Something New from Trey Songz

Trey Songz has something new about to be dropped. It looks like June 12th is the target date for release of his new album, TREY DAY, and the single 'Wonder Woman', but the excitement is already beginning to build. Trey is an interesting young artist, and I just took a look at the video for the upcoming single titled "Wonder Woman", but I viewed it with an eye towards the recent uproar about the content, tone, and innuendo of today's music as it impacts young women, especially young African-American women.

"Wonder Woman" is certainly suggestive in its sexual overtones, but the language and graphic degradation is not prevalent. The young woman in the video is rarely seen face on and, when seen, she is usually clothed. The last scene strongly suggests what the desired sexual outcome of Trey and the young video actress will ultimately be, but it stays within the realm of suggestion only.

Trey is a singer that I think will make the coming transition well. The 'after Imus' transition I predict that will spin the music business around at least 180 degrees in the very, very near future, if not further! Whether rap, pop, rhythm and blues, or somewhere in between, the sounds, sights, and message of music will be forced to change, not merely because of a possible eye towards policing or censorship, in my opinion, but because of the impending need for the return to a spirit of love in general, and love between those romantically attracted in particular. I'm personally looking forward to it!

In case you missed Trey Songz' debut album, I GOTTA MAKE IT, there is still time to catch up! He set himself apart from the crowd with this first endeavor with bona fide talent and quality performance.

---

Content copyright © 2007 by Peggy Eldridge-Love. All rights reserved.
This content was written by Peggy Eldridge-Love. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Peggy at plovewriter@gmail.com

What Is In A Writer's Name?

My name has been an object of curiosity of late. Since the name I hyphenate is not my maiden name, my given middle name, nor my married name I've recently had a few gentle (and a few blatant) probes as to just where it came from. This was particularly true since I've had the pleasure of seeing and hearing from a host of friends with whom I attended elementary, junior high, high school, and college, not to mention Sunday school, church, Blue Birds, Campfire Girls, and ... well, you get my drift!

My pat answer is that I'm a writer, and it's the name I write under, which is true. But it goes a little deeper than that. The middle name once upon a time was my last name, and the majority of the people with whom I established my creative life, i.e., music, greeting cards, and poetry, knew me only by that name. So, when my life changed again years later (and I returned to my hometown) and I acquired another beautiful new last name the dilemma was whether to fore go the "good will" and recognizable credit I'd earned under that name or whether to hyphenate it for continuity. After long discuss with my then new spouse the decision to hyphenate was reached.

If I had it to do again, I probably wouldn't. It has been cumbersome and clumsy and I don't think the benefit has offset the lack of same. But it is certainly who I am now as a writer, except I may well begin to craft new works under a new pseudonym - maybe even my given name - yeah, I like the idea, feels right. Maybe I'll start on something new today!

Poetry Radio

I've been added to Miporadio.net as an ongoing contributing poet. You can actually hear some of my poetry there now if you go to http://www.miporadio.net/Peggy_Eldridge-Love . I was laughingly telling some one that we're not 'Def Jam' performers at Miporadio, but, if poetry really resonates with you, you are definitely going to discover some truly exceptional poets there that you will no doubt never forget.

It is National Poetry Month, so I hope you'll take a moment to check www.Miporadio.net out.

Quiet

Photo ©Peggy Eldridge-Love "Worthy" - All Rights Reserved

The thing I value most right now is silence. When I can be still, when I can quiet my spirit, and listen to my heart I find a measure of peace. There is so much love in my heart. It is almost like the ocean, like its evening tide, rushing back and forth, bringing its vast offerings as it comes in, yet rinsing the sand of unwanted deposits and debris as it pulls away again. I am grateful for those moments.

I know eventually some sense of order and normalcy will return to my life. I know in time I'll again laugh freely and have hours in which this thundering agony that now rumbles just beneath the surface won't constantly overwhelm me. I know that day is coming. I am sure of it.

Acrobatic Thoughts

I finished something that had a deadline attached to it last night, but it was a brutal effort trying to get it done. I really cannot think to write at the moment. My mind feels like it has joined Cirque du Soleil. So, for now, I am occupying myself with more technical tasks that are soothing as well as significant. Thankfully, I received information on setting up the planned scholarship endeavor today. I'll saturate myself in getting that right. That is the priority of the moment.

Making Busy

Watercolor "Why Not" Peggy Eldridge-Love - All Rights Reserved

I'm working my way through what seems to be tons of backlog. Thank God. Staying busy has its upside. Especially now. I accepted a position as Poetry Editor of Tribes Magazine about three weeks ago. That should really keep me on my toes. More on that soon.

Peace.

New Morning

Morning breaks crisp, clear,
quiet in its majesty,
full in its promise
that today understanding
will come,
will stay,
will beckon towards
an inner sanctuary
where only brightness
dwells to shed its light
into the tightest recesses
of what we bring as pain.
Wisdom knows, wisdom
awaits, prepares to
elevate and separate
the distortions, filter
out the white noises,
usher in truth in its
gracious robes that
clothe it in sounds
now understood.
Morning embraces with
its new mercies,
pulls tight to its protective
chest and rocks away
with steady rhythm
the sharpest blades of pain.
©2007 Peggy Eldridge-Love

All Rights Reserved

In Loving Memory

Original Art - 18th & Vine - Leroy W. Allen All Rights Reserved

Leroy W. Allen
1951-2007

Promoting What You Write

Thought I'd pass this on! Regardless of your status as an author, i.e., traditional, self-published, debut or established, your role as a promoter of your work has taken on great significance. Linda is known as the Guerilla Princess in some circles, and the success of some very noted authors who have taken her course is testament to the effectiveness of what she teaches.

-----------------------------
Bestselling Authors Know Promotion Course Now Registering for March 18-24, 2007


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Don't miss information on other upcoming courses. If this email was
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How Core are Values?

I've noticed that the sense of urgency that once seemed to fuel the world apparently doesn't currently. There was a time when telephone calls were returned the same day, when emails were responded to promptly, where people called to cancel appointments if they couldn't keep them, and people generally kept their word if they gave it. Those old values no longer seem to be standard, and, at the moment, if you anticipate that they are you may well set yourself up for grave disappointment.

It is not the least uncommon, particularly in the literary community, to hear horror stories about the agony and frustrations encountered because channels of communication were not open between a professional and the individuals and entities they depend upon for their livelihood and well-being. Recently, a long term, very well respected literary professional spoke of tossing his hat in and walking away from the industry because all the rules of the game as he knew it, as he learned it academically and through years and years of practical application, has simply evaporated.

I listened that day as the reversal of his values, the ignorance of what once constituted to him good literature but now seemingly held little weight within the industry was described. I observed the visible anguish this person felt and I envisioned his core touchstones being ground into a powdery dust which someone held in their hands and was blowing into his face with a menancing chuckle. His world, certainly he believed, had changed.

But since then, I find that I cannot help but wonder if these are genuine changes or just blimps on a screen? If, although standards, courtesy, promises, and your basic word might momentarily be socially demoted they won't rebound soon with a vengence? I think I'll try to hold out for that. I think I'll keep being accountable and responsible, if to no one other than myself. And, I think I'll keep expecting that from everyone else, too. I'm not letting anyone off the hook.

If you give me your word be prepared because I'm expecting you to keep it.

The Knoll Frames Come to Life!

Photo:©Peggy Love

My competition award-winning screenplay, The Knoll Frames, has just strolled onto the screen of real life. One of those life imitating fiction or fiction imitating life questions! A couple of people called me on President's Day to ask if I'd seen the snippet on CNN about the JFK film. I caught it then and thought 'hummm, how uncanny' , but, a few days later news about its discovery is all over the airwaves. It really makes me think about the power of attraction.

Now the plot of The Knoll Frames is ultra tight, the premise mind-boggling, and it puts a spin on its own discovered film in a political thriller that has left everyone who has read it asking me one question: "Oh my God, did this really happen?" And, that's a question I simply don't answer.

I think it's movie time. Call me.

Give me an "E"!

My poetry book, You Beckon, has just been released as an eBook. After a lot of posturing and wishy-washy thoughts about whether or not to go that direction, I'll admit to being excited. The eBook has a new cover. Sweet as they were, the children are gone, and the cover now indicates that You Beckon is for grown-ups. Time will tell if that makes a difference, but, for the moment, it feels good.

The photo selected is one that is also inside the book. It is a likeness of the author from many moons ago, yet I remember the day, the hour, the second, the very moment it was taken as though it just occurred. But, (pun intended) life beckoned and I have definitely moved on from days like that when that was my image. But ah, the memories!

Also, eBooks are tricky. Different readers produce different results, so I'm sort of waiting with baited breath, hoping everyone will have excellent viewing experiences. The samples I saw were great. I'm going to trust that everyone else will have equally enjoyable reads!

---

You Beckon - The eBook!

Ringside Dreams Revisited!

Photo: The Late Great Ali!

In a post last year entitled Ringside I admitted to a long held desire to be a ringside boxing announcer. At our house we are such boxing fans our choice of dogs are even Boxers and we name them after favorite or respected boxers, as with our first beloved brindle, Ali! Well, I haven't received that call yet that I've been waiting on to join the guys at ringside, but I did have an opportunity to write my first professional boxing article this weekend entitled Sugar Shane Sweetens with Age. I was holding my breath, wondering what kind of a response I'd get, and of course I shot the link to a few hard-nosed boxing fans that I knew would not cut me any slack. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when the first few responses did trickle in! The critics were impressed! Wow!

I'm still hanging tight to my dream, but, in the interim, I'm thrilled to have an opportunity to strut my stuff on the tip of my pen!

Reeling

Photo: ©Nudgies® - All Rights Reserved

We lived next door to one another until I was seven and she has always remained my mentor, friend, spiritual encourager, and cheerleader. She was a sage of intellect and wisdom. With my first book, I'd learn of a large order of books from one private buyer, and discover later she was the purchaser, and also discover that she was sending copies to the likes of Oprah and others she thought should be aware of me. We were cousins, but our kinship went far deeper than that. Without prelude or warning she departed January 24, 2007. She was private in her gifts and her endlessly generous good deeds, so I must respect that privacy now and not call her by name, but her name is ever imprinted on my soul, in my mind, on the tip of my tongue when I want to define beauty inside and out.

I bid you adieu, dearest one -- until we meet again.

Kudos, First Fridays, and Focus

Intriguing week! I've felt as though I was on a mental seesaw. Up and then down, down and then up, but never really feeling out of balance. I've actually been having some genuine fun.

For a moment I was caught up in a flurry of kudos that left me feeling sort of heady. I felt invincible, as though there wasn't anything I could not accomplish if only I thought I could. That has been my state of mind for the most part of my life, really, but I'd started to waffle somewhat as wisdom kicked in and a few "things" decided to try to take me to the mat. Feeling that all empowering sense once more has been great, it has fueled me, yet it has not made a fool of me. I am reminded that there is nothing I cannot accomplish that is worthy of my time and effort. The time and the effort parts of that statement are what is key. That's when wisdom can now be very swift with its foot if those elements are lacking.

Then, yesterday, I had a nice surprise. A fellow author and friend's second novel has just been released. I have been anxiously awaiting it because a hand-full of us communicate on a fairly regular basis.

First Fridays - Cherlyn Michaels - Hyperion Books

I remember so well the utter euphoric fits we all had when she landed her original deal, (Counting Raindrops Through A Stained Glass Window - Hyperion) and it was hard to believe that she was already releasing the second book of that deal. Plus,the impending release of her second book was being heralded with great critical anticipation. Well, I got my copy of "First Fridays" by Cherlyn Michaels (Hyperion) last evening and thumbing through it I started to read the acknowledgements and saw my name included there. That particular acknowledgement bought quick, hot tears to my eyes. It really meant a lot! And, even though I hadn't planned to do so immediately, I started reading her book. I read the first chapter and I will not lie! It was all I could do to put the book down! It jump starts with a major bang!

Now I have to refocus my attention on "moving my own cheese," as another dear friend frequently says. I have much undone that I cannot ignore. Time to ease off the seesaw and leave the playground. It's time to go take care of my chores!

Speaking of Spirit!

I have the profound pleasure to be working with a publication that has already begun to sweep the globe off its feet. My involvement is freelance, but there is such an aura about this entire endeavor that the experience is continually humbling. It brings to you the best of the best of our essence as women -- women of the world.

What intrigued me first was the title of the magazine: Spirit: A Magazine Designed for the Diverse Woman. My first reaction was, humm, that's a mouth full, but once I had an opportunity to work my way through the product itself, to interact with the people behind the scenes who are making the wheels turn, I realized that not only was the title appropriate, it resonated truth in a way rarely seen in media today. Diversity isn't a 'buzz' word here, diversity is the empowerment of our differences, the power of our gender, and the reach and pull of our strength when we approach life and this world we co-exist in with common purpose and commitment.

That's why, although this is a very young magazine, it is already circulating to over 1,000,000 and growing in leaps and bounds! They have already focused features on China, Poland, Lebanon, Italy, Greece, Mexico and the U.S., and cover those issues that bind us like music, care giving, gifted children, teaching , our teens, our health and that of our families, our dreams, our hopes, and our aspirations. Volume 3, Issue 8 is now available and movement towards the next quarterly issue is in progress. Visually, it has the look and feel of a Coffee Table book rather than a quarterly magazine, and, to be honest it's not the kind of book you'd probably ever throw away. It is beautiful!

Okay, enough of my gushing! I just wanted to mention it since I am now moderately involved in selling it, but you can check it out for yourself by clicking here! And if you really want to know more, contact me directly at peggy@spirit-mag.com or plovewriter@gmail.com.

Birthday Gift

Photo: Eddie and Luguine Nash

I received a very unexpected and delightful surprise on my birthday, but it appears that the timing was just a coincidence. In 1999 I posted a couple of inquiries on a genealogy board seeking information on some of my ancestors. I knew some things about them, but, for too many reasons to try to enumerate, there was much, much more that I didn't. One of those inquiries dealt with my great grandparents, Eddie and Luguine Nash, and questions about their parents and, well, their parents parents and so on. Dead air was all I got.

Then, about 2:00 AM this morning I was on line and I heard a little bleep notifying me an Email was coming through. I casually looked at it and it informed me that there was a response to my inquiry regarding my great grandparents. I had no idea what they were talking about because it had been so long since I started the search I had completely forgotten I was searching. That's when I pulled up the response and saw it was to a question posed nearly eight years before and it was an absolute goldmine of information! All day long I have been communicating with the respondent and it seems like I can now trace my roots almost all the way back to King Tut (well, perhaps I embellish a little).

But now I know that somewhere along the line I'm a VanLandingham, a Fox, a Doolin, a Jamison, a Kern, a Meredith, an Ashford and the list goes on and on. I have names and dates that coincide with oral histories and family tales and they dovetail almost perfectly. How liberating to know for sure from whence I come and to whom I belong! What a way to start the new year, both the new calendar year and this new personal year of living. What a gift!

Twilight in Red

My current manuscript has been waking me after just a few hours sleep so that it can take me through a few more paces. I'm not being driven by character's talking a mile a minute. The characters are pretty tame at the moment. It is more the architect building and structuring the story that won't allow me to sleep. The internal sounds of hammering and nailing this piece here, and that piece there demand that I get up so I can at least get a feel of what we're building. Last night it was a time line. A time line that I discovered this morning was an absolute jewel of a tool (I'm not trying to rhyme) which solved an issue of three days within the storyline that just weren't flowing properly!

I vaguely remember mapping out the time frame, drawing lines on a piece of graph paper under days of the week and filling in events and circumstances, but I don't remember switching to the red pen that I made the additional notes with which brought everything into a harmonious flow! I remember nodding, and catching myself a couple of times just a moment before falling asleep with a bang on my desk. I'm sure it was between those twilight moments I picked up that red pen and some uninhibited sense within took pity on me and tapped into some subliminal space that retrieved that information which thereafter gave me what I needed to give myself permission to finally end that marathon session!

Whatever the process, I'm thrilled with my time line. It works and it is most definitely worth a few hours of lost beauty rest.

Sound Check

The last few weeks have been wild. It appears that many things that have been trying to come together for some time finally are. I've got a new freelance relationship with a magazine that should offer many new challenges and a host of possible rewards. It is a young magazine, but it already has a circulation of over 1,000,000, and I'm quite excited about any role I get to play in making those numbers grow.

Adding to that is new representation in the works with a top-tier New York literary agency and a remarkable agent. We're nailing down the particulars on that, but it is making the New Year look promising.

There has been some movement recently too. Cyber movement. A poetry group I am honored to be a part of moved its cyber location to Facebook, which I'm finding to be quite intriguing. Other writing friends are making changes to their web sites, their blogs, and a few are exiting the internet all together for a while in an effort to regain their writing momentum, having found that they are too sidetracked when online. I admire their discipline.

Change is good. I'll do some revamping of my own here and there so that I can maintain a fresh sense of direction. Actually, I have already begun as I have consolidated some sites and activities under a single umbrella. That was long overdue!

And then there was the big surprise! Discovery of some forgotten monies that made us feel both stupid and incredibly blessed! What can I say? Testing, testing, 1-2-3!

The last few weeks have been wild!

Christmas Spirit

I've been consumed with the true spirit of Christmas and the absence of it in the eyes of people I see, on the landscape as I ride, and even my own numbness that ought never be.

The passion of Christmas, the passion of the spirit of holiness, of love, of peace, of joy, of hope, and of mercy is what I long for once again. I pray that it begins to smolder in us all as we travel through these next few days, regardless of our faith or religion, but because of our commonality; our oneness as humans sharing this earth. May we all be consumed by a burning spirit of love one for another.

---

Photo 123rf

Poets

First Edition 1901 - Candle-Lightin' Time - Paul Laurence Dunbar

The telephone rang in another room and I flew past one of my bookcases that's stationed in the hallway to try to answer the phone before the call went to voicemail. On my way back (I did get the call, it was a lost fax machine trying to connect) my eyes fell on a book in that case - a poetry book - and it caused me to pause. I bought that book because I heard the poet performing his works a few years ago. Both the poet and the book are exceptional, but, unlike an excellent novel, his book didn't skyrocket up the list of best sellers and I have no idea what the status of his poetic career is presently.

Being a poet myself, this shouldn't have given me such pause. We know the score. A book seller at a major bookstore chain congratulated me not long ago because a hundred copies of my poetry book sold. That, I was told in excitement, made it a "best seller". I thought he was joking. He wasn't. He was quite serious. Contemporary poetry, he continued to enlighten me, is a very slow mover and not something either book sellers or distributors really like to handle much.

But poetry is critical to a society. It is the blood rushing through the society's heart, its truth and its timber. Odd that it should be viewed with such commercial disdain. I know I have been influenced by poets in my own life. I know I continue to be influenced by them. Some are unsung, some brand new, some a bit more familiar, but each a force and an energy I've been fortunate to encounter. I guess it is only right that I name a few, huh?

Gino L. Morrow - Spitfire (Poetry and Prose)
Jackie Young - Love's Reparations: The Learning Curve between Heartache and Healing
Linda Dominique Grosvenor - Love Lingers
Paul Laurence Dunbar - "Candle-Lightin' Time",
Merrit Malloy - "My Song for Him Who Never Sang to Me",
Stanley E. Banks - Rhythm and Guts
G. Highsmith-Hooks - The Soul of a Black Woman: From a Whisper to a Shout
Sonia Sanchez - Homegirls and Handgrenades
and Rita Dove - Thomas and Beulah

Shaking Off the Writing Shakes

Occasionally, when where to turn and what to do next seem impossible to comprehend, and the light bulb that has been lighting your way through the book you're laboring over suddenly burns out, you feel the shakes start. Going somewhere, curling up in a fetal position, tempts, as does ripping off your clothes racing down the street screaming at the top of your lungs. Looking at the options, some of them as drastic as radical surgery on parts of your anatomy you can't imagine life without, will take a far braver person than you - at least at the moment.

Hitting that snag brings up that age old philosophical question. Why? Why torment yourself like this? Why continue to subject yourself to the terror that awaits in the dark crevices and alleys when you make a wrong turn and end up boxed into a dead end and all paths of graceful or safe retreat appear to be blocked off as well? Then comes the age old philosophical answer. Why not?

One way or another you will solve this dilemma, and it will be what lies in the solution you chose or that is chosen for you (by your characters or your muse) that the real story will come forth. It might not be the one you were laboring over. Hard as it might be to accept, that labor of love might only have been the back story for the one that is to emerge. Regardless, when you unfurl your body, put your clothes back on, and return to your pen, shake though you may, the light will have returned. Only this time it might be natural, not artificial light, and the chances of it burning out will be almost nil.

My own "MySpace"

For the last several months I have been receiving a great deal of communication from authors who now have a MySpace presence. A few months ago I took a look at MySpace and "reserved" my own space, but then forgot about it. Over the holiday I decided kick my little MySpace off. Take a peek!

Nudged Off the Back Burner!

This entire week has been devoted to marketing and promotion. Small things in most cases, but very necessary. For an example; a flame has been lit under my greeting card line, (Nudgies®) and I wasn't really paying attention and it has almost burned me! They have been a back burner item for a while, but a specific rep loves them and is on a marketing crusade on their behalf. Next thing I know the phone is ringing and the buzz about the cards is on!

I will of course take advantage of this steam while it lasts. I created a few campaigns of my own, but sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. As much as I want to be, I am not really a jack-of-all-trades. Some of my attempts are pretty juvenile, but that doesn't stop me from trying! But, hooray for Nudgies®!They were my first love anyway!

Doing it right just because!

It is a powerful experience when you encounter someone or something that is doing it right. The W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center falls into that category. I visited with the executive director, William Grace, this morning because they are adding my book of poetry, YOU BECKON, to their bookstore, but what I learned in the few minutes we spent chatting about both Mr. Grace and the center was quite humbling.

The W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center has been in the Greater Kansas City community for thirty-three years and its single focus has been tutoring and mentoring children educationally in reading, math, science and computer technology. This is a non-profit learning center! The tutors and mentors here are all volunteers, and their assistance to the children in this community is virtually free.

Long before it was in vogue to talk about leaving no child behind, and long after it became clear that there was both the need and the market to make tutoring and educational assistance a very, very profitable enterprise, the DuBois Learning Center kept its focus and its commitment to its young constituents. Whether you could afford to or not, if learning was your goal, the DuBois Learning Center and its volunteers were committed to help you reach that mark.

The spirit of voluntarism, of community, of cultural development, of local pride, and of that ultra special spirit of being accountable is what I met today in Mr. Grace and his little-sung organization. Thirty-three years is a long time to struggle against all the inherent obstacles a small non-profit organization like this one has had to overcome while continuing in its unwavering commitment. As I left I found myself thinking that YOU BECKON has found itself a most honorable and prestigeous new home.

An eBook Odyssey

I did it! This weekend I created an eBook from start to finish. I decided to embark upon the fine art of eBook creation because it is the current industry trend and common sense suggests it behooves me, an author, to understand this contemporary means of delivering long labored over content conveniently to those who may be interested in acquiring it. As with most things, it isn't enough for me to know that any traditional publisher who might be handling any of my work will already have all their mechanisms in place to meet this market need. Nope, I wanted to know how it works hands on!

What I learned in the process was how much I didn't know! One of the major learning curves came with the acquisition of images. This particular little project required a number of images of food and food preparation (hint!), so off I went in search of the most appealing, appetizing pictures of the foods I had in mind. I purchased for what seemed like extraordinarily moderate prices the images I liked and after hours of calling on recall and childhood memories I had recorded the information I needed to set my e-book in motion. I had already set-up the mechanisms to be able to publish eBooks a while back, including contractual agreements with an eBook publishing site, so I was indeed ready to test the marketplace.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that this could not be that simple, that I probably had not thought something through clearly. I decided to go back and check the licensing for the images to make sure they covered the project I had in mind. Thank God for common sense! While the license I had for use of the images I acquired covered a host of uses, a more expensive license was needed for those images I originally planned to use to be able to use them in an eBook. Oops!

So, it was back to the drawing board. I removed all of the images I had thought to use, and dug through my own little cache of personal images, until I found some that at least captured the spirit of the project and inserted them. You see, I was still determined I was going to complete this project because I started it. That's a part of my new commitment to myself - finish everything I start from now on. Period!

So, out there somewhere in lonely eBook cyberland is my first eBook creation. It is on its own though. I'm not going to lay claim to it unless and until it becomes a best seller -- in the world of down home recipes!

My friend, Shelia M. Goss!

Shelia Goss is a good friend of mine. She is also a most prolific writer. I asked her if she would share a secret, if she had one, to finishing a manuscript since she has a host of new books coming out over the next several months. Here's what Shelia shared. Enjoy!

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The Art of Finishing A Book
Guest Blogger Shelia M Goss

I wish there was a magic formula to tell you so that your unfinished or in some cases unstarted manuscript would magically complete itself, but there isn't. I wish I could privately email you a secret code that only other authors know that mysteriously writes your novel but it doesn't exist.

I could recommend one of many books that teach you how to flush out characters, develop plots and create better settings for your story; but unless you use the information and apply it to your work in progress and desire to complete your story, it won't do you any good.

I may not have the secret to the art of finishing a book, but hopefully something I say below helps.

I want to address writer's block or what I like to call procrastination. The first thing I would suggest in order to finish your book is to stop procrastinating. Whatever it is you're putting ahead of writing your manuscript, stop. Now you're probably like, I can't stop the baby from crying or my spouse from wanting some quality time. You're right. Family is important and you must spend quality time with your family. What about all of the projects I have at work? Work is important. Where does that leave me? This is where you will have to make a sacrifice. Instead of taking a full hour for lunch, why not use half of the time to write. Instead of getting up at 6 am, why not get up 30 minutes prior or stay up 30 minutes later. Before you know it, you've written another chapter and another chapter and if you keep it up, you will have a completed book.

Another thing that sometimes stops people from completing their manuscript is doubt. I doubt if anyone will read this. I doubt if it'll be any good. Well get rid of the doubt. How? If writing is your passion, then stop allowing doubt to stand in the way. Surround yourself with positive people. Don't let doubt stop you from finishing your book.

Procrastinating isn't your problem and you don't doubt yourself, but you can't get past the first few chapters. The hardest part is to get the first draft done. Once you get the first draft written, then you can revise it. But if you don't get the first draft of a completed manuscript done, what do you have to work with? Nothing. So to resolve that issue, I would suggest that you write, write and write until you get the first draft and then go back and revise.

This last thing I'm about to mention may be a given, but I'll mention it anyway. Know what you want to write about. If you don't know what the premises is for your story then you will not be able to complete it. Before you type that first word, know what the central theme of your story will be. Know your characters inside and out. You may not know the ending, but everything you write, should live up to the theme. Each scene should add up and take the reader on a journey into your make believe world.

To sum it all up, don't let anything stand in your way. The art to finishing your book can be summed up in three words that Nike uses in their ads and that's JUST DO IT.

Shelia M Goss is an entertainment writer and the National Bestselling Author of My Invisible Husband and Roses are thorns, Violets are true. She was the recipient of three 2003 Shades of Romance Magazine Reader's Choice Multi-cultural Awards and the 2004 Oneswan Productions Female Author of the Year. Her website is www.sheliagoss.com or visit her on myspace at www.myspace.com/sheliagoss. My Invisible Husband is published by Urban Soul, an imprint of Urban Books/Kensington and will be in stores in December and available from BlackExpressions.com.

No Romeo and Juliet

Are they really in love or what? That is the question. I have labored over these two characters for a long time and the thrust of the story hinges on their deep, unwavering love, but, I'm just not feeling the love from these two. Maybe it is layered so deep beneath all the muck and mire of their lives that it still has not sufficiently surfaced, but, by now, (chapter 15) there should not be a question!

You know what that means. Back to character development. Obviously I have missed something very important. Maybe...naw! Surely not! Dang!

"Just Say the Word"

Josh Kelley

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I was supposed to do a telephone interview with singer/songwriter Josh Kelley last week and a number of things occurred on my end that made me need to postpone it. I felt badly about it, planned to make that connection this week and hookup on the phone as planned, when instead I got a note saying Josh was going to be in Kansas City this weekend for a performance and would I like to do a live interview and review his show? Most certainly, I responded. Boy, did I luck out! I am just walking in my door from that live performance and I'm going to be honest - Josh Kelley is deeper than deep! His voice - with all its soulful calisthenics - will take you on a magic carpet ride you will not soon forget.

I fell in love with the title song of his new CD, "Just Say the Word", so I had glimpsed a little bit of his depth and range before tonight. But the true measure of an artist isn't what he sounds like recorded, but what he sounds like when he walks up to a mic before a live audience. In my experience, live performances most often leave a great deal to be desired, even with some of the most gifted entertainers. Tonight though, when Josh Kelley, accompanied by bassist Darwin Johnson, took the stage, the world rocked.

I'll post both the interview and the review on Emerging Music at Bellaonline.com in a day or two, but I just want to make sure that if you are anywhere near where Josh Kelley is going to be performing, I urge you to run -- that's right, run, don't walk to get your tickets. It will be a performance you will never forget.

Back to Living on the Tip of My Pen

I have some nice things lining up for this weekend. I have a live one-on-one interview for my Bellaonline.com Emerging Music site lined up with Josh Radin when he comes through on The Hotel Cafe tour. Josh is awesome! Songs of his appear on the movie soundtrack for Last Kiss and have also been featured on Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs. He's a Columbia Records artist.

I'm back to writing and my entertainment promotional efforts full time, and could not be happier. One record company executive committed to review his company portfolio in early November and, based on some smaller projects I've already successfully completed for them, target a number of more in-depth projects my way. I will definitely become more aggressive with my interviewing and reviewing, particularly of emerging music artist, but will focus on emerging literary artist also. There is little more exciting than having a role, regardless of how small, in helping someone make their dreams come true. I think that is the passion that drives me towards this.

So, I'm drowning in deadlines and love it.

The Bane of Mediocracy

Talk about waiting to x-hell...

Last night I slept with a peace I cannot begin to describe. Throughout this day the rhythm of my life has returned and I can hear the comforting sounds of self humming softly in the background. I have been fond of saying I am a catalyst of change and not its victim yet I had been a victim of change and not its catalyst for an extended period of time. Last night, though, I x-helled.

How easily the role from catalyst to victim had reversed itself, and how smoothly oiled with fear that wheel was that spun me around and left me dizzy and uncertain of my direction. But there was something that terrified me enough that it never allowed me to allow myself to become entirely entrenched, to become what I hated most. It was the aversion, the absolute, unequivocal revulsion to mediocracy that kept me fighting, kept me warm when my hope felt like ice in my veins, and kept me swimming towards that shore that sometimes seemed like a mirage. I cannot abide in mediocracy, nor can mediocracy abide in me.

So, I lift my glass to yesterday, and thank it for peeling away layers and forcing me to peer deep within to places I often didn't really want to go. I toast the knowledge and the understanding that my mother would now label as "bought sense" because of the price I paid to gain it. I toast Webster and those early teachers who taught me how to look up the meaning of words for myself. But above all, I toast the fodder I now have from which to draw what will ultimately be a masterpiece. Promise.

Shopping Season

Something new is about to be shopped. Keep your fingers, and all other digits, crossed. It's a joint project, but one that I loved creating, and I totally enjoyed taking the journey I have with the other writers involved. I'll let you know as soon as we find our new home! We've got some very impressive deal makers at the helm of this one, so ... here we go!

So, that's it!

There are times when you forget why you are doing something in a specific way. It might be something that feels awkard, or seems excessive, or just simply doesn't flow naturally, yet you continue to execute it in the odd manner that now and then makes you stop and wonder. Then, BOOM! That brick wall that nearly knocked the who-knows-what out of you when you hit it straight on before suddenly pops back up in your face and you stop just short of crashing into it again, and you say to yourself, "ah ha! so that's it!" You realize that's what has had you ducking and dodging, twisting and turning, in an effort to avoid another such collision.

I need to start hanging out with elephants. They never forget.

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photo:michael.ponton@talk21.com

Recalling A Feeling - September 2001

I remember so well the feeling of angst, the distraction and feeling of dread that I simply could not shake the evening of September 10, 2001. It should have been a time of excitement and exhilaration because I was just getting word that evening that I'd been selected to develop a play with the full support of a major community playhouse and its artistic creative director, but for some reason I found myself trembling, my stomach churning, and I couldn't account for the feelings. It was so prevasive that I made mention of it to family and recorded it in my journal.

The next morning, while sipping my coffee with my husband, we were doing as we did most mornings; watching the morning news when the network host broke in to say a commuter plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My goodness, I thought immediately, because something in the play I'd just had accepted for development had a pivotal scene that I'd loosely created from events from the first World Trade Center attack. That's not good, I remember thinking, and then ... well then as the tv screen shifted to the scene of the first tower crash, and as we watched still sipping our morning coffee, another plane appeared and -- the rest is the history we have all lived everyday since.

It took a day or two in the midst of all that followed the horrible events of that day - 9/11 - before I remembered that all encompassing sense of dread that have enveloped me the evening before. But, once I remembered it, I have never since forgotten it. I am keenly aware of my feelings as never before, and I've admittedly had knee-jerk reactions when I've thought I was feeling that same sense of foreboding, only to realize that I wasn't. As time had gone on, I'm less afraid of its imminent return, but I will never be less afraid of what I'll do if I ever really feel that feeling again. May I never!

No Thought of Surrender
(Written September 11, 2001)

Anguish spreads blood red
across heart and mind
numb with inability to
comprehend the unrightable
written eternally
on our national psyche.
Never began today with
blue sky and warm
smiles and no thought
of nightmares raining
ash and cinder,
no thought of surrender
of all we once knew
as norm.
Our knees bend with
involuntary motion, while
our souls roil in
anguish,
and blood red images
of all we hold sacred, dear,
safe, secure
spreads across our broken hearts
and minds and the cry rises
in unity:
dear God help us.

©2001 Peggy Eldridge-Love
From YOU BECKON

Not All Traffic Jams are Bad

I am curious by nature, sometimes to a fault. I've tried to keep my curiosity in check of late because of some of the misadventures it has taken me on that I could well have done without. You probably know the kind. Misadventures that became quite costly, either in time, money, or loss of direction. But, I'll admit, I'm having a hard time doing that at the moment. For some reason the hits to my Emerging Music Site at Bellaonline.com have spiked. They are going through the roof. This started about a week and a half ago, but the real kicker is which of the categories is triggering those hits. It's my own Bio. For some unknown reason it is being accessed thousands and thousands of times right now. Duh?

I've been trying to find a connection that would account for that kind of traffic. I can't. I've Googled and Dogpiled, searched Mamma and a host of other search engines. I've surfed MSN,Yahoo,and AOL for a hint, but things seem quite ordinary. So, as of yet, I have no clue, but I would surely love to know so that I could harness that source and use it to drive traffic to other areas that concern me as well! I'll let you know if I ever find out. Promise.

Speaking of emerging artist, I did recently review the CD of a rising young artist that I think has star quality beyond belief! She has a new single that is just now hitting the air waves entitled "Sunshine and Lemonade" from her CD entitled "Overtones and Innuendos". It plays in my head constantly and leaves me smiling every time. Her name is Trizonna McClendon.

Restless

I think I'm trying to sidestep something. It is playing in the back of my mind and I haven't yet allowed it to come to the forefront, but I won't be able to suppress it for long. It's becoming too strong. I have the feeling it's going to be one of those all encompassing projects with all manner of underpinning that will give voice to something I have avoided giving voice to that I probably should have.

Apparently this is that birthing I was alluding to earlier. I wasn't just being melodramatic after all.

Darn it! Just when I thought I had breathing room!

Birth

I think life gets pregnant. I think that at a given time a seed of higher being is fertilized and begins to grow within and early on you have no idea what has taken place. You start to feel a little queasy, lightheaded, and, frankly, uneasy. Things just don't seem quite right, and you can't put your finger on why. Then, as time moves forward, your life body starts to stretch and churn, and you are in constant states of adjustment -- sometimes physical, other times emotional, and still other times spiritual -- as you seek to accommodate what's developing within.

Midway you start to accept that this change is occurring deep inside of you and you realize there isn't much, outside of some very drastic measure, you can do to alter the change-in-progress and you begin to think that you're accepting the inevitable, but then, as time nears for you to deliver whatever is being birthed in your life, you start to be filled with anguish and anxiety, fear and more.

The you you thought you knew is now clumsy and awkward and you question if you'll ever return to who you were, but, above all, you worry if you are equipped to care for, to nurture and develop this new 'whatever it is' that you are about to expel. That's when the pain kicks in and you feel like profaning everything that might have anything to do with putting you in this laborious state.

I don't know what happens from there yet. I just know that these birth pains I'm in the midst of are absolutely brutal.

Projects "With Benefits"

These are certainly the lazy days of summer, but, taking a clue from the ant rather than the grasshopper, it is definitely time to store up provisions for the season ahead. I've got a few projects working. One just sort of rose up from the ashes and is now becoming a real intriguing journey. Actually, something discovered in the research process became a most valuable piece of information just the other day. It was such serendipity it has a true ring of the divine at play. Had I not been researching for this book there is no way I would have had that knowledge to offer at the exact moment an extra ordinary solution was required. So, yep, I'm hyped about this one.

Pulling Hair

Watercolor - ©Peggy Eldridge-Love

Gosh! I haven't been weepy in a really long time, but I'm on the verge of tears tonight. There is just so much that is in flux, so much that is outside of any control I think I might have, and I'm forced to just wait and waiting, although a virtue, isn't one of my best.

I am so ready for the things I want to flow smoothly to just lock into place like a jigsaw puzzle and be done with. Instead, my plight always seems to be a little piece of the puzzle over here, another piece here, and then I'm scurrying around, holding this piece this way and then that, trying to see if it goes here or there! Enough! Enough! Enough!

There, I've had my cyber tantrum. I guess I should be okay now. Guess I really don't have a choice. I have to wait.

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Writing!

Over the last few days I've had the pleasure of seeing the new covers of upcoming books that will be hitting the shelves soon that are being written by fellow authors who are also great friends. I have been left in complete awe! As soon as I get the go ahead I will share images of each of them here. They will literally take breath away.

I'm writing, so I haven't been writing much here recently. Bear with me. I'll come up for air soon. Thanks!

Old Chum System

Ouch! That was ugly! I saw something last night that jolted me out of my opinion of one TV interview personality's character. Up to that interview I always felt he gave the benefit of the doubt to everyone who took a seat across his table. But he came across like a rabid pitbull as he inteviewed the guest he had on and it was based -- as he consistently expressed -- on his preconversation with an old chum of his whom felt the interviewer's guest had betrayed her. It was terribly uncomfortable to watch.

I know very little of the back story, so I don't know what all transpired between the chum and the guest, but I know I will never again trust the interviewer. Isn't that terrible! Just like that we can lose someone else's trust. Everything we've built, everything we've conveyed, everything we've said can be swept away in one indiscrete, unguarded moment. Talk about a lesson! It's one I'll make sure I keep in mind as I continue my own journey.

Roy

My love of words has much to do with the respect for words we had in our home when I grew up. We chose our words carefully, always. We all understood that words, once set free, could never be recaptured and returned to their source, so we made sure we meant what we said before we said it, and that what we said did not create wounds that were so grave they could not heal.

Today, Father's Day, I think about my father. My beautiful, wonderful, loving, strong, funny, sweet, handsome, intelligent father, and the one thing he did better than anyone else in my life was to shower me with words that reinforce me, reassure me, and rejuvenate me even now, even in the absence and the void that time and death created when he slipped away years ago.

Thank you Daddy, thank you.

The Influence of Truth

It seems time has been sucked into a vacuum so fast I didn't see it slip by. I have been too busy. It is time to slow down the pace regardless of what doesn't get done. Living this journey, at least seeing more of it than a quick, fuzzy blur, is what I want.

I picked up a couple of books that I read long ago that had life altering impacts on me as a child and very young adult and decided to read them once again. I really thought I'd gleaned all that I needed from them the first time through, and this reading would just be a poignant refresher, but both books opened up brand new areas of my life where the wisdom, energy and strength the writer shared was now needed. I have (of course) changed and so the messages, although the same, have changed as well. They are not contemporary, rather they are almost 'Dick and Jane' elementary, yet they are truths. Truths defy time.

It was how deeply I was impacted anew by reading the first book that caused me to pick up the second. Since I'm experiencing the same types of revelations with the second book, I'm compelled to suggest that someone else might want to take a backwards stroll through their own library and see what new is waiting for them in some bound pearl they have forgotten.

Release Date

The Knoll Frames release date has been pushed up to November 30th, but orders coming in from a major online venue alerted us that they still have it slated for release June 1st. I spent the morning checking to be sure they had the corrected release date since that change information was provided to them several weeks ago, and turned out they did.

They were real nice about it. They apologized, assured us that all the pre-orders were being properly handled, and said they hoped I wasn't too concerned. Not now I'm not! Especially not when emphasis was placed on the words 'all' and 'pre-orders' in the same sentence!

Sensible Shoes

I stumbled upon this old picture of myself from many moons ago and thought immediately about my poem Sensible Shoes. I couldn't resist sharing it. How quickly life flies!



Sensible Shoes

I noticed them poking from beneath
the full, brightly colored caftan I’ve grown
fond of wearing. Toes broad, heels low,
width moving deeper into the alphabet,

they are nothing like what I remember
once graced my shapely feet and ankles.

Time was I could spend hours riding thin
spikes, moving like a shadow on stilettos,
working crowds with easy smiles,
oblivious to what carried me.

I don’t remember consciously shedding
the lean black pumps, or the unheralded
move to these sensible shoes
that now caress what’s left of my toes,

anymore than I remember the first day I noticed
hair thins in the oddest of places first.

©2002 Peggy Eldridge-Love from YOU BECKON

All Together Now...

Okay, it's hold breath time again. This week a long awaited response came back positive! Fingers, toes, and eyes are all crossed in anticipation of something very excellent resulting, but, in the meantime, I'm trying to keep from stressing myself out.

I'll let you know when we can collectively exhale!

May 15th Is the Day!

Okay, if you've got your copy of the American Greetings African-American Almanac Desk Top Calendar the 15th of May is dedicated to a poem from my book, YOU BECKON.





I'll admit that I'm somewhat surprised by the poem that was selected for inclusion in the calendar. I gave releases, when asked, for several, but didn't know which (or even if any) had been selected until I actually received my copy of the calendar. I would have thought one of the five or six liners would have been a more likely choice, not only because of length, but because of their themes. But instead, a twenty-three liner was chosen, and it speaks of --

(To be continued!)

Poetry on Record Interview - Rebekah Presson Mosby

(As promised, here is the feature and interview from my Bellaonline.com Emerging Music site with Rebekah Presson Mosby, producer of Poetry on Record!)
Enjoy!
P.S. Talk about a Mother's Day gift! This is the bomb!

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As you might think, with a title like Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work 1888-2006, (Shout!Factory), my initial anticipation was not a musical one. Particularly not an 'emerging musical' one. But I assure you that nothing has ever been more musical or emerging within my spirit then what flowed from the lips of these 98. I was awakened this morning from a sound sleep with the relentless beat and driving rhythm of one poem in particular. That of Carl Hancock Rux singing, telling, and etching on the innermost walls of my psyche "Eleven More Days."
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Another unforgettable offering comes from poet Anne Waldman as she creates a poetic melody with icy irony entitled "Uh Oh Plutonium". As I listened to Anne, and I sought to put what she said and what Carl said in some kind of sync with the enduring messages also included in the work by the likes of Alfred, Lord Tennyson ("The Charge of the Light Brigade"), the haunting words of Sylvia Plath ("Daddy"), the mind-boggling position of Marge Piercy ("Right to Life"), the craft of Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Gertrude Stein, Dyland Thomas, and dozens more, I needed to know what connected them all. What made this project such a resounding success, because it is a success, an experience I cannot urge you enough to embark upon. I needed to know, so I asked.


I interviewed the producer of this project for us, Rebekah Presson Mosby, and I'd like to share that wonderful interview with you now:



Please introduce yourself to our audience.


I am Rebekah Presson Mosby. I was formerly a free-lance cultural reporter for NPR, for which I filed about 140 features and documentaries. I was also producer and host of the syndicated literature program, New Letters on the Air from 1983-1995. Since 1996, I have lived in Hamilton, New York and worked mostly on audio anthologies of poets reading their work. Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006) is the most recent of these projects.




Tell us about the first time you realized poetry was going to be an integral part of your life.


I studied theater as an undergraduate and stumbled into poetry as a graduate student. While taking a fiction writing class with the poet David Ray, I volunteered to help out with the syndicated public radio program David founded, New Letters on the Air. Two weeks later, the producer quit and Judy Ray and I became co-producers and hosts of the ½ hour weekly show (until 1984, when I became sole producer/host).


My first interview was with Denise Levertov. Although I was not knowledgeable about contemporary poetry (I was working largely with questions David and Judy helped me with), Ms. Levertov was very kind. The experience of having a private poetry reading in the studio was quite thrilling, a thrill that was to be duplicated hundreds of times after that.


The audio anthologies I edit and produce are, in some sense, a duplication of that experience—and, I hope, that thrill.


Some people write poetry, others teach, and still others are committed to the tireless promotion of the art form. You do all of this. Why?


I don’t write or teach poetry. I am a primarily a journalist who loves poetry and feels that the best way to experience it is in its most ancient and venerable form: aurally. Starting next year, I will teach radio writing at Colgate University.




What inspired the ‘Poetry on Record’ project? What time frame does it cover?


Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006) spans the entire history of recording technology (1888-2006). Because Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning and Walt Whitman were all old men when they were recorded, the poems themselves date from 1845 (Browning’s “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix”), meaning that the collection spans one and a half centuries!


This collection is an expanded and revised version of a 4 CD box I edited for Rhino Records that was published in 1996 and has since gone out of print. That collection included 80 poets, rather than the current 98. Many, though not all of the changes are in the much-expanded first CD which adds Tennyson, Browning, Edgar Lee Masters, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Sandburg, H.D., T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Parker, Sterling Brown and Elizabeth Bishop to the mix. The fourth CD, which previously ended with Li-Young Lee, now contains ten poets younger than he. There are many other additions and changes in this collection.


The poets represented on the recordings are a very diverse group. Who determined who would be included? Is there one common thread that made each rise to the top of your list? If so, what was it?


I determined who would be included and it was always my intention that poets would be as diverse as America (although many of the poets are not American). My guiding principal was to create as full a picture as possible of what has gone on in poetry in English since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1888.


Many of the poems were chosen because they are so beloved, such as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” However, this is not intended to be a collection of the greatest poems by the greatest poets. Yes, the great poets are here, but the overall effect is to cover the movements and ideas that have taken hold in the poetry world. Thus, there are poems about nearly every war (including one about 9/11), love poems, death poems, family poems, odes, ars poetica (poems about poetry), jazz poems, poems set to music, poems about growing up Black, Latino, Native American and/or Asian in America and lots of funny poems as well. The major poetry movements are also covered: romanticism, modernism, neo-formalism, the Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, surrealism, etc.


Did hearing a poet’s own voice reading a poem change your thoughts about that work? About that poet?


Absolutely yes on both counts. A great example of the first is Allen Ginsberg’s recording of “America.” As a student, I read that poem as heavy social commentary. Yet Ginsberg’s performance milks the poem for comic double entendre and brings an entirely new dimension to the work I hadn’t recognized in reading it.


Also, hearing poet’s voice tells us other things about the poet and the poem. First, we hear how the poet thinks the poem should be read. Second, we feel closer to the poet for hearing his or her voice. In some cases, such as hearing Tennyson recite “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” this can be a thrilling encounter with history. Other times, as in Sylvia Plath’s reading of “Daddy,” her pain is so palpable as to make listening almost painful.


What do you want the lasting impact of this project to be on those who hear all, or a part, of this collection? Do you think it will inspire more to read poetry? To write it? To want to listen to poetry being read?


My hope is that Poetry on Record will inspire both profound emotions and great pleasure on the part of the listener. When one connects with the oral roots of poetry (keep in mind that poems were spoken for thousands of years before writing existed) it can trigger something primal and visceral as well provoke thoughts and ideas that might otherwise have remained buried in one’s unconscious mind. Poetry can provide insight and comfort to those of us frightened and/or confused about the state of the world and our lives. I want people to listen for ideas, comfort and music. Poetry on Record is really just a taste of what is out there and yes, I hope that if a particular poet moves a listener, he or she will go out and find more work by the poet.


While I don’t write poetry, I know that doing so can be really helpful also. Making poetry, like all the arts, can serve as therapy and pleasure.


What are some of the other projects you have edited? What books have you written?


In addition to editing Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006), I also co-edited (with Elise Paschen) Poetry Speaks (Sourcebooks, 2001), a book with three audio CDs tucked inside. Poetry Speaks was on The New York Times extended best seller list.


Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Poets Read Their Work (Rhino Entertainment, 2000) is a two CD collection of just Black poets.


In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry (Rhino Entertainment, 1996), mentioned earlier, is four CDs of 80 poets reading their work.


Will you tell us about your current activities and recent honors?


Currently, I am devising a radio writing course to be offered at Colgate University next year. My awards include an Audie for Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Poets Read Their Work, four “Earphones” awards from AudioFile magazine, first place from the President’s Council for People With Disabilities for a NPR documentary on Veteran wheelchair athletes and first prize from the Kansas Broadcasters’ Association for a feature on artist Elizabeth Layton.


I am listed in Contemporary Authors and Who’s Who in America.


What are your plans for the near future?


My husband, Dewey F. Mosby, an art historian, and I will spend three months in the fall in Paris, as we did last year.


I’m hoping Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006) will do well because I’d love to edit a sequel and put in about 50 more of the really fine poets I had to leave out of this one!


In closing, do you feel the poetry being created by the urban and grassroots poets of the last decade or two will endure the test of time? What about that of the 21st century poets who are traveling a more traditional road through channels of higher education? Have you seen any particularly radiant new talents?


I can’t possibly know what will endure. In the last CD of Poetry on Record for example, I picked works that I know are good and feel are representative of the world we live in and the world of contemporary poetry. But would I pick the same poets to read alongside W.B. Yeats and Muriel Rukeyser 50 years from now? I don’t know!


There are lots of fine young poets. I think the one who just knocks me out though is Carl Hancock Rux. I strongly recommend his CDs, especially Rux Revue.




How can one learn more about this project, your books or get in contact with you?




I’m easy to find. Everything you might want to know about me is on my Authors Guild website, www.rebekahpressonmosby.com.


Thank you so much for spending this time with us. We wish you the very best!


Thank you! Good questions!!

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There's not much more I can possibly add. It is an awesome project!

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A True Poetry Feast

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This is just a hint of things to come. I'm like someone lost in the desert finally found. Not only found, but given my own gushing fountain of crystal pure cold water and an endless table of the best fruits, meats and vegetables and then left alone to devour them in my own time, at my own pace.

I'm talking about this four-disc poetry series entitled Poetry On Record: 98 Poets Read Their Own Work 1888-2006. I'm going to be talking about it for some time, but for now, I can't be selfish. I've got to share just a little of it with you just in case you need your own tangible literary feast (I'm concluding a wonderful interview with some of the principals of this project and I'll share it with you soon, but until then here's a sample of the poetry):


Audio Stream:

“The Road Not Taken” - Robert Frost

Windows Media

http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mar06/Road_Not_Traveled.wma
Quicktime

http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mar06/Road_Not_Traveled.mov



“Résumé” - Dorothy Parker

Windows Media
http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mar06/Resume.wma
Quicktime

http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mar06/Resume.mov



“The Secret Of My Endurance” - Charles Bukowski

Windows Media
http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mar06/The_Secret.wma
Quicktime

http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mar06/The_Secret.mov

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Plus and Minus Equal Life

My day started out very nice, and it is still nice, but for a little while there I was on the edge of going completely off. Fortunately, a skillful young lady kept her cool and helped me manage to regain mine!

The very nice thing is an interview on me that was conducted by entertainment writer Shelia Goss (she's been getting the really big named interviews here lately) that appears in Bahiyah Woman Magazine. Bahiyah is a New York based publication with a focus on spiritually conscious professional black men and women. It is truly an honor to be featured in this exciting magazine.

Oops! I was about to expound on the downside of the day. Had actually let it all rip, then thought better of it! Who cares but me? I got it resolved. I'll just make the necessary changes I need to in order to insure I don't get stung again. So, hopefully you are reading the edited post and not the original one! LOL

What is this?

There appears to be much churning and confusion going on in the lives of people I'm encountering on a daily basis. In checkout lines, whether I want to or not, I'm overhearing cell phone conversations in agitated voices in which people are trying to reach understandings with creditors, resolve issues with loved ones, or convince someone, somewhere to extend them an additional ounce of mercy or understanding.

Behind the wheel I'm constantly driving with extreme caution as I watch tempers flair and frustration played out in dangerous darts and jerks of 'my SUV is bigger than your SUV' at 80 miles an hour (and $3.99 a gallon).

If you say 'good morning' to just about anyone there's a very strong possibility if the conversation lasts more than a minute it will include tales of woe and incredulous exclamations of how they never expected to see things come to this. Truthfully, neither did I, but truthfully I am not sure just what that 'this' is, and, for me, personally, I plan to find out!

This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! That's the greeting I was accustom to in my youth from so many of the people who surrounded my life. That's the 'this' I want to recapture. That's the 'this' of my quest as I begin this day. Pardon me while I go find it.

Ringside

During the recent Judah vs Mayweather fight the same conversation surfaced that nearly always does during a major boxing match being watched at my house. "You missed your calling, Peggy." Someone chirps. I smile, nod 'yes', and quickly return my attention to the battle playing out before me.

It's true. I should have been a boxing announcer. I have an eagle's eye when it comes to this sport that is as legendary as some of its greatest heroes. Before it happens I see it coming! Before Leonard, Merchant, or the paid boxing pundit of the night can spit it out I'll tell you what's going on with that left jab, the low right hand, the legs turning to jelly, or exactly who is the consummate fighter who is smart enough to be fighting "this" fight because it's the one he's in, while his opponent is sure to go down in the next round because he thinks he's in the ring with the guy he beat three fights ago.

I'm so deep into boxing that there have even been a few 'close encounters of the third kind.' A full minute before Evander leaped into the air as Mike bite off a piece of his ear I'd startled everyone gathered around our TV with a shout of "He bit him! Tyson just bit him!"" To this day, I don't know what made me say that then, but within moments it was to become boxing history. I think I glimpsed Mike sizing up the ear or something -- as I said, I can't say for sure, but that's an example of the uncanny or ultra insightful commentary I'm known to offer.

Actually, I've been waiting for someone to take it upon themselves to contact someone significant in the boxing game and make them aware of my exceptional talents. If you ask me, it is a doggone shame I'm not able to share my brilliance with the rest of the world. But, I've been waiting since Ali and Frazier had that Thriller in Manila, and though I am definitely an optimist, I'm starting to wonder if anyone ever will. But I can't let myself get discouraged, now can I? Maybe one day soon the phone will ring and it will be my agent asking me to check my schedule to see if I can fill in for George Foreman or Jim Brown, or Roy Jones or Emmanuel Stewart for the next big bout! Ya think?

My African Dreams

"Promise her anything, but give her Arpege." I remembered that advertisement this morning as I picked up the vintage bottle of Arpege on my dressing table. I received it as an unexpected gift from, of all people, a visiting African diplomat two decades ago. That's probably why I almost never used it. It was a special gift from a special time when I thought I could really make a difference in the lives of millions of people.

Thoughts like that occurred a time long ago, and, after all the best efforts kept seeming to come to naught, I let those illusions go. I wasn't equipped to be anyone's savior and my own personal little crusade ultimately felt meaningless. But, recently the bottle began to snag my attention, and, on occasion, I now dab myself with a few drops and find myself smiling within at the host of memories the sweet aroma stirs.

Maybe it's the subliminal promise message associated with this scent that has caused me to begin to reach for it. It's probably serving as the subtle reminder to keep the promises I make to myself. Or, maybe, it's a hint that I might have made more of a difference than I was ever meant to know - somewhere, to someone, a long, long time ago.