Carleen Brice is author of the books Orange Mint and Honey (Ballantine, 2008) and Lead Me Home: An African American’s Guide Through the Grief Journey (HarperCollins). She is also editor of the anthology Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife (Beacon Press, Souvenir Press). Her book Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color sold over 100,000 copies and was in print with traditional publishers for 10 years. It is now available from iUniverse. She is a two-time finalist for the Colorado Book Award in nonfiction (for Lead Me Home and Age Ain't Nothing but a Number).

She lives in Colorado with her husband and two cats where she gardens and works on her second novel", Children of the Waters, which One World/Ballantine will publish in spring 2009.

Author Carleen Brice officially welcomes whites into the African American section of the bookstore, and asks that in December everybody buy a book by a black author and give it to somebody not black.

Children of the Waters: A Novel
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Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: One World/Ballantine (July 28, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345499077
ISBN-13: 978-0345499073

The author of the #1 Denver Post bestseller and Essence Book Club Pick Orange Mint and Honey explores the connection between love and race, and what it really means to be a family

Trish Taylor’s white ancestry never got in the way of her love for her black ex-husband, or their mixed race son, Will. But when Trish’s marriage ends, she returns to her family’s Denver, Colorado home to find a sense of identity and connect to her past.

What she finds there shocks her to the very core: her mother and newborn sister were not killed in a car crash as she was told. In fact, her baby sister, Billie Cousins, is now a grown woman; her grandparents had put her up for adoption, unwilling to raise the child of a black man. Billie, who had no idea she was adopted, wants nothing to do with Trish until a tragedy in Billie’s own family forces her to lean on her surprisingly supportive and sympathetic sister. Together they unravel age-old layers of secrets and resentments and navigate a path toward love, healing, and true reconciliation.

Orange Mint and Honey
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ISBN: 0345499069
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Publisher: One World/Ballantine

Read and AALBC.com Book Review

The Essence Magazine Book Club pick for March

"The marriage of historical confidence with creativity brings forth the first novel by Carleen Brice. Orange Mint and Honey makes use of the oldest of relationships: mothers and daughters. Looking at the plights of love, forgiveness, understanding and redemption brings to this first novel a fresh and unique feel. A wonderful jazzy exciting read." —Nikki Giovanni

Broke and burned-out from grad school, Shay Dixon does the unthinkable after receiving a “vision” from her de facto spiritual adviser, blues singer Nina Simone. She phones Nona, the mother she had all but written off, asking if she can come home for a while.

When Shay was growing up, Nona was either drunk, hungover, or out with her latest low-life guy. So Shay barely recognizes the new Nona, now sober and with a positive outlook on life, a love of gardening, and a toddler named Sunny. Though reconciliation seems a hard proposition for Shay, something unmistakable is taking root inside her, waiting to blossom like the morning glories opening up in Nona’s garden sanctuary.

Soon Shay finds herself facing exciting possibilities and even her first real romantic relationship. But when an unexpected crisis hits, even the wise words and soulful melodies of Nina Simone may not be enough for solace. Shay begins to realize that, like orange mint and honey, sometimes life tastes better when bitter is followed by sweet.

Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife
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Carleen Brice Editor & Contributor

"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number is my roadmap."—Iyanla Vanzant

Forty-five black women writers—known and new—discuss midlife in the first anthology of its kind.

Finally, a collection that celebrates, considers, contemplates, even criticizes "midlife" from a black woman's point of view. Age Ain't Nothing but a Number ranges over every aspect of black women's lives: personal growth, family and friendship, love and sexuality, health, beauty, illness, spirituality, creativity, financial independence, work, and scores of other topics.

Midlife today isn't your grandmother's "change of life." Today, black women call hot flashes "power surges," and menopause, the "pause that refreshes." These days, middle-aged women may be newlyweds or new mothers, as well as grandmothers or widows. They may experience the empty-nest syndrome and then the "return-to-the-nest syndrome" as adult children move back home. They may navigate the field of Internet dating, travel the world, teach homeless women, take up pottery, or study international business.

This anthology captures all of these aspects of midlife as experienced by some of the finest voices in African-American writing today. Featuring
the work of Maya Angelou, J. California Cooper, Pearl Cleage, Nikki Giovanni, Susan L. Taylor, Alice Walker, and dozens of others, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number will make readers think, laugh, and cry and will be the perfect gift
book for spring.

Lead Me Home: An African American’s Guide Through the Grief Journey
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by Carleen Brice

ISBN: 0380796082
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: November 01, 1999
Publisher: Harper Perennial

"If you or someone you love has recently lost someone special, read the new book Lead Me Home: An African American's Guide Through the Grief Journey." —Essence

When a loved one dies, we embark on a journey that is marked by anguish, confusion, fear, and loneliness. For African Americans, the grief journeys often includes more complicated and painful emotions: frustration with the knowledge that black men and women have a greater chance of dying from major common diseases than their white counterparts; anger at the frequency of drug- and violence-related deaths; and the collective grief of a community that has buried too many of its young people.

In Lead Me Home, Carleen Brice gently guides you through the strange terrain of grief to the promise of home-a place where we have not only survived our losses, but are wiser and stronger because of them. She shares her personal story of loss and recovery, as well as the stories of others, so that you will know you are not alone. Here are practical tips for making difficult passage, as well as spiritual inspiration for helping you hang on until you make it to welcoming shores.

Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color
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by Carleen Brice

ISBN: 0595425658
Number Of Pages: 396
Publication Date: January 09, 2008
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.

Note from the author Carleen Brice
"When I was writing Walk Tall back in 1992, I read a book about getting published. It stated that if your target audience is black, don’t mention it. It won’t help your book and might even hurt it. Times change. Attitudes change. People change. We change them.

I didn’t believe the author of that book (later editions no longer have the racist and defeatist advice). In my subtitle "Affirmations for People of Color" I said right up front what this book is and who it’s for. Walk Tall went on to sell more than 100,000 copies and was in print for 10 years.

Now, Walk Tall has changed. This is a new edition for a new day."

"Walk Tall is invaluable to me. I use it every day to start off on the right track. I highly recommend it to everyone."
—Louis Gossett, Jr.

"I have been in search of a book . that lifts me in celebration of who I am as an African-American woman and my blessed connection to other women of color, to all women, to all people; a book that teaches me in testimony that I must, and can, take charge of the health of my soul and, therefore, awake each morning ready to live in faith, in love, in compassion with others . I need search no longer. Walk Tall is that book."  —Gloria Wade-Gayles, author of My Soul is a Witness

The 366 affirmations collected here celebrate cultural diversity and the drive, determination, and accomplishments of people of color. These daily thoughts help readers challenge internalized racism and nurture personal responsibility and self-love.

Related Links

Listen to a podcast of Carleen Brice reading from Orange Mint and Honey
http://authorsontourlive.com/?p=53

Carleen Brice and Pearl Cleage Age Ain't Nothing but a Number with Tavis Smiley
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1234464

Carleen Brice's Official Website
www.carleenbrice.com

Carleen Brice's Blog
http://pajamagardener.blogspot.com/