So… I almost didn’t agree to be a part of Rave Reviews Book Club’s  “Back to School Book & Blog Block Party”, but after more than a year of membership, I have created friendships, made connections, and received unmerited support from RRBC’s many members. Being in the room with such talent has inspired me to write again. Finally, tweeting and reviewing other talented writers is not enough! I want my chance to be vetted and reviewed before the membership. The chance to be read, lauded, and promoted is too good to resist.

During the B2S Book & Blog Block Party, I’ll be featuring a book that’s been with me for almost a year now. I’ve outlined, studied the characters, and internalized their habits and backgrounds. I hadn’t fully fleshed out the characters in terms of their appearances and features until a couple of months ago, and I would’ve still been working on that for another 6 months (I’m a perfectionist) if it hadn’t been for the prospect of this blog/book tour-y kind of new thing that Rave Reviews is doing.

In this novel I explore a dystopian world where people who are unfavorably disposed, unemployed, uneducated, and disenfranchised have been relegated to live on the outer edges of the city. Their world is a lawless one, ruled by a ruthless antagonist, who is plagued and troubled like the people themselves. My protagonist is in a fight to save the lost children that inhabit this world and introduce them to the life she has always known. While the bones of this dystopian story may feel familiar (nothing new under the sun), the meat and heart of the story are unique and vital to those that could ultimately be affected by a world like this and to those who care about them.
Who am I to write this story?

If it wasn’t for education, motivation, and unconditional love, I’d be one of the ‘have nots’ who inhabit the hopeless place called “Gang Territory”, but, thanks to God, my life ended up being more akin to the protagonist’s.

After a varied career of teaching, coaching, and administration, I retired from the public school system full of stories to tell. My experiences were similar to those my characters reveal to the reader. All the characters are interesting and unique and I wish I could tell all of their personal stories.

For example, one day while a middle school principal, one of my janitors came to get me from my office. He and the other janitors had been plagued for many months by a lazy, unlikable, supervising engineer. He wanted me to come with him immediately so they could prove to me that the engineer was lying down on the job. Sure enough, as I lay prostrate on the floor, as they had instructed me, I saw, under the space between the floor and the bottom of the door, the engineer, asleep on the floor of the out-of-order boys’ bathroom. While this particular tale is not a part of the book, it illustrates that stories like these are part of my backbone—part of my marrow. All of this flows through my fingers as I write.

In 2010, I started another blog named “Boomacious”, but recently, I’ve gone in an additional direction, creating a blog that will be especially for my writing. That is the blog that I will introduce to Rave Reviews Book Club over the next six weeks for the “Back to School Book & Blog Block Party”. On this new blog, I will layout the plan for my novel, talk about my struggle to choose a title, a cover, and my search for an editor. I will seek RRBC’s knowledge as I proceed and launch.

This blog will log my new endeavor, and chronicle my successful publication (speaking things into existence). I am honored to count the members of Rave Reviews Book Club as my contemporaries. Some of you have written one, two, and three or more books. I am humbled to have been pushed by you even though I had nothing to push. So, I trust you enough to come out of the writing closet. To some of my biggest supporter: @nonniejules, @myrddinsheir, @KimCoxAuthor, @LizGavin_author, @gunderstone, @denaehaggerty, thank you! While I don’t have a finished book, the opportunity to promote my work has presented itself and I know you’d want me to go for it. After all, that is what RRBC is all about.