dgivensterry

By Dorothy Givens Terry As an African-American author who is trying to get her middle grade/young adult novel traditionally published, and as a parent of an avid reader, I knew I needed to be at the Publishers Weekly’s (PW), “Salaries and Diversity in Publishing” seminar in New York City. The seminar pegs off of a PW diversity in publishing survey, the results of which appear in the magazine’s October 13 issue. The magazine article and the subsequent discussion, hosted on Oct. 16 at Random House’s headquarters, were eye-openers as I learned that the lack of diversity within publishing may explain the lack of diversity on my daughter’s bookshelf. The racial composition and the number of people in the audience at the seminar were, in themselves, very telling. Read more at http://colormereading.wordpress.com/

Got to keep the faith, my brother!

“I’m a Good Wife…Most of the Time” 2nd Edition Released as E-Book Written by Dorothy Givens Terry | 2nd edition | e-book | $2.99 Synopsis: Do black women go through midlife crises? Shelby Freeman’s not sure, but the African-American wife and stepmom feels fat and is about to turn forty, and the itch from her seven-year marriage has developed into an irritating rash. Bored with life in the sterile confines of extreme suburbia, she turns to journaling to sort through her mixed emotions about marriage, monogamy, career, and the elusive quest for motherhood. Soon, Shelby gets more excitement than she can handle when her journal entries, including her steamy fantasies about a sexy, younger coworker, start to mysteriously appear on the Internet. Told entirely through journal entries, Shelby’s life goes from an “aging nice girl nobody” to a “fugitive from my own life,” when her journal goes viral and Shelby goes on the lam from the media onslaught, an angry husband, irate coworkers, family, friends and “journal junkies” who log on by the millions to take a peek inside her diary and her life. I’m a Good Wife…Most of the Time author Dorothy Givens Terry says her own midlife career crisis prompted her to pen and self-publish her first novel in 2005. “If I am remembering correctly,” says Terry, “I had become extremely bored at work (and no, it was not at an education organization, like Shelby in the novel), and I began writing as a way to relieve the tedium.” Terry recently refreshed the book and has launched it as an e-book on www.amazon.com. So what has changed? “I moved the time frame of the novel to the present, but the story’s overarching themes remain basically the same,” says Terry, “relationships, mainly, but also how the Internet can almost instantly give anyone their 15 minutes of fame, whether they want it or not!” The book is written entirely as journal entries, in the spirit of “Bridget Jones’ Diary.” Over the span of a year, Shelby Freeman writes of her boredom in a marriage gone stale, her career stagnation, quirky co-workers, her wayward sister, her “angry teen” stepson and his free-spirited mother, her struggles with infertility and her growing attraction to a new, younger co-worker. The bulk of the journal entries mysteriously find their way to the Internet, goes viral and wreaks havoc on Shelby’s life. She runs away to escape the intrusion, but quickly finds out that, with the Internet, there is nowhere to hide! Take a peek inside Shelby's journal!

A funny thing happened on the way to the revolution. Somebody forgot to tell us that, in our rush out the door to join in the riches of the larger society as a result of desegregation, we might want to preserve at least some to the things that made us a self-sustaining community, just in case. Well, with the current high unemployment rates among African-Americans, higher than the nation as a whole, that "just in case" moment may be here. The one thing we may have forgotten to do "just in case"? Mind our own businesses! It’s no surprise that, as times get tough, people tend to look out for their own. Yes, that means a lot of cronyism, a little bit of nepotism, and unfortunately, the ugly monster of racism. But, hey, if we don't own the business or know people who do, we don't have a whole lot of sway in the hiring process, do we? Sure, we can file a lawsuit or something if we suspect preferential hiring practices, but those cases are hard to prove if we don't have a "smoking gun," -- say, an application with an incriminating statement like "I don't hire N-words!" scrawled across it with someone's signature attached to it or a video of someone saying the same. The point I'm trying to make is this -- I remember growing up in a community where blacks owned motels and restaurants and butcher shops and print shops and millineries and newspapers and fish markets and cake shops and corner stores, and yes, funeral parlors and hair salons. In fact, funeral parlors and hair salons seem to be about the only things left that we do own. Granted, many of these types of businesses have fallen victim to the supermarket, the department store, big-box behemoths like Wal-Mart and the Internet, but still...what do we own NOW? Where is our Facebook guy or gal? When's the last time you ate at a black-owned restaurant? Can you find a black book store? Do we even try? Look, "preachy" is not my style and I don't want to end of a negative note, especially since I see glimmers of light on the horizon. In the true style of my people, in times of struggle, we know a thing or two about making a way out of no way. Statistics and stories are trickling in of our not waiting on "the man" to give us a job or keep us on the job, but creating opportunities for ourselves. Cases in point: --I have a neighbor who is making and selling a tasty sauce that is native to his Sierra Leone upbringing. --I have a soror who has launched a communications consulting business. --I stopped at a sample table in the commissary at Quantico and purchased a bag of seasoning for chicken and fish from a sister whose family owns a restaurant in the area and is trying to expand their offerings. I myself, spurred by the story of a young white girl who is raking in the dough selling her self-published e-books on amazon.com, have refreshed and relaunched my own book on the same platform, I'm a Good Wife...Most of the Time, http://mysite.verizon.net/resysc92/ . There are other stories out there, no doubt, and I'm encouraged by them. So, I urge all of us to rethink who we are and what we have to offer and -- LET'S GET TO WORK!

This post caught my eye because Sullivan Island is referenced indirectly in my book, "I'm a Good Wife...Most of the Time." The main character, Shelby Freeman, is an African-American woman in the throes of a midlife crisis. She writes about all of her anxieties in a journal, whose pages begin to mysteriously appear of the Internet. The Internet journal entries go viral and suddenly Shelby is thrust into the white-hot and unwanted celebrity spotlight. She runs away to "Dewey Island" in her native South Carolina. While there, she attends a fundraiser to dedicate a site on the island as a slave burial ground memorial to those unfortunate African souls who died on American soil shortly after arrival and whose bodies were unceremoniously dumped in mass graves on the island. In another scene in the book, as Shelby stands on the shores of "Dewey Island," she acknowledges the African men, women and children who were lost at sea during the grueling Middle Passage. I am a native of Charleston and hope to return at some point this year to visit the exhibit mentioned in this article. If you want to know more about my book, or me, visit http://mysite.verizon.net/resysc92/ .