Seressia Glass: Blog Me

Seressia May 30th, 2008

Today was mainly set up day. Parker Publishing is next to Torquere Press, but they weren’t there as yet. Saw the RWA crew on the same aisle as Ellora’s Cave huge RV.

In the hall way on the way to one of the AA workshops, we ran into Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She really is a tiny woman–and so full of vitality and good humor, you can’t believ eshe’s celebrating her 80th birthday this week!

At the AA welcome reception, we saw Kimani’s Linda Gill in a fabulous vintage emerald green brocade jacket that I instantly coveted; congratulated Brenad Jackson on her NYT placement, and said hello to Monique Patterson of St. Martin’s Press. Also got to reunite with some Slam Jam attendees, including Donna Hill, Rochelle Alers, Kimberly Kaye Terry, and Gwen Forster. Jackie was caught by a gorgeous guy and whispered to me, “Oh my god–I think we he was on the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.” Sure as heck, it was Michael Anderson from Seaon 3–and boy does he look good in person! He’s modeling some covers for Kimani, hence his presence at BEA.

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Seressia May 29th, 2008

I’m catching a plane to LA to attend BEA in about 8 hours. Considering at least 1 hour of that is traffic-sitting and another shaping up to not scare the other travelers, I need to take my neurotic ass to bed. TTFN!

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Seressia May 22nd, 2008

In case you missed it, Dear Author had a post on Reviewing Black romances. They want them. They prefer you email them with a blurb and a link to an excerpt. And, if your publisher doesn’t do ebooks, they’ll be more than happy to take an ARC or a PDF of your Word doc. Ladies, start your engines!

I have had a very productive week, I’m proud to say. I sent in an anthology proposal to an editor I met at Slam Jam on Tuesday, and today I sent a proposal for a single title to an agent, whom I also met at Romance Slam Jam.

I’m hoping both of these projects will give me some New York loving because hey, I’ve talked about the importance of diversifying the writing portfolio. And frankly, I think I’m ready and these story ideas are viable (read: marketable) concepts for New York.

When I hear something, I’ll let you know.

The “next thing” is always out there for authors. Selling a story isn’t an ending–it’s a whole new beginning. The next thing is to sell another one. The next thing after that is to show a profit. THe next thing after that may mean going into print or mass market. The next thing after that may mean selling to New York or getting out of midlist. The next thing after that is hitting one of the extended best seller lists. The next thing after that is actually making a living, and staying in the business as a relevant contributor.

I’m sure if you asked Nora Roberts or Beverly Jenkins, they’d both say there’s a next thing for both of them.

My next thing is enjoying the Memorial Day holiday with a few friends coming to town. Next week, I’m off to my very first Book Expo America and my first flight into LAX. I’ll appreciate your general good wishes being sent my way!

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Seressia May 16th, 2008

First of all, a big congratulations to romance author Brenda Jackson for being the first black romance author to hit the New York Times extended list at #34 with her black romance novel, Irresistible Forces. It’s the highest opening rank for a series book I believe, so double congrats to her. And she does this while working a day job!

ANother big congratulations goes to Joshua Packwood, 22, for being the first white valedictorian at Morehouse College, a Historically Black College in my town, Atlanta.

Life hasn’t always been easy for Packwood. He grew up in a poor area of Kansas City, Missouri, where he says he found himself gravitating to the black community at a young age.

Adolescence was rough. His mother’s second marriage to a black man ended in divorce and family tension forced him to seek refuge with his best friend’s family - who were black and middle-class.

The experience of living with his best friend’s family had a profound effect on Packwood, who says he saw a “different side of black America.”

He got interested in African American studies and decided that the best way to understand it and learn about it was to experience it honestly, choosing Morehouse over a full scholarship to Columbia University.

“What Morehouse stands for at the end of the day, and what Dr. King epitomized, it’s not about black or white, it’s about the content of [a person’s] character,” says Packwood. “It’s about me, representing Morehouse in that light — not as a white man or a black man.”

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Seressia May 13th, 2008

So yeah–I did not update the other days of Romance Slam Jam. Suffice it to to say that a good time was indeed had by all, some more than others. Karaoke was fun but my goodness!–Proud Mary is a freakin’ long song! The signing was amazing and validating and seeing Beverly Jenkins win all her awards did me proud and made me want that run someday (soon). I left Chicago energized and rarin’ to go on my work.

There have been several “race in romance” discussions around the blogosphere, and there’s an article in the May Romance Writer’s Report. I think that’s a record–and it ain’t even Black History Month. I will not even offer my opinion on the photo used to illustrate the “color” or romance article, cause you know, it’s in black and white–I can’t tell what race the four women with long dark hair are.

I got my Rita scores back yesterday for Dream of Shadows. Two 9’s, two 7’s, and an 8.8 put me in the top 25%. Felt really good about that–until I opened my royalty statement from Genesis Press. Four books, no checks. Color me unsurprised. I think I may have to change my name, pretend to be white and write black secondary characters so they’ll give me a decent sized print run and shelve me in the Romance section. This reminds me of the job I had where I had been employed with the company for more than five years and had some college education. They hired a white lady to do the same job–she had a GED, no college and off the street she made $2 more an hour than I did.

And people wonder why there’s such a thing as an Angry Black Woman.

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Seressia May 6th, 2008

Thursday got off to a great start. After getting my badge and two bags of schwag, I head off to my first workshop, which is a Reader Session that I’m having with author Marcia Collette. We talked about our current and forthcoming books, the stories behind the books, our writing process (we’re both pantsers, though I can’t really afford to be one anymore). There was a video camera there, so I was on my bestest author behavior. (yeah, I know you’re disappointed.)

After that, I got to run upstairs to the suite for an intimate session. These are basically where a few readers (no more than ten) are able to hang with their favorite author and we chat about any and everything. I had a full allotment and kicked off my shoes and curled up on a chair and chatted. It was great because it’s a wonderful moment of validation for me as a writer. I mean, there was a lady who came in with a stack of books, and I realized that they were all mine, and she wanted me to sign all of them. Amazing, and I was touched and I thanked her, and she turned around and thanked me for writing the stories and that she’d been a fan since book one.

As I signed each one, I held it up and told a little story about each. Readers asked me questions, noted which story they loved, their reaction to each while we munched on grapes and strawberries and pizza from Gino’s. During the wrap-up I mentioned Dream of Shadows and it’s history and a little about the story and the family that would be written about over the course of the books. A few of them hadn’t seen that one yet. The room monitor told them that the bookstore would be opening in ten minutes–and they all got up to head down and look for my book. Awesome!

Spent some time sharing with authors Lisa G. Riley, Natalie Dunbar, Barbara Keaton, Dyanne Davis, and others before heading down to the lobby. Ran into Beverly Jenkins who is wonderful and classy and real as ever. Met a few readers/writers/friends I knew from MySpace and the IMRR group, squeed, laughed hugged, signed autographs and a few more books, and many photos taken, completely missed lunch and didn’t care one bit.

Two o’clock and my last workshop, Sleeping With Your Characters. I was only expecting maybe a dozen people. More than 30 showed up. I zoomed through the workshop–about using creative visualization and lucid dreaming techniques to get to know your characters and get them through creative jams–and spent time talking about my writing process, reference books I enjoy using.

More later

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Seressia May 5th, 2008

The Smart Bitches posted a blog today about “Race and Loving in Romance” which is generating civil discussion, though I admit to some puzzlement about the people who say they can’t find IR books but would read them if they did.

I’m going to tell you a secret: Sometimes you have to look to find them. And how do you know if they’ll be good? Well, how do you know that Regency historical will be good? Or a futuristic? Or a Indian romance? Take those answers and apply them to IR romances. Of course, if the answer changes, that should make you ask even more questions.

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Seressia May 2nd, 2008

Landed in O’Hare with nary a bump. Got off the plane eager for my first glimpse of world’s busiest airport. 6 pm and the place seemed a ghost town, so it’s possible that I arrive at the wrong time. Glad to avoid the crowds, moseyed to baggage claim, retrieved my bag, and called author Jackie Hamilton of JM Jeffries/Simone Harlow fame to see if her flight had arrived. She’d just landed and so had fellow author Edwinna Martin-Arnold, so we decided to converge and ride the shuttle in together.

And that’s when I discovered how freakin’ large O’Hare is. I was in Terminal 5. Edwinna’s plane landed in Terminal 3, and Jackie’s flight drew up in Terminal 1. That’s some hellified walking even with rolling bags. “There’d better be an appletini in my future,” was all I could think abot as a schlepped to Terminal 1 to meet Jackie. Edwinna wisely decided to head for the shuttle instead. So after I gathered Jackie we made our way out to the hotel shuttle area.

We got the last two seats on the shuttle. There was Wayne Jordan, Monique Lamont, some readers, and a few very scared looking salesmen. Jackie broke the ice by proclaiming that I would soon dance naked once I got a little tequila in me. (For the record, it takes a lot of tequila.) We immediately proceeded to further scare the salesmen by talking books, romance books. We had a rollicking ride–and made some new friends. Must have been that whole naked dancing thing.

Check in was smooth, ad hunger was foremost, so our illustrious group decided to head to Chili’s. Once there, I realized a Blue margarita was the way to go. Wayne abandoned us for another group of women, but that’s okay, he’d promised himself to them first. There were several groups of us there–you see a large group of black women, you go “Slam Jam/” and we nod and laugh and hug. It’s great!

Managed to not scandalize the Chili’s staff, but when the Wyndham shuttle came to pick us up, the Krispy Kreme beckoned So we had him pull up to the door and several of us jumped out to get a few dozen of the pastry crack. Back to the hotel we went, tipped the driver in Krispy Kremes and proceeded to camp out in the lobby with a large group of readers and writers. Fun times!

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