Mel Hopkins

@richardmurray Thank you for an alternative perspective. There are as many in our history as there are people. Still the key to balance is being aware that our differing angles exist.. Thank you!

@Troy Surely, your cousin attached some other trauma to the American flag to deem it racist. She wasn’t enslaved under the American flag or confederate flag but the latter is the symbol of those who wanted the right to enslaved people to prop up their economy. In fact, from this story, it seems she avoided neighbors for whom Old Glory symbolized something different. And I suspect, the American flag signaled her neighbors intent on doing harm I have no sort of trauma attached to the American flag - other than one was given to my mother for her husband's ultimate sacrifice - Aside: Embracing any symbol, such as flag, is strange; especially when the focus should be on its principles instead. Also, Neither Del nor Cynique wrote that Jefferson wasn't trash. They responded that the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings was nuanced. From my POV, their statement doesn’t absolve Jefferson of anything. And speaking of Jefferson and Washington, while either may have performed alleged treasonous acts against England; they were founders of the Union. A statute of either would be more appropriate than one of Benedict Arnold. So, a statue of someone such as Lee who fought against the union wouldn’t be welcomed here either. I can see those in the confederate states remembering their war dead - but statues of the losing generals are disrespectful. Imagine one of those mosque here in the U.S. erecting a statue of Osama bin Laden. We now know those statues are symbols that emboldened those filled with hate. It's best they go. For whatever reason, however, there's a statue of George Washington in England’s Trafalgar Square. So maybe the Queen doesn’t hold a grudge. Or America is still a colony.

What does it take to get to a Happily Ever After? It's 2017 and romance novels are still the best-selling trade books in the America, maybe even the world. I'd go out on a limb to say the reason is two people always find their happily ever after. But how about outside the book covers? In life? What does it take to get HEA? In today's podcast, I explore the reality. Do you have what it takes to hurdle the obstacles to achieve your happy ending? Transcript available on melhopkinsdotom in the comment section.

Wow, what a class act! I never missed a Jerry Lewis movie and now I feel like he was the man I thought he was behind the character.

@Cynique I'm glad you did. Thank you for sharing <3

@Del , this is my belief too - if consciousness survives - then it only stands to reason what we believe survives too. In fact, when consciousness comes into question in tv/film dramas , this seems to be the trend as well.

@Pioneer1, You must be confusing nice with kind. I'm kind to people but I'm never nice. The etymology (origin) of Nice - is not know , ignorant, stupid... while people may use it to mean Kind - I don't. I don't waste time being stupid of ignorant of people's foolishness. As for your question, the majority of black people in the United States are successful in every sense of the word. The majority (73%) of black people in the inner cities of America and the majority (80%) of black people in the suburbs are living above the poverty line. This means 20% of suburban black people and 27% of inner city black people are poor. Source: The Atlantic

YES!!! We're communicating now (sending and receiving)... but you do need-need a literary publicist, though Actually, you really do need a staff! MAN!!!

And he wasn't even the first man to leave the council. Tesla's Elon Musk left in June because as he said, "Climate Change is Real"....LOL

@Troy, No, I wouldn't give 500 square of my house to anyone because are people are full of sh*t. I can't even trust them not to lie to themselves. What I would do, is what I have done every day of my life. I DO NOT SUPPORT people, institutions or entities that ensure someone will be homeless, incarcerated or beat down . To be candid.. If you can't tell by now, I don't support most bullsh*t thinking or bullsh*t activities that folks participate in that have an adverse effect on our society. I don't wait until its fashionable - I live my life in a way that people or other living things aren't crushed under the weight of my decisions. Case in point, I've just learned about godaddy and their game-hunting CEO now I'm looking to extract myself from using their services. Peter Thiel founder of paypal - isn't someone I want to do business with so now I'm looking for another company (oh wait I see that's going to take me a minute) ... Those are the latest on my list - show me who you are and how you harm and you can forget about me supplying you anything. This is why I'm not impressed by anyone running around trying to take down monuments and undo what they participated in to build up over the years. Why do you think I spend so much of my time working for FREE with people who are helping themselves - because I believe in focusing on those who are looking to make a change. If we don't like results society is handing us just STOP PROPPING IT UP!

Yes, this appears to be the case with the majority of author websites. They write books so why would their individual websites attract several thousand visitors a day? If their websites were attracting several thousand visitors a day - why would they need AALBC? This is the point I'm making... find out why they would need AALBC - determine how AALBC can remove the pain-point. Facebook is providing them something they need. THIS! Yes... You found how to ease one of the pain-points!!! The self-published author with no audience is the one for your congregation - This is the group that is searching for a church home... You just have to prepare a sermon to communicate to them, the services and support (a la carte ) they would get from aalbc.com as if they were under a publishing house.

@Troy, This means you don't NEED a publicist. No one has convinced you how it can be worth the expense. Since you've paid for other things on this that relate to this site it's because you've made the connection between the value and your money.

One of the fertile ones! Yep... that's me hahaha:D

I wish for you MANY MANY MANY MORE!!! <3

@Cynique , thank you for sharing I think I had a similar for reaction. When I thought of what I wrote about compassion... I realized I'd gone searching for compassion because I was mean to others. But at the same time, I have (or had) this need for people to like me. But then I realized I'm hard on others because I'm so hard on myself. I beat myself up for falling short of my personal goals. I got it twisted. Whereas I thought I was learning compassion for others, it hit me that I needed to learn to be compassionate with myself. I think that is the key to being naturally easy with others.

Exactly. This is why I ask "WHY" should we care. If we don't care about each other now. "Or even try very hard to care" What is the impetus to care. And clearly pain and suffering isn't enough. It's not like we all don't know what you've mentioned already exist. We've existed this way for the last 2, 017 years. Probably more if I add in Before Common Era - But only the strong survive... So while I read your words, and was almost tempted to put a like on it - my other side says there has to be a reason why we should care ...and pain and suffering ain't it. We know there's a lot of pain and suffering -and that hasn't moved us to do anything before?. So there has to be another reason to care...THE WHY is what I want to know. I have a feeling, though, it has nothing to do with equity or making people comfortable. We've built and contributed to this society and we sure didn't care enough to make sure it wouldn't be one that crushes the spirit. Sure there a lot people sitting in prison but they didn't just get rounded up one day like it was an internment camp. Incarcerating a large number of society happens when no one cares. I know one black man who isn't in there thanks to me... I don't run away from jury duty. I get called regularly because I VOTE in every election. But I digress. We're at the precipice, and now some are crying "we will not be replaced" while others are looking for "women to save them", while others are looking for "us to support each other." I think the real reason "Why" is because there's a huge shift underway -and there's a lot of uncertainty, people are scared shitless and NOW they want support.

I hope you get enough responses. Then you'll be able to collect information on what authors really want and need. There are different stages and different needs for each of those stages in the business of writing.. It stands to reason if authors don't currently use the aalbc.com platform ,as you mentioned, then they don't have the need to use it... Therefore, the survey questions become "As an author, WHY don't you use AALBC.com services... You can even provide reasons + other as options. I think you'll get a better understanding of where there's a disconnect. And there's a disconnect, if like you said As for me, AALBC boost my name ranking on google but that ranking doesn't draw people to my website. My links and features on website about aalbc - get visitors to my wordpress.org site "TheLeadStory.org " but my referrals and traffic come from other sites such a baidu, and tessgerritsen's website and a few other popular website where I've made comments. Now when I threw up a page on facebook - traffic to my website literally increased overnight. I didn't even visit facebook - I just used the publicize feature on wordpress and it posted my blog posts in my feed. If we are looking at marketing efficiency - I don't even have to connect to any other website but facebook to increase traffic to my personal platform. It's an active choice to post my work on my aalbc profile as I would facebook but there's no traffic from my aalbc profile page post returning to my website... So If this is what other midlist nonbest-selling authors are experiencing too - then I can see why it's easier to have their books posted here, advertised here and let the readers peruse the page like a catalogue...but for authors to go further than advertising . It then eats away at a chunk of time we could be writing. Best -selling authors don't need to participate here and the rest of us selling a few books may be able to get better visibility elsewhere. So this is why I mentioned find out WHY "authors, simply don't take of the platform"

@Pioneer1 I made my statement. How you respond is your business. Just like I mentioned about being average, the choice is always yours. Oh, and I'm never nice. I don't waste my time on it. @Troy , Why?

You're welcome! I'm mindful that not everyone has access to indoor plumbing and can take showers... but how awesome would it be to just take advantage of the next rain shower and/or storm.

@Cynique ok this one got a me a bit... Since it's one of the virtue I thought I needed to work on (got up this morning and thought to myself I'm kind of mean so why fake it LOL) So, why do you believe you need feel sympathy?

Poll authors regarding their professional and personal goals. Is it reader engagement? Sales? Market expansion? Introduction? Once you get responses, you'll be able to promote AALBC features that will help them achieve those goals.

Would you post it again

Not sure if this is relevant but I was born in the north - but now live in the south... I spend my time in my own head. I participate in my family gatherings but my family lived up north before returning to georgia. I don't venture out to public gatherings here - unless its to observe. One thing I noticed however when looking up "Chinese Zodiac" Year of the tiger etc I learned that I should avoid the southwest

It's easy to answer this question because we can easily determine the answer by how we spend our time. I just recently found yet another 160 page document in my file filled with my philosophy on the virtues. I'm committed to understanding my self; where I fall short on certain virtues and where I excel on others and I spend a great amount of time reading, thinking, writing to find out. Then I'm committed to inspiring others to do the same for themselves. Understanding Self is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves and then to society. It changed my life in a way that I'm more skeptical of the tenets of the society. I see through them - and when you see through the illusion, you have to re-write your rules of engagement. Yet through it all I've learned to be more compassionate and patient.

@Pioneer1 Your arguments are inferior. You've presented a false dichotomy and I haven't the time nor desire to refute each. I'll just use your argument against you. 74 million people voted against 45* ,in the last election. 63+ million voted for him. The minority decided who is sitting in the oval office today. Those you believe, are the current minority, those who chose to pull themselves out of the "average" pool, now control the fate of the average. The "minority" of above-the-average people decide how much your time is worth per hour. The minority of above-the-average people decide if they will hire you for a job. The minority of above-the-average people decide where you will live, what clothes you wear, what you eat and what kind of health care you deserve. And you ask, How can the majority of ANY population be wrong???? They can't be wrong. They don't decide a damn thing. Now you can continue to excuse people for remaining average. Citing all the things that are keeping them average - or you can look to the people living in the same society under the same conditions and follow their lead to success. Because trust, the "minority" of above-the-average people aren't going to decide to change society so it will ease the pressures on folks too lazy to determine their own strengths. But then again maybe pounding the drums for mediocrity is to help you remain atop the heap of the company you keep. Only you know your reasons. In the interim, the "minority "of above-the-average people who pulled themselves out of the "average" pile will continue to decide your fate and the fate of those who you continue to excuse for being mediocre. Case-in-point, policymakers have been telling the masses since before the 90s, those high paying jobs are not coming back. Reagan said as much in the 80s. So, when Democratic Presidential candidate Obama, another one in the minority of those above-the-average folks, who came after the dotcom bust and its resurgence, gently told those in attendance, those jobs are not coming back, did they not believe him? President Obama came after the fall of the Auto-industry and bailed it out and when it returned it went high-tech. Yet, someone was still asking about jobs that left before the turn of the century? Yes, thank you for proving my point. Remaining average is a choice. President Obama was not the savior but he attempted to provide educational opportunities for the future generations and did. (I already posted that black women are now the most educated in America) But even Jesus couldn't save those too lazy to educate themselves about their own talents and innate power. Hmm, was it the majority or minority that even crucified him for trying? But you seem to think cheerleading black women who provide sex to dead-from-the-neck-on-up men will raise up the black community. Ain't nobody got to time to for those whom won't help himself.