Just thinking out loud…
Hey, everybody! They tell me Mercury is in retrograde, which to all astrology buffs means that, anything written, any contract being signed, etc., will need a careful eye—plus expect travel delays (all a writer’s nightmare), but I’m still plugging away at the craft and will be trying to “make it do what it do.” LOL! I can’t always navigate by the stars, prayer works better for me, so I’ll just have to say some extra ones as we flow into Black History Month and then Women’s History month, deadlines still looming, travel still required, and yeah, contracts pending regardless, BIG SMILE. What’s a woman to do?
But I did want to let you know about an awesome newsletter – A Place of Our Own (APOOO for short) which does a lovely write up on all things literary at www.apooo.org. It’s really important to commune with others and to make sure you have sources that keep one upbeat and positive. There’s also Access Romance that does a FANTASTIC JOB of getting out all the romance updates, plus Raw Sistaz (which is great for helping the new writer get started.) These great resources are off the chain… and I wanted to give a shout out to Beverly Jenkins (author extraordinaire) who invited me to her fan club on-line for an all day yahoo session on 1/17/08. We had a BALL just laughing… I swear those ladies had me talking to the screen.
The love, the support, the camaraderie is all important, especially when you hear news about a fixture in the independent bookstore world, like Karibu Bookstore (DC/Metro Washington area), has closed its doors on six stores. That is so sad that I don’t know what to say. Those stores were where I would visit east coast readers and have a blast getting to finally places faces with names… and the chain seemed so strong that one couldn’t even begin to imagine something like this. Then, boom. So, I guess what I’m saying is, venues that you truly appreciate, try to support as much as humanly possible—and it’s also important to support the on-line avenues of connection like APOOO and others. These are some very fragile times, it seems… doesn’t just take an astrological, Mercury retrograde to make you look back and wonder.
Ok, forgive me, smile… today I just felt like waxing philosophical 
BIG HUG!
January 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
First off, I’m glad you had a blast on the 17th and I hope you have an even bigger blast when you when some of these awards we been voting on. Yes, I said win cause you KNOW we was on it hard when we found out you were nominated for anything.
Second it is so sad to hear about those book stores. I enjoyed reading about your experiences in them. I’m glad you mentioned it and I”m going to try to seek out more of these gems in my area, so that the same thing doesn’t happen. I’ve been taking the easy way out and just going to Barnes and Noble. I receive the Access Romance new letter and was actually shocked to see that they have an office not to far from where I live. I’m going to look into the others.
Mean while I’m glaaaad you’re still trying to make it do what it do. I for one will be reading your work till you get too old and senile to type (LOL), which is a loooooooong way off. Of course then I’ll be like…what!? you cain’t do a voice recording
?
Anyway, have a blessed day, week, month and year .
January 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thanks so much for the shoutout to APOOO.
LA Banks fans…During the month of February, in honor of Black History, APOOO will spotlight Leslie as one of 29 authors who have greatly impacted our reading pleasure. Stay tuned for her appearance at APOOO!
xoxo
January 29th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Great Post, and thanks for recognizing those who support and assist…special thanks for mentioning APOOO…
Blessings,
angelia
January 29th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Thanks for the shout out! This is our year.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:33 am
Hey Ms. Leslie…
We had a Blast with you in BeverlyLand.. .. as a matter of fact we are still discussing your books and have talked a few others into purchasing them. Please come back anytime….
Also, as a member of APOOO.. Thanks for the Shout out!!
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I just wanted to let you know how much I’m looking forward to The Darkness releasing in a few days!! I have that and about 4 of your other books on there way to me in the next few days/weeks. I’ll also be looking into APOOO asap!
Thanks for all your wonderful words!
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:23 am
Here’s a random jumble of thoughts. I was just sitting here and it occurred to me that it is already February, and while I am very excited about The Darkness’ release, I just realized that time is really flying by and the first month of the year is already gone. And my new year’s resolution? Well, that hasn’t really…umm…fallen into place.
See, I had thought to limit my resolution to just one this year so that I would have an actual chance of achieving it. Hence, I decided that my resolution for 2008 would be for me to be “consistent” with my exercising. However, I haven’t really been able to do ANY exercising yet in 2008.
But I have a legitimate reason…see…whathadhappened was…my mom’s birthday, stepdad’s birthday, and my birthday all fell in January, so…there were several family and friends gatherings, meaning there several cakes and dinner parties, all in the name of celebration of course, so I couldn’t really exercise in January. I mean, what would have been the point if I was only going to eat yummy but unhealthy things many times during the month?
And now, it’s February, and I just attended a babyshower for a coworker in which there were several choices of yummy but not necessarily health-conscious food, icecream, pina colada drinks (virgin of course), and towards the end of the shower, they surprised me with a birthday cake as a belated birthday celebration. And with Valentine’s Day coming up soon, that means dinner and desserts, so the month of February just may not work for exercising either…well, not until towards the end of the month. But then again, March is my sister’s birthday month, hence another cake and dinner outing. So maybe in April, I can really get on keeping my resolution. Although…May is the birthday month for both my cousin and one of my best friends…so there will be more cakes. And June is my brother’s birthday month, meaning—dinner and cake, of course. Also, there is the 4th of July bbque…..
Hmm…random thought here…but…I may need to rethink the whole exercising thing altogether. I mean, I can’t really work on being “consistent” if I can’t even work out at all right? So, this idea of being consistent with exercising may not work as a new year’s resolution. And since the new year already started, it is not really a new year’s resolution if I come up with something else after the fact to replace this one–at least I don’t think so. I have always thought the resolution had to be made “going into” the new year, not during the year. So, I guess, it is simply out of my hands…well…there is always next year
Or maybe, just maybe I will get a random burst of motivation and will get to working out and then I could focus on being “consistent” and I can stop procrastinating 
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hey Ms. Leslie,
This Kathy in Colo Spgs awaiting the release of “Bad Blood”
We really did enjoy having you in Beverlyland and hope you can come out again. I gfted some of the ladies on the site with “The Darkness”.
Cilla is right we have peaked the interest of more of the Ladies on the site. I’m waiting on my copy to come in as I write.
Thanks for the visit.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am
hi everyone,
i am soooooo happy i could pee myself. i got “the darkness” yesterday. i am reverently waiting to start reading it. trying to calm down so that i would understand what i am reading. lol
i pre-ordered it from amazon.com.
question, did the results come out from essence magazine?
~Suzanne
April 11th, 2008 at 1:26 am
This post is inspiring, fresh and ultra awesome! You have a very progressive looks. Reading this blog is a great pleasure.