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!

Peace….

In the now famous words of Rodney King—“Can’t we all just get along?” I just got back into the swing after the holidays, opened up e-mail, saw the blog… read the posts and was like, “Whoa! What happened?”

Please, folks, let’s start 2008 with peace on earth and good will to all men & women. Call me superstitious, but my Momma used to say, “The way you start out is the way you finish up.” Might be an old wives tale, who knows—but I still have this habit of putting on collard greens, black-eyed peas, rice, and ham on New Year’s Eve… the old ladies in the family say it symbolizes money (the greens), good people (the peas), and good luck (rice & ham)—don’t ask, I haven’t figured that one out myself yet. Why can’t it be turkey and yams? Maybe rice and ham had something to do with what was considered significant bounty in some areas. Who knows? Bounty = good luck, I suppose? I digress.

Then, still working with the theory of starting things off right for the year, if you follow the old wives plan, you’d add a scripture or two (if you’re out partying, LOL) or a Watch Night service in a church, if you’re being particularly diligent spiritually… but top on the list was, drum roll please… “no drama.” You had to be laughing, hugging, eating, and being merry with friends and family wherever you were or it was a foreboding to a potentially not so good year. Okay, people, don’t be messing with my mojo, LOL (or yours)—BIG SMILE! After a particularly daunting 2006, followed by a hard 2007, my personal campaign motto is “Celebrate in ’08,” all right

So when I came back and saw everybody in a whirlwind of controversy, my first reaction was, “Aw, maaaan.”

See, here’s the thing—I want us to have some “safe place” to be on line… where we can debate, share differences, discuss issues, lob opinions, and ultimately have fun—but I so don’t want anyone attacked for any reason. No attacks for opinions, sexual preferences, race, creed, religion, you name it. Very uncool. If folks don’t like a video or book I’ve created, I’m ok with that. Next time I’ll try to do better. I also understand passion. People have become passionate about the VHL series, the characters, and the story-lines. I’m beyond honored and very, very flattered that they are.

You’re also right when you say I’m trying my best… but, yep, sometimes I miss the mark. If I had a Michael Jackson budget the way he did “Thriller,’ – one of my ALL TIME fav videos (LOL!), lemme tell you, it would be on and poppin’! Sad truth is, ha ha ha, the authors pay out of pocket for these little trailers and most of us are writing as fast as we can to keep the lights on, let alone getting esoteric and sexy with filmmaking. That’s the problem… someone in the response posts said it best that, making these vids is really, really expensive. True dat! Getting great actors is really expensive, and the finer the person is, the more they cost—go figure, LOL. Same with purchased images, music to underscore things, editors, directors, producers, blah, blah, blah. Sigh…

Therefore, all criticisms are accurate. Conversely, so are the defenses that say, Ms. B did the best she could at the time. Also true (even though it wasn’t what folks liked at all.) But the real deal is, beyond our varying artistic sensibilities, which ranged from applause to Apollo Theater-like boos for the cover, the video, et al, we’re still a family of individuals who all share the one thing in common, and that is passion about the series.

So, for real, y’all… I’m going to ask you a BIG favor… actually to make a New Year’s resolution to be kinder and gentler to each other. Let’s not cuss anybody out, call out anyone’s intellect, jump on anyone’s opinion or heritage just because it’s different than our own. I really want peace on the boards so people can feel free to participate. I’m not thin-skinned—if someone really doesn’t like something I’ve created and has an issue, they’re entitled to that opinion… I ain’t mad. Same deal with if they really love it when no one else seems to. Balance. We’re going for openness and a good place to share.

However, even with all that said, please don’t ever lose your passion; it’s a great thing to have. It’s a Neteru blade on your hip. Passion inspires, mobilized, gets things done, fires people up and motivates, cuts away obstacles and moves mountains. You just have to be careful with the other side of that double-edged blade. Passion can also cut to wound deeply, can create divides that exclude and overwhelm others, rather than moving mountains. Let’s always use our Isis and Blade of Ausar to cut to the good. Okay? We always want to be “positive” agents of change—gotta know how to wield our passion so we don’t wind up doing unnecessary damage to our fellow Guardian brothers and sisters in the heat of anger.

My Momma woulda said, “Now, y’all stop. That ain’t no way for family to act.” Then she would have fed everybody and made ‘em eat together to stop the feud. She would have put on a spread so fantastic that even while you were standing in her living room with your mouth poked out, what was on her dining room table would just break you down to eat with your temporary enemy. Breaking bread is one of the oldest tricks in the book to solve a dispute. Very basic. God, I miss that woman. My Dad was more “colorful” and a tad more unorthodox in his approach… he would have poured a round of ‘licka’ and it would be solved once folks got ‘nice,’ chuckle—miss him, too.

Sometimes, and this seems like one of those times… there’s wisdom in that “old school” approach of not ferreting out who was right or wrong, or who started what, but just agreeing that in the grander scheme of things, family is more important than all of that. So, in lieu of the old school solution of breaking bread together, and given the distances that make getting together impossible, we’ll have to do this cyberspace style and just say peace and agree to let it go, if we can… cool?

All right, whew, with that said… Happy New Year!

Peace and hair grease, Leslie!

Remember… let’s ALL stay in The Light!

We have been giving away goodies all month long… six more folks just won off the website–and we’ll post the winners names in the next newsletter. Today we’ll do the last drawing in this last blog post update of the year. Secret Santa is on the move, LOL! I’ve been having a ball, and loving the response posts… Thank you all for that

I have some pics, too–as promised–sent in from the Philly AA Book Club ladies (when we had a great seafood dinner and talked about “No Trust” in Darby, PA), and from the ladies at Karibu Bookstore in Bowie, MD, where we had a blast discussing The Vampire Huntress Legend series. See holiday pics below.

Philly AA Book Club

Some of the folks at Karibu, in Bowie

Ahhh…. but the best part of the holidays for me, (in addition to having sooo many laughs with wonderful people), is giving away goodies… drum roll please

The winners are:

–Rebecca
–Dontana
–V22
–P
–Terri W

Yaaaay! Congratulations everybody! May everyone who frequents this blog have a Happy Holiday and Wonderful New Year! I’ll chat back in January 2008!

BIG Philly Hug, Leslie!

Hi, folks! I’m being silly, having a crazy “little kid-like” day… been on the phone, not doing my work, LOL, playing on e-mail–’cause it’s my birthday, LOL! Can’t stay focused, so I figured… heeeey… why not give out “double stuff” on my birthday? Sooo…. drum roll please…. this week’s winners are:

–Vicky
–Shari
–Camille
–Jackie777
–Amy
–Marquita
–Seven

Had to keep the number/numerology straight on my birthday, LOL! So, seven prizes it is!

This weekend was like a non-stop party, too. Went to the annual holiday event that Nakea Murray throws for “As The Page Turns” book club at 3801 Market Street, Philadelphia. My sister-girl ALWAYS hooks it up and makes it fun, and those ladies are awesome… Brenda Thomas was there–Shout out to my Philly author sister who just came out with a fantastic MUST READ BOOK, “Laying Down My Burdens”, along with new authors Dwayne Murray and Dashawn Taylor (look for these brothers!) The food… aw dang, people, was craaazaaay! Caribbean jerk chicken, curry chicken, red beans and rice, fish, vegetables… I was in heaven–bless you Miss Nakea for the invite. BIG HOLIDAY HUG, Lady!

That was Saturday… then on Sunday, I was hanging out with the wonderful ladies of the Philly AA Book Club, hosted by Lisa MaRie and Gina up at Keya Graves Seafood Restaurant in Darby, PA (10 N. 9th Street.) We ate, we laughed, the ladies were fabulous there, too, as was the food–and then we got down and dirty with the politics in the Betrayal of the Trust series… they were reading the last book in that 4 book extravaganza = “No Trust.” (THANK YOU for the gifts, too, ladies!!!) They hospitality was so warm, the ladies just lovely!

As soon as I get digital pics I’ll post them on the blog–but I wanted you all to know where I’d been Guess I’d better get back to that werewolf book. The third one in the series is on my desk as we speak–calling my name and due in to my editor by the end of this weekend, ha ha ha—ooops… gotta run, y’all. So have a great weekend!

Much love and Happy Holidays… Leslie!

This is just a little somethin’ somethin’ extra for the holidays… have a good weekend! Hugs, Leslie!

WATCH TRAILER

Hi, folks… this week I’m mailing out goodies for the first wave of Free GIFTS!

Winners - Don’t forget to mail me your addresses at Vamplegend@AOL.com Next week, more goodies will be given away… yaaaay! Happy Holidays, Leslie!

Ok, folks… like I said earlier, LOL — I LOVE to play Santa !!! So, in a totally unscientific approach (of putting all blog responders’ names in a hat and having my kid randomly pick), we pulled:

–Numbah1Mom
–DragonRider
–Tyhitia

Yaaaay!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Just send me a private e-mail with your name and address to Vamplegend@aol.com and I’ll get your surprise in the mail this weekend… BIG CHEESY GRIN!

Now, if you didn’t win this round, never fear, I’ve got MORE “stuff” and will be pulling names again next week… will make sure everybody gets a lil somethin’ somethin’ — BIG HUG! We’re gonna do it like this until Christmas week… and don’t forget–if you go to the www.LeslieEsdaileBanks.com contest page, there’s still MORE STUFF to win that way too. This was just an extra bonus for the folks who frequent the blog. (Love y’all!)

Happy Holidays!
BIG HUG, Leslie!

Time to Deck the Halls and all that holiday stuff! I love this time of the year, yeah, even with the insanity that generally goes along with it, BIG GRIN! I’m a December baby (12/11/ to be exact—we won’t mention the year, yikes!), so maybe that has a lot to do with it? Learned a long time ago that when you’re born not too far before the Christmas holiday, most times the gifts get doubled as birthday/Christmas. Therefore, we Sagittarians have perhaps become philosophical… I look forward more to the get-togethers, the family & friend “fall-by-the-house” visits, going to the various cultural holiday parties hosted by friends of all belief systems. watching kids get excited about what may be left under the tree, doing some community give-back and feeling it really made a difference, and seeing the lights and pretty holiday decorations… yeah, all that plus the house smelling like fresh-cut pine does it for me more than specific gifts for yours truly. (My only caveat and pet peeve is I hate when stores rush the season by skipping through Halloween too fast and having Christmas stuff out before they’ve even given turkey day its due! That is so not right!)

But I LOVE giving stuff away around this festive season… so here’s my chance to play Santa. On the contest page of the websites, we’ll be giving away: 2 VHL Street Team baseball caps, 2 tote bags, and 2 ADANCED autographed copies of – you got it – The Darkness (book 11 in the Vampire Huntress Legends series)… yaaaay! Plus, throughout the year, I always have 1 or 2 extra books and more “stuff” (giggle) – so after you visit the contest pages, come on back to the blog… I’m having random Mondays, LOL (yeah, my mind is being very random these days), where we’ll just shuffle names and go—“You hit Lotto”… and whatever I’ve found in my annual box of books and “stuff” is yours. Sorta like a very haphazard Pollyanna, LOL!

Although this is indeed quite random and in no particular order whatsoever… know that it’s just another way to let you all know how much I appreciate you for hanging out in my little community and world… and that I’m wishing you and your families all the very best this holiday season has to offer.

Happy Holidays… XOXOX — Leslie!

Hey, folks… I know, I know… I was AWOL again, LOL… but I hope the fact that I was working on Book 11, The Shadows—and turned it in on time, will count for a lil’ somethin’ something,’ as they say (BIG SMILE!)

Seriously, it’s been a long haul—a LOT—of stuff going on… but this is the time of year when no matter what is happening in our lives, we have to stop, pause for the cause, and say a resounding THANK YOU for all our blessings - big and small.

See, by this time of year, the average person is weary. There’s all the daily grind issues that have finally piled up on our shoulders till we feel like Atlas; the weather is getting dreary (days are shorter, darkness comes too quickly); we may be fighting our way through the holiday madness at the supermarket to get ready for a huge celebration—or missing folks in our family who are no longer here; and we may have just gotten bumped from a flight, or bumped in a train car aisle, or had our fender bumped on the road… whatever is going on, it’s easy to lose perspective about why one would want to be thankful.

So, I submit to you, let’s all take 30 seconds—yeah, right now—to just breathe in slowly and close our eyes. Think about someone who makes you laugh, who opens up your heart and makes your spirit soar. Maybe it’s a kid, a crazy friend, a hilarious sibling/relative, a buddy on the job who is always quick with a joke, or a kind neighbor, or maybe it’s your cat or dog, could be a person who you don’t really know but who’s always pleasant when you pass them on the street. The point isn’t so much the rank of that person (or pet) of affection in your life, but rather the “feeling” you get when you think of them. Then transfer that feeling onto images of everything you have to deal with this season. See yourself easily navigating traffic and supermarkets and relatives and work crunches. Let calm become your blanket for just a few minutes and let that meander through your system before making another “to do/must do” list in your head.

I say this because with all the steady, heavy, “mental incoming”—it’s too easy to forget that everybody who was here last year didn’t necessarily make it to this year. When you’re under siege in your life, it’s hard to step back and gain perspective. Ask me how I know

Therefore, if you were standing in line with a loaded shopping cart fussing about the “damned shopping” today – remember 10,000 people never lived through a cyclone last week and 1.5 million of those who did are waiting on military cookies to drop from the sky from U.N. relief efforts. Scary. A lot to be thankful for. With that in mind, I ain’t mad at the old lady who can’t work her debit card, if I put it all in perspective.

Truly, if we count our blessings then it’s harder to have room in our minds to count our deficits (or anyone else’s.) If you walk around with a little mantra in your head saying: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you – watch and see how calm you’ll get all of a sudden. Works like a charm.

For real, I do this when I feel my blood pressure rising. I tend to be impatient; always gotta be somewhere with not enough hours in a day to get it all done did. Plus, you know this time of year everything is hurry up and wait. Everybody is frenetic. Not to mention, it seems as though people behind whatever counter you’re standing in front of were put there just to make you lose your natural mind. It’s a conspiracy, a plot, of this I’m too sure. But I’ve learned that, if I smile at them, regardless of their attitude or questionable skill-set, and simply say “thank you’ – realizing that dealing with the general public is just about the most thankless job in the world, usually I make them smile and pass on the joy. In fact, I’ve found it to be so effective that I’ve been able to commandeer customer service people away from nasty customers… folks tend to like to wait on the pleasant person, and they will stretch out the time they spend waiting on you just so they don’t have to deal with the next snarling individual.

Admittedly, I digress. Not sure how I got here in this mental ramble, smile. But you get my drift. My brain is truly fried, LOL! Can’t fake the funk… but with all the “to do’s” and whatnot swirling in my head, I’m trying to keep a clear picture of the things I’m really thankful for… and once I started thinking hard about that, I realized I needed a very long sheet of legal pad (maybe the whole pad itself!) Here and some of the things I’m thankful for:

While I was gone from the blog, I had the phenomenal opportunity to go to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for the South Florida National Association of 100 Black Women’s Literary Jazz Extravaganza, with a bunch of writer colleagues and friends (Victoria Christopher Murray, Travis Hunter, Keith Lee Johnson, Beverly Jenkins, Earl Sewell Lewis Banks, Phil Duck—to name a few, and I know I’m forgetting folks, chalk that up to my feeble brain but not my heart.) The wild mix of authors, organization hosts, and wonderful hospitality led to laughs like you wouldn’t believe… wiping your eyes kind of hooting and howling (mostly because Travis is insane and Earl ain’t far behind him, LOL!) I’m just gonna say, “Coca Cola,” – classic – and leave it there!

From that fantastic venue, it was on to an unexpected personal trip to Hawaii (Mahalo!)—if I tell you, I gotta kill ya, LOL… but, yeah… very, very thankful, BIG CHEESY GRIN… then I headed directly to Philcon in Philly, and had a blast with the sci-fi folks. Jonathan Mayberry is my road dawg! Can you believe how small the world is—we used to go to middle school together back when he had a long, hippie ponytail and I had an Angela Davis afro, ha ha ha! Very cool people (if you like hardcore, intelligent, brilliant horror - read this man!)

But there’s a whole list of things I’m profoundly thankful for that I cannot even begin to quantify… like my daughter—I’m so proud of my boo, she’s about to go to college in 2008 and I’m excited, blue, crazed, happy, sad… conflicted—sigh… a mother. I’m thankful that my family finally pulled together after many, many years and had a ridiculously funny and outrageous family reunion in the Poconos. Shooot, I’m thankful that I’ve even got family, feel me? Some people don’t have that—or have folks who are blood relatives that treat them worse than a stranger. I’m blessed. Yep… I’m thankful for my friends, my health & strength, and career. Thankful that my old dog, (she’s a 12year old black Lab), is still my “girlfriend.” I’m thankful that I have somewhere to live—because year before last, we’d had a fire and couldn’t be “home for the holidays.” I’m thankful for my sister and her zany phone calls and for her understanding me—just like I’m thankful that my agent is my buddy and his wife is my good friend and his daughter is my angel… so it’s all in the family… same with my editor, who listens to the good, the bad, and the ugly laughing all the way (we tight!) That’s cool… all of it is very, very cool, in the grand scheme of things.

However, maybe the coolest thing of all, and what I am beyond thankful for, is this community of people who previously didn’t know each other—but who came together around a project: you guys made something very profound happen. That first single-cell being quickly morphed into many, and they became Street Team, and forum posters, and VHL advocates, and Light-sharers, and friends, and chatters, and lovers of the series… and this whole organic experience came out of a big bang called joy. It sprung up from people sharing their joy and friendliness with one another. I am thankful for you all. I’m blessed beyond measure that some wild madness, a sort of mental primordial ooze that jumped out of my imagination, somehow got people talking and drew people together and that grew into a community that now has a life of its own. Deep.

This Thanksgiving I am awed, humbled… and moved. I thank the Creator for all this abundance, but I also wanted to take this time out to thank you all for patiently waiting for me to resurface, for allowing me to go underground to work without talking about me too badly (grin), reading the books, for keeping the on-line dialogue going, for stirring things up and sharing your excitement with others… for caring about each other—for caring about me, for being the fabulously diverse tapestry of interests, religions, ethnicities, and philosophies, and perspectives that you are. The thing that is so deep to me is, I had hoped people could function like this… so I wrote that hopeful concept and belief in fiction and called it The Neteru Guardian Team. And here we are, with truth being stranger than fiction, at almost the finale of the 12 book series, and oddly, the on-line community around this series looks EXACTLY like the fictional team—where EVERYBODY is included and represented and valued and is needed as a part of the overall balance to make the whole thing work because they each have cool powers of their own. How awesome is that?

Y’all have a wonderful, loving, fun, joyful, hilarious, safe, eventful, abundant Thanksgiving! When the Divine takes over amazing things happen! Shaking my head…

Much Love, Always… and Stay in the Light!
–Leslie

PS: November ends on the 30th of this month, LOL—so, nooooo, I did not forget that I promised a BTB before November is out. I gotchure back!

Otherwise known as, “What happened in Hotlanta, Stays in Hotlanta!”

No, seriously, LOL… some things that went on in the ATL, I’m not at liberty to speak on–and won’t… but…

I hope everyone had a safe, happy, fun-filled Labor Day holiday and got the last of the summer beach grains of sand between their toes—or barbecued like there was no tomorrow. For me, Labor Day means an annual trek to the nation’s largest Sci-Fi convention held in Atlanta, GA.

For those who have never been, DragonCon is “an experience!” It always is, LOL! Imagine 40,000 to 60,000 people converging on three downtown Atlanta hotels (The Marriott Marquis, The Hyatt, and The Hilton), which are all connected by skywalks so that one can look down on the colorful chaos below. Waves of conventioneers dress in wildly creative costumes. You can see Lord of the Rings characters, Star Wars storm troopers, Battle Star Galactica folks, Star Trek (old and new school), vampires, werewolves, aliens, X-men (and women), you name it, people represented their passions with zeal. And, mind you, all of these are not your cheaply created costumes (although, just like Mardis Gras, some came with barely any costume at all!)… no, some people really went all out with genuine replicas that must have cost thousands. Then, of course, you had the t-shirt bearers (like me) who showed up with the slogan shirts that would make you stop, read, and laugh out loud. That convention hosts the best t-shirts around, I swear!

But beyond the eye-candy, the people are friendly and the fun is over the top—and there’s just about every conceivable aspect of the science fiction and fantasy genres of film, books, art, games, movie weapon replicas, and merchandise one could ever imagine… down to a Saturday morning street parade that is literally a Sci-Fi Mardis Gras, bead-throwers and candy-tossers included. (Yeah, people bring their kids to this to see their fav TV/Movie characters, too—just be sure to hold onto your kids in the crowd crush, and do realize that at night, er, uhm, there is a lot of hotel activity going on that may not be PG-13. Nevertheless, in any big convention, “the freaks come out at night,” so hey. Forewarned is forearmed.)

Now, with all the guest authors, movie producers, celebs and industry folks—scheduling this year got to be a bizarre thing. Panel commitments materialized out of thin air, along with book-signings, catching authors and readers by surprise. Unfortunately, things that were printed weren’t always accurate, so a few folks got to places where the author they were looking for hadn’t a clue that they were supposed to be, and vice versa… yep, it happened to me, too. They had me on panels I didn’t realize I’d be on and times when I was supposed to be on a flight, stuff like that, but we worked it out as best we could. The adaptive solution was for me to just run faster, LOL, to where I found out I was supposed to be. This year they had some staffing changes, I later found out.

But the one thing I will say is, the DragonCon staff is wonderful, the people are really nice, and this convention is staffed by an “all volunteer” effort that runs better than our government at times—so I ain’t mad at ‘em. I had a blast there and the panels were a LOT of fun. Got to see some fellow authors who I admire and love their work, so it was all good. Then there’s always Glennis at the Missing Volume Bookstore (out of Miami), who comes up annually, hosts me at her booth, and treats me like family—BIG HUG, lady. She helped in guiding me through the schedule changes posted on The Daily Dragon, along with Wyman—thank you both! I’m just sorry that I missed Brian, Roxy, Sharon, and Jeanette (I have Roxy and Sharon’s addresses, but Jeanette and Brian, please send me your addresses and I’ll be sure you get book plates—my apologies for the scheduling snafus!)

However, where the real crazy fun began was when the combo Atlanta/NYC/Detroit Street Team showed up at the 4pm Friday afternoon werewolf panel, led by Madame President LaShonda, aka “Quick” via cell phone (she was held up in traffic, but on the move like a true Guardian.) We ran out of the werewolf panel, cutting up and headed over to the CNN Center where we met the fantastic Walden’s Books Manager, Anna—cool people! She was so accommodating, and even delivered a message from my good friend and sister author, Lissa Woodson (no, girl, I did not keep my tailbone home, ha ha ha!) We had a LOT of fun up in the mall and then took the party to McCormick and Schmidt’s Seafood Restaurant, where we just fell out at the one-liner’s zinging across the table, and basically turned the place out.

I’m telling, I’m telling, ooohhhhweee, I am telling, LOL! These folks had me laughing from the time we all connected until well after I got on my flight. “Trouble” and “Mo’ Trouble,” who might remain nameless, kept me in stitches—you can’t go to DragonCon and walk the floors with scantily clad, beer-drunk conventioneers all around bumping into you with Street Team making all sorts of allegories to other characters in the VHL series and not laugh. Merciless, I tell you!

But when we got to the Shrine of the Black Madonna (an off site event the next day), whew! They outdid themselves. First off, they had these goodie bags for the raffle filled to the brim with cool stuff, the bags custom printed with the VHL characters’ tattoos, and even the ribbons that tied the bags closed were specialty printed with logos and whatnot. They went all out—notepads and magnets, all sorts of stuff that was sooo cool, I was like a little kid and wanted everything, too, ha ha ha!

They super-surprised me with a BLACK Box with a silver clasp—oh, my goodness… (as in, “Carlos’s black box”)… velvet lined with a huge, diamond-like crystal paperweight engraved with an etching that deemed me a Neteru Queen, presented by Street Team Warriors… there are NO WORDS! (The Queen? I was floored!)

It is so beautiful, THANK YOU, Bless You all for that lovely piece that I will forever cherish. It is on my writing desk—I’m looking at it now as I type this blog. Absolutely gorgeous and so very thoughtful. It has Damali’s and Carlos’s Adinkra symbols etched into it as well. Plus they hooked a sistah up with a “Queen” Street Team t-shirt (that I immediately put on the next day), with a very cool refrigerator magnet that had all of the weekend events on it, and some fabulously scented bath products and candles (sigh… Cain, where are you—not the crazy version—I’m talking about your fine, old school self before you lost your mind… hmmm… can I conjure up one of those, I wonder? Muse, Muse, are you listening? LOL!)

The gift basket was awesome, folks, only dimmed by your bright, shining, spirits! LaShonda, Michelle, Remy, Rayne, Alicia, Adrienne, Glenn, along with honorary Atlanta Street Team member, Shaun (we’ve gotta fix that to make you permanent, smile), each person made all the folks who came to The Shrine feel welcomed and contributed to raising the excitement and the bar on the questions. I also bow to Sister Ewa, who always hosts us with such hospitality at her book store… you, dear sister, are a gem.

So, did we have a blast up in The Shrine? You’d betta know it! All chairs were filled, we hung out for 3 hours, and it got rowdy, questions flying, hoots and hollers as we got down into some issues about love, sex, death, and redemption. Lawdy B, it was a fun afternoon! Then they took me to Paschal’s in SW Atlanta and feed a woman half to death… yams, mac & cheese, collard greens, pork chops (I ain’t gonna lie, my Street Team brother influenced me—I had originally ordered a seafood platter, then Glenn ordered, and I changed my order to, “What he’s having,” LOL!) From there, we hurried back to the downtown hotels, where LaShonda, Alicia, Adrienne, Glenn, Remy, and Rayne did some fancy footwork and hooked up the food in the Hyatt suite for the Throwdown like they were professional caterers (and/or the Mob)—dang, the went gansta, LOL! THANK YOU for making sure that event went to Hoyle, too… Street Team was representing hard to be sure nothing fell through the cracks.

Folks who showed through ate their fill, Quick busted out the mind-stumping trivia, and the baskets and bags were beautiful (thank you Champagne for the baskets!) I also want to thank Wez for coming and bringing his always positive vibes (Glenn has blackmail pics, though, ha ha ha) and Missy for coordinating the t-shirt sales and basket raffle that will ultimately go to The American Diabetes Foundation via DragonCon’s charity efforts.

By the time everyone left, we were all dragging, faces hurting from laughing so hard, and we were still dancing to the music that mix-masters Alicia and Adrienne provided by iPod—Jill Scott’s “Hate on Me,” and the serious hip hop gospel, “I Want It All Back,” became theme music for the night, LOL… and then they broke it down to Mo-Town (Motor City, Detroit Street Team was in da houze cuttin’ up with NYC team, uh huh, we heard y’all)… literally doing the Four Tops and Temptations’ moves across the floor until I couldn’t breathe. Oh, yeah, we got stupid up in there while eating chicken wings and cheese cake—don’t ask… I felt it the next day like a bad child who ate too much at a carnival, but still had to head out to the Decatur Book Festival.

Now, mind you, I had done Decatur on Friday afternoon before I saw the Street Team, to speak to about 200 high school students. That was wild and fun, and even funnier—but I had to tailor my comments to the underage audience. However, on no sleep, and too many chicken wings and Southern food under my belt, by the time I got to the 200+ folks in the Decatur conference center in the Holiday Inn, on a panel with fellow paranormal authors, the thought of behaving myself had long fled with the theme music from the previous night. Yep, you guessed it; I cut up and laughed on the panel till I wiped my eyes. The good news is, I managed not to offend anyone, and since LaShonda and Michelle didn’t take off their Street Team t-shirts or abandon me, I must have stayed close enough to the edge of the envelope on a Sunday afternoon not to shame them too terribly bad, LOL!

Side note, Decatur is a very, very pretty little town—a Southern SoHo, with quaint shops, good international mix of food, and quiet, clean streets. They said 75,000 attended this event over the three days of the festival—who knew Atlanta was such a literary Mecca? I learned something new to me (ok, I confess, I’m slow on some stuff), but it was really a nice event. This year was their second annual, so if they do it again, try to make it. It’s worth it. The great happenstance for me was, I bumped into funny lady and sister author, Carmen Green, and my girl, sister author, Carlah Fredd. Small World! We go all the way back to early Romance Slam Jam conferences and BET days writing together, dang, I missed them—so Decatur was good just for that alone, then add the wonderful new people I met and it was a fantastic day!

I will tell you that it was with a wistful sigh that I left my Street Team family and sister authors to have a quick dinner then ride back to the airport with the author escort (an interesting woman, by the way, who’d lived all over the world. I wanna be like Laura when I grow up—had a GREAT convo with her about all things political.) Oddly, my flight was very uneventful, wasn’t crowded, and my bags came down the shoot on time. It was a first, and maybe a little travel karma for the last debacle was involved. But I got home without incident, dropped my bags, hugged my daughter, turned a blind eye to the condition of my home, and crashed. It took a full 24 hours to recover and get my biorhythms back to a daytime wake state and a nighttime sleep state—because I’d been going round the clock for almost a week.

It was well worth it, though. Each year when I get out and tour, see faces that I can finally put together with screen names, or meet completely new friendly faces… that is one of the BEST parts of doing what I do—meeting wonderful people! Again, I have to thank you all for that. It makes the being away from home and on the road feel like popping around to multiple family reunions, you know? There’s a really cool element to that, and I appreciate every minute of it.

Next year, I know that I may not be able to make some of these events—for good, happy reasons—I have a daughter who’s a high school senior and this full calendar year she gets full fledge “Mommy time,” with senior prom, graduation, college visits, et al, God willing. But we, the Street Team and I, are already talking about making that up by having one huge blow out event, or better stated, extravaganza, to coincide with the end of the series in 2009. We’ll get that info up and out very early (a year in advance) so folks can plan… but in the meanwhile, I know one thing for sure, LOL, I’d better get back to writing now that I’ve played, or else you all are gonna be mad at me if a book slips it’s scheduled release, ha ha ha!

Have a wonderful, fantastic September. Me—hey, I’m like that Staples commercial… kids in Philly go back to school right after Labor Day! Yaaay! It’s a MOST WONDERFUL time of the year, LOL!

BIG HUG and Much Love & Light always, Leslie!