Melda Beaty's Blog, page 3

Marks, Mississippi, November 8, 2008. America is on the eve of electing its first back president. Amidst the town’s excitement over Barack Obama, Carrie Honey grieves her son’s tragic death. After years of failed attempts to seek justice, Carrie is no longer interested in life’s celebrations, but when a scandal in town rocks this historic day, a past secret is revealed that renews her faded faith.  http://www.icontact-archive.com/BGF7UdrnanBcnx2IyheRIjnYpTzwJFm9?w=4#fblike” title=”Robey Theatre” target=”_blank”>

Drown by Junot Díaz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve come to learn that short story books are often titled based on one of the stories in the book. Diaz’s Drown follows suit. Now, I want to know why he chose the short story Drown?. It is just one of the 10 dynamic and authentic anecdotes in this book. From “Ysrael” to “Negocious,” there is no doubt that Diaz lived, breathed, talked, and dreamed Dominican. His tales of sibling rivalry, dysfunctional marriages, abysmal poverty, illegal substances, instructions on girls, etc. are bona fide and steeped in degradation and humor. Diaz’s quick pace, clever metaphors, and “in your face” dialogue (if no habla espanol, you will easily figure it out)forces you into a state of compassion with every page. The women are feisty and strong. The children are curious and practical, and the men are men who live life on their terms. Drown is not just a story title, but a total immersion into the world that Diaz wants you to share. Bueno!

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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you ever have to immerse yourself in African tribal life and can’t afford to, just read Things Fall Apart. The late great Achebe immerses you in 209 pages of the mightiest and most respected tribe in Nigeria. You will taste kola nuts, bitter leaf soup, yams, and drink lots and lots of palm wine. You will live in obis, attend ceremonies, build huts, and learn the Ibo language. You will shake your head in disbelief at the traditions, because they differ from your own and at times seem barbaric, but make perfect sense to the clansmen of Umuofia. You will fear and sympathize with Okonkwo as his temper, mistakes, and aversion to change play a major part in “things falling apart.”

Achebe writes with knowledge and experience. Despite a lot of repetition, Things Fall Apart is educational and simply interesting.

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Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To my fellow indie authors, I think we’ve been going about this traditional publication process all wrong. HarperCollins accepts short stream of consciousness manuscripts. By the way, don’t worry about paying exorbitant amounts of money for a professional copy editor, because HarperCollins accept manuscripts with absolutely no regards for the rules of grammar or standard English. However, I think it’s worth mentioning that it helps if your manuscript is narrated from the horrific and innocent experience of an African child soldier. Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation puts the reader into the mind and hopeless life of Agu, Strika, Luftenant, and Commandment. There is no other way to tell the story of child soldiers ripped from their homes forced into a life of killing, pillaging, raping, starving, molesting, and killing some more except through the raw, gritty, innocent voice of children. The ending reads like a bad break-up over text. It’s over with no more “characters” for elaboration. In the end, Iweala seems to suggest that life is what it is. Due to the narration style, some of the lines get blurred between character voices so you may have to read them twice, but once you get past the presentation and digest the meaning, you’ll find a captivating and disturbing story all rolled into one.

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Enough of pushing my books, plays, and consulting business, it’s time to get to know Melda. Smashwords offers an opportunity for their authors to create an interview that allows readers to get to know the writer behind the novel. I invite you to get to know me beyond, “Lime” and “My Soul to His Spirit” on Smashwords. You can read about the first story I ever wrote, my favorite books, what I do in my spare time, what motivates me to get up in the morning, etc. Your window into more about me is just a click away: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/meldacreates.

If you are an author on Smashwords, I encourage you to also create a FREE interview on Smashwords for your readers and potential readers. Please spread the word.

May is almost over, but how many of us know that this month is dedicated to providing a “safe haven” for children in the middle of parental discord. May is National Supervised Visitation month. Supervised visitation is meant to build healthy relations between parents and children. The monitor’s job is to ensure a safe environment for the non-custodial parent to connect with their children. Sometimes these types of visits are a result of domestic violence and although someone in domestic violence situations is the perpetrator, the children are often left confused and lonely in a volatile situation. In reality they need both parents, but more importantly they need a safe environment. This blog is dedicated to the monitors and organizations, like Branch Family Institute, whose mission is to provide these safe havens and restore some normalcy to our youth.

If you are in the Chicago community, you can support this important work on May 31, 2013 at an ice cream fundraiser at Branch Family Institute 11111 S. Western Ave. 3-8pm. Proceeds from my novel, Lime, will help the cause.

My words of encouragement to college students on Encouragement Speaker Blog

http://encouragementspeaker.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/university-of-illinois-alum-melda-beaty-gives-words-of-encouragement-to-college-students/

To my fellow indie authors:

I’m sure you can attest that writing our book(s) is only half of the work. The other half, and often the most challenging, is marketing our book(s). Unless we are able to afford a publicist, we are the publicist. Marketing and promoting our book(s) is another full-time job. It is stressful and also rewarding when we finally connect with a reporter, radio producer, bookstore, and/or reputable website that is more than willingly to highlight our work.

In 2012, I spent numerous days and hours combing the web for such opportunities and I’m happy to say that there are many websites that are devoted to promoting and marketing the work of independent authors for FREE. Yes for free! These sites have thousands of members and “likes” on Facebook. Once your work is mentioned on their websites either in an interview or as a book synopsis with the cover, you reach a different and diverse audience. The best advice I received while searching for book promotion venues was to promote my work to any market regardless of the size. In other words, if a website only has 25 members, that is 25 more people that you would have not reached on your own.  Never underestimate the power of smaller audiences; a reader is a reader, and an engaged reader is the best book promoter.

Although today is the first day of 2013, I found two websites that LOVE promoting books and publishing book reviews of independent authors and they just happen to have thousands of members. Allow me to introduce you to Author Marketing Club (www.authormarketingclub.com) & AskDavid(www.askdavid.com).

Author Marketing Club provides an array of informative book promotion opportunities. Their list includes book features, book marketing training videos, book trailer reviews, videos on everything from selling tips to instructions on how to upload your book to Amazon. If you have a free book give-a-way, you can not only promote it on their site but they list several other websites that will list your book as well. This free website is a wealth of book marketing information.

Ask David.com also provides FREE book promotions and book reviews. Just be sure your book is listed on Amazon. They only promote Amazon listed books. If your book isn’t listed on Amazon, go to Author Marketing Club and watch the video on how to upload your book to Amazon first. Ask David. com, only requires that you complete a single form to list your book on their website. In return, you get 22 insightful tips and marketing strategies for how to increase the visibility of your book(s) and ultimately sell more books. Ask David.com also offers book services in German.

These are just two out of several great promotion opportunities for indie authors. If you know of others, please feel free to add them in the Comments section below. It can only help.

So, your book club read Lime and now everyone is dying to share their thoughts, but you don’t know where to begin. Start here with these engaging ”fill-in-the-blank” conversation starters. We’ve done the work for you; however, feel free to either use these, change them up, and/or add your own. Once you get started, you will see how much fun these “fill-in-the-blanks” can be. When you’re done, please consider writing a review of Lime on Amazon. com, and posting your comments here. Melda Beaty is available for book club appearances in person and/or Skype (melda.beaty). Just leave a message through the Contact link  through her website at www.meldacreates.com for scheduling. Have fun!

LIME  is about ________________________________________________________________________.

My favorite moment was when ­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________________.

I wish ­­­­­_________________________________________________________________never happened.

I really liked ­­­­­­­­­­___________________________________, because­_______________________________.

I was rooting for ______________________________________________________________________.

____________________________ {character(s)} reminded me of ________________________________.

I wanted to know more about ___________________________________________________________.

If I could talk to _______________________ {character}, I would tell him/her ____________________.

I think Lime should or will ______________________________________________________________.

I want __________________________________{someone or a group} to read this book, because____________________.

October has come and gone, but not before it taught me about some worthy and rather interesting causes. Did you know that breast cancer, domestic violence, lupus, and diabetes are given national attention in the month of October? Likewise, popping popcorn, being sarcastic, and eating country ham share national space in October as well.  I’m sure popcorn, sarcasm, and country ham have their followers, but lest we forget the devastating impact breast cancer, domestic violence, lupus, and diabetes can have on almost anyone and the importance of education and prevention.

Although, I am not a victim or survivor of any of these illnesses and yes, I’m calling domestic violence a societal ill, I was compelled to write a novel focusing on domestic violence. No one should have to be a victim or survivor to join the cause to prevent these illnesses in our nation. I often find myself apologizing for not having the experience of domestic violence. Sometimes, I even preface an interview, article, or conversation with “I’m not a counselor or victim or survivor. I’m just a writer.” Domestic Violence Awareness Month taught me no more apologizes or prefaces needed. I am a woman, writer, and self-proclaimed advocate for victims through my heart and imagination. When October ended, I vowed to make no more apologizes for that.

I want to encourage everyone to invest in whatever cause speaks to your spirit whether you have experiences with it or not. You were led to it for a reason and no apologies needed.