Rashid Darden's Blog, page 5

Response to: My daughter has chosen the Dark Side (by ContactBen)LMAO

Response to: My daughter has chosen the Dark Side (by ContactBen)

LMAO 

Lenny Kravitz is Angry from Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz is Angry from Lenny Kravitz

Line Names of the Founders

On a message board I am on, one of the Brothers of Alpha asked what we thought the founders line names would have been.  below is my response.

Henry Arthur Callis

1-A-06

"The Phys-ICY-ian"

Charles Henry Chapman

2-A-06

"Lost & Found"

Eugene Kinckle Jones

3-A-06…

"P.S.A.L.M.S."*

George Biddle Kelley

4-A-06

"Dap"

Nathaniel Allison Murray

5-A-06

"Head of the Class"

Robert Harold Ogle

6-A-06

"Cross Colors"

Vertner Woodson Tandy

7-A-06

"The Blueprint, Vol. 1"

PSALMS = "Please send a last minute substitution"

Happy Saturday! – Lazarus Playlist

Hey everybody!

I am preparing to travel to New Orleans for about a week on business, so my updates will be sporadic.  I will only have my blackberry – my laptop is no longer operational and my next computer was a desktop.  Which is generally fine since I wasn't traveling all that much, but now I do/will sorta feel naked without a dedicated laptop.

I will have internet access through my phone, of course.

Lazarus had what I consider to be a strong re-launch.  Amazon listed it at a little more than three dollars off the cover price, which is good for those of you wishing to save.  As always, of course, I would prefer that you purchase my books through my site because I get more royalties that way.

I will remind everyone once again that if you pre-ordered Covenant, you will be contacted to confirm your shipping address.  Please do not email me unsolicited with your contact information.  I have to go through PayPal FIRST to verify who paid, then contact each person individually.  That will be a painstaking, all at once process that I will begin NEXT weekend, after I return from New Orleans.  If you send me your info, it will get lost in the dozens of emails I have already.  Thanks for understanding.

Neil is working hard on the cover of Epiphany, which (I'd also like to remind you) has already been written and typeset.  The last pieces of the puzzle are the cover design, uploading the cover and internal documents, ordering a proof, and approving the proof.  If the going is good, Epiphany could be ready within a week of me getting the final cover from Neil.

I am thinking this will happen in time for Christmas, but don't quote me on that.  :-)

Finally, I wanted to leave you with the 2011 Lazarus Playlist.  Many times, when a writer is working on a piece of fiction, he/she will have a song in mind that is playing while they're writing or reading.  For me, I envision the film version of Lazarus in my head and choose songs to match the most meaningful scenes.

It's fun.  Almost as fun as fantasy casting.

Without further ado, here is the Lazarus Playlist:

Make That Whistle Blow (Go-Go cover)

My Humps (Go-Go cover)

Poetry Man – Phoebe Snow

Slow Love – Prince

Don't Let Me Down – Randy Crawford

Wholly Holy – Marvin Gaye

You Better Run – Dorothy Love Coates

Mary Don't You Weep – Aretha Franklin

Eyes on the Prize – The Sojourners

Lily in the Valley – John P. Kee

I Wish U Heaven – Darren Hayes

Lazarus – Porcupine Tree

I will save my rationale for another blog post.  But for all the die-hard readers, know that the list is chronological to the events in the novel.  Check out the songs on YouTube, iTunes, or your favorite bootleg man.

Lazarus has risen again

As expected, the proof of Lazarus arrived in today's mail and it looked damn good to me, so I approved it for publication.

Yay

 

Lazarus proof – on its way

As you know, my second novel Covenant debuted last Friday, October 28.  :-)  Please click "Books" in the link above to purchase it.  In the case of my books, as well as any other novelist who publishes through Create Space, we get more royalties when you order from the CreateSpace website.  But if you insist, you can also purchase Covenant through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The re-release of Lazarus will, in all probability, be available by the end of this week.  It's even possible that it could be ready this evening!  It depends on whether I receive the proof today at work and whether the proof is to my satisfaction.  I made some minor changes to the interior and the cover is upgraded, so I just need to double check.

So far, my novels are more-or-less on target.  Epiphany will likely come out in December rather than November, only because me and Neil are working hard to create THE BEST cover in the Old Gold Soul brand.  If all goes well as we hope, this will be the first wrap-around cover that he makes – meaning art on the front as well as the back.

Happy National Novel Writing Month to all of you who are participating!  As you may know, NaNoWriMo is how I finally got over the hump of finishing Epiphany.  I had already had two chapters written for years but I wasn't motivated to finish it.  Thanks to the peer pressure of some great colleagues, I dove right into NaNoWriMo (unofficially) and just wrote every day.  I made my 50,000 word target with days to spare and I believe I finished the principal writing by the end of the year.

Even though I haven't participated in NaNoWriMo since then, it's still a great time of year for me.  So many novelists are getting it in!  It's like a month long holiday of work and creativity.  We "fast" in a sense – fasting from procrastination and other obstacles toward writing.  We use the holidays in November as big chunks of time available to us to write without distraction.  And if all goes well, we celebrate the end of the month with the accomplishment of knowing that when we really want to, we can write a whole damn book!

So if you know a novelist, wish them a happy NaNoWriMo and offer them some support:

Hey, I'm working on my dissertation at Panera.  Want to work on your novel with me?
Hey, I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving.  Would you like to stay at my place for four uninterrupted writing days!
Hey, I know you're busy this month, so I totally understand if you can't attend [random event].  Could I bring you a plate after it's over so you can focus on your novel?

Etc, etc.  Just be a good friend.

I hope you all are having a great week.  Be good to each other!

Where we at now

So there was a short list of like four things which needed to be improved to the covers of Lazarus and Covenant before they went to press.  People who own the original Lazarus, hold on to them because they are going to be collector's items.

Neil (my cover designer) and I made some decisions about the font we'd be using and we discontinued the use of the original Old Gold Soul logo.

The Epiphany cover is  still in the works.

All in all, if the cover review process keeps going this well, Lazarus and Covenant will be available to the public in less than two weeks.  Again, I can't pinpoint a date — just stay tuned.

 

—-

 

Yesterday wasn't a terrible day at work, but it wasn't my most productive, either.  I just had somewhat of an epiphany (see what I did there?) that I would really rather just be writing novels.  This is not exactly a new realization, but I don't think I've internalized that before as much as I do now.  So I am officially on my grind like never before.

If you've happened upon this page for the first time, please know that this right here is my official facebook page.   I really want people to "like" that instead of trying to friend my personal page.  I prefer facebook to twitter, however I've got an account there, too.  Please spread the word.

Well, I'm already late for work and I've got to show my apartment this evening to some potential roommates.  You all be good.  And if you can't be good, just be yourselves.  (With thanks to Jonathan White.)

The Proof for Covenant is here

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The proof for Covenant has arrived.  Wow.  I can't really explain what this moment means to me.

The re-release of Lazarus, the delayed debut of Covenant, and the debut of Epiphany….just a few weeks away.  Maybe even days.  I can't pinpoint it, so please don't ask for a date.  And for those who pre-ordered Covenant years ago, please especially don't ask when you're getting it.  I don't know.  I will be fulfilling those orders myself, by myself, and there's a few dozen people to contact, but hopefully everyone who pre-ordered will get it by Christmas.

But back to me.  Wow.  I wrote this.  Whether you traditionally published or self-published, I think every novelist understands the meaning of this moment.

 

 

I think folk got me messed up

Misconception #1:  I am single by choice.

A lot of people seem to think this of me.  It is only partially true.  I choose not to waste people's time when I am not interested in them.  Isn't that fair?  That's really all I ever wanted from people for the majority of my 20s.  Now, I date a lot less frequently.  And I am (by and large) fine with that.

But it's not my choice that people I like don't like me back.  That's just circumstance, right?

Took this young bul* out to a French restaurant this summer.  Thought the conversation went well.  Thought there was some interest there.  Haven't heard from him since.  Disappointed?  Hell yeah.  But I'm not going to weep in my Absolut over it.

Had this other bul earlier this year, even introduced him to some friends, had some good times.  I just get played left and right by old boy now.  Like seriously, just say you're not interested if it's all like that.

*I like saying "bul" because it reminds me of my prophyte from Philly who I miss sometimes.

It's not choice that the people I want to build with don't be feeling me like that.  Neither is it the "choice" of the dudes who have been into me don't get much of a chance.

I know me.  A dude who is feeling me might not have any earthly idea that I am crazy than a mofo.  And that's fine.

The difference is, maybe, that at the age of 32 in the year of 2011, I don't deal with my loneliness in the same way.  I'm not constantly depressed because I'm single.  Thanks to the work of Dr. Judith Orloff, I'm learning how to transform my negative emotions into positive ones.

 

Less sick, more stressed

I had a very fitful rest last night.  I kept waking up, tossing and turning.

I dreamed that I was at a very small Best Buy.  Freddy Kruger was there (!) and I wasn't afraid of him.  It was sorta like "Oh, Freddy.  You're a has-been.  Go away."

As I was leaving the Best Buy, which was adjacent to a hotel lobby, I ran into my friend Sharnell who was on her way to an Omega function with a bunch of other people.  She was wearing what seemed to be an Omega sweetheart tiki.  I gave her a hard time about it, but then let her pass.  Hell, clearly I was just jealous.  lol

I had a bad weekend because I was sick and because I found out my roommate would be leaving.  Today.  At 5pm.  So now I have to find somebody.  This is not what I needed in the final days of preparation for these novels dropping.

But the good news is I feel a lot less sick.  I think I "broke" whatever cold I had yesterday when I slept the day away.

I'm making a point to blog every day now, btw.  If I'm going to take over the world again, it starts here.

I don't want to work a traditional full-time job anymore, although I really, really like the one I have and do a good job at it.  I just think ultimately, who I was born to be is a novelist.

Not much else to say about it.