ANNOUNCEMENTS!

August 7, 2017

ANNOUNCEMENT DAY

ANNOUNCEMENT: Today is Jamaica’s Independence Day, as a friend just reminded me. So, Happy Independence, friends! The little island is 55 years old today, and we’ve come a long way, thanks to Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, Shaggy…. Some might say we have much further to go, given the rampant poverty and crime. But I say that every day in a country’s life is a lesson. Even the United States.

ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT. August 1 was the launch date of ATLANTA NOIR, an anthology of short stories – in which (drum roll) I’ve had my first short story published! It was fun, fun, fun to get outside my comfort zone and delve into a new genre. My story is about a middle-aged immigrant woman who made the wrong decision to migrate to the US. (It was supposed to be noir, so I had to darken it!)

The innovative Noir Series is the product of Akashic Publishers of New York, and they’ve created a long list of cities and countries as sponsors. These include KINGSTON NOIR, edited by Colin Channer, TRINIDAD NOIR: THE CLASSICS, edited by Earl Lovelace and Robert Antoni, CHICAGO NOIR, LONDON NOIR, and many, many more. Please check them out.

ATLANTA NOIR was edited by Tayari Jones, an Atlantan now living in New York, who contributed a story. It was a joy working with her. Other writers in this collection were Tananarive Due, Kenji Jasper, Dallas Hudgens, Jim Grimsley, Brandon Massey, Jennifer Harlow, Sheri Joseph, Alesia Parker, Anthony Grooms, John Holman, Daniel Black and David James Poissant.

So much to read, so little time, right? But it’s worth it!