Following Your Dreams: Why It's Never Too Late

Hello My Lovelies!

I'm at the end of the long, arduous process of packing up my belongings and moving yet again; this time to an apartment complex not far from the j.o.b. that pays the bills. Yes, I know - I'm nearly 50 and I live in apartments, but I'm helping to pay for my daughter's college and haven't become the next JK Rowling yet, but I'll get there. For the time being, I have to make do with my living situation as best I can. Once my kid graduates nursing school and hits the world as an independent woman, I can start rolling up my nickels, dimes and quarters for a down payment so I can settle down in something that I can own.

 

The packing and the move has slowed me down in that I had so much stuff that I brought into this apartment and, knowing I would be here for the two years I committed to it, I never unpacked. On top of what I brought there during that time, all of that crap had to be unpacked, some thrown out or sent to the Goodwill, repacked, and then tackle the things I brought in here during my two year stint. It turned into a headache and a nearly two month process that I'm finally finishing up today (2/8/15).

Anyhoo, I'd rather purchase my home/condo/whatever in a tropical location, of course, but you all have to start buying my books cuz I can't see doing this while working at the j.o.b. that pays the bills. Don't get me wrong - I love my job and I'm good at what I do, but how can I become a filthy rich, spoiled celebrity complaining about Evian water and photographing me on my cute side while carrying a Michael Kors Cheetah Print bag without selling over a billion books?  What's a Cheetah Diva to do? Working for the Man sucks, so I gotta make this writing thingy work out. 

As I sit here looking at endless boxes and packing material, I started thinking back to what made me want to become a writer. I told you before that I was always that kid who was reading. I was a voracious reader; I read whatever I ran across or what was put in front of me, but what really caught my attention was "Thirty One Brothers and Sisters" by Reba Paeff Mirsky. In the story, Nomusa is the daughter of a Zulu chief who had six wives. Because of this, she had a total of 31 brothers and sisters. Heck, I had one pain-in-the-butt brother and one pain-in-the-butt sister - I couldn't imagine having more than that. I think I'd be a serial killer or something. Anyhoo, Nomusa didn't want to do the traditional things that girls of her age and era did. She wanted to be one of the guys and go on the ritual elephant hunt. 

Stop! I know what some of you PETA people are thinking - this wasn't about hunting for tusks to sell on the black market. The Zulus hunted for food, and like the Native Americans on the hunt for buffalo, the Zulus used every bit of their hunts from the roota to the toota - nothing went to waste, so it's all good.

As a child of the 70's and never have read anything about Africa except for the Sahara, Egypt, and the Middle Passage (actually, this didn't occur until Roots came on teevee), I was blown away by this story; the exotic location, the warm and friendly people, and what the hell is a pygmy? I remember reading it over and over again for over a year! I just couldn't put it down and truth be told, I didn't want to. Somewhere in Africa, there was a little girl who looked just like me, who was inquisitive just like me, and who wanted to be one of the guys just like me. Don't read anything into that - I was a tomboy. 

I wanted to visit Africa and meet Nomusa and all of her brothers and sisters. I wanted to go on an elephant hunt, meet a pygmy who could sleep inside of a hollowed out elephant hide, and comb my hair in the meticulous way that her mother did. 

Of course, my teacher, Ms. Ferguson, blew the illusion by explaining the meaning of "fiction" to me, and that Nomusa wasn't a real person. The hairy-legged skainch - I hated her for years after that. Then the 80's reared its large hairdos, over-synthesized music, John Hughes movies, and jelly curls. As the decade progressed, we learned more about the Zulu history, and I began to understand that this book was written during the turbulent times in South Africa's history of apartheid, the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela. It makes a story about an independent African girl all the more fascinating in the manner that it was written by Mrs. Mirsky. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Heck, I would love to see the screenplay!

For some reason, I lost the book and was never able to find it again, even in the library, but it didn't really matter. It ignited something inside of me; I didn't understand it and it didn't make sense, but I knew I wanted to be a writer. When I was 12, I wrote a play called, "One Step Ahead." In the play, a 12 year old girl named Stephanie (I was obsessed with that name) was a seventh grader at an unnamed elementary school for most of the day, but in the afternoon, she went to the high school down the street because she was a math whiz kid who took an advanced Calculus class, and the play was about her having to deal with being an average kid at her school, but being a fish out of water in high school and dealing with older kids whom she couldn't relate to and trying to stay one step ahead of their weird grown up-like problems. 

Before you go there, this is not autobiographical because I was a D+ student in math. In fact, I had a teacher help me with a calculus problem so I could add it to the play. I made A's and mostly B's elsewhere, especially in Reading, Spelling, and Social Studies, but Math was a big fat goose egg to me. I was fine with it until it entered the long division era, and then fractions. After that, math may as well have been Sanskrit because for years, it came out dyslexic in my head and I could not grasp the concept of anything complicated beyond division of any kind. In fact, I'm still using the "Fingers/Toes Method" of addition. 

Wanna see something funny?  Check this out!

This is me playing around this morning just for this blog. You see the little dots next to the second row? Yeah, six (count'em!) dots and nine dots. Why? Because my mind can't process adding the one, seven, six and nine in my head. I have to ITEMIZE the dots visually, count on my fingers, add them up, and then carry over to the third column.

You know what?  IT'S STILL WRONG! The answer is 1,533. I wrote the answer down and thought, "okay, that doesn't look right." I pulled out my calculator and added it up, then dropped my head in shame. Even though I put the little dot next to the one, I forgot to add it. I know, right? This is a special brand of weetardation designed for people like me. How the hell did I manage to forget a number, even though I indicated that I see it?  Yeah, I was not going into the teaching field at all.

That's why when people make fun of G.W. Bush and the Fuzzy Math, I'ont say nothing! I have no room to criticize anyone's math abilities. If I ever become a successful author, I'm going to be that one who'll take her accountant to court because I won't even know if I'm being robbed until I try to buy a pack of Now Laters and told I have only -$.13 cents in my account.

Yes, I posted this because I can be honest with myself and laugh at my audacity. Why not? It's funny!

Anyhoo, I wrote two other plays; one when I was about 14, and another when I was about 16, but all I remember about them was one was situated in high school, and the other was a musical. Yeah, I was really big into musicals for real. I can't remember much else about them except they weren't very good; but then, my perspective at those ages didn't leave room for anything broader than what I knew. What I understood about myself at that point in my life was I wanted to be a writer, a reporter and/or both. Then, as I've said before, real life got in the way and before I knew it, I took a tangent in another direction for the next 25 or so years until I discovered fan fiction, and it reawakened the desire to write again.

Will I be a success at it? I'm working to achieve that, and all I can do is try. I find myself at a crossroads in my writing, however. I love writing about demon/human relationships, but I'm getting more and more into Speculative Fiction, or rather, Steampunk. In the interim of my move, I was invited to write a short story for the State of Black Fiction 2012. With very little time to write and do research, I came up with a story called "Paradigm," which features Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. Du Bois, and it revolved around a shadowy figure from the future who comes back in time to kill a little girl who grows up, gets married, and has a daughter who grows up to become Rosa Parks, and that the NAACP was created to protect her family until the Montgomery Bus Boycott happened. I loved the concept so much that I left an open element in the story in which I look to explore and possibly make a series of it. If I was ever confused about what to write in terms of Steampunk, the story finally clicked the concept into my head. However, I still have my other Paranormal Demon Romance writings on the table, and I don't want to take on more than I'm able because if I do that, everything in my head will convert to a math problem that I can't solve, so the stories will lock up in my head, and eventually I'll get frustrated and quit.

Anyhoo, the link to the story is here on Milton Davis' website:  Paradigm

Last year was my breakthrough in terms of following my dreams. I've done more with it than I ever thought I could, but there's more work to be done. I'm slowly making a name for myself, making contacts, getting information, shoring up my editing skills/publishing - I'm not the best editor; my daughter is helping me and I may take on Fiverr again as far as shorts are concerned, but it's simply too expensive for me to hire an independent editor, so I have to make do and do my best. 

I don't know what tomorrow will bring for me, but I do know that I feel that I'm heading in the right direction, and there's no stopping me...well, death would really mess things up for me, but health issue aside, I will definitely make my way into this writing arena and charge full steam ahead.

Incidentally, "Thirty One Brothers and Sisters" has been out of circulation for years, but I actually found a copy of the book on Amazon and ordered it. I would love to read it to my grandchildren. 

Someday, that is.

My daughter's cooking hasn't improved to where she'll ever get a husband. I may be well into my 80's by the time this happens. If ever. It's not that I'm some raging traditionalist of NEEDING a husband, but I've made it very clear that having a two-parent household will be more beneficial to her in terms of bringing up a family in this day and age. I carried that burden alone, and while she turned out better than any parent can ever hope for (except for the cooking), I simply don't want to see her become a single parent struggling to raise children. I've always taught her to be more than me, rise higher than me, reach farther than me, and be better than me. You should always want your children to do better than you. To teach then otherwise would be to condemn them to a future of perpetual failure, especially if you aint crap to begin with.

Promotion Time!

My girl, Cheris Hodges, is bringing the heat as always with "Rumor Has It" coming in April, 2015. Make sure you preorder your copy on Kindle and paperback. She's only the hottest Romance Author on the planet! If you don't know, you betta ask sumbody! I have mine on preorder - get yours now!

Liza Palmer couldn't be happier when her best friend and sorority sister, Chante Britt, and her closest guy friend, Robert Montgomery, hit it off. And she's beyond thrilled when they announce their engagement. Robert is an up-and-comer running for the North Carolina senate. Chante is a partner at a prestigious law firm. They're a power couple made in heaven--until Liza discovers Robert in a compromising position--with another woman. . .

Liza can't possibly continue to support Robert's campaign, much less let him marry Chante. But when she tries to reveal the truth, Robert pulls out every corrupt trick in the book--including turning Chante against her. Her only choice is to seek out his opponent, Jackson Franklin, and help him take Robert down. But to Liza's great surprise, Jackson won't play dirty--and Liza finds him irresistible. As sparks fly, personally and politically, Liza and Jackson may become a winning team in more ways than one. . .

Rumor Has It by Cheris Hodge

Well, back to packing! My next blog should be written after I move into my new apartment. Idunno...maybe I'll have something to talk about between now and then. You know how I love running my mouth.

Ciao!

nnb