In Orlando...

Hey all,

I'm in Orlando right now at the Delta convention. I'm having a blast signing books, but I'm tired as heck. I pretty much stayed up last night writing and by the time I got tired, it was time to get up in the morning. I finished signing books at 6pm, got to the hotel and went to sleep. It's about midnight now and I figure I'll be out in an hour.

No News from the book front...

My agent tells me this is the summer, so the process will be more protracted than normal. So no word yet about my latest book proposal.

On The Bestsellers, the idea is to write about ten pages today. I gave it a rest the past two days, not looking at it. I'm going to go back through and do a little editing and check the dialogue. But I feel pretty confident about the second act, which in most scripts is the flabby act. It's the most important act because it's where the movie actually is, but most folks don't know how to write it.

Big Week...

So, my book proposal is out there and I think my agent will be sending it to more publishers. This weekend, he attended the Harlem Book Fair, so hopefully we got a few bites there.

I'm hoping to finish my latest version of The Bestsellers and then work on honing it next week. I'm going to the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority convention in Orlando this week, and I'll be signing books left and right. I haven't been able to do that in a while and although your feet throb and your hand goes numb, it'll be fun.

In the off hours, I'm going to work on the script. This weekend, I worked on the treatment for the Sloan/Sundance competition. That is due at the beginning of September, but before then, I'm going to see if I can pitch it. If the pitch goes nowhere, then I'll go for the $25,000 prize and write a script.

Next, I'm re-reading the various fiction projects I've stopped and started over the past two years. I'm a little torn between finishing a few of them, like SLAVERYLAND, and starting new and writing a series like I want. I think I'll finish SLAVERYLAND, which has been a three year ordeal to write.

On the lecture front, I need to finish scheduling schools. My goal is to schedule at least fifteen for the fall and then book fifteen for Black History Month. Right now, starting late, I have booked four schools. So I have a way to go.

On the brandGREEK front, I have a meeting with McDonalds on Tuesday. The head of US marketing is cool AKA sorority members, so she was more than happy to get me the meeting. Now that I'm not working at Iconoculture, I'm free to pull out my contacts.

Had a few meetings last week, nothing that really groundbreaking. I do keep getting meeting with people wanting to work with brandGREEK. I'll evaluate each out as they come.

The proposal is now out...

My agent has sent my proposal out today and early responses are VERY, VERY good. More later.

Fast turnaround...

My agent likes the proposal. I have some minor edits to take care of, which I'll probably do tonight or tomorrow. I might get some sleep tonight and pass on writing on and on until the break of dawn.

Sloan Award...

In film school, I was a finalist for a screenplay competition called the Sloan Award. This competition is unique in that it wants scripts with science as an integral part of the story. For a person who is as unscientific as myself, I'm still intrigued by movies like A Beautiful Mind.

On the UCLA film school list serve, I just read that there's another Sloan/Sundance competition dealing with science/script competition open to everyone and I'm going to enter. I'd previously said that I wouldn't enter anymore competitions. But this is going to be an exception. I've had an idea for a scientific script and I'm going to write a treatment for it.

Finished Book Proposal...

I just finished my book proposal. It's the third draft, so I hope it passes my agent's muster. This bad boy came out to 47 pages, with a 25 page sample chapter. I have to admit, I haven't written anything that felt like a book in a long time. At Icono, we wrote a ton of smaller articles. They had their own look and feel, and admittedly I'm not sure I ever got it, but there's nothing like writing a book. So that's done.

Tomorrow, I'm getting on the horn to try to fill up my lecture schedule. I'm off to a good start with three done and two more on the way. But now, it's about filling up weeks. Tomorrow, I'll start at 6am and call schools in North Carolina and New York. September is the month to fill first. I'm looking to book between twenty to thirty schools for the fall, and then fully book Black History Month. I really do have fun lecturing to college students. They reaffirm my regard for black youth.

On the writing front, I have two projects. One is a treatment about Harlem and the other is my script, The Bestsellers. I'll be writing each this week.

Back to lecturing...

Hey all,

I'm now back lecturing on the Divine Nine. On the right, you'll see my schedule for 2008-09. If I'm in your town, feel free to check me out.

Back Writing at 3:30 AM

And it feels so good! I've got Morning Joe on, even though they get on my nerve, and the words are just flowing. BTW, can gas get more expensive? Okay, more later.

Book proposal...

So earlier this year, I wrote a book proposal that didn't sell. It was a book about anti social sports fan behavior and like my agent thought, it landed like a thud on the desks of editors all over New York City. All in all, that proposal was a waste of time and it was a big mistake. There's a reason why you have an agent. Listen to what the hell they're saying. So...

I'm working on another proposal. This proposal deals with hip-hop and has been a topic that my agent has been urging me to write for the past two years. I resisted, mainly because after having been a managing editor of a hip-hop magazine, I was a bit burned out on the topic. But for some reason, the topic began to make sense. I could "see" the book. And as a result, I'm listening to my agent. We've gone through two different versions of the book proposal and I'm almost done with the third. Hopefully, this will satisfy my agent and he'll shop it next week.

Next...The endless saga of The Bestsellers.

Blog check...

Alright, just want to see who's still checking in or using RSS to keep up with the blog. I may start posting more, but I need to know who's out there. So holla at me if you still care about what I'm doing with my writing.