LITERARY HOOD

THE INTERVIEW WITH DANIELLE SANTIAGO!

2006-07-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

THE
SPECIAL DANIELLE SANTIAGO INSTALLMENT OF
LITERARY HOOD
Let’s call this one Grindin’ Dirty. Written by your friendly neighborhood author,
Brandon McCalla

Salutations ladies n germs and welcome to another installment of the almighty literary hood column. In the last installment of i.b Concept Magazine I touched on the whole book groupie and book club situation. I told you that I was gonna tell you one of my personal stories involving book hoochies and I told you to cop that next issue of i.b for the nasty details. Alas peoples I cannot do that. Why can’t I do that you ask?
Well for starters the story I was gonna tell you is from a book I’ve written titled The Book Club and as we speak it’s in the process of getting published. Ergo, I was informed to keep things associated with the book in question hush, hush till its release. We have thought up a few good marketing schemes and well, I’ve decided to keep things suspenseful till things are completely underway. The Book Club is a true story about a series of situations yours truly had with a few of the more dastardly scalawags in the urban literary game. So be patient and prepare yourselves for one of the most interesting reads in your shallow existences. Till then I got something equally great for you to quench your thirst with.
This is a special literary hood and if you’ve followed my column within the pages of i.b Concept since the beginning you’ll know why. First off not since K’wan have I conducted an interview within literary hood. You know how I winded up doing things; I started making the author interviews an individual entity. Now I have another column in this magazine and I’m interviewing music industry people and entertainers, I upped the ante. Nevertheless, I got the opportunity to chat with Danielle Santiago and well, I decided to bring literary hood back to its original grind. Not since Tu Shonda Whitaker have I ever done an interview over the phone. Remember I hate doing interviews over the phone. I prefer them in person utilizing my digital voice recorder for so many reasons I won’t even bore you with one of them. Just bare in mind that I’m only doing this because the interview is with Danielle Santiago. I like this broad and I would accommodate her anyway possible.
Let me give you the run down. Boom! I called Danielle about a month ago and her number was changed so I couldn’t reach her. I just wanted to shoot the breeze a bit since her new book Grindin’ is out and now she’s on a bigger publishing house [Atria]. Danielle originally pressed her first novel Little Ghetto Girl independently.
I met Danielle in the latter part of 2004 and we both were in the urban fiction hustle. We shared the same publicist and crossed paths in a dozen or more functions and events. We both, I would imagine have a very different interpretation of the industry now then we did back then. You guys know how I feel about various situations in this business from the book clubs to those nasty African book vendors. I wanted to know what Danielle thought. So I called up our mutual publicist and asked her for Danielle’s new number. She gave me those digits and I called Danielle. Danielle and I played phone tag for a minute then we scheduled something and of course I didn’t follow up. And then I didn’t follow up again. Just when Danielle was like “this nigga Brandon is a big loser and a cornball” I called her up, apologized and redeemed myself. I aint never gonna be a loser or a cornball people. I started the interview.
BMc: Remember Danielle, I hate having to type while someone talks via phone conversation. This is not the way an interview should be conducted. Sometimes you just gotta make due though. Just talk real slow when you say shit. I just smoked a blunt so I’m thinking in slow motion anyway. But it’s all good… I just read you the column’s monologue, has your interpretation or attitude about the urban literary circuit changed or do you feel the same way you felt about it back when I met you in 2004, in Philly.
Danielle: How did I feel back then? Do you remember… it’s changed I turned back into a bitch again, like back in the streets. When we met back in 2004, I knew the whole shady situation with the book distributors so that didn’t startle me the way it did a few other authors. But I was affected by it just like a lot of other people.
BMc: Right the whole Culture Plus thing, I used to think they were the shadiest thing going down but there is a lot of shade in this industry more shade than sunshine. But you hustle hard. I see you so I know. But now you don’t have to hustle as hard I would imagine because now you are on Atria. What’s the difference between the major and minor publishing situation.
Danielle: It’s better on the major level but it’s different because you can’t go out and grab like three cases of books and sell them on 125th street like I used to with Little Ghetto Girl. The majors still aint quite sure how to promote urban books. The only reason my independent publishing situation had problems was because distributors tend to jerk the small publishing companies. They send you post dated checks and if you’re lucky they won’t bounce. That can really urge you to seek major publishing representation [if you can get it] but then once on a major you loose a bit of control. You can’t hustle the way you used to because your books aint as easily accessible as they used to be. The street literary game is all about the Grind. You gotta go out and mix it up with the people and do all the events. That’s how you survive and sell books. Books don’t sell themselves in this genre.
BMc: When did Grindin come out exactly?
Danielle: April 11th. 2006
BMc: I had two problems with your book initially, the fact that Grindin’ was released as a hardcover. I know how hard it is to sell hardcover in our genre.
Danielle: Ok. I know what you mean by hardcover but Grindin’ was received extremely well. I know hardcover in urban lit has always been a problem but if your product is good and the product is properly promoted you can move over that hump. It’s only a small set back and you can get [Grindin’] for 14.95 on amazon.com after all the money they take off. And major publishers generally release the paperback version a year after the hardcover is released. What’s the second problem you had?
BMc: The second problem isn’t actually a problem. What I should have said was now you’re a problem. You’re a problem because I enjoyed your sophomore book. And that’s only a problem because though they call the bulk of these urban and street books hip hop fiction most of them don’t have anything to do with hip hop or the music industry per say. Hip hop isn’t gold digging hoochies and Niggas just getting out of jail, going back to the block and eventually getting seduced by the hustling racket. Hip hop isn’t some raunchy scenario about a married dame running around getting banged out by every dude on her block or at the office either. And it definitely aint these books with all of these characters killing and murdering at random and getting away with it. Hip hop isn’t these authors’ street books with the blaxploitated covers and cliché titles and rap song titles. Hip hop is beyond all of that but this interview isn’t about hip hop, it’s about you. You represented the music industry highs and lows for a woman in Grindin’ and kept it gangsta and made the pages between the cover and the back of the book interesting. I know only a handful of urban books that can truly be called hip hop fiction. Your book is one, my diamond series another and a couple of other books like Bling, though Bling was wack. You’re a problem now because I never though of you as competition till now. Now I gotta keep an eye on you.
Danielle: So I’m a problem now Brandon (laughing)?
BMc: Yup. Grindin’ is a very good look. I even love the cover. Now I’m forced to praise another urban author, you. There are only a handful of us who are true writers and I’m convinced you are one of them. Now you have officially become a peer and equal. Danielle I couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters in half of the urban books that hit my desk this year. What inspired you to write something I actually enjoyed [Grindin’]?
Danielle: Maybe the same thing that inspired you to write the diamond series. I dabbled in the music industry just like you. I interned at a record label during the time where things were getting slow for them and I might have dated a rapper or two (laughing). Most people don’t realize that these entertainers have lives beyond what the paparazzi snap pictures of and Grindin’ is about the life of an inspiring rapper. The main character in Grindin’ lived a crazy street life and when she gets her chance to become what she always wanted to become [rapper] and she moves away from the streets she realizes that the music business is just as if not more so of a hustle and just as dangerous and crazy as the streets.
BMc: The book is crazy. There are a few things that I wanna talk to you about but at the same time I don’t wanna reveal anything about the book to the readers. So now I’m in a bit of a quagmire.
Danielle: (laughing)
BMc: How about this though. Kisa, who’s the main character in your Essence bestselling Little Ghetto Girl, makes a cameo appearance in Grindin’. Anyone who knows me knows I love cameos and Grindin’ has similarities to the diamond series because of that. I liked the fact that Kisa showed up. Touch on that.
Danielle: Actually Grindin’ is apart of my Harlem Story Series and Kisa is related to Kennedy. In the third Harlem Story installment both of them will play a part.
BMc: That’s cool because so many people enjoyed Little Ghetto Girl. I like the way you did it because now the last book in your series won’t actually be a damn sequel; It is gonna be a new story involving the same characters. Not exactly some where we left off shit but more like here is another tale involving the characters you read and loved… but don’t get it twisted the saga continues. I got a synopsis of Grindin’ in my Words of Art segment in i.b C; let’s talk about your book cover. Book covers are so damn important they can make or break your book. They always say don’t judge a book by its cover but in the urban lit world a lot of consumers purchase books on the way the cover looks alone. Are you happy with the Grindin’ cover?
Danielle: Yes. Grindin’ has an excellent cover. Shannon Holmes [B More Careful, Bad Girls] put me on to the whole cover situation a while back. When I just started hustling Little Ghetto Girl he told me, “I got your book. You gotta change your cover.” Covers are so damn important. Atria is gonna release Little Ghetto Girl again with a new beautiful cover.
BMc: You sent me a jpeg of that cover and I love it.
Danielle: Thanks Bee, I’m proud of it.
BMc: You should be. Shannon Holmes put my first book’s cover [Diamond Drought] on blast also. He said something along the lines of, “Someone told me that you are one of the better urban writers, but your cover is bad, but I’ve seen worse.” I frowned at him but he was right. I upped the ante on my book covers thanks to Shannon.
Danielle: Sometimes your graphical options are quite limited when you start out independently published. Better book covers is a major publishing representation perk. There are good points and bad points no matter how you turn, whether with a major or doing it on your own. You gotta know your strengths and weaknesses and work with them till something better presents itself. And keep hustling regardless of all of that. It’s just like the street game. Everyone gotta have there angle. I know a lot of writers that can’t write better than you or me but they got in the game earlier or were simply represented more thoroughly. So consumers will follow the hype though at the end of it all, talent will shine though. It just takes time.
BMc: You’re right, especially about me being one of the best and you two. And your right about the whole cover situation being so damn important.
Danielle: (laughing) the urban fiction genre may not be hip hop but it’s definitely like the rap game and the drug game, representation is so important.
BMc: You are right. It is so close to the music industry [urban fiction]. Like take Jay-Z for instance. He was the underdog once upon a time. No one wanted to sign him when he was shopping the Reasonable Doubt album. He had to do it himself. He was out in Brooklyn putting up his own posters and fliers n shit… I feel like early Jay-Z dude right now. My next book Blackout is gonna be just like Reasonable Doubt.
Danielle: That’s true about Jay. A lot of publishers don’t know how to push books properly. They will push an urban book like a chic lit book or try to move a hip hop based storyline like a Triple Crown book. Every genre has its own outlet and own moving space. African American literature is so big now, so deep we got multiple genres within the urban genre now much less all the others.
BMc: My publisher didn’t handle the diamond series properly. The diamond books should have been promoted in hip hop magazines. Bling was pushed in hip hop magazines but it didn’t make a dent because it was a weak and corny representation of the hip hop culture. Grindin’ is a strong representation. I want everyone to know that.
Danielle: Thanks Brandon.
BMc: Naw, thank you. I was beginning to give up on the whole urban fiction situation. You just sparked some of the charcoal under my grill. People need to realize that when your publishing house hasn’t the money or doesn’t wanna push your book promotionally in a big way, it will stay small. But enough about the business any last words lovely lady.
Danielle: I want everyone to go out and cop Grindin’. I know everyone is gonna enjoy it. I put some hard work in.
BMc: True story.
Danielle: I wanna let everybody know that Little Ghetto Girl has gotten a makeover, new cover and better editing. It’s completely and utterly revamped courtesies of Atria. It looks and reads like a brand new book. Look for that in January 2007.
BMc: Danielle I was gonna get into your ghost writing career but I wanna fall back on that till I interview you again. Then we can put a few authors on blast. We gotta save some heat for future installments of the column. I guess I’ll see you at the Harlem Book Fair this year and then shit when Little Ghetto Girl drops, I’ll see you again.
Danielle: Yeah, let’s save a little bit for later. Peace literary hooderz…

Make sure you check out the Words of Art segment where both Danielle’s first book Little Ghetto Girl (well it’s like her third book now since it’s the revised major published version of her first book) and her latest book cover are displayed for your viewing pleasure (covers buddy, not naked flicks of Danielle. You got enough thighs and booty in i.b C as is).
You guys know the magic word,

UNO

The lovely Danielle Santiago...

2006-07-06T14:48:00.000-04:00

i.b Concept Magazine's LITERARY HOOD proudly presents super author of LITTLE GHETTO GIRL AND GRINDIN' Ms. Santiago. HERE'S A NICE PUBLICITY PHOTO OF THE HOT LITERARY VIXEN...

BET AWARDS 2006, PHOTOS

2006-06-29T09:24:00.000-04:00

I'M LISTING NO NAMES BECAUSE YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE. LOOK AT THOSE INCREDIBLE LEGS AND LOOK AT THE BODY LANGUAGE. SHE'S TAPPING HER MAN WITH A FOOT A BIT, LETTING HIM KNOW WHAT'S GONNA GO DOWN AFTER THE AWARD SHOW. THOSE SHOES ARE REALLY SIGNALING MY FOOT FETISH RADAR.

BET AWARDS 2006

2006-06-29T09:11:00.000-04:00

I've always lusted after this one. Very nice dress and very strong looking legs...

BET AWARDS 2006

2006-06-29T09:09:00.000-04:00

Does she truly have a reason to be conceited...? If you ignore the played out two-tone weave she's not that bad looking.

BET AWARDS 2006

2006-06-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

I wouldnt kiss anything above her shoulder blades during a performance or behind the curtains. She has a few interesting qualities though. Leopard patterns, are they still in...?

BET AWARDS 2006

2006-06-29T09:05:00.000-04:00

I'm really feeling Kelis. So is her husband. Peep the old school gold rope. That is what you call a singular Slick Rick...

BET AWARDS 2006

2006-06-29T09:01:00.000-04:00

Another set of hot chocolate milky legs! Those shoes are really doing something for my foot fetish.

BET AWARD 2006

2006-06-29T08:59:00.000-04:00

Wow! Nice legs. Like I stated above I aint placing any names on these pictures. If you dont know who these people are? Sheesh you are way out of the loop.

Tamia's new album is BANANAS! But you can't purchase it...?

2006-06-25T11:32:00.000-04:00

We all remember who Tamia is right? I hope so because she dropped her forth album titled "Between Friends" sometime in May (06) and the whole album is complete and utter beauty. The only problem is this, you can't purchase it. The album was produced by DarkChild (one of my favorite producers) and pressed up and distributed by Tamia independently and only in South Africa. This bothers me because with all the bullshit thats on the radio now, finally someone in R&B steps to the plate with something mature and ultra talent based, and you cant purchase it... this is what the music industry has become.

Yo if anyone is interested in hearing a few of the tracks email me brandonmccalla89@yahoo.com and i will send you a couple via email. Then once you get them and listen, post a comment about what you've heard.

AND YES IF YOU HAVENT NOTICED BY NOW LITERARY HOOD THE BLOG IS BACK!!!
AND I'M DOING A 'DAMN I WOULD LOVE TO SLIP UP IN THAT' MONTH OF JUNE COLLAGE BLOG POSTING... AN ODE TO SOME OF THE LOVELY LADIES IN R&B...
...NEXT MONTH WILL BE MORE SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICALLY BASED BLOGS AND THEY WILL COME MORE FREQUENTLY... AND MOST OF THEM WILL BE ABOUT ISSUES OF THE OPPOSITE SEX AND ABOUT SEX!!!

Tamia thank you for making such beautiful music.
I couldn't find a picture of her as current as I would have liked. I recently seen her on t.v. and she is still something pleasant for the eyes.

This is Ashanti WITHOUT SEMEN...

2006-06-22T00:27:00.000-04:00

SHE IS REALLY WEARING THOSE JEANS. AND SHE HASNT ANY SEMEN IN HER. I KNOW IT SOUNDS NASTY BUT SCROLL DOWN...!!!

This is Ashanti with semen! ANY QUESTIONS...?

2006-06-22T00:24:00.000-04:00

SHE LOOKS PREGNANT. MAYBE SHE LOOKS PREGNANT BECAUSE SHE IS...? WOW!!! THE RUMORS ARE CONFIRMED BUT WHAT ISNT CONFIRMED IS WHO HER BABY DADDY IS... OR WILL BE, YOU KNOW HOW SHIT GET, YOU WATCH MAURY.

Kelis and her cleavage/Nas and his leaky album

2006-06-22T00:07:00.000-04:00

This is Kelis obviously. She looks so damn good. Look at her, yes showing cleavage yet she is so damn, well natural looking. No fucking crazy weave, no overwhelmingly caked up make-up. And her smirk looks genuine.... Nas definitely ringed a nice piece. Kelis equals appealing!
Oh Nas, a couple of tracks from off of your soon to be released album (titled, hip hop is dead or kill rap or some shit like that) leaked. Someone who was in the studio with you probably snuck out with a CD full of tracks. Yeah nigga, I got practically the whole damn album. The nigga sent me like 14 tracks via yahoo instant messenger... I was like, "Yo! How the fuck did you get these?"
He said, "It's a short story. You keep asking questions and no new Nas tracks for you!"
Guess what, I stopped asking questions.
Be glad I love you Nas, if I didnt this shit would go straight to LimeWire, but fuck them. From what I've heard your shit is worth the price these stores over charge us for Compact Disks. I wasnt sure about you, Jigga and the whole Def Jam situation till I heard what I heard. YOU STILL GOT IT DUKE. I really feel like shouting out a few of the songs titles, but I won't... damn, my hip-hop is so deep, I would never disrespect Nas, ever! Only my dame is gonna hear this.

UNO

CHRISTINA LOOKS LIKE SHE CAN ROCK A MIC WELL...?!!

2006-06-07T08:35:00.000-04:00

THIS WOKE ME UP IN THE MORNING! SERIOUSLY!
But not the way you think, to my dismay.

A feisty bisexual female friend of mine emailed me this pic early this morning and requested that I do a Christina Milian special on my Literary Hood blog in honor of her new double brass album and her dismissal from the Def Jam record label (allegedly). I was like poor little Christina, then I saw this picture and was like wow!!! She aint little anymore... well she's petite n all but look at the camel toe and, well look!!! Now I havent rated a vixen on this in some time (but I do bash the ShoeQueen often).
The last women we rated on this, who was it again...? Damn, she had the female role in Get Rich or Die Tryin, she played 50 Cent's hoochie...
...anyway we gave her about a 7, how would you rate Christina? Give me a few of your opinions and then I'll share mine.
Thanks for the pics bisexual female friend and thanks for waking me up Christina (I hope it was as good for you as it was for me).

2006-06-07T08:20:00.000-04:00

Christina Milian's third album So Amazin' isnt very amazing at all. We all know who she is right, Christina, the very beautiful half black, half cuban r&b diva (I guess, people use that diva phrase so loosely. Is she even old enough to be a diva...?).

Any way, she just got dropped from her label. Her latest album sold like 6 copies (well, actually she sold about 200,000... going gold is 500,000 copies or better platinum 1,000,000. For a celebrity of her stature, this is terrible!).

I didnt even know what the title of her latest ablum was. All I know is that I got an advance copy sometime ago and didnt listen to it. Though I did analyze the cover a bit. I think this little half cuban vixen is hot but for some reason people just seem to keep dropping her, boyfriends, records labels, television show situations... are they dropping her because she's to hot or because she's nothing more than the slim waist and cute face...? You tell me... ?

I don't think I would drop her, she looks like she bruises easily... Today is Christina Milian day on LITERARY HOOD, why because SHE COULD GET IT! Get is all forms of ways... ahhh, let me count them... 69, 68, 67...

THE CARL WEBER WRAP UP... moving right along

2006-06-05T05:51:00.000-04:00

THIS IS MY ANSWER TO THE LAST COMMENT ON THE CARL WEBER POST AND THE PERVERBIAL WRAP UP!!!

I hate the anonymous posts but thanks, though I've already seen that interview (yawn). Well he did mention a stalker and I've had a couple of those and had to change my number because of the Shoe Queen’s baby’s father and his ultra stalking (he is such a poor specimen of a human being). But never in my existence have I had a woman tell me a baby was mine when I aint hit it... NEVER!!!
But they say never say never because anything is possible. But who are they? I aint never met them.
I find it odd nonetheless, though I haven’t sold as many books as that dude. So maybe I have lower grade of stalkers and he has the premium weirdoes.

This Carl Weber thing has gotten me a bit more email (thanks Carl that was one thing I didn’t need). But for some reason I’m overly informed about Carl now and I love responding to anyone interested in my Literary Hood medium especially now since I’m about to be a radio personality, which is interesting indeed. If you know me you know how the show is gonna be…

I got enough info to wrap this Carl Weber thing up but only on my perspective based upon what people have left via email testimonies and such (yes it has gotten that real). I grow weary of this issue though. I’m posting this wrap up so that I can move along and get into something a bit more intriguing, my singularity theory in the social medium (singularity is a scientific term, if you’ve read up on Black Holes and other celestial phenomenon then you know the term) pertaining to the way the universe works and man and woman join or union. How conflict hinders the infinite progress of a relationship, the way inertia can even hinder the progress of light… I know it sounds like something you don’t even wanna know but I’m gonna incorporate a whole lot of sex in my article. Keep tuning in.

As for the Carl Weber interview (and let me remind you once more, I aint gonna concentrate on this baby's mama drama if I do get it, but I shall inquire) it doesn’t seem like I'm gonna get that interview though. Yes my Literary Hood Brethren, I have failed. Sad but true…
He just doesn’t pick up his phone...

...so now that that's settle, I'm sure he'll be at the Harlem book fair, let us see if he brushes me off again... but I aint alone in the cold shouldering, so many people have come out the closet via email to my brandonmccalla89@yahoo telling me how much they don’t like Carl Weber... sheesh I though I had enemies... come to think of it I don’t have to think, I do have enemies, who doesn’t?
...I haven’t been formally introduced to Carl, so I don’t know why everybody hates him.
Take away the brush off and Carl and I are practically blood brothers...

UNO

2006-05-16T17:10:00.000-04:00

IM REALLY BEGINNING TO ADMIRE THIS DUDE. Here is Jay Z and here is Beyonce getting vexed over the time Jigga man is sharing with his new artist Rihanna. According to fans seated next to the couple at a recent NJ Nets game Jay Z was on the phone with Rihanna and Beyonce lost her cool and yelled, "Why do you keep talking to her!" And then she stormed out of the stadium before Jay Z had a chance to explain. Also Jigga man has been seen wining and dining the lovely Rihanna for quite some time now. But hey, he's molding his new artist... he needs to spend time with her, so that he can cutivate his new investment (I wish I had an investment with a stomach as flat as hers).

2006-05-16T09:03:00.000-04:00

The Empire of Hate is no more! Star is a thing of the past. My question to you is, if you enjoyed the Starandbucwild morning show, what are you gonna do now? And what do you think of Tigga and Egypt. I think Egypt is gorgeous but I can't see her on the radio. Tigga in my opinion is just to fucking nice, you can see the nigga smiling even through the radio... what do you people think? Is this gonna be another Howard Stern situation Krock lost over 80% of their listening audience when he went to satellite radio. How do you think Power105 is gonna pair with cute cuddly Tigga and lite skinned with a fat ass...

THE CARL WEBER SITUATION!

2006-05-11T18:55:00.000-04:00

This is definitely not the sort of situation I wanted to come out of blog retirement to chat about. Alas people I've been bombarded with replies and posts about this Carl Weber 'dead beat dad' issue to the point where I find myself a bit intrigued about the situation, though I have mixed feelings.
Initially Literary Hood was spawned so that I could talk about the urban literary genre in its totality, giving you loyal bloggers the inside scoop on what's hot and what's not in our urban fiction world. Though on occassions I tend to post abroad, writing about various things i find humorous or interesting this Carl Weber situation has me a bit apprehensive. I shall have to use utmost caution when writing about this issue because though I've been guided to many a website about this dilemma as of now it's all heresay, or is it? And if it is more than mere gossip why are people coming out of the woodworks (and I'm talking phone calls to your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla and yahoo instant messanger convo about this).
All I can say at the moment is that I can't really impliment an opinion till I get this interview from Carl Weber. He deserves his chance to plea his case (if it's even a case).
What do I know about the situation, not much. Sure he has a caucasian wife, I was informed of this last year. But is having a white wife a crime? As for the dead beat dad situation... sheesh! I gotta hear from him and more importantly does Brandon McCalla even care?
Once upon a span of time I had my sights set on working with Carl, why you ask? Well because Urban Books is a heavy weight in the urban literary genre and Carl has paved quite a lucrative path though the publishing medium... why wouldn't I wanna work with him. Then there was that faithful day at the 2005 Harlem Book Fair. I walked over to the Urban Books booth and saw this white female author. She had some book called White Coffee or Wigga Syndrome or something of that nature; I was flabbergasted. But I didn't waltz over to the Urban Books booth to critique the Wigga writer in question. I waltzed over to meet Carl. Then I got the perverbial brush off. Yes literary hooders, your friendly neighborhood author got the cold shoulder. I was about to post up with my sarcasm and street potential, knock a few books off the table and get arrested but then the person I was with pulled me away.
Naw, you guys know me I would never compliment a brush off with an act of outright violence now would I? Of course not but I did make note of things. Sheesh! I'm the most underrated writer in the game (and out of the game since I write so substantially abroad and in many a genre). I'm used to these common authors who are so souped up upon their accomplishments that they forget about the little things like being a little humble.

So now this is gonna come to a daunting proceed once I have this chat with Carl. And ladies n germs don't get mad at little ol Mr. McCalla when my opinion about this situation doesn't coincide with how you feel. This involves family, kids and peoples reputations, it isnt a simply thing and it shouldnt be overshadowed by slander and anger. Though I have slandered a few in my time and enjoy anger immensely.

You can leave your replies now.

Oh excuse the spelling. I'm suffering from the flu and ain't as cohesive as I normally am. Though I aint the best speller by a long shot (thank god for spellcheck). I did win a spelling bee though, but that was in third grade. I aint half as smart as I was then now... as crazy as that might sound.

UNO

I know we are all glued to these The Book Club chapters, but this is very noteworthy!

2006-01-05T11:56:00.000-05:00

Their Eyes Were Reading Smut

By NICK CHILES
Published: January 4, 2006
Snellville, Ga.

LAST month I happened to go into the Borders Books store at the Stonecrest mall in Lithonia, Ga., about a half-hour from my house here. To my surprise, it had one of the largest collections of books by black authors that I've ever seen outside an independent black bookstore, rows and rows of bookcases. This is the sort of discovery that makes the pulse quicken, evidence of a population I've spent most of my professional life seeking: African-American readers. What a thrill to have so much space in a major chain store devoted to this country's black writers.
With an extra spring in my step, I walked into the "African-American Literature" section - and what I saw there thoroughly embarrassed and disgusted me.
On shelf after shelf, in bookcase after bookcase, all that I could see was lurid book jackets displaying all forms of brown flesh, usually half-naked and in some erotic pose, often accompanied by guns and other symbols of criminal life. I felt as if I was walking into a pornography shop, except in this case the smut is being produced by and for my people, and it is called "literature."
As a black author, I had certainly become familiar with the sexualization and degradation of black fiction. Over the last several years, I had watched the shelves of black bookstores around the country and the tables of street vendors, particularly in New York City, become overrun with novels that seemed to appeal exclusively to our most prurient natures - as if these nasty books were pairing off back in the stockrooms like little paperback rabbits and churning out even more graphic offspring that make Ralph Ellison books cringe into a dusty corner.
Early last year I walked into a B. Dalton bookstore in a New Jersey mall where the manager had always proudly told me how well my books were selling. This time, I was introduced to a new manager who was just as proud to show me an enhanced black books section teeming with this new black erotica. I've also noticed much more of this oversexed genre in Barnes & Noble bookstores over the past few months, although it's harder to see there since the chain doesn't appear to have separate black fiction sections.
But up until that visit to Borders in Lithonia, I had thought this mostly a phenomenon of the black retail world, where the black bookstore owners and street vendors say they have to stock what sells, and increasingly what sells are stories that glorify and glamorize black criminals. The genre has been described by different names; "ghetto fiction" and "street lit" are two I've heard most often. Apparently, what we are now seeing is the crossover of this genre to mainstream bookstores.
But the placard above this section of Borders in Lithonia didn't say "Street Lit," it said "African-American Literature." We were all represented under that placard, the whole community of black authors - from me to Terry McMillan and Toni Morrison, from Yolanda Joe and Benilde Little to Edward P. Jones and Kuwana Haulsey - surrounded and swallowed whole on the shelves by an overwhelming wave of titles and jackets that I wouldn't want my 13-year-old son to see: "Hustlin' Backwards." "Legit Baller." "A Hustler's Wife." "Chocolate Flava."
I've heard defenders say that the main buyers of these books, young black women, have simply found something that speaks to them, and that it's great that they're reading something. I'd agree if these books were a starting point, and that readers ultimately turned to works inspired by the best that's in us, not the worst.
But we're not seeing evidence of that. On Essence magazine's list of best sellers at black bookstores, for example, authors of street lit now dominate, driving out serious writers. Under the heading "African-American Literature," what's available is almost exclusively pornography for black women.
As I stood there in Borders, I had two sensations: I was ashamed and mortified to see my books sitting on the same shelves as these titles; and secondly, as someone who makes a living as a writer I felt I had no way to compete with these purveyors of crassness.
That leaves me wondering where we - writers, publishers, readers, the black community - go from here. Is street fiction some passing fad, or does it represent our future? It's depressing that this noble profession, one that I aspired to as a child from the moment I first cracked open James Baldwin and Gabriel García Márquez about 30 years ago, has been reduced by the greed of the publishing industry and the ways of the American marketplace to a tasteless collection of pornography.
I realize that publishing is a business, but publishers also have a responsibility to balance street lit with more quality writing. After all, how are we going to explain ourselves to the next generation of writers and readers who will wonder why they have so little to read of import and value produced in the early 21st century, why their founts of inspiration are so parched?
At times, I push myself away from the computer in anger. I don't want to compete with "Legit Baller." But then I come across something like "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones and again I am inspired.
But I must say that I retain very little of the hope and excitement and enthusiasm that I had when my first book was published eight years ago. I feel defeated, disrespected and troubled about the future of my community and my little subsection of this carnivorous, unforgiving industry.
Nick Chiles, the editor in chief of Odyssey Couleur magazine, is the co-author, with Denene Millner, of "A Love Story."

THE BOOK CLUB, Shoe Queen Quagmire: chapter one

2006-01-04T18:38:00.000-05:00

1
HARLEM BOOK FAIR 2004
The hardest part about writing about this whole situation is that I met so many good people and I really feel inclined to name them. But I can’t name them. Nor can I sit back and think up hundreds of cute names to protect the innocent and the guilty in this book.
Some of the people in this book were by my side while I was waist deep within the Shoe Queen quagmire. Most exist during and after this interestingly bizarre relationship’s ending.
As I type this it is officially over at least where I stand and well, like her mother said, she doesn’t think her daughter is smart enough to deal with this situation she got herself in. Well I don’t think her daughter is smart enough either. But nevertheless I met the Shoe Queen during the Harlem Book Fair of 2004 but I hardly said a thing to her that day and didn’t even remember I met her till almost 9 months later.
It was gonna rain all day and I woke up thinking, damn my big day is gonna be ruined. It was close to the end of July and the Harlem Book Fair is without a doubt the biggest urban/street fiction event in the country. Every author who has written a book in our genre whether published, non-published, or self published was gonna be at the fair. This day was the first day I would see my book. It had just been printed up and had just been delivered to my publisher specifically to be debuted at the Harlem Book Fair. I was ecstatic.
A friend of mine who was really into street fiction books assured me that mine would be welcomed but he also cautioned me. He told me my book was a bit different because it was a bit more intellectually grimy and more about hip-hop and he wasn’t sure about what the readers would think. Even deeper than that the cover wasn’t black-exploited and most of the books were very black-exploited with big booty bitches and fake looking thugs with guns on the covers and cars with horrible looking rims. I really didn’t give a fuck. I chastised him for calling me as early as he did and after I hung up the phone I rolled a blunt and smoked, enjoying the silence.
My publisher had called me a couple of days in advance, telling me about the book fair and what to expect. It was supposed to rain all day but he didn’t think that that would lessen the crowd. Over 10,000 people were expected to be at the fair and he told me that he would get to the fair around 10 o’clock a.m. I got to the fair at 8:30.
I was excited. But above all of that I wanted to arrive before anyone else did to see who was just as focused as me because the early bird most often enough catches the worm. I drove to Harlem where normally I would have taken the train. I live in Brooklyn and its hard finding parking in Manhattan especially on the weekends, especially when there is a fair and the fair was right next to a hospital. Shit you know I had to pay for parking and I just barely got the car in that parking lot.
The Harlem Book Fair is always outside, and covers two long Harlem blocks. The first thing I noticed at 8:30 in the morning at the Harlem Book Fair was that so many early birds were out. So I walked down one block and then another while these authors and vendors began opening up shop, putting up tents and displaying their books. I said nothing to nobody at first and no one spoke to me, everyone was trying to be ahead of the game, and even as early as it was a few people who weren’t vendors or publishers or authors were walking around, just as curious as I was.
I had nothing to show that I was an author or anything besides a manuscript of a book I had half completed tucked under my arm and a few promotional postcards. Time had lingered on and by 10:00 the place began to get crowded. My publisher was no where to be seen. So I called him and he told me he was running a bit late because they were partying last night. All I was thinking was, why wasn’t I invited to the party, and why aren’t you here. Already I saw a dozen or so authors getting people to purchase their books. I was thinking this shit seems quite lucrative. I was wrong.
It is only lucrative for some, I got a bit of the hustler in me but I aint no punk and I knew just as soon as I saw the way a lot of the authors were scrambling for customers that this was a fucking kangaroo court and it was an industry for punks and scroungers.
I walked over to one author, a female with really nice light brown eyes who wasn’t scrounging and didn’t seem like a punk. I looked at her table and saw the titles of the books upon it, various different authors but from the same publishing house. She had some of the more popular books on her table and her own books, which were quite popular also. She was selling quite a few books, more so than most of the authors in the area her table was at. Later on I would know why, why those books were so popular and why this particular author/business lady was able to make a killing on a rainy day because just after me and this author lady got acquainted, it started to drizzle. And it would keep on drizzling till my publisher came, at around 12:30; he was two and a half hours late. That must have been some party.
My publisher didn’t put up our tent and table till around 1:30 and by then quite frankly most of the people who were purchasing books had already done so. But I wasn’t complaining because it wasn’t like I was gonna see the money that day anyway and besides that I had just gotten my hands upon my first published book. I opened it up and well, I was immediately disappointed. I wont get into why, but that day was a huge learning experience for me, such a learning experience because I realized that day that this urban and street fiction genre isn’t like the traditional or major book publishing circuit. I hadn’t a clue of how different it was and well I have a friend who wrote a couple of books and they are in Barnes n Nobles and Borders. He told me how the literary industry functioned but he was in a different genre and he’s white. Things were so much different in what I call the chicken n gravy circuit, and I don’t call it chitins n gravy because I don’t eat pork or lower intestines.
I found a few interesting typos and errors in my first published book that day and I stood in the drizzling rain, wondering because I figured these things would be corrected before the book was printed. Later on that day, I would be introduced to another street fiction author. She explained our whole genre in a nutshell by giving me a copy of her first published book. She said, “Join the club.” I kid you not and another author during the same conversation told me something along the lines of, “Every book has a few errors, nothing is perfect on this earth except me.” I believed her.
I thought she was perfect. Both of these ladies calmed me a great deal. A month after the Harlem Book Fair, I read a couple of the nearly hundred books I collected during the Harlem Book Fair, all for free since I was an author and no one tried to charged me for a book except for one dude. That author tried to sell me his. I read a couple of these books and saw that most if not all of the books I read had hundreds of typos and grammatical errors in them. Now I had little to no grammatical errors thanks to my own smarts and my brilliant editor, but I knew that I really had to keep my eyes open and really handle my second book with more care. Once you give a manuscript up anything is possible…
…Back to the book fair.
I managed to sign a few books, and got a handful of sales. Like I said about time my publisher got everything percolating shit was slowing down, and the turn out wasn’t as big as it was last year because of the early rain. But that didn’t hinder me in the least. I had so much promotional material and I was walking around with a buddy of mine and more than a handful of my peoples, family and hoodlums from my hood came to the book fair to support me. So I was very busy. There was so much eye candy out in the rain lovely ladies out to support the authors, avid readers and the like.
I stopped for a moment to watch and listened to a female author of some hip-hop fiction book that was getting heavily promoted. As she spoke her words up on one of the stages I was admiring her facial features. She was wearing a long coat or some shit, that or she was dressed very conservative but other women were wearing less and I soon lost interest in her. But as things began to wind down I was back at my publisher’s tent and table, discussing the future and chatting about royalties and the next installment of my hip-hop fiction series. I was introduced to another author at that point and I was being accompanied by three lovely author ladies I met while wandering around the fair. I was having a great day.
I then met two hot looking author dames. One of them I can’t seem to recall. The other woman I do recall. I wound up fucking her in her hotel room 4 or 5 hours later but before then I listened to a male author’s ‘we are gonna take over the world’ speech. After that speech I left the Harlem Book Fair with three lovely author ladies. We were going to a Harlem Book Fair after party.
I would wind up seeing a couple of the authors I met that day in the near future. I love more than most of them. And some of them I am still in contact with now. But a lot of the authors I encountered during the fair seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. The fact that I’m still around is a mystery because I’ve had a horrible time with the first couple of books published. I got into this urban/street fiction circuit at the right and wrong time. I was within the midst of change in more ways than one.
One of the authors I met that day is now a great friend of mine. We didn’t talk much that day but later on that year we bonded. We began hanging out and smoking blunts at the end of that year. I met up with that dude while I was on a little book signing tour in Philly. He has definitely held me down throughout a lot of my sour publishing and book groupie situations because he saw me getting into some bullshit early and warned me. I was attracting a lot of groupies. He told me a lot of bullshit comes along with writing a fucking book. And he told me to leave them book groupies alone, but sadly enough I didn’t. I never considered the Shoe Queen a book groupie once we got to know each other till other began describing her as such. By then I was already waist deep in and defending her swearing that she was one of the best things god made. She was just in a bad situation and I guess I felt I could help her get out of it.
I met another author who would wind up being a good friend of mine during the Harlem Book Fair of 2004 also. She had slipped me her card and told me to give her a call later that day. Her waist was slim, her ass was fat, she dressed well and she had a good looking face. I called her and she invited me over to her hotel room right after the book fair but I went to the after party first.
I didn’t even remember her name when I woke up that following morning. I had to glance over at the table next to the bed where a stack of her books were to remind myself. All I remember of the night is that we drank a lot of alcohol and she swallowed a lot of semen. She explained a lot of things to me over breakfast. I do remember most of that. She told me all the gossip the street fiction book genre had to offer directly before she let me dick her down one last time before I left her hotel room and went home. I would see a lot of her in the near future. I was warned again about book groupies. I was also warned about frolicking with any woman associated with the business but I didn’t heed this woman’s words because she was associated with the business and had just swallowed a load of my semen.
But let me bring you back to directly after I left the book fair. I was with three female authors. I had just met a male author who would eventually become a great success and good friend; the one who gave me the world concurring speech and those other two authors, the female I cannot recall and the other who slipped me her card.
She told me she was from out of town and that her hotel room was somewhere in the Times Square area. She said she was feeling a bit under the weather and wouldn’t be attending this after party everyone was going to. I talk about her more than briefly so let’s give her a name. Let’s call her the Desperate Book Diva. You will understand why I call her that shortly. And you already know that she swallowed my semen.
But before I went to her hotel room that day after the fair I met the Shoe Queen. Yes she was at this after party I attended with the three lovely lady authors.
Shoe Queen’s book club was hosting the after party for some author. I thought nothing of it that day but now that I reflect and have more information, it was definitely a book groupie thing. I’ve been around many book clubs and well; they all function a bit differently from one another but only a handful of the book clubs are actually handled in true cooperate fashion. I also know the mind of street fiction authors. The Shoe Queen’s book club was getting used; pimped, they were getting treated like groupies. I saw this clearly that day, but my mind was clouded by a few things.
First off Shoe Queen would tell me a year later that she asked me for a copy of my book that day and I told her that I only had one copy and I just showed her the cover and wouldn’t even let her touch it. I can believe that. I didn’t really know the book circuit at that point in time and when I left the Harlem Book Fair the car I drove to the event in left with a few cases of my new book. I went with the lovely lady authors to this after party. I was with strangers but it was good company. But I was naïve. Didn’t know the industry the way I know it now.
One of the female authors was driving and took all of us to this after party that wouldn’t even serve us food. It was crazy. I guess we arrived a bit too early or they were just stingy with the Buffalo wings, whatever the case maybe we didn’t stay long. I hardly noticed the Shoe Queen that day. Think about it. I end up falling in love with this women and I guess in some ways she ends up breaking my heart. But when I first encountered her I just brushed her off as a woman pimped by some author, a groupie. See, that day was my official day in the book circuit. I was as sharp as I could be but in this industry you gotta be sharper. I walked right inside that after party and as I left with the other authors I made a joke saying, “I’m gonna get me a book club and pimp them just like that author.” Everyone laughed. Who would have known that I would wind up getting pimped myself?
Now I’m all fucked up in the game. I should have kept my game on the pimp level but I got emotionally involved, attached to the Shoe Queen.
I would get myself tangled up in different three book club webs eventually. Two out of the three wound up becoming disasters. All these book clubs were filled with nothing but dysfunctional women who wanted to fuck around with men who write books because they read, or they simply enjoyed gossiping about the industry and ogling over books and talking about books. That is all they do and they really make is serious business for people who don’t even write themselves. And it gets worse if they like your work. But this is the street fiction circuit and a lot of these women don’t know a good book from a great book from a terrible book. It’s a different world in this genre I write for, and since I write in other genres I see how tainted this place is and it sickens me at times.
But beyond all of the nauseating shit that takes place within this genre nothing has gotten me in more quagmires than these book clubs. For some reason the same sort of women seem to gather within them and they all will swear to god that they aint groupies. But check it; Trekkers know that they are groupies. The guy who dresses up like Darth Vader to go see a Star Wars movie knows he’s a groupie. And every female who followed a rapper backstage and sucked his dick after a concert and got kicked out the dressing room directly afterwards knows she’s a groupie. What makes these book club women so oblivious to what they are? That and why do I struggle to place the Shoe Queen outside the pocket even though I met her that day and brushed her off, deeming her a groupie.
She looked just like one. Her book club was hosting some authors, Harlem Book Fair after party and they didn’t get paid, and even if they did get paid, yo what are catering services for? Why would you wanna be a servant for some author, I mean the nigga wasn’t Stephen King. I found that odd. And what I found odder was a conversation that I just recently had with a member of the Shoe Queen’s book club but the whole thing is so crazy that I gotta write it in sequence or its gonna spoil things. A matter of fact quite a few people have been coming out of their shells telling me about how the Shoe Queen and her book club thought about me while I was with her. I was shocked when I heard what they thought and what they said about me.
I thought book clubs were basically about reading books, no; some of the smaller and less professional clubs wanna really get to know the authors and wanna do what me and the Shoe Queen did, which was get involved.
I know of one book club located in Philly where the founder will kick you the fuck out of the club if you are caught frolicking or getting involved with an author. And yo the Shoe Queen should have really been certain about dealing with me when she got involved with me. I told her that it might get messy if we ever separated on fucked up terms. I was told that these women will get you a bad review once the relationship has gone sour. And since her club was filled with nothing but family members and friends and a whole lot of people who couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Shit I couldn’t keep my mouth shut either. I was madly in love with the Shoe Queen and wanted the world to know. And I will get into how deceptive the club was initially. Even if the Shoe Queen was an honest woman she hadn’t the intelligence to show her innocence because she seemed quite guilty of a number of nasty things. But even still, I trusted her as much as I could under the circumstances.
Think about this. I once told the Shoe Queen after we had already became sexually involved that it baffled me that they treated that author at the after party so kingly and promoted him with such vigor. And here I was slipping up in her on the often, ejaculating in her and her book club didn’t promote me nearly as much. A few days later I would get a phone call from her baby’s father the Genius. He told me that the Shoe Queen was fucking this same author they catered the party for. Guess what, I wasn’t supposed to believe him. I guess I shouldn’t have slept with her and I would have gotten the red carpet treatment as well right? Wrong. I was jealous of this nigga that was all. I write this admitting every fault I mustered up also. But I had every right to be jealous. Later on I would find out that the Shoe Queen and her book club used to talk about this other author just as vigorously as they talked about me. So was I very special and more importantly was the Shoe Queen fucking that author also, or had she fucked him. She said she didn’t but Shoe Queen has said a lot of things. But when you deal with the Shoe Queen you gotta concentrate on the things she didn’t say and how she said the things she did say.
This book club would wind up promoting me a great deal eventually but not nearly as much promotion as I needed. But by the same token I had introduced them to so many other authors and I have never spoken a bad word about them because they were all good women at the beginning.
One super huge street fiction author warned me about book clubs. He told me that they are really horrible women because if you get involved with one and things don’t work out, not only will they stop promoting you but they will try to make things bad for you, slander and throw salt in the game. He told me that he doesn’t do book clubs, no on line chats or book club readings or meetings. As I type this I truly understand why and I should have heeded his words, but by then I was already knee deep in. I had already got more than overly involved with the Shoe Queen and I was already intimate with the club socially.
The Shoe Queens book club composed of quite a few different characters. Before I get into them I should get into the Desperate Book Diva. She is gonna divert us from the Shoe Queen but the time I spent with the Desperate Book Diva is interesting story. Directly after Miss Desperate I was introduced to another book club and another female who shall remain nameless that I got involved with but before I get involved with her I get an overload of groupie action. I’m talking at least 20 women in half a year, and half of them were from various book clubs and most of them only wanted me to read to them, and dick them down, what an odd combination.

THE BOOK CLUB PROLOGUE

2005-12-26T07:35:00.000-05:00

THE SHOE QUEEN QUAGMIRE

THE TEXT MESSAGES

I was half asleep lying in my bed. I’m in a place I really didn’t wanna be physically and in spirit. I never sleep soundly. I’m usually up within the darkness of the wee hours thinking and sometimes I open up my laptop and work on these novels I can never seem to finish.

Just a couple of years ago I was able to type all day. Once I finished up a novel in three months and it was 100,000 words. Now I struggle to get 3000 words a day out of my brain. I’m not happy and I know it. You wouldn’t notice it though because I hide my feelings behind sarcasm and wit. I’m not as witty or as sarcastic as people think, I’m actually a very melancholy individual. I am writing this because once again I have found myself alone. You are not reading a piece of fiction right now. You are reading therapy and you are reading the memoirs of a man who has lost a bit of himself. This tale is more than me losing a woman.

What is happiness? I often think about that shit. Sometimes it’s writing and sometimes its sitting back and reading a good book after a nicely rolled blunt, at least for me. But I don’t read as much as I used to because I’m to busy typing my own books to concentrate on any other authors work. I think this is a part of the problem because I was an adamant reader and now that bit of joy has been ripped from me. Now I have to write and cannot read.

So as I lay pondering my worth in this world I receive a text message from a woman who I thought I knew. And this is the story of my life. I have always had difficulties with women. I don’t know why I pick the wrong ones or why they pick me, but it has always been like this. Once I narrowed it down to being my fault alone but I know otherwise now. I used to be a real asshole towards women. So when a female does something wrong to me I usually take it as karma. Like I’m getting from the current women what I’ve given to some other woman in my past. Thus I’ve grown a bit of tolerance toward females. Just a few years ago I hadn’t any tolerance. I would have jumped out of this situation I’m in just as soon as I caught wind of the bullshit.

I’m in a stage of my existence where I can honestly be honest with myself. For most of my life I wasn’t aware of who I was, and being so unaware of me in the past prevent the people around me from understanding who I truly was. Who was I and who am I now? One experience with a woman has allowed me to understand myself. Ironically enough she was the first woman who actually experienced the real me. Now I’m faced with trying to situate whether or not the actually me is worth anything at all. It seems I was worth more as the lie.

The text message I received should have had me going crazy but oddly enough it didn’t. I was very calm. It was like I expected it to arrive at the ungodly hour it did. The message I received became a series of messages and things just built up but I still felt little emotion from it. All those text messages just made me begin to write this and really think about all the females I’ve been with in my life since as far back as junior high school.

When I got this text message at 3:18 in the a.m. asking me are you awake. I knew some more drama was about to go down. This woman has been causing me problems since I met her thus I am here writing about her to you. I know a text asking whether or not I’m awake or not is simple enough but it isn’t. I knew it wasn’t. That text was followed up by I can’t talk on the phone because once I got the text I called her. I don’t like text messaging. I prefer phone conversing because I don’t have the patience to type out sentences on a fucking cell phone.

So she didn’t pick up the phone and left another text message that said I cannot talk on the phone. This is something I’ve gotten from her since I’ve been involved with her so it wasn’t anything to really think about. But then I received another message saying that she had to ask me something important. I don’t like to get asked shit through text messaging. But I was curious and I was in love so I typed; ask the question and she did. She asked me if she could stay with me. But before I could ask why she followed it up with he raped me and just rolled over and went to sleep.

I was like whoa! Now listen, you don’t know the whole story yet. This is just one situation amongst many that I’m gonna talk about as we scroll through this portion of my existence. I just wanted to begin with the end because as I write this it’s happening.
A friend called me in the middle of this series of text messages. He asked me what was I doing. I told him that I was going through some bullshit right now. He was a bit concerned. I didn’t tell him about the text messages or anything because I didn’t want him to give me good advice. He would have told me to leave this woman alone. And I guess I didn’t wanna do that, maybe because I was stupid…

So he raped her. All I could think is: did he truly rape her. Why hasn’t she called the cops? Why did she lie and tell me she had moved out when she hadn’t. Why is she contacting me with this bullshit now? Why doesn’t she just stay with that asshole, obviously she likes assholes since she’s been with him for like 10 years and he has never been the best nigga from what I’ve been told?
Nevertheless I respond back in text and got a bit more information. Now all the while I’m calm and simply responding back with you lied to me; which she obviously did from what the text entailed. And I text why don’t you leave now because she types I’m gonna leave in the morning and pack cloths and come over to your place after work.

Wow, a man rapes you and you stay in the damn building, I’m thinking. Once I give you a bit more of the situation you are gonna have a different opinion of this woman I call the Shoe Queen. But at that particular point in time I was riding with my own feelings because at the time the only information I was receiving was through text messages from her cell phone and at the time it was what it was.
So she types I’m still waiting for an answer, you know, whether she can stay with me or not. I type I'm not saying no but I aint answering you through a text.
I guess I’m feeling bad for her but to be honest I was feeling a bit disgusted and bad for myself. I was tired of all the bullshit. My life seems to be one huge concentration of shit produced by bulls. I had two book deadlines and I just finished a book that I was obligated to hand over to a publisher who I’ve been having a conflict of interest with. But by handing that book over I in turn sever dealing with this person ever again. When you just hand a person over 90,000 words and you know it’s for nothing, it hurts. So this woman who might have quite possibly hurt me with these text messages didn’t dent a portion of my armor.

I was already hurt and in the dark thinking about shit and feeling a bit miserable before I received the first text. So the last two text messages I got from her that morning went something along the lines of he wants more, I gotta say something quick. Yo that really fucked me up but what fucked me up more was the fact that she followed that up with see you later, my husband.

Husband!? I’m thinking; your husband just raped you because if he wasn’t your husband he would be arrested right now. But he aint her husband, they have a child together but he aint get engaged to her or marry her and they have been together for 10 years. He’s done nothing but use her so I’ve been told, yet here I am typing about this shit while he wants more, and she gotta say something quick. Aint that some bullshit.
So now I’m here writing about this shit. I was talking to this other author, a good friend of mine and I candidly gave her a few stories about me and females, but mostly about the problems I‘ve been having with the infamous Shoe Queen. She said that I should write a book about it.
I thought about writing a book about my relationships with women in general on many occasions and well now I figured fuck it. This last situation was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
He wants more, I gotta say something quick.

I was thinking he raped you, why haven’t you left yet? That’s all I thought but then why think, let this bitch come over later and explain things when there is no need for explanation. And let me explain to her why I don’t even wanna touch her anymore.
She is the only women who I ever considered dishonest. Every other women I’ve ever been with I could quite honestly say was very honest. And upon us getting together both uninvolved or within a quagmire. All the others hadn’t a whole lot of luggage or problems that dealt with another person, specifically another man. And we both were initially honest or at least they were.

I was usually the one who caused the problems and the one who lied. It had never been the other way around till now. I commend myself for handling things as smoothly as I did. I felt no hostility towards this woman and I could have cared less about her at that particular moment.
I said at that particular moment. In a couple of hours all of this would be explained and I was able to breath easier. But because of the drama I had been experiencing I think I was just properly prepared for the bullshit.

I never trusted her. And why would I trust any woman besides my mother at that particular point in my life. And more importantly why would I trust the Shoe Queen. That early morning series of text messages showed me that I shouldn’t have anyway. Many hours passed until I began to see things any other way. And many days went by with no incidents but then like always something else would spawn. Keep reading, you’ll see.

To be honest it was me not trusting her intelligence than actually trusting her. I know is doesn’t sound right but its how I felt because then I could only think the Shoe Queen was stupid. Now it realize I was stupid. The text messaging incident should have been the incident that completely severed me from this woman. It didn’t. Sometimes I wonder why? Was it some perverse love I felt or was it the drama that kept me still entangled with this person I call the Shoe Queen.
Maybe we both were stupid. But the guy, the one why rolled over and went to sleep after supposedly raping her, her baby’s father, well he was a genius, and still is and we shall call him the Genius because of his intellect. I’m gonna explain why he was and still is a genius later on. Right now I wanna get into why she hadn’t called the cops after he raped her. If what she text messaged me was the truth?

Maybe she thinks she got raped, I was thinking directly after the messages stopped coming. First off she said that she had already moved out. If she did move out why was she at his place sending me text messages about getting raped and packing her things. Now if that wasn’t the truth then what was? These messages were coming from her phone. I have her name on my cell’s caller id. Those text messages were the truth at that point if nothing else wasn’t.
And besides that, at one point she was still living with this dude, her baby’s father and dealing with me. How could this Shoe Queen live in a house with a man and expect me to believe that he wasn’t fucking her. Better still, how could I believe that shit when the Shoe Queen tells me this? I’m gonna really get into this later on in this book but let me give you a few details just to keep the suspense going. I call these details the six factors because these were the only facts I had, the only things that I knew were genuine truths.

One: she had been living with this guy for ten years, and she told me after we get acquainted that she wasn’t in love with him anymore. Yet she was still living in the same apartment with him.

Two: he is the father of her daughter and that is her excuse for still being with him and for supporting him for a large portion of their living situation, though he never asked for her hand in marriage nor made her his fiancé.

Three: she claimed they hadn’t had sex two months prior to me getting involved with her. But she is a very sexual being. This is the toughest part, the hardest factor to believe and except, thinking that I was what she wanted or thinking that she just wanted dick… whether mine or the baby’s fathers or any other niggas…?

Four: he tried to get some sex from her during his birthday and she claimed she prevented it and told him about me that day. But she never told me exactly what she said about me…? And that was the night she left the house. Did she truly leave because of some faithfulness towards me? Or was this just apart of the lie and he simply found out that she was cheating and kicked her ass out!

Five: he stole her cell phone and got my number from it that same night and called me that morning and has been calling me ever since, motherfucking stalking me!

Six: he calls me every other day now, sometimes more than 10-15 times. He leaves messages talking about how he had just finished fucking ‘my girl’ last night and we are both with a dirty bitch. He also says that this isn’t the first time he has caught her cheating and that her family and friends will lie to protect her and that we both are victims. He also told me that he got about four other niggas numbers from her phone when he stole it the first time, meaning that he has taken the phone from her before. Two of the numbers being other authors that he suspects she has fucked or was planning on fucking.

I can go on but I felt six factors were sufficient. And besides that I didn’t wanna spoil the fun for you since this things gets even more interesting. Actually, sometimes I really wonder whether or not this Shoe Queen is or was just some book groupie or just some psychological case because quite frankly I still haven’t figured her out yet.

After I break down some of the details not only will you understand why I shall never frolic with a book club again but you will also understand why I was so confused within this interesting relationship. She fits quite a few categories and more than a few things tempted me to stay away from her since the beginning, since out first encounter, but for some strange reason, I fell in love with this woman.

But before I fell in love, while I was simply fucking the hell out of her after a nice meal at a great restaurant or after seeing a movie matinee, I used to ask myself why would she still wanna be around someone she claims she doesn’t love anymore? That no good baby’s father.
What was so good about this nigga or what was so good about me? He hardly ever worked or showed her any true affection as far as I was told. Yet before she met me she said she slept in the same bed with him. Was I stupid enough to believe that she stopped once she began sleeping with me? Like they slept in the same bed and for two months he had never fucked her. I will attempt to resolve all of these things but bear in mind as I write this, a lot of these things are still transpiring. I have edited this introduction portion of The Book Club many times based upon how my life has been altered, how I’ve been handling myself with the Shoe Queen.

This book begins and ends with the Shoe Queen more or less. You be the judge of whether or not she was a book club hoe, a straight psycho bitch, a victim of a demented baby’s father, though I feel more the victim than she in more ways than one, or if she was completely and utterly honest and I didn’t give her enough time and space. Though she had nothing but space and time, as you read you will understand. She is a part of a book club, a founding member of a book club at that, and most of those women within those book clubs are groupies. But they will not admit it but I assure you they are. Just like Trekkers are Star Trek groupies these book club women are groupies. I’m gonna explain exactly why they are and why they refuse to accept it.

One unwritten rule in our urban and street fiction genre is that you should never fuck around with groupies. Fuck them yes, but never fuck around. Don’t get attached to one and above all don’t fall in love with one. But what if you thought a woman wasn’t a groupie and she winds up being one. Or what if this is just the sort of shit that happens in general when a woman has a horrible baby’s father. And I can’t blame the end results completely on this guy, the Genius because I’ve spoken to dozens of people about this.

I conversed with quite a few women about their experiences with baby’s fathers and moving on. This has bothered me a bit and I really wanted to gather as much information as I could. Whether from first and second generation hoochie mamas and chicken heads or from very stable, educated and working class women, I got so many good stories. My story is just one of many. I’m just on the other side of the coin.
Keep reading.

He wants more, I gotta say something quick.
What the fuck was she gonna say to him? How do you want it? I mean did she honestly expect me to believe all of this and how dumb did she think I was. And even if all of this was true, wouldn’t I be stupid to deal with her. Why would I want a woman with this much drama? A woman who didn’t know how to handle herself in a situation that she got herself in, and I got myself right in the middle of this shit also. I should have never slept with her that day, yes I’m gonna walk you through my existence with the Shoe Queen. Our first sexual encounter was one of the most enjoyable feelings I’ve ever had. She was such a breath of fresh air, or her pussy was, and well I guess I can blame the last woman I was with before her because that woman was the worst sexual partner I ever had.

What made me think the Shoe Queen was gonna honestly truly leave this nigga when she hadn’t been able to leave him before or didn’t initiate it till she met me. Did she enjoy misery that much or did she simply enjoy him and me at the same time. And maybe she was never gonna leave that nigga. And what should I have done, share this woman or just kicked her to the curb. And this curb wasn’t to far from the sidewalk because she’s gonna always have this guy in her life, her baby’s father. These were my thoughts as I sat upon my bed within the darkness of the early morning. I had nothing else to do but ponder; that and roll some weed up in a Dutch Master cigar and smoke…

Baby’s fathers are some horrible niggas. We are gonna examine them later on. Right now I just want you to vibe with me. Feel what this book is about because it’s more than just me venting and more than the text messaging incident having a very unusual twist.
It’s about this relationship I had with the Shoe Queen and my philosophical views on women. A lot of you women are gonna be mad at me but you gotta feel my side a bit and understand me. So I’m gonna explain myself starting at the beginning with my first encounter with this Shoe Queen so you’ll know that I’m not such a bad dude.

And neither is the Shoe Queen if she was actually telling the truth. Let us suppose she was and think about how she handled the situation or how she didn’t handle it. At times I simply didn’t want anything to do with her, but other times I longed to be inside her or simply to share a moment with her. I fell in love with her on so many levels and often enough I thought that she was in a bad situation and her bad situation simply migrated towards me.

And like I said, either she was stupid or I was or maybe we both were but her baby’s father was a genius and he’s the one with no formal education, shit he aint even a citizen of the damn country. And here I was with a degree from a university. Here I was the established author. And here I was with so many book groupies and so many women within my past and present still dangling from puppet strings and I found myself preferring to amuse myself with this book club woman, this Shoe Queen.

How about them apples…

Sex is Educational

2005-11-08T17:55:00.000-05:00

LADIES WHEN A MAN ASKS FOR HEAD, HE’S ACTUALLY SEEKING TO FURTHER HIS EDUCATION.

Everyone is aware that sex is a rather pleasant activity. Scientist as well praise sex and discover more and more healthy advantages of it. Indeed, it is good for the body and soul, incredibly healthy in all aspects. I’d rather have sex than do a couple of flights on a stair master or a few laps on the tread mill. I read that German scientist went even further than simply stating sex is a very healthy workout. They have declared that regular sex makes people smarter.

Leading specialist from the Medical research Center in Hamburg managed to draw such strange correlation between one’s physical and intellectual capacities. According to the author of this fascinating research study Mr. Werner Habermel, regular sexual intercourses stimulate development of one’s intellect.

Now, now, my niggas, don’t get carried away thinking that you are gonna get that super SAT score buy blazing a couple of hoochies and chicken heads before the test. And ladies don’t think that you can just blow a nigga’s brains out (pardon the pun) and become Einstein directly after the money shot. Nonetheless, there is some truth to this German dude Habermel’s reasoning.

Check this, scientist claim that such substances as adrenalin and hydrocortisone (hormones of adrenal gland) are secreted in large quantities during foreplay and sexual intercourse. Together, these substances stimulate the grey matter of the brain, which in turn simulates intellectual activity. I have a foot fetish and sometimes when I’m licking my girlfriends toes I feel enlightened on some E=MC 2 shit.

Obviously, one should not wholeheartedly stick to Habermel’s assumptions. Hormones will always be hormones, and we should refrain ourselves from such important sources of knowledge as books. However, the term getting some head or giving brain does now indeed seem more relevant scientifically to me than it did before.

I for one cram to understand and wish to be as knowledgeable as I can. I know now that I’ve gotten it all wrong. I should have dealt with prostitutes during grade school and college because they have more sex than anyone and they could have taught me much, instill within me more knowledge than the women I romped around with. Those dames hardly gave head or brain or anything and well, they were really selfish with their knowledge because they didn’t have any. All along it was those hoes and whores who were hoarding vast amounts of information crucial to modern mans intellectually advancement, and here I was seeking my education scholastically abroad with naïve and inexperienced girls.

THIS IS LITERARY HOOD, WHERE YA LEARN SOMETHING EVERYDAY OR EVERYOTHER. I’M GONNA REALLY EDUCATE MY GIRL TONIGHT.

UNO

Rob and the guy who emailed me, here she is...

2005-11-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

THE FEMALE WHO STARS IN THE GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN MOVIE WHO I SAID WASNT ALL THAT HOT. WELL THIS GUY EMAILED ME AND ASKED ME WHY I DIDNT THINK SHE WAS THAT HOT BECAUSE HE FEELS SHE'S BANANAS.

NOW LET ME NAME HER FIRST, HER NAME IS JOY BRYANT AND SHE HAS APPEARED IN A NUMBER OF FILMS, THAT I WONT NAME.

SHIT, EMAIL NIGGA, YOU AND MY FRIEND ROB ARE REALLY RIDING THIS WOMAN. I'VE DONE SOME RESEARCH ON HER AND SAW NUMEROUS PICS OF HER, MODELING AND MOVIE CLIPS.. SHE'S NICE N SLIM AND HAS A WONDERFUL FACE AND A GREAT SKIN TONE...

...NEVERTHELESS I STILL SAY "SHE'S ALRIGHT BUT SHE NOT..." DAMN THATS A JAY Z QUOTE, SHE IS REAL... THAT'S OBVIOUS... SO ON A SCALE OF 1-10 WHAT WOULD I GIVE THIS ONE ON LOOKS ALONE...

NAW, THAT WOULD BE TO EASY. LET ME FIND OUT WHAT YOU PEOPLE OUT IN BLOG VILLE WOULD GIVE HER FIRST.

COME ON, LEAVE A COMMENT AND RATE JOY BRYANT AND PLEASE THIS TIME NO EMAILS... COME OUT THE BLOG CLOSET. WHOA! STAY IN IF ITS SOME BOOTTY BOY SHIT. YOU KNOW WE DONT GET DOWN LIKE THAT IN MY NECK OF THE HOOD.

UNO.

WHAT A GREAT FUCKIN GAME!

2005-11-02T19:38:00.000-05:00

THIS IS THE LAST THING IM PUTTING UP ABOUT THIS NIGGA 50 CENT. YO PEEP A CLIP FROM THE BULLETPROOF GAME. CHECK OUT HOW LLOYD BANKS IS PICKING THE LOCK TO THE DOOR, AND LOOK AT 50 WITH THE 16 GAUGE SHOTGUN...
YO I SAW LIKE 40 CLIPS OF THIS GAME AND IT'S FILLED WITH SEX, VIOLENCE, DRUG USE, MURDER, MAYHEM, AND VARIOUS OTHER ACTS FOULER THAN GRAND THEFT AUTO WITH A BIT OF A STORY LINE IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT. AND YES YOU CAN KILL WHITE PEOPLE, IT AINT ALL ABOUT BLACK ON BLACK CRIME AND DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS.
VERY INTERESTING... I THINK IM GONNA GET THIS FOR MY NIECE FOR CHRISTMAS... AWWW, DONT WORRY SHE'S 13... AND SHE WATCHES HBO, MTV, BET AND LISTENS TO HOT 97... SO WHAT'S IN THE VIDEO GAME THAT SHE HASNT EXPERIENCED BEFORE BESIDES A PUBLIC EXECUTION...

UNO

THIS ANGERED QUITE A FEW PEOPLE

2005-11-02T18:18:00.000-05:00

SHIT! IM READY TO USE THIS POSTER FOR MY NEXT NIGGA BOOK WHOOPS I MEAN URBAN FICTION NOVEL. YO, IF THEY ARE ANGRY AT THIS WAIT TILL THE SEE THE NEXT TRIPLE CROWN COVER...
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS POSTER. THE TERMINATOR HAD A BIGGER GUN AND RED ANDROID EYES, SHIT THAT IS MORE SCARIER THAN A NIGGA WITH A PISTOL IN HIS BACK POCKET, OR IS IT...?
I GUESS IT ISNT. SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. A BLACK MAN HOLDING A BABY WITH A GUN IN HIS BACK POCKET IS MORE FRIGHTENING THAN A FUTURISTIC CYBORG SENT FROM THE FUTURE TO THE PAST TO KILL SOME WHITE WOMAN WHOSE GONNA BIRTH THE KID WHOSE GONNA DESTROY THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD.
AND IN THAT MOVIE ARNOLD WALKED INTO A POLICE STATION AND MURDERED LIKE 43 POLICE OFFICERS (I COUNTED)...
...IT AMAZES ME BECAUSE THEY NEVER SAID SHIT ABOUT ALL OF THIS NIGGAS BLACK ON BLACK VIOLENCE LYRICAL CONTENT. BUT WHY WOULD THEY COMPLAIN ABOUT THAT.
AND WHY DO YOU WOMEN GET RIGHT UP ON THE DANCE FLOOR WHEN WAIT TILL YOU SEE MY DICK COMES ON...?
ALMOST AS MYSTERIOUS AS THE LOCNESS MONSTER, BIGFOOT AND WOMEN WHO RECYCLE WEAVE...

JUST MY THOUGHTS...

UNO

Who is that white dude...?

2005-11-02T18:08:00.000-05:00

That white dude is the damn director of the movie. I heard Mel Gibson was gonna direct Get Rich or Die Tryin but he declined at the last minute. Nevertheless this is the sort of movie that can nail you to a cross if you aint careful.
Why does everyone think their fucking life warrants a god damn book or screenplay. How many niggas got the same story as this character? A lotta niggas but only a handful of niggas actually have their own video game and this dude has one. He is really fucking doing some amazing shit... 50 I'm just gonna give you one little bit of advice. Do not do a cartoon... every rapper whose done one eventually became bankrupt... lets talk about it Hammer... and where is Tone Loc...?
And yo not for nothing but even in the video game 50 Cent is working with the cops... my niece saw some show that showcased the game or something and she was like, "In the game 50 is like a police officer."
I told her to look up black on black crime because all the police do is shoot black people. 50 I hope you got a couple of token white dudes in that game and some cheat codes for extra clips...

YOU TELL ME...?

2005-11-02T18:06:00.000-05:00

IS THIS A CLIP FROM HIS UPCOMING MOVIE GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN OR IS THIS A REAL FUCKING PHOTO. SOMEBODY LET ME KNOW IF THIS NIGGA BEEN IN JAIL OR NOT...? I'M CURIOUS... HE SEEMS REALLY COMFORTABLE, THAT OR HE'S AN OUTSTANDING ACTOR...

THIS NIGGA LOOKS REALLY COMFORTABLE IN JAIL!

2005-11-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

He's sharpening his emcee skills while in the bing. Wow! What a stretch for this dude to act like he's in prison... well, I aint sure if he's ever been actually. I gotta research that one but I know Tony YaYo was locked for a time and well when he got out 50 hit him with a million dollars, a benz and a condo apartment... I wanna start singing, "That's what friends are for..." like Ms. Warwick but shit no friend of mine ever copped me a benz. I'll give Mr. Curtis a fucking Scooby snack for that shit.
I aint gonna mention any names (P.Ditty) but some cats don't do shit for people even when those people go down for them... I think Shine is a wack rapper. But he aint no snitch and he obviously will bust his gun when threatened. Or when he's with a bitch ass nigga. But yo, I don't know enough about the case to really speak much on it or about what truly went down. Though I saw that interview on MTV and well Shine was saying something but the nigga had glasses on with no lenses and once I saw him doing that shit... I TURNED THE FUCKING CHANNEL AND STARTED WATCHING FRIENDS RERUNS.

A friend of mine really likes this broad.

2005-11-02T17:51:00.000-05:00

I decided not to even name this chick. I don't find her as hot as my boy Rob, that nigga loves this dame. He called me up yesterday saying, "Yo. I'm gonna go see that 50 Cent movie because of that bitch."
I was like, "Do you, ya jerk." Then I was like, "Who is that bitch?" I was curious so I did a bit of research on the dame and well, I don't even think she's worth me naming her.
Rob she is alright looking but shit nigga, why did you wake me up for her. I was expecting something a bit more Halle Berry-ish.
I know your wife bloggs in to LITERARY HOOD every once in a while, so after she smacks you in the face, Holla back at me!

LOOK AT WHAT THEY HAVE BECOME!!!

2005-10-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

My publicist sent me this pic and I just had to share this with the masses. You have Al B Sure a dude you women were really loving in the mid to late eighties, K-Ci the guy Mary J was so hung up over she wrote a whole album about it (MY LIFE) and last but not least Tevin Campell. Tevin looks like a crack fag...! Wow! What happened to him.
The other two dudes, well, Al doesnt look that bad but take a look at K-Ci... and what the fuck are those finger guns about...?
Marinate on this people, and please don't be a one hit wonder, drink heavily, or smoke crack. You might wind up looking like one of these dudes...

UNO

At The Courts Mercy by KaShamba Williams

2005-10-27T22:25:00.000-04:00

THIS IS THE SEQUEL TO DRIVEN PEOPLE. ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING ME!!! ARE YOU TRULY SITUATING WHAT IS GOING DOWN!!! DECEMBER 15th, ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED...! THINGS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PONDERING WILL BE PONDERED...! THE MOMENT IS AT HAND!!!
...DECEMBER 15th... KEEP THIS DATE IN YOUR CALENDER... DRIVEN THE SEQUEL, AT THE COURTS MERCY by KaShamba Williams... the author of Blinded and Grimey

I don't think I need to say more, but if you want more log onto www.kashambawilliams.com
kashamba will explain the rest...
This is LITERARY HOOD...

UNO.

DRIVEN by KaShamba Williams

2005-10-27T22:04:00.000-04:00

This is the new cover! And if you haven't picked up Driven from your local or abroad book store you need to. I read this book during a books signing. It was just released and I grabbed the book because it was a book written by KaShamba Williams. I read it, the whole damn thing, it only took me like 6 hours but it took that short of time because KaShamba's words kept me reading... I was very entertained... I was promoting my own two books during the signing but I had to promote Driven since I was reading the fucking book. A woman asked me, is that book good, the one you are reading and I was like, damn, this bitch is really testing me... and I had to be honest, so I said, yeah this book is good, have you ever read Grimey or Blinded...
...she said no, and I was like cool, get Blinded and Grimey, then get Driven after that...
...the woman got both Blinded and Grimey and she got my first book... I was really feeling that woman, she was cute and had a fat ass...! But in any event i recommended DRIVEN... and yo the sequel to DRIVEN is right around the corner... and as great as LITERARY HOOD is we have the exclusive on the COVER, and IT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER... MEANING YOU ARE GONNA GET IT DIRECTLY AFTER YOU GET THIS...
...you know how we do in literary hood... the first shall be the last, like the bible states... so you will see the second cover first, since it is the most current or the next KaShamba Williams words of art... But as you read this bare in mind that I BLOGGED IT FIRST...
I LOVE YOU KaShamba Williams...

www.kashambawilliams.com

Promoting 101

2005-10-27T07:34:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, the nice red bone toned dame in this picture above my words is a sexy author friend of mine. WELCOME TO LITERARY HOOD PEOPLES... you know who it is, your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla.
Here is a great way to promote your words of art (your novel, nigga)...

Clothing: tee-shirts and baseball caps (fitted caps mind you, step your game up)...
people read the words on your body but authors you should pass these things out, for free!!!
Stop using bullshit business tactics on your consumers...

I see some authors trying to sell the clothing that has the promoting on it and anyone who purchases a tee-shirt or hat with an authors book or publishing company information on it, is a pure ASSHOLE!!! You should have gotten a free tee-shirt with a book purchase.

FIRST OFF, IF YOU ARE WEARING THEIR CLOTHES, YOU ARE DOING THEM A FAVOR.

YOU ARE A WALKING BULLETIN BOARD...

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT COST TO PAY FOR PROMOTIONS AND YOU ARE PAYING THEM TO PROMOTE THEIR PRODUCT FOR THEM... when you buy these shirts n hats...

IF AN AUTHOR TRIES TO SELL YOU ANY CLOTHING WITH THEIR PRODUCT ON IT...
DO NOT SUPPORT THAT AUTHOR ANYMORE!!! ...and I see the more successful authors doing it, meaning they are making money and still don't give a damn about you! How about them apples...

IF I SEE ANYONE, WHETHER AT THE HARLEM BOOK FAIR OR OTHERWISE BUYING AN AUTHOR SHIRT I'M GONNA LAUGH RIGHT IN THEIR FACE, AND WHEN THEY ASK ME WHY I'M LAUGHING...
I'm gonna tell you to get up on my blogsite and search through the archieves for this post...

Back to business... Kashamba is a good publisher because she made nice tee-shirts to promote STILETTOS 101 for Lenaise Meyeil...

check this log onto Kashamba Williams website and get what's hood about both these lovely author vixens...

www.kashambawilliams.com

KEEP PROMOTING!!!

2005-10-27T07:10:00.000-04:00

When your publisher is the worst and an unmotivated waste of your literary time and existence. When people call and email you daily asking why your books aint in the Borders or Barnes n Nobles where they purchase their books ...
Well when this happens you gotta continue to stick to your grind because once you give that publisher your final book and that contract is severed and you get an agent and now you got numerous publishing companies knocking at your door because they know how great I am!!! Whoa! I mean how great you are, this is all purely hypothetical.

Regardless of all of that you still see me, your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla still out in your neck of the hood with both my books, taking photos n such... still promoting. I aint promoting for my no good publisher, no boys n girls, I wouldn't dare do that. And well, maybe he's going through a few things but when you can not monopolize off of a extremely gifted words smith such as I, and when this author now has the whole world knocking at his door... you could only look like an idiot... correct me if I'm wrong.

But regardless of all of that, you still gotta promote, and promote hard. You still have to expose yourself with your publishers product (which is yourself) and get in as many publicity shots as you can. If your publisher can't bring you to a state of glory, you gotta move away from that person and find another who sees your vision more clearly.

Remember, Columbia records couldnt even make 50 Cent go gold. But Interscope made him go Diamond... and 50 had a good deal to do with his success also, why you ask? Well because he worded his complaints and attacked all the jerks involved in his existence, whether a punk ass Ja-Rule, his bitch ass record label at the time or whoever...
HATE BREWS A LOT OF PUBLICITY AND IT KEEPS YOUR NAME UPON THE TONGUES OF THOUSANDS...

Word your shit!!! But while you are venting and letting the world know about one of a million billion jerks, promote your work, promote!!! Oh and never say cheese when they snap those photos, only smile when you are rich!!!
I dont believe in that G-Unit shit, I aint gonna DIE TRYING, I'm gonna LIVE DOING!

UNO.

DREAMING... what does it all mean, or doesn't mean... Let's talk about it.

2005-10-23T19:23:00.000-04:00

Hello boys’ n girls, it’s me your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla and you are once again right up on my BLOG ave, on a cyber corner in the middle of my Literary Hood. Peeps, I’m working on an erotic short story for an upcoming anthology and I’m incorporating the science of mysticism and the magic of dreams within my story.

We aint here in BLOG Ville to describe my story in synopsis or provide the whole damn story for you to read or a snippet for that matter. Though I’ve done so in the past we are not nestled within the present and you are within my presence, though not physically in spirit and I’m here to talk about dreams. Now I’m pretty sure all of us know exactly what a dream is but just in case a very small handful of you don’t I’m gonna break down what a dream is.

Dreams are thoughts, visions, and other sensations that occupy the mind in sleep. Dreams occur during that part of sleep when there are rapid eye movements (REMs). We have 3 to 5 periods of REM sleep per night. They usually come at intervals of 1-2 hours and are quite variable in length. An episode of REM sleep may be brief and last but 5 minutes. Or it may be much longer and go for over an hour.

About 20% of sleep is REM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, perhaps an hour and a half of that time, 90 minutes, is REM sleep.

REM sleep is characterized by a number of other features besides REM, including rapid, low-voltage brain waves on the electroencephalographic (EEG) recording, irregular breathing and irregular heart rate and-- what may be most evident to someone else—involuntary muscle jerks.

Non-REM or NREM sleep is a dreamless sleep. During NREM, the brain waves on the EEG are typically slow and of high voltage, the breathing and heart rate are both slow and regular, the blood pressure is low, and the sleeper is relatively still. NREM sleep is divided into 4 stages of increasing depth.

About 80% of sleep is NREM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, all but maybe an hour and a half is spent in dreamless NREM sleep.

Dreams are penetrable; meaning it has been found experimentally that one can communicate with a person who is dreaming. Wow!

The content of dreams is sometimes the topic of psychoanalysis. While this method of therapy is less common that it once was some doctors still look at dreams as a diagnostic clue to medical disorders. For example, children with bipolar disorders have been found to frequently have a particular type of nightmares, and especially lucid dreams are a side-effect of certain medications. These clues indicate that chemicals in the brain, as well as life events and our own preoccupations, influence our dreams.

Dreaming is not uniquely human. Cats and dogs dream, judging from the physiologic features. So apparently do many other animals. Wow again!

The word “dream’ is traditionally tracked back to an Anglo-Saxon word that meant joy, gladness, or mirth. However, “dream” more likely came from another word (from Sanskrit) meaning deception. Thus, when we dream, is it a joy or a deception?

Now you know what dreams are and I’m pretty sure you have had quite a few and can recall a handful or many. Here is the assignment Literary Hoodie… I want you to tell me about a recent dream or your views on the definition of dreams or the aspect of dreaming. Feel free to touch on this subject in any way, shape or form you see fit. You know how we do on this BLOG and I will answer you guys with what little knowledge and information I have on the subject. And I will even do a bit of research for you if your comments are interesting enough, creating a separate BLOG to discuss the issue if you so move me.

Here are a few things I’ve put in bold lettering that I’ve acquired and find interesting. Feel free to roll with anyone or series of these or give me something from you own mind (for a fucking change)…

A dream can warn us of potential danger.
Frequently things that trouble us crystallize in a dream.
Everyone who sleeps- dreams- including animals.
When you take a nap- you are ten times more likely to remember your dreams.
One average, we sleep for a third of each day. Take your age and divide it by 1/3 and you will know how many years you have been asleep. For example- if you are 30 years old- you have slept for 10 years.

And let’s not forget about those wet dreams, those sexual subliminal situations during REM. I’m gonna dedicate a completely different BLOG on that shit. But for now let us start here…

UNO

I know we are completely off of some literary shit, but look at what this girl got!

2005-10-21T04:16:00.000-04:00

My dame got these. They are shearling boots from some designer named Maxine or something or other, naw doggies I aint hating but you know I was hoping she would get those North Face jump off's. But she has her own brain, and decided to get all sophisticated... if I even spelled that shit right...?
So do you like these classy, shearling numbers, or the straight hood stomping thermal North Face whether the classics you are gonna have to scower Ebay for, or the new ones. I blogged a pic of both and here are the boots (well, one pair at least) my girl is gonna throw down with when the snow hits us...

Don't worry we get back to some heavy literary issues next week. And remember in November we get a bit hip hoppish...
But as of now, well lets think about boots for the ladies... and winter clothing...

Oh yeah, though me and my publisher brawl with words via email on the regular... his lovely woman is about to deliver...! So we wish them the very best and hope it's a girl (because that's what I would want)!

Look at how thorough I am...

2005-10-20T00:04:00.000-04:00

Those North Face boots that I want my girl to wear this winter aint around anymore. You might be able to find them on Ebay but good luck... And maybe if you write to The North Face company they might have a few pair in some warehouse somewhere...? But these are the closest thing to the original jump off's and these niggas cost only $100 bucks at most retail stores. I know they're at Paragons over on 14th street because everything North Face makes is...
That's all I could gather tonight, but while I'm out shopping I'll check. I don't think my girl will like these as much as the original classic stompers I posted yesterday and I know Olivia wanted those but if you guys gotta settle do so...
I do nothing but Timbs myself...

I get this hat every year...

2005-10-19T19:59:00.000-04:00

Yo, I never leave home without this in the winter. I have been getting this same hat for the past six years. But then I always rock some form of North Face every year. Whether a full technology jacket or a Fleese vest or jacket. This hat can be rocked without a North Face jacket to compliment it but still carry this in a pocket and keep it hidden till later on that day when the temperature drops lower and then toss it on.
It's some simple shit and you can wear it with all forms of shit, but the best thing is that the shit is warm and it's unisex... They got a women's version and they got it in pink... if you gay or on some Dip Set shit.

Check these out...

2005-10-19T19:42:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna convince my girl to get a pair of these jump offs! They are North Face boots, some frosty the snow man shit but nevertheless they are hot! I first saw them like six years ago and I was opened the moment i saw them. They don't make these for men so I want you dames to wear these when it starts snowing.

Nothing are better than these feet rims. They look really warm and if you ladies wear a North Face jacket and a North Face skully and leave your weave or locks or whatever dangling down out of the hat...

These boots will compliment anything black and or North Face. Wearing them is a Sex in the City statement for any dame who wanna be trendy and looking good when its butt ass cold out.

I don't know how much they cost but I wanna know what you people think of these.

I want my girl to get a pair.

Holla at me...

Words of Art...

2005-10-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

Below this is a few words about book 2 of the Diamond Series.

DIAMOND DYNASTY

2005-10-19T07:59:00.000-04:00

DIAMOND DYNASTY
Oh yes, I’m displaying a bit of my own Word Art. Diamond Dynasty by your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla, book two of the Diamond Series opens up right where Diamond Drought (book one of the series) left you, in complete and utter quagmire.

Monique’s death is haunting our hazel eyed thug Major, literally. Prime Time’s rap career is exceeding everyone’s expectations; Rich is on the offensive and determined to extract some sort of vengeance on his arch nemesis the notorious pimp Willie Green. Anna is pregnant by Afta and we are awaiting the birth of the child.

While all of this is circling within the soap opera like format of my fantastic writing (tooting my own horn) the black Erika Kane, Shantel is still plotting, and she throws a monkey wrench right in the mechanics of Rich and Leaya’s relationship. Your favorite white girl Germany is becoming the female Eminem and still popping pills, Dante’s obsession to kill Major bubbles till bullets bust. You finally get introduced to Afta’s overly thorough and gangsta baby’s mother Destiny. And new additions to the cast are introduced… since other characters face their demise and As the Ghetto Turns the ending leaves you anticipating book three, Reign of the Pimp…
….I was more focused with this second installment, my sophomore book because Diamond Drought was me putting a few toes in the pool, testing the temperature of the water before you slink into it. Now Diamond Dynasty is me in complete and utter control of the situation, I’m like a damn lifeguard now. I adjust the temperature of the water myself now, or better yet I’m diving right in I’m a warm blooded mammal, unaffected by changes in the environment. I adapt.
Practice makes perfect. But when you are writing a six book series you gotta crescendo and draw the readers in with a fantastic build up. Diamond Drought was almost like an introduction and now that you know the cast Diamond Dynasty is Falcon Crest and Dallas all wrapped up in the music industry, the mean streets of Brooklyn and the plotting of a true villain. Its broads, dames, thugs, rappers, glamour, guns, cars, music, murder, mayhem and the occasional spliff passed. It’s the Diamond Series. If you really wanna know what Hip Hop fiction is, read a book that incorporates Hip Hop? If not it aint nothing but street…

ASK AND YOU SHALL GET, YOU WANT FOXY YOU GOT FOXY...!

2005-10-17T19:48:00.000-04:00

Aww, look at a cute young Foxy Brown. Now I know what you are wondering, why do you have a picture of a young Foxy Brown up on Literary Hood super author Brandon McCalla. What does this high profile hoochie gotta do with the literary world buddy? I know that's exactly what you are wondering and you can blame this photo on a person named Darla who emailed me about the Million Man Movement blog and then wanted to know what I thought about Foxy.
She wanted to know what I thought about Foxy Brown's ear injury, her recent scuffle with some rapper out in Florida and her current court situation. I'm gonna tell this pesky little vixen Darla all about my opinions on ol Foxy Brown but before I do, I just wanted to give you guys one of my favorite Foxy Brown photos, this one above my words.
I met Foxy around the time she took this and I was intrigued by her. But right now Lil Kim intrigues me more. So Darla not only are you gonna get what I think about Foxy (and I love Foxy mind you, so you are treading on thin ice, be very careful Darla, very careful) but you are also gonna get what I think about Lil Kim. And I shall call her Kimberly Jones since we are both native to Brooklyn, New York (actually all three of us were born and raised here) and I've been doing quite a bit of research on both dames.
I actually know one of these dames quite well, very well, and I don't really wanna get into that because I'm supposed to really keep it real here in my neck of the hood so I'm gonna hold all my personal shit aside and really let both of these two bitches have it, if the feeling moves me. But quite honestly I'm gonna take you back and give you a bit of history, and show you how the both of these dames got raised up in the world of hip hop than just simply trash them and give you more of the gossip you probably wanna read but you aint gonna read much of it here.
Darla just gave me an excuse to break down some hip hop history, and I'm gonna use the month of november specifically to chronicle what's going down with Foxy and Kim and a few other hip hop noticables and a few not noticed. Thank you Darla for you have given me an excuse to touch upon hip hop.
PATIENCE, THE FOXY BROWN AND LIL KIM BLOG IS GONNA TAKE A MOMENT. I got two novels pending and I can't let these broads divert my attention that much, but since Darla emailed me and really wanted to know exactly how I felt about Foxy since I quoted her quite vigorously at the beginning of my first book Diamond Drought, I decided to do both of these dames dirty since to some they are both sides of the same coin. And you guys know how dirty money can get, the reason why criminals launder it, I know laundry, launder... terrible, I'm slipping right...?
TILL THEN BLOGGERS...

UNO

The Movement a Waste of Time, but Niggas were getting Numbers...?

2005-10-17T09:42:00.000-04:00

Black people have suffered two disasters in the past couple of months, hurricane Katrina and the Million Man Movement. It was a disaster. It’s me your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla and I am here just to give you a very brief vision of what went down…
…nothing but niggerism went down and that aint even a word. But it’s the only way I can describe the function. Two of my spies were on the scene and they were mortified. I had one very stern thug in the place and a very militant black dame who rocks an afro. They called me up periodically during the day with bits and pieces of information. But on Sunday night they both called me and gave me a substantial amount of gossip, ahem I mean information and none of it was nice.
     I heard Erika Badu gave a speech just like that guy in In Living Color, you know the inmate, the guy in jail who spoke with a bunch of big words that didn’t make any sense, that was Erika.
     Wyclef performed and did an excellent job, until he started doing back flips and handstands on the stage… Why was he jigging with such vigor? I thought that day was supposed to be a day of enlightenment and I thought we were beyond jigging now… I guess not.
     Jim Jones came out to speak, but he came to the stage with his non radio edited music. So nigga and bitch was being blasted in abundance and a hook intricately explaining how better he is living than the average nigga with his 24 inches of rims and diamonds galore was riveting throughout the courtyard via a terrible sound system. How low have we become as a people…
     I heard a slew of Christian ministers were on the scene preaching, whoops did I say preaching I meant recruiting like they were the god damn army. It seemed almost despicable and my home girl with the afro described these black Christians as the white Christian missionaries who waltzed into Africa… sad but true.
     Of course the pot was being passed around via Louis Farrakhan but then there were peddlers, street fiction authors selling books, niggas selling mix CD’s and people selling tee shirts (of Biggie and Tupac like them niggas are our damn saviors, like they perished on a cross or something). What is wrong with us? My thug correspondent said that a few Bloodz n Crypz were in the house like they were a political party and they were being treated as such. He said that shit even baffled him and he’s a damn repeat offender and a former convict, a hoodlum. He said that shit made him wanna seek some sort of solace in his existence.
     The two people that I had on the scene hadn’t gotten a bit of enlightenment; actually they said they were left in the dark. And ironically enough though the call for homosexuals to attend was given; only one homo spoke at the Million Man Movement…
     I want feedback on this. I want the people who actually attended the Million Man Movement to share their experience because my two cronies said it was a horrible experience and was a waste of time and effort. What do you think? And mind you when Wyclef has to do four back flips and three handstands, well that just means that the crowd really wasn’t that enthusiastic but if they weren’t enthusiastic about that and still no enthusiasm over the speeches since on television you could see a hundred or so hoochies with their hands combing out their weaves, popping gum and on their cell phones. And a whole bunch of dudes taking glances at fat booties; I saw that from my house on C-Span. I friend of mine taped about a good six hours of it and I was shocked. I caught a nigga getting a number right on television and I was at first like Holla!!! But then I was like yo, this is the Million Man Movement, I could tell he wasn’t gonna enlighten her when they hooked up, he was hooking up with that dame for some ass.
So I say if people didn’t attend this thing for the unity of the people, what did they attend for?

Below this Pic is the INTERVIEW!

2005-10-14T08:04:00.000-04:00

HERE IS QUEENS FINEST Q-BORObooks FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT AND AN AUTHOR OF urban fiction REKNOWN MARK ANTHONY AND BELOW HIM IS THE INTERVIEW WE CONDUCTED FOR my LITERARY HOOD column in i.b Conncept Magazine.
Q-BORObooks was hiring but Mark neglected to contact me or request a resume. This is gonna be the last time you see this nigga on my blog! And you aint gonna see another Q-BORObooks author around my Hood... and that goes for you to Erick Grey...
Just joking... check out the interview... Mark Anthony was on fiya!!!
UNO

Mark Anthony Interview

2005-10-14T08:02:00.000-04:00

LITERARY HOOD
SEGEMENT DOS:
THE INTERVIEW
MARK ANTHONY

Do you know what on Fire means? It means you are hot, blazing, sizzling, crackling like meat on a skillet, and it means that you are doing the shit hard.
     Mark Anthony is definitely on fire and I got the opportunity to interview Queens’s finest author. Once again people this is i.b Concept magazine and it is I your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla. I told you from the jump that you were gonna get a huge dosage of LITERARY HOOD this issue and I delivered it as only I could. Most are way to pussy to say what they must but not I. I seldom nestle under the safety of the tortoise shell and neither does Mark Anthony.
     Mark Anthony in addition to being the President and founder of Q-boro Books is also an author in his own right and began as such. He has two Essence bestselling books, Paper Chasers and Dogism and Lady’s Night published by St. Martins Press is also in bookstores nation wide.
     Mark and I have been jostling with our busy schedules, attempting to get this interview done since the i.b Concept’s promotional issue but to no avail. And it’s crazy because I stared out in the street fiction book circuit on tour with him and another well polished author Erick Gray the creator of Booty Call (he also has two books under Q-boro and another title soon to be release on St. Martin’s).
     I don’t wanna bore you with the lesser details. Thus I decided to get right into it. Mark came to Brooklyn and scooped me up right on a fucking street corner where I was posted up, doing my usual, chatting to my dame on my cell and surveying the hood. So we hopped in his new truck, got some grub and a bit of alcohol and drove somewhere where we could get the talking done in solitude and silence. We stayed right in the truck, Mark turned down the music, I started drinking some Bacardi chased with Sunkist soda, pressed that record button on my digital recorder and then Mark blessed me with his honesty and it went like this:
     B: This is a real comfortable situation. I don’t really have an overwhelming amount of questions, but alright, when I first met you, you had Dogism out. Who published that, you right?
     M: Yeah, I published that, on my own…
     B: Before that it was Paper Chasers right?
     M: Yeah.
     B: What was going on with that, I know that was published by Black Print. I’m trying to get interviews with all of you Black Print authors, the exclusive. I wanna know all about that shit.
     M:  well here’s the thing. Like even before that I had Paper Chasers and Dogism before any of this Q-boro Books stuff happened. This was back in 99, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I met Carl Weber. Carl Weber used to have his bookstore. This was before he was even writing and I had my books, I was like yo how can I get my books out here. In fact I was looking for an editor, so he introduced me to his sister and she edited all the books.
All of the publishers were fronting on me so I was like I’m gonna do this on my own. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I had these wack books, black n white covers, this and that. I was paying way to much money to print them. I was paying 4 dollars a book so I wasn’t really making any money. I didn’t know anything about distribution or anything. I was making a little money but every bit of money I was making I was putting back into printing. And I wasn’t seeing any profits. So I kind of got discouraged and side tracked. So I stayed away from it a little bit, so me and Carl kind of lost touch and one day I went in the bookstore and saw Carl Weber’s books. And I saw all of his books in the bookstores and I was like yo he stuck with it and his shit it blowing up. Carl had got my number from somebody and called me and was like yo what up, I’m at black print and I want to do your books. Since I was just sitting on them I let Black Print do it and they published Paper Chasers and everything went down hill. There was a lot of stuff in my mind like don’t deal with them but I did it and was hit with all forms of bullshit. Like this guy Dexter who ran the company, he was arrogant, you could tell shit wasn’t gonna go right, but they gave me money.
     B: They gave you money, advancement?
     M: yeah they gave me advancement but it wasn’t much something like 5000.
     B: Shit! That’s like standard or above standard now. It’s even lower. I know a nigga who got 500 dollars.
     M: Black Print was giving real good percentages. They were paying like 10% off of the cover price in royalties. But they gave you that little bit up front and weren’t paying you afterwards. Just to rope you in. So that experience with Black Print went bad. I knew the wording in their contract was really weak, like I read through it and I saw a couple of loopholes in it. So I handed them Dogism. And they sat on it, they had 45 days to respond and they didn’t. I got my lawyer involved and he said tell them they had 45 days to comply and since they didn’t they rejected the book. I was able to leave. And that’s how I got out of my contract. So I did Dogism on my own. And I was like I’m gonna do this 10x as better as them. And plus there are a lot of authors out there and I can give them a shot. And I was like if I do this I’m gonna be the guinea pig. I aint gonna take some one and see what I can do. So I was like if I do something I’m gonna go out and publish mine first. That’s what I did. And all the while I still been fighting with Black Print. And I won. I just got the rights back to Paper Chasers and they had to pay me my royalty money and my lawyer fees so now Paper Chasers is coming  back out under Q-boro Books in December.
     B: That’s what’s up. A throwback book; I want my rights back to my first book. I’m waiting for that because I’m like sort of fucked up in the game also because I know it wasn’t promoted properly nor is it getting the appropriate push.
     M: The bottom line is a book can sell forever. As long as you promote it and keep it out there.
     B: It’s crazy because you need the right things, the right cover. There are so many aspects. You can have a terrible book and a great cover and it will sell. And you can have a great book and a terrible cover and not make a dime. When I first went on tour with you, we had the same publicist for a minute. I didn’t understand you at all. I knew about the Black Print situation but I didn’t know enough. I just got into it, people started telling me shit. My publisher Earl had something to do with it through Wahida Clark or whatever and I learned a lot about that situation through him. You might be the only one who got out of it in a positive way. I think a lot of other people really didn’t get out of it.
     M: Everybody was scared. So I was like yo a contract is an agreement and I aint no dummy, I can read a contract. I aint no lawyer but I can read a contract. It’s common sense. And when I sent my books the postage was always certified, I kept a good paper trail and kept my records. So when they got stuff, they couldn’t say they didn’t get it. Most of the authors were scared to fight Black Print. They didn’t want to get disrespected or blackballed.
I don’t know what most of the other authors are doing, people like Hope Clark. Wahida is in a different situation because she was locked up. Publishing with Black Print was like an abusive relationship, they would beat you up and then say sorry about that and say whatever it took to take you back. That’s how Dexter was. He would call you, say the check is in the mail and it would never come. He would say shit so you would relax and then the check would never come. But I tell everybody the best thing that happened to me is Black Print because now when I deal with people and walk into companies I’m prepared. I know about honest business and wise business now. I think that’s why Q-boro Books’ is blowing up.  All you gotta do is the opposite of what Black Print did. I would have probably made the same mistakes that they did. Like they were supposed to pay everybody in 90 days and everybody knows you just can’t do that. Actually you cannot do it because you don’t even get your money in 90 days and they structured the contract like that and that’s wrong. And plus I know how stupid they are because Black Print was around before Triple Crown. They had Anthony white they had Erick gray.
     B: They had Denise Campbell…
     M: Yeah, Kwan was almost gonna sign to them. They could have had the game locked down. So many other people would have sent them their books. But people started talking about how terrible they were through word of mouth. Like the Lady’s Night book that I got could have been theirs, Anthony whites Ghetto Girl books those could have been their books, Wahida Clark's whole series could have been theirs now she is on another publishing label.
     B: They really lost their integrity to. I can’t see them pulling out of it either. You know what's crazy though you got crooks like Culture Plus Distribution who haven’t lost theirs and people are still doing business with them and fucking with them. Because you would really have to do bad to get blackballed because there are so many dumb niggas in this industry?
And I'm glad you talked about Black Print’s demise because I was gonna ask you about the whole Black Print shit and I asked a few other authors and they were scared to say shit. I didn’t even have my tape recorder on me. You spoke a lot and I would like to thank you for that. The hardest crook, criminal and thug fresh out of jail who just wrote a book get pussy when you ask them a question and don’t wanna say shit. Some of these street authors and urban writers are punks. But then again you are a big person to me right now. Your company got like over 10 titles out and I see your shit everywhere so you should be confident and not scared to say shit. If anyone wanted to interview me about me dilemma I would talk, because yo sometimes I feel like I’m signed to Black Print.
     M:  It’s like this, if you tell the truth. It doesn’t matter if you are thug or not. If I’m telling facts about how Black Print did people, what can they say? If you tell the facts about how Culture Plus don’t be paying people and how they be treating people…
     B: Bounced checks; and yo that cat who owns the joint aint really hospitable. He treats certain authors like they don’t exist and treat others like something else, but most don’t get paid. Mark, one author was like, “Yo, he’s cool and he won’t jerk me.” Yo Mark, that person came right back to me saying, “You were right.” A dishonest person is gonna be dishonest regardless of who or what.
     M: Bounced checks, that’s bad. Just don’t use them. The bottom line is no entity can stop me, the major distributors or whatever. If they don’t wanna take my books somebody else will.
     B: I met you when you were doing your street grind. You were doing Dogism and Paper Chasers and when I met you, you told me to always handle my street grind and you taught me a lot and I remember all the shit you told me. About staying focused and staying away from the book groupies. Remember that time that girl waited in Borders for a half hour for me to come while you and Kwan were doing a signing. Shit is crazy. But she was cool but some of them damn near stalk you.
     M: See the thing is like this I tell everybody when I started Q-boro I started it with 400 dollars and a credit card. I didn’t have money but what I did have was the ability to make money. So all the money I made I flipped over into other stuff. It was my book. I owned it. I printed it and went out on the streets and sold it. I printed 15000 copies and if you sell them quick the minimum you can make is 90,000. And I was like I don’t care. Other authors were like, oh look Mark it out on the street selling books. I didn’t care because I knew it was temporary. I knew where I was going and I was making money…

     Shit people, the interview went on for like 45 minutes. This was by far one of the best and most informative interviews I’ve ever conducted and I’ve done many an interview with authors and other celebrity types. Mark Anthony made it easy for me. Just as easily as he makes money selling books. Q-boro Books has a wide array of titles and they are even doing other genres, something most black publishers are frightened of. Them pussies!
     I got a lot of respect for this Dude and I wish him the best of luck and I don’t believe in it. Neither does Mark Anthony. He knows his accomplishments were achieved through wit, business savvy, determination and quality product. I commend the nigga. You are gonna be hearing a lot from him.
     People pick up Mark’s latest Lady’s Night published by St. Martin’s press and its everywhere you can get your hands on a book. Q-boro Books are available everywhere and in i.b Concept’s next Words of Art section (not this issue’s but the following) I will display a few of the Q-boro Books and give you a smidgen of insight on each and you will get a one liner from each of the authors.
     Now, I know what you’re thinking, what do I have line up for the next installment of LITERARY HOOD. Can your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla top this issue? We shall see.
I usually give you the line up but some of these authors don’t comply or think they are on Oprah Winfrey’s book clubs bestseller list. So they are sloppy with their shit. But now that i.b Concept is in full swing I get dozens of phone calls and emails about “Yo, what about that interview.” Now I’m feeling a bit arrogant myself. Now maybe you should send me a gift basket or I’ll call you when I get off of my own high horse. The altitude is making me a bit woozy due to the lack of oxygen. Make sure you put an oxygen tank in the basket, in the middle of all that fruit and those wedges of cheese.
     Holla at me at brandonmccalla89@yahoo.com and let me know shit. Hate or otherwise I’m local and always in the damn building. What building you ask? Naw, I aint gonna tell you that. I got enough stalkers.
     Holla at Mark Anthony at www.qborobooks.com
     UNO

Karrine Steffon... Aint she lovely.

2005-10-13T14:38:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, Karrine Steffon. She was in the building on Oct 1st looking quite sophisticated with her glasses on. And she was well poised in her seat and quiet engaging and friendly. But they dont call her superhead for nothing and you should see that porno she did with super porn star Mr. Markus. She was called Honey then because of her honey complexion and boy can she... ha ha, talk about a woman with a head on her shoulders, Karrine is a genius. I like smart women.
So I walked up to her and softened her up with gifts, a copy of both my books which are hip hop fiction and she said that she hates hip hop... but it's the thought that counts right? Oh and I gave her a copy if i.b Concept magazine and urged her to give me an interview in the near future for my Literary Hood column... she just smiled and I just thought about how she worked her mind in that porno...
...Then I told her that we met some time ago at a party in Queens and tossed a name at her. Oh, yeah she played quite coy and dumb for a moment but after I mentioned the dead body they found in the crib she remembered who I was talking about. I aint even gonna get into it. It's old hood shit. And I aint no snitch. Karrine handled herself well but then now n days most hoochies do.
Read her book and judge for yourself. And if you can get a copy of her interview on hot 97 and the one she did on the star and bucwild show do so. She actually admitted to a few lies, I want you guys to listen to those and then read the book and see the difference between her words and her voice. But I aint mad at her. Because she was the star of the Circle of Sisters jump off, ironically enough.
Smile, you're on Literary Hood...

UNO

I stole these pics, sorry Heather...

2005-10-13T14:21:00.000-04:00

I actually stole these pics off of www.disilgold.com but this is how I promote my girl Heahter Covington on the low and give her super site props because you get mad information about our literary circuit from her. She is everywhere anybody who is anybody in this field needs to be. Look at her first off, isn't she lovely. Now towards your right the every vibrant Denise Campbell and her sister (sheesh, I aint good with names but she lovely also) and this dude with the red jacket. Look at his ear, and how it shines... I was wondering if that shit could cut glass...! They were giving shout outs on the radio and guess what, yup Heather neglected to mention me... and Denise neglected to mention me also. What does this spell for Denise, well she never gets a write up in my Literary Hood column again. And her next review will be a terrible one, you will think I'm down with the Rawsista's... just joking! Everybody laugh...! Heh Heh... Denise you better shout my name really loud next time you are near a microphone or anything else that sticks out and up in your face... This is Literary Hood people. You know how we do... ManKiller by Denise Campbell in a bookstore near you and on www.amazon.com just type her name and she pops up.

UNO

Gangsta scribbler and the old dude!

2005-10-13T14:16:00.000-04:00

This experienced playa with me in this flick is JOHN RAINBOW and you better respect him because he's one of our jems. He's like the last kat from the big bang i mean big band era and he was gangsta back in his heyday, bagging all the big band groupies and been keeping it real in his musical circuit for over 50 damn years. THAT'S OLD SCHOOL FOR REAL and I had to take a pic with him. See he purchased a copy of i.b Concept magazine from his local newstand and read my Literary Hood column and the interview i did with Kwan. That is as real as it gets and like GoodPeoples from my favorite book club ARC would say, "It is what it is..."

UNO

2005CIRCLE OF SISTERS OCT 1ST

2005-10-13T14:10:00.000-04:00

Once again flashing Diamond Dynasty just like Kwan told me to do. And here I am, Brandon McCalla with Erick Grey and he's holding up two of his Words of Art. The guy with the unidentified jump suit is some dude from WBLS who I should know (sorry buddy, you know how we do in the Literary Hood). Erick Grey and I took a flick with him and his two lovely nieces... once again the ever present and beautiful Heather Covington was snapping pictures a plenty and she made sure your favorite author got in most of them.
Holla at her at www.disilgold.com

2005CIRCLE OF SISTERS OCT 1ST

2005-10-13T14:04:00.000-04:00

Check out your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla at the Jacob Javits Center with super poet and author Hickson, some other author in a black shirt and my lovely publicist Nakea Murray... Diamond Dynasty in your EFYN face like a can of mace baby! And I aint smiling a bit because I'm always hostile. The ever lovely and keen minded Nubian literary powerhouse Heather Covington took this flick with her sophisticated digital camera. Give her a round of applause and check her out on www.disilgold.com.
UNO

ib concept magazine's special LITERARY HOOD hate edition

2005-09-15T18:22:00.000-04:00

YOU GUYS WANTED TO READ IT BEFORE IT HITS THE MAGAZINE SHELVES...
HERE IT IS, THE SPECIAL HATE EDITION OF LITERARY HOOD
don't get to angry, and if you feel pain it is because the truth... you know the rest.

LITERARY HOOD
Special Hate edition
Brandon McCalla

Segment uno: yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of hate, I shall fear no publisher.

Salutations ladies n germs, yup you guessed it with but a few shallow words typed, it is I your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla and this is another installment of LITERARY HOOD. As usual I’m channeling my mitigated commentary and cogitations abroad and stretching this shit towards those who truly wanna know what’s what in my, no, our little literary hood.

The column is a bit bigger this issue since this is my special hate installment. I.b Concept allows me to work my words in any particular length and give me jurisdiction to dictate the proper protocol and I always take it for granted and act accordingly. I just wanted to explain the extra shit you are about to read. I got multiple treats and a bit of hate lined up, prepare.

Speaking of bigger and multiplying, our hood is growing and that sometimes is a bad thing. Some people think growth is good but most of the time its bad, very bad. Think of it as obesity or better yet urban sprawl. Like when you got to many niggas packed in one club, the way Diddy did it years back with Heavy D. Either the fire department will come and shut shit down when you over exceed the capacity or people die via getting trampled to death in the stampede when a feisty thug lets off a few rounds or a Jamaican shouts, “BLOOD FIRE!” and then sets it off. Either way it’s no good. Way too many authors are coming through with manuscripts that become books and not enough well placed words and talent are in these manuscripts. A lot of people are authors but so few are true writers. Please try to situate your brain to understand the difference.

Now, you guys know me, I’m the most underrated writer in our little business though I write more capaciously and do more scribbling in other genres than just street fiction, I’ve been through this circuits gambit and for good or ill this is my neck of the hood now. Thus I’m gonna break a few things down to you each and every time you pick up an issue of i.b Concept magazine. And you are gonna get it right at the beginning because Mr. Blanco and Dynamic Dean know that I pimp my words and demand that my column be first. I’m a hater. Fuck them other writers, even those whom bless the magazine in question. I deserve top billing and will fleece and heist whatever I can and tell all of you that I’m worth my weight in gold, though I don’t weigh much. Keeping it gangsta!

Getting to the gist of my damn words, I would like to compliment Vickie Stringer and Teri Woods for keeping their publishing companies situated independently because think, the first record label was a singularly small business. Then other record companies popped up and those record labels eventually became the major labels. It was a process and a lot of these record labels split like amoeba and branched out or combined like osmosis to form bigger ones. Once upon a time there were a handful of black owned record labels pushing out rap records and the bigger companies (the various 7 major labels) ate those companies up and though a few black people got paid, no black people have any major control over any aspect of the music they original created and pressed up as vinyl. Excluding Russell Simmons and a few others, I think Russell lassoed a great deal of the big picture but even he eventually sold most of his Def Jam aspects. Though I’m quite sure he’s on the board of directors, but what is that really. Who is the true owner, the guy who you never see who has all of the fucking money, that’s who…?
Dig this, we created doo-wop, blues, jazz, rock n roll, and reggae and rap and as of now we only own a smidgen of reggae in my opinion thanks to VP records who still hasn’t given in and a few die hard artists who don’t want others digging in their pockets.

This sounds oh so similar to street fiction.

Now Jay-Z has started a world music label called La Roc Familia records, but check this, it’s under Def Jam records and Def Jam is under Universal Records and Universal owns like almost every rap act. Sure they have a few Negro executives. But the head honcho in complete control, who is he? You guessed correctly, white cooperate America, Mr. Cracker man himself. Imagine that, the white man owns rap and hip-hop (though hip-hop is damn near dead) something that they wanted to crucify less than 15 years ago, but now they own it. Own an art form and culture you created. Now they program you to love the music you spawned and I mean you as in you as a nation of Nubian people in America and the whole damn world. And don’t get me wrong, though this is some Black Nationalist shit I’m merely stating an opinion but I feel every word I type has a whole lot of merit.

This tragedy, this loss of our music, a very creative and powerful art form we created back in 1973 or 74 (debatable) isn’t even ours!!! This is happening to our street literary book genre. It has already occurred with African American fiction in general, Zane has already sold herself to a major publishing house and so has Carl Weber. And guess what; as long as we keep selling to them major houses we will never have a major house of our own. They started off small, smaller than most of these black publishing houses and look at what they turned out to be. Why can’t we do the same? I think I know why, read.

Who do we have to thank for another piece of ourselves being yanked away; no, you guessed wrong don’t thank Zane or Mr. Weber because they did what any person seeking more money and stability would do, settle down and marry a rich ugly white man who can provide for them. Why? Well for one the white man doesn’t do us as dirty as we do ourselves. And I aint referring to the white dame Mr. Weber married (that’s some Jungle Fever shit and Wendy Williams has that monologue locked down. Let him get on her show and explain himself. I plan on marrying an Eskimo myself).

Who we can thank though are the little people like Culture Plus distributions and the Black Print publishing house, these people paved the way because it all begins from the ground level. Once people see that we can not control our own creations and conduct honest business amongst ourselves they take matters into their own hands, especially when these creations are gold mines. We always create or invest things that change an aspect of reality. Hip hop is the biggest commodity in the world right now and the most influential and the most visible. Yet, we don’t truly own a speck of it. Even those independent record labels like Cash Money n such are still getting distribution through one of the major houses (Universal records). You can never become a major label playing second fiddle to a violin.

It only takes time, Triple Crown Publications began with just Kwan’s book Gangsta then it flourished. We need to hold out and wait for our creations to grow up. Black publishers don’t fold. If just one of us folds the rest shall cave in, and cave in hard, aint that right Zane and Mr. Weber.
The rap world folded years ago and it has already begun in the Street fiction circuit though Zane and Carl Weber aint street friction by a long shot, they are still our literary jewels and thus I make my point through them and at their expense for if they would have merged together back when this was under corporate America’s radar, I would be so rich right now and so would they and a few others. Why you ask? Well for one the standards of authorship in the street fiction genre would have anteed up and no one is as eloquent with the pen or shall I say Dell laptop than me and them (yes I am comparing myself to them though my writings are far harsher and sadly enough under promoted). And the quality of the product would no longer be in question and most of us wouldn’t have these horrible covers and the terrible editing.

All of these black publishing companies should have already merged together like sensible white businesses do, like Time and Warner did and Sprint and Nextel. Why are they not selfish and greedy yet we are. And you know what, once a few authors get deals on majors, we lose everything also, it is already happening. Like how there once was an underground rap circuit and now there is only this damn near pop cornball stuff we hear on hot 97 and power 105 every damn day. That shit aint gangsta, Ice Cube’s first album was gangsta. What is so gangsta about all the diamonds you are wearing and how cute your car is? You guys sound like bitches. And you faggots get manicures, I seen a few of you on MTV getting groomed. What happened to the other rap acts, where are they now…? Why does Universal Records have almost all of rap music? You don’t know but I do and I’m gonna attempt to explain it briefly. That way I can get into the interview I conducted with one of Queens Borough’s finest Mark Anthony. And he doesn’t speak Spanish and he ain’t digging out Jennifer Lopez. This is Literary Hood. You know how we do this.

Boom! This country was founded by people who were abusive and couldn’t provide for themselves. Slave owners! Because you wouldn’t need a slave if you could do it yourself, that or you were just too damn lazy. Either way the black people the white man boated to America didn’t want any parts of his schemes and antics. So thus when a person doesn’t wanna do something, you force them, like I’m forcing you to continue to read with my shock value.

So the white man was and still is in some people’s opinion slave owners. But back then they were slave owners preaching about one nation under god and equality for all…!? The declaration of independence was actually treason against England and America allied with France (another group of treasonous people) to gain an advantage. Then they created the United States of America and Capitalism and then told France to fuck off. Real gangsta, you can’t even be mad at them. The United States promised France land and a few other things then blocked them out, though we still got New Orleans, and fed them to England. The revolution was barely a victory, the Americans won by the skin of their teeth. But it wasn’t anything our ancestors could truly relish over, we were slaves! France had their own revolution and had less aid then America. So what is so heroic about being a traitor? As horrible as England was, the people who broke away from them, and I’m talking throughout history were just as miscreant and horrible. But we must analyze the stratagem. The way they unified and held firm to what they started and kept it, wouldn’t give in even when the penalty was death. All we are doing it writing and selling books, and we buy our books. These are specific books for us. Why are so many of us unsettled, getting jerked and not happy?

It gets deeper and I know I already got some scrutiny. But peep it, after the declaration of independence, America began fighting amongst themselves; the civil war. Capitalism is better served without blatant slavery, the north knew this, and I challenge a few of you to read a book called The Wealth of Nations. It explains business and capitalism in a nutshell and it also shows you why all these black publishing companies should have merged and it shows that buying books from vendors began the ending of us having street fiction all to ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, aint nothing wrong with hustling books, but when you haven’t a great amount of control over your own creation, you are a damn fool to give outsiders a more lucrative portion than the one you barely possess.

I know; let us share with the white man, Africans or anyone else as long as I’m getting paid right? Wrong! What are they sharing with us? They won’t even let you harness the stuff you created on your own and you give them control of it? You would do better to destroy it than give it away. They only accept what you spawn after they adopt it, before hand they persecute it. But just think, the Americans wouldn’t fold to the Mighty English, now look at us and look at them. Now look at you (authors, distributors, publishers). You look like an idiot (and so do I since I’m amongst you idiots. I’m an idiot also).

When we jerk and mistreat ourselves, being greedy publishers who don’t wanna give authors their proper royalties and hardly giving them much to begin with, distributors not paying publishers on time and those post dated checks that wind up bouncing, aint that right Culture Plus, and let’s not forget about these street vendors. All of these people are us and I see no one else to blame.

You might think it’s a good thing to get your books for 10 bucks at a discount from those vendors instead of the 14.95 but it’s terrible for the black economy. Remember those Africans on 125th street aint American blacks. They aint us, they aint create this shit. Why are they involved right now? We barely have this shit underhand. You are only African if you were born in Africa. They have their own economical system and we aint apart of that. But you know what, these small independent book publishing companies are us and these black owned bookstores are us and we have neglected them. How come?

Direct ordering didn’t work and doesn’t for us. We don’t purchase shit off the net and we only deal with what’s popular, what someone told us was a good read. Who are these jerks telling us what to read? These book clubs filled with older ass women who really don’t know the streets. So they judge our street fiction comparing it to contemporary authors who don’t write as brutally as we do. Mind you basketball aint as brutal as say boxing or football but basketball is still a competitive sport nonetheless. Who made them the judge of good street fiction or bad street fiction? Why wasn’t I apart of this committee meeting?

No one wants to try a new inspiring author out or try something different, like say picking up a book with finer detail and a more creative writing style. The cult following street fiction audience only wants the last book say Teri Woods or Nikki Turner wrote. They just wanna read the last book they read, regardless of all the typos and the really ghetto cover by the same publishing house as the last book they read regardless if the story line is the same premise every book.
These street books aint hip hop books. Aint nothing hip hop about nearly all of them. Yes Diamond Drought, Diamond Dynasty and Reign of the Pimp (my books, the diamond series) are about hip hop, the music industry and my characters rap and I wrote the rhymes for them. That can be considered hip hop and so can Bling by Erika Kennedy but I’m a hater, that book was wack! She should have printed that shit up herself and it should have gone straight to trade paperback. Ms. Kennedy your target audience doesn’t purchase hardcover, hello!

Why do we allow people to word or own wording. Who are these people? What the fuck do they know about hip hop? What is hip hop fiction really, another story whose main character is a gold digger, or some former drug dealer who just got out of jail and wants a portion of his hood back, or doesn’t wanna deal no more but, yeah some of his former peeps give him some trouble. Or a novel about some guy getting locked up for a couple of years, turning fag and letting inmates tap that ass only to get out and start fucking his baby’s mother again. Then she finds out that he’s a homo and she tells her friends. Mind you this story is filled with grammatical errors and terrible writing and bad editing, if it’s even edited at all. Don’t blame the author, blame the consumer who picks up the book, after seeing its trash just by the cover, and then blame that jerk who told that consumer, “The book is hot!”

I also wanna give a shout out to every other author who pimp ‘Harlem’ in their titles. Especially those who don’t live there and rarely pay it a visit. But we buy these books, so all I gotta do is just put a big booty bitch on my cover and some cornball who looks like a thug with a fitted hat and give my title the title of a rap song or an already existing book and then put ‘Harlem’ somewhere in the middle of that. Sounds low maintenance. I might try it one day. Treasure Blue you are Harlem down to the bone marrow. You had the god given right to name your book Harlem Girl Lost.

Black distributors are jerking black publishers. This is very bad business. Distribution is the key to successful business. Getting your goods to where they can be sold, essential for good lucrative business. So what is this saying, is this saying we can’t support our own businesses properly.
The publishers sell their books to the distributors. The distributors sell the books to the vendors, but the publishers sell the books to the vendors also and the authors sell the books to the vendors, because the publishers sell the books to the authors and the authors go straight to the street vendors. Sheesh!

And most authors only get like $1.50 per book if that. So its more money to hustle it yourself only if you are self published. The vendors only charge $10 dollars for a $14.95 book but they are buying the book and making more money than you are off of it. One vendor in Harlem gives you a 50-50 split, meaning you get 5 bucks and so does he. Or he buys your book for 5 bucks. He pays 7 dollars for your book at the distributor. You do the math.

If there were no vendors by now, with the way things are and with good authors like Kwan and good business men like Mark Anthony, the major bookstores would have had no choice but to settle, they always wanna make money, we just never have the patience to hold out. But America held out on England (treason!) and I would rather be treasonous to them then to my own… think about that!

I know, I’ve been jumping around but only because this is the first time you have read me being bro black and this is an issue that I’m gonna continue to break down in a more thorough fashion. I just tossed this bone to inspire thought and also to get feedback, negative I hope because I have loads of facts and pure business knowledge that will destroy any of your doubt, trust me on this.

Writers Digest, a great publication often enough shows us exactly what other authors get and don’t get for their books and how much they make and don’t make. Guess what. Other authors make significantly more than most black authors; how come when we are paying ourselves…?
Thus the more successful street fiction authors and black authors in general are not getting what they deserve, but then again, most of the weaker and less talented authors are making more, just like in the music industry, specifically rap music. And what makes it even more horrible is that these publishers who are underpaying you or not giving you what you deserve, yeah that nigga, the guy who said your book was the next B More Careful (holla at me Shannon); he is the man in the mirror. So you can say we are very ignorant and dumb to not know the difference between talented and less talented street fiction when we invented it. Just like rap, we support the worst artist then complain when we hear them every hour on the hour. I’m tired of this Mike Jones nigga, he’s wack! He only talks about cars, but who bought his CD? You!

Think! Who is more prolific than say a Talib Kweli or Mos Def and they don’t go platinum but an emcee like say Nelly always sells more than their worth. Yes its marketing and yes it’s popularity and all of that, but it’s also us… we purchase these albums and we purchase these books. And we complain about rap, about the content in the words these rappers spit, demoralizing women and promoting violence, but we still purchase the music. Shit I aint complaining but a lot of you people are. I’m complaining about these weak ass street books. Why can’t the prime examples in our genre get their worth? Why can you not see the difference between the good writing and the bad? Why are you judging the book by the cover and only settling for the popular ‘designer’ books?

I can name about 50 authors who you haven’t heard of who don’t do book signings who have sold at least 40,000 books easy (something most urban authors struggle to do) and they are all white and they have no major marketing nor are they significantly popular. You don’t know who they are and I just learned about them. They are from various genres and a few are writing for independent houses just like Triple Crown, lets say white triple crowns.

Think! Now you got a couple of white authors writing books with black characters in the street and urban circuit (Eminem authors) but you have so few black authors in the other genres, and that’s because black publishing companies don’t wanna publish anything other than urban and street books. Even when the other genres are more lucrative economically; I find that odd.
But that’s another topic for another day in my Literary Hood. It shows a lack of creative flux and good business savvy, though some like TCP (Triple Crown Publications) have made a good dent in publishing, just think if they would do other genres.

Science Fiction, pure Romance and Horror sells more books by accident since those genres have been around for decades, yet street fiction is just a small dent in the market… why not go abroad…? If you are willing to jerk your own people, why not gamble on jerking other people…? Naw, we would prefer to do harm to us, and we will continue to get these books from the vendors when we could just hold out for the greater good (aint that right consumers).

These vendors have killed small private owned black book stores, if we didn’t support vendors a few black book stores could have been a chain by now. Africans on 125street aint American Blacks, they don’t put money back into your community. This is what Malcolm X spoke briefly on in his speech the Ballot or the Bullet before he got blasted for what, for what the Nation of Islam deemed treason. The nigga should have kept his mouth shut. And this is similar to buying bootleg albums on CD, it all seems good and you are saving money but you seldom see an alternative CD, Rock CD, or Contemporary CD bootlegged…? Why…? Because it aint rap, or because white people don’t jerk themselves…? You be the judge… I’m just a hater (holla at me Star).

…Now go get Hoodlum by Kwan from your local vendor, me I’m gonna get it from a black owned bookstore or Borders. I know Borders is the white man but yo, eventually that money goes right back to you. Those Africans are sending their money back to their country. Yes! I said it, their country. You are an American Negro, nigga! Try hailing a cab in New York and see how the African driver rolls right past you to pick up a white person further away from him than you.
Mark Anthony can tell you how shady the business is, he doesn’t mess with them shady distributors the way he used to… yo Diamond Dynasty can hardly be found in the stores and my publisher is black and that might be the reason why, because publishers don’t trust these distributors. But by the same token, I got like no promotion, and my book is a fucking hip hop soap opera. And I’m by far one of the best street authors in the business, fuck that one of the most accomplished wordsmiths in the literary field (I’m gonna toot my own horn).

You would think it would be a fucking Negro priority to purchase a book about us regardless of if you like hip hop or not, or whether or not you enjoy a good gritty street saga shit we created it. And besides that what is The Godfather but a street book about the Italian mob. And these magazines are calling the urban/street fiction genre hip hop fiction but that aint it. Diamond Drought, Diamond Dynasty and Reign of the Pimp are hip hop books and so is Bling, though it’s not a very good representation. The others are street fiction, though hip hop was manifested in the streets it aint all gold digging and dumb ass hustlers. Be proud of it. No you aint proud, you would rather make a book about a hookers exploits a bestseller…

Who can I blame, the system, the consumers or my publisher’s antics? That’s another issue. I used to hate on my publisher but that nigga aint so bad now that I think about it because women have hurt me more than that nigga and a bullet could do me worse. I know how the black publishing game works and I aint figure out dames still and I stay away from shoot-outs. I aint no Nelly author, I only wear band aids when I’m injured.
UNO

I CONDUCTED A GREAT INTERVIEW WITH QUEENS FINEST MARK ANTHONY BUT YOU GOTTA PURCHASE THE MAGAZINE'S OCTOBER ISSUE TO GET THAT...

SEX APPEAL A QUAGMIRE...! OR DO YOU JUST STINK...?

2005-07-03T08:39:00.000-04:00

Hello once again boys n girl and welcome to literary hood (the BLOG). It is I your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla, the sometimes angry Negro because of my terrible publishing situation from my current publisher. Mind you current is such a good word because river currents change as often as season’s do in a year, if not more so.
Now before you get knee deep into another frolic within the humble psyche of a simple human being attempting to understand life, let me yell at you people!
So many people hit this BLOG up. One day I got information of over 140 people, yet only a handful of you jerks post any replies. Don’t text message me, call me, or email me with a comment… vent people, let’s talk about it on this. This is why I’m typing this now and not just calling you, or sending you a text message. This is a platform where your voices can be heard, like an echo through long capaciously hollow halls!!! As poetic as that, eh, exactly, now lets talk about sex…
…Sex appeal to be exact. Damn, some people just have that shit. I read about something called pheromones and I just wanted to break pheromones down because once or twice in my life I know I got a whiff of them and they can drive you over the edge. Some women just have something within their being, maybe genetically that makes me wanna… you know, fuck the shit out of them. But sometimes it’s deeper, sometimes it just goes into wanting them period! Whether just sitting down cuddling up watching the Food Network on cable, or just enjoying ones company out upon a nice summer midday, walking or just within each others presence. But even with those corny romantic things a bitch will still have my dick hard… throughout the whole damn day…! And then it goes right back to wanting to quench the stiffness with some nice warm, moist, yup! I don’t even gotta go deeper…
What are PHEROMONES…? Pheromones are natural chemical “scents” men and women produce that attract the opposite sex. We don’t actually smell these “scents”. They are detected subliminally through our VNO system (vomeronasal organ). The VNO system consists of a relatively small receptor in the nose which detects pheromones and relays it to the hypothalamus portion of the brain. We tend to be aroused by and less inhibited around members of the opposite sex who secrete an abundance of sex chemicals…
Thus, at times I encounter women who just drive me crazy and I can only blame my erection during a mere conversation on those damn pheromones. And by the same token when you just meet some hot jump-off and you court the broad a bit, maybe with a couple of phone calls… But just as soon as you guys are alone, those panties as slipping down and you got her hemmed up in some corner digging her back out! Yup! She might not necessarily be a hoe, yo you could just be kicking out more pheromones than the average nigga… and you attract the women and both you and those females haven’t a clue. You aint that good looking nigga, you just stink with pheromones.
They are a portion of our very being that those of the opposite sex are damn near lusting after; lusting after a scent we can’t even smell. Wow!
So now I ask you, let’s talk about this! When was the last time you’ve experienced this scientific fucking phenomenon… because that’s exactly what it is. And when a person says they are in love with you early, or that they just want you and don’t really understand quite why, just can’t put that finger on it. Or when you think you are such a hot looking hussy, right bitch. Yeah I know all about you, you got that skirt on, with those milky legs, you're walking, no slinking around using your body to arouse men. It might be your femininity doing its job, but just think, it could be simply because you fucking STINK!
LEAVE COMMENT! HOLLA AT ME! You might have met somebody who has a lot of these damn pheromones, like I did and they are driving you to want them all the time. The very dangerous beginnings of really falling for somebody and its all because they stink!

The way we aint...? I know terrible title, just read.

2005-06-30T01:50:00.000-04:00

A former love can haunt you. Like ghosts, reaching out to grasp what was once, that or you will reach, wanting what you once had. Some, those wiser and more willful can shun them and stay away, yielding to a power beyond them… that urge unrelenting.
It’s strange because you are not with them for a reason! Maybe from you being a jerk or from them, or in most cases the both of you being jerks; regardless it is rare that a second time around will work out.
Sure it might seem interesting again at the beginning. Especially when you’ve dealt with worse jerks since the last time you had the former one. Especially when that sex is really potent… I know some women just really know how to toss that shit at you and well, we remember and we get hard just by thinking and looking. It’s that shit. But it is what it is, and that X is there for a reason. Just like on your report card, it’s the wrong fucking answer! Think!
The problem is we never do think. And sometimes we change and jerks become actual human beings. Then what? What if you were meant to be with other jerks to realize that you two jerks were meant for each other? Sometimes people have to experience other people in order to truly appreciate another person, or that actual person you are gonna end up with.
People change and grow, though sometimes for the worst other times for the better. And the beauty of growth is that it’s not a complete transformation, just a change in size. So you still get the same person just bigger… and I aint talking about size, I’m talking about character.
All I’m saying is use caution. Just because you have grown doesn’t mean that the other one has. And if you two have both grown and matured enough to handle each other now… think about it. What if even after growth you both find yourselves still with jerks.

I’m just presenting this as food for thought and for comments. I will continue with this after some feedback. Now this isn’t an actual quagmire for me, yet, I’m just setting the tone early. Some of you might very well be facing this and I’m here to help you grab this bull by the horns.

2005-06-29T12:55:00.000-04:00

Look at how GANGSTA Baby Bush and his crew of republican war mongers look! They are repping both red and blue, combining both Blood and Crip colors, taking over their turf... THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD! Holla at them!

2005-06-28T20:27:00.000-04:00

I just had to talk about this. The Fugees on the BET awards...! Now as shocking as it was to see and hear Lauryn Hill in such a horrible state! Yes her performance was horrible and this was their first live/television performance in over 6 years...! But let me get to the gist of this. Even though Lauryn was with out a doubt rusty as hell! She still did a better job than most hip hop performers could after a dozen practice runs. Wyclef was on point as always, showing that the nigga is an extremely concise and well polished performer. The other guy...? What's his name again...? Well he serves his purpose, what purpose who the fuck knows but nevertheless... the god damn Fugees!!! Respect them...!

The Daily Quagmire!!!

2005-06-19T19:59:00.000-04:00

Let us think about lust for a moment.

Definition of lust, 1. Intense or unrestrained sexual craving, 2. An overwhelming desire or craving, 3. Intense eagerness or enthusiasm, 4. Pleasure; relish.

I just wanted to give you all the definitions before I introduced you to the quagmire. Lust is crazy...! And I will debate any scholar on the fact that it is more powerful than love. See, love is such a weak emotion and often enough I say it is a disposition than anything else. Love doesn't make babies, lust does. Lust populates the planet and keeps a man's last name circulating though the concept of time. Lust compels you to want to know a person, not love since love is supposed to be acquired in time. Love at first sight, a myth, that is lust at play... you see that fat ass and that wondrous face, maybe that dame has a dimple in her face, or freckles, or she has dreads or wears glasses and you like that. She smiles... that mystery in her eyes as she looks into yours, and she says stuff, compelling things, flirting and inviting... that is fucking lust!

Don't get me wrong, love is a very good thing but lust is more intense. Lust makes you want to know a person and maybe later on love will situate itself within the equation. But lust is the catalyst to love, lust is that initial yearning, lust pushes you to make the first move. Lust has you dreaming, those wet naughty, nasty dreams... days later after a few encounters. Lust makes you move in for the kill, kissing the lips of that woman, touching her curves, he shape, feeling ehr warmth, groping, hoping she doesn't push you away, praying she opens that mouth just a tad bit wider and allows your saliva to intermingle with hers.

I don't wanna really get to deep but nevertheless lust is such a quagmire. Lust can have you involved with a married woman or a woman already situated, cohabitating with a man an such. Lust is so strong though... think about it. Look at all the married couples getting divorces, yet a man seldom seperated with his mistress... think about that.

Think about the last time you had a wet dream about your husband or wife, and then think about that person who has sparked your interest... how hot was that dream about him or her...?

Lust isnt bad because it often enough turns into love. Lust is just the beginning, the early stages and it's a very primitive emotion, or state of being, I'm not sure what lust is... but I've felt it and feel it now (why else would I propose to discuss this, this thing called lust).

We must continues to utilize our thinking to debate this issue, philosophically...

...I want everyones opinion on lust. Then I will add on to what you cogitate because I want to know what you think or feel about lust.

I'm really involved in a quagmire... share your thoughts, let's talk about this...

UNO.

2005-05-24T21:56:00.000-04:00

THE FLAYER OF MINDS, coming soon to literary hood!!! This is horror at its finest and it will never be published! Keep checking for it, then keep checking under your bed for the boogie monster!!!

2005-05-23T10:39:00.000-04:00

The lovely Denise Campbell author of many a book but tune in on thursay for the exclusive interview. Your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla is gonna give this fine literary vixen a bombardment of questions about her latest Words of Art MaN KiLLeR!!! Don't forget to Blog on!!!

2005-05-17T12:47:00.000-04:00

Oh shit, just a reminder. At the 2005 Harlem book Fair I'm gonna be giving away a few Deathless tee shirts just like this. I'm trying to be that dude right now and when you see me, HOLLA! Because I might toss you one... Everyone show mad respect to my negro by default the white man with the plan Michael Glowik who created the clothing line... He's gonna be one of those non natives in Harlem but he's really on some Bill Clinton shit. If this was the 60's he'd be getting spit on with Martin Luther, I'm serious people, it's that REAL!!!

2005-05-17T12:40:00.000-04:00

Book one of the Diamond Series the soon to be classic Diamond Drought. Peep within the jacket of this book and see how I hold the whole current hip hop community down. And I angered a lot of older negro dames with my foul language... like they aint at the club on some Stella shit doing the twist to some Lox or 50 Cent shit...! FUCK THEM I SAY...! LONG LIVE URBAN FICTION... TILL THE CASKET...

2005-05-17T11:42:00.000-04:00

It is here!!! Book 2 of the Diamond Series, DIAMOND DYNASTY!!!

HooDLuM August 2005!!!

2005-05-17T11:39:00.000-04:00

Hoodlum is coming your way August 2005. I just finished the damn thing and it's bananas!!! Kwan has done his job extremely well and if you loved Street Dreams and realize the Classic Gangsta and my favorite the slept on Road Dawgz... then you need to save up those pennies...

DEATHLESS article by Brandon McCalla

2005-05-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

This is an article from the pages of i.b Concept magazine, written by your friendly neigh... you know the rest...

DEATHLESS
By Brandon McCalla
An important man asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. Do you know the commandments: ‘Be faithful in marriage. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. Respect your father and mother.’”
He told Jesus, “I have obeyed all these commandments since I was a young man.”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “There is one thing you still need to do. Go and sell everything you own! Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and be my follower.”
When the man heard this, he was sad, because he was very rich. Jesus saw how sad the man was. So he said, “It’s terribly hard for rich people to enter God’s kingdom! In fact, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God’s kingdom.”
When the crowd heard this, they asked, “How can anyone ever be saved?”
Jesus replied, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.”
Peter said, “Remember, we left everything to be your followers Jesus!”
Jesus answered, “You can be sure that anyone who gives up home or wife or brother or family or children because of God’s kingdom will be given much more in this life. And in the future world they will have eternal life.” Luke 18:18-30

Eternal life is what Deathless is all about. It’s more than just garments to be worn upon your physical shell. It’ about the soul and the spirit, it’s about that sacrifice for eternal life and what some people do for it without seeking the glory of immortality.
Thus I bring you to Mike Glowik the founder of Deathless clothing. Mike stressed me not to include his name in this article because he feels that the man who symbolizes the movement of Deathless is by far more important and sacrificed so much that all of us pale in comparison. But alas readers I must let you know something about the man behind the clothing. Mike began his working life in the music industry doing recording engineering and music production for many artist, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, and the Notorious B.I.G. just to name a few.
When the internet first began brewing into the communication/media monster that it has become Mike saw the endless possibilities and grasped the moment. He purchased an Apple computer and hastily taught himself programming and web designing. He worked at various startups including About.com which during its heyday was the number 5 largest property on the web. Years later Mike traveled the world, including and most importantly throughout India… this is where the true story of Deathless beings…
While in India Mike met with a number of spiritual masters including Vimala Thakar, Ramesh Balsekar and Anjali, but what really had the deepest impact on him was visiting the ancient holy mountain, Arunachala. Staying at its foot he explored the places where the great sage Ramana once lived… They say he still resides there even after his flesh has left our realm of existence, in spirit, in astral, in a deathless state… immortal.
Ramana, at the time of his death in 1950 was attracting seekers from all over the globe. Word spread of his wisdom and of the overwhelming loving energy that emanated from him. There were many claims that he appeared to people thousands of miles away even though he never traveled more than a few miles from Arunachala. There is a scientific term for this, astral projection. There were also claims of spontaneous healings and of lives radically changed as a result of being in his powerful presence. His message was simple and his teaching direct. He promoted no religions, he started no cults, he asked for nothing from anyone (in fact his only possession was a piece of cloth used for his clothing even though a large community with many buildings grew up around him) he simply pointed the way back to our spiritual essence, to the absolute within each of us - that which is Deathless.

Deathless is an evolutionary/revolutionary lifestyle company inspired by Ramana, which designs clothing at present. But that’s not where the story ends for nothing truly ends things just change in perception and form but we are forever and will always remain… plans are underway for Deathless brand accessories like iPod cases and cell phone covers in the near term and video games, books and movies to follow.

The Deathless logo is a drawing of Ramana sitting in meditation. Peep the picture of me with my homie Ramana. If he was physical he would have rocked a du-rag just like me. Unlike the vast majority of companies out there, the Deathless logo actually has some significance beyond simply being an eye catching way to get you to spend your money. They aim to publicize Ramana, who remains virtually unknown to the general public but whom they feel can offer a new perspective to both the religious and shall we say, the not so religious alike. Deathless believe the only way to change the world is to change ourselves first and as part of their mission, they are giving away a portion of they dough they make to charity wherever they do business. They also believe in a conscientious brand of capitalism and share a philosophical kinship with such companies as American Apparel, Ben & Jerry’s. You get the gist right. This ain’t no Sean John shit. $40 bucks for a Vote or Die tee shirt and baby Bush still got in office and Puffy is still making the fucking band!
If you guys don’t know me by now you should. I’m Brandon McCalla author of your favorite hip-hop soap opera the Diamond Series and I wear Deathless like it’s my very own epidermis. I like rocking cloths for a reason not just for what I see on those music videos. Ramana is that dude and Mike Glowik has brought his kind hearted soul to our attention. Support this and remember where you heard it first, i.b. Concept magazine. And bare in mind that though we do perish and pass through the veil… we also remain within the minds of those who loved us and those who hated… we must make a difference while our physical shells permit it and pay homage not to ourselves but to our fellow man and then and only then will we even come close to a dude like Ramana… only then will we truly be eternal. Not many of us deserve to have our faces on an article of clothing but those of us that do… well you know, those of us that do remain Deathless…

2005-05-17T10:40:00.000-04:00

Your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla holding Road Dawgz (Kwan) and Diamond Drought, rocking a Deathless Tee shirt... Check out the aritcle on the newly sprung clothing line...! UNO.

2005-05-17T10:24:00.000-04:00

Super Author Killa Kwan at a signing holding his complete deck of cards...! Holla at him, he's local!!!

The official website is underway...!

2005-05-16T05:57:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah I know. You guys have been waiting for this for many a damn day now but fret not it is right around the corner. Literary Hood is about to have its internet grand opening. But you guys know your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla knows how to treat his neighbors, exactly, you guys want this shit popping way before the cork is pulled out of the bottle... I'm here to keep my hood well supplied and the only drought we should have is Diamond Drought book 1 of the Diamond Series...
THUS HERE IT IS, LITERARY HOOD COLUMN'S SECOND INSTALLMENT WHICH HAS THE INCREDIBLE KWAN INTERVIEW (brought to you by me, of course and i.b. Concept Magazine)...

Literary Hood
Columnist Brandon McCalla

See that title above me readers. I felt it was only fitting to put a nice word in front of my government name. But in retrospect I’m here to keep you informed on what’s going down in my literary neighborhood and nothing more. See, the definition of columnist simply means a writer in a publication, such as a newspaper or magazine but my Literary Hood column is more than a mere column since I am more than a mere writer. i.b. Concept magazine allows me to run rampant and give me more page space to write than the average magazine would dare to. Perhaps because I bang on desks and make obscene phone calls to Dean (one of the ceo’s at i.b. C) to assure they don’t besmirch what I post up with those fucked up edits most publication editors situate. Editors generally imbed their own thoughts within the things we write and a lot of what we write wind up on the cutting room floor. For instance see how I aimlessly curse in text, this is the way I fucking talk people and thus this is what you get when you read Literary Hood. They never snippet my creative flux. None of this is getting tossed in the waste basket.
But enough about me, whoa…! Hold up DIAMOND DYNASTY book two of the Diamond series is in stores as you read this and on www.amazon.com so buy that shit. Now that that’s all said and done let me give you the low down on i.b. Concept’s second installment of Literary Hood. Please divert your attention from the lovely chocolate and light skinned dames for but a mere moment (if you’re a fast reader).
I got super author Kwan Foye in my hood. Kwan the author of the bestsellers Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams and his next swashbuckler Hoodlum which should be hitting the shelves in a massive way August 2005 (it’s right around the corner).
I met up with Kwan in Harlem, New York to do an exclusive interview for my column; we had a photo shoot with a new clothing line called Deathless and decided to do the interview directly after that. Originally we were scheduled to take the photos at a Walden’s book store in Brooklyn, New York but upon discussion we chose to do the shoot at Hue man’s book store in Harlem since it was closer and we were lazy. The shoot went well, Kwan had his lovely daughter with him and she partook in the festivities and stole the show since she was more photogenic than her father and I. After the shoot we hustled further within the bowels of Harlem, dropped his baby boo off at her mother’s and went to Kwan’s bachelor pad where we lit some green stuff, puffed, guzzled beer and did the interview.
The ever welcoming stench of the greenery lingered and eased both of us since it was a hectic day. Endorsing a clothing line aint an easy thing, taking pictures with various attire and those pesky photographers trying to persuade a nigga to smile (I don’t smile, I only smirk and grimace). So I pressed the record button on my little digital audio recorder, took a deep breath. Kwan had just split another Dutch Master; he took a deep breath of his own. He said, “Try not to misquote me like some journalists have done.” with a shrewd face.
I assured him that would never happen, “Nigga this is i.b. Concept. We don’t do such things.”
He still gave me the ice grill. But then he passed the spliff. I took a long pull. The interview commenced with the billowing of the smoke…
B: First off son, I don’t see to many street books in hardcover that deserve it. I saw Gangsta at some book store during one of my book signings in hardcover…
K: You saw a hardcover of Gangsta, you lying…
B: Naw, I aint lying. I saw it and was like whoa…!
K: I gotta track that down, I saw a hardcover of Street Dreams at Creative Impressions (bookstore) in Jersey but I never saw Gangsta.
B: Speaking of Street Dreams that’s your first major publishing house book. You took the big leap from minor publishing to a major publishing house. You were once on Triple Crown Publications but now you’re on St. Martin’s press. What’s the difference between the minor and major publishing houses?
K: The major houses give you a bigger money advance, they give you more exposure and they market more because they have the money to do that. I had more control over at Triple Crown but St. Martin’s want exactly what I’ve been giving the masses to begin with, gutter. St. Martin’s want hood books from me, they want ghetto but they want tighter work. The only thing I really bumped heads with them about was titles, but they didn’t get overbearing about it.
B: Give me more depth on the difference in control between the minor and major houses.
K: Well Triple Crown published what I gave them. But with St. Martin’s you know they made suggestions. Like in the beginning it was like, well you gonna do this like this and you gonna change this… I was like hey, this is how I write, I don’t dictate how the story is gonna come out, the story dictates how the story is gonna come out, I’m just a medium for which to get the story from my brain to the readers.
B: So did they want you to tone your shit down.
K: Naw, they wanted it just as raw as I always give it but they want their stories tighter. I think every publishing house has their own curriculum on how tight they want their stores. What you can get away with on one publishing house you might not be able to get away with on another. The only real problem I had with them was with changing titles.
B: I know we spoke about what the original title of Hoodlum was and how Hoodlum became Hoodlum. But let’s move on buddy. You are in that elite group of urban authors who transgressed from the minor to the major leagues, who else has done it and who as fast as you?
K: You got Shannon Holmes on Atira I think. St. Martin’s snatched up my dawg Mark Anthony and Tracy Brown. Who else…
B: I think Danielle Santiago is on S&S now, right? I know I’m just on some business shit right now but Literary Hood is about everything but most of the authors I interview just give me generic answers and you’re giving me the type of interview I prefer.
K: I just say what’s on my mind dawg, I aint gonna give you a generic answer about anything.
B: That’s what’s up. I hate that beating around the bush shit. And on that note let me just say this. I have the utmost respect for you and your writing abilities but to be honest a lot of the other urban authors are wack! I’m just gotta keep it real, there are only a few of us who can be considered accomplished writers in the proper term of the word. You are one of them and you deserve all the success that you’ve acquired but some are bestsellers and are terrible writers.
K: I’m a meat and potatoes writer. I’m a man’s writer. I know what you’re talking about dawg, we don’t even gotta go further than that. The majority of the readers are women so you gotta keep that in mind, but I just write from my mind.
B: True. But most aren’t text book writers nor had any formal training and its not like you need formal training but I think a few need to sharpen their swords or pens but you don’t and I know I don’t but what do you think. Damn you said don’t go any further right, well what type of books do you read?
K: Street lit but I also read Horror.
B: Yeah me to and I write it. A lot of people don’t know this but you write horror yourself and do a fucking really good job of it. I gotta say this though Street Dreams is like the best written and edited street book to date. Why did Street Dreams come out so damn fine combed and sharp?
K: Thanks. With a smaller house, a reader reads it and the publisher goes through it, and that’s that. But at the major house, you got like an editor then a secondary and third editor. And they keep sending you the manuscript back and forth like six or seven times. They take more time with your work thus your shit comes out more polished.
B: True.
K: What did you think about Road Dawgz editing?
B: Well, I read all your books nigga and I must admit Road Dawgz is like the best TCP book to date when it comes to editing and story situation.
K: I had an outside editor do Road Dawgz.
B: Ahhh, Yo Kwan you aint above killing off your main characters.
K: I smash shit when I write. Killing off a lead character is like a slap in the face because you get too love the character and then I just dead them. Plus in life there aint always a happy ending…
…Yo readers I could go on and on. We were conversing for about two hours at least. Eventually I just stopped taping and we just continued to vibe. We started talking about the book groupie situation. I’m gonna leave our comments for another date. I’m gonna do an exclusive Literary Hood column on book groupies giving you the inside scoop on how the women show their devotion to their favorite male authors, and on their stalking antics.
I just wanted you to see how focused Kwan is in this little snippet of the interview and you are gonna get the raw synopsis of his soon to be released title Hoodlum in the column’s Words of Art along with Mo Shines Brazen. The Hoodlum cover is bananas! I love covers with just type, it shows a level of class and puts you within the ranks of a Stephen King, Danielle Steele or a Janet Evanovich (obviously I read abroad).
i.b. Concept’s next issue and the next Literary Hood column will have an in-depth interview with bestselling author Mark Anthony. He has his own publishing company Q-boro Books and we’re gonna get the low on what he’s been up to since Paper Chasers and Dogism. Hopefully we will get that interview with KaShamba Williams, both of our schedules are crazy right now and she has like a hundred thousand books out…! But I think we will meet in the middle of the road somewhere between now and the next issue, let’s hope so.
Denise Campbell’s MAN KILLER will get spot light book status in the Words of Art segment next issue and you’ll get a sneak peek at my very own Diamond Dynasty… hurray! Does the name Deborah Smith ring a bell…? Yes, no, well you will know all about her in the next issue of i.b. Concept and she sent me a nice picture of her showing legs… that’s what I’m talking about.
As I end this portion of the column (see it’s so big I can use a word like portion) let me not even begin to inform you people about how horrible this literary business can be at times. Diamond Dynasty should have been on the shelves since January and now it’s scheduled for release in April and it aint even being promoted yet. Guess what boys and girls, ahh you guys are so bright. You guessed it before I could even get it out, that’s right boys and girls… it’s time for me to get my hustle on.
Now like Mr. Rodger’s used to, I grab my sweater and hat, sing the outré of the Please won’t you be my Neighbor song and bounce. That or ask you to get off my block. Aint enough room for all of us here and Kwan’s about to drop Hoodlum soon so all of us had better hustle hard till then. When Kwan opens up even crack cocaine takes a loss.
Uno…