Yesterday's Promise

Celebrating Women in Ministry Blog Tour

We invite you this week to highlight your favorite FEMALE MINISTER in the comment section below. Participants will be placed in a drawing for an autographed copy of Yesterday’s Promise by Vanessa Miller and a $25 Gift Card.

Vanessa Miller of Dayton , Ohio is an Essence best-selling author, playwright, and motivational speaker. Her stage productions include: Get You Some Business, Don’t Turn Your Back on God, and Can’t You Hear Them Crying and Abundant Rain. To date, Vanessa has written the Rain Series and the Storm Series. The books in the Rain Series are: Former Rain , Abundant Rain, and Latter Rain. The books in the Storm Series are: Rain Storm and Through The Storm . These books have received rave reviews, winning Best Christian Fiction Awards and topping numerous Bestseller’s lists.

Yesterday’s Promise is the first book of a series entitled, Second Chance of Love. Whitaker House plans to release the next two books in October 2010 and January 2011. Visit her online at www.VanessaMiller.com.
About the Book


Melinda Johnson has always felt called to ministry. So, when her father, Bishop Langston Johnson, decides to step down after thirty years of leadership at Omega Christian Center, it seems only natural for her to take his place. But Bishop Johnson feels led by a God who has other things in mind, and to succeed him, he appoints Steven Marks-a man who is opposed to female pastors, not to mention the fact that he is Melinda’s ex-fiancé.
Feeling defeated, Melinda nevertheless maintains her position as the church’s Missions and Community Outreach Director. Frequent interaction with the new bishop incites bitter sparring-and rekindles long-suppressed attraction, which grows only stronger when Melinda develops a relationship with Steven’s precious daughter, Brianna, who’s still struggling with the death of her mother.
Can Steven and Melinda set aside past pains, forgive each other, and learn to love again? Or will their opposing positions regarding women preachers keep them forever at odds?

View Book Trailer



Tell Us About Your Favorite Female Minister
We invite you this week to highlight your favorite FEMALE MINISTER in the comment section below. Participants will be placed in a drawing for an autographed copy of Yesterday’s Promise by Vanessa Miller and a $25 Gift Card.



View the blog tour schedule and read an excerpt at http://bit.ly/WomeninMinistry

Transformation

Transformation
Lori McKenney is a Preacher, Teacher, Praise Dancer, and Prayer Warrior. Prophetess Lori McKenney is a very passionate person when it comes to the people of God. She has encouraged people through the Word of God by reaching out to the destitute, the forgotten, and those looked over by society. Wherever she goes Prophetess words of encouragement bring forth a deliverance that transforms the lives of the people because of the anointing of God. She has a mandate on her life to preach the Word in season and out of season. God has anointed this woman of God to preach to the nations for this is the hour of promotion from God.

About the Book

Many believers have a hard time accepting transformation is a part of God's plan for their lives. Changes happen every day. We accept address changes, income changes, management changes, and we even agree that our physical appearance changes, but we do not embrace that God wants to change our sinful nature to that of a Holy people. Change is something we all need; however, few are willing to make the change from mediocre to greatness.

Prophetess Lori McKenney shares about the four stages a caterpillar must achieve before it transforms into a beautiful butterfly. In correlation, she imparts how the heart and mind is connected to the complete metamorphosis process. The powerful scriptures and motivational quotes found in "Transformation" also reveal the treasures of how God wants you to have a successful life. A must have for your personal library and chat groups. "Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."(Psalm 37:5)

Transformation can be found at most online bookstores and www.amazon.com. My website is www.lsktransformation.com.


A Message from Lori McKenney



View the blog tour schedule and read an excerpt at http://bit.ly/TransformationBlogTour.

Leadership Building Blocks

Celebrate Women in Leadership Series
with Dawn McCoy

During the month of March 2010, Dawn McCoy, author of Leadership Building Blocks will highlight great women in leadership during Women’s History Month.

Debra:
Thank you for allowing me to be a guest blogger today at Simply Said Reading Accessories. Today, in the Celebrate Women in Leadership series, I want to highlight former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was most famous for serving as an advocate for civil rights and advocate for women’s rights. In that same vein, she worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.
Roosevelt was known internationally as a prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist. In the 1940s, Roosevelt was one of the co-founders of Freedom House and supported the formation of the United Nations. Roosevelt chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and some came to call her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.
Roosevelt also chaired the John F. Kennedy administration's committee that prompted a second-wave of feminism establishing the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. She was always reading, willing and able to courageously speak up and be an advocate.


What is so memorable about Eleanor Roosevelt is that she did not allow a title to refrain her from being active. She did not allow circumstance to confine her. She did not allow gender or age to inhibit her from speaking up. She once said that “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Dawn McCoy has written a fresh and timely workbook, on leadership in todays un-certain world. She offers excellent rules and tips to help lay the foundation of building blocks, we need to use to get anywhere we go; as long as it's up. Leadership Building gives great tips and "Priceless Jewels" of advice. Dawn uses real life circumstances with real life solutions. 4****


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dawn McCoy is author of Leadership Building Blocks: An Insider's Guide to Success. As one of the youngest elected African-American elected to the Sacramento City Unified School Board, McCoy shares seven leadership fundamentals in her book. Inspiring readers to be top in their field, Dawn shares her insights based upon twenty years serving as a nonprofit and government executive.

A motivational speaker, coach, and founder of Flourish Leadership Group, a leadership development and communications firm, Dawn is dedicated to transforming ordinary people into extraordinary leaders. In recent years, she has worked with organizations to develop their vision and create phenomenal results. Dawn has worked with hundreds of individuals to help them capture their spirit of leadership and truly become the effective leaders they were meant to be.

Read an excerpt online and visit the tour schedule at http://bit.ly/LeadershipBuildingBlocks

Blog visitors who leave comments OR radio callers with questions for Dawn are eligible to win an autographed copy of Leadership Building Block and a copy of the Effective Community Engagement CD.

Searching For Tina Turner

Searching For Tina Turner
I have gotten to used to easy reads. Things I could read easily without much effort, not much of a challenge. Easy words, simple subject matter or same subject different title. So when I started reading Searching For Tina Turner, I hate to say I was expecting same topic different day. What a pleasant surprise. At first, it reminded me of Terry McMilan.. I love complex books that make you think and feel and identify with the characters and subject, and make you read slow to savor the favor. Lena grabbed me into her world. Always doing and settling and waiting for her turn to live. She has a great life, a hubby, two kids and a dream. She really doesn’t want much, all she wants is to be herself and do what she’s always dreamed of. She wants to do something that makes her feel. She has become uncomfortable in her own skin and circumstance and starts reminiscing of better days and Tina Turner.

Discontentment makes you do things to satisfy an urge. It also makes you feel disconnected to your self.

Lena is tried of waiting for her turn and takes it. She leaves her “perfect” life to satisfy her life long dream that was always being put on hold. She decides to embark on a journey to find herself and Tina Turner. The people who she’s put her life on hold for are not getting that she has to do this for her, and it’s not about them. Lena jets off to Europe with a friend and a camera and Tina’s sprit in her heart. She has tickets to see her in concert and while waiting for that day, she starts to discover the Lena , she has always wanted to be.

I loved this book. I call a grown woman read. It’s about taking your control back and about being uncomfortable in a too comfortable situation.
5*****

About The Author/

As a teenager, Jacqueline enjoyed telling stories to her younger cousins. To this day, they describe her as a master storyteller. So, it wasn't a surprise to her family when she began writing a novel. She kept diaries, wrote poetry and had stories published in a local newspaper. But Jacqueline put writing aside while attending college. After graduating from California State University, Hayward in sociology, she worked in sales for a major corporation. She married, raised a family and in 1999 took a creative writing class on a dare, from herself, and happily found her love of writing re-ignited.

By a lucky coincidence, that same year she discovered the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and participated over the next four years in workshops with Christina Garcia, Danzy Senna, Junot Diaz, Ruth Forman and Terry McMillan. VONA provided a safe haven for a new writer still unsure of her abilities, yet eager to learn. She attributes much of her growth as a writer to the VONA workshops.

In 2004, Jacqueline formed the Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, October 2007) along with seven other women writers-of-color. The Finish Party meets monthly to workshop their projects-in-progress. Jacqueline calls these outstanding women her mentors and advisors, her friends and the toughest (and most loving) readers around. The group provides strong support for each other's writing, good meals, friendship and fun.

Jacqueline describes herself as an avid reader and lover of books, excellent cook, aspiring photographer (all the photos on this site were taken by Jacqueline) and world traveler. She lives in Northern California and, though she loves that city and all of the friends she has there, she takes frequent breaks to fly off to foreign destinations.

Searching for Tina Turner, her first novel, will be published by Grand Central Publishing in January 2010 — and, as you can imagine, she is thrilled!

Take Off the Mask, Who I’ve Become is NOT who I AM

Take Off the Mask
Who I’ve Become is NOT who I AM, is Sonya Visor’s first non-fiction book. Her passion is to minister to the people who hide behind masks. Sonya’s calling is to break and destroy the yokes of bondage, releasing the power of God into the lives of others by the preached Word and prayers of deliverance. When you can find the strength, to step into who you truly are; you can find the strength to BE THE (Tru U). TruU Ministries is the women’s ministry that God has charged her with to help other’s become free.
Sonya shares her heart with her husband, Pastor Tony Visor, who she calls her better half, for nineteen years. She and her husband have ministered effectively in the city of Racine together at NCC since 1999. Sonya is blessed to love two sons, Jason and Tony, Jr. Visit her online at sonyavisor.com.

Sonya Visor’s story is like so many others. She was molested as a child and formed a mask to not show the pain she was going through. She became what she felt, was in control of the situations, but all the mask did was alter her identity. After a suicide attempt. Sonya found that the mask only continued the circumstances of what she had become. Sonya became the person she now is by un-masking herself and is now living and teaching others to receive the gift and being who you were meant to be.
3 stars

About the Book
Who are you when nobody’s looking? It’s time to take off what hides who you truly are…the mask! Are you tired of going around family, friends and church folk with a frozen smile and a broken heart? Unmask your true identity and learn your real name as pastor’s wife and playwright Sonya Visor cuts to the heart with dynamic testimony of sexual molestation at a young age.
BEING SILENT GAVE POWER to the hands that touched her life. Can hands meant to protect you also have the power to crush your identity? YES! But when we stop allowing a mask of shame to hold us captive with CLOSED mouths, WE CAN let Jesus be real in our lives.
Discover who you have become and embrace who you really are in a book that goes past the pews and what other’s think about you — to bring glory to God by being transparent and transformed. It’s time to take off your mask and let the true you show up!

A Message from Sonya



View the blog tour schedule and read an excerpt at href="http://bit.ly/TakeOffTheMask">http://bit.ly/TakeOffTheMask

Message from a Mistress

Message from a Mistress
Will 160 characters lead to the end of someone’s marriage?
By: NIOBIA BRYANT

Synopsis---

1-SENTENCE

A sexy, unforgettable and drama filled novel about love, infidelity, and the importance of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer... From bestselling author, Niobia Bryant

“Very Impressive” –Cyndey Rax, author of My Sister’s Ex

(March 2010) National bestselling author Niobia Bryant releases her seventeeth novel, Message from a Mistress which is loosely based on the 1940's movie A Letter to Three Wives.
Jaime Hall, Renee Clinton, and Aria Livewell all reside with their spouses in the affluent gated community, Richmond Hills, in New Jersey. The ladies are all best friends with their Richmond Hill neighbor, Jessa Bell–a sexy and single socialite. Trouble is Jessa Bell has just sent them all a text message taunting that she has run away with one of their husbands. That message opens the door to each of the woman’s unspoken insecurities in their marriage as each recalls incidents that hint that their husband is the one. And with the husbands away—and unreachable-- on a chartered fishing boat all day and Jessa not answering her phone, they have all day to wonder…and to worry about scandalous secrets of their own.
Throughout the book–which takes place in one day–Jessa Bell also recalls her steamy relationship with her unidentified lover. Everything about their explicit romps are revealed from the day she first seduced him up until the day he agreed to leave his wife–her friend–for her.

BOOK TRAILER---

http://www.youtube.com/user/niobiabryant#p/u/2/bNv9llajroY


About the Author--

Niobia Bryant a self described chameleon of the written word has contributed to the book world since 1999 with the release of her first short story Hush, Hush. Since then she has garnered publishing deals with 3 major houses, Simon & Schuster, Dafina and Harlequin. As a full-time writer she has penned over 15 novels using three different monikers including Simone Bryant (Young Adult) and Meesha Mink (Urban Fiction) within four genres of fiction literature targeted for African American females including romance and contemporary. In 2010 she will release three new books a contemporary, a romance and a young-adult within months of each other. This Newark, NJ native splits her time between South Carolina and New Jersey.

Communicate with Niobia Bryant

TWITTER @infiniteink

FACEBOOK--Niobia Bryant| Meesha Mink

Receive updates on appearances,bookclub meetings, awards, new releases, deals and more www.niobiabryant.com

Romance Slam Jam will be taking a cruise leaving out of Miami. The authors will be doing a mass signing from 6 to 9 PM April 9, 2010 at the Wyndham hotel. Please pass this on to other book lovers in your Florida data base. I hope to see you there. You will be able to purchase books at the signing. Come meet, greet and support Romance Slam Jam's 15th Anniversary..........
Thanks Debra

Definition of Love by Nanette M. Buchanan

The Definition of Love by Nanette M. Buchanan

He said he knew a little about "true love", my ears tuned in.....
It had been weeks, no months, a few years.....since we had been just friends.

We had gone to heights where I felt pure pleasure, total ecstasy,
We had explored our minds, entwined our bodies, engaged in shared fantasies.

He said he knew what to say but didn't know what it truly meant
It had be said over and over we were the others angel......the love heaven sent.

We took no chances playing the other for a fool,
Our relationship was based on honesty, it was our silent rule.

He said he lived this night in his dreams from the time we met
We both new what was expected, our love would die now or move on to the next step.

I tried to tell him I loved him, what happened in the past, was explained and defined
His past, their love, was not our struggle, not a part of our time.

He said he thought he loved once before and failed, but found it was not true
Today she told him he was a father, and after three years, what was he to do

He said he didn't really know why he never knew about his responsibility,
But he was now known as "Daddy" to a little girl that was three.

He recognized himself in her tiny face and bright eyes,
He didn't want to lose our love for another, I listened, he cried.

We share our love with his angel, we know this was not a mistake.......
The definition of love........it's never too late.

Copyright 2010, Nanette Buchanan, I Pen Designs


Books by Author Nanette M. Buchanan
• Bruised Love
• Family Secrets, Lies & Alibis
• A Different Kind of Love

Author Contact Information
• Website: http://www.ipendesigns.net/
• Video Postcard: http://www.audioacrobat.com/note/CR5Q90VQ

My Mother’s Child

My Mother’s Child Dwan Abrams

Dwan Abrams is a full-time novelist, freelance editor, and publisher. She’s the best-selling author of My Mother’s Child (the sequel to Divorcing the Devil), Married Strangers, Divorcing the Devil, Only True Love Waits, and The Scream Within. She’s the founder, publisher, and editorial director of Nevaeh Publishing, LLC a small press independent publishing house. She’s currently signed to Urban Christian, an imprint of Urban Books/Kensington. Her sixth novel, the second book in the Married Series, is set to hit national bookshelves in 2011.




About the Book
Lyric Stokes lives, by most standards, a charmed life. Married to Michael Stokes, a prominent heart surgeon, she has financial security and lives in the lap of luxury. All is not perfect, though. Lyric feels inadequate because she gave birth to a daughter, rather than the son that her husband so desperately wanted.
After an unexpected turn of events, Lyric discovers that she’s pregnant again, but now she has to decide whether she even wants to keep the child she has longed for. She seeks solace in her church, where her daughter also feels at home; but they can’t get Michael to join them. Disagreeing with organized religion, he has put his job before all else, including God. The distance between the couple grows further every day.
Nigel Fredericks has a history of stalking women. He’s been accused, but never convicted. Now he’s set his sights on Lyric. She’s at a low point in her life, and Nigel knows just how to take advantage of that vulnerability. Lyric’s life is turned upside down; Nigel is like a cancer eating away at her mental stability, her marriage, and ultimately, her life. Will Michael reevaluate his priorities and his faith in time to save his family?

Listen to an excerpt from My Mother’s Child


Visit Dwan online at http://dwanabrams.com

My girls have been busy

Donna Hill celebrates her 20th year anniversary this year. Most of you know how much I LOVE Donna! Her newest highly anticipated release, What Mother Never Told Me, the sequel to her highly acclaimed ground breaker for her Rhythm’s, drops today March 1, 2010.
Donna has also been offered a 4 book deal. You Go Girl!


What Mother Never Told Me
MARCH 1, 2010
The long-awaited sequel to RHYTHMS, Parris McKay is confronted with a truth she never believed was possible. The revelation turns her life upside down as she begins a quest to answer a two-generation secret that her grandmother took to her grave. In her pursuit of the truth, she meets two incredible women who are battling with their own secret pasts. As the truth begins to unfold, these dynamic women come to realize that there truly is only six-degrees of separation.
A story of healing, hope, love and forgiveness. WHAT MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME is a book for every daughter, every mother, every family.

What Mother Never Told Me by Donna Hill is one of the most engaging novels I have read on the subject of mothers and daughters. From page one the reader is drawn into the life of Parris McKay as she goes in search of the mother she had been told was dead for 30 years. The story slowly and surely allows the reader to see and feel how and why the deception took place. The story is so well-told that at times I felt as though the mother had betrayed me. However, once I saw the story unfold, my perspective changed, as did my understanding.

Even more compelling is the love story component of Parris and Nick, the man she is in love with. Also the story of the love of her mother's life is very compelling. The back stories about Celeste, a blue-blood, socialite and her mother, as well as Leslie, an overweight, interior designer and her mother are just as fascinating. The unexpected bond between the three women also speaks of sisterhood and the support that women can only give other women. There are also many other romantic layers and flavors that make this book a literary delight.

I recommend What Mother Never Told Me to all readers who love a wonderfully told story.

The book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Angelia Menchan
APOOO BookClub

“In 2010, I will be celebrating my twenty year anniversary in publishing! I owe my thanks and my longevity to each and every reader who has supported me throughout the years. In recognition of this momentous occasion” Donna Hill

Uptown

The Dynamic Duo
Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant releases Uptown March 2, 2010 I am a huge fan of these two Fabulous ladies

From the bestselling dynamic duo who gave us What Doesn’t Kill You, comes a story as big as New York City itself. Enter the world of Uptown where you’ll find a prominent New York family strained to the breaking point by the high stakes Manhattan Real Estate Industry…

After twenty years of Foreign Service abroad, Avery Lyons returns to New York when her mother and uncle suffer a serious car accident. The tragedy brings the family together, but Avery is not happy about reuniting with her cousin, Dwight, from whom she has been estranged since the fallout over a college scandal. Avery no longer recognizes the tony, prestigious neighborhood of her childhood but the same old family dynamics and secrets are all too familiar.

Heir to a real estate empire, Dwight is willing to do anything to realize his aging and demanding father’s dream: Dixon Plaza, a luxury high-rise development on Central Park North, the last undeveloped border of the city’s famed emerald park. There’s only one thing in his way: Avery has inherited a share of the property Dwight needs. She’s more than willing to sell until she starts dating a reporter on a mission to uncover the truth behind the rumored shady dealings surrounding the complex.

Uptown is DeBerry and Grant like you’ve never seen them before—a poignant exploration of one woman’s quest for identity and the true price of greed, politics, unfettered ambition--- and forgiveness. Prepare for a steamy, provocative, sexy, turbulent read


Glorious by Bernice McFadden

Bernice McFadden just celebrated Sugar’s 10 anniversary. I am patiently awaiting Glorious to be released on May 1, 2010 PRE ORDER NOW

Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights era. Blending fact and fiction, Glorious is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and ultimately revival offers a candid and true portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.

It is a novel informed by the question that is the title of Langston Hughes's famous poem: What happens to a dream deferred? Based on years of research, this heart-wrenching fictional account is given added resonance by factual events coupled with real and imagined larger-
than-life characters. Glorious is an audacious exploration into the nature of self-hatred, love, possession, ego, betrayal, and, finally, redemption.

"Intense and sweeping." --Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales

"A wonderful, rich read full of passion, history, wonder, and women you will recognize: Glorious is just that."
--Jill Nelson, author of Volunteer Slavery and Let's Get It On

"Bernice McFadden's fully realized characters are complicated, imperfect beings, but if ever a character were worthy of love and honor, it is her Easter Bartlett. This very American story is fascinating; it is also heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and beautifully written."
--Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route


Hollywood Deception by Shelia M Goss

Two friends, one woman, and one deranged fan.

Former supermodel and talk show host Hailey Barnes has a knack for catching her guests off
guard with difficult and personal questions. Her tough interviews have earned her a Daytime
Emmy, but while her professional life is at its peak, she’s not satisfied with her personal
life.

Hailey wants what she can’t have, and that’s her ex-college sweetheart’s hand in
marriage. Her on again/off again relationship with Trevon keeps her name in the tabloids,
and that works for her, until she receives a wedding invitation in the mail—inviting her to
Trevon’s wedding to another woman. He’s ready to settle down, just not with Hailey.

Besides dealing with a broken heart, the ex-supermodel is dealing with a deranged fan who
has resorted to sending her disturbing mail at her Hollywood studio and her home. Hailey
decides to use the opportunity as a quest to convince Trevon she should be his bride.

Trevon and childhood friend Garrett Morgan are co-owners of GT Securities, a security firm
that caters to celebrities. Hailey’s plan backfires when Garrett heads her case instead of
Trevon. When ex-playboy Garrett starts developing feelings for Hailey, Hailey’s life becomes
even more complicated. As Garrett investigates, all evidence points to the person Hailey
least suspects.

With fans like this, who needs enemies? Shelia M. Goss is back with this hot sequel to
Double Platinum.



Lessons From A Younger Lover by Zuri Day

First grade teacher Gwen Smith was happily married—until her husband got himself a twenty-something mistress and filed for divorce. Now just months away from turning forty-one, Gwen is back in her tiny California hometown, caring for her ailing mother, convinced her life is over. Then she meets Ransom Blake.

Ransom is a twenty-six-year-old hunk who pushes every one of Gwen’s buttons. Gwen has no intention of getting involved with a younger man, but he won’t take no for an answer. When he shows up at her classroom unannounced, Gwen tells him off—and then realizes he’s come for his daughter. Ransom isn’t shy about letting Gwen know how she can make it up to him. And if he gets his way, Gwen will lose all her inhibitions—and her heart...


Reverened Feelgood by Lutishia Lovely

In Lutishia Lovely's wickedly sexy new novel, an energetic young pastor works overtime to keep the ladies in his congregation deliciously satisfied. . .
Nathaniel "Nate" Thicke is a preaching prodigy. At only twenty-eight years old, he's the senior pastor of The Gospel Truth Church. In addition to carrying on the preaching tradition begun by his great-grandfather, Nate is also just plain carrying on, wherever the spirit--and the flesh--lead him. And when it leads him to three women from the same family, bickering and backstabbing follow...
Content with having his pick of the flock, Nate is surprised to discover he's fallen head-over-heels in love, and decides to become a one-woman man. But the other ladies aren't about to give him up so easily. They're prepared to do whatever it takes to get their man back--even if it means adding a few more shocking sins to their list...