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SLR:  Who influenced you growing up?

EDC: Mary Glass was my high school librarian. Mrs. Glass instilled in me the art of being a lady. Mrs. Glass was a chocolate, petite, Delta Diva — very refined in every sense of the word. All my life I wanted to be like her and to make her proud in my accomplishments. She was the first person to discuss college with me, vacationing, acquiring the finer things in life and the first adult to show me what Black people could do more than work at a factory!  Because of Mary Glass, I graduated in the top 10 of my senior class and went on to become the business owner you are meeting today. Mrs. Glass died of breast cancer 2 months after my graduation, but she lives on in my daily walk. She whispers in my ear daily to calm down! I can hear her clearing quoting her favorite phrase to me, “I choose to walk the path least taken, knowing that God is with me.”

As the president of EDC Creations and The Sankofa Literary Society, located in Prince George County, Maryland, Ella D. Curry’s firm provides press kits, graphic design, website design, and branding to small and medium-sized businesses, authors of all literary genres, and individuals.  EDC Creations’ specialization in Internet book promotions, publishing website and marketing materials for new authors is boosting their success rates and educating them on how to turn their passion into lasting lucrative careers in the world of publishing.  Dedicated to Curry’s other loves, which include children, literacy and the preservation of African American history, is the Sankofa :Literary Society , which offers authors, artists, reviewers, journalists and book clubs an array of innovative services.  Incorporating various media formats, Curry, through an Internet radio talk show — Black Authors Network Radio — , Curry brings together authors, publishers and community leaders to discuss the issues that are important to our communities locally and on a global scale.  

SLR:    Please Ms. Curry, Tell us about your early life and education?

EDC: I grew up in the South, the Deep South. Diana Green, my great grandmother, Elizabeth Cook, my grandmother and first mentor, were my very first teachers, there after I continued my formal education at CACC Community College, University of Alabama, Birmingham, and later at the University of Maryland, University College. The lessons that I use daily in life did not come from my college education. They all come from my interaction with the PEOPLE God sent to guide and educate me. My angels come from all walks of life and bring about a myriad of curriculums for Ella Curry. My education continues daily as I meet people who share information or history I didn’t possess. My grandparents instilled me values and standards that no degree could ever out shine. With the simple basics in understanding “the golden rule”, I have grown so much more than a few letters behind my name. Common sense, a feeling of purpose and genuine compassion for your brothers and sisters can bring so much more success in life.

As a successful writer, your career involves more than just writing good material. While producing the best written work is the core of any writing career, getting the attention your work deserves is an important component of your career and is no longer just the responsibility of your agent or publisher. Additionally, it begins long before you land that writing contract or in some cases before you’ve typed “The End” on the final draft of your literary masterpiece.

That’s why it’s crucial to incorporate the business side of your writing career as soon as possible. I’ve introduced you to the benefits working with a publicist in book marketing. It is also important in terms freelance writing as well. We’ll talk more about that later. This series of articles will re-introduce you to Ella D. Curry and EDC Creations. I first told you about Ms. Curry and EDC Creations in August when I wrote the first installment of Author Marking Essentials.

Join me know as we learn more about Ms. Ella D. Curry, EDC Creations and what she is planning for black and multicultural authors, community leaders and the changing face of literacy now and for years to come.

On day two of my book signing, I learned a lot about people watching and reading people. As a writer, I currently watch people’s mannerisms and characteristics in order to create more believable characters, however, I had yet to progressed to the point where I could apply those same techniques to sell books.

It was great to watch people for entertainment sake, but truly watching people to get a take on what they are in to is important when trying to make a sale  whether at a book signing or in any sales situation. You are never going to sell an erotic novel to a devoutly religious person. But as you begin to pick up on the nature of people you would learn not to attempt that losing battle in the first place. Knowing that not everyone is a part of your sales demographic is crucial.

Perfect example, my books are interracial/multicultural, so my books would appeal to African American women in general. However, Caucasians do buy my books. It could be out of curiosity or the straight forward desire for a good story regardless of the ethnic backgrounds of the characters. It could be because the book includes them. I mentioned in another post that there is an interesting dynamic here because for African Americans, Caucasian stories were the only option we had for a long time. When books by African Americans for African Americans started taking off, we now had the choice to read about people like us. Caucasians have always had that benefit, so it might seem a little odd for them to pick up a novel in which their perspective is not represented. If given the choice, initially, would we as African Americans have picked up a book with all Caucasian characters if we always had the opportunity to read about people in our own ethnic group?

For Caucasians, I could see where the story might be perceived as less enjoyable because they might relate to portions of the conflict but not the entire story because they haven’t had to relate to an ethnic slant that was not their own. Let’s face it, some people regardless of race are not interest in the perspectives of people that vastly differ from their own. What I love about Multicultural writings is the ability to bring the cultures together so, if done well, there is something relatable for everyone. As a result, I had to learn not to assume that a Caucasian might not be interested in my book. Just like for some African Americans, some have had to read about Caucasian culture for so long, that they want something that is uniquely and solely represents theirs. That’s why straight African American novels are a growing and striving niche as well.

Additionally, during my book signing I have had openly gay men stop and talk to me about my book. I do have gay and lesbian characters in my book, but you would not know that from the cover or the blurb. I also had women of Middle Eastern decent stop and read my book cover and take a book mark. When a Caucasian girl who looked like a mod or Goth type stopped and picked up my book, I had to find a way to connect my story to her. Surely, the Caucasian cutie on my cover helped, but he and the heroine might have been too metro-sexual for her taste. So, I told her about the burlesque scene in my novel. While she didn’t buy the book, it did prompt her to take a book mark and we started talking about the burlesque scene in Arizona and Nevada.

When at a book signing, use the people watching opportunity to learn how to bring out the best details about your book that might appeal to the visitors at your table. While for some there just won’t be a connecting factor, you will learn quickly if there is, and how to bring it out in order to turn general interest into a sale.

photo courtesy of mrpatok

Last week I decided to take a break from the grind of pursuing freelance work to go see Soul Men with Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson. It was really surreal to watch a new movie where two of the actors had recently passed away.  I mentioned in previous posts how difficult it is to put aside the analysis cap as a writer when going to the movies. I really wanted to watch this movie from an entertainment standpoint because my mind needed the break.

Here’s what I was able to enjoy before the critic stepped in:

·        I loved the grit of Samuel L.’s character, Louis Hinds. I’m a big fan of sarcasm anyway.

·        Bernie Mac’s character, Floyd Henderson talked a big game and as the movie progressed he began to back it up with action.

·        It was great to see Sean Hayes from Will & Grace, he was funny as a TV exec and didn’t seem type-cast at all. I saw him as the actor who played Jack McFarland from Will & Grace instead of seeing as Jack McFarland.

·        Jennifer Coolidge was hysterical. She’s played a variety of roles, one of which includes the salon owner in one of the Legally Blond movies.

·        One surprise was Cleo, played by Sharon Leal. I won’t give her character away in the film other than to say she’s more than a back-up and her voice was something truly not to be missed.

I had forgotten how much swearing goes on in some Black movies. I know for those opposed to it, they find little need for it but it was highly necessary in this instance and lent to the humor.

It reminded me of the weekend family parties that would just materialize. It would start with Grandma’s cooking and Grandpa playing cards on the porch. Before you knew it there’d be four to six men on the porch and just as many women in the kitchen with kids running in and out. There’d be the strong whiff of fried chicken in the air along with lots of trash talking. When the lightening bugs came out and the kids could no longer play ball in the street the party would move inside till late in the evening.

Soul Men was very entertaining. I’m glad I held the critic at bay long enough to laugh and revisit the times of my youth visiting Grandma’s house.  

Much like the books we read, the movies we watch also carry themes. While some creative forms are designed just to amuse, I truly enjoy those that enlighten and inform as they entertain. I suppose a movie or a book has to have some kind of purpose not just for the reader but for the characters involved as well. I want to know that when the movie is over or I’ve closed the book, that the characters have learned from their mistakes or made peace with their demons. I want to witness some sort of transformation or evolution.

Amidst the humor, the songs and the fancy costumes, Soul Men does deliver a message of dreams resurrected, forgiveness and facing consequences. I enjoyed watching Floyd Henderson, Bernie Mac’s character, fight to remain relevant in a society that likes to put retired folks and the elderly out to pasture, while Louis Hinds, Samuel L. Jackson’s character, just fights to survive with his former glory appearing as nothing more than a footnote to his present life. They come together in an effort to meet all these needs and find courage and forgiveness along the way.

Soul Men meant much more than I thought it would and I enjoyed it far better as a result.

Title: TVOne Special- The Black List: 100 Greatest Cultural Power Moves
Location: TV One, www.tvoneonline.com
Description: Join TVOne as they count down the 100 greatest cultural power moves. It’s a five hour tv series hosted by Arsenio Hall. For more info see http:www.tvoneonline.com.
Start Date: 2008-11-09
End Date: 2008-11-13

courtesy mycine

As I mentioned before, it was a Jet magazine article about Kerry Washington that lead me to see Lakeview Terrace, her new movie starring Samuel L. Jackson and produced by Will Smith’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment Management.

             In short the movie is about a young interracial couple who is terrorized by Abel Turner, a black veteran police officer played by Samuel L. Jackson who does not approve of his neighbors’ interracial marriage.

             More than just a movie about interracial relationships and racial intolerance, this movie hit home for me on many levels. I loved the idea that we were witnessing the white male’s point of view. We always seem to focus on the disapproving white family or white society when dealing with interracial couples or the passive aggressive feelings exhibited by the African American families associated with the interracial romance.

             While we finally get to see that side I found it a little annoying that in this movie and in Something New, when the white male expresses exhaustion at the constant reminder and discussion of race, his African American partner can’t empathize with him, because her life has always been about race. While I understand the implication that finally this white person is getting a taste of what we put up with everyday of our lives, I don’t think it is wrong for him to find it difficult or hard to endure. After all, if we as African Americans didn’t have to deal with it, would we? He doesn’t have to, but chooses to because of his love for this woman of color. If you can’t express those moments of anxiety and emotional exhaustion to your significant other who happens to live it every day as well, then who can he turn to?

             There were a couple of other themes that ran through this movie that I had experienced in my own interracial relationships and it caught me off guard to see them depicted here.

             First, undoubtedly, I have been African American all my life, and while I’ve had many non-blacks say they don’t see me as a black person just a person or just me, it is not as reassuring or comforting to hear as they might have hoped. While being black is not all that I am, it is an important quality of who I am. I say quality because I appreciate and cherish it. So, I want people to see my beautiful toffee skin, my full lips and my penetrating coal-like eyes.

             In this movie, all those things that should be celebrated were now for naught, because Kerry Washington’s character, Lisa had bonded herself in marriage to a white man. Even in Abel’s rage over the white man “getting everything and anything he wants including our women” Abel degrades her as he lusts for her.

             In the opening scenes, when Kerry’s character, Lisa is doing the walk-through of the house with her father, Abel was more comfortable seeing a potentially older black man receive the flirtatious affections of a woman young enough to be his daughter than see that young black girl with a white man her own age.

             In playing a strict disciplinarian to his teenage children, it was perfectly ok to drop trou in front of Lisa to demonstrate to his daughter that parading around in a bathing suit despite being poolside in a backyard was inappropriate.

             Also noteworthy, is a brief scene between Chris and his friend at the couple’s housewarming party. The friend, who is a white male, tells Chris that he’s hit the jackpot in marrying Lisa and that he’s hoping to land a black girl of his own one day. For now, however, he’s getting a taste of the Pacific Rim. It’s that notion that men regardless of race are perfectly free to taste all the female flavors, but as far as the women who share their race, they better know to whom they belong. This is something that is brought up again in conversation between Abel’s daughter and Lisa in case the audience missed it the first time.  

Other themes that hit home were the contrast between Lisa’s husband and the minority men in the film. On more than one occasion Chris’ suitability to protect his family came up in the film. First, his father-in-law asked directly how he planned to protect Lisa and his future grandchildren, and later, Chris isn’t even given the chance to protect Lisa from an intruder because Abel dashes in with his gun drawn to “take care” of the attacker.

             In my own relationships, that often came up as well. There are alpha and beta men in every race. No matter the melanin levels, some men are protector types and some are not. I didn’t date the men I dated because I wanted a protector and yes, I didn’t feel especially “safe” around them; at least no safer than when I was with anyone else. Maybe that’s one of the reasons those relationships didn’t last. While women don’t always look to be protected, maybe the men in their lives have to feel trusted that they could protect them if the need should arise?

             And yes, if you’re wondering, I was a daddy’s girl and always felt safe with him nearby. Unfortunately he is only near me in spirit now.

             I really went into this movie not expecting to find anything more than a new twist on racial intolerance, but I came out with reassurance that my own interracial experiences were not unusual or isolated. They were a part of bigger social and generational interrelationships that are further complicated by gender and race.

Knowing that the production of movies are generally planned years in advance, my thoughts regarding the acute timeliness of the recent abundance of interracial movies emerging from Hollywood in the recent months has not been deterred. Aside from Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher and Something New with Sanaa Hamri and Simon Baker, we had Hancock this past summer and Lakeview Terrace plus The Secret Life of Bees and Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys this fall.

             With the possibility of a multiracial president looming, leave it to Hollywood to play upon what is already in front of us.

             It’s not the timing that surprises me, however, as I am a big believer in the timing of everything. I am more surprised by the subtlety.

             This past summer, I went to see Hancock, because the idea of Will Smith playing a jacked-up superhero gave me the giggles and for that and the special effects, the movie did not disappoint. However, what did surprise me was the undercurrent of Sci-fi or supernaturalism that runs through a lot of Will Smith’s movies. Many of his movies deal with aliens, the future or the world’s last days. Of course, there would be some sci-fi in Hancock as we are dealing with a superhero, but what I didn’t expect was the interracial story line.

             The trailers for the film just suggest that Charlize Theron’s character did not find Hancock redeemable. What they fail to mention is that these two characters had been lovers throughout the centuries. In this current carnation, Charlize’s character is married to a floundering do-good PR executive played by Jason Bateman who is set out to improve Hancock’s image after Hancock saves him from an otherwise certain demise. When Hancock discovers why he is the way he is and who Charlize is to him, a sense of sadness emerges at least for me because they cannot be together. Of course, the movie being an Overbrook production, an entertainment production company co-owned by Will Smith, the Hancock characters cannot be together not because they are too dissimilar…i.e. race. They cannot be together because they are too similar thus draining each other’s strengths which interferes with Hancock’s life calling. We never really figure out what Charlize’s calling is since she too has superpowers. Apparently, being a wife and mother is calling enough.

Had I not went to see the movie, I would have never known about this angle. It wasn’t really publicized. Of course with the wonder of marketing a movie, you never want to give too much away, so there’s no conspiracy here, but it is interesting that this tidbit which really doesn’t spoil the movie was not publicized.

More than just a catalyst to ticket sales, the predominant face associated with a film has a lot to do with the direction it will take and how it will be perceived. The same holds true for the making of The Secret Life of Bees, a New York Times bestseller by Sue Monk Kidd. While she never imagined the book would be published much less make it to the big screen, when asked if she had any input in cast selection, Sue Monk Kidd admitted, “Well, they were kind enough to ask my opinion. They asked me way back, years before, they asked me who I would see playing and I said, Queen Latifah, not that [the stage name] queen had anything to do with it. But she came to mind after I saw her in Chicago. I thought she’d be fabulous.”

No doubt the multitalented performer has excelled at everything she associates herself with from modeling, rapping, acting, producing, talent management as well as her latest foray into classical music, Queen Latifah as matriarchal figure August Boatwright in The Secret Life of Bees would be a major coup. Even director Gina Prince-Bythewood reflects, “The fact that we got everybody we wanted is a great blessing.” More than anything, Queen Latifah was perfect for the role, Bythewood said of the actor, “She exudes warmth and she’s larger than life–and that’s really what August needed to be.”

Beyond what Queen Latifah brought to the film is what she brought to the attitude on the set. When Bythewood explains the difficulty in getting the film off the ground she continues in a voice rich with gratefulness and sincerity, “Latifah is the reason this film got made. Like none of the actors got paid at all for this and Latifah set that tone because she knew that if she didn’t take a huge pay cut and was not in the film, it would not have been made. And films like this need to be made, so she really set the tone which allowed me to have this caliber of cast for no money.”

Carrying a film that studios are skeptical to make not because of its value but because of its potential for broad market appeal, can be a lot a pressure for one actor to take, adding to that the need to adjust within the movie’s budgetary constraints and a less humble or value-based actor would fold under the pressure. However, when asked if she was excited about being the only person envisioned to star in this moving playing one of its only two lead roles, she simply replied, “Yeah.”

Though modest, everyone joined in to sing Latifah’s praises. Nate Parker of The Debaters didn’t miss an opportunity to share what Queen’s presence did for the making of the film, he stated, “One of the things I noticed when I was watching you [Queen Latifah] that was obvious was that you really were like glue. I said it earlier you were almost like the honey between all the kids. And the reason and the connection was clear how everyone kind of fed off of your wisdom.”

Even as all the accolades buzzed around the room for this shining star, Queen Latifah ensured that the accomplishments of her fellow actors weren’t overlooked. She told Ella Curry, Literary Publicist and CEO of EDC Creations and others when asked how she worked so well with the cast and crew, “I think that I can be kind of disarming, because I’m not insecure with myself out of the normal range that other women can be. I’m not walking around on set with a chip on my shoulder and my ego all up like this wouldn’t have been made without me. I don’t do that…you know it’s not one person that makes a movie. Everybody makes a movie. To me the better you keep your spirit the better it is. You’ll have to ask the others how they felt working with me but I am a fan of theirs as well.”

Obviously her philosophy works because the Oscar winner of Dream Girls, Jennifer Hudson said of the Golden Globe, Grammy and SAG-winning actor, “…Queen has the most beautiful spirit. Like, she comes around you and her joy just spills out and everyone is just smiling and happy and you don’t even know why you’re smiling.”

It is an attitude such as this full of peace, humility, honesty and gratefulness that allows the joy the cast experienced on the set to translate through a movie as powerful as The Secret Life of Bees.