Angela Kay Austin's Blog, page 7

What do you think about contests?

Okay, you guys know that I’ve never been a big lover of contests. I’ve never figured out quite where I fit. They always seem so narrow.

I don’t write Sweet Romance, do I?

I don’t write Erotic Romance, do I?

I don’t write traditional Contemporary Romance, do I?

Where do I belong? I’ve never discovered the answer to that question.  My latest books prove that I think I’m still growing and searching for my own unique place. Run For Freedom, and Sojourner are both a weird blend of New Adult, Historical and Paranormal. Again, they don’t fit into any traditional category. All of this makes it difficult to find a contest where my work fits.

The result: I don’t enter contests.

However, while attending RT2016, I was lured into a conversation with members of the Las Vegas Romance Writers RWA chapter. I truly tried to keep walking.  There was nothing I wanted to hear. I had plenty of things to do. Free books. Fan girl Nalini Singh. You know important things.

But, they kept talking, and for some reason, I stopped and listened. When they finished, I took a few cards and kept it moving.  Later, I dug the card out and read it.  Librarians, book clubs, agents… Wait, what? Hmm… Maybe this contest could be different. Maybe. Couldn’t hurt, right.

I told a few friends. And I actually entered a couple of my pieces.

Guess what happened…

 

Who knows how far I’ll go in the competition, but hey it’s been awesome just making it this far! Thank you LVRWA!

From Memphis to Jerusalem

What is your Journey? If you took a look back, what would you say were some of the most defining moments of your life? I’m not the youngest, and I’m not the oldest, but I think no matter how many suns you’ve seen rise, or moons you’ve seen set, that we all are walking our own path.

This spring and summer, I made a personal promise to get up off my couch and put some life back into life. It began with opening my laptop and once again allowing words to flow from my fingers. Sojourner: The Journey To A New Beginning, is not yet available, but will be by the end of the year. I hope you’ll keep a look out for it.

I had to get out of my own way, and although I know I have many many miles to go, the tens of thousands of miles I’ve covered this spring and summer feel like they are a small beginning.

Sometimes you look around and you see absolutely nothing, but then you realize you’re standing at the top of a mountain within a grand palace, and that you have everything you need.

Tell me about your journey.

Burnt Boiled Eggs and Sausage @AngelaKayAustin

RT16 just ended, and like everyone my mind is still whirling from all of the excitement! I mean where do I begin…

RT is full of webinars, authors and readers, and just as in years passed I enjoyed every minute until I passed out each night in bed from that kind of crazy exhaustion that you actually try to deny until you realize you can’t.

I cannot begin this post without talking about one change I saw that made me stop and think: panels on diversity and multicultural books. This was amazing for me. A few years ago I approached several publishers and I heard what so many diverse authors hear, “Thanks, but I don’t think we would know how to market your book.”

Do you know how hard it is to hear that not because someone doesn’t like your writing, but because of your content (or you) they can’t take your work. What does that mean? How do movies starring people of color perform so well at the box office? Does everyone have to be Terry McMillan or Toni Morrison or Maya Angelou?

What would be the legacy of  Langston Hughes or Zora Neale Hurston who were doing their thing during the Harlem Renaissance and now they’re loved and respected by all, if they would’ve just stopped or given up? I’m sure many didn’t want to hear what they said and definitely didn’t want to produce it.

Must we continue to repeat the same cycle over and over again continuing to fight to express ourselves and fighting for an audience because of what…the fact that I’m a Black woman writing about Black women.

This leads me to another thing that I loved at this year’s RT. Self-publishing.

The love for hybrid authors or self-published authors was everywhere. Panel after panel attacked different issues and concerns for self-pubbed authors. The information shared about distribution and marketing was worth the trip alone for an author like me.

Which leads me to my next point… Readers!

Wow, they did not shy away from sharing their opinions with me. Their love for all books. Their eagerness to read new books by new authors. If more publishers listened to more diverse readers, I don’t think we’d have any of these issues. I’m just saying…

Why the burnt egg? Ha! I was so busy updating my Amazon account because of some of the fantastic information from RT16 that I burned my breakfast eggs and sausage.

Ohh, let’s not forget my fan girl moments!

I know you know who they are, right?

If not, check out some of their books:

Lutisha Lovely

Renee Daniel Flagler

 

 

 

All of you know I absolutely love this author.

Check out her latest series. I’m reading this one – Rock Addiction.

 

 Hey, if you’d like a free gift, click here!

This gift will only be available until April 23rd or until supplies runs out. So click TODAY!

Something New — Melodee: A Song for Nora by @AngelaKayAustin

This book is dedicated to my parents. I wrote this one during one of the hardest seasons in my life. So many of us face many different things that splinter us into millions of sharp tiny pieces. We close our eyes in an attempt to shut out the pain pressing down upon us. Unfortunately, shutting our eyes and closing ourselves off from the world (or our pain) doesn’t do anything, but make the inevitable reality harsher.

I closed my eyes for almost a year, and writing Melodee: A Song for Nora was extremely difficult. Proofing it was even harder. I don’t seem to be able to read it to the end without crying.

This book touches me at one of my most broken places, my heart. Writing this book was part of my healing, and if there is anyone out there who needs the same healing, I hope that you take some comfort in the words of this story.

Melodee was written not only for me, but for you.

 

You can read an excerpt from Melodee: A Song for Nora by clicking here!

 

 

New Year…say what?!

Alrighty then, it’s a new year, and I swear I can’t really say anything much is different. I hawked the calendar waiting for 2015 to flip right on off, and 2016 to pop up, but honestly what’s different?

Let’s review:

-2015…pretty painful year for me.

-2016…only a few weeks in and how do I feel?

A friend of mine asked me to participate in an anthology, and I did. It was excruciating. I tried to work my way through a few story ideas, but nothing worked. No matter how hard I tried, the same story kept popping to the front of my mind, and so I wrote it. It began as a simple story about a songstress, but it morphed into a story about my mother.

Two hundred pages later, the story was about a singer in Memphis, TN who’s mother died suddenly and that incident derailed my heroine and an engagement was called off, a band and livelihood were in jeopardy.

So, no, the story isn’t about me, but it became a cathartic moment for me, and although it is hard for me to read the finished story, I have to admit that I’m glad that I wrote it. It allowed me to say and feel things that I believe I didn’t want to say or feel.

Not taking full advantage of the new year, not yet; however, it is only a matter of time. But, be certain that pieces of the world around me will continue to be sprinkled into the stories I tell. I hope that you’ll continue to enjoy the journey with me. And if you have stories to share, I hope you’ll share them with me.

I loved both of my parents with such fierceness, and allowing myself to feel their loss from my life and to admit it hurts just as much on some days as the first day I woke and realized they were gone is hard. But, damn if my parents didn’t love me just as fiercely, and for me to do anything other than to keep doing what they know I loved would be a disappointment to them and a failure to myself.

Let’s take advantage of the new year together.

 

Emotional Holiday @AngelaKayAustin

Normally, during the holidays, I spend most of my time hanging out with my mother shopping for completely unnecessary holiday decorations because I have so many. Watching every holiday movie on TV. Listening to music that makes you ready for the holiday season.

This year, it’s different.

I haven’t purchased one new holiday decoration. I haven’t watched one new movie. My mother would not be happy with me at all. She’d probably tell me to get up off my couch (which has become so so comfy over the months since her passing). But, in all honesty, it is so hard to harness enough energy to push myself to do the things I need to do.

Friends and family have championed me and helped me make it to this day. Recently, I walked in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk that was held in Memphis, TN. I walked it in memory of my mother and in honor of my father.

I don’t know if my mom was watching; however, I hope she was proud that I got up off the couch. It’s a start

Although I haven’t been consistent with my posts or updates. I wanted to write this post to let you know that I’m still following my dream, albeit slower. And I wanted to thank all of you for your support of Run For Freedom. The first book in my four-book historical romance series.

I’m not Scrooge, yet

While walking in the AHA Heart Walk, I walked pass this gorgeous view of Memphis!

 

It’s been a long time…

For those of you who’ve been following my journey this year, you know that it’s been a hard hard year.

First, I want to thank each of you for your words of support and kindness. Every call, email, PM, tweet has given me strength to continue to do something that I love…write.

I dedicate this book to my mother, without whom I simply do not know where I would be.

I hope that you will enjoy this one because I did this one for her!

The choice was to run for freedom or die never having been valued as a human—as a woman.  The penalty was the same—death!

Freedom and her brother, Triumph, would fight for their lives and the lives of the ones whom they loved no matter the cost.  Escaping bondage meant they must RUN! Run to Moses. Run to the Promised Land.

Watson Brown knew all too well the struggle to survive.  The fight to live. He had been given a second chance to do what he had failed to do in life—as a human. What he and his father could not do before the Harpers Ferry Raid.

The runaway slave and her brother were a distraction.

He could afford no interferences with his mission.  He nor his family could risk exposure.

If you want to read more, click here: Run For Freedom Excerpt.

Everything gets better with time, right? @AngelaKayAustin

A month of days have not passed since my mother’s death, but people tell me that the void that now exists in my life will be easier to bear with time.

Although I believe that may be true, I’ve been wondering if that is actually a good thing.

Today, I spoke with my brother and I told him that one of the things I hate about the days since my mother’s passing, is that they simply exist. Nothing has changed. My TV shows are still airing. I still picked up fast food because I didn’t feel like cooking. I went to work. The sun rose and so did the damn moon.

Nothing changed.

Doesn’t the world know that my mom is no longer a part of it? And doesn’t everyone know that I don’t feel like moving with it?

I want to sleep until I wake from this awful horrible crazy reality.

How is it possible that all of this is real? Don’t most people get some sort of warning? Or, a second chance? Why didn’t I receive that second chance, or warning? Didn’t she deserve the chance to see who’s going to win The Voice (one of our favorite shows to watch together)? To see me marry? To watch me get my first major writing contract?

Didn’t I deserve to see her eyes light up when she took her first international trip? To see her laugh at my niece and nephews doing whatever silly thing they did? To watch her dance to whatever crazy line dance came out next?

Why can’t I call her and tell her about my day, or what I’m going to do tomorrow? Why?

I want to call her right now!

 

I say, it’s my birthday @AngelaKayAustin

What to do when it’s your birthday, and the woman who brought you into the world is no longer a part of it?

As much as I wanted to pull myself together and put on a good front for my family and friends, I couldn’t. I wanted to tell them that I was okay, that everything was alright. But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t.

My mother’s sudden and unexpected death on March 24th, 2015 has left me confused, sad, angry, remorseful, and so much more.

I can only think of the things we never had the chance to do, and the things she was looking forward to in the coming months, including her retirement party. (She died three months after retiring.)

Every time I saw her or any time we spoke, she was so filled with energy and excitement about what was coming next, and to know that she and I will not have those experiences only brings me sadness, no matter how much I try to cling to how I believe her to be at peace, it hasn’t brought me peace.

I love her, I miss her and I had to listen to this song for her. She loved it because it made her think of her own mother, my grandmother.

Floating through space without an anchor @AngelaKayAustin

I guess that I’m not sure where to begin, so let me begin here…

My mother passed away a few weeks ago. She was sixty-two, and according to my mother she hadn’t been in the hospital since the day my younger brother was born…thirty-eight years. Mom was soft-spoken, gentle, and God only knows she had the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met in my life.

Her heart was too gentle for this world. She was too beautiful to be a part of the craziness that surrounds us today.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, she died on a regular Tuesday morning.

On my way to work, I received a call from my brother, that now has forever changed my life.

I web-searched the stages of grief, and according to them I’m currently experiencing all of them at one time…not sure how that works, but apparently, my heart and mind don’t know that’s not supposed to be what you do, or maybe it is.

My mother was not only my mom, but she was absolutely my best friend, and now I feel as if I am floating through space without an anchor. I have no idea how to face the next beautiful sun-filled day, and not want to go and hang out with mom at a nail salon or mall. How do I not want to catch a movie with her after church on a Sunday? How do I not want to call her as I leave work and let her know that I’m on my way to pick her up to head to the gym?

I am a motherless daughter, and I have no earthly idea how to take a breath without feeling the pain in my chest that makes it hard to breath.

I’ve always believed that sometimes it’s good to write about how you feel. As a writer, I’ve always turned to written words when I don’t know what else to do. And I do not know what else to do.

So, I will do the only thing that I know how to do…I will write what I feel on these pages, when I can will my fingers to move.

Thank you to all of my friends and family who have been so incredibly supportive during this period in my life. I love you all, and can’t imagine what this would have been like without you.

My mother loved gospel music more than anyone I know, and this one is dedicated to her. I will love you forever C.M.H., and I pray that you can read each and every word, and know that you will never be forgotten.