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This Novel That I’m Writing…My Modified NaNoWriMo Challenge…

Hello World,

My four main characters...

My four main characters…

As I type this post this morning, I am still marveling at what happened at approximately 11:58 p.m. on Monday night…What happened? Keep reading…Me…Jacqueline J. Holness finished writing the rough draft of her FIRST NOVEL…I hear you cheering for me…Thank you…Thank you…(I’m raising my hands in the air like I’m a boxer that just won a boxing match)…I cannot believe it because… well, first of all, I’ve always wanted to write novels, but I decided to become a journalist (in part) because I couldn’t imagine myself writing as long as I would need to write to complete a novel so I made myself content to craft pithy articles…

But I digress…I began writing this novel in March of last year at the exact same time I started planning for my wedding…I strategically did this because I wanted to write my love letter to single women (aka my novel) while I was on the way to being married…I thought it would provide an interesting dichotomy in my mind that would lend itself to creative genius…(Yes, I’m that ambitious 🙂 ) So every other week, I churned out 2,000 words, a requirement of my writing group that I joined, even as I selected flowers, booked caterers, meltdowned in Atlanta bridals stores, threatened legal action to get back a deposit…And then I got married and started doing wife stuff…And I stopped writing…And then I heard about a “Writing it Right” workshop my writer friend Rhonda McKnight was giving in November, and I thought it could help me get back on track…And it did help…I realized that I really needed to get to know my characters before I continued…So I did that for a while….

But then my characters started getting Mafia with me..I would be driving and one of my characters would hold a gun to my head…And then I would be forced to drive with one hand while my character would dictate what I should write with the other…Or my characters would jump into my body like I was Whoopi Goldberg in the movie “Ghost.” I would be at a networking function totally unrelated to my novel, and I would open my mouth to recite the small talk I rehearsed in my head…And instead of my speech, my character would tumble out, talking about what she wanted to do…It was embarrassing and scary at the same time…I was beginning to realize my characters wanted me to write the doggone novel already…

So I compromised by writing a blog post about them…And based on that singular blog post, I was booked for a radio interview to discuss a book I had yet to write(although I was assured that I could discuss other topics)…YIKES…So for guidance, I consulted the Internet which is actually one of God’s creations He uses to guide us until He returns for us (that and the Bible)…At least it seems that way anyway…LOL…So I discovered NaNoWriMo which is a movement in which writers are encouraged to write a novel of 50,000 words in the month of November! After talking to myself and to God which sometimes feels like the same thing and to my new husband, I decided I would complete the rest of my novel in a month even though it was February..Because after a while, nobody feels like listening to you talk about a book that you have yet to write…Shout out to my hairdresser who listened to the entire plot as she tightened up my locks…Nothing like a captive audience to get the creative juices flowing…

So I decided to start in February and by the beginning of March, I realized that I was a dunce with the pointy hat and erething for thinking that my imagination was creative enough to deliver 1, 667 words a day…which is what it would take to write a 50,000-word novel in a month…So I went to bed with my laptop one night hoping my promiscuity would produce a promise that I would be given the words I needed each day…But God stopped me from making a fool of myself and had me turn to the living Bible instead…I got this verse…

I want to suggest that you finish what you started to do a year ago, for you were not only the first to propose this idea, but the first to begin doing something about it. 2 Corinthians 8:10

And then I felt like He-Man (remember that ’80s cartoon superhero?) who would raise a sword in the air and declare, “By the Power of Grayskull, I HAVE THE POWER!” before demolishing his enemies…I guess in my case, I am She-Man and now I had the POWER OF GOD behind me and I could do all things through Christ who strengthened me including writing the rough draft of the book I started a year ago…Whose the corniest of them all? I AM! But I still have the power…

So this brings me back to the original words of this post…at 11:58 on Monday night, I couldn’t believe I was actually typing the final words of my rough draft…So instead of a month, it actually took me 6 weeks to finish a rough draft of a book I started writing last year…so that’s why it’s my modified NaNoWriMo challenge…And I’ve written way more than 50,000 words too but that is because I have written about four main characters (three single and one married) and two years and two months of their lives…

And now the fun begins…REVISING…y’all pray for me…because as you can see, it gets kinda crazy in this here head…

Any thoughts?

 

 

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TI, T-Mo Goodie, Chuck D, Kool Moe Dee & Others Slated to Appear at Hymns & Hip Hop Conference Starting TODAY

Hello World,

The Hymns & Hip Hop Conference (H3C) is a three-day symposium ( March 28-30) hosted by the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, spiritual home of the Civil Rights trailblazer, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the location of The N.E.W. Leadership Academy.

 On the days preceding the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King, it is a largely significant call to unite the two most influential sectors of urban life to start building the community…together.

The conference was founded by Minister Cassandra Henderson and Rev. Michael Wortham in an effort to bridge the Hip Hop communitiy and the church community, the younger generation and its history, the sacred and the secular.

For more information, go to hymns-hiphop.com.

Check out Ebezener Baptist Church’s Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock in his Hymns & Hip-Hop Confessions!!!

Any thoughts?

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Why Mary Mary May Need To Get Off Reality TV…My Open Letter to Erica & Tina Campbell

Dear Mary Mary,

I’m a big fan of reality TV…In fact, earlier this year, I interviewed Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Mama Joyce about her increasingly volatile relationship with her daughter Kandi Burruss over her her fiance’ Todd Tucker, a production manager, whom Kandi met on the show…

I’m a big fan of Mary Mary, I interviewed the two of you at the Atlanta premiere of your reality show when the show debuted in March 2012. After watching the first show at the premiere, I was excited to see what was going to unfold…During that first episode, the two of you questioned aloud if y’all could balance two husbands, six (now seven children as Tina was pregnant then) a thriving career in the spotlight and capture it all on your new reality show…

Two years later, we all know the answer to that question is a straight up “No!” In the beginning of the show, the drama was rather benign for a reality show – drama with your manager Mitchell Solarek and your sister (their stylist Goo-Goo Atkins) over a wardrobe choice and mommy guilt over opting to perform at Macy’s Great Christmas Tree Lighting concert on Thanksgiving Day in Atlanta rather than spend the holiday with your families…But now in this season, we have learned that your husband (Tina Campbell’s husband Teddy) cheated on you. However, you take some of the responsibility for his transgression and are committed to making you marriage work…

In an interview with CNikky.com, you said, “I Tina assume full responsibility for the issues that I contributed to the relationship.  I was controlling, talked too much.  And you can never be heard over me because when I wanna talk I got the floor and ain’t nobody gonna get it from me until I give it up.  Real talk. That was the way it was and I have to work on myself. You know what I mean?  I was selfish.  When we started having children it’s like, I forget that I have a responsibility as a wife.”

I applaud you Tina for making that poignant statement because as I am learning as a new wife (seven months to be exact), you have to take care of your man and you can’t be loud-talking your man all of the time and expect him to stay around…I know some of my liberated lonely ladies are gonna show out when they read this…And if in fact, you were criticized for taking some of the responsibility for her husband’s cheating…But any woman who has been married for any length of time knows the truth I’m speaking or writing in this case…

But based on what is going to unfold in this week’s episode of “Mary Mary,” it seems that Teddy may be owning up to “countless affairs!” SCREECH…Hold up cuz I need to get off the bus…There is a difference between cheating and being a downright philanderer…And we’re supposed to watch the televised unraveling of your marriage all in the name of entertainment? Not to mention the fact that we learn in this season that you fire your manager on the show…And now he is actually suing you, claiming he is owed wages and commission…You (Erica) is recording on your own…And most grievous of all is the passing of the your father Eddie Atkins from cancer…Yes, this all makes for riveting reality television but reality TV is a ravenous beast eager to devour all in its path…sound familiar Christians? For my non-believers, check out 1 Peter 5:8…

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Yes, reality TV is a kind of devil…In the fascinating and illuminating article, “Scott’s suicide reveals tragic side of city’s glitzy scene” in the New York Post, Maureen Callahan writes about the recent suicide of Mick Jaggers’s girlfriend L’Wren Scott who was also a stylist to the stars but seemingly had no one to turn to in her despair despite the glamorous life she seemed to lead…Callahan blamed reality TV for glorifying wealth when many reality TV stars are actually struggling financially and destroying the personal lives of its stars…

“Over the franchise’s eight-year lifespan, 12 Real Housewives have filed for bankruptcy, one has been evicted on camera, several have battled substance-abuse issues, one couple has pleaded guilty to fraud in federal court, one husband has been indicted for fraud and identity theft, and one husband has committed suicide.”

Those numbers speak for themselves…As I watched the most recent episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” it was nearly painful to watch the strained relationship between Attorney Phaedra Parks and her husband Apollo Nida…She seemed to be tolerating him just for the sake of the cameras and his passive-aggressive behavior was embarrassing…Since this show was filmed before it was revealed that he was indicted for fraud and identity theft, that may have been the reason for their obvious disdain for one another… Yes, I know that reality television can provide an awesome platform…Kandi Burruss has reportedly said RHOA has enabled her to broaden her financial empire…But at what cost? Bottom line: As Christians, we cannot do things like the world and expect different results…That principle is made clear in Romans 12:2…

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.

I’m sure you have your personal relationship with God so I’m sure that God is leading you where you should go in your lives, but as a fellow Christian on the journey to heaven, I’m just sayin’….Right now, you have something to save, but only God knows what will happen in another season…In fact, Tia and Tamara ended their reality show after three seasons…

And if you were wondering, I will always be a fan because God has obviously given you a beautiful music minstry…But I would prefer to only see Mary Mary, the gospel duo, rather than “Mary Mary,” the reality television casualty….

In Christian Love With Church Hugs 🙂 ,

Jackie