Readers & Authors Wanted

Charity over at the dee&Dee blog is writing an essay about the back cover copy of books. She wants to take a closer look at how it's written, who writes it, how the authors feel about it, and how readers view it. She's looking for readers and authors to answers a few questions. The questions are painless and she won't use your name without permission. If you'd like to participate, contact her at: deeanddeedish@sbcglobal.net.

I joined Crimespace over the weekend. Crimespace is like MySpace but for readers and writers of crime fiction. Crimespace started up a few weeks ago, has about 300 members, and is growing. I found it very easy to set up a page.

I recently discovered another new site called Habitual Reader. Habitual Reader is an online fiction book club that features reader profiles, book reviews, and favorite community bookstores. There is also a section for authors to list thier own books and books they are reading.

Enjoy!
Angela

News You Can Use. . .I hope ; )

Blogger Karen Scott is posting the surveys that she received from AA authors on the topic of racism in the publishing industry. She'll be posting one survey a day. She's already posted about a half dozen, including mine. From reading through the surveys it would seem we've all had different experiences. Check out some of the visitor comments posted. Some of them are quite eye opening.

One of my favorite authors, Tina McElroy Ansa, is starting her own publishing company called Down South Press. They will be publishing mainly fiction and will be open for agented submissions starting July 1, 2007. (Link Courtesy of the Black Books Blog).

I just discovered that the Persia Walker, author of the mystery Harlem Redux, which is excellent by the way, has a blog. She is chronicling her efforts to get The Palmer Affair, the sequel to Harlem Redux, published.

Queen Latifah is lobbying to play the role of African detective Precious Remotswe in the movie adaptation of author Alexander McCall Smith's #1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Check out my Blogging In Black post today on social networking sites entitled Cyber Socializing.

Enjoy!
Angela

All Stuffed Up!

I've joined the ranks of the sick and contagious. I have a nasty head cold, which I strongly suspect has turned into a sinus infection ; (. I made the mistake of using Afrin nasal spray to unplug my congestion. Oh, it worked wonderfully the first two times I used it, after that it was pretty much useless. Plus, it dried out my sinuses and ultimately made my congestion worse. Something they call rebound congestion. Seems you aren't supposed to use the stuff for more than three days(I didn't because it stopped working) because it makes congestion worse causing you to become addicted to the stuff. I had no idea there were people in this world strung out on nasal spray. How sad is that?

Haven't slept all weekend, which is why I'm up blogging at 6:45 on a Sunday morning. Going to try and get to the doctor tomorrow, or urgent care today if I still can't get any relief. In the meantime, click here for a call for short story submissions for a proposed mystery anthology. Sounds like it should be a winner. I get the impression they are only looking for submissions from published authors. But, contact R. Barri Flowers just to make sure. Also, the excerpt of Diva's Last Curtain Call is now posted on my website. Well, I'm off to take a steamy hot bath to open up my head. And if you're not sick, try hard to stay that way because this is no fun at all!



Angela