Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond's Blog, page 70

The Best of the "Best 2012 Books" Lists

Chris Ware’s Building Stories

Many of the Best Lists are out and Kirkus, NY Times, NY Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, and Goodreads agree: the best book of 2012 is Chris Ware’s Building Stories. Have you read it yet?

Junot Diaz’s This is How You Lose Her, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Alice Munro’s Dear Life, and Hilary Mantel’s Bringing Up the Bodies are popping up on multiple lists too.

Also check out Slate, HuffPo, and NPR‘s bests.

Publishers Weekly Names "Fifty Shades" Author "Person of the Year"

Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James

The meteoric success of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades trilogy is proof that books (and sex) can sell in any format, if the subject matter/presentation resonates with people. Publishers Weekly says they chose to bestow the honor on James for three reasons: “The level of the success of the 50 Shades trilogy, the speed with which it achieved that success, and the fact that it was launched in an untraditional manner.”

Write to Know: Victor Hugo / "Les Miserables"

Original Les Miserables cover (1862)

Victor Hugo sent his Les Mis manuscript to his publishers with a “?”. They responded with an “!”.

"Hunger Games" Author to Return With Children's Picture Book

Suzanne Collins’ upcoming Year of the Jungle

Suzanne Collins, author of the wildly popular Hunger Games trilogy will return to market September 2013 with Year of the Jungle, POSTSCRIPT’D reports. The story about a little girl whose father ships off to war, specifically the titular jungle of Vietnam, is aimed at an audience far younger than Collins’ Hunger Games devotees, but with so many families fragmented by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars–and print sales for children’s fiction among the only categories growing in the print category, it’s likely to hit the bestseller list as well. The Amazon description reads: “When young Suzy’s father leaves for Vietnam, she struggles to deal with his absence. What is the jungle like? Will her father be safe? When will he return? The months slip by, marked by the passing of the familiar holidays and the postcards that her father sends. With each one, he feels more and more distant, and when he returns, Suzy must learn that even though war has changed him, he still loves her just the same.” 

Random House Adds Three New Digital-Only Imprints

Flirt, Alibi, and Hydra: Random House’s new digital-only imprints

Just a month after Random House announced its merger with Penguin, Random House expands its digital business with three new imprints for digital readers. According to Publishers Weekly, the new imprints Alibi, Flirt, and Hydra will publish mystery, YA, and science-fiction titles respectively. The publisher also plans to fortify its digital-only romance imprint Loveswept. Gina Wachtel, Vice-President and Associate Publisher who will oversee the editorial teams responsible for the digital imprints, suggested that new authors might “find their first home” in these new ebook lines.  Wachtel told PW,”This dedicated team understands both the content and medium, and can effectively break out authors in the digital space.”

ICM Partners with Sagalyn Agency, United Agents Acquires AP Watt

David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story

Penguin and Random House are not the only entities joining forces to get bigger and stronger in the book industry these days. Publishers Weekly reports International Creative Management, better known as ICM, which represents Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison has partnered with Sagalyn Literary, the DC-based agency that represents David Maraniss’s bestseller Barack Obama: The Story, while TheBookseller.com posts that AP Watt, the agency that represented Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, On Beauty, and recent NW before Smith’s agent Georgia Garrett left for Rogers, Coleridge & White, has been acquired by United Agents.

For writers, these new alliances offer hints as to what these powerhouse agencies may be leaning toward in terms of content. With Sagalyn bringing strong political writers to the table and ICM representing a cadre of strong Hollywood talent, it would seem political  narrative non-fiction and fiction that lends itself to screen adaptation would be welcome at the new ICM/Sagalyn. Likewise, at the new UA, authors with an idiosyncratic voice and global worldview might feel very much at home.

Check Out My New Blog: "People Who Write"

The Powder Necklace blog is supposed to be about my journey in promoting my first book and navigating the book industry as a novice. However, of late, as I've been focusing on my next two book projects (yesterday, I wrote the first line of Book #3!), the posts here and on my Powder Necklace Facebook page have veered off topic. To get back on course, I've started a new blog called "People Who Write" where I'll share info that's more relevant to writers and book nerds.

I haven't abandoned this blog though! I am still on the grind pushing Powder Necklace and actually have a few events lined up in the New Year which I am super-psyched about. I'll share the deets once I have full info to share. Thank you so much for sticking with me!!

Collateral Damage?

Too much?

Now that The Election is over, I can exhale.  In the six weeks leading up to D Day, I gave in to all the anxiety-inducing reports about statistical dead heats and razor thin edges and nearly dissolved into a palpitating heart.  It got so bad that I basically lost it on my sister when, during her Hurri-cation Sandy stay at my house (her power was out for a week), she insisted on listening to both sides and flipping between MSNBC and Fox. 
It didn't help that I was working on a blog post for MadameNoire.com which I've been contributing a lot to lately, about an Election-themed exhibit happening simultaneously in seven museums across the country in which a portrait of Obama hung on a wall while Mitt Romney's photo waited on the floor, only to replace Obama's if he won.  The idea of the Romney shot replacing Obama's picture gave me night sweats. 
I can't remember ever feeling so invested in the outcome of an election though I'm not sure that's a good thing. Four years ago, I campaigned for Obama in Pennsylvania on two separate occasions and made phone calls to battleground states, but this time, oddly, his victory or defeat felt more personal. I genuinely believe in President Obama's core philosophy--I think Michelle Obama expressed it best when she said "When you've worked hard and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. No, you reach back and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed."
Too loud?
I've never been the type of person to wear my affiliations on my sleeve. In fact, I've existed keeping mum about how I truly feel about a lot of things for most of my life, reserving expression of my feelings for the endless journals I've filled and my very closest family and friends. By nature I'm more of a watcher and a listener (good traits for a writer, I think), but over the last few years something's come over me. Lol.
One of the biggest dreams of my life came true in 2010 -- my first book was published -- and I had to open my mouth and sell it.  I had to be persistent, unabashed, sometimes obnoxious to be heard. For example, the old school rapper Fab Five Freddy bought my book at the Harlem Book Fair two years ago just to shut me up, I think. After I went all Crazy Eddie on him, he said "Damn, girl!" plunked down his $15 and left me to his peace. I didn't know I had that in me until the book came out.  Since the book has been out, I've had moments when I've had to tone it down or turn it up as I've discussed in my "Why Michelle Obama?" post and seek a balance as I posted in "The Writer's Prayer."
Originally, I thought the balance I was seeking had to do with self-promotion and work-life, but I now realize it's more about my desire to find the balance between how much to reveal about what I feel and who I am, and how much to keep for myself. In essence, what am I willing to wear on my chest. In advertising/marketing, promotional materials like branded t-shirts and the deck chairs pictured above are called collateral. An appropriate term considering collateral also refers to what you're willing to pledge/put on the line for some bigger debt you owe.
Anyway, I'm still figuring this out. I got more silent in the last year and a half figuring everyone within my immediate and extended social reach already knew about Powder Necklace and also because I was devoting more time to working on Book #2--but I was shocked to find that some of my friends still didn't know I had a book out. Funny, when you think you're being too loud, it turns out you aren't being loud enough. 

I'm in 'Time Out Accra'!

A Facebook friend sent me this scan of a write-up on me and the book in Time Out Accra ! I did this interview last year, but couldn't find it anywhere. Thank you, 'ko La for alerting me to it, and thank you, Time Out Accra for including me in this.

Ghana in 28 Days

I'm back from a monthlong trip to Ghana which doubled as family time, an opportunity to participate in homecoming activities at my high school, a chance to visit the OrphanAID AfricaFoster Family Center compound, and research for my next book project. I thought for sure 28 days would be more than enough, but of course it wasn't. 
I got to Ghana a week after the abrupt and shocking death of the late President John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills. The entire nation was in mourning. News programs seemed to report only on the funeral preparations. (16 heads of state/dignitaries were coming, including Hillary Clinton.) And in the two days leading up to his August 10th burial, the entire nation was invited to file paste his glass-encased body in a public wake. Every other billboard that lined the roads eulogized Mills as organizations and corporations publicly expressed their grief and condolences. Everything was draped in the red and black funeral colors reserved for royalty. 
different versions of Mills' funeral cloth
I always learn something new about the culture when I visit Ghana, and via Mills' funeral, I learned just how much fashion "speaks" in Ghana. Perhaps I was sensitive to it after reading Catherine E. McKinley's insightful memoir Indigo , which charts the significance behind the designs of many African prints and cloth dyeing processes. To commemorate Mills' death, several cloths were designed including different versions of a State Cloth, and a Party Cloth meant for members of his political party NDC. Being the fashion lover I am, I wanted to collect a few of the cloths as keepsakes of the historic moment (Mills is the only Ghanaian President to die in the middle of his term in office).  But I couldn’t choose a cloth simply for aesthetics.
The Party Cloth, which bears the NDC insignia of a green, white, red, and black umbrella, was banned from the actual funeral so as not to promote partisan politics at the late President's funeral. (This is an election year in Ghana.) Of course some people wore the NDC cloth anyway, but I went with an all black cloth instead.  
During that first week of mourning, I traveled to my alma mater Mfantsiman Girls' Secondary School to give a talk on creative writing as part of the Homecoming festivities. Every time I make the journey from Accra to Saltpond, I am 12 years old again. My stomach drops and my armpits start leaking as the car passes Mankessim, the market town less than 20 minutes' drive from the school. I make the journey every single time I go to Ghana. It's a weird pilgrimage for me. 
Anyway, when we got there, the first thing my mother and sister chorused was: "The school looks so much better!" The fresh paint wasn't the half of it.  The current Headmistress presented a progress report that moved me to tears. The PTA have donated 50 computers, and refurbished the computer lab. There is a new classroom block ostensibly so the students don't have to have class in outdoor huts. The students no longer have to eat in shifts thanks to the new dining hall the PTA built. The '85 Year Group refurbished the Infirmary and donated a tractor to the Agriculture Department. And the students are snagging prizes and winning competitions left and right. I didn't check for myself, but the students later told me, the water flows relatively consistently.
A few more reports followed with similar news of development as the Mfantsiman Old Girls Association (MOGA) shared all the initiatives they planned to take up to improve the Mfantsiman experience. And then I was up. 
Mfantsiman GirlsAbout 400 students who had stayed on campus to prepare for upcoming exams filed into the pews of the chapel which doubles as the school assembly hall. I felt my mouth go dry with nerves as I began to speak to the congregation. I could see myself at 12, sandwiched between my friends, frenemies, tormentors and very quickly, I was crying. My mom started crying. I saw some of my old school mates wiping tears; one graciously offered me a tissue. This generated a chorus of "AWWWWW!!"s from the girls. :-)
Once I pulled myself together, I spoke about the importance of seizing our own stories. 
It was an experience I will never forget.  I got to travel around the country a bit. 
A friend took us on a tour of Tema Harbor, the port where the bulk of goods shipped to Ghana passes through. Stupidly/glamorously, I wore heels, but I was able to maneuver the rocky gangplank without a tumble. Along the way we discovered a community of (cute!) rastas living in makeshift houseboats. 
We later went to this amazing village called Nzulezo which is built on a river - it's built on stilts! It was a six hour drive from Accra, then an hour canoe ride to the actual village, but it as worth it. The village of 450 men, women, and children are used to being ogled all day every day by visitors so they are prepared. The children greeted us the canoe drop with post cards for sale, and when they saw no one was interested, they started dancing for money. I had this gross conflicted feeling watching these children--toddlers really--perform for cash. They were too young to be transacting for money. But I watched, riveted, and handed a few cedis over anyway because they were so damn good at the azonto, a dance craze that has totally taken over the nation. Right after they got their money, the smiles and dances were gone as the kids completely ignored us. It was funny and chilling at the same time. 
in Ada, we stumbled across this mural We drove to a beach in town called Ada. This time the drive was only two hours' long. The beach, which is bordered by the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean on one side and a peacefully still estuary on the other, was so gorgeous, even if it was littered with garbage. We walked for hours, passing the odd goat, fisherman, villager, and backpacking tourist. 

Three days before I left Ghana, I visited the OrphanAID Africa Foster Family Center compound. Sitting on five acres of land in a small town called Ayeniyah, an hour's drive from Accra, it is an amazing eco village built to educate, house, and treat abandoned and special needs kids. I was so moved by the dedication of the founder Lisa Lovatt-Smith and staff members, and the thoroughness of the planning. 
They have solar powered energy, trees are literally the beams that support the houses. They collect and use "grey water" for washing to conserve the drinking water supply. They have a farm with plots for each family. A physical therapy center for the special needs kids that is outfitted with exercise equipment and wheelchairs. They have a library that needs books. You can post books to: 
OrphanAID AfricaPO Box DD61Dodowa, Dangme West, Greater AccraGhana, West Africa
You can also donate here.
The OrphanAID Africa LibraryI read a short passage from Powder Necklace to a group of the high schoolers and shared a bit about my experience attending Mfantsiman. In the Q&A that followed, one of the kids asked me what legacy I want to leave on earth. After seeing all that Lisa was able to accomplish in the 10 years she's been in Ghana, I lumbered under that question. Creating a body of writing that blesses people seemed so inadequate.
But it's what I got and I intend to use it. Throughout my trip, I wrote and have the beginnings of three projects to keep myself busy, in addition to my second book. I can't wait to share them all with you.