Wordless Wednesday (ok..not really)

My Mom and my daughter in 1988.

This picture fascinates me because I am now at the same age (44) as my mother was when this photo was taken and I am not a wife, or the mother of four children and the grandmother of one. I am the mother of one child and the author of 12 books. In many aspects my mother and I are very different - and in many other aspects, we are very much the same....

Bernice L. McFadden

The Immortal History of Textual Colonialism

That was the original title of the op-ed piece which I wrote some months back and pitched to The Washington Post which was gracious enough to publish it in yesterdays issue as well as in The Herald Sun under their chosen title:

Black Writers in the Ghetto of the Publishing Industry's Making

Now, I knew exactly what I was opening myself up to as Author Carleen Brice had pioneered this particular frontier with her December 2008 essay Reading Too Much Into Race

I remember sitting here at my computer reading the numerous, nasty, racist comments that readers left in response to Carleen's essay - and and I felt as if I had been transported back to a time and place where someone of my color could not sit at a lunch counter or ride in the front of a city bus. It was frightening. Yesterday, I relived that moment.

While these readers felt their comments would disgrace and discredit my claims - they actually justified them:

"While I'm not familiar with Bernice's work, I can tell you why I don't read novels by most black authors. The fact is that many and probably most are not written in standard English. (I'm not talking about dialog from characters sprinkling in vernacular, I'm talking about the whole darn thing."


"What I would love to find, sometime, is a novel written by a black person which succeeds on character, plot and writing quality alone, and is not somewhat polemic-based. Maybe I have read such a book and just didn't know it - in which case, great! But as long as most black writers are depending on their race as a primary determinant for "success," however they choose to define that, they are competing on an uneven playing field of their own making."

"It is certainly racist, immoral and irresponsible to blame all of your troubles on someone else. Why is profiling bad when it's applied to blacks, but profiling is just fine and dandy when applied to whites as the imaginary source of problems for all troubles in the black community? Maybe more time spent in school and less time having children out of wedlock would fix a few of your issues. Maybe less time "celebrating diversity" and more time adhering to the rules of civilized society would fix a few of your problems. Maybe less time looking for scapegoats and more time being responsible members of civilized society would fix a few of your problems."


"What a bunch of slef serving pity me crap. Write books of universal interest and they will sell universally. Write ethnic tripe in a vernacular that is repulsive and filled with obscenity and it won't sell, at least not to me."


There were a number of comments that accused me of not being able to string a sentence together or being a racist, bitter and whiney ---- (shrugs shoulders) Someone even felt the need to remind me that Africans sold their bretheren off to European Slave Traders - what in the world does that have to do with the essay?

And this comment tickled me to no end:

"Perhaps she should consider joining the American writers section. Self segregation stimulates a segregated response. How about just being an American author rather than an African American author?"


I thought that's what I was trying to do???? LOL

In other news, Knitting and Sundries is giving away 3 copies of SUGAR!!!



Onward and Upward!

Bernice L. McFadden

ABSOLUT® BROOKLYN: The Video

ABSOLUT® BROOKLYN: The Video

Bernice L. McFadden

Authors Beware..

There is a scam going on that uses "legitimate conferences" and the offer of paid travel, lodging and a generous speaking fees to lure authors. For about 24 hours I was going to the UK in August, even though I was surprised that a Catholic organization would reach out to me -- a non-practicing Catholic. I ignored the very first gut feeling (is this for real?) I experienced when I first read the email. Luckily though I did some research and saved myself the humiliation and anger of being scammed.

Here is the email I received:

Dear Bernice McFadden,
>
> MAY THE PEACE OF THE LORD BE WITH YOU.
>
>
> I am REV. FR Thompson Smith from the Catholic Truth Society .We want
> you to be our guest speaker in this year THIRD EVANGELIUM CONFERENCE
> 2010,which will take place here in UNITED KINGDOM. We went through your
> remarkable profile on /www.bernicemcfadden.com and we must say
> its up to standard and we will be very ecstatic to have such
> connessiur charisma and outstanding personality in our mist for these
> wonderful gathering. We want to officially inform you that the date of
> the event is schedule for 6TH - 8TH of August 2010.
>
>
> ADDRESS:
> The Oratory School
> Woodcote Reading
> Berkshire RG8 0PJ
>
> TOPIC: BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIP
>
> DURATION OF SPEECH: 1 HOUR FOR 3DAY SESSION
>
> AUDIENCE:2500
>
> AGE LIMIT:18/35
>
> TELEPHONE:(+44 702 402 4745)
>
> FAX: (07526 908741)
>
> WEBSITE:evangelium.co.uk
>
> We want you to confirm your booking, so we can commence on sending you
> a formal letter of invitation and contract agreement,We will be
> responsible for your hotel accomodation, airline ticket and feeding
> including speaking fee. Feel free to call or email me or write us
> directly (Evangelium, PO Box 28, Tenby SA69 9ZB) for more update.You
> can browse through our website site link on
> (http://evangelium.co.uk/conference.php) for broad information and
> some other confirmed scheduled speakers for the event.
>
> We strongly believe we serve the lord of possibilities and we hope
> with your multi talented speech more life will come close to our LORD.
>
> REV.FR Thompson Smith
> THIRD EVANGELIUM CONFERENCE 2010
> Sharing the riches of our Catholic Faith


I researched the conference and it was legit. So I emailed back and said "Sure I would love to come."


I then received an "Official Letter of Invitation" as well as a "Contract"








LETTER OF INVITATION

The Catholic Truth Society officially invites Bernice McFadden to be our Guest Speaker at the THIRD EVANGELIUM CONFERENCE coming up here in London United Kingdom.


Location Address
The Oratory School
Woodcote Reading
Berkshire RG8 0PJ
Date: 6th – 8th August 2010

For: CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY
TAX ID NO: _ 25048
Name: REV. FR THOMPSON SMITH
Contact Person

Date: 10 of June 2010
SIGNATURE






CONTRACT AGREEMENT

This letter of Agreement is made and entered into between Bernice McFadden (hereinafter referred to as the” Speaker”) (Herein referred to as the “Presenter”) REV. FR THOMPSON SMITH organization whose name is CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, LONDON UNITED KINGDOM.

The contact person for matters of this agreement is REV. FR THOMPSON SMITH who will act as agent for the presenter

ENGAGEMENT: Guest Speaker for EVANGELIUM CONFERENCE 2010
CONFERENCE THEME: “WE HAVE SET OUR HOPE ON THE LIVING GOD”
Host: CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY
Contact: REV. FR THOMPSON SMITH
Speaker: Bernice McFadden
Function: EVANGELIUM CONFERENCE 2010
Appearance Date(s): 08/06/2010 to 08/08/2010

Location: The Oratory School
Woodcote Reading
Berkshire RG8 0PJ
On-Site Contact: REV. FR THOMPSON SMITH
Audience Size / Demographics: 2500 /
Title of Presentation: BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
Time Table / Duration:
August 6th, 2010 – approximately ____________8:30pm / 9:30pm
August 7th, 2010 – approximately ____________ 8pm / 9pm
August 8th, 2010 – approximately ____________ 7pm / 8 pm

Any additions or revisions to the timetable must be requested and approved in writing.

Recommended Attire: Business / Business Casual

Travel Expense: Presenter will provide business class airfare

UK Work Permit: to be taken care of by Speaker


Presenter will provide ground transportation to and from the airport in London.

Hotel: King-size bed, non-smoking room with late arrival guaranteed PLUS meals
.
Accommodations: LONDON HILTON HOTEL for 4nights – 08/05/2010 to
08/09/2010 inclusive

PAYMENT TERMS:

Payable to: speaker

Speaking Fee: 8,500.00 (USD) – plus expenses as outlined above
Deposit Amount: $ 5,250.00 (USD) Deposit due upon Procurement of UK Work Permit and other relevant travel documents.

Balance Amount: $ 3,250.00 (USD)
Fee Notes: Funds will be paid via Money Gram wire transfer upon conclusion of contract.

PLEASE NOTE: The first part payment of your speaking fee will be wired to you as soon as you obtain your relevant travel documents and work permit.

This is to ensure readiness on your part. The management doesn’t want to undergo any loss for paying speakers travel documents due to act of insubordination from previous speakers.

The management has hereby laid down strict rules and regulations for speakers to abide by in order to ensure an uninterrupted cordial preparation for this event.
Any speakers who refuse to abide by these principles will forfeit his/her deposit and be terminated from contract.

We promise to reimburse what ever expenses our Speaker spends for the issuance of travel documents.

IN WITNESS THEREOF the Speaker and the Presenter have examined the forgoing provisions and have executed this agreement as of the dates shown below

Speaker Name: Bernice McFadden

Speaker Signature__________________

Presenter: REV. FR THOMPSON SMITH

Date: 10th of June 2010
Signature


Now here is where they screw up:

You are advised by the Event Organizing committee to immediately
contact the BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION to procure your UK Work Permit as
soon as possible.

This will enable us to proceed with all arrangements to welcome you
here in London. Contact the British High Commission officer
information below.

BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION OFFICIAL

Name: Dr Wilshire Brooklyn

Email: Wilshirebrooklynbhcofficial@gmail.com


Yeah OK - The BHCO's name is Brooklyn Wilshire and he has a Gmail account? This information can be easily confirmed with a Google search or a simple phone call to Washington,DC where the BHC is located!

I thought, okay -- lemme play along so I sent an email to Brooklyn Wilshire and this was the response:

ATTENTION CLIENT,

I Acknowledged the receipt of your mail. I understood all the
content. Without any waste of time and due to short time you have left
to proceed with the issuance of these important documents.I will
therefore embark upon you obtaining a second tier UK WORK PERMIT.
These class of work permit is for employee who falls under the
category of religious activities and intends to impact knowledge and
technical know-how to the citizens of Great Britain. Pertaining to the
urgency and speedy alacrity of these project at hand,i will proceed to
the UK BORDER AGENCY to get you all necessary documents.

You are advised to immediately Provide me with the listed requirements.

1. Letter of Invitation
2. One passport photograph
3. UK Work Permit fees 290pounds (424.56 USD)
4. Issued Date and Expiry date of International Passport.
5. Date of Birth (D.O.B)

I await the listed information to proceed to get you the documents as
soon as possible. Note without you providing these requirements I
cannot proceed to get you these documents. If i receive all
information today i will proceed to the UK Border Agency to get you
your documents . Note you can send all documents through email
attachment. You can send Permit fees through Western Union or Money Gram to my
name DR Wilshire Brooklyn, LONDON UNITED KINGDOM. POSTCODE W1P 9RE
Make sure you attach the payment slip for record purposes.

In your service
DR Wilshire Brooklyn
British High Commission official


Apparently these criminals have been running this game for quite sometime here is the link to an entire chat board devoted to the problem.


Please pass this information along to a writer you love...

Bernice L. McFadden

Interview with National Bestselling Author: Joshilyn Jackson

As you know, I am all about "each one, help one" - this is what makes the world go 'round and this is something that is needed in the writing community. A few months back I reached out to Joshilyn and she happily obliged and now I am very happily returning the favor. Her latest novel: Backseat Saints will be released on June 8th, but already she has received 19 glowing reviews on Amazon.com!

Can you talk a little about the significance of your title and how you came up with it?

Backseat Saints begins when a gypsy tells Rose May Lolley that her beautiful, abusive husband is going to kill her...unless she kills him first. Rose is a minor character from my first novel, gods in Alabama, but I wouldn’t call this book a sequel. It is a companion book that runs on the same timeline. I wanted to the title to reflect that connection, so I used the word saints to hark back to the word god.

There are all kinds of Saints in this book---literal and figurative. The Saint Cecilias are a rescue group that helps women escape abusive marriages. Rose May’s friend, Mrs. Fancy is one of those every day saints who bless us with muffins and love and who we often undervalue. Rose is catholic, like Flannery O’Connor. In the rural south, this makes you an outsider, and so I wanted the title to speak to that. And as a Catholic, she prays to the proper saints depending on her circumstances. Another character, Mirabelle, practices a sort of hybrid New Age voodoo Catholicism, where Saints are used to invoke magic.
Also, to be honest, I just like the word combo. Backseat Saints----it sounds like the right kind of dirty for this book.

Thousands of women find themselves in situations much like your main character in 'Backseat Saints.' What led to your decision to focus on the important issue of domestic violence?

Honestly? I didn’t. Books, for me, come from characters and voices. I didn’t decide to write about an issue. I felt compelled to write about Rose Mae, and I knew Rose’s history from gods in Alabama. I knew that like many real women in this situation, she had been raised thinking, “This is what men are like, this is what marriage looks like.” So in order to write about her, I had to deal with Rose’s long standing and extremely self-destructive love affair with violence. I was, quite frankly, intimidated by the subject matter, but I loved her too much to back away. She was so compelling to me. We see a few flashbacks of her as young girl in my first novel, wafting about, bruised and lost, and yet somehow, when she appears ten years later, she has become God’s dirtiest messenger angel. She’s fierce, funny, pointy, and relentless. I wondered how she had managed to emerge from her own history with so much self and so much will and so much damnable, unbreakable hope. I wanted to live in her shoes and imagine her life and let her speak. I wanted to find the story behind the transformation we see but don’t understand in gods in Alabama. I am always, always, as a writer, interested in people who change---in people who try to live the end results of seeking redemption.

You blog, too, over at Faster Than Kudzu. Why do you blog and does it feed you or take energy from you? Is there a downside?

I love blogging because it gets my “writing brain” revved up and going, and because it’s fun. I don’t revise or craft the way I do with novels. It’s purely off the cuff. Also, it lets me connect with readers in a really personal, almost illicit way.

I’m a “reader response” girl; I think a novel is a conversation between a book itself and an individual reader. Whether or not a particular book speaks to a reader depends as much on what the reader brings to the conversation as it does on the book itself. That’s why books that leave us cold at one age can blow our minds ten years later, even though the book is static. The reader is the only moving part, and if reading is a conversation, then it is one where the author of the book has no place. The blog changes that dynamic in some ways----I can have conversations with people who have met my imaginary friends and who will gossip with me about them.

As D.H. Lawrence said, “Trust the art, not the artist,” and he’s dead right. So this contact with readers can feel a little naughty. Like eavesdropping on a conversation that interests me fiercely but is truly none of my business. There’s a downside to being so available sometimes. I’ve had some runs with The Big Crazy; there’s a woman in Florida who thinks to this day I know where her missing husband’s body is hidden because of one of my plot twists. Yikes. But this is the exception, not the rule.

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson lives in Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. Her debut, gods in Alabama, won SIBA's 2005 Novel of the year Award and was a #1 BookSense pick. Jackson won Georgia Author of the Year for her second novel, Between, Georgia, which also a #1 BookSense pick, making Jackson the first author in BookSense history to receive #1 status in back to back years. Her third novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, was a Break Out book at Target and has been shortlisted for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. All three books were chosen for the Books-A-Million Book Club. 

Bernice L. McFadden