(Not) Phoning It In

It’s Friday. It’s sunny here in NYC. My brain would like to zone out watching fluffy clouds pass by as I lay on a patch of grass in a park. Work must be done though and I can’t phone it in. I have to really do it. I have to write every e-mail, post and pitch as if it is the only thing the receiver might read from me. Each word represents me. I can’t have shabby stuff riddled with grammatical errors and poor word choice. You never know who’s paying attention.

Okay, that was really me talking to myself to motivate me to push through not so fun stuff. Just thought I’d share.

 

Stuff I’m Doing

Over on Madame Noire, I’ll be doing weekly book reviews! Check out the site every Thursday and Saturday for new stuff from me. My first two are already up. One is about Blair Underwood’s latest book and the other is about a personal favorite of mine from Octavia Butler.

Be sure to pop over there when you can. It’s a fun, informative site.

 

Business Card Inspiration

So, as you all know, I’m a freelance writer by day/night/every-waking-second-of-my-life, so networking is pretty critical for me.  In New York, there are 10,594,952 networking events taking place on any given night (Yep, I counted) and I’ve become pretty good at selecting worthwhile events. Well, last night I definitely picked the right one! I had the pleasure of attending Kitty Bradshaw’s event at the Apart showroom to celebrate the second year of her blog (her blogaversary, if you will).

It was crazy ridiculous FAB due to the fashion on the mannequins (which people won in a raffle), free manicures, free-flowing vodka, cupcakes, cheese and not to mention all of the very talented people in attendance. Oh and the gift bag? I’ll put it to you this way, this dress right here was just one of the things in the overflowing gift bag. Yeah, it was like that. All of that was wonderful of course, but for me, the business cards were the real stars.

That pic above shows just some of the cards I collected in the three hours that I attended Kitty Bradshaw’s event. The one that says “Hug a Farmer” is the backside of a card from Cabot (the cheese folks). Isn’t it cuuuute? So anywho, in about a month, I’ll be heading off to San Diego for the NABJ conference and I desperately need to re-up on my business cards. I have some, but I need more…and better ones.

Have you ever seen American Psycho? There’s a scene where all these Wall Street guys basically try to one-up eachother with their business cards and they actually discuss colors, textures and fonts. That’s me! I mean, I’m not trying to one-up anyone necessarily, but I do want dope business cards. The folks at last night’s event had all types of sizes, textures, colors and graphics. Definitely gave me some ideas. When I get my new cards, I will share their crisp loveliness with you all, dear readers.

Thanks for a great event, Kitty and all your sponsors!

 

100 Dates

I was watching an episode of Say Yes to the Dress the other day and it brought up an interesting idea. (If you’re not familiar with the show, it basically follows real life brides as they search for the perfect wedding gown at New York’s ultra chic bridal salon Kleinfeld.) A bride on the show had already tried on 100 different wedding gowns* before she even got to Kleinfeld. The fashion director noted that trying on 100 gowns was like dating 100 guys, at some point you don’t even remember each one and it’s just pointless.

That got me to thinking. How many guys have I dated in my life? Have I dated 100 guys? More?

Hmmmmm

Being a writer and all, I decided to put my count on paper.  Each guy, from the awkward boys I used to sneak around with before I was “officially” able to date at 16 to the self-assured grown men I encountered when I moved NYC, they were all reduced to mere slash marks on a page.  That loooong break from dating I took after a bad break up with a college boyfriend? Just a space between lines. My first real boyfriend who was a part of my romantic life on and off for years? Just one little line. No matter if the guy was an awkward one time date dud or a guy who became a big part of my romantic life, he got one solitary line. Mind you, I counted each different guy I dated, not each date.

Here’s my count:

 

Good Reads Around the Web

That’s me folks! Brown skin lady! (Shout out to Black Star)

I made Afrobella my homepage a long time ago. I love that site to fabulous, itty bitty, well-moisturized pieces.  Well, this week, the site offered up a real treat with a post about the history of natural hair for African American women. The post includes amazing pictures of beautiful 19th century women who fashioned their hair in all types of interesting ways. All the women seemed to be so fashion forward as well. Could you imagine the weight of just being a black woman in America in those days and then add to that the desire to be fierce? Woah. Like any woman, I had (and have) my issues with body image (My chicken legs!), but one thing I love about me is that I LOVE the physical traits that mark me as being of African descent. The full lips, the hair, the wide nose…I’ve always appreciated those things about myself. For those who share those same traits, I hope you love them too! For those with different features, love that ish!

*****

Salon wants to know if there is a use for the abundance of bad writing.  The American Book Review compiled a list of “bad” books that included titles you know and love such as The Great Gatsby. (Personally, I find Fitzgerald’s imagery to be scrumptious.) I’m pretty good at picking up books that contain at least decent writing. I can count on one hand how many books I have bought and left unfinished. That said, I don’t think I would read something that I KNOW is full of horrible writing just for the sake of reading it. I’ll stick to fawning over Toni Morrison’s every genius-laden word.

*****

This is a gripping New York Times piece about a small city an hour north of Manhattan called Newburgh. It’s plagued with gangs and violence. Make sure you take a gander at the slideshow pictures. Some of those pictures look like some sleepy, dilapidated town in rural Mississippi. If there’s a kid in your life who needs help (any kind of help) and you can assist, please do so.

 

Subways and Dreams

I went to a writer’s workshop last night and one of the people there asked what inspires us to write. Like most writers/artists, there’s no routine to how I gain inspiration. That’d be pretty boring, no? Lots and lots of things/people inspire me, but when I really thought about what inspires my writing (fiction anyway), subways and dreams seem to top the list.

One of the first things that comes to mind when people think of New York City is the subway. At over 100 years old and teeming with the city’s most talented, annoying, rich, poor, stylish and stinking inhabitants , NYC’s subway system is a great place to observe real New Yorkers.

Like anyone who has been living in New York for a while, I have a million subway stories. Some will make you never touch anything on the subway ever again in life, some are moving and some are gut busting funny. The common thread is that all of those stories stuck in my head. They were memorable because they said something true and striking about the human experience. Sometimes I hear a piece of a conversation on the subway and of course since it’s the subway, I don’t know the full context of what was said, but maybe that little thing I heard inspires me to add a layer to a character or provides the seed for a short story. The NYC subway offers some of the best people-watching in the world.

As far as dreams, I have extraordinarily vivid dreams which are often inhabited by random people from my past and characters I’ve invented. I keep a pen and paper and a booklight by my bed so that I can capture all those REM sleep inspirations before they disappear with the dawn of a new day.

I really like going to this writer’s workshop, even when I don’t have anything new to share.  It makes me feel accountable. I can’t call myself a writer and go to a writer’s workshop if I’m not putting words on the paper/screen.  Can’t let the last byline get too old.

Anywho, for the creative types out there, do you have tried and true sources of inspiration?

 

Formspring Me!

I decided to go ahead and open a Formspring account. I’ll be answering questions every Wednesday. I get emails to my various email accounts pretty regularly now about all kinds of stuff from writing to natural hair to urban planning to general questions about schools. I figure this might be a fun (and anonymous) way for folks to ask stuff. Of course you are more than welcome to continue emailing me too.

 

Good Reads Around The Web

I know my fellow Detroiters are loving this pic.

I LOVE this article! I really do. It talks about all the good things Detroit has going for it and it puts out statistics in context! Most of the horrible stories you hear about Detroit are (unfortunately) true, but in addition to all that mayhem and muck, there are lots of wonderful things about my hometown.
The Urbanophile

*****

Speaking of great things about Detroit, Campus Martius was just given the Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award from the Urban Land Institute. Detroit, stand up! Campus Martius is a dynamic public space in downtown Detroit with lots of stuff to do.
Detroit Free Press

*****

Recently, I interviewed four bloggers who have managed to turn their blogs into springboards for career opportunities.  Reading their stories will make you want to start a blog. Yop.
The Atlanta Post

*****

I consider myself to be a good writer, but at the same time, I know that not everything I write is good. It’s a little reassuring to read an article like this about great writers/intellectuals who wrote down right awful film treatments, screenplays and the like. Jean-Paul Satre wrote a screenplay about Sigmund Freud’s life that if produced would have been about eight hours long.
Salon

 

Harlem Renaissance Part ???

A picture I took in West Harlem last year.

Recently, I posted a link on Facebook to a New York Magazine article that ranks New York’s top 50 most livable neighborhoods.  Harlem–my beautiful, lovely, charming, eclectic Harlem–is ranked dead last.  I love NYMag to itty bitty pieces, but they were all types of wrong for that one. One of my FB friends (a cousin actually) suggested that I use the power of one to begin a new Harlem Renaissance. A contemporary cadre of Zoras, Langstons, Alains, Jeans and others?

Hmmmm…

 

Happy 101 Blog Award

You know what’s better than a nice thing happening to you? A nice unexpected thing happening to you! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the super cute blog Peace, Love & Pretty Things honored me with the Happy 101 Blog Award! Thanks Gina and Kim! Basically, it’s a pay it forward kind of thing. You get the award and then you have to do three things:

1. Thank the person that awarded you this in the new post.
2. Name 10 things that make you happy.
3. Pass the award on to 10 other bloggers and inform the winners.*

*AMENDMENT It’s time consuming to put together a list of 10 bloggers and inform them and all that. I’ll say to the folks I am giving this award to that if you can’t do 10 blogs, do five and say something nice to or do something nice for five strangers this week. Let’s spread the cheer online and in real life, folks!

*****

Things That Make Me Happy

1. My husband’s laughter

2. The smell of bread baking

3. Soulful music

4. Sunshine

5. Catching up with girlfriends

6. A page full of my words

7. Turner Classic Movies

8. Goat cheese

9. Lean, muscular sentences

10. Knowing that I did my best

And The Award Goes To…