Re: Review Copies of Friends With Benefits...

Attention all book club owners. I love you very much and I will be happy to do interviews with your clubs, but I don't have review copies of Friends With Benefits. I'm posting this because I've had a number of book club owners contact me about getting free copies, and I don't have any. What I did have was a limited number of galleys, which have already been sent out. My publisher, Kensington Books, will make review copies available, but I have no clue to how they make their decisions. You have to contact them at 212-407-1500. Thanks!

Harlem Book Fair...

I will be at the Harlem Book Fair for one day (July 23rd) filming segments for BlackCafeLit.

Done...

It's 3:31 am, and I'm finally done with Project X. Fifteen days after my initial deadline, but done nonetheless. I feel completely drained, but that's not unusual. Now I need to make sure this thing actually makes sense before I send it to my agent. But I am done, and for that, I'm grateful.

To Steal is Genius...

My friend and fellow author Danyel from Naked Cartwheels, created a section that lets her readers know where she is signing. So I stole the idea. If you look on the right, you'll see where I'm signing or lecturing. Thanks D!!!

Two Chapters...

I have two chapters left for Project X. After that, I'm done. I'll go back through it over the next few weeks, refining it, editing it, etc. and then sending it off to my agent. But the manuscript will be done. I'm very tired.

Changed Final Word Count...

If you've noticed, I changed the final word count for Project X to 75,000 words. That's not what the final manuscript will actually total, but that's what it will total when I'm initially done. I still use as a barometer what my newspaper editor used to tell us when I'd ask about how long he wanted an assignment to be. He'd tell me to write it until it was done. And with Project X, I know that there's five thousand extra words in the manuscript, but not from this initial manuscript. However, when I get done, it'll be closer to 85,000 than 75,000.

The Bloody Shirt...

George Bush is going to have a speech at Ft. Bragg tomorrow, and I think we will look upon this speech as being the beginning of the end. Bush is hoping that the photo op of him surrounded by troops, looking patriotic as he can be, will boost his poll numbers. It won't. His little American flag will be shiny, and the cheers will be timed and thunderous. And the American people won't buy it. And I'm not talking just about blue state folks like myself. I'm also talking about folks in the red states.

One of the biggest mistakes the Republicans made was failing to realize that the big lie always comes back to haunt you, mainly because it can't be maintained. So as the poll numbers plummet, and Team Bush/Rove try to come up with a strategy to get them back to half way decent, they have to revert back to fearing the American people into submission (via 9/11 memories), dividing those who are true American (according to Rove: Republicans and conservatives) and those who would harbor the enemy (again, according to Rove: Democrats and liberals).

But it's not going to work this time. American service men and women without limbs are now moving back into society. And despite the media fixation on those military amputees who still feel patriotic about America (that helps the guilt the rest of us have for sending them into a war based on false pretenses. It's the same way the media always ask an elderly black person who has been horrendously wronged about whether they are still "bitter", hoping they say no.) there are thousands of American military who are crippled both physically and mentally and who aren't so cheery. And they will begin to affect policy, because flag waving isn't going to be enough.

So as you watch the President, and I will, make sure you understand that this is all political farce. Men and women are still dying, and we'll all look back at this as the moment when Bush's lies fell flat. It is the beginning of the end.

Obvious...

Well, it is obvious that I didn't finish Project X on June 25th. That sucks because things are starting to pile up. I have gone through the Project X manuscript however, and I've gotten started on the post-finished editing I will do before sending it to my agent. But I want to finish writing this by June 30th, because July 1st is the start of "my get in shape before touring program". Nobody wants to see an ice cream belly on an author, so I need to get my behind in the gym. (Full disclosure: Breyers Ice Cream is evil and I've just eaten a bowl.)

So when the Project X is done and sent off to the agent, I will focus almost exclusively on Friends With Benefits (for all of you The Making of a Bestseller readers) and BlackCafeLit. FWB has a ton of things, so I think most of you will find it fascinating how I put things together. BlackCafeLit is REALLY the killer ap and I can't wait to start shooting.

Again, do me a favor, I check stat counter so I can see where folks are coming from (we've got a few people from Finland!), but I'd like to see some names. So do me a favor and leave a comment, letting me know where you are located and what you do.

Today's Plan...

1. Play games of Yahoo Dominoes.

2. Write five thousand words for Project X

3. Solidify book signing dates with as many bookstores as possible.

4. Work on second script.

That is all.

Over 60,000...

I'm done for the night and I've got to stop eating Breyers Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream. For one, I'm getting dangerously close to getting really out of shape. I go on the road in September, so I've got to be in some sort of good shape. Because if you go on the road out of shape, you risk gaining even more because being on the road makes you gain lots of weight.

When I lecture at college campuses, I've had the worst diet known to man. Did you see that doc "SuperSize Me"? I lived five years of that. Flying into a city, driving five to eight hours to a campus, going to the lecture, ordering the Hardee's Thickburger and three Snickers at midnight. And then, sleeping all day in the hotel room. Repeat. I started my first lecture/booksigning tour at 205lbs in 2000. Right now, I'm 225lb. At 6'1", that's not too bad, meaning that I look cool in my clothes. But I feel like bloato when flying. So I need to get down to around 205-210lbs by September. I may be looking at my last bit of chocolate for the next sixty days. But like smokers who need a cig after a meal (or sex), I associate chocolate with writing. And I'm thinking that the endorphins released with chocolate allow me to write freely. Don't know, but that's my theory. So I've gotta dilemma. Grow to epic proportions, or kick the habit. I think I'll go get another bowl.

Project X very close to completion...

When I write books, there's a point in the process where the only hold up is how fast I can type. The dialogue is there. The storyline is so solid that I can become very dexterous with the twist and turns. That is where I'm at now with Project X. I gave myself a break and now it is flowing smoothly. I'm at 58,000 words and I'll probably write through the night, getting to over 60,000 words.

On the FWB front, didn't do much today. Will do more later.

Back To Work...

I'm back to work on Project X. I stopped working on it at a sex scene because I was tired. And writing a sex scene when tired gives you a tired sex scene. So I had to re-energize and then come back to it. Wrote it and now I'm on the downward slide for the rest of the book.

I did a little marketing work with FWB today. I solidified a booksigning at Houston's Shrine of the Black Madonna for Sept. 11. That's going to be a tricky one because that's a Sunday, and of course, the anniversary of 9/11. But I should have a pretty nice sized crowd. I'm looking at my September schedule, and it is going to be madness. For the past four years, I've been mainly on college campuses, so I haven't signed in bookstores for a while. So this is going to be fun again, meeting readers outside of my normal demo.

My wife has picked up the galley and is about to read FWB for the first time, so that'll be interesting.

Stop with Project X...On with FWB Marketing...

I'm stopping for the next couple of days with Project X, and starting some FWB marketing. One place where my books have done well is on college campuses, and I will be contacting some about carrying Friends With Benefits.

Galleys...

I received the galleys for Friends With Benefits today. Galleys are uncorrected proofs that sort of look like your book, but without the art work. The publisher sent about eight of them, and I will send them out to a select group of folks I know, hoping they'll give it a positive review. But ya never know.

Why?

In the strange and absurd...why does my son stop everything to sign-a-long with the NFL Sunday Ticket commercial? Doesn't he understand that he's about to start a lifelong addiction to football? Doesn't he know that this makes for unproductive Fall and Winter seasons? I wish I could stop him, but...I'm too busy reading my Sporting News NFL/College Football preview magazine.

Hustle & Flow...

I was having a discussion with my wife last night (by the way, today is our thirteen wedding anniversary), and we were talking about the Sundance sensation, Hustle & Flow. If you don't know, Hustle & Flow is produced by John Singleton with $3 mil of his own cash, and stars Terrence Howard, an actor who if he'd decided to marry Tom Cruise, would have been given the publicity he deserved. Instead, he simply does excellent work without the publicity machine less deserving actors receive.

Hustle & Flow is about a Memphis pimp who has a midlife crisis and ultimately decides to become a rapper. Badabing, people were clamoring to get attached to it, and eventually Singleton sold it for $9 mil, tripling his money. But here's my problem. The movie comes out in about two weeks. But don't care if it is good, I don't want anymore black pimp, hoes, and gangster films. I'm not going to write them, see them, or eventually produce them. To me, Hollywood and the music industry loves to view Black life as a sort of perverse fetish, where the deviant people live and survive, without the constraints of morals or common decency. White America, in particular, gets a perverse sense that they are seeing the "real" black community when they watch films like Hustle & Flow, just like they think they're getting a "ghetto commentary" when they listen to Jay-Z. That would be fine if there was some balance to what people saw of blacks on film. If you were able to see upper, middle, and lower class black on screen, then proper perspective could happen. But instead, there are only a few ways for black films to get on wide release, and celebrating perversion is one of them. I think Italians are another group that has a similar beef as black folks with the constant depictions of them as Mafia members.

So the question is what do we gain when a Hustle & Flow gets made, praised and released. Do we get an onslaught of similar films? Probably, because Hollywood loves to copy, no matter what the genre. And some will say that that provides ops for black writers. That's probably true too. But count me out. I look at writing as a beautiful choice I've been given, and a wonderful opportunity to provide art (and get paid as a commodity). But none of that is worth having work on my resume that makes me cringe, not because I knew how it would turn out after I started, but because I knew I shouldn't have taken the job in the first place. I want to build a legacy. And legacies come in two flavors: good and bad.

Productive Day...

I don't know how much I wrote today, but it was close to around three thousand words. Project X is moving right along. More later...

Grip it and rip it...

Absolutely rolling on Project X. Absolutely rolling. The way I'm writing, I think the first draft will be done by the end of the week, meeting my second deadline of June 25th. Target for tomorrow: 5000 words.

Project X...

Project X is rolling right along. My goal is to write about 12,000 words between yesterday and Monday. When I get in this mode, I tend to write constantly, with a few backyard SuperSoaker fights with my six year old as breaks. The story is perfectly outlined in my brain, the US Open is on the television, and the yard work is already complete. Plus, I have a single Heineken in the fridge that is calling me after a hard day of writing. Nothing like incentive.

Had a great meeting with MK about our documentary. We're moving right along. And it looks like I'll be filming BlackCafeLit segments at the Harlem Book Fair in July. NYC in July? Should be sweltering. I think I'm going to join my friend Paul Guyot in his quest to lose a few pounds. I'm going to be on camera, so I need to lose about ten pounds for the ten pounds the camera is going to put on. I think I can do it in four weeks.

ABC Disney Fellowship 2006

ABC Disney Fellowship 2006

For the sixteenth year year, The Walt Disney Studios and ABC Entertainment are continuing the search to discover and employ creative talent and to employ culturally and ethnically diverse writers. We are looking for up to fifteen writers to work full-time developing their craft at The Walt Disney Studios and ABC Entertainment.

We will be offering Fellowships in the feature film and television areas through The Walt Disney Studios and ABC Entertainment, respectively. No previous experience is necessary; however, writing samples are required. Fellows will each be provided a salary of $50,000 for a one-year period tentatively scheduled to begin in January 2006.

For consideration, the application, the Writing Fellowship Program Letter Agreement, writing sample, with proof of current registration with either Writers Guild of America, west or East and/or the Library of Congress, resume and biography, must be submitted together between May 3, 2005 and June 30, 2005 to the contact mailing address listed. There is no application fee.