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AUTHORS PLEASE READ
Hi, my name is Hillary. I'm 24 (no kids) and live in Inglewood, Ca. I love to read, and for a long time was only interested in African American literature. I like to speak with those who have similar interests and taste and would love good recommendations.
Mod
Sounds great! I'm looking forward to participating in this group. There's a lot of good stuff to read.
Hi Kisha, Londa, & Lulu -The author rules said in Aug. we can nominate our own books, but where?
I'd like to suggest we read my historical fiction, MARCH WITH ME
for Black History Month. It is the story of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, focusing on the Children's March, which was pivotal in getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (50th anniversary!). The story is told through 2 protagonists, one black and one white.MARCH WITH ME was an IndieFab winner in historical fiction and a USA Best Book Award finalist for multicultural fiction. It's been endorsed by Alma (Mrs. Colin) Powell, former MS Gov William Winter, several of the actual "footsoldiers" from the Civil Rights Movement, among others.
I am invited to speak around the country, especially in schools and universities, about the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
Thanks for letting me know about how to get MARCH WITH ME nominated,
Rosalie
Hi RosalieLooks like a great book! Yes we do have a new author read in August but we voted on that on some time ago.
Our next new author read is scheduled for December. We should be nominating and voting for that one in October. We always chose book about 2 months in advance.
We will make sure that you don't miss out on the nomination next time around. One of us will post an extra message in the Author Forum.
I look forward to interacting with this group.
Mod
Ok. Natural Elements Natural Elements The story of a young woman of mixed race (her mother is black/Caribbean, her father is South Asian) struggling to fit into the complex world of Bombay society.
I am recently published author of historical fiction. So glad to have found this group! :-)
Hi, I'm Judy, the author of VIRGINSOUL which was a Goodreads book of the month in SEPT. 2013. I love reading fiction, history and philosophy. And biographies. The last online book reading/discussion I participated in was for Manning Marable's bio of Malcolm X. My website is judyjuanitasvirginsoul.com.
I read Elaine Brown's book, A Taste of Power a while back, along with many other books on the Black Panther Party as research for VIRGINSOUL. I was a member of the BPP in the 60s. My novel is semi-autobiographical.
Hi,I wrote James´Journey a novel about the Underground Railroad and the Abolitionists, set right before the civil war.
It is written from a white man´s perspective as he changes views from someone who is pro slavery to someone who becomes an abolitionist and a conductor on the underground railroad.
I have included several historical people who were fighting to end slavery including Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher, Sojourner Truth and Moncure Conway.
I hope this is the right place for this?
Hello! I'm black, but not African-American; my novel is historical black fiction, but not African-American -- I guess I don't really fit in here! Yet I'd still like to join the group, if you'll have me. I'm from Guyana, South America, and that's where my novel, the Secret Life of Winnie Cox, is set; on a sugar cane plantation, 1910. The main character is white; she falls in love with a black man, and the story is how bit by bit she is forced to confront her own sense of privilege and superiority. Till the day she has to make a final choice.Though the society is quite different from that of the USA (Blacks and Indians were and are the majority), many of the post-slavery issues are similar. OKAY, that's me. I'm now going off to lurk a bit more, and join some of the discussions. (PS that book is not yet up on Goodreads; I guess my publisher will put it up in a day or two. My other books are up, though!)
Sharon wrote: "Hello! I'm black, but not African-American; my novel is historical black fiction, but not African-American -- I guess I don't really fit in here! Yet I'd still like to join the group, if you'll hav..."You are certainly welcome here, this group is for anyone interested in African-American historical fiction regardless of their individual background. :)
Hi and welcome to all our new comers - all the work sounds interesting
Mod
Sharon wrote: "Hello! I'm black, but not African-American; my novel is historical black fiction, but not African-American -- I guess I don't really fit in here! Yet I'd still like to join the group, if you'll hav..."Sharon,
Your novel sounds great. I would like to read it as well.
It sounds a little like what my novel James´ Journey is about.
James is a young man who has to confront his own feelings about the slavery that he had grown up with on his fathers tobacco plantation. Learning that it was not the nice happy place that he had been taught it was. He had to come to terms with the fact that owning other people was immoral and wrong even if his family and his neighbors disagreed with him.
My new book, Eyes Like Mine, a historical novel, the e-book, is FREE on Amazon Friday and Saturday (10/9-10/10)!She is a wealthy Negro aristocrat living in Jim Crow Washington D.C. He is a Jewish lawyer who fled Nazi Germany. When Justinia and Julius meet at an NAACP convention, they defy family and societal expectations and change each other's lives forever. Their story, told in alternating viewpoints with insightful wit and humor, reveals their experiences involving race and class and sacrifices they make while living and surviving the turbulent 1930s.
Mod
Lauren,Your book sounds great. I would love to read it.
The story reminds me of my friend´s parents. Her father was a Jewish man from Poland and he met her mother an African American Baptist in the 1950´s, they married and he converted and became a Baptist minister.
Wow, Helen, that does sound like a story that would make a great book!
Lauren wrote: "Wow, Helen, that does sound like a story that would make a great book!"Doesn´t it! That is what I tell her too.
Tracey, please try Eyes Like Mine if you're not reading anything right now. I think you'll enjoy it.
Please give Notorious P Man Sam a read!
My new blog is about the power of art to change hearts and minds http://www.edprotzel.com/new-blog-2/ re: the LBJ/Dr. ML King, Jr. play "All the Way" (Tony award)--re: two audience members: a young African-American and a senior white woman. Related it to my novel, "The Lies That Bind" (pub. November, TouchPoint Press), which has themes of race, gender & class--heavy themes.
Hi! I hope this is the author's section. If not, okay to move.My new novel, "The Lies That Bind," will be published in Nov. by TouchPoint press. Here's a brief synopsis:
Turkle, Mississippi, 1859-61
"The Lies That Bind" is a twist tale of intrigue in the antebellum South. This is not how they are remembered by history.
Driven by overwhelming longings, both outliers and establishment in this labyrinthine-plotted tale refuse to accept the roles society has forced upon them.
In 1859, Durksen Hurst, a visionary charlatan on the run, encounters a dozen hungry slaves stranded in the Mississippi wilds. Led by the deceptively simple-looking Big Josh, together, they agree to build their own egalitarian plantation, with Hurst acting as figurehead “master” to hoodwink the town. But wise Big Josh fears that Hurst's grandiose schemes may doom them all to the hangman’s noose.
In his past, Big Josh was one of many slaves who ran the plantation for their dissolute master. A stutterer, simple looking, Josh is the real brains behind the partnership's scheme. While literature has often falsely portrayed the slave, in "Lies" the slaves get to say what they think--and they get credit for what they accomplished.
In the town, the reclusive widow, Marie Brussard French, manipulates the region’s bankers and cotton brokers, everyone...except her frail, rebellious heir-apparent, Devereau. Driven by unbearable loneliness to mad acts, Devereau threatens to expose the family’s own tenuous façade—which would prove fatal to the Frenches.
Meanwhile, Antoinette DuVallier, a beautiful, Cassandra-like fugitive from New Orleans with mysterious ties to the Frenches, is on her own desperate mission. Her arrival detonates long-repressed conflicts, unleashing a devastating upheaval of fire and blood that tears asunder the once-sleepy hamlet.
As the story’s tangled webs of deceit unravel, each startling plot twist and cathartic revelation shines a fresh light on what it means to be a man, a woman, free or enslaved—indeed, what it means to be human.
The Lies That Bind (to be released Nov. 2015, TouchPoint Press) is the first completed novel and screenplay in Ed Protzel’s planned “DarkHorse” trilogy.
Published by TouchPoint Press www.touchpointpress.com
Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com
Lauren wrote: "Tracey, please try Eyes Like Mine if you're not reading anything right now. I think you'll enjoy it."Tracey wrote: "Sounds very interesting."
Tracey wrote: "Sounds very interesting."
Hi Lauren,I just purchased it. I'll start reading it tonight and get back to you shortly.
I am Donna Drew Sawyer and I have been a member of the African-American Historical Fiction group since February 2015. I introduced myself on the “Introduce Yourself” thread however, I also wanted to tell the group a little about my novel and I believe this is the place to do that. I see several authors on this thread that I have or will add to my “To Read” book shelf. I wrote a short description of my novel below and I hope some of you will consider reading my work, “Provenance: A Novel.” As an avid reader of literary fiction by and about African Americans, I noticed that many books in this genre focus on the enslavement of African Americans. While slavery is very much a part of our history, it is not the whole of our experience. I wrote “Provenance: A Novel,” a work of literary fiction about the African American experience in the early 20th century, the era after the Civil War and before the Civil Rights movement. During this time in America it was up to the individual or the family to empower themselves to freedom in whatever way they could.
In PROVENANCE, some characters who can, decide to pass; others flee America for Europe where they find freedom not available to them in their homeland. I mix actual historical figures (Belle da Costa Greene, Eugene Bullard and Josephine Baker) with fictional characters to tell the story of three generations of one family determined to escape the barriers of race, class and gender.
You can learn more about me on my Goodreads Author Page or my website, www.DonnaDrewSawyer.com.
Provenance
Hi Donna: We should read each other's books! They have very similar themes.
Hi Donna,Your book sounds wonderful. I would love to read it!
Lauren wrote: "Hi Donna: We should read each other's books! They have very similar themes."Hi Lauren:
Your are on my To Read list I noted the similarity. Looking forward to reading you book.
Helen wrote: "Hi Donna,Your book sounds wonderful. I would love to read it!"
Helen:
Thank you! From your lips to many readers' ears and eyes! I hope you enjoy PROVENANCE.
Hi Donna: Putting Provenance on my list!!!
Thank you so much Lauren. I can't wait to read "Eyes Like Mine" and post a review.
Lauren,I just looked at your profile and how you are interested in the nature of prejudice. Did you see the movie Skin?
http://www.skinthemovie.net/site2/
If not I really recommend it. It is an amazing movie, really gets you thinking on what prejudice means. It is based on a true story also.
I recommend it for everyone, but I thought of it when I saw what you wrote on your profile.
Hi Lauren:Thank you so much for recommending the movie, "Skin." I had heard the story the movie is based on but I had not heard of the film. I added it to my Amazon watch list. Thank you!
Donna wrote: "Hi Lauren:Thank you so much for recommending the movie, "Skin." I had heard the story the movie is based on but I had not heard of the film. I added it to my Amazon watch list. Thank you!"
You are welcome, it is a fantastic movie. It has a great cast too.
Black Coffee
Books mentioned in this topic
Journey to Colonus: A Novel of Race, Espionage and Redemption (other topics)When Saigon Surrendered: A Kentucky Mystery (other topics)
Eyes Like Mine (other topics)
Provenance (other topics)
Eyes Like Mine (other topics)
More...
1. At least 30 comments in the group Not including anything regarding your own work.
2. You have to join in on at least 1 group discussion for every time you enter your own book into the New Author nomination.
Thank you in advance for respecting our authors rules. We encourage you to participate and we'd love to support you on your road to success.
If you have any questions regarding advertising your work in our group please feel free to post below or inbox myself or Lulu.
Happy Readings,
Your moderators