Neva Squires-Rodriguez's Blog, page 39

Weekend Writing Warriors Post

Hello new friends.  I have to tell you how excited I am to be a part of this group!  Thank you Charmaine Gordon for inviting me.  This piece is from a book that I have begun writing and temporarily set aside so that I can finish up with the third book of my “Liliana” series.  Let me know what you think of it.  Is it something that you would be interested in reading? 

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Confusion set in and I realized that I was looking at my own attic.  I recognized it, but how could everything look so different with just one footstep?  The floor of the attic was clean, as if it had just been scrubbed.  It changed from a deep mahogany color on my side to newly finished pine color on the other side.  Suddenly I heard muffled voices coming from downstairs and the door to the attic stairway swung open.  Someone gasped.

“Mama, she’s here.”  A girl’s voice said.

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1.
Cara Bristol




2.
The Kelworth Files






3.
karen Y. bynum




4.
Evelyn Jules






5.
Maggie Wells




6.
S. J. Maylee






7.
Alexis Duran




8.
caitlinsternwrites






9.
Sue Ann Bowling




10.
Charmaine Gordon






11.
Frank Fisher




12.
Neva Squires-Rodriguez






13.
Karla Doyle




14.
Sarah Cass






15.
Shannyn Schroeder




16.
Veronica Scott






17.
ED Martin




18.
FCEtier Author






19.
Tina Christopher




20.
Dani Jace






21.
Carrie-Anne’s Magick Theatre




22.
Daryl Devore






23.
Gem Sivad




24.
Victoria Adams






25.
Yawatta Hosby




26.
Elsa Holland






27.
Eleri Stone




28.
Catherine Winther






29.
Christina Alexandra




30.
Elyzabeth M. VaLey






31.
Jai Elle Mitchell




32.
Siren X Star






33.
Christina Ochs




34.
Chelle Cordero, Author






35.
Odin’s Musings




36.
Rose Anderson – The Ancillary Muse






37.
Ruth Griffin




38.
Lashell Collins






39.
Twisted Corners of My Mind




40.
Catch My Words






41.
Jenna Jaxon ~ Historical Romance




42.
CHIMERAS (E. E. Giorgi)






43.
Charley Descoteaux




44.
Charli Green (YA)






45.
The Paper Butterfly

Authors – Have you Written a Book? Want to Promote it?

aopinionatedman@gmail.com

via Authors – Have you Written a Book? Want to Promote it?.

Music Week

Happy Monday, my faithful followers.  I have good news for you.  Tomorrow when you wake up, it will be Tuesday!  ;)  Isn’t that exciting?  It can only get better from here right?  Well real quick, before I get into my subject for the week, I have to tell you that I was also excited to find my book on Barnes and Noble.  Check it out:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liliana-neva-squires-rodriguez/1120171413?ean=2940046114188

If you’ve read it and love it, please remember to rate it.  I have 0 ratings, so help a sister out!  :)

 

Anyhow, as for my subject for the week, I would half to tell you that I had no idea the VMA’s were going to be on when I decided to use music as my subject for the week.  I have never been so pleased with an awards ceremony. There are a ton of thick girls that are pretty darn famous right now.  (I do have hope!)  ;)  Anyhow, as a bit of a feminist myself,  I would have to say that I was extremely impressed with Beyoncé’s performance.  In case you missed it, she had the description of a feminist on a big screen in the background.  It felt good to see and also made me feel extremely happy that most of the female artists these days are using lyrics that empower women.  It makes me happy because it makes me feel like we are finally going somewhere!  Ok have a great night everyone, got to run and work on Liliana part 3 a little before bed.  ;)

Great article I stumbled across to help us better utilize Twitter

Hi friends.  Please check out this great article I stumbled across to help us market ourselves on Twitter.  Enjoy your Sunday friends.  I am well into writing my third book for the Liliana series and am having so much fun with it.  My goal is to make each book more intense than the last and boy I think I’m doing a great job with this one.  Here’s the site for the article:

http://notashamedofthegospel.com/twitter/fix-mistakes-on-twitter/

 

And here’s the site to purchase the 1st book of the Liliana series:                   ;)

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MV4UD5A/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0AH8SGX626CFXHME3AAF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

Video Week

Hi everyone.  Has anyone guessed what I am discussing this week?  It’s music and how it makes us feel.  For our generation, music makes up a huge part of our life.  Did you know that I love music of the nineties and early 2000’s.  Some of my favorite genres of music include Rap and R&B.  I  want to discuss some of the lyrics and show you what motivational messages you can find within the songs.  Check them out and see if you can guess where the lyrics came from.  I am also going to discuss each set and tell you why the verse or verses are so meaningful to me.

1)  “I can’t impress you with the cars and the wealth
‘Cause any woman with will and drive can get it herself”

This verse is meaningful to me because it helped me realize that I didn’t need anyone’s ok to push myself forward in life.  It showed me that there is no one in the world that I should put on a pedestal and idolize, but rather that I needed to push myself to become that person or close to it.  Let me further explain that, I’m not trying to be cocky, but I was a nobody.  I had a job that paid minimum wage when I was nineteen and I lived in my mother-in-laws apartment and worried about what I was going to eat for dinner, because we were poor.  In spite of being poor, I tried to make the best of it and I thought that this was my destiny.  It took hearing this lyric for me to wake up and swallow up my pride, eventually moving back in with my parents in order for me to get a decent job and raise my son in a better lifestyle. 

This verse is something that I’ve always kept in the back of my mind and has been something that has always pushed me to go that extra step because “darn-it” I wanted and still want to be somebody.

2)  “You should love it, way more than you hate it
Oh, you mad, I thought that you’d be happy I made it
I’m that cat by the bar toasting to the good life
Moved out the hood now you trying to pull me back, right?”

Ahem, ok this one, I know you are questioning, but let me ask you something…  When you start to do well, isn’t there always that one person, or maybe a few that don’t like it?  Back in the day there wasn’t really a name for these type of people, but now we refer to them as “haters.”  This lyric, points them out and reminds you that there is always someone that is going to wish you into your past.  The verse reminds you that you have to have hard skin and that you can’t let someone else’s negativity get to you.

3)  “Just cuz you’re in tha ghetto doesn’t mean ya can’t grow”

Believe it or not, I didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood.  In the eighties and nineties, my neighborhood, although on Chicago’s North side was full of crime.  Gangs were all over the place and my high school was positioned in the middle of three major gang territories as well as having numerous other small gangs within it’s vicinity.  There are things that you witness in a neighborhood like this, that no child should.  Sometimes there are things that you witness that no adult should ever witness either.  I could tell you stories that you wouldn’t believe if you didn’t grow up in an urban community, but the fact is that they are real.  How does one cope with inner city violence?   We adapt to it.  Should we?  No, we need to keep growing and become people of purpose.  That’s what this lyric is stating.

Alright, I hope you enjoyed my little piece here.  I’m going to cut it here, because I’m pretty tired.  Here are the answers:

Answers

1)  P.Diddy-  Satisfy You

2)  50 Cent-In Da Club

3)  2Pac-Brenda’s Got a Baby

A Very Happy Birthday Interview with Neva Squires-Rodriguez

nevasquiresrodriguez:

Thanks for the awesome interview Charmaine Gordon. It was great working with you on this!!!

Originally posted on Author Charmaine Gordon:

Please join me in wishing Vanilla Heart Publishing’s newest addition, Neva Squires-Rodriguez a very Happy Birthday as we all celebrate the release of her debut contemporary romantic suspense, Liliana!

Neva and I both hail from Chicago, where she resides with her family, and that makes for some fun chat between us. Find out a little bit more about this enchanting author in her interview, and if you would like a chance to win an ebook copy of Liliana, just comment or ask Neva a question below. Two random winners will be selected; please check back on this page for winners’ names on Saturday, the 23rd of August.

Neva Squires-Rodrigues

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