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Wow, I can’t believe It’s Thanksgiving already. I have so much to be grateful for this year. My first book was published, this blog hit the cyber airwaves and I have had the opportunity to meet, chat or blog with some amazing people. Thank you all for being a part of it!

We have just three days till the end of our Spirit of Thanksgiving Book Giveaway Contest. If you haven’t posted your favorite Thanksgiving recipe, memory or family tradition, get it done, there’s still some sand running through the hour glass.

Thanks to Hachette Book Group and this contest, you have the chance to be the talk of holiday entertaining season while remembering all the reasons why this holiday is so special.

For those just finding out about it, here’s the scoop:

In a contest event that takes place from November 10th to November 30th, sponsored by Hachette Book Group, Sable Lit Reviews will be holding a drawing for 5 free books representing the best in holiday entertainment.

Up to five winners will be selected to receive a print copy of all five books after the contest concludes on November 30th. The books up for grabs are:

• The Flavor Bible By Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg ISBN: 0316118400 $35.00
• Karen Brown Celebrates By Karen Brown ISBN: 9780316118187 $30.00
• I Like You By Amy Sedaris ISBN 9780446696777 $15.99
• Festivus By Allen Salkan ISBN: 0446540668 $9.99
• Holidays on Ice By David Sedaris ISBN: 0316035904 $16.99

How to Enter:

To enter simply navigate to the following link and post your favorite Thanksgiving family tradition, memory or recipe. All those who post a tradition, memory or recipe will be entered into a drawing. Up to five names will be drawn after 11:59 PM PST on Novemeber 30th and contacted to make delivery arrangements.

Spirit of Thanksgiving Book Giveaway

For more information select the “Win Books” tab at the top of the page.

Thanks for supporting Sable Lit Reviews and Hachette Book Group.

I don’t know about you readers, but I love to put an author’s face with her work. To find out more about Barbara and her growing list of work click on her picture above. Now back to our interview:

LMReviews: So many novels just focus on the conflict, do you consider yourself a trailblazer in being able to depict cultural characters in multi-genre works with such authenticity?

BK: Each story I write, I create a notes files for background and world-building information. Then I do extensive research in order to make the story as realistic as possible. I’m a research junkie. I enjoy the process of digging up information and then weaving it into a story to create detailed characters and the worlds they live in.

LM: Your website shows pictures of dolls you created to represent the
characters from one of your books, is this a practice you still employ?
This is an interesting technique, how did it come about?

BK: One of my early critique partners like to create dolls.
She designed and made those dolls for me, for a reasonable fee.
Since then, we’ve lost touch with each other over the years and I haven’t
contracted any new dolls from after she created those first three dolls of
Cait, Indio and Tiny from the last two books in my Sidhe series.

LM: How do your plots develop?

BK: I’m a pantser.  I start with the bare bones story idea and as I write it out
my characters become alive for me.

LM: You’re attention to sensory details is laser sharp, is that something that develops over many drafts or are you always thinking about the senses
as you write?

BK: After I write the first draft,  I carefully revise and rewrite the next two to three drafts, layering in the details and fleshing that bare bones idea into a complex plot.

LM: That is amazing Barbara. I wrote my first book as a pantser and this second book I’m working on as a plotter. I’m still trying to learn to let it flow in the first draft but that crazy critic in me is trying to hard to layer and sharpen as I write. As any writer knows find what works is a process.

Well, we’ll continue with more insight into Barbara’s writing life tomorrow. Thank you so much for all the great information you’ve provided so far, Barbara!

We’ll chat with you tomorrow. If you haven’t entered the Thanksgiving book giveaway with Hachette Books, check the Win Books link at the top of this page. Also visit Barbara’s page by clicking her picture to see all of her great works.

Until tomorrow…

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.   

Books and their parts are often used as metaphors for life. For example, “never judge a book by its cover” or “judge a man not by the color of his skin by but the content of his character”, but Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist, Alicia Keys, as she often does in her music, reveals a new perspective in judging a great novel or judging a person. While sitting within the stop and go environment of the movie set for The Secret Life of Bees with book in hand, Keys ponders, “You can tell a good book by the first line, because really a person will show you who they are the first time you meet them.”

Indeed, Alicia Keys showed everyone who she was with debut album “Songs in A Minor” and her subsequent critically acclaimed album release “The Diary of Alicia Keys”. With such movies as Smokin Aces and The Nanny Diaries in her repertoire, the singer, songwriter and musician, has successfully added actor to her resume as well. Knowing what makes a great product, Keys voiced her interest in participating in the film years earlier during its first trip through film development which later lost steam. When the movie landed unwavering support from Fox Search Light Studios, something that hadn’t existed earlier when it made the rounds at other studios, director Gina Prince-Bythewood was uncertain about casting Keys as it would be only Keys’ third dramatic effort. Additionally, the role of June Boatwright had to be rewritten much younger than the book’s character to correspond with Keys’ age. The singer/songwriter definitely did her part by learning to play the cello. Keys said of the experience, “It was actually really exciting for me to learn a brand new instrument…it was definitely a lot of work learning the finer details.”

Apparently, Keys is no stranger to the details as all seeds of doubt have been replaced with adoration. Bythewood said of her performance, “Her work ethic is unbelievable and Alicia gives an incredible performance.” That work ethic was also evident as Keys honored her other commitments without affecting the shooting of the movie. During the Super Bowl the crew and cast members witnessed Keys shed her afro wig and prim clothing to emerge as a sexy songbird ready to dazzle a screaming adrenalin-pumped crowd only to show up later right on schedule as her character June Boatwright. She explained, “I felt uncomfortable when I had to leave everybody, because we had created an environment that really made us sisters and family.”

Nate Parker of The Great Debaters said of getting to know his character’s love interest before the shoot, “…she’s a fantastic person. She’s an activist, she’s a real activist make no mistake. So we had so much in common so take that and apply it to the script, it was…I don’t want to say ‘easy’ but it was effortless…After that I no longer saw her as the singer that other people see.”

Certainly, Keys talent didn’t miss anyone’s radar on the set. When the book’s author, Sue Monk Kidd visited the set during filming, she recounts on her website, “It’s clear that Alicia has completely owned the character of June.’Everyone thinks of her as a singer,’ one of the crew whispers to me, ‘but just wait.’”

Luckily, we no longer have to wait to see Alisha Keys embrace the character of intelligent and strong-willed June Boatwright in The Secret Life of Bees, which opened October 17th.

Looks are deceiving and nothing should be left to chance in Barbara Karmazin’s Sci-Fi Erotic thriller Night Moves. IN this book we are taken on a fast journey through a ruthless urban city where gang bangers and crack heads roam and accost the residents by day and set car bombs by night.

Karmazin acutely describes every detail leading the reader through each cavernous nook and cranny of the city revealing a subculture that truly reverberates under the city’s radar. With a healer in Dr. Jasmine (Jazz) Thompson who has an untapped potential beyond her veterinary surgeon designation it is up to Ossian Woldenkin, a wood elf cab driver to show her the full extent of her healing touch as well as the ultra sonic attraction between them. He must break through her barriers of disbelief toward the supernatural as well as her perceptions about white men in order to live out her purpose.

But it’s not all supersonic sex and mystical healing in the tough streets of the urban anti-utopia as a psi-vamp is loose in the area feeding on the dregs of society. With one violent touch he restores his youth from the torture of others one city dweller at a time. Tired of the temporary recharges, he must torture and feast on a healer to retard the aging process for another four decades.

Will Ossian and his best friend, a shape shifting wolf cop, catch him before he makes Ossian’s African queen healer his main course?

I really enjoyed this story. So much happens in just 133 pages, it’ll leave you exhausted. I especially enjoyed the rich description and the great multicultural details. If I can develop Karmazin’s knack for sensory detail and pacing, I will be very blessed. Night Moves earns 5 out of 5 stars.

Publisher: Loose ID

Format: Ebook

Hi All,

This is just a reminder that October 15th at 11:59 PM PST is the last moment you can enter Sable Lit Reviews’ Hispanic Heritage Month Book Giveaway contest sponored by Hachettte Book Group.

If you missed any of the questions there’s still time to enter. Here’s link to the info page which features links to all four questions.

http://www.sablelitreviews.com/win-books/

Remember, you only need to answer one question to be eligible to win one of the five boxes of Hachette’s bestselling Hispanic genre books. The more correct answers you submit the more chances and you also become eligible for the Marcia McNair E-Males book giveaway.

Send your answers to LMReviews@SableLitReviews.com

All eligible entrants will receive confirmation shortly after entry. All official winners will be notified by email between Oct 16 and Oct 23rd.

Good luck!

Pamela K. Kinney delivers a dose of haunted reality in Haunted Richmond. For those who enjoy historically-based scary stories, Haunted Richmond incorporates the rich history of Richmond, Virginia with the ghostly happenings that plagued the successive generational inhabitants of the tri-city area for nearly 300 years. With Edgar Allen Poe as the city’s resident celebrity there’s no wonder, there’s a book length account of the paranormal and sinister happenings of the territory.

From headless hall roamers to wails and screams in the night, no ghostly encounter is overlooked. Haunted Richmond acts as a road map to all the scary happenings in and around Richmond’s personal residences and graveyards as well as public buildings and movie theatres. While Haunted Richmond may not keep you up at night, it will make you more conscious every sound and shadow that lurks in the night.

Like haunted stories told around a campfire or underneath a tent with a flashlight, I found Haunted Richmond enjoyable for its intermingling of history with the supernatural. Kinney even intertwined her own paranormal experiences in the book giving hope to ghost hunters everywhere that maybe they could visit Richmond and experience the supernatural power of its residence who have long since passed but have yet to leave.

4/5 stars

Publisher: Schiffer Publishing

Format: Print

With a presence that is all embracing, Dr. Maya Angelou has released to the world a volume of poetry and prose to the women she has adopted as daughters and to those who have claimed her as mother in Letter to My Daughter. Not unlike other works such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or The Heart of a Woman, Dr. Angelou reveals to the women of the world, as Literary Publicist and EDC Creations CEO Ella Curry put it, in the rhythm of her poetry and the elegance of her prose”, an expression of numerous useful lessons in terms of the people she’s met, the places she’s travelled and the events of her life.

When Dr. Angelou met with Curry on September 11th, 2008, the seventh anniversary of a very scary and profound time in US history, it was to discuss the release of her new book Letter to My Daughter. What came out of that interview were the pure magic of spirit and a great appreciation of life’s experiences.

After speaking of friends long and recently passed, Curry, considering the political climate in which we find ourselves as a nation, asked Dr. Angelou about her own activist history. In the late 1950’s, Dr. Angelou was appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King to the position of northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Ever the storyteller, Dr. Angelou took us back to that time envisioning her as she was, tall, thin and with enormously billowing natural hair. Dr. Angelou goes on to tell of the experience, “A number of the people really, they were made really uncomfortable…people around the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in New York. One woman dropped a note in a column in the New York African American newspaper, The Amsterdam News. She wrote, “Who is this person who has come from the west coast with the savage hairdo? Don’t they have beauticians or at least barbers out there on the coast?’”  An anecdote like that is priceless and is only an example of many magical moments in Curry’s interview with Dr. Angelou.

Given the topic, Dr. Angelou moved on to describe the electricity of the time. She said, “It was heavy and so exciting because you’d have to be in his presence to sense the authority that Rev. King had.” When Curry asked if Angelou saw similarities with the buzz created around Democratic Presidential-nominee Barack Obama, she had this to say, “Yes, I sense some of that. Of course, Senator Obama [is living] in another time. He is very inclusive, which is a wonderful thing. At the same time when Rev. King first started, he was not inclusive, he wasn’t exclusive but it was only at the end of his life that he began to include openly.” She went on to illustrate the fact with King’s organization of the Poor People’s March, a march that was not about race as much as it was about the struggle of the poor, no matter what skin they might be in. Regarding Dr. King, she continued, “When he became that inclusive, he really became dangerous.”

Such insight from a woman who has lived in both periods is truly priceless. Dr. Angelou knows something about inclusiveness as she addresses Letter to My Daughter she writes, “You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all.” Thank God she is as we are all eager to listen.

About Laura Major: Laura Major is a multicultural fiction author and freelance writer residing in the greater Phoenix area of Arizona. Her first novel, Mismatched was published by Amira Press in February of 2008. Laura also manages a multicultural website, Sable Lit Reviews.com, one of the few of its kind providing commentary on the multicultural impact of current events as well as multicultural book reviews.

With women making the largest strides in the arenas of politics, education, entrepreneurship and business, no other time is more poignant for Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou’s poetic tribute to the emotionally adopted daughters who have touched her life. In response to the question regarding the reason for her tribute, she was quoted, “I gave birth to one child–a son, but I have thousands of daughters.” No doubt with this poetic volume, Dr. Angelou will garner many more female supporters happy to draw upon her maternal wisdom. 

On September 11, 2008, the seventh anniversary of a very scary and profound time in US history, Dr. Maya Angelou met with Literary Publicist and CEO of EDC Creations Ella Curry to discuss her gift of poetry to the world’s daughters. When Curry further asked about the book’s inspiration, Dr. Angelou confided, “Well, this is my 80th year and I have been celebrating it all year long. And I realize that I have much less time ahead of me than I have behind and that I have learned some lessons and am in the process of learning some. So I thought I would jot down some of the incidents, some events which took place in my life from which I drew great lessons.”

Always a teacher and naturally so, Angelou had this to say, “In looking at that [my life's lessons], I didn’t want to say which lessons I learned or what exactly I did with the lessons–solutions. Because I know that my readers are as intelligent and resourceful and they will read about one incident they will get one solution. They’ll gather it and then six months later, if they read it again they will find another possible lesson to be learned. I know that is the way I do when I read other people’s work…I hope that’s what will happen to my readers.”

Opening with a powerful letter to daughters everywhere, Angelou says in part, “My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring, still.” As Curry accurately described, Dr. Angelou, “in the rhythm of her poetry and the elegance of her prose”, expresses the numerous useful lessons in terms of the people she’s met, the places she’s been and the events of her life.

During the interview with Ms. Curry, one of the most awe-struck memories she shares is her friendship with Civil Rights Activist, Coretta Scott King. She says of their friendship, “I was brought to look at those events because a number of friends of mine have died recently and I thought back to Ms. King and how we were chosen sisters and how I miss her.” Knowing the importance of grieving time but also knowing the need to celebrate the legacy our loves often leave for us, Dr. Angelo continued, “…I felt, ‘Well maybe, maybe there’s a way I can reduce the mourning, if I can go back to that life and see what their friendship did for me.’ And as I went back, I was disheartened, heartened, I was inspired because I had been thinking about their absence and not really about the fun we had and the lessons they taught me.” Dr. Angelou goes on to describe how Ms. King’s “stick-to-it-tiveness” has bolstered a lasting memory of her influential husband that may not have been more than “footnote in history” without Ms. King’s tenacity.

Dr. Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter is packed with profound and inspirational gems designed to do what all faithful motherly advice does–educate, empower and empathize.

About Laura Major: Laura Major is a multicultural fiction author and freelance writer residing in the greater Phoenix area of Arizona. Her first novel, Mismatched was published by Amira Press in February of 2008. Laura also manages a multicultural website, Sable Lit Reviews.com, one of the few of its kind providing commentary on the multicultural impact of current events as well as multicultural book reviews.

THE GRAVE : The Finale

By GW Pickle

Suddenly I am no longer tired. I’m not lying in a cemetery dying. No, I’m dead. I feel so peaceful. I’m floating away from the grave, floating towards this bright light. Everything goes white as the light surrounds me. The next thing I know I’m standing on a on a hill. Looking off in the distance I see fields of green with a gold road that ends at a large walled city. Suddenly a hand grabs my shoulder. I jump reflexively, freeing myself as I turn around. I see myself. “Bill? Is that you, in my body?” I start to laugh as I realize that we’ll probably be trapped in each other’s body for eternity. God, I hope not. I want my body back.

“Yes, it’s me. I’m a bit surprised to see you here. What happened? Your so-called spell didn’t work, again. I was in good health. How did I die before you?”

“I can answer in one word, Linda. The B….” I can’t seem to say the word.

“I don’t think cussing is allowed here.”

“Bill, I died before you because Linda poisoned me. I couldn’t save her dad the way I saved myself.”

“And she settles the score and ends up with everything. Ariel, I should be mad at you for killing me, but for some reason I’m not. “

“The same way I should be furious at you for cheating on me.”

A winged stranger appears before us. “Bill, Ariel it’s time to make a choice.”

“What do you mean choice? I thought we were to be judged and either go to Heaven or Hell. That’s what I’ve preached all these years.”

“You’re right, but in some cases we give you a chance to go back.”

“You mean reincarnation?”

“Yes, but it’s your choice.”

“If I choose not to go back what happens?”

“You’ll be judged. Look the reason you are in Elysian Fields is you’re almost too good for Hell and not quite good enough for Heaven. We are giving you a second chance. My advice is to go back and start over.”

“One question, please, before I go back. What is your name?”

“Lucifer.”

Bill blurts out. “You’re the devil?”

“Yes and I serve God from Hell. He lets me come here to persuade those who should go back to do so.”

Before we could protest our surroundings start to fade. I see another angel appear. “Lucifer, I see you’re sending two more souls back to Hell again, without due process.”

Everything goes dark. I feel someone pick me up by my ankles and slap my bottom. I start crying. I hear someone say, “Linda, the first is the boy, and now, here comes his sister.”

                                  ***

G W Pickle

(c) All Rights Reserved by GW Pickle

Tell us what you thought!! Would you like to see more unpublished short stories like these ? Was this great or what?!?!

In the next month you’ll get a glimpse into GW Pickle’s published book, SENTI: Book One of the Jackwill Chronicles. He has submitted it for review and I can’t wait to bring it to you!!

Here’s the blurb on SENTI -

Major Jack Waco was the best pilot in the SENTI Command. A self-proclaimed loner, he thought he didn’t need anything or anyone until he met Major Maggie Wilson, who challenged those preconceptions. Maggie’s resemblance to an important person from Jack’s past revived memories and feelings within him, sending his head and his heart into turmoil. With a government conspiracy on-hand and large-scale interstellar piracy threatening the very stability of the galaxy, will Jack be able to cope with these newly-awakened feelings in time to succeed in bringing the guilty to justice or would he be betrayed by them - far out in a newly-discovered planetary system on the other side of the galaxy?

If you want to read it before I review it, please visit Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com

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