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Tee C. Royal
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 05:25 pm: | 
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Natosha Gale Lewis
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**Please note that this information is compiled by me but taken in large from entries from the author or directly from their website specifically for this Special Debut Author feature. - Tee C. Royal **
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Natosha Gale Lewis is a first time writer. She has written and developed her characters that make you think you've met them someplace before. This unique book will surely set her work apart from the rest.
Born and raised in South Philadelphia, PA. Lewis writes about some of her own experiences while living in Philadelphia, as well as unique experiences that every African-American can relate to at some point in their lives.
I've always been fascinated with reading and writing. As far back as I can recall, my parents had me enrolled in some sort of reading program. I can remember being enthusiastically involved in Reading is Fundamental, a school-based program designed to augment reading. I remember my mother signing me up for a mail order book club when I was 7 years old and the books would arrive each month. I waited anxiously each month just to tackle the mailman for my books. As I grew older and read even more, I realized that I could write just as well as most artists, if not better. I decided, why not express myself through one of the best ways I know how, writing? God gave me this talent, it would be sinful not to use it.”
Natosha is a graduate of Rosemont College. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Communication.
She currently resides in New Castle, Delaware and is working on her second novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this novel, Only Fools Gamble Twice, Natosha Gale Lewis introduces her audience to several interesting characters. Taylor Chavers, an articulate, efficient, and independent African-American female is somewhat naïve when it comes to men. Taylor falls, almost instantly in “love” with a very handsome man, Delaney Love, from her new hometown, Wilmington, DE. Will their relationship prevail or is it doomed from the start due to Taylor’s inexperience with men?
Morgan Watson, is truly a “Sista on the move.” A very attractive young woman who is extremely independent and has been hurt one too many times. She is definitely no fool when it come to men, and explains that her insensitive, live-in, ex-boyfriend, Mister. Morgan meets Kofie, a well spoken man from Africa. Will Morgan give Kofie a fair chance at proving himself or will she become the fool who gambles twice?
While most females, and now even some male artists are bashing our strong African-American males, Lewis keeps it real. When it comes to telling her story women and men are equally to blame when productive relationships turn into turmoil. Lewis says, “No male bashing is allowed. I just tell the truth, as I see it of course.” In this novel, sure to be a top selling book, a message about relationships and the perils surrounding them is easily conveyed to all African-American female and male readers alike.
So grab the book, sit back, kick up your heels, and enjoy this novel, Only Fools Gamble Twice, written by Natosha Gale Lewis, “Author on the move!”
AUTHOR'S WEBSITE
http://www.natoshagalelewis.com
Until next time, keep on reading and writing...
-Tee C. Royal
Founder, R.A.W. SISTAZ Online Book Club
"Combining Literature and Sisterhood"
http://www.rawsistaz.com
"Keeping you In The Know regarding the African American Literary community."
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Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 05:36 pm: |
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Darnella Ford
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**Please note that this information is compiled by me but taken in large from entries from the author or directly from their website specifically for this Special Debut Author feature. - Tee C. Royal **
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This is such an inspiring story, I had no choice but to share it directly with you...in her own words. It is just as moving as her book Rising (self-published/re-released by St. Martin's Press). Consider yourself lucky if you can find a self-published version.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In some ways I'm not fond of biographies. Many times I find them to be impersonal conduits in the transfer of data from one source to the next. Biographies tell the world what we have done but seldom who we are. I would rather you to know who I am and be less concerned with what I have done. However, if what I have done must be discussed for the sake of actually calling this an Author Bio then I shall tell you this:
I began writing at the age of nine shortly after being swept away by Maya Angelou's life story in the televised production of "Now I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings." By the age of ten I knew I had come to this earth to write. And to this date I have never felt a stronger conviction as I did on that Sunday night when I made the final decision to spend my life writing. So the very next day on Monday morning, as a sixth grader of Heatherbrae Elementary, I began my journey and never looked back.
By the age of twelve I was a published poet and on my sixteenth birthday I accepted a five-year journalism internship for a daily newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona. My teenage years were spent learning the rigors of journalism and enjoying the phenomenal experience of interviewing everyone from pop stars to circus clowns, biochemists to battered women.
In the early '90's I moved to Los Angeles and flipped the script to write several screenplays and teleplays. In 1995 I was honored by the Walt Disney Fellowship Program and selected as one of four finalists for a screenplay I wrote titled The Skin I'm In.
Okay, now that you have taken in the scenic part of the journey this is where the trip changes a bit. Every destination has its share of rocky roads and construction in progress delays. In 1995 shortly after my Disney honor I lost my mind. My definition of "losing my mind"? I stopped dreaming and believing in the power of dreams. I no longer believed they could come true. Eventually, I hit the bottom. I was at the end of the road. Now that's good and bad. It's bad because the end is the end and you could die at the end OR you can get creative and come up with a new way to begin again.
My life changed again in the spring of 1997. I gave birth to a baby girl and about a month later gave birth to myself. As a single parent I made a commitment to this miracle that I had come to know as Morgan. But I knew it would be impossible to honor that commitment and show up for my daughter if I could not show up for myself.
Four weeks after the birth of Morgan Ashley I got down on my knees and asked God for redemption and more importantly a second chance to make it right. That very day I began working on RISING, my debut novel (St. Martin's Press).
I have spent the past five years of my life courting this book and somewhere within the pages of this gritty, raw tale, I do believe there is pure magic. I wrote the first draft of this novel (almost in its entirety) on my lunch break at work.
In the interim, I have completed my second novel, CRAVE (release date 2004) and am currently working on my third, BABY MAMA'S DRAMA and outlining my fourth novel, 19 FLOORS. I have been blessed to reconnect with my childhood passion of writing again. And though I see a big girl in the mirror when I look at myself, somehow, I manage to stay a close companion of the little girl who at the age of ten knew she was born to write.
So this is my bio. It says in part what I have done, but just between you and me, it doesn't matter whether you remember what I've done, my only hope is that you won't forget who I am. And who am I? Well, that's the easy part…I'm just a simple chick trying to make good on a second chance.
About the Book: http://www.darnella.com/rising.php
Darnella's Website: http://www.darnella.com
Until next time, keep on reading and writing...
-Tee C. Royal
Founder, R.A.W. SISTAZ Online Book Club
"Combining Literature and Sisterhood"
http://www.rawsistaz.com
"Keeping you In The Know regarding the African American Literary community."
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Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 05:37 pm: |
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Hilda Gurley-Highgate
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About the Author
HILDA GURLEY-HIGHGATE is an attorney in Detroit, Michigan. This is her first novel.
About this Book
The debut of a major new talent, SAPPHIRE'S GRAVE tells the stories of several generations of African-American women, bringing their spirit and their sorrow to life with a power, sensitivity, and immediacy.
In 1979 in Sierra Leone, a woman of fierce dignity is captured and forced onto a slave ship. On the harrowing voyage to the Americas, she is beaten for her unrelenting will and staunch pride. When she arrives, she gives birth to a daughter who is called Sapphire because of the "black-blue-black" complexion she shares with her mother. Sapphire has also inherited her mother's strength and defiant spirit, and despite a life of poverty and oppression, she grows up to mother several daughters of her own. Even when tragedy strikes and part of Sapphire dies, her strength gives rise to a legend that will sustain the women who follow her, "each carrying something of her mother, her grandmother, her aunts; each passing on to her own daughters blessing and cursing, the consequences of her own choosing.
Through the lives of Sapphire and her descendants, Hilda Gurley-Highgate not only creates a poignant and engrossing saga of black women in America, she brilliantly illuminates the meaning of roots and the links between women and their female ancestors, a tie that often appears tenuous, undefined, and distant, but is strong, palpable, and much closer than we imagine. Written in luminous prose, SAPPHIRE'S GRAVE is an astonishing work by an author poised to take the literary world by storm.
Until next time, keep on reading and writing...
-Tee C. Royal
Founder, R.A.W. SISTAZ Online Book Club
"Combining Literature and Sisterhood"
http://www.rawsistaz.com
"Keeping you In The Know regarding the African American Literary community."
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Tee C. Royal
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 05:40 pm: |
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Kendra Norman-Bellamy
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**Please note that this information is compiled by me but taken in large from entries from the author or directly from their website specifically for this Special Debut Author feature. - Tee C. Royal **
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kendra M. Norman-Bellamy was born in Palm Beach, Florida. She is the third of five children born to Bishop H.H. Norman and Mrs. B. Francine Norman of Macon, Georgia. She was educated in she school systems of Brooks County (Quitman, GA) and graduated with honors from Valdosta Technical College. Today, Kendra resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia with her husband, Jonathan and daughters, Brittney and Crystal.
Aside from her writing aspirations, she is also employed as an Underwriting Assistant and is an AFAA Certified Aerobics Instructor, trained in teaching Step Aerobics, Kickboxing, Body Works and Total Body Conditioning.
With a God-given talent for writing, Kendra is now pursuing a career in writing Christian-based Romance novels that tell stories of human love and passion in the Christian community.
BOOK OVERVIEW
Dr. Gregory Dixon and Attorney Derrick Madison had a modern day biblical David and Jonathan friendship. They are closer than most brothers until Gregory performs a life-saving surgery on Grace, a beautiful young college senior, who was involved in a car accident that takes the life of Derrick's mother. When Derrick finds out about the operation, he abruptly and abrasively ends his life-long friendship with Gregory.
Gregory's doctor/patient relationship with Grace turns into a deep abiding love as he nurses her and watches her regain her health following the tedious brain surgery. Although he misses his friendship with Derrick and prays constantly that things will return to normal, Gregory pursues a romantic relationship with Grace, and leaves his broken friendship in the hands of God for mending.
Sherry, Derrick's wife is torn between her friendship with Gregory and Grace and her love for her husband. Agreeing with Gregory's decision to perform the surgery, she searches for a way to support Gregory's new life and love while trying to understand the grief and guilt that her husband is experiencing from his mother's untimely demise.
Though the loss of Derrick's mother is a tragic event, in the end it somehow brings these young Christians closer together than ever before. Not only do they learn to forgive, but they also learn to put total trust in Christ.
"For Love And Grace", a fictional Christian African American novel of romance, tells the touching, yet sometimes humorous story of friendship among four young professionals and depicts how a strong belief in God can conquer any of life's problems and tragedies.
Author's Website: http://www.knb-publications.com/Index.html
Until next time, keep on reading and writing...
-Tee C. Royal
Founder, R.A.W. SISTAZ Online Book Club
"Combining Literature and Sisterhood"
http://www.rawsistaz.com
"Keeping you In The Know regarding the African American Literary community."
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Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 05:42 pm: |
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Tahira Chloe Mahdi
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**Please note that this information is compiled by me but taken in large from entries from the author or directly from their website specifically for this Special Debut Author feature. - Tee C. Royal **
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tahira Chloe Mahdi is a Maryland native who attended Morgan State University and the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland. After graduation, she worked in the radio industries of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. at such stations as WTEM-AM, WXYV-FM (V103) and WPGC - FM & AM. A staff writer position with Take Me Out to the Go-Go Magazine proved to be more fulfilling than her radio career, so Tahira decided to pursue her lifelong dream of being a full-time writer. Six months later, God Laughs, Too was completed. In the beginning stages of book promotion, Tahira did Public Relations and Promotion work for Jokes On Us Comedy Club and several small D.C. area businesses. Currently, she works as a freelance writer and entertainment reporter for D.C. based magazines, eZines, and television programs.
Tahira has been writing since the age of 4. Her first writing attempts were poems, plays and short stories, which she wrote as a hobby. She showed such a knack with the big fat pencil that she was offered a scholarship for a college English course when she was in the third grade. Since she was already the youngest in her class, having skipped a grade, her parents declined the opportunity. By the mid-80's, Tahira - like most writers at the time - had been bitten by the Hip-Hop bug and her writing was done through rap lyrics. At Oxon Hill High School, Tahira was able to express herself creatively with other young Hip-Hop artists for school talent shows and fun while improving her technical writing through the school newspaper. Her career path has allowed her to experience all aspects of media and writing, but Tahira's first love has remained BOOKS!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Na’Imah (Na-ee-mah) just wants to be a good girl and have her name pronounced correctly, but the cold and cruel world just won’t cooperate. At 21 years old, she sees her life as one big battle with shady characters, sordid places, and dangerous substances. With friends like Amber, who wears her jealousy better than her cheap, tacky outfits, and Aaron - the emotionally absent flavor-of-the-moment boyfriend, Na’Imah needs no enemies. In exasperation, she calls on God for guidance and gives hilarious, drama-filled accounts of what happens when she doesn’t take His advice. Will her soul-searching journey to escape the daily tribulations of life finally lead to the straight-and-narrow? Or will it stop short at one of the dead-end detours of sex, drugs, and self-destruction?
Author's Website: http://www.tuffcrowdconglomerate.com
Until next time, keep on reading and writing...
-Tee C. Royal
Founder, R.A.W. SISTAZ Online Book Club
"Combining Literature and Sisterhood"
http://www.rawsistaz.com
"Keeping you In The Know regarding the African American Literary community."
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K
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 12:00 pm: |
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D. Ford's Rising was pretty good. Kind of dark but good. I'm looking forward reading her next work. |
Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 09:56 pm: |
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K, which version did you read? The self-published version I would rate a five...without a doubt. The re-released version I rated a 3.5/4. Darnella is on my radar. She can definitely write!
-Tee |
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