You know what time it is...

I have fought this whole only focus on all things Black during February. But you reach a point in your life where you must say - well at least we have February. And the biggest event of the month for me is 28 Days Later, over at The Brown Bookshelf.

The little project I began with Varian Johnson, Kelly Starling-Lyons and Carla Sarratt still endures. We're in our third year and though we've had some changes - Carla had to move on, and Tameka F. Brown and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, joined, ushering in a new phase - we're strong as ever.

Stop by and check out the hottest in brown children's literature. Pass on the link and support the authors with a book purchase or borrow from your local lib.

Agent Appreciation Day: She Gets Me!

If someone asked you why you married your spouse, you'd probably have a few dozen reasons, among them things as small as, I love his eyes. We'd all say something different. But one thing we may all say in common is, he/she gets me.

There's nothing like having someone "get" you. Better still, when they love you in spite of some of your less than admirable traits.

Choosing an agent isn't like marriage - the agent chooses you and you date around quite a bit before you get that "ring."

But it is like marriage because, in the end, no matter why you were chosen the grand hope is that your agent gets you. Mine does. And she has from the beginning.

When Jen Carlson read the manuscript for So Not The Drama(can it really be 4 years ago?!), it wasn't love at first sight (unless, it was. Jen?). There was definitely some affection there, yes. But, more importantly, between the manuscript and my query she got me and my mission, right away.

All I've ever wanted to do was write books where the characters were diverse but the story was not about race. And I do. But I needed Jen to explain how important that sort of literature was to the publishing industry. She's been my voice to editors. She's been my advocate who has to constantly point out - her books appeal universally to teens but they put African American protags on the stage. Her work is good. It's needed. It's marketable and it's fun.

Imagine that having to be your job all day - convincing someone of something you believe in. That's what agents do, day in and day out, across their list of rosters.

It's got to be exhausting. I only do it for my books and it burned me out in less than three years.

On top of all that, she's had to talk me off the ledge many days. Explain that damned royalty statement over and over. Ease my anxiety over the ever so slow submission process. And, be a cheerleader when I feel like saying, to hell with it.

I laugh when people question if the 15% paid to agents is worth it.

Do all of the above on your own AND still write books and then you tell me.

Jen Carlson, today, I salute you!

Look at all this agent love over at Lisa and Laura's blog.

Schizophrenic P

Newsflash:

I am Black.

I am a woman.

I am a writer.

Yes, yes, I know. Astounding. Who knew, right?

Well, the problem, it seems like lately these three different traits are fracturing me more than they're melding. I've come to realize it because my social networking revolves a great deal around them.

I have sites/forums and circles of friends I frequent because I'm a children's author. Others where the point is I'm a Black children's authors. Others because I'm a female author.

It's all very...headspinning.

Diana Peterfreund and I, made a bet, that we could go 14 days with only being on the 'net for 90 minutes daily. Today, I popped onto Twitter and found that some of my other peers are taking a total hiatus from Twitter until January. And it's sounding like a damned good idea. If nothing, it'll give me time to pull myself back together so I'm just P again. Not P, the Black, YA author chick.

Social networking is great, but it also leads to a bit of over exposure to social circles that, while has plenty positives, has one really huge negative: it's too fracking distracting!

I'm starting to ponder how I ended up to my eyeballs in nings, blogs, forums, chats and tweets.

I love the socializing but I'm also feeling more than a little schizzy, right now trying to keep up with all these different outlets that represent the many facets of myself.

I've not yet dedicated myself to a hiatus but if you don't hear from me, you'll know what I decided.

Time To Read

I know Stephen King says that serious writers should read four hours a day, but I'm venturing a guess here - the serious writers he's talking about are either:

NOT mothers.

- or-

DON'T have full-time jobs

Since I am and do, the luxury of reading time comes down to this - sleep or read. And funny thing, I usually choose sleeping. However, I did give up two solid nights to finish King's latest tome du jour, Under the Dome. Uncle Stevie, you're welcome.

Anyway, these days my reading is done in mad obsessive spurts. One, because if I take too long it won't get finished, two, it's a kind of escape and three, were I to read every day like that, I'd be horribly sleep deprived.

My lack of time to read more doesn't mean I don't have a whole slew of books I'm eyeing to put on the list. So, as the year comes to a slow wind I'm looking to beef up my reading over the holidays and beyond.

Suggestions for my TBR list are welcome.

Looking for Adult and YA.

When it comes to my adult lit, I like thrillers, suspense and true crime novels. Non-fiction, in general, doesn't really interest me. That's what good TV docus are for, in my opinion.

And girlfriend and Chick lit don't interest me as much because it's too close to the type of YA I write. So reading them feels like work research or something. I over analyze!

For YA I'm a bit more open to whatever's good. Be it a Scott Westerfeld fantasy or a Sara Zarr-type novel, I'm down if you say it's good (and mean it!). Not looking for anyone to pimp a book to me. If you sincerely liked it, suggest it. I'll be highly pissed if I read something that ends up being a waste of my time just because someone wants to hype a friend's novel.

Don't do it!

Otherwise, I'm a pretty easy person to please.

Whaddya reading and will I like it?

Another nail in the coffin...

I've been longing for innocence, lately. In a way, I think that's why I'm a writer anyway. Specifically a YA writer.

I'm sure the average teen would hardly consider themselves "innocent." After all, many are quite worldly. But you never realize how innocent you are until you realize you aren't anymore.

As a kid it didn't matter to me that the stories I loved so much didn't have one Brown face in them. Didn't matter a whit. I escaped into them, saw myself in their place. It didn't matter how they looked, what they went through I was going through with them.

But now, as an adult I'm constantly offended by the lack of diversity in mainstream anything - TV, film, books, anything. Because the lack of color makes me feel invisible in a way that I never ever felt when reading or watching TV as a kid.

So it's with great joy and, yes, some amount of frustration that I await Disney's, The Princess and the Frog.

Joy because it's about time.

And frustration because, what the hell took so long?!

Disney has Jasmine (Arabian), Mulan (Asian), Pocohontas (American Indian) and Ariel (Mermaid...oh, that's not a race, is it?). So where has the Black princess been all these years? Where?!

Should it matter anymore? Let's pretend it doesn't for a second because I'd rather focus on the fact that my daughters will see a Disney movie that depicts them as the princess. It's especially important for my five year old because, she's just now starting to distinguish race, a practice that can be somewhat embarrassing when she calls out in the store, Mommy, that white woman...

Oy.

But cut her some slack. She's just trying to put the whole different shades thing into context. And in our house context is, race doesn't matter. Something I can say til I'm blue in the face, but it doesn't mean much if things outside our home don't reinforce it.

So this Disney movie means more than some may know.

Althought, let me be clear, my daughters already think they're princesses. We have an oddly significant amount of tiara's in the house because they buy them every chance they get. And I guess it doesn't help that my husband and I treat them like they're royalty sometimes (lazy, spoiled kids).

But still, that's as it should be with any parent/child. We want them to feel special.

The problem lies in the reality they're faced when images reflected back to them from TV and magazines tells them - Oh you're beautiful to your parents but this is what AMERICA deems beautiful. This, right here and it ain't you.

So I wish great box office success for The Princess and the Frog.

So ONCE more we can squash the myth that black folk don't go see movies AND that white folk won't go see a movie with a black protagonist.

The more nails we can put in those coffins the better.

Check out the trailer here.