Shewanda Pugh's Blog: The Wandering Mind of a Romance Writer - Posts Tagged "delphine-publications"

Recently, I made the decision to go from being independently published to joining forces with a publishing house. For an author who's also a full-time freelancer, full-time mom, and full-time wife, teaming up with established publishing queen Tamika Newhouse was an obvious move. Delphine Publications has released scores of hits, and after extensive talks with Tamika, I got the distinction impression that she not only understood what it was I was trying to do with Crimson Footprints but that she respected that work. From there, the move to sign with Delphine was a given.
For a few short weeks, Crimson Footprints will be unavailable in print and ebook format. Currently, we expected a publication date early in the summer of 2012. When the novel is released, it will have a new cover. When that happens, I'll invite both old fans and potential ones to share their thoughts on the new look for Crimson Footprints.

Delphine Publications has released the new cover for Crimson Footprints. With it, a new release date of June 2012 for the eBook and July 17, 2012 for the print edition. It's available for pre-order right now.
So...what's new with it?
The story is identical, except for a few corrections stemming the previous glitch with the first edition of the eBook. But, there is one major change. Chapter One of the sequel is being included! Trust me, you will not want to miss this, as it begins with one helluva bang. Stay tuned!

P.S. For those of you who are new to Crimson Footprints, here's the rundown:
When an insecure, bi-racial woman begins a cloak-and-dagger love affair with a Japanese American man, she is intent on keeping her bigoted family in the dark—albeit with devastating consequences. On the night of her brother’s murder, Deena Hammond stumbles upon Takumi Tanaka, lost and on the wrong end of a .32. After rescuing him from the certain fate driving through the hood in a Ferrari will bring, a sweet kind of friendship begins. A balm for her grief. Maybe, Deena likes to think, it happened the day her white mother killed her black father. Or maybe, it was always a part of them, like DNA gone bad. Whatever the case, Deena knows that her family would never approve, hell, never acknowledge her fast-growing love for Takumi. And had he never made love to her that way, in that unraveling, soul-searching sort of way, she could’ve done the same. But love’s a devil that way. So, their game begins. One where they hide what they are from everyone. Anyone. And Tak understands this—for now. After all, Deena’s career hinges on the favor of her mentor and boss, his hard-ass of a father. And the Hammond family is already stretched thin with grief. Yet, each step Deena takes toward family and career brings her closer to an acceptance she’s never had. And away from him.

Here are the books I wish I had, plan to buy, or hope to receive as a gift. Feel free to comment on any perceived trends, curiosities, or surprises found within. Do they seem like the books of an interracial romance novelist? Or, as some fans have pointed out to me, do you wish I’d stop calling myself a romance novelist altogether? I’ve been told it’s a disservice to my work, though I suspect it’s perhaps a slight misnomer. In any regard, here is my current wish list. Share yours!
1. Rules for Virgins by Amy Tan
2. Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin
3. War Trash by Ha Jin
4. Home, Toni Morrison
5. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
7. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
9. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
10. UR by Stephen King
11. Appalachee Red by Raymond Andrews
12. The Other Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey
13. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
14. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
15. The Coffin Quilt: The Feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys by Ann Rinaldi
Feel free to suggest books you think should be added.

So, I just got around to seeing Midnight in Paris the other day. For those of you who don't know, it's a romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen and starring Owen Wilson. In it, Wilson stars as a screenwriter vacationing in Paris who gets transported to the 1920s each night to party with his artistic heroes. He rubs shoulders with Earnest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso and tons of other notables. And the premise got me to thinking. If an antique car pulled up to transport me to my literary heroes, where would I go and who would be there?
Of course, on first thinking it, I run into a myriad of problems. The people I adore most occupy different times and places, how could I possibly choose between one and the other? But then I realize, there’s but one place for me, truly: Old Harlem.
Imagine it for a moment. Poetry nights with Langston Hughes on the mic, discussing folklore with Zora Neale Hurston, picking the brain of W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, or A. Phillip Randolph. Imagine crowding in to the Cotton Club, Apollo Theatre, or some other hot spot for legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong or Josephine Baker. And in the face of all that, it seems to me, that the Harlem Renaissance is where I’d want to be.
How about you?

For many, my debut novel, Crimson Footprints, proved a fascinating read, though it ultimately left them wondering. Wondering about Lizzie Hammond, the younger sister who plummeted frightfully into self-destruction before their wary eyes. Readers wanted a sense of finality where she was concerned. Considering all that she'd gone through during the course of the first novel, their angst certainly was predictable. Unfortunately, bringing finality to the character of Lizzie Hammond felt not just unlikely, but impractical, insofar as believability was concerned. For me, that sort of self-destruction isn't remedied in a few tidy pages, unless of course, finality comes in the form of death. As fans have openly speculated for some time now, I had other plans for Lizzie Hammond and the Crimson Footprints series.
On Amazon
Crimson Footprints II: New Beginnings
On Goodreads
Crimson Footprints: New Beginnings
Crimson Footprints