Reenactment of "The Wedding Scene" in The Manual

What happens when two formr high school sweethearts meet up at the wedding of their mutual best friends that they help bring together. It can be a sticky situation to say the least. Talented actors and entertainers Mr. And Mrs. Craig Watson from Lyric Ave of Richmond VA were on hand at my Area-wide book discussion to bring my characters to life. Mae sure to leave a comment.


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Let the music play

I’m a sucker for love songs, classic soul, R&B , or what they call slow jams. There is something about a slow melodic groove mixed with lyrics about burgeoning, everlasting or unrequitted love that I feel deep within and try to bellow out in my less then harmonic voice. Music is my muse. I remember specifically spending hours on end writing my first novel, Soon And Very Soon while listening to the Love Jones cd on continous loop. Didn't the O'jay's prohetcially say, there is a message in the music. I often find myself in a dream-like haze, lost in the lyrics as I relate the emtioanl haywireness of love to the characters' relationships in my books. I can undertsnd the state of mind that Lennie Williams feels when he belts out, "Because I love you," as well as the utter desperation and despair that would make you bust the windows out of someone's car (Jasmine Sullivan).
Music became vitally important when conceptualizing the complicated relationship that spanned over twenty years between my two main characters Deidre Collins and Andre Hicks in my secondn novel, The Manual (October 2009). Their romance was like an intricate dance and what is a dance without music? I thank the following artists, as well as the lyricist and musicians for the selections that help me understand their romance.

The Dance by Prince

I don't want to give you my love. If I do I'll loose my mind.

Weary by Amel Larrieux

This woman is growing weary of having to be so strong . . . I can't fight each battle alone

Come back by Brian Mc Knight

I got monumental making up to do with you, baby

Complictaed by Robin Thicke

I wish I could loose all of my blues. I wish I could stop putting my blues on you.

My First love by Anthony Hamilton

Now we've been through to much together and we're approaching up on stormy weather still you'll be, my first love

Say Yes& Getting Late by Floetry

There is only one for me... All you've got to do is say yes!

It's getting late, why you got to be here beside me, wanting and needing me... But I'm afraid and you say, don't be

Relections of my Heart

He boggles me when he looks at me. I know longer see whats right before my eyes. Something happens and I don't why. I begin to fall.

That's the soundtrack. Download it to your IPoD, and fall in love. Read The Manual this fall and see if you can identify the emtions these songs inspire.

Retracting the blade

I went to my 20th high school reunion recently and a classmate told me that my ex-boyfriend who was in the class ahead of me was sentenced to 25 years for a home improvement scams. Although I am far removed from that relationship and the pain of that break-up, a residual of bitterness made me think, that’s what he gets. Our break-up was sudden-or at least to me. It was the classic string-my-girl-along while I try out a new model scenario. I confronted him about his other girls, then I was floored when he told me don’t call him no more. Soon I found myself as just one of the choices that wasn’t selected on his multiple choice test.

After an enjoyable reunion weekend, I began to think of what I had been told in another light. It was praise worthy. This guy was no good for me. I believe God pulled me away from this person that I was determined to hold on to. Call it divine intervention.

In my second novel, The Manual, I worked hard to create a similar image. So it was ironic that I got this revelation on the eve of turning in my final edits. What would a parent do if they found their child playing with something dangerous or something that could possibly harm them like a box cutter? Most of us who are not interested in recording the footage to win a prize on a Home Video program would probably snatch it away immediately-no questions asked.
Poor kid, he was content before his all-knowing parent comes and takes away his play thing. His curiosity had only begun to experiment with the many features of the desired object. Now the kids balling ‘cause he doesn’t know what happened or why he can’t have his toy back. I can just see a snotty-faced mess of a toddler running after his parent on unsteady legs with outstretched arms screaming, give it back, give it back, give it back. Not trusting the wisdom of that parent, the toddler jumps up in an attempt to take his toy back. But the parent is unrelenting, retracting the blade, and taking it away for good.

What if we were that toddler and that all knowing parent was God. I believe that is the way the Hand of God works in our lives. Like that toddler we don’t understand why he takes things out of our grasp. Later on you may come across your plaything hidden on a high shelf. You remember the pleasure playing with it brought. Being a little older and wiser you now understand the hazards. In most cases you are thankful you had someone to watch over you.
You could not tell me 20 years ago that me and my ex would not be together forever. Sometimes relationships come to an abrupt end and we don’t why. Modern society has you searching for closure from that person. Sometimes closure only comes by getting closer to God.

Read about high school sweethearts, Deidre and Andre, reunited after eight years in The Manual due to hit bookstores October 2009. Subscribe to my blog, Making the Manual (www.makingthemanual.blogspot.com) for more insights and revelations from the book.

The Genesis

I began writing The Manual before I got a true publishing contract for my first novel. A book deal went sour which held up Soon and Very Soon for two years. I had taken a scapel to my novel under the auspices of getting it ready for publication. I was in quandry as to whether I was going to take Soon back to its orginal basis or shop the very new version to other publishers. I was in prayer about it, so in the meantime I toyed with the idea of a new novel.

It began with two seperate and unrelated ideas that eventually gelled into a premise for The Manual. One of which came from Soon and Very Soon. In the very first chapter when the male pastor, Willie Green flashesback to the time he spent chasing romantic love instead of his calling to God's ministry:

The Lord allowed Kay to cross his (Willie) path again as she attended his home church on a Sunday that he preached in his Pastor's absence. This time instead of trying to poesses her, he tried and succeded in saving her soul.

I studied just that short passage over and over as if I hadn't written the words myself. It suggested that his romantic interest somehow blocked his sight of God. Willie had been "churched" all his life. He heard the call from God, yet in still a woman overshadowed that call. He tried to posses her. The word posses sent chills up my spine and reminded me of bitter, stupid and desperate things even I have done in an attempt to call someone mines. I've seen couples so into one another that I could imagine this overshadowing love being a hinderance to one's walk with Christ. I had to explore it in my novel.

I wanted to also explore the brain of a teen aged boy.Daunting, I know. I spent four years treading water as a teacher in the middle schools in a huge Urban school district, hormone central. There I found a frustration and complacency untold. It was an experience that I unsuccessfully tried to recount in a post titled, diary of a middle school teacher in http://www.shejack.blogspot.com/

There were enough wacky scenes and out-of-control behavior stored in my memory bank to write a memoir. I was use to children getting away with murder and parent's condoning their child's behaviosr that one particular incident stood out for me. I remember having a retention conference with a child that I taught English to. His parents sat silent throughout the whole conference seemingly taking in the fact that their child was failing the seventh grade. The father very solemly turned to me and asked, "Can my boy do the work? I mean-mentally. Can he keep up with others in his class?" I told him that he could, but he was choosing not to. That settled it for the mother. She declared to all assembled that she would not pay for summer schhol. That her child was old enough to start taking responsibility, so if he had to stay back, then he would. She told us all that he would just have to start wearing out his own knees and start praying for himself. Of course a variation of this scene makes its way into the pages of The Manual.
I could feel the parents hopelessness, but depsite what either of them had said, I knew their boy would be okay. He had a support system. There were many more prayers to be uttered for him and more conferences they would attend to make sure he was doing what he was suppose to.

I watched there son also the very next year. I knew he liked to sling a few curse words around, and that he had a girlfriend that he liked to kiss by the lockers outside my classroom. He was mannish. I wondered if he got that from his father or his wanna-be grown up friends. Even came by at the end of his eigth grade year to tell me he was finally getting out of middle school.

My characters, Deidre and Andre were born as the parents of this teenaged boy I had to create, DeAndre. As high school sweethearts, Deidre and Andre were ripped apart for eight years after a sudden and painful break-up.Deidre who has grown a hard outer shell because of it has been brought to her breaking point by DeAndre's antics and must come to her ex with help in raising him.