Troy

Cynique, making a donation to a local organization fighting black-on-black crime is the least Spike could do. Any idea what the size of the donation was? Honestly, I had not considered the perspective of the a Chicagoans, who were personally touched by violence there. After thinking a bit more deeply about it; maybe this is not the time for a pimped out Samuel L Jackson, sexy babes, and jokes, but rather, a time for some serious reflection on what to do about the situation in Chitown and in other cities. We all know Amazon, like Spike (IMHO), is solely interested in making money. But I will reserve complete judgement until the unlikely time I see the film. Actually when it becomes available for streaming on Amazon I'll check it out.

I have to set up the profiles on the new website. You can attached your photo in an email and sent it to me t troy@aalbc.com, You can also reply by adding your photo here. Just click the link next to the paper clip where is says "choose files..." (or you can just drag and drop the files there).

@Shirley Gale, I just visited the SCBWI's website. It has a well defined niche, and I like the site's content. The boards are smart and very interesting. I found a conversation about Facebook; "Does Facebook Help Authors Sell Books?" That article was viewed 1,120 times since September. The article pointed to an article on Digital Book Worlds's site, "Why Facebook Cannot Help You Sell Books." Which I read and commented on (a tactic I use to drive traffic to my articles ). There was nothing written in the article or comments that Chris and I have not already discussed here. So why does a like the SCWI's boards get more activity? Well there are a lot of reasons, but the fundamental reason is that The SCWI is supported by their community. We (Black authors) simply do not support our own. It pains me to say this, but I've been in this space for almost 20 years. Of course there are many supportive authors, but not nearly enough. Now it would seem illogical for an author not to support an entity, like AALBC.com, whose sole purpose is to advocate for them and their work. But, sadly this is the reality, not just for this site, but many others like mine, most of whom have failed to survive.

"Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world." Man times have really changed. I have heard nothing about this movie. Other than news reports about Amazon making movies. I do recall a teaser on NPR about the film being controversial -- but that is it. At anyrate, the trailer has piqued my interest in the film. It looks like vintage Spike/Dickerson work. But I need Spike to subscribe to my eNewsletter, or something, before I go see this film...that is not a petty as it might sound. I think a sex strike would result in more violence not less

Hickson where will you be filming this?

Shirley your feedback is welcome. I listen to it all. It is like editing your own writing something you just can't see things because you are too close to it. Right now I'm trying to decide on the color of the menu and the background color. I like both colors, but I'm not sure they are complementary. I plan on building out the book club portion of the website. It will become a big portion of who I service moving forward. As far as commenters, yeah it too bad there is not more participation. But I'll keep this section of the site up, because when I first started there was no one here :-) So while supporting social media is the big thing now, I think there will be a time for sites like AALBC.com's forums, again, in the future.

Sure @Shirley Gale, send me the video. If it is on Youtube or Video simply paste the URL of the video in a message it will automatically embed here. If you have written books the books ISBN's here and I'll create a page for you on the new website

I definitely agree about the topic of the book. Perhaps I'll write a proposal and pitch the idea to a couple of agents, otherwise I'll sell publish. I agree about a CMS--that is what I'm building, the canned one from Wordpress, is too limiting for what I want to do. So I'm building my own database, cms and html pages. Sure this is much harder, but it is FAR more powerful, as I hope is demonstrated when I'm done. The cool thing is I really enjoy the challenge of doing it--even the bit about making is a viable business. I just hope to make as much money selling books (promoting the beauty and diversity of our culture through books and film) as you do sell sneakers. Thanks for your support @CDBurns (btw how are you alerted when I tag you with the "@" symbol before your name?, this is a new feature from the recent upgrade).

Yes I was aware of the 3rd book from Sista Soulja (I have not finished migrating her content to the new site). This book did not get any promotion or buzz either. This, I'm sure is a lack of advertising on both the publishers and authors side. Plus there are just simply few platforms that would be including to cover this book several of the indie platform and Black Expressions Book Club have shut down. Are you, by any chance, the "Literary Marie," of the site that I linked to above?

Yeah that was not a connection I would have immediately made, because MK's book Buck is the memoir of a kid growing up homeless in the street of a "Killadephia," PA ghetto. You would enjoy these lectures.

Those studies on the brain have already been done :-) Fundamentally, we Sapiens create stories to make sense of the world. In the content of writing, we know what we intended to write, so that is what we actually read--even if it is not on the page. This is the reason getting an editor when you publish a book is necessary, it is very difficult to edit your own work--especially while you are writing it. It is also why poetry is so interesting because the form lends itself for people to create stores; the writer could never have possibly intended.

I agree about people being tired of getting used. Man I have to say while I do make time for family, and my teaching, right about now that is about all I have made time for lately. The website redesign had pretty much consumed me over that last month. I rarely go to the gym. I get up early too, but I really try to spend at least 6 hours in bed (I probably need at least 7). I probably spend about 12 hours a day behind the P.C.--fully engaged and interested in what I'm doing. So the 12 hours feels like 12 minutes. The downside is that sitting in front a PC can't be good for you from a health perspective, so I'm looking forward to returning to a more normal life style. After the site redesign I'm going to finally write a book too--I just have to think about what people might want to read about... BTW Chris your domain christopherdburns.com now points to your page on the new website.

Hi Guest, I just checked the link on my end it works for me, but that is academic now as I see the Kickstarter campaign has ended.

On November 22, 2015 The Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry will host a lecture by Dr. Molefi K. Asante, the author of over 70 books. He will discuss his book latest book African Pyramids of Knowledge. I'll be in Atlanta this weekend, but if I could make this lecture I definitely would!

IF ANYONE OUT THERE LURKING IS A BEN CARSON SUPPORTER PLEASE SPEAK UP. Armstrong Williams has been a staunch Carson supporter. I think he is his business manager. A Trump/Saunders ticket would result in mutual annihilation sort of like combining matter and anti-matter

Man where do you find the time. I looked at the title and busted out laughing. Please post the ISBN so that I can add it to your page.

I believe more information is communicated through books than through video. I think since people are learning something, through videos, that they are learned as much as they might if they also read. I'm not saying it is either or. I'm think both great together. But If I had to pick one method getting information it would be a book. The culture has chosen video, I think that is to our detriment--and that is really point. I probably use Youtube more than any other website in terms of time spend (not counting dev time on AALBC.com) Even on AALBC.com, the new site, in particular, I try to find a video for every page. I literally just created a page for MK Asante, I was already familiar with his memoir Buck, but I actually never met him or saw him speak, but the page together with the video was far more interesting than just looking at the book jacket and text alone:

I'm a right-side brained guy so poetry is often lost on me, but like this one. If you don't mind I have a couple of questions The line below threw me off a bit. I'm not sure what is meant by "one one to trust." The poem seems spiritual in nature. I take in "thee" in the final line to refer to God, but since it is not capitalized you may be referring to the reader, as if you are revealing a vulnerability we all share. Life is a mystery with one one to trust.

Man you won't have to buy the banner back from me, I'll give it to you whenever you want it. Since so many people are using Facebook as their main site I figured I could do a better job providing a web presence for them on AALBC.com. Plus I'll let them forward domains to their AALBC.com pages. In fact, since it is a bit technical for most people to do, I'll do it for them. Eventually I do need to figure out a way to transfer domain ownership (and those annual payments) to the authors. I'm also going to create pages for Book clubs. Clubs very willing to collaborate. One book club, the Me Time Book Club from Tuscaloosa AL, even put my logo on their website, which was very nice of them to do. They probably took the Chris Burns class for, on "web development and consciousness."

But you have to admit Unkel Ruckus does have a point. No one mistook Obama for an expert on foreign affairs or fiscal policy. Still, that does not negate anything Cynique wrote. Obama's appeal was the promise of change. This is the appeal of Carson and his evil twin Trump. Trump using his own money is compelling in the sense that he is beholden to no one, not even Wall Street, unlike Obama. However it also means Trump is not beholden to the people once he gets their vote. I don't think Carson is electable as president. While he may be beloved by the Christians in the south. They are more than outnumbered of the liberals in the major cities who hate him. Trump is electable...

Thanks man. I was not a big fan of it either, but from a technical perspective, but they are very popular and used on a lot of sites. Using a standard banner would also be much easier for me to implement too. Considering your books were one of the images and you still don't like it means you really don't like it. Yeah I'm aware of the alignment issue, and will work those out. I'm experimenting with a bunch of elements on the page which visually looks simply but is a a pain on the backend. Once I settle on what elements i'm using then I make everything line up. Even changing the menus on the content pages will probably take me the better part of a day or two. When you say you like the center of the page, do you mean the round author's images or the larger images with the large text. So you like reading is social huh? I came with that I as I placed the image, but a quick google search shows it is not a unique slogan at 31K results it is basically a cliche. I guess there is really nothing new under the sun. I registered http://chrisdburns.com and pointed it to your web page. There a typo in the original forwarding entry, I corrected it, but it may take a couple of hours for the change to propagate across the net. I also set the masking so that your domain name will persist in the browser, even though you are on my site.

http://aalbc.org/ I think I'm getting closer to a new homepage design. I've completely reworked the menu structure and am playing around with elements on the page. I still have not settled on colors yet, I kind of like the mustard background (more relaxing), but I also like the blue menu which is more energetic, but the too colors are not exactly complementary. I think I'm going to sell the sliding banner at the top of the page as ad space. As always I'm looking for suggestions, ideas and comments.

Cynique, my goal is to create a platform worthy of your writing. I'm going to quote you in the next eNewsletter.

Thanks Shirley, it is a struggle for me to do this, I appreciate you kind words. Thanks. Where have you been all this time? Got any like minded friends? Send them over too :-)

I've completed a list, over the weekend, of all the Black winners and nominees for National Book Awards: This year (2015) had the most number of Black nominee, 9 on the long list and 6 finalists, than ever before--more than the first quarter century that the award was given! More than makes up for the watermelon joke, huh?