And so it begins…

I went in today to my publisher, Simon and Schuster (Atria) to tape a video for their website, book clubs, bloggers, etc. It was a Q & A with me looking into a camera–operated by the lovely Peter who made the whole process less anxiety provoking, almost fun. My publicist, Kathryn Santora, was off camera asking me questions about my upcoming book. I was nervous going in, not really knowing what to expect, but knowing I had to be on-camera aka “on” and dressed up, well not fancy but out of my usual yoga pants and whatever sweater I haven’t worn too much that week, braided hair and zero makeup. I do my writing at home and most days look like, well, not fixed up. Other than my husband and son, the only mammal I see all day, everyday is my dog Charlie. He’s not judgemental and he’s blind.

Here’s a picture of all the new makeup I bought for this publicity train, which is churning, just about pulling away from the station.

My book, Welcome to My Breakdown, is coming out April 21. There will be a hometown book launch party sponsored by the African-American Cultural Committee at the Montclair Art Museum on that day, 6-8pm. Admission is free, but you gotta buy a book. Books will be sold by our amazing independent bookstore, Watchung Booksellers.

I’ll be at the main branch of Newark Public Library @5pm on April 22nd.

April 23rd I’m in Brooklyn @ the Akwaaba Mansion. Details to come.

April 27th @ the Barnes and Noble in New York, Upper West Side, 7-8pm.

April 28th @ the Barnes and Noble in Springfield, N.J., 7-8pm.

May 7th @ Community Books in Brooklyn–Park Slope, 6-8pm.

I’ll be in Philly, D.C. and will let you know where and when. I’m Atlanta in August for the National Black Book Club convention.

May 20 @ NJPAC in downtown Newark

More event postings to come.

I look forward to seeing you!

Losing Everything

I exaggerate.

I don’t mean that I’ve lost everything, I lost everything on my computer two weeks and two days ago. My computer’s hard drive collapsed, broke, fell apart, stopped working. Everything that I’ve written over the last six or seven years is on that hard drive. Did I have a backup? Really, do you have to ask that? I’m so barely computer literate that I thought I was backing up because I was hitting the save button; also I have something called a Time Capsule, which an Apple guy sold me over the phone years ago, assuring me that the capsule would save everything. I thought all I had to do was plug it in.

So, now I’m coming out of my mourning period and getting over the idea that a) I can’t afford the thousands to reconstruct the hard drive and b) I don’t even remember all of what was on it.

I’m moving forward. I’m going to use my first generation iPad when the keyboard that I just ordered arrives and eventually I’ll haul myself back to an Apple store and buy a new laptop and a backup whatever that thing is called.

The good news is that I’d emailed my book to my agent, Faith, months ago. The REALLY GOOD NEWS is that the book has been sold. Welcome to My Breakdown will be published by Atria Books in May 2014.

I’d gotten the news about my book and about Baldwin getting accepted to Sarah Lawrence within the same week. It was a great three days.

Then I got sick and lost my voice for a week, we got hit with a giant tax bill, dropped…nope, I’m not going to start enumerating here for fear of tempting some Murphy’s Law god to come back around to pay me another visit, or three.

I’m really just telling you all this computer stuff as a way of explaining why I haven’t been blogging.

Keep checking though. I’m borrowing Baldwin’s laptop for the few moments she lets me pry it out of her hands.

Soon I’ll be up and running again, this time with a backup.