mistakesselfpubcovers.png

I’ve committed the worst sin of self-publishing. No, not failing to hire an editor (well, okay, I did that one, too. A bunch of times). No, not falsely representing myself to try and get my books on digital platforms used for library checkouts (wait, I TOTALLY did that one, and I won’t apoogize).

I must confess: I made my own covers.

recent_works_by_kelly_kay_leesa_cross-smith_and_alice_kaltma.png

I want to tell you about my experience reading the books Crushing by Kelly Kay, This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith and dawg towne by Alice Kaltman.

I do, and I will, there's just a lot going on.

Yes, there is hope that COVID may yet run its course with vaccines now widely available. The new administration is talking about climate change. There is justice for George Floyd.

pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3812743.png

Original image by Andrea Piacquadio

I once wrote a ten-step guide to writing your novel, but that was missing a lot of crucial steps, and some writers died or got seriously injured while following it, so I decided to expand it and create the definite guide to writing a novel. Enjoy!

wanda_coleman_x.png

It’s hard to imagine the fierce voice of Wanda Coleman comfortable with the slighted title of The Unofficial Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, but the backhanded relegation was the best CBS could offer when memorializing the trailblazing American poet working entirely on her own terms. She’s been called many things: the L.A. Blueswoman, Mad Dog Black Lady, or “hateful and hilarious, heartbroken and hellbent,” as author/poet Mary Karr described Coleman’s Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 2020).