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On The Flip Side

Nikkea Smithers

Book Excerpt: On The Flip Side by Nikkea Smithers

Prologue

After finally being cleared for visiting, I waited in the lobby of the Richmond City Jail. The seats were as hard as they could be in the waiting area while the air was stale with a contrite odor.

Sunday was the busiest visiting day of the week as many people were off work and reserved that day to visit their loved ones. I had taken a seat next to a young mother who was trying to calm her wailing child. The child was colicky and the young girl had no idea what to do. The young girl couldn't have been older than sixteen. Her huge gold earrings made her earlobes hang so low that I was concerned that her earlobe would split. Her hair was slicked back into a ponytail. I imagined that she was there to visit the father of her child. He had to have been older as we were not in a juvenile facility.

I turned my attention to the clock that hung on the wall. The circular item loudly ticked away at every second that passed. Tick, tick, tick, was the noise that filled in the only silent moments between the screaming child's wails. I couldn't wait to be out of there but there was something that I had to do.

"Taylor!" My name was called after about an hour of waiting. I got up and made my way to the small oblong room. Thick glas.s made a partition between the visitors and parties that they were visiting.

I almost didn't notice her sitting there. She had on standard issued clothes, her hair was scattered over her head wildly and then matted in some places. Her eyes were surrounded by dark circles that drooped into her cheeks. I could tell that she had not slept in the short time that she had been there. Her empty eyes stared back at me. Her face was badly bruised and while the marks were at least a day old, they still boasted dark black and blue marks.

I picked up the orange phone extension that clung to the wall so that I could speak with her. My heart cried out to her. "I never thought I would see you like this, how are you holding up?"

I didn't really know what to say. I hadn't been in that type of situation before. I felt bad for her. This was not the woman who had wowed me when we first met. She seemed so strong then, but looking at her now, well, she appeared weak. As if her soul was broken she looked back at me with hurt eyes. I wanted more than anything to break her out of the place that she was being confined in, but the sheriff that stood behind both us made sure that would not be the case. How the hell did we get here? I pondered that question as I waited for her to respond to my previous question.

On The Flip Side by Nikkea Smithers
Website: www.nikkeasmithers.com
ISBN-10: 0977938751 | ISBN-13: 978-0977938759

Purchase the book at: Amazon Online

Purchase the book at: Barnes & Noble Online

A Woman Scorned

Ericka Williams

Meet our featured author Ericka Williams
Ericka Williams is a determined business woman and author. She never takes no for an answer. When she sets her mind on a goal, she doesn't stop until it is reached.  She attended Howard University and graduated from Rutgers University. She is currently a teacher. Ericka has always had a yearning for knowledge, expression, and creativity. She is the author of three books the Essence Magazine bestseller “All That Glitters”, and the sequel “Shining Star”, as well as the forthcoming release A Woman Scorned.

Ella: Ericka, introduce us to your book, A Woman Scorned.
Ericka: A Woman Scorned is about pain. It is about death. It is about love and revenge. When someone you love hurts you, your pain often times turns to anger and feelings of betrayal. That rage can turn into violence. Crimes of passion are real and have happened since the beginning of time. A Woman Scorned shows what happens when a woman's broken heart turns her into a predator. It makes her hate instead of love.

I feel most readers will relate to this book, A Woman Scorned, because it’s about redemption and consequences. It points out how we can not use excuses for our wrongdoings nor dodge retribution. We all have irrationally thoughts from time to time, but we can turn ourselves around. It brings attention to the fact that self-love is necessary and essential to our sanity.  It also brings home the truth—you must pay for your actions one way or another. The primary thing I hope all readers will take away from reading A Woman Scorned is that loving YOU, even when no one else does, is crucial in living the best life.

Q: Tell us a little about your main characters. Who was your favorite? Why?
Ericka: Brielle was the main character. She was my favorite because she wanted to be a better person. She had aspirations for her life. She didn’t relish in being destructive the way her cousin Janay did.

Brielle had been molested, abused, and mistreated from a child. She yearns for the love she never felt from anyone. She never found love in the right places, until Dante rescued her and married her. She thought she was safe in his love, until two miscarriages and one affair too many, made her snap. The faith that she puts into her husband, is the very faith she should have found in herself.  When he disappoints her, she wants nothing but to see him in pain.
      
Brielle not only exacts revenge on her husband for his grimy living, but she gets to “do it for the Ladies” as well, by making a few more men accountable for their actions. Until she meets Darren and Shawn; both men are falling for her. Brielle cannot see beyond her past to give them an honest chance at loving her sincerely. One prevails as the victor, while the other is another victim of A Woman Scorned.
      
While Brielle is unleashing her “fury” on men, there are two women, her cousin Janay, and her husband’s pregnant lover, who may be the ones to bring her down and stop her reign of terror on the opposite sex.
(ISBN-10: 1934230715 or ISBN-13:9781934239718)
 

Q: Are your characters from the portrayal of real people?
Ericka: Yes, real people who react to life’s drama in a negative way. We have all made bad choices in responding to wrongs we feel have been inflicted upon us. This book takes a poignant look at the repercussions of letting one’s rage get out of control.

Q: What issues in today's society have you addressed in the book?
Ericka: Infidelity, Domestic Violence, Molestation, Murder, and Revenge.

Q. What impact will this book have on the community?
Ericka: It deals with an emotion that many understand, revenge, giving the community a glimpse inside the mind and heart of a damaged individual; showing how revenge is not profitable.

I want people who read this book to accept that they are not a product of their circumstances and that anyone can change. Also, that your past does not have to dictate your future.

Q: What was the most powerful chapter or scene in the book for you?
Ericka: One powerful scene is a scene where Brielle meets with her father on his death bed after five years of no contact with him.

Q: Share with us your latest news, awards or upcoming book releases.
Ericka: My next book will be The Clique in 2010.

Q: Ericka, how many readers contact you online?
Ericka: At my email address: erickawilliamsinfo@yahoo.com or by visiting my website at: www.erickaw.com 
 

A Woman Scorned by Ericka Williams
ISBN-10: 1934230715

Visit www.lifechangingbooks.net to pre-order today!

Pick up a copy at Amazon Online here.
http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Scorned-Ericka-Williams/dp/1934230715

Even Sinners Have Souls Too

Michel Moore

Even Sinners Have Souls Too
Introduction by National Best selling author, K'Wan, with four stories by Darrell King and Essence Magazine bestselling authors, Michel Moore, Tysha and Victor L. Martin.  

Meet author and editor E.N. Joy
E.N. Joy is the author of Me, Myself and Him, which was her debut work into the Christian Fiction genre.  Formerly a secular author writing under the names Joylynn M. Jossel and JOY, this author has fully dedicated her writing to Christ. She is currently working on the “New Day Divas” series as well as completing the “Sinners Series” project.
 
 

Intimate Conversation with Ella Curry of EDC Creations

Joylynnjossell

Ella: Introduce us to the book, Even Sinners Have Souls TOO.
E.N. Joy:  Even Sinners Have Souls TOO is book two from the “Sinners Series”.  As editor and publisher of this project, it was my goal to share with the reading audience well written and compelling stories by some of the industry’s most respected and authority authors in the Urban Lit genre. 
 

Ella: Why was it important to produce this work today?
E.N. Joy: Books and authors of books that are categorized as urban, erotic, street, ghetto, gangster, Hip-Hop fiction, or whatever else they are being labeled, are taking hard hits in the industry, especially by these so-called “literary writers”.  Why is it that whenever black people bring the life they live front and center and turn it into art, society goes crazy?  Are we that afraid and offended of the ghetto and the projects to the point where we ridicule those who talk about it? Is growing up in the hood that taboo?

E.N. Joy: Despite popular belief, everything that comes from the ghetto isn’t all bad. There are some good products of the ghetto.  It produces great individuals, some even authors. But because of the type of genre that these authors choose to pen, they are stigmatized and rumored unable to create literature without glorifying a trigger happy, drug dealing thug, or a burgundy micro braid wearing, gum poppin’, promiscuous gold digger, or a television stealing crack head (in addition to at least two curse words per paragraph).
 

Ella: Will this book change how Urban Lit is protrayed as a industry?
E.N. Joy: There is a huge misconception that authors who write Urban Lit, referred to as Street Lit by many, can’t pen a decent story that doesn’t include foul language and explicit sex scenes.  These authors are even often accused of glorifying street life. The “Sinners Series” forces critics and skeptics alike to take a different stand when they read the storylines contained in the “Sinners Series.” 

Ella: What are some unique aspects of the Sinners Series? What stands out the most?
E.N. Joy: Even Sinners Have Souls Too offers more of Urban Lit's finest take a walk on the other side in book two, Even Sinners Have Souls Too, of the three book Sinners Series. Darrell King and Essence Best-Selling authors, Victor L. Martin, Tysha and Michel Moore bring you four smashing tales, but not before National Best-Selling author, K'Wan, hits you with the powerful introduction, "Oh Sinner Man."

E.N. Joy: The authors bring to life the same raw and gritty characters found in some of their other works. There are the dope boys, the hood rats, the promiscuity, homosexuality, the gang bangers, abuse, drugs, alcohol, etc...; all the things that exist in real life on the streets. But what makes these tales so phenomenal and unique is that in the midst of it all, just like in real life on the streets, there is also, God, prayer, and sometimes a praying grandmother. What pleased me the most about each and every story is that they never, for one moment, lost their authenticity.  The authors still walked away from this project with their street credit, so to speak.
 

Ella: What impact with the Sinners Series have on the community?
E.N. Joy: The “Sinners Series” is going to shatter the myth about urban and street literature and its authors once and for all. This project is not so that authors have to defend their work, or even compromise it. The purpose is to show that they are multi-talented with a natural gift to pen what flows through their spirit and not just what’s selling, and at the same time to add a creative twist on their already original writing styles.  In doing so, we pray that readers will be touched and moved by every single character; every single story…that they won’t be the same person as they were before reading these works.
 

Website: www.enjoywrites.com

ISBN-10: 0970672659  | ISBN-13: 978-0970672650

Pick up a copy at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Even-Sinners-Have-Souls-Too/dp/0970672659/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

Drunk 27 Years

Book Intro- Drunk for 27 Years: A Story of Victory - Her Choice to Live and Not Die
by author Cynthia Banks

The road of Priscilla’s life was paved by the people that made choices for her.  Through heartache, pain, trauma and tragedy, Priscilla’s experiences became stepping stones that forced her to make a choice that ultimately changed the outcome of her life.

Drunk for 27 Years, the compelling true story of Priscilla Gibson, mother of singer, actor and model Tyrese Gibson, suffered 27 years with alcoholicism. The book reveals the unconditional love that her children had for their mother, who despite all they had experienced remained just the strength she needed to make it through.

Suffering abuse at the hands of an alcoholic mother, Priscilla began drinking at a very young age, and continued into her adult years.  Many factors manipulated the course of Priscilla’s life, causing her to make one bad choice after another until she finally made the choice to live and not die.

PROLOGUE

“What is wrong with you?” he cried out with tears streaming down his face. “Why do you think I’ve been calling you Mommy Dearest ever since I was a little boy?  It’s because you drink just like that lady in the movie, and you act like her too!  Why can’t you stop drinking?” 

“I don’t know how to stop!” I said putting my head down on the table and crying. “I’m scared!”

“You’re scared? Mama, you’ve scared us to death for years, wondering where you were, not knowing if you were dead or alive. What did you think could happen to you living in these streets?” Junior said before crying out with loud sobs.

“I’m going to stop drinking, I promise. I’m going to stop drinking!  I don’t want to be like my mother,” I cried out loudly. I put my head down on the table and began to pray silently, ‘God in Heaven, please hear my cry. I am an alcoholic and I have become just like my mother. If you deliver me from this alcoholic disease I promise I won’t ever take another drink for the rest of my life.  I want to live and not die’  

Reviews for book Drunk for 27 Years: A Story of Victory - Her Choice to Live and Not Die

Very heartfelt, impressive, sad yet up lifting!  A Great story of survival!
-Lela Reed, Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL mom

Wow! This is an inspiring book.  It’s straight to the point on how things really were and it’s very honest.  The book touched me and told me things about my mother that I never knew.  My mother had a lot of issues that she covered up with alcohol - something that a lot of people do because they can’t express their feelings.  It’s really, really a good movie…I mean book!  I couldn’t put it down.  The book goes into depth, telling a story that kept unfolding, a story that unfolded as I read it and as I lived it.  I experienced several emotions while reading, I got upset, then mad, then sad, then happy.  God is a forgiving God.  I’m proud of my mother for having a relationship with Him and making the right choice.
-Salandra, Priscilla’s Daughter

Growing up was hell!  My mother was drunk all the time, so the streets raised us.  The older we got the more distant we became with our mother.  She never really got to know any of us, but we loved her any way and we loved her unconditionally.   We survived all that hell and managed to come out of it pretty decent human beings.  I thank God for remembering the Gibson family.
-Tyrone, Priscilla’s son

Life with my mother as an alcoholic was very emotionally draining and tough.  You never knew if she was going to have a bad day or a good day.  Her day started with alcohol – everyday!  Because of that my relationship with my mother was strained and distant.  As a child regardless of what card life deals you, you always have to try to respect and acknowledge your parents.  I never disrespected my mother during her illness, which caused a lot of pain.  As a result of being a child of an alcoholic it caused me to make better choices in my life, especially never to drink.  I went the opposite direction.  I’m proud of my mother for taking the steps to recover from her addiction.  I love her dearly.
-Shonte, Priscilla’s Daughter

I have known my Mother-In-Law, Priscilla for almost 6 years and I know that all the words in this book are true.  I was not there for all the 27 years, but 6 years of it I was there and the stories were true.  Priscilla has come a long way.  Even though the book is going to be out for the world to read, seeing it in person is beyond words – she really was drunk all day, everyday.  When Priscilla started writing the book, I was there to see her write the first page.  She didn’t even know if it was going to be a book, she was just writing out her thoughts.  I remember her asking me if I thought it would be a good book and I told her it would be a wonderful book.  This is her victory over alcohol and life to her being restored; and God’s victory of another one of His children being saved.
-William, Priscilla’s Son-In-Law

Drunk, for 27 Years: A Story of Victory - Her Choice to Live and Not Die
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1438993137/ref=dp_proddesc_1?ie=UTF8&n=283155
ISBN-10: 1438993137 ;  ISBN-13: 978-1438993133

Download Your Copy and Read it Today!
ISBN#: 9781438993157 (ebook download)
http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=62988

Author Dwight Fryer

Fryer shares from his twenty-five years of business experience in leadership, technology, finance, accounting, marketing and publishing. He has written two critically acclaimed novels. The Legend of Quito Road and The Knees of Gullah Island. Dwight speaks about life, healthcare, business, leadership, history, literature, community and storytelling. The University of Memphis teaches The Legend of Quito Road in its Masters of Fine Arts Program in the English Department.

Dwight Fryer has inspired audiences at universities, corporations, schools, faith communities and nonprofit organizations. His passion is to help people do all they can to succeed and use his experiences to inspire others.

Fryer was diagnosed with cancer two days after a 1998 layoff. In 2001, the disease meningococcal meningitis took his youngest daughter’s life. He works as an advocate for immunization against bacterial meningitis with the National Meningitis Association. He survived a wreck caused by a driver under the influence.

Contact him today for details on how he can share at your next event via email at  author@dwightfryer.com. Website: http://www.dwightfryer.com

 
Q: What inspired you to write these stories?
My first novel was inspired by a economics paper I wrote in graduate school about a drug dealer, his massive initial economic success, and the life prison terms he eventually received for his risk taking schemes in the drug trade. When I began to research this story for the novel form, I felt a need to go to the root of the problem, illegal whiskey.

The Legend of Quito Road called to me early in the mornings of most days until I finally obeyed and wrote the book. The Knees of Gullah Island shares the family history and readers learn what happened to Gillam Hale. He was Son Erby’s grandpa by his second family after his first was taken and sold away.

I wish the modern reader knew more about their origins. This would help us unlock some of the mystery of who we are and who our children can become.

Q: What issues in today's society have you addressed in your books?
Both of my books speak to the modern reader in numerous ways. In The Legend of Quito Road, the theme is “the worst things wrong with most of us were planted by those who love us the best.” Isn’t that how our bad habits are passed on to us? We know that is how we get many of the great things we have learned, but, too often, we overlook the traits our forebears pass on that should not be present in our lives. I want readers to examine how they live and ask why is this what I view as right.

In the second novel, The Knees of Gullah Island, I advise readers to be careful of money.  Money quite often catches people up, so the wisdom Scripture that I use here is 1 Timothy 6:10; and to paraphrase it, it says that the love of money is the root of all evil, and those that find themselves in pursuit of it get caught in all types of snares. We find here that Gillam Hale, the main character of this story, loved money. We are forced to recognize that white people, and black people, and any other color people that own people love money more than they do mankind, more than even themselves. Because of the money that can be made in something as illicit as slavery, we often forget that people are people, and that they have rights concerns. All persons have a rich story of their own to tell, and it should not be involving some other person controlling them. So this book talks about that love of money.

Gillam Hale also was from a religious family, a good person; but he got so caught up in the love of money, and when things went bad for him, Gillam Hale did not pray.  So bent knees do straight and crooked deeds, and what is slavery but one of the most crooked deed that all the crooked deeds that mankind can do. We are still having slavery stories today? Wasn’t Jaycee Dugard a slave for the past eighteen years?

I want us to look at these historic tales and see how the themes reverberate in our modern lives. Slavery, love, treachery, hatred, trickery, humor, great soul food, church history, drug use and sales, Southern history, domestic violence, disparities within the criminal justice system, legal rights of children born without the blessing of marriage, and illicit sexual conduct are just a few of the topics covered.

Q: Thousands of books are published each year. What sets your books apart from other in your genre?
I am producing quality stories suitable for young and old to read. These books have great wisdom lessons and are filled with startling story lines and unforgettable characters. A major university has taught my work in their Masters of Fine Arts program in the English Department. That is rare air for any writer in any genre.

Contact author Dwight Fryer today for details on how he can share at your next event via email at author@dwightfryer.com.  Website: http://www.dwightfryer.com

The Legend of Quito Road by Dwight Fryer
ISBN-13: 9781583147061  |  ISBN: 1583147063
Pick up a copy at Barnes and Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Legend-of-Quito-Road/Dwight-Fryer/e/9781583147061/?itm=1

The Knees of Gullah Island by Dwight Fryer
ISBN: 0373831196  |  ISBN-13: 9780373831197
Pick up a copy at Barnes and Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Knees-of-Gullah-Island/Dwight-Fryer/e/9780373831197

Both books are filled with rich historical details and spiritual truths that are applicable to the modern reader.

Color Me Jazzmyne by Marian L. Thomas

I would like to introduce you to a fantastic new book, Color Me Jazzmyne. Readers of Color Me Jazzmyne have been captivated by the depth of the emotional journey that the book takes them on. It digs deep into what it takes for women to embrace who they are no matter what size, color, educational background or social status. Sisters will learn to love themselves despite what society says or the voices that surround them!

Marian L. Thomas is native of Chicago but currently resides in Atlanta.She first awakened her desire to write while in her second year of high school. She majored in Journalism but received her Bachelor of Art degree in Business Communication, graduating Magna Cum Laude. 2009 the dream of becoming a published author was realized when she was able to debut her first title Color Me Jazzmyne. She is a wife and supporter of victims of abuse and was recently featured in the Atlanta Skirt! Magazine as one of Atlanta's 9to5 Women in the Media Industry.

Motivation Behind Color Me Jazzmyne
Color Me Jazzmyne addresses a major issue in our society today..."Rape is often the "hush" word in our lives. It's the thing that we prefer to put into the closet of other skeltons that we pray no one has the key to.

Child abuse often occurs at a young age and more than often it is done by someone that is very close---a family member or friend of the family.  It's a difficult thing to get over, it's even more difficult to explain.

According to one statistic.... one out of every six women will be raped over their lifetime and 73% of all rape victims know their assailants.  In fact, studies have shown that 60% of all sexual assaults are not reported. I hope that women who read this book and have gone through something similar will find the courage to reach out and talk to someone about it."

Color Me Jazzmyne Book Excerpt
Read Chapters 1-3 and give us your opinion.
http://www.freado.com/book/4169/Color-Me-Jazzmyne

Intimate Conversation with author Marian L. Thomas

Ella: What impact do you want your book, Color Me Jazzmyne, to make on readers?
Marian: "I hope that women who read this book and have lived the life of Naya Mona in some form or fashion will find the voice, strength and motivation to push past the pain and live."

Ella: Why do you write?
Marian: For me, writing is more of a release from the reflection of the world around us. It is a way to express the obvious using tones that soothe,excite, uplift and allow the reader to step out of their comfort level.  That is my goal when writing. That is what drives me to create characters such as Naya Mona.

Ella: Are your characters, in Color Me Jazzmyne, a portrayal of real people?
Marian: Reality is always a part of us and as such what we read must adhere to some form of it in order to make it so that one can relate to the story that is being told. Naya is clearly a reflection of the many women that I have met over the years and the struggles that they have gone through. I do not remove myself from that reflection. Misty represents all the so-called friends that revolve in and out of our lives and Chris is what I term the 'life-time' type of husband. He represents the compassion and love that we as women need, want and deserve.

Contact Marian Online
Email: larrita@lbpublishingco.com
Website: http://www.marianlthomas.com
Author's Blog: http://findingmycolorwithmlt.blogspot.com

Pickup Your Copy Today!
ISBN-10: 0615270670; ISBN-13: 978-0615270678

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