FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT WAS RIGHT! BUT THAT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE IS PRETTY FRIGHTENING TOO

Well, now that both 2016 Presidential Conventions are over, I can either build a bunker or believe the Universe is a benevolent place. The former is what Donald J. Trump wants Americans to believe; the second is what Hillary Rodham Clinton wants you to believe. I prefer the latter. Yes. I’m with her. So, if that is distasteful to you. You can close the page and get off my damned lawn now!

If you are still on the lawn, hold on. The sentiments of Mister Trump, and his ilk (and what an ilk it is), are the manifestation of all that has been festering under the skin of a LARGE number of ‘Muricans since the Civil Rights Movement. Somehow, people demanding being treated like any other human being, angers certain other people.

I am HAPPY that my grandparents and my parents are DEAD! Why? Because the fanning of the flames of bigotry, hatred, suspicion, any other nasty-assed word one can think of, by that con artist/madman, would have KILLED them were they alive.

At first, I could not believe this fool was getting as far as he was in the polls. Then he became the front runner. And now he is the RETHUGLICAN nominee for President. Scottie beam me up!

But isn’t that what happens? Isn’t The Donald the kind of person the inadequate, the ill-informed, and the fearful look to, to tell them all their short-comings are SOMEBODY ELSE’S fault? Nothing says “OPPORTUNIST” more than a con man coming to the fore to validate the fears of weak minds. It is music to the tiny ears attached to their tiny heads.

And discord to the ears of the sane.

News outlets have danced around describing this man. I will not. Trump is racist, xenophobic, sexist and any other -ist or -ic one can think of. He is everything bad about capitalism at its best. But that ilk who love him think this snake-oil salesman can “save them.” From what is what I’d like to know. They can’t know anything about his business acumen other than his TV show where he yells, “You’re fired!” For the record, his business track record ain’t the best. He is the typical rich azzhole who runs up bills and runs out on creditors. Ask the people of Atlantic City or any other creditor he has stiffed. Which is why I find it ironic the working class adore this cretin. This man is clueless about working people. He is also a big, fat liar when it comes to immigration and illegal immigrants. His enterprises RUN on hiring the very people he slanders. What a piece of work. For a man who loathes immigrants he sure likes to marry them. Madams Trump 1 and 3 certainly are.

And as far as him loving “the Blacks and them loving him? (And Omarosa does not count. She’s been angling for a job since her stint on “The Apprentice” ended.) Anyway, do “the Blacks” backing him know, especially the monied entertainers he takes selfies with, he had a policy where he would NOT rent or sell his residential properties to them for decades? He’s the equivalent of the White guy who will do a minority chick but won’t bring her around his friends or family.

He is a product of the times and they are far from post-racial. There are folk who lost their shyte when President Obama won and haven’t found it yet. So Toupee Fiasco is their Great White Hope. It’s truly scary to see so many unhinged following this troll. 

Oookay, ‘Murica. Keep hitchin’ your caboose to that Hate Train. Keep hatin’ that neighbor whose skin is darker than yours, or prays in the direction of Mecca, or is Mr. and Mr. Smith/Mrs. And Mrs. Smith or any combination thereof, or who doesn’t celebrate Xmas because they are non-Christian or worship Satan. Keep right on hatin’ until you need their help one day when your power is out, or your hurt kid needs a ride to the ER, or when that tree in your front yard that is felled by a storm is resting on your roof. Keep hatin’ until that is all you have to comfort you.

You know I rant from time to time on the nuttiness in the romance publishing business. I am sure folk would like me to move on. But you know what? The ish swirling around in the romance biz is a just a microcosm of what’s going on in the U. S. It all comes down to fear. A certain set of writers who fear the loss of first-always access to reading audiences through established avenues. They fear having to share with “others” because just maybe that author might have a new idea. They fear not being that writer with the new idea even though the last original thought one of these “top” authors had was when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and they stole that from someone. And gatekeepers fear the imagined loss of an industry standard as to what a romance novelist should look like and who should be writing it and for whom. They fear the breaking of romance’s “glass ceiling” by the other. The industry fears newcomers with varied views on what romance writing is.

Fear, fear, fear, fear.

Yes, the members of “The Queens of Proper and Right Romance Club” would be right at home in The Donald’s camp. In fact, a certain biggie is a well-known “birther.”

And you Bernie Sanders supporters. I know. I get it. You love him. He was the face of your movement. But he lost. And you will not let it go. Yeah, keep your dream alive for the future, but for now the competition is OVER! You wanna hang with an old guy? Go visit that Grandpa you probably don’t visit enough. You must be the offspring of my fellow Baby-Boomers who believed that every child should get a ribbon in a competition. I feel sorry because your parents conned you too. There is NO ribbon for 67^th place. There is NO ribbon for showing up like you are SUPPOSED TO. No. No. No. If that were the case, it would cheapen everything. So, stop. You lost. You get no ribbon. Go home and regroup and organize for down the road. And please, I beg of you, do not vote for The Donald out of spite. If you did, it would prove my point that you have not yet earned the right to sit at the grown-up table.

What is with this lament that the country does not know Hillary? The woman has been around in public service for 4 decades. Just because she hasn’t been in YOUR decade, or doesn’t post pics of her breakfast bagel on the ‘Gram, does not mean she just fell from the sky. To find out more, Google her like you do everything else you don’t feel like retaining.

In closing, I know Mrs. Clinton is not a perfect choice. I look at it this way. Hillary may be a harsh, cold, windy, rainstorm mixed with hail but Trump is an effin Category 5 hurricane. The Donald will shelter his rich friends, but tear the roof off your trailer, rip you a new one and smile while he does it. He cares for no one. Not the Republican party, nor his "ilk."

Wake up the eff up, "Real 'Murica." 

DEAR INDULGED, CONFLICTED MAINSTREAM READING AUDIENCE

I don’t know how to say this. I have learned to pull back on my blunt Sagittarian manner. Just a tad, mind you as I am not in the business of muzzling myself to make folk comfy.  If one wants to dull the sting of life, my dear departed grandfather used to say: “What other people think of you is none of your business.” So if one knows one is that sensitive, one should not ask others their opinion about their person. Me? I say, “Like it counts?”  

As I have said before, I do not get into debates on Facebook or Twitter or any of those anything-but-social outlets. Oh I do monitor them to gauge the level of shiggety that passes for intelligent discourse. Especially in matters pertaining to the romance writing business. There is the never-ending fight for authors of color in romance to get their stories heard, seen and respected by the industry. By “mainstream” authors and truly by “mainstream” readers by trying to impress upon them that they should actually PAY for AOCs’ work as opposed to searching that book the reader wants to read but won’t anti up for. You know. The shoppers dining at the table of the “book sharing” services where “multicultural” or “IR” bundles are offered like bunches of broccoli to the curious but cheap reader. Phew! That was a long sentence. But I’m not done. Yes, “bundles” offered like produce to the “curious” who want that material because it’s a break from reading about “Lady Gwyneth” or “Duke Oberon” BUT they think PAYING for it is so, so, so…beneath them. Because they want to see what “multicultural” is like when written by a real person of color instead of the imposters, but the readers do not want to shell out for it. A number of these readers save their money to BUY what they call REAL stories from their tried-and-true REAL writers who are the ones BORING them to pieces with that 500^th book set in a salon. But to have that ennui assuaged, these same readers WLL NOT PAY for it, and most importantly DO NOT THINK the books that could lift them out of that ennui are worth PAYING for. Well, guess what? I AIN’T HERE FOR THAT!

There is a second part to this nonsense. But isn’t it always? On a Facebook account of an AOC (author of color) I monitor, I have seen readers, and I know they are “mainstream” readers leaving this particular CLUELESS comment regularly. The readers want her to “cut out her references to racial conflict in her books because we are all one race and should all be colorblind.” Oh, and it “offends them.” Deliver me from the Colorblind Contingent! Oh, and before I forget. They want her to NOT DESCRIBE the non-White heroine so much.

Well bless us everyone. What cojones!

You cannot have a TRUE heroine of color without the color. Ya can't have it both ways. Just sayin.'

I was, am, speechless. Who do these folk believe they are? Sorry. All I can picture are chicks, living in gated communities or culs-de-sac, who are used to having their way, and being the center of the Universe. I mean how dare anyone not flaxen of hair or blue of eye be thought beautiful! I’m quite sure the chicks think diversity is when they get the van-choc swirl on one cone at the local Dairy Queen. Anyway, the author, who’d been the recipient of the comments said, “Thanks.” She also said she intended to ramp up the level of conflict, and description, a lot more so said readers would never pick up one of her books again. LOL. LOL. LOL.

I recount this because these objections are ludicrous. Especially when you have authors penning “plantation romances” and “concentration camp romances” where the enslaved or internees ADORE their captors. Complain about that ratchet ish! ROMANCES where the authors defend their work by saying, “it’s the times! Every situation is different. It could have happened!” Oh man. I guess it does exist in… alternate history? Unreal history? Re-written history to spin a pretty story where LOVE conquers all? A pretty story where the “mainstream” reader can feel good about how well the author glossed over, or made palatable, the horror of an aspect of a real people’s real history?  Well, guess what? I AIN’T HERE FOR THAT!

What is with this revisionist history when it comes to writing a historical with a cast including non-White characters? Are these authors too chicken to show that Duke Such-and-Such gets his money from the sweat of slaves working his sugar cane plantation in the West Indies? Look, the sugar for all that tea everybody is swilling in those salons comes with a hefty price. I mean the fact that a number of romance authors keep rehashing the Regency and never mention the folk who live beyond the ton is beyond me. You want something different? Find an author NOT writing about how “dreadfully awful it is that spinster Eleanor can't make a decent pot of tea and is too homely to get a man.” Oh wait. I guess the recent improvement on that type of historical is the “new” type of historical out now. The type where the alleged spinster dons a corset, high-heeled boots, frilly black stockings and brandishes a red riding crop while serving tea to the man she wants? Even with the watered-own BDSM angle, it’s still the same story. Same scenery. Same titled people. Same, same, same.

Well, this writer is here to warn you. I’ve written another historical. With Black folk. It will be out around Thanksgiving. The heroine is African. She is NOT a slave or a concubine or a princess. She is an aristocrat though. And guess what? SHE LOVES HERSELF! NO SELF-HATRED TO BE FOUND! Quelle horreur! It’s set in 16^th century France. Cultures collide in it and there WILL BE racial conflict. It is impossible to pen a historical anything with black characters and not have racial conflict. Get real, people. Why omit or lie about it? They, we, were not welcome most places and folks let them, us, know it. And, fair warning! My heroine will be lovingly described in all her dark beauty just like all the pale beauties are in the other books.

Trust and believe.

I write SciFi romance and I write historical romance with all the colors in the crayon box and with all the heartache humanity inflicts upon one another. But not for the titillation factor!

You want a tale tied only in a pretty bow? Look elsewhere. It’s not my job to make you feel comfortable. You want a damned good story that just might rub you the wrong way? You're in the right place.

POWER returns!

Tonight another of my guilty pleasures returns to TV for another season. POWER on Starz is back! The gorgeous Omari Hardwick helms the tale of ex-drug dealer (really?) James "Ghost" St. Patrick, turned night club owner who wants to stay out of the drug trade. BUT like all roads to Hell paved with good intentions, he will get sidetracked. Can we say Michael Corleone?

This gem, produced by 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson), is what "EMPIRE" can't be on FOX. No matter. I love them both for what they are. Vehicles for Black talent and collaboration with others.

Tune in tonight to POWER on Starz at 9E/P. The episode is called "Ghost must die."

Somehow, I don't think so.

STILL STAR CROSSED - Another show with a black, female main character. Will she be given the shaft like Abby Mills of "Sleepy Hollow?"

Appears Miz Shonda is doin' it again. Her newest offering on ABC TV will be a series called Still Star Crossed. Adapted from the book of the same name, it is being touted as a re-do of  Romeo and Juliet with a black heroine. Should have the purists sweatin,' and folks who haven't cracked a book in years, reading. Don't know all the specifics. All I can ask is, please don't let this be dysfunctional Fitz, Jake and Liv in old clothes.

It's set for Fall on ABC

There I go stirring up ish again

YO. YO. YO. That's heads up in Philly Speak. Not "I" in Spanish. Anyhoo, now that I have your attention, go read my highlighted appearance in Heather Massery's post on the Heroes and Heartbreakers website. It's part of a loooonger interview to be seen in issue 12 of the SciFi Romance Quarterly later this summer.

This short version is a snippet of the hard truth folk in the industry do not like to face. Not me, I was raised to face my fears and own my shyte. So, if you ain't the scares-easily, sensitive type, read this article and then wait for the OTHER big shoe to drop in the full interview later this fall

http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2016/07/thank-heaven-for-sci-fis-diverse-romance-creators

BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN. AGAIN!

THE QUEEN HAS DONE IT AGAIN! AND AS USUAL, THE MEDIA YAWNED. SHAME ON YOU PEOPLE. THIS WOMAN IS A ONE-OF-A-KIND, ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME, GRADE A, FIRST CLASS ATHLETE AND YOU DISRESPECT HER EVERY FREAKIN' TIME SHE SHOWS YOU! And tell me how there is NO BIAS in reporting the news.

Yeah. And on that note, pst! pst! I gotta a slightly-used bridge to sell ya...

For your listening pleasure...

Two of the smoothest crooners have new music out. Finally. I have waited soooooooo long for MAXWELL to put out another album (ALBUM? Oh well. That dates me but so what? In 20 years, another generation will laugh at STREAMING). Anyhoo, his newest, blackSUMMERS’night was worth the wait. It was released (dropped?) July 1^st. Gorgeous summer music from a gorgeous man with a gorgeous soul. Loved him since “URBAN HANG SUITE.” AAAh!

The next one is WILL DOWNING. On par with the late LUTHER VANDROSS. But seriously, it’s not fair to Mr. Downing. He has his own style and sound. Silky, dreamy, smooth. Like a Werther’s caramel. His latest comes Friday July 8^th and is titled BLACK PEARLS. It’s tribute to black female R-n-B singers that he admires. Some selections include covers of songs sung by Deniece Williams, Angela Winbush, Brenda Russell, Phyllis Hyman, etc. I’m in. I heard his take on Ms. Hyman’s “MEET ME ON THE MOON’ and I’m smitten. Anyone who knows me, knows I adored that  lady’s voice and he does the song justice.

So, if you are looking for some smooth sounds for summer or just love “OLD SCHOOL” style, give these offerings a try.