Barbara Joe Williams

I am in Barbara Joe Williams anthology How I met My Sweetheart

Barbara, you’ve been described as the “hardest working woman in self-publishing” and a “marketing guru.” What made you decide to become a self-published author?

Honestly, I tried the traditional publishing route, and it just wasn’t working out for me. So I decided to do some research on the publishing industry. After learning that several of my favorite authors started out by publishing themselves, I decided to give self-publishing a try. Now five books later, I’m still happy with the decision that I made because it has allowed me a tremendous amount of opportunities. I’ve been able to meet a host of published authors, aspiring writers, and travel around promoting my books by speaking at conferences and conducting workshops.

Tell us, what is your inspiration for writing?

My inspiration for writing comes from the love of the written word and romance novels. I’ve always loved to read, and I read everything, but romance has a special place in my heart. After searching the bookstores for romance novels focusing on married people and being disappointed, I decided it was time to write one of my own. So my first two books titled, Forgive Us This Day and Dancing with Temptation, are about married couples that have been together for years and the problems are beginning to surface.

Tell us about your latest release and how you came up with the idea to write about a female minister.

Well, I’ve met a lot of single female ministers, and they seem to be having the same problems as other single women regarding relationships. So I wanted to write a story showing that their trials and tribulations are the same as other women. Sometimes the pastor is looked upon as being all-knowing, very spiritual, and untouchable, but they’re human too, and that’s the side that I wanted to show. Pastor Karema Wright, the main character in Falling for Lies, is a wise woman who happens to fall in love with the wrong man for the wrong reasons. And she loses almost everything before she even realizes what’s going on because she’s falling for lies.

What are your goals with your writing career?

My primary goal is to continue writing and publishing books for myself until I can secure an agent and a writing contract. And I enjoy publishing books for other writers under my company, Amani Publishing, LLC. So my other goal would be to continue helping other aspiring authors reach their dreams while continuing to pursue mine. And since I have several books coming out within the next year, you can check out my website at: www.amanipublishing.net for more details and contact information.

Barbara Joe-Williams resides in Tallahassee, Florida, with her husband, daughter, and dog. She’s published three novels and two non-fiction books including an anthology titled How I Met My Sweetheart and a handbook titled A Writer’s Guide to Self-Publishing and Marketing.

Tee C. Royal is one of the biggest promoters in the literary world

I met Tee C. Royal at the RawSistaz literary event in South Carolina a couple of years ago. It was a very rewarding experience. I met so many wonderful authors who have become family to me. We are blessed to have her here.

Tee C. Royal is the founder of RAWSISTAZ Literary Group and its subsidiaries, a literary agent, wife and mother. She resides in the suburbs of Atlanta with her family.

How did RAWSISTAZ come about? RAWSISTAZ (Reading and Writing SISTAZ) came about in September 2000 when I was asked to start a book club for the online group SISTAZ. Since I enjoyed both reading and writing, I wanted to incorporate both, so RAWSISTAZ was born. With a handful of members from the original SISTAZ group, we opened the doors to others and branched off into a separate entity.

How long have you been reading? I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories as a child are hiding on top of the house and under my bed reading.

What made you want to support authors? One of my biggest annoyances is people who talk a good game, but don’t really do anything. Another is seeing a great piece of work not getting the exposure it deserves. Both were what pushed me to have the main focus of RAWSISTAZ on supporting and promoting African-American authors and their work.

Is this a rewarding or a thankless job? It’s sometimes a bit of both, but the rewarding part always overshadows everything else. No matter how many people I run across who don’t bother with a THANK YOU, I still enjoy what I do, and plan to always do it. It’s also rewarding because I can see the impact and importance of RAWSISTAZ and I’ve met some wonderful people through the various groups.

What has RAWSISTAZ diversified into? RAWSISTAZ does various things in the literary industry, but our main objective will never change. We are most known for our free Black Book Reviews (www.blackbookreviews.net), our team of reviewers, and our online book clubs and offline chapters. We have other projects in the works, but they all revolve around the literary industry. There’s also our annual literary event, The RAWSISTAZ Affair.

For an author to take full advantage of your services and your group what should they do? First and foremost, visit the main website at www.rawsistaz.com. The website alone is a major source for exposure, at no cost to the author. There are sections to list your website, book information, bio, and items of this nature. I would also suggest joining RAW4ALL, our online literary hangout with members who are readers, writers, agents, editors, and other literary professionals. The wealth of information shared in the group is at times overwhelming, but almost always helpful. I’d also recommend visiting the various resources & links listed on our site, subscribing to our newsletters, and reading our blogs. Collectively, we offer the perfect one-stop location for “keeping you in the know regarding the African-American literary community.”

What in the literary world excites you? A better question would be what doesn’t. LOL. I simply love reading or hearing about a great book. I also love when unknown authors are in the spotlight and able to share their craft with avid readers. Most recently, I’ve been fascinated with the whole publishing process. So, there isn’t much in the industry that doesn’t excite me.

Is this why you became an agent? Pretty much, yes. It was an extension of what I’ve already been doing for six years with RAWSISTAZ, just another route for doing it and on a different scale. Granted, it’s much more complex than what I’ve done with RAWSISTAZ, but I enjoy it just as much.

Tell us about a typical day for you. Now that I’m an agent too, my day is a bit different work-wise, but for the most part, I get up before everyone and immediately start working. I then take a break and wake up the family, get coffee on and try to slip in some exercise. Then I drop off my daughter at summer camp. From there, the day varies as I normally run personal family errands once a week.

But, on most days I return back to work and go through submissions, check through email, do call-backs, and work on client projects. I also may do some editing or manuscript evaluations. I also blend in the RAWSISTAZ stuff and work on admin to the site, email, reviews, following up with publishers and authors, and depending on the day, I’ll pick up mail and log in books received. I’ll also peek in at the various groups and lend a hand as needed. I do a LOT of email correspondence, so that takes up quite a bit of my time.

Pretty soon, it’s time to pick my daughter up. Then, I work with her for a while on school stuff and depending on the day I may do housework (or I go back to work) and stop in time to get dinner ready. We then eat and have family time. After that, depending on the night, I’m back at the above things, since I admit I’m a workaholic. Sometimes we play games, do yard work or hide out in our respective areas of the house. Once they’re off to bed, I normally do more work, research or read until about midnight. I normally sleep 4-5 hrs and then the process starts over again.

Thank you so much for joining us Tee C.

TEE C.ROYAL THE LADY WHO RUNS ONE OF THE BEST FORUMS FOR AUTHORS ON ALL LEVELS FROM NEW YORK TO ESSENCE BEST SELLER LIST TO FIRST TIME AUTHORS

I had the pleasure of meeting Tee C. Royal in 2006 at the Raw conference in South Carolina she puts on a wonderful well organized and very informative conference. I met some many wonderful people who I had been talking to for years on line and now that we have met we are family.

Tee C. Royal is the founder of RAWSISTAZ Literary Group and its subsidiaries, a literary agent, wife and mother. She resides in the suburbs of Atlanta with her family.

How did RAWSISTAZ come about? RAWSISTAZ (Reading and Writing SISTAZ) came about in September 2000 when I was asked to start a book club for the online group SISTAZ. Since I enjoyed both reading and writing, I wanted to incorporate both, so RAWSISTAZ was born. With a handful of members from the original SISTAZ group, we opened the doors to others and branched off into a separate entity.

How long have you been reading? I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories as a child are hiding on top of the house and under my bed reading.

What made you want to support authors? One of my biggest annoyances is people who talk a good game, but don’t really do anything. Another is seeing a great piece of work not getting the exposure it deserves. Both were what pushed me to have the main focus of RAWSISTAZ on supporting and promoting African-American authors and their work.

Is this a rewarding or a thankless job? It’s sometimes a bit of both, but the rewarding part always overshadows everything else. No matter how many people I run across who don’t bother with a THANK YOU, I still enjoy what I do, and plan to always do it. It’s also rewarding because I can see the impact and importance of RAWSISTAZ and I’ve met some wonderful people through the various groups.

What has RAWSISTAZ diversified into? RAWSISTAZ does various things in the literary industry, but our main objective will never change. We are most known for our free Black Book Reviews (www.blackbookreviews.net), our team of reviewers, and our online book clubs and offline chapters. We have other projects in the works, but they all revolve around the literary industry. There’s also our annual literary event, The RAWSISTAZ Affair.

For an author to take full advantage of your services and your group what should they do? First and foremost, visit the main website at www.rawsistaz.com. The website alone is a major source for exposure, at no cost to the author. There are sections to list your website, book information, bio, and items of this nature. I would also suggest joining RAW4ALL, our online literary hangout with members who are readers, writers, agents, editors, and other literary professionals. The wealth of information shared in the group is at times overwhelming, but almost always helpful. I’d also recommend visiting the various resources & links listed on our site, subscribing to our newsletters, and reading our blogs. Collectively, we offer the perfect one-stop location for “keeping you in the know regarding the African-American literary community.”

What in the literary world excites you? A better question would be what doesn’t. LOL. I simply love reading or hearing about a great book. I also love when unknown authors are in the spotlight and able to share their craft with avid readers. Most recently, I’ve been fascinated with the whole publishing process. So, there isn’t much in the industry that doesn’t excite me.

Is this why you became an agent? Pretty much, yes. It was an extension of what I’ve already been doing for six years with RAWSISTAZ, just another route for doing it and on a different scale. Granted, it’s much more complex than what I’ve done with RAWSISTAZ, but I enjoy it just as much.

Tell us about a typical day for you. Now that I’m an agent too, my day is a bit different work-wise, but for the most part, I get up before everyone and immediately start working. I then take a break and wake up the family, get coffee on and try to slip in some exercise. Then I drop off my daughter at summer camp. From there, the day varies as I normally run personal family errands once a week.

But, on most days I return back to work and go through submissions, check through email, do call-backs, and work on client projects. I also may do some editing or manuscript evaluations. I also blend in the RAWSISTAZ stuff and work on admin to the site, email, reviews, following up with publishers and authors, and depending on the day, I’ll pick up mail and log in books received. I’ll also peek in at the various groups and lend a hand as needed. I do a LOT of email correspondence, so that takes up quite a bit of my time.

Pretty soon, it’s time to pick my daughter up. Then, I work with her for a while on school stuff and depending on the day I may do housework (or I go back to work) and stop in time to get dinner ready. We then eat and have family time. After that, depending on the night, I’m back at the above things, since I admit I’m a workaholic. Sometimes we play games, do yard work or hide out in our respective areas of the house. Once they’re off to bed, I normally do more work, research or read until about midnight. I normally sleep 4-5 hrs and then the process starts over again.

L.Y. Marlow shares her families history of abuse

My Voice, My Words, My Journey

by L. Y. Marlow, Author of Color Me Butterfly

“I was sixteen years old the first time my left eye was blackened, my lip split. The culprit: my seventeen-year old boyfriend in a jealous rage because he thought that I was seeing another boy. Not true, but by the time he folded me in his arms and begged for forgiveness, the swelling was already rising.”

This is my story, one that is too often told. Stories that fester from women who come from all walks of life – young, old, the haves and the have-nots; domestic violence has no barriers, offers no dividing lines. It rears its ugly head in every culture, in every community.

I wish I could say that my story ended that fateful day when the swelling started to rise. I wish I could say that I had never heard of or been exposed to domestic violence before I was sixteen. I wish I could say that this phenomenon did not exist in my family before I was a stitch in my family’s fabric line, a seed in my mother’s womb. I wish I could say that sixty years of domestic violence has not prevailed my family; but those wishes are just that – wishes. I come from a legacy of women – four generations to be exact – where every kind of domestic abuse – be it physical, verbal, emotional, psychological, or sexual – has been at the hem of the fabric of my family.

In Color Me Butterfly, I tell the unnerving, real and brutal accounts of how my grandmother, my mother, myself and even my daughter, have suffered at the hands of domestic violence, literally. It seems to be a vicious cycle that won’t turn loose my family. It is a truth that has gone untold for many, many years; and it has become the match that has lit a fire beneath my torch; a torch that I have vowed to carry – a crusade in its own right – to tell my story, spread the word, and raise awareness.

About Color Me Butterfly

Spanning over sixty years, this poignant, well-written book tells the story of four generations of mothers and daughters who embrace a legacy of unconditional love, old-fashioned family values, and faith to triumph over a life plagued with unspeakable abuse and pain. Written with the flow of a novel, with frank wisdom and wit, Color Me Butterfly encourages readers to immerse themselves in this family’s life and become an advocate for change. It will incite discussion, debate and heightened awareness about intergenerational abuse and its impact on our society.

Linda R. Herman

Hello, ALL! I'm Linda R. Herman, a new, up and coming author. I am proud and truly blessed to be able to share this news with all of you. My first ever published short story will debut on July 21, 2007! I'm going to give you a synopsis that will convince you to check this one out at www.lavenderisis.com!!! And here we go!

After committing the ultimate act of adultery, Tyanna Washington does not feel she is worthy of true love.

Jay Bryant has sex appeal that a young Tyanna could not deny. She fell head over heels in love with him despite his commitment to his wife and their kids. Their affair produced a beautiful daughter, Jayla. When Mrs. Bryant discovered the hidden truth she packed up and left. Tyanna took advantage of the situation. She and Jayla moved in with Jay.

But love built on lies doesn't always last long. As soon as Monica, Jay's wife, announced that she and their boys would be returning to their home, Jay gave Tyanna the boot! She and Jayla were sent packing.

With no job and no place to go, Tyanna returns home to her mother's. She is reintroduced to her brother's childhood friend, Derek. The last thing Tyanna's heart is searching for is love but it's the one thing that Derek offers.

Even though Tyanna doesn't believe she is worthy of true love with Derek, she learns that all things come in their own time...even love.

My link is www.myspace.com/linherman. If the link fails please search for me by first and last name or email, writerlin2003@yahoo.com. Thank you all so much! Be blessed!

Linda R. Herman aka Sunshine

www.lavenderisis.com July 21st! "A Time For Love"

www.xpressyourselfpublishing.org August 2007 pre-order Erogenous Zone: A Sexual Voyage

Sandra Rafaela Afro European Network

Interview AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE Reading my column on net(working) for women by coincidence, Sandra Rafaela wrote to me via Email to tell me about her initiative for an Afro-European Network for women. As it sounded very interesting to me and, I assume, to our readers too, I would like to present her Sisters-Network to you. Additionally I asked her about how large her net of wonderful women already is, what feedback she is given by the visitors on her website and if she has a story to tell about connecting Afro-European women via www.aesn.eu successfully. Here is what Sandra Rafaela had to say! Question: Ms. Rafaela, when did the idea to create the internet platform Afro-European-Sisters-Network appear to you and why? Ms. Rafaela: It appeared to me during my vacation in November 2005. There isn't really a why but more becoming aware of the fact that there are not many black women organizations or websites in Europe and therefore not many role models. The idea just came to me and I worked it out, did some research and came to the conclusion that I could wait for someone else to start or I could do it myself. Question: How long did it take after the idea appeared to realize your platform? Ms. Rafaela: It took me about 5 months to get everything started. I already new that it would be called the Afro European Sisters Network but I had to get the domains www.aesn.nl and www.aesn.eu The EU domain took until April 2006. Didn't know anything about web design so I had to get into that too. But I did some IT study in the past so it was just a matter of reading about it and than understand how it all worked. After the technical part I had to think about what I wanted to achieve and how I was going to do it. So during the months that I had to wait for the EU domain I thought about the lay out of the web site. The different pages that I would create and how the network will develop. Question: What kind of women join(ed) the AESN, where do they come from and what are their aims and contributions to the network? Ms. Rafaela: When I started my virtual network AESN I was concentrating on Europe. Of course first with the Netherlands but I didn't get the respond that I wanted so I decided to cross the borders. Without realizing it the network went global. I started getting emails from everywhere. Women from the United States, South America, Caribbean, Africa and of course Europe. The aims of the women are that they really want to connect to an European network and their contribution is that they spread the word and send in articles and want me to start activities. Question: Where do you see the AESN and yourself in five years? On what projects are you currently working on or planning for the future concerning the network? Ms. Rafaela: In five years, that is exactly the time that I gave myself to make this network work. In five years I want the network to work as I have it visualized. Currently I'am working on bringing structure in the large database that I have gathered in the past few months and am working some plans out. Question: What do you think about networks for women in general? Do women need networks and for what purpose? Ms. Rafaela: Well networks are great! And yes women need networks because why would you invent a wheel that already has been invented. Why not make use of the knowledge that is already there. In my network you will find house wife's, business women, authors, celebrities etc. All these different women can help other women to achieve their goals and they really want too! Question: Do you yourself feel well connected to other networks and if so to what kind of networks? Ms. Rafaela: Yes, I have joined a lot of different networks but not especially on black women but black women in a line of business. By joining all these networks I have increased my reach and information source. Most of the networks are not European Question: The success and the soul of a network depend on the people who join and contribute to it. Can you tell us a story about how your network has connected or supported women up to this point in time? Ms. Rafaela: Because of my network you see that a lot of women become aware of the fact that we black women are not that different. We might speak another language but that's about it. Further you see that black women (outside of Europe) are eager to learn more about black European women. So the bridge has been build!A good example is the mix that I made on www.myspace.com/aesn you see that all the women are connecting to each other and that is great.

Afro European Sisters Network

Sandra Rafaëla

Odastraat 13

3073 ZM Rotterdam

The Netherlands Europe

www.aesn.nl

www.aesn.eu

www.myspace.com/aesn