For a husband who loves me and loves to cook – and is very good at it.

For my talented, beautiful, witty and brilliant sons who bring so much joy and laughter into our lives.

For my grandparents who raised me and my mother who entrusted me into their care before she died.

For my Godmother who has been there forever and who has been the mother that I’ve needed and wanted all my life.

For my school friends from Cuffee, Cook and Whitney Young.

For Trinity Christian College and my lifelong friends, especially my roomies and suities: Mia, Patti, Wendy, Sheryn, Sherry, Heather and Kimberly.

My bffs: Michelle, Sharee, Karen, Shirley, Daphine & Cherlisa.

For authors ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Victoria Christopher Murray, Neta Jackson, John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark and so many others who have inspired me personally and professionally.

For Mondella Jones, who believed in me.

For my church families: Providence, which gave me my foundation, and Salem, which helps me to grow.

From my cradle to grave friend, Gina.

For my meddlesome and loving brothers and their incredibly beautiful and long-suffering wives.

For my nieces and nephews who make me appreciate youth.

For my cousins who make me laugh.

For my aunts and uncles who taught me what love and commitment are all about.

For Lillie St. Clair, Helen Van Wyck and Walter Owens who gave me an appreciation of music at its best.

For my health and strength. For my mind. For the gift of words.

For being able to see God move in so many ways. For being allowed to serve Him in unexpected and rewarding ways.

For my salvation.

I could go on and on, but I still have to go cook for dinner.

I hope you take the time today and make a list of all the things you are thankful for. Hopefully, you won’t be able to stop unless someone makes you do so.

No, scratch that, I didn’t want to write. No, truthfully, I didn’t feel like writing. I started out having a crappy morning even before I left the house. By the time I got to work, my mind was swirling with thoughts on character. I had a basic premise for the story, but then I started wondering: should I make the male character into a stereotypical ex-con? Should I make one of the women an ex-con? What is said to motivate the characters? What do they want? How do they get it?

I was still in a funk and all thoughts of writing evaporated. I knew I should have tried to write something, but I just couldn’t do it. My inner critic had shut me down.

There are two kinds of writers: planners and seaters. Planners think out their stories. They create character histories, they research locations, they outline their entire book. The “seaters” are what we call fly-by-the-seat writers. They just put pen to paper (or keys to keyboard) and write the story. I’m somewhere in between. I start out as a seater, switch into planner mode, then continue writing until I get the story done. Where I stall out is my tendency to self-edit and criticize my work. I try to find just the right word or phrase. If I’m describing an article of clothing, I have to find a picture and figure out the exact way to describe it.

The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that you have to become a complete seater. You have to free yourself and silence your inner critic. You have to just let the words hit the page in any way they wish to come out, without rhyme or reason. Distractions must fade into the background as your sole focus must be on what you are writing.

So I’m a day behind in my word count. I have a lot to make up in just a couple of days. But my inner critic is silent. For now.

My ride was with my hubby and I wound up missing choir rehearsal. That allowed me to spend a little time helping my son get ready for picture day and time to work on my WIP. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling the WIP, so I was glad to get a call from my good friend Christy of CT-Designs.  It’s been a while since we chatted and we caught each other up on our various projects. Christy is also a creative mind, but her creative strength is in design. She shared with me the ups and downs of owning her own business and I shared with her the ups and downs of being an aspiring author.

One of the best things about the call was Christy’s whole-hearted determination that she would not go back to a 9-5. It inspired me to put fingers to keyboard and butt in chair to keep writing. One of these days I will be leaving the 9-5 corporate life for a life more suited to my passions. Until then, I’ve got to keep hustling to make the rent and fuel my creative juices.

But back to NaNo: I went to the site this morning to update my word count. They said, at this rate, I wouldn’t finish until December 29. Huh? Forget that! I jumped on my NaNo WIP, taking advantage of a slow day. My current word count is 3,422. At this rate, says NaNo, I’ll be done by November 29.

So far the story is flowing smoothly (much better than my current WIP). Hopefully that will continue through this month. That’s assuming that this bug I’m starting to feel doesn’t get me first. Until then, I’ll keep at it.

Question: What drives you to do what you do?

I am instituting a new proposal for your consideration: Proposition 0000 – Ban Celebrity Marriage.

Let me explain.

I am not against celebrities who get married. Martin Sheen, Denzel Washington, Paul Newman are all celebrities who have married and stayed married.

Charlie Sheen, Brittney Spears, Jennifer Lopez have all been married, multiple times. And have disposed of their marriages as quickly as they’ve disposed of a red carpet outfit.

Now there’s Kim Kardashian.

Kim “I’m famous because I’m famous” Kardashian has filed for divorce after 72 days – DAYS – of marriage. In her statement, she said, “I did not make this decision lightly…”

LIAR, LIAR – PANTS ON FIRE!!!

She made the decision to divorce lightly because she made the decision to marry lightly. If she really cared about her marriage, she would have spent time getting to know her intended – for more than four months. She spent more time planning her so-called wedding than actually in the marriage. She secured her TV deal, print deal, photo deal and all the requisite hoopla around a celebrity wedding. Only to file for divorce in less time than it takes to get through basic training in the military.

If she cared about her marriage and didn’t make the decision to marry or divorce lightly, she would have gone to pre-marital counseling. She could still enroll in counseling if she so chooses. And, oh yeah, she could have actually talked to her husband about the decision she was about to make.

So, I’m proposing Proposition 0000 – a ban on celebrity marriage. No celebrity should be allowed to get married without having known each other for at least two years. No celebrity is allowed to publish the details of their wedding, sell the rights to the wedding, get a TV deal about their wedding. Weddings are supposed to be sacred and holy. And I know celebrities don’t necessarily subscribe to themes of holiness and sacredness. But even if they don’t, they should care more about their marriage than who gets the photos.

I appreciate Courtney Cox and David Arquette. Though they have separated, they are still trying to work on restoring their relationship. They take their marriage seriously. And though it may end in divorce, at least they tried to work it out.

It’s people like Kim Kardashian that make a mockery of what so many others refuse to take lightly.

I hit a major depression in my writing, completely shutting down for almost a year. I barely read, and never wrote. I don’t want to get into the whys right now, but suffice it to say, I suffered.

When I decided to restart writing, I began reading (books, articles and blogs) and writing (working on my WIP has been fun again). As I was reading one of my favorite blogs by Joel Friedlander, he mentioned NaNoWriMo and why writers should do it at least once.

I tried it a few years ago and quit after 2 days. I hadn’t thought about it again until I read Joel’s post. For some unknown reason, I decided I would try it this year. I signed up. (cue scary music…) Told everyone on FB that I was signing off for the month and doing NaNoWriMo.

Now, it’s November 1, the first day of NaNoWriMo. I have an idea that’s been percolating (thanks to one of my big brothers) and I have the first couple of paragraphs sort of fleshed out. My goal was to work on my WIP on the train, then do my NaNoWriMo during the day at work (usually I’m slow so I have the time) and then work on my WIP this evening at choir rehearsal. Repeat tomorrow (minus rehearsal).

You know that expression, “The best laid plans…”

I slept on the train. Work kept me busy. And though I turned off my wifi on my Mac to avoid distractions, it’s still working on my desktop.

So you can guess what my word count is for today.

But the best thing about today? Though I didn’t get any work done on my WIP or NaNoWriMo piece, I found a reason to resurrect my blog. I have something to write about.

Hope you’ll join my as I continue on this journey of NaNoWriMo and beyond.

Post Script: I started my NaNoWriMo project. Word count: 1686. 48,314 to go. Now on to my WIP.

I will confess that I was never a fan of his work and I don’t plan to jump on the bandwagon now that he’s gone. However, I realize that I have learned a three very important lessons from him.

First, you have to work hard to achieve your dreams. Mr. Harris’ first novel was self-published and sold out of the trunk of his car. He chose to write stories close to his heart, regardless of the controversial (at the time) subject matter. His work found readers and eventually a publisher. But he never coasted on his success. He was always working on the next story or promoting the heck out of the one currently on shelves and his readers and fans loved him for it.

Second, when you achieve success, don’t forget those who put you there or want to get there too. As word of his death spread, fans from all over shared stories of how Mr. Harris would contact them personally and talk with them. Writers and authors shared how he would mentor or offer to help spread the word of their books. He went back to his alma mater and taught writing classes. He helped create scholarships for aspiring writers and lended his name to launch organizations and careers. He was an HIV/AIDS activist, doing his part by raising awareness, education and funds for a cure.

The last thing I learned from E. Lynn Harris, I learned because of his death: you have to take care of yourself. Mr. Harris died as a result of heart disease with diabetes being a contributing factor. It’s been reported that a few days before he died, he was ill and passed out, but refused to see a doctor or go to the hospital. Perhaps he was afraid that taking the time to be checked out would lead to an interruption in his tour and disappointing his fans. Perhaps he thought it could wait until he got home. Perhaps.

Would a trip to the hospital have saved his life? Perhaps. If a doctor’s visit would have sidelined him to help him get healthy, perhaps he would still be here.

I know his family, friends and fans would have gladly accepted a temporary disappointment instead of their permanent heartache.

My deepest sympathies to all those who knew and loved him. The lessons of E. Lynn Harris’ life and death will last as long as the words that he wrote.

I made plans to attend as soon as the conference info was released, but up until last week, my attendance was seriously in doubt. But God has a way of opening doors that I cannot see! Angela Benson needed to find a roommate to take her place since her mom was joining her at the conference. That meant I could afford the hotel costs! My uncle came up with the airplane ticket at the last minute and off I went!

After landing in Florida, the first person I met on the shuttle to the hotel was Rhonda McKnight. Though we’d never met in person, we’ve chatted online for months. Rhonda is so sweet and knowledgeable and we talked the whole trip to the hotel. She was so kind to introduce me to some of the other participants at the meet and greet. (Praying for you Rhonda!!!)

After checking into the Villas of Grand Cypress (which is an amazing and elegant resort), I headed for the Meet & Greet in our hospitality suite. There I reconnected with Daphine Glenn Robinson (my BWRC friend) and met my roommate, Linda Leigh Hargrove. Linda is a an author and such a down to earth, sweet person with a terrific sense of humor. (Okay, she thought I was funny, but that’s not saying much.) I also met Angela Benson (first time in person) and other authors and readers. Tiffany and her staff made us all feel so welcome, and we spent time getting to know each other and share in our love of reading and writing (among other things).

The next day, I overslept and nearly missed the first session. But the entire day was filled with wonderful discussions. Authors Angela Benson, Pat G-org Walker, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Tiffany Warren, Tia McCollors, along with Linda, Daphine and Rhonda were all excellent presenters with so much information to share. Our book discussions with Tiffany, ReShonda, Angela and Tia were so much fun.

Lunch and dinner allowed for us to just enjoy each other’s company in informal settings. All the authors were funny and kind and willing to share everything about the writing process and the industry itself. (The Author Mentoring Q & A  was my favorite session.) We had spoken word by Stella and Ashe, which was another highlight.

Sharing with the book club reps was also a treat, as we were able to introduce them to new works and they in turn shared how they choose new books and were able to tell us what they enjoyed about our writing.

The only hiccup was the book orders that did not come through. This was in no way the fault of Tiffany and Brent (who were so apologetic and upset themselves) but in the book chain they had worked with who failed to do their job properly. (It’s a national chain that I’m not going to call out, but if you want to know, email me.)

I left with a renewed sense of purpose and energy in my spirit to continue writing what and how I do. Now if I can just get my body to cooperate!

I’m going to post a more detailed account as soon as I can get my energy up!

As I was contemplating all the news, hype and hoopla surrounding their deaths, I began thinking about something that they all had in common (besides the obvious): they all had bright shining stars and all had strange, sad ends to their lives.

In Ed McMahon’s case, he had debilitating health problems and was virtually broke. His house was being -foreclosed on; Donald Trump intervened and help him keep his home.

Farrah Fawcett started out as a pinup girl and became a celebrated actress in such films as “The Burning Bed”, “Extremities” and “Small Sacrifices”. She was a gifted dramatic and comedic actress, but those gifts were marred by strange career choices and personal appearances. Her well-documented battle with cancer provided hope for those who struggle with this insidious disease.

Michael Jackson’s meteoric rise and tabloid-centric downfall has been chronicled for years. He was on the verge of a major musical comeback that had fans salivating. I was hoping that he would be able to redeem his image through the concerts and his music. Sadly, this was not meant to be.

I think of this as I continue my writing career. Friends who know me know that I believe that one day I will be sitting beside Oprah in her studio as she praises one of my novels. Her endorsement will lead to untold success. And while I welcome the fame and fortune, I know that it will change my life and the lives of my family. It’s up to me to determine how I handle that success when it comes.

Until then, I will keep writing because it’s what I’ve been called to do. I’ll keep writing because it’s what I love to do. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson didn’t set out to be superstars or tabloid magnets. They set out to do what they loved to do, what they were passionate about. They worked hard for all they achieved. And when the dust settles, long after they’re gone, I hope that we as fans will remember that; let that be their legacy.

Arriving on Wednesday, I checked into the Golden Nugget. I spotted several past BWRC participants including assistant director Monica. The gang is gathering to head out to Freemont Street, but I have to head upstairs. Fabulous room! Nice and spacious and the bed is not too hard. I drop off my stuff and connect with my BFF, Michelle Chester. We head down to catch up to the group, where we are quickly overwhelmed by the laser light and music show. Catching up to the group, it’s a big reunion! Old faces and new faces mix and mingle as we realize we’re all connected by one single thing – the love of writing!

We head back to the hotel and find out where we’re to meet for our morning sessions. Some head off to experience Vegas. Many of us are HONE-gry, so we search for food in the hotel. A group of six, including Vincent Alexandria, Marc Lacy, Venise Berry and Renee Flagler, bum rush the buffet. The food is good (either that or we’re too hungry to care) and the conversation is spirited. Marc becomes a raspberry iced tea addict, drawing Renee and I in. Renee resists the urge; I’m sold.

The next morning, I have breakfast with Michelle and Teowanna Clifton. We’re all teaching at this year’s BWRC and we’re excited. I head up to registration, greeting Monica and Neesha, aka QueenJoya. Tia Ross, BWRC director, calmly signals me frantically. (If you’ve seen Tia in action, you’d understand this.) One of the presenters is sick; do I have my backup presentation ready? Of course, I reply. I go back to my room, grab my laptop, and head back downstairs for my first session. Dr. Anita Heiss has great insight in inspiring our creative juices using props and items in the room. It’s clear that there’s a lot of talent at this conference!

I duck out to prepare for my first session, “Ready, Set, Write”. After a technological glitch, we’re ready to go. It’s a fun, interactive class and I really enjoy teaching it. It’s clear that this is a group who are where I’ve been. They have ideas and stories waiting to come out of them. After the presentation, I give them time to actually write. It was a gratifying experience, especially seeing our teenage scholarship recipients writing in their notebooks. After class, several participants came up to tell me that they felt free and inspired to write. One lady shared that she had only written non-fiction and this was her first venture into fiction. She read what she wrote in class; it was good! I’m looking forward to seeing her finished work.

I took a break and went back to the room to relax and prepare for the afternoon. Lunch with Michelle and Teowanna and recapping the morning; why are all the restaurants in the Golden Nugget so slow? Afterwards, I go to Vincent Alexandria’s class. He had the best line of the afternoon: “Life is a buffet but you’ll starve to death if you don’t fix your own plate.”

Next is my class, “Writing Christian Fiction.” It goes well and I’m not the least bit nervous that one of my writing sheroes, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, is sitting in the back. When it’s said and done, many of the participants tell me that they really enjoyed the class. I’m humbled and thrilled at the same time. Thank you God!!

My hubby joins me at the hotel and we spend some time together. Wandering around the hotel, we spot ReShonda Tate Billingsley sitting alone at a table, editing her manuscript. That’s when it hits me: here we are in Las Vegas, surrounded by all kinds of things to do and see, and yet she’s focused on the work. That’s the mark of a true writer.

The next day, I have breakfast with Cherlisa and Sandra, two fellow writers and we continue the conversation about writing, editing and publishing. This is the reason that the BWRC is so special to me; being among writers who understand each other, no matter where you are on the writing journey.

We head upstairs and I join Dr. Jacqualyn Green at a table where we put out displays of our books and materials. Another joy of BWRC is that every time I’ve come, the focus of the conference has always matched where I was on my writing journey. This year, as a published author, I’m allowed to display and sell my novel. Marc Lacy and Renee Flagler give an impromptu marketing lesson at their table. Dr. Green’s family is so wonderful; her husband is a true inspiration and her grandchildren are the best street team anyone could ask for! I witness a hilarious conversation between Mondella Jones and Tonya Evans Walls; someone should put these two in a sitcom! (Two intelligent, professional, humorous black women making it happen? Never on television.)

Anita Heiss shares her “wedding” photos. She and Elvis make a great couple. I suspect her adventures in Vegas are mere ideas to go in her next novel.

I make a few sales, but I am more thrilled to talk with other participants about the conference. My favorite moment? Talking to future writer Oni, a senior in high school who has a story to tell. Not only was she inspired by my workshops, she’s determined to finish her manuscript in progress. I give her a copy of my book and Michelle promises to edit her book for free. Mr. Green tells her he will help her get published and Tonya Evans Walls gives her some valuable legal advice. My God. I love the generosity of the company at this conference! I told Oni I expect to see her on my side of the table at a future conference. Mr. Green reminds me that someone said the very same thing to me at my first conference in 2006.

After lunch, I decide to end my day and decide to spend the rest of the afternoon with my family. My hubby and son came and we hit the pool. Deciding to swim with the sharks, I hit the water slide. It’s been a long time and I almost lose my lunch, but it was worth it. My husband did it twice; I’m over it. We all dry off and after some photos and goodbyes with Michelle, we head over to my sister-in-law’s house.

I’m exhausted as I always am after these conferences. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I look forward to 2011 – wherever BWRC winds up, I’ll be there.