A Black History Moment with Lutishia Lovely

Why Black History Is Important To Me…

I grew up in a very small, mostly White town in John Brown country, Kansas. When I was in high school and thinking about college and life after graduation, my guidance counsellor suggested I become a secretary. This because I performed excellently in classes such as English and typing, and because I was good with words. You see, this well-meaning white man didn’t know about the prolific history of the Black pen, the hieroglyphics of Egypt, the scrolls of my fore bearers nor the ingenious creativity of the griot tongue. I don’t think he’d read Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, The Complete Narrative of Sojourner Truth or any of Phyllis Wheatley’s poems. I’d bet my next book deal that he never heard of, much less read Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s The Party.

He was probably just not familiar with Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Phillip Randolph, Chandler Owen or Marcus Garvey. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d never read Ebony, Jet, Black Enterprise and surely not Essence Magazine. If he were familiar with any of these people and/or publications, then perhaps he would have encouraged me to become a journalist or publisher.

I doubt he knew much about the Harlem Rennaissance: Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston and James Weldon Johnson. It’s unfortunate, but he probably missed the bliss of seeing the Youngers claim their new home in the Lorraine Hansberry classic: Raisin In The Sun.

But thanks to my parents, grand-parents, my own questions of “who am I” and a belief that there was life outside this narrow-minded, Podunk town, I knew about these gems of our culture along with Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, and why Colored Girls Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enough. I knew about these brilliant minds and many, many more.

So while this well-meaning White man looked at me and saw a secretary, an honorable profession to be sure, I looked at me and saw a poet, an actor, a playwright and an int’l best-selling author. Knowing my history, created this present moment, and propels my future. This is why Black History is important to me.

What Black History Means To Me
The road to freedom, to being truly alive
Well lets start with this...it’s not the 10 or the 60 or the I-95
Its not a path or a freeway one can physically travel
That brings peace to the soul, and helps mysteries unravel

Before beginning , the first step is defining “free”
That answer may be different for you than it is for me
So just as a point of reference, for various meanings the word carries
I looked - in the book - called the dictionary

Inside was a plethora of delicious choices
As many blurbs to define the word as this station has voices
Enjoying personal rights or liberty,
(Translated: if u’se ain’t a slave, then u’se is free)
Exempt from external authority, independent, no restrictions
“I can do what the hell I want” is another way to put this description

Clear of obstacles, no judgment…choices!
And for Lutishia’s translation, let’s see
Uh, how bout this, why don’t you do you, and then let me do me

I think that freedom is running naked, and not caring who sees it
Freedom is writing what I want and not caring who reads it
It’s in choosing to be kind, instead of having to be right
It’s being friends with the person that nobody else likes

And when you’re the one they’re hatin’
And I don’t mean to be crass
But freedom is the ability to say
Kiss my _______ !

To me free means open, unimpeded, like flowing water without a dam
Freedom is simply the ability to be who I am
Even when I’m in a different geographical dimension
Even when we share a bunch of different opinions
Even when ones religion is different from the other, even when everybody is a different color
Even when we butt heads on a political situation, or share a different view or our sexual orientation

Freedom is recognizing self outside of time and space
Seeing all of us as coming from and going to same place
Freedom is listening to Spirit, so below as above
Freedom is knowing we’re all One, Freedom is love

The road to freedom, to being truly alive
Well lets end with this...it’s not the 10 or the 60 or the I-95
It’s a journey where you discover you’re your own best friend…
Because the road to true freedom, is a journey within.

Lutishia Lovely
www.LutishiaLovely.com

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V Day

Valentines Day
There are so many single ladies, like myself, who hate to be around the office or other friends on Valentines Day. We are Valentines Day haters. We don’t hate the day, we just hate seeing flowers delivered all day and co-workers and friends all excited about their plans for the evening, even worse because it falls on the weekend, hearing all the details of not one but 3 days, knowing we’ll be home with Fluffy and Rover, again.

One year my single girlfriends and I had a waiting to exhale party, which we gave ourselves for Valentines Day. We talked junk about men, ate, and had a pity party. It was better than sitting home alone.

There is solace in the company of likeness.

The following year a few members of the pity party, got married or became involved in a relationship; so the remaining too few of us the “I’m happy” for you haters; decided to give ourselves our own “V” Day. The rules were to do everything for yourself that you would want, or what you would do on Valentines Day.

We met a few days prior to the dreaded day and complied this list.
Wear your sexiest underwear
Use your favorite perfume
Send yourself or your single friend flowers
Dress up in red
Create a cd of all your favorite song and dance and sing
Laugh at your own jokes
Cook or have delivered a gourmet meal
Eat on your best china
Treat yourself to a fine bottle of wine and drink out of your best crystal
Write yourself a love letter
Look at yourself in the mirror and say I love you
Put rose petals on your bed
Sleep in your sexy lingerie
Explore yourself

Just doing these few things for us made the dreaded V day much easier. People at work were dying of curiosity because they had no clue what we were excited about. “Ahhh YOU have a date”??? Not giving folks a yes or a no made them a little nuts, but you have plans right? Why are you worried about mine? I saw how ugly haters looked. Then it dawned on me… just maybe they are doing the same thing we were doing for so long.

So I send this out to all the single ladies
Love you on Valentines Day.
Simply Said

In Love With a Younger Man Cheryl Robinson

Cheryl Robinson
In Love With a Younger Man

I totally adored Olena; where did you draw her character from?

I am so glad you adored Olena. I read most of my reviews even though I was advised by an established author not to and I really wish I wouldn’t because sometimes they make my heart sink, but a recent amazon.com review just tore Olena up and I thought to myself how could someone not relate to her. Particularly, if you’re a woman in your 40’s or even late thirties and professional and single. Of all of the female characters I have written, Olena is the one who I relate to the most. Yes, she has issues and she was somewhat stuck in the past, okay, she was very much stuck in the past, but I believe that it is our past that defines who we are and what we become as well as how we behave now. Yes, we can change if we want to and if we work on changing what we feel needs to be. Her sabbatical was supposed to be for that purpose, but in the process she found what she really needed to discover aside from who she was, which was how wonderful it felt to experience love times two.


She is a lot like many women, disappointed, over 40, man, and childless. Did you write this story to appeal to these women?

Actually, I wrote the story to appeal to a large cross section of both women and men. I feel young women can learn from Olena’s story and her mistakes and I feel women in Olena’s age bracket can relate to her and have something juicy to discuss with book club members and their friends. The topic of love needs to be discussed more in the black community. Why are so many black women single? We have options…younger men, men of other races. Men our same age and same race as well. We don’t have to feel as though we have to share a man or settle for less. And we definitely don’t have to take the phrase, what’s love got to do with it to heart.

The Cougar phenomenon has been picking up speed lately, why do you think this is?

In my opinion it’s for a couple of reasons. Older women look a lot younger nowadays and it’s not because of plastic surgery or botox either. Perhaps, in some cases, but it’s also because we are taking better care of ourselves, eating right, exercising, and trying not to get too stressed out. Then, there is the availability of younger men versus older men. Many older men are married and have been for quite some time. If they’re single, many of them are dating and prefer to date younger women, which has been the case for years.

I have been approached by younger men, but disregarded their advances, one of the first young brothers who did, years ago, is happily married to an older woman for 15 years now. Watching the Demi’s and Aston’s, and other May December relationships, make me wonder; have I blown my chance?

It is so ironic that you say that. I think that we as women talk ourselves out of some good relationships with men who are good and mean us well, and sometimes we do this because we worry about what other people will think and we have to get away of caring about what other people, such as our friends or family will think about issues that are going to affect our lives and not theirs. In the example you gave above you felt the young man was too young and now look he is married to an older woman because he most likely was genuinely attracted to older women. No, you haven’t your choices. I’m sure you learned from the experience and if that happened over fifteen years ago before the whole younger man-older woman phenomena that we are experiencing now, I’m sure another young cub will come your way. Not suggesting you are a cougar.

You’re in a relationship with a younger man, how did that happen?
I’m not in a relationship with a younger man. I am in love with a younger man and we met through business. He is an incredible friend and I’ve known him for over two years. He is at a stage in his career and his life where perhaps a relationship is not something he is seeking. Our friendship is wonderful and we appreciate each other. Who knows what the future holds.

How much of In Love With A Younger Man is Cheryl’s story?

Let’s just say I can relate.

Olena went for years without a relationship and got into 2 at once; Jason and Matthew.
Jason could not get over the fact that Olena was so not needy, did you write him that way to show he could not get a grip on her, but she had one on him?

At first, I really resisted having him as an ex-NFL player. I didn’t want him to be an athlete, but Jason was an ex-Falcon turned sports commentator. Stereotypically, athletes have a lot of dating options…men with money in general have these. Olena didn’t need his money and didn’t follow sports so she didn’t even know who he was. I felt a man like Jason who had fallen victim to “gold digging” women would appreciate someone like Olena…someone who didn’t have a clue as to who he was and once she found out still didn’t care.

Matthew was the exception not the rule as far as young men today; why did you create him in that character?

Because I didn’t want female readers to say they couldn’t date a “Matthew” and be his sugar mama. I wanted those readers who would be opposed to dating a younger man to think of other reasons they wouldn’t want to date a younger man aside from the belief that younger men date older women just for the money. So I created Matthew’s character to be similar to the younger man who I know and who inspired this story. I created him to be a man who didn’t need Olena’s money; a man who could take care of himself. One who had a well-paying job and a nice home, but still had a lifestyle of someone in his twenties.

The twist in this story blew my mind! I read 100’s of books a year and never saw this coming. Was this twist plotted out or did it come to you while writing?

I rarely plot out twists, but this one was plotted out. It came to me before I had even written the synopsis to the story. I will never forget that I was driving at the time. I had just left the carwash in Ocala and it popped into my head. I remember smiling and saying, “Yep, that’s it.”


What else do we need to know about Olena,Matthew, and Jason that was not told in the story?

I think readers are given a good background into Olena’s life from the time she is eighteen years old and should feel they know her the most of all. Matthew is confused when it comes to love and how to express it. His whole idea of female “friends” and being intimate with them is something that may provide temporary pleasure, but is also a source of confusion for him. He would love to find that one woman who could prevent his mind from wandering to so many others. Jason wants love just as much as Olena and he wants his sons to have a mother-figure in their lives. Jason knows what he wants…and it’s Olena.


Do you want to say anything to us who may consider playing with cubs?

Keep your options open. There are plenty of women who have, who are and who will become involved with men who are younger. The man’s age, as long as he is legal, should not be the focal point. Can the two of you relate and communicate? Do you share a mutual respect for each other? And whatever you do, don’t remind him of the age difference. My younger male friend never wanted to know how old I was, but I forced the issue. In some ways, I wish I hadn’t.

Please tell me the sequel if there is one, is out very soon.

Yes, there is a sequel. Actually, this is the first book in a series that revolves around the character Olena Day. The second book in the series is a continuation of book two and opens where book one left off. I am more than halfway finished with writing the second book in the series. Hopefully, I should have a release date to share pretty soon.

Your book info websites and contact information

For more information visit me at www.cherylrobinson.com or www.myspace.com/cherylrobinson.

Cheryl Robinson
www.cherylrobinson.com
www.myspace.com/cherylrobinson
In Love With A Younger Man available January 6, 2009 where books are sold.

I LOVED this story! Olena, Jason, and Matthew, were very intriguing and fascinating. Cheryl Robinson did a phenomenal job creating 2 complex relationships, and making them both totally believable. I was delighted that it WAS NOT just another romance. Also as an avid reader, the twist blew me away. I never saw that coming! If I could give more than 5 stars, I would GREAT READ,
www.simply-said.net
www.simplysaidreadingaccessories.blogspot.com
odebdeb@aol.com
Debra Owsley

Dark Chocolate Man

Dark Chocolate Man
How long have you been an author?
I have been an Author for 3 years now...still new in the game...lol

Have you always written erotica?
No, this is my first adventure into this world

How do you come up with your topics?
My mind is always thinking of thought provoking ways of sexual pleasure and then i started to write them down...and the rest is history...Plus i wanted to really give erotica a spin from a guy's mind...most ladies write it, but I wanted to put my writing skills to the test and do it this way, plus with no one really knowing who I am...I wouldn't get fake responses to it...that is the most important part...But i can tell you about 50% of what i write I have done(Wink)

Where did you get your pseudo name, Dark Chocolate Man?
It comes from hearing ladies talk about chocolate all the time...and how much they love it...(Smile)

For the ladies give us a description of Dark Chocolate Man
Believe it or not I am a hopeless romantic, who loves to cuddles, watch TV together...I am looking for that "One" special lady to be in my life...the one I can walk on the beach with, I love the water it is so peaceful, The funniest thing is that I am that guy that you pass everyday, I love to stay at home and chill most of the time...so until I find her....I am making my travels alone :(

Is your book a series of stories such as the ones you've been putting out on My Space?
Yes, lololol I have several more coming...this year I hope to drop about 5 more

How can we get your book?
You and your fans can find my books on LuLu.com once there put in the name Cougar Club in the search area
or they can come to my My Space page www.myspace.com/darkcman and they can click my buy button right there on my page and get my book.

Can you give us a little taste?
Ha ha ha well tell your fans to come by...because my stuff is for the grown and sexy and I cant post it here

I've been reading the comments; you've gotten a huge amount of fans. What are they saying personally to you?
I have gotten wedding proposals...free trips to New York, L.A and even Florida...lol
most are excited about what I am bringing to the table. I have some who have even crowned me "The King" of erotica; I always remind them that the title has to be earned but I am doing my best this year to achieve that.

Your strategy on my space has been nothing short of phenomenal, was your marketing planned or by accident?
It was planned, I knew i had to try something different so when I pulled it off the fans started telling their friends and it has grown.

Tell us what how you got so many friends in such a short time?
My blog has brought a lot of them to me...then there was a challenge sent by another erotic writer...he told me he wanted to put his work up against mine. We did it; he posted one of my blogs on his page and i beat him 29-18...these were his fans...his page and so most of them came over to my page...lol he then got mad and shut his page down...I didn’t get that part because there are enough fans for all of us. I think most of them have come by my page by word of mouth...once the ladies started talking the friend requests were jumping...and before you knew it I had over 1200 friends in under a month and my blog has been viewed close to 6000 times already.

Do you ever plan to disclose who Dark Chocolate Man really is?
I made a promise to a dear friend of mine...I told her that once I sold One Million Books or downloads (it can be combined) that I would announce to the world who I am....lololol So I am sure she will hold me to my word!

Has your journey been what you expected?
It has been better than I could have ever imagined it would be...the show of support and emails has just been amazing!!!

What's next; what are you working on now?
I am working on my follow up to 'Cougar Club' If they read it they will understand why I have received emails asking about it already (smile)

How will you promote and meet your fans? In disguise?
Most of them are doing it for by talking...I just released Cougar Club and ladies are already talking about it...lol, but I will just keep to the internet right now...do some other Interviews...answer ll of my emails and just talk to the fans one at a time...it keeps me on my toes and it also keeps my heart humble. Once I let the world know who I am...I will put on a blitz all over and meet with book clubs...and have book signings