In Gratitude: Toni Morrison

I have only read two Toni Morrison novels from cover to cover: The Bluest Eye and Beloved. I cannot give the beat-by-beat plot points of either work because I read them so long ago. At least, that’s the articulable answer. The inarticulable answer is I don’t believe I...

On Reading: Loving the Mess We Are

Before I ever became an author, I was a reader first; which means before I wrote characters wrestling with the questions I, myself, have, I was looking for books that did the same. When I came across Courtney Milan’s Cyclone series, I was drawn to the stories...

Of Dreams and Diasporas—Celebrating King

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. celebrated his very last birthday, so it seems fitting that this year his holiday falls on his actual birthday. That being said, I’m sure Dr. King is rolling over in his grave at where this country has gone since his...

Examining My Authoring: Politics and Romance

I’m a week out from the BookBaby Independent Authors Conference and I have been thinking long and hard about what I write, why I write, and for whom I write. It’s been a fraught thought process, one that has forced me to confront something I’d known for a while but...