Over the course of his career, Nick Chiles has distinguished himself as both a bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. Chiles has also ghostwritten books for celebrities. Chiles has written six books with his wife, Denene Millner (who is the two-time #1 New York Times bestselling co-author with Steve Harvey of the books Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man and Straight Talk, No Chaser).
From 2003 to 2009, Chiles was Editor-in-Chief of Odyssey Couleur, a national multicultural travel magazine geared toward upper-income African Americans. During his years with the magazine, Chiles served as Art Director for numerous cover stories and photo and video shoots in locales ranging from Colombia to the Caribbean, the Florida Everglades to New York City. Chiles is a 1986 graduate of Yale University. He currently resides in the Atlanta metro area with his wife Denene and two daughters, Mari and Lila. His son Mazi is in college [2012, excerpted from Nickchiles.com]
The
Adventures of De’Ante Johnson: The Obsidian Knight
Click to order via Amazon
Paperback: 242 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 13, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1479305081
ISBN-13: 978-1479305087
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
The 242-page YA fantasy features De’Ante Johnson, a quiet 16 year old with a well-hidden double life. Suddenly, Johnson is shanghaied from his ‘hood to Illumina, an earth-like world, to battle a shape-shifting monstrous tyrant intent on destroying a millennia-old culture. The action intensifies when De’Ante must choose between saving his best friend, gang leader Revonne Williams, or the desperate people of Illumina. However, the heroic Johnson threatens the existence of both worlds when his temper becomes uncontrollable.
The
Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life's Storms
Click to order via Amazon
by Kirk Franklin, with Nick Chiles
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 231 pages
Publisher: Gotham (May 18, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1592405479
ISBN-13: 978-1592405473
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
"The Blueprint is a transparent approach to talking about issues-from
marriage to politics to sex and religion-and it's from my perspective. Not
from a Princeton, mainline, protestant, evangelical or liberal viewpoint,
but from a 2010 Christian moderate with swag."
—Kirk Franklin
Gospel artist Kirk Franklin's faith wasn't always as strong as it is today. His father abandoned his family; his mother constantly told Kirk that he was an unwanted child and left him to be adopted when he was four; his sister became a crack addict; he never saw a black man who was faithful in marriage. Despite his shaky foundation he found strength and success through his music and through God.
In The Blueprint, Franklin will explain how by communicating with life's architect, God, he learned to see hardships as necessary life propellants and moved on to become the bestselling gospel musician in recent history, as well as a devoted husband and loving father.
This is not a step program, it's a lifelong journey. With Franklin's guidance, you will:
It's time to take faith out of the church pews and into our everyday lives. With hope, devotion, and strength, The Blueprint offers a plan to help you move beyond hardships to create your own personal Blueprint for life.
Fatherhood:
Rising to the Ultimate Challenge
Click to order via Amazon
by Etan Thomas, with Nick Chiles
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: NAL Hardcover; 1 edition (May 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451236734
ISBN-13: 978-0451236739
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
In Fatherhood, beloved NBA player, poet, youth advocate, and devoted dad
Etan Thomas speaks from his heart on what matters most in his life: being
there for his children. As a highly respected player in the NBA and a
leading participant in President Obama’s Fatherhood Initiative, Etan has
reached out to young men (often young fathers) in the juvenile detention
system and in local communities. He knows firsthand the difference having a
father in your life every day can make—and as a father of three, Etan walks
the talk in his own life.
Now he brings together a chorus of voices—highly revered professional
athletes and coaches, actors and performing artists, politicians and leaders
of faith—to weigh in on the importance of being a father in our nation
today. Isaiah Washington, Howard Dean, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Taye Diggs,
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tony Hawk, Al Sharpton, Chuck D and many more share
what they’ve learned from being a father, having a father, or in some cases
not having a father around.
Through these inspiring personal experiences, Etan and the men he’s gathered
together hope to share the message that by standing up and taking an active
role as fathers, men not only find their own lives more joyful and
fulfilling—they pass on to the next generation an unshakable legacy of love,
wisdom, responsibility, and strength.
Novels Written with Wife Denene Millner
Love Don't Live Here Anymore
Click to order from Amazon
Hardcover: 324 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult (March 4, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0525946411
ISBN-13: 978-0525946410
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
By Ariel Leve, 17 Jul 2012
Read an AALBC.com Book Review
Randy Murphy and Mikki Chance-Murphy are a contemporary couple whose marital bond is tested by the demands of their emerging professional lives. He is an ad executive who has temporarily relocated to Paris to pursue a prestigious account. She is a fashion designer living in Brooklyn, trying to move her struggling bridal boutique into the black.
Unfolding in alternating chapters from each of their points of view, Love Don't Live Here Anymore tells the story of what happens to a marriage when infidelity and distance-both physical and emotional-enter the equation. As Mikki finds herself powerfully drawn to her husband's best friend, it will take some major shaking up-not to mention faith, understanding, and lots of love-to put the pieces of their marriage back together. If it's not too late.
A novel about the choices that shape our lives and relationships, this is a moving and captivating addition to contemporary African-American fiction.
In Love and War
Click to order from Amazon
Hardcover: 341 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult (February 1, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0525947094
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
Denene Millner and Nick Chiles made waves with Love Don't Live Here Anymore, their debut novel hailed by critics for its "insightful look at modern marriage" (Publisher's Weekly) and its "humor, compassion and honesty" (Booklist).
In Love and War takes us into the lives of Zaria Chance, sister of Mikki Chance-Murphy, the female protagonist of Love Don't Live Here Anymore, and Kenneth Roman, a teacher and basketball coach. When Zaria walks into Kenneth's classroom to discuss her son's unruly behavior, there is instant conflict as these two strong personalities go head-to-head-but there is also a powerful physical attraction. Though they see the world in completely different ways, it soon becomes clear they can't live without each other. But when Kenneth gets caught in a colossal lie, Zaria must decide whether she can overcome her pain and outrage to take him back.
Told in alternating viewpoints, this warm-hearted, sensual novel gives us an intimate perspective on each of the main characters' thoughts and feelings-the suspicions of the single mom and the panic of the wary bachelor. Peopled by a cast of complex and appealing characters drawn from real life and imbued with the candor, compassion, and humor that made their first novel a success, this Millner-Chiles tale is for anyone who has ever loved, lusted, and struggled to make a relationship work in the face of irrepressible drama and intense emotional baggage.
What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know About Sex: The Real Deal On Passion, Loving, And Intimacy
Click to order from Amazon
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 26, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0688171079
ISBN-13: 978-0688171070
Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
Sex fascinates us. Scares us. Troubles us. Sex, not baseball, is the real American pastime. But the rules are often kept under wraps, and no one's quite sure about the definition of a home run. Until now.
Bestselling authors Denene Millner and Nick Chiles break open the vault and reveal the real deal on what African Americans think about sex. Drawing on their own experiences as husband and wife -- and those of their friends who were willing to give it up they offer insights and sizzling tips for communicating, seducing and heating up the bedroom (or wherever else couples may find themselves . . . ). In their own unique way, they help couples communicate about sex -- from their favorite pleasure to their most sinful fantasy -- to keep a relationship healthy and hot. It makes for some steamy reading....
What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know About Sex rides the coattails of two bestsellers: Denene Millner's The Sistahs' Rules and What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know, which she wrote with her husband, Nick Chiles.
Now, Millner and Chiles once again venture boldly into each other's heads to discover-and decode -- what African American men and women really think about sex and intimacy. In a he said/she said format, the authors discuss the emotional and physical landscape of sex with one specific goal: to help other couples communicate about sex-from their favorite pleasures to their most sinful fantasies -- to keep a relationship healthy and hot.
Ranging from the first date to the first baby, from missionary style to love-making so creative that your whole body blushes, What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know About Sex replaces myth with reality, wipes away taboo, and begins a dialogue about sex and intimacy so real that it will deepen any love connection.
What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know About Sex rides the coattails of two bestsellers: Denene Millner's The Sistahs' Rules and What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know, which she wrote with her husband, Nick Chiles.
Now, Millner and Chiles once again venture boldly into each other's heads to discover-and decode--what African American men and women really think about sex and intimacy. In a he said/she said format, the authors discuss the emotional and physical landscape of sex with one specific goal: to help other couples communicate about sex-from their favorite pleasures to their most sinful fantasies--to keep a relationship healthy and hot.
Ranging from the first date to the first baby, from missionary style to love-making so creative that your whole body blushes, What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know About Sex replaces myth with reality, wipes away taboo, and begins a dialogue about sex and intimacy so real that it will deepen any love connection.
A Love Story
Click to order from Amazon
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade (June 7, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451215168
ISBN-13: 978-0451215161
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
Aaron and his best friend Nina have been soulmates since childhood. They believe the reason their friendship has lasted is because they never crossed the line and fell in love. But this summer, Aaron and Nina are taking their friendship where it's never gone before, proving that romance is sweeter, sexier, and scarier when the stakes are sky high.
Related Links
Nick and his wife Denene Milner have launched a new site, NorthParan.com, that they feel could change the way that black books are sold. For every book that is sold on their site, they will donate a free book to a needy black child somewhere in the U.S. or abroad.
