly enrich your knowledge and appreciation of the indigenous people and the contribution they made to our country.

Did you enjoy this post? Do you have a comment on your ancestry? Then please leave a comment in the comment box and pick up a copy of Making Music Today, a mesmerizing Christian romance.

Last week I posted the cover of my soon-to-be-released novel Making Music Together. Today, I am happy to whet your curiosity a bit more by telling you what this new novel is all about. Read on.

The cover for a fiction romance novel Making Music Together

The first day Mark Crandall hears Trudy singing in his next door neighbor’s apartment, he is captivated by her voice. When he does meet her, he is even more blown away by her beauty. Trudy has a vision impairment, but this does not prevent Mark from falling in love with her.

They have so much in common; they both love to sing, they are both Christians, and Mark is convinced Trudy is the right woman for him, the woman his mother told him about. They fall in love and spend many happy moments singing together.

However, Mark has been seeing Abigail, the daughter of the CEO of the company he works for. Abgail is rich, attractive, and manipulative. He sees her as just a friend, but she will go to any lengths to win his heart. In order to pursue his relationship with Trudy, he has to break it off with Abigail. 

When he does try to break it off, Abigail becomes angry. What follows is a cycle of revenge as she and her father try to get back at Mark for breaking up with her. Mark’s life goes into a tailspin and a future for him and Trudy seems almost impossible. If you enjoy Christian romance with a love triangle trope, you would love Making Music Together. Get your copy now while it’s still on preorder. 

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I am pleased to present the cover of my soon-to-be-released novel Making Music Together. This book had a long gestation period. It started out as a novella and evolved into a full-length romance novel. Making Music Together is a Christian romance that focuses on a love triangle between Mark the protagonist, Trudy the love of his life, and Abigail, his boss’s daughter who will do anything to win his heart.

If you enjoy emotional, page-turning, clean romantic fiction, you must get your hands on a copy of Making Music Together while it’s still on preorder. It will burn your soul.

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After many years, Women For All Seasons has taken on a new garment. This devotional/workbook features the lives of twelve of the best-known women of the Bible grouped according to seasons.

As the Bible says:

There’s a time for everything,

And a season for every activity under heaven … Ecclesiastes 3: 1

Have you ever wondered how women in biblical times coped with the challenges that modern-day women face? How did they maintain their faith in God when the odds were so heavily stacked against them? Often treated as second-class citizens, females in biblical times were to be seen and not heard, existing solely to fulfill a man’s purpose of producing an heir.

A barren woman was considered good as dead. We see this in Rachel’s desperate cry to her husband Jacob, “Give me children or I die,” and in Hannah’s mournful prayers for a son. However, in Jesus’s day, women became very active in ministry and He treated them with the love and respect they deserved. Regardless of the time period in which they lived, women have always enjoyed the favor of God.

Women For All Seasons is written in easy-to-read modern-day language from the point of view of each character. You can use the book as a devotional, workbook or journal and for your Bible study. The views expressed at the end of each chapter are mine as well as those gained from bible references.

As you will see, God is not limited by seasons. If you are in the winter of your life, He works just as well as if you are in your spring. I pray that you will find this book a source of inspiration and encouragement to keep trusting and waiting on God when you don’t see the answers. I pray that it will become a valuable addition to your library and you will share it with your Bible study group and other women in your life.

Please write your comments on the new cover and any thoughts you may have on the book. God bless.

Eliana, God Has Answered by Candace Charbonne is the tragic story that no woman ever wants to tell. It’s the story of a woman giving birth to a stillborn baby after 37 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy and the gut-wrenching details of how Jesus Christ helped her cope during the darkest period of her life.

How does a mother process the fact that the baby she had carried inside her almost to full term was now gone and all she has left are the hundreds of pictures she took after giving birth? How does she explain to her young children, who had eagerly awaited the birth of their baby sister, that she is in heaven and that God took her for a reason?

Candace, a devout Catholic, drew on her faith in God and the support of good friends and family members to help her get through this trying time. This type of pain does not go away easily, and Candace continued to struggle with her grief for months afterward. However, God showed Himself to her in mysterious ways and she became pregnant again. This pregnancy was short-lived and she and her husband gave up on the idea of having another baby.

But God had the last word. One year after losing Eliana, Candace became pregnant again. This baby, a boy whom they named Jeremiah, also had some difficulties before birth, but by God’s grace, he survived. Whether you have ever lost a baby or not, this book will have you reaching for the Kleenex as you share in Candace’s pain and grief. It will enhance your faith in God as you learn of the way He cares and supports us in our most difficult moments. Whatever your situation in life, I strongly encourage you to get a copy of this book.

To purchase your copy, go to this link:  https://bit.ly/3r6z7Rr


Literary Fiction

Date Published: October 26, 2022

Publisher: MindStir Media


photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

 

Sitting on a Rainbow: A 21st century Irish American Morality Tale, is a story of severe loss and courageous resilience, financial markets and malfeasances, Irish history and mythology, despicable greed and justice rendered, and broken promises remaining to be mended.

Set in West Palm Beach, Fl. in 2013, or thereabouts, protagonist Patrick Connelly (a.k.a. Paddy or Pat) is a mid-fifties paraplegic and veteran stockbroker/financial adviser at a major Wall Street firm.


About the Author

First-time author James Patrick Rooney was born in Bronx, New York, raised in Westchester County and has been living and working in Northern Palm Beach County, Florida for his entire adult life. Young Jimmy’s first loves included sports, particularly ice hockey, a variety of music and culture, and his adopted homeland of Ireland.

When a hockey-related injury at age nineteen left him a paraplegic, he turned his focus away from the physical toward developing his mind. Soon after finishing college at then infamous “Suntan U,” he began a successful thirty-year career in financial advisory with a major Wall Street firm. About that same time, he met his enduring love – his family. Married to Cindy ever since, together they’ve raised two superb children, Patrick and Megan, who are now thriving young adults.

While managing an ambitious reading group (2005-2014), Jim was inspired to write more competently (i.e., several college-level creative writing courses and other modes of self-learning). To hone his skills he wrote short stories, imaginary book reviews for his reading group, and later edited and authored articles for the lifestyle website Throomers (2018-2020). After stepping away from financial advisory in 2014, he began working on his first novel. As is often said, starting with a few core ideas the story then wrote itself.

Part memoir, part fiction, part fantasy, Sitting on a Rainbow is an honest look at living with disability, while it also offers an insider’s view of retail financial advisory and celebrates the current-day relevance of Irish history and mythology. Jim hopes his lighthearted, romantic, suspenseful, and cautionary morality tale will entertain all who come and sit on the rainbow with him.

 

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Browsing through the internet, I came across a list of authors’ blogs and I decided to pause in my scrolling and see what other authors were writing about. You guessed it, I was looking for ideas. I found an author who wrote on a subject I heard other authors talk about and even participated in. The subject was what makes an author successful. Now, if you are a reader, you know who the successful authors are, and if you are a writer you know that too.

But how do you define success as far as your writing goes? Is it when you sell your first million copies or when you sell your first thousand? Or is it when you get on the New York Times Bestseller list? The author of the blog said another author complimented her on helping her with another business, then asked how come she was not a megastar in the writing world.

Naturally, the author was taken aback. Which brings me to the title of this post A Book Goes Home. A few weeks ago I visited Trinidad and Tobago, my homeland and I took a few copies of my debut book Coming Out of Egypt. I wanted to do something I should have done years ago when the book was first published — donate them to the San Fernando Carnegie Library which is featured in the book.

I was surprised to see all the changes that had taken place over the years. The building I visited used to be the only lending library in San Fernando and it was stocked wall to wall with books. It has now been transformed into a reference library and the lending library has been moved to another location.

But what shocked me was the response I received from the assistant librarian when I introduced myself. He said, “Oh, we know you, and we know your book.”

I said, “You do?”

He said, “Yes, we know this book.”

I didn’t press him, but his reception — feigned or not — made me smile. He invited me to wait so I could meet the head librarian who was out on lunch. When I told him I was in a bit of a hurry, he wrote her name and number on a paper and gave it to me so I could call her. Later, when I spoke to her on the phone, she sounded just as happy to meet me as her coworker had.

So, is that success? I would say, yes. Are the 5-star reviews on my sales page a measure of success? Yes. When someone meets me and says how much she enjoyed my book, that to my mind is success. I know that many writers, yours truly included, struggle to sell books. On any given day, someone is giving a course or a webinar on how to sell more books so we could one day qualify for the world’s definition of success. But for many that definition remains an elusive dream.

Someone said, “Sir, there will always be a man more handsome than you; lady, there will always be a woman more beautiful than you. Stop comparing yourself to others.”

I leave you with this quote borrowed from the writer’s blog: The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry soufflé. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it. — Julia Child

What is your idea of success? Leave a comment in the box below

Angela writes contemporary Christian women’s fiction. She is the author of four novels and one Christian non-fiction book and has written for devotionals and anthologies such as Chicken Soup For the Soul and Guidepost.

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