My editor emailed me to say that the advanced reader’s edition of The Black Girl Next Door are headed out to book buyers.
Each time I get this kind of news, I smile and get scared all at the same time.
Does it get easier or more difficult as a writer approaches the release of her book?

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Why can’t I take a vacation without taking work with me?
This is a question I’ve contemplated seriously since I returned from my most recent week away.
When I taught at Yale, I felt an crushing sense of obligation to my work but never much excitement. I packed my laptop, journal articles, and the most recent draft [...]

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I am a writer.
Many times, people confess their own writing dreams. So often, folks(lots of women) tell me that they’ve got a great idea for a novel, or a project they’ve toyed with for a long time. In the next breath, often [...]

1.    WRITING REALLY IS A PROCESS. Writing really is about the journey.  Your challenge is to figure out the nature of your process and get into the flow of the work and tweak the process as necessary.
2.    WRITE IN THE POCKETS.  Many aspiring writers assume that writing demands long stretches of uninterrupted time.  If you [...]

The first time I saw the final cover for the book I nearly cried!  It took the entire project to an entirely new and exciting level.
I’ll share a quick story.
A few months ago, I received a draft of the cover. The street photographed looked straight out of Leave It to Beaver–too eastern US.  I wasn’t [...]

Over the last few months, I have had to say goodbye to my role as the writer of The Black Girl Next Door.  It has been unsettling to say the least.
As long as I was a writer, I had momentum.  With every completed paragraph, page, chapter, and draft I was building one success on top [...]

There’s nothing like a pending divorce and the rest of life’s rigors to interrupt the blog flow.  I’m back and have lots to share about my writing life since the spring.
Stay with me and stay tuned.