Happy 9th Birthday Jack!
Please join me in wishing a very happy birthday to the sweetest little bad dog I know, Jack! It was his birthday yesterday and he got quite a few new toys that he destroyed faster than a zombie on The Walking Dead.
SMH it’s so very Jack. 9 years and he hasn’t slowed down yet.
Love you Jackster! Thanks for keeping me on my toes.
Love,
KMJ
A year and 1 day…
I saw something the other day that said ‘think of where you were last year‘.
It was supposed to be uplifting so I did. And you were there and for that moment I was happy.
Until I stopped and remembered that you are gone. And won’t be back again.
Now I know in this past year lots has changed. Some for the bad and as with life many things for the good. But without you it’s hard to feel that good fully. Without you I don’t know how quite how to be… just me. I’m honestly not the same.
Lost within myself. A stranger in my own mind. I know I should be better and as you would always say, ‘pull up my big girl panties’ and I promise I will with more time. But that time is not now. What is a year to a heart in pain?
Because if I were granted one wish right now, one happy thought for now… Today… It would be to go back- just a year and 1 day.
Love,
Me
Still…
… who knows how 26 years go by and the one you love barely changes in your eyes.
But it happens and thank goodness we have these dates called anniversaries to take the time to mark the moments. To look back and plan forward.
To hold hands and give thanks.
And today I am thankful,
for so much but mostly for being here… still…
…with you.
KMJ
Hello old friend, hello… knitting it all together
So I just handed in another story to my super fab agent. Go me!
But really those in the KMJ know, know there is never any of that “Go me!” spirit when I do these kind of things. It’s more of a weak ‘yay, got that done’ and a shaky hand turnover because I’m never all that confidant in what I just put down on the page. The neurotic writer critic in my always wins out.
I will say I do adore this story and these characters and I hope when it’s time to share them come next holiday season you all will think they are just as delicious as I do. My heroine got to take the dream vacation that I have been longing for so there is that.
And with my hand-off, my super agent gave me the advice to not just dive into the next work, but take a moment for myself, which I also find hard to do. But with that permission to goof off from her I’m pulling out my long forgotten knitting to unwind with and instead of unwinding I’m having a devil of a time trying to remember this lovely stitch.
Oh well, I wonder if I can get this shawl done by the time my story comes out late next year. Ya think?
Tell me do you have an unwinding hobby that you retreat to?
All the best,
KMJ
Be cool girl…fave plot book recs
Over the next 6 months I’ve got writing deadlines breathing down my neck
and looking at me like…
And I’m looking back at my original concepts like…
And the pressure of it all has me in a state of panic like…
So a little over a week ago in my panic stricken state I reached out to my peeps on twitter looking for bookish ways to help streamline my plotting process and get my racing, jumbled thoughts in some sort of order.
You see I only play a cool multi-planner having, washi tape decorating, cucumber on social media.
The chaos in my mind in a big old mess.
So I sent out this tweet:
And here are the books that were recommended to me in response. Thanks so much my twitter friends!
I know some of them will be of help to me (hello 1 click) and I wanted to share them here with you.
Please feel free to add any of your faves in the comments. Thanks and happy writing!
Save The Cat by Blake Snyder
20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias
GMC: Goal Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon –
This one I already have in my library and is a fave http://amzn.to/1UxJvd9
Trough of Hell: How to Wrap Up the Middle of Your Story with Maximum Impact
by H.R. D’Costa http://amzn.to/1UxJLca
Rock Your Plot by Cathy Yardley-
This is another one that I already have in my library and like. http://amzn.to/1UxJRAC
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
by Martha Alderson
2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better and Writing More of What You Love
by Rachel Aaron –
another book I have and am a fan of. http://amzn.to/1UxLwWN
Outlining Your Novel Map Your Way To Success by K.M. Weiland –
this is one I just ordered and am getting into. Lots of good points here. http://amzn.to/1PYgq41
Story Trumps Structure: How To Write Unforgettable Fiction By Breaking The Rules
by Steven James http://amzn.to/1K2Fan4
Meanwhile wish me luck with my deadlines because I need to be like this and just do it…
All the best,
KMJ
Gifs from Reality TV Gifs
Hmm…
I’m concerned. I mean this brings up so many questions:
How did he or she get out? Through a door or an open window? Was he out for a walk and broke free of his leash? Who is missing him and are they crying themselves to sleep at night? I hope not.
Is there such a thing as a turtle locator chip if not maybe this should be a thing?
Yep, many questions.
And sidebar: The name Mr. T is perfection.
I sure hope he’s found.
All the best,
KMJ
RW… hey, hey, hey! My time at #RWA15 in pics
This post is late in coming and I apologize for that, but here it is. Last week most, well many in the romance community, convened at the Marriot in Times Square for the annual Romance Writers of America National Conference. A fun and enlightening time was had by all, ok I’ll say most because what do I know? What I do know and can say is that I had a good time, though it was quite the whirlwind.
I’d love to know how is it a day could speed by so fast?
I want to thank so many for their amazing support of #WeNeedDiverseRomance by wearing their Tee Shirts on conference Thursday. Seeing so many Diverse Romance tees around the conference was just amazing and I do think made quite a bold statement that those in the gate keeper positions could not ignore (I do believe I heard some keys rattling).
Also I’d like to give thanks to all who came to the multicultural workshop I participated in on Thursday with Alyssa Cole, Lena Hart and Falguni Kothari. Your support was priceless and so appreciated.
I was also so happy to attend the other workshops held on diversity this year. As a longtime member of RWA I feel there was a much more open and truthful vibe to the conference dialogue this year all around when it came to diversity, self -publishing and the state of the industry. The dialogue, for the most part, was well received and for the parts that were not, let’s just say, they needed to be said. I’m so happy to hear that RWA will now be forming a special committee on diversity so this will not just be a one year buzz hashtag type of thing.
Thank you all so much once again for helping make this happen. Please keep up your support by continuing to voice your opinions and get the word out about the need for more diversity in romance and all genres of publishing. #WeNeedDiverseRomance
Now onto the pics…
So many beautiful faces! Can you spot some of your faves?
Lauren Dane, Members or RWA/NYC, Flappers at Passionate Ink party, Me & the fab Nora Roberts, Holley Trent, Vanessa Peters, Falguni Kothari, Trent Hart, Elizabeth Mahon, Jenn Le Blanc, Trent Hart, Falguni Kothari, Carolyn Jewel & Carolyn Crane, Vanessa Riley, Jamie Wesley, Farrah Rochon, Synithia Williams, Tracey Livesay, Alyssa Cole, Laura K. Curtis, Megan Frampton
Sugar Jamison, Kianna Alexander, Ginger Merante, Falguni Kothari, Kianna Alexander, Farrah Rochon, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Adrienne Trent, Jeannie Lin, Me and Farrah again 🙂 , Me and the Carolyns (again LOL) ! Carolyn Jewel & Carolyn Crane, Seressia Glass, Jamie Wesley, The panel of Diversity in Romance: Why it Matters : Corrina Lawson, Sugar Jamison, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Farrah Rochon, Alisha Rai, My panel Multicultural Romance: When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong and How To Make It Right: Alyssa Cole, Me, Falguni Kothari, Lena Hart, Me and Laura Von Holt and finally the lovely: Synithia Williams, Lena Hart, Mia Sosa and Karen Manns.
Wowza! Looking back at all of these pics I see how great the conference was and how incredibly lucky I am to know so many amazing, talented and lovely people. Thanks for making this an unforgettable RWA.
All the best,
KMJ
Just here… looking pretty
Jack says, hey people! He wants you all to admire him and his lovely haircut and his bandanna that says ‘I am handsome’ while Kwana runs around over on the sidelines doing all the things a writer does a week before the biggest conference of the year (no, she’s not grumpy or stressed at all).
For those coming to RWA National next week she can’t want to see you and remember Thursday the 23rd is #WeNeedDiverseRomance tee day. Later!
All the best,
Jack & KMJ
#WeNeedDiverseRomance …tweet on…tweet on…
Hello dear friends and welcome to what I must reluctantly confess now is really and truly summer. I don’t know how that came to slither up on me but there it is. I’m now elbow deep in writing my current novella while little hidden closets of my brain cook up scenes for other stories that I have in the works while deadlines, they be looming.
I’m also busy getting ready for the big Romance Writers Of America National Conference this July where for the first time I’ll be participating in (see: shaking in my boots) a workshop with three of my friends and chapter mates the talented authors: Alyssa Cole, Falguni Kothari and Lena Hart. For our workshop, on Thursday July 23rd which is called: Multicultural Romance, When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong And How To Make It Right, we’ll be talking about quite a few topics one of which will be diversity in romance including the #WeNeedDiverseRomance hashtag.
I’ve also self-proclaimed July 23rd #WeNeedDiverseRomance Tee day at RWA so if you have your tee and are coming this would be the day to wear it and represent.
I started the #WeNeedDiverseRomance hashtag around 8 months ago to honor my dear Nana who had recently and very suddenly passed away. Nana was a huge influence on me becoming the romance writer I am today. I have strong memories of seeing her, after a long day of being a child caregiver for working Harlem mothers (a job she took on right after I was born and one she retired from after my own twins went off to pre-school), tiredly taking a moment for herself to relax with a Harlequin romance before she went to off bed. Nana was a veracious reader of romance, a lover of these books that took her far away from her day to day everyday, but in no way reflected the amazing woman she was or the incredibly hard working black women (and men) who went off to work and entrusted her with their precious children as they did so. It will be so hard to fight back tears as I go to the RWA literacy signing this year and for the first time since I’ve been a member I won’t have the assignment from Nana to go and get a signed Nora Roberts for her. She was such a huge Nora fan that Nora’s was the one book I HAD to get every year without fail.
That said it was due to Nana that as a preteen I picked up these books and like her was entranced with the love stories that took me away from my concrete jungle with their high level of love, emotion and passion even though I could never fully put myself in the shoes of the creamy skinned, blue eyed, blond heroines that the Greek tycoons fell for no matter how many times I put my tee shirt over my head and pretended it was my own flowing locks.
But it was what it was, and being lover of books, I read what was available in the genres I loved and that was women’s fiction and romance. Taking nothing away I still found many books, authors and stories I adored. It would be few and too far between, but I was thrilled when I found books like Terry McMillian’s Disappearing Acts and the iconic AA couple of Zora and Franklin who looked on the page like people I could possibly know or, hey, even maybe be one day, just way more passionate. I wanted more of these type of stories! And thankfully with that book’s success there was more. Many more, but sadly not nearly enough.
The #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag and movement has been making great strides since it was started and does so much for children’s literature discussion and I hope landscape and I’d love for that to continue into romance and all genres of literature. It saddens me so much when I see how disproportionate the bestseller lists are when it comes to authors of color. Now I’m not sure I know the fix to this problem as I don’t think there is one fix all as the problem has come from years and years of the “norm” being books by Caucasian writers and book by writers of color being labeled as other and shelved separately if picked up by a mainstream publisher. And if not picked up by a publisher then self-publishing being the other option for an author of color where discoverability is even more difficult. So with these obstacles I think the fix will take a not so subtle shift of the norm being truly diverse catalogs put out by publishers. And by diverse that means having more than 1 or 2 offerings by authors of color a month and consistently giving equal presence and retail marketing money to authors of color. That way when the public goes looking for their next read the offerings truly look like a rainbow and instead of the “right” choice being subliminally made for them.
It would be great to also address the lack POC staffing in publishing. Not to mention but to mention the fact that African American college educated women are the largest group of readers in the country so why not service them and stop leaving money on the table?
This year the need for the #WeNeedDiverseRomance hashtag and the movement has been brought home even more with what has been going on all over the country. From the awful police shootings and targeting of black men, women and children to the most recent horrific event in Charleston at Emanuel AME. How many times have we asked the question or shouted the rally call #BlackLivesMatter? How sad is it that we have to ask this question and remind people of this fact in the first place? But the truth is too often POC color are looked at as so called “thugs” before they are looked on as regular citizens with all the rights that come with that label. I think having more men and women of color lifted up as heroes and heroines from early on in literature is one way this perceptions can change. We can also go far with changing these perceptions on the big and small screen but that is a post for another day.
Sidebar: If you are looking for another great hashtag to follow please check out #WOCRomance and also check out Rebekah Weatherspoon’s @WOCInRomance on twitter and tumblr where she highlights new offerings from women of color in romance.
I’ve gone on long enough but I want to finish by saying that I know #WeNeedDiverseRomance will mean different things to different people and that is fine and as it should be. This post is about why I started the hashtag. Your perception is your reality as mine is mine. #WeNeedDiverseRomance is also shouting out to the persons with disabilities and the LGBTQ and transgender community. We are all here, all having been marginalized and all fighting the good fight for our truths to be told. I’m just the one here today rambling on about why I started the hashtag with a tweet on a day back when I was feeling low in my grief watching what was going on in the world and and missing my grandmother terribly. The response has been overwhelming and humbling and I’m honored that the hashtag still continues today and to that I say tweet on. Tweet on until the hashtag seems silly and redundant because we are truly equal and not segregated and all is well because finally well and truly do have Diverse Romance. Thank you.
Early tweets for #WeNeedDiverseRomance
Click the blow links to order your Tee!
All love,
KMJ
P.S. I’ll always love you Nana and will forever thank you.
Nest … not so empty
Nests empty… then they fill… and empty, then fill again.
The constant is the babies, no matter the size, demand to be fed.
(Pic of nest of new baby birds from tree on my front lawn.)
What are you working at to get your feed on this week?
All the best,
Kwana