Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me. 

 ~ Maya Angelou

When I was in college, a young woman read this poem in class.  I am so glad that she did.  She opened me to a writer whose words were written so simply, but I could not escape the power within them.  After hearing this poem I went out and found more of Maya Angelou's works.  I was not disappointed, she was a phenomenal writer.  I am sad to hear that she has passed away.  I am so thankful to have read her wisdom, her gift.  I hope you too have enjoyed what she has written.

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you."  ~ Maya Angelou

One month until the release of "Heart of the Emperor"

Very exciting stuff!  I have posted the first chapter of Heart of the Emperor!   You can find it in the tabs above or click here.   Smashwords has also began pre-order.  That is kind of cool.  I didn't think much about it, but now that I am right on the threshold of releasing my book, I decided to take advantage of it.  So if you click on Smashwords or Apple right now you can pre-order the book, plus - as always- you can read the first 20%.    It will eventually be at Kobo and Barnes&Nobles to pre-order too.   I'm also hoping to have the paperback ready by it's release date too, transitioning Apple's pages format to word had messed with the formatting so i have to go back to the library to re-format (ugh).  It's not hard, just tedious and time consuming.  I guess that's the price to being independent, and I'll pay that.  Anyways, I hope you check out "Heart of the Emperor".


Two other things.

One: As I was going through the "chapter" tabs I found that I had put chapter one of Blades of the Ytinu Srebas instead of chapter one for Marks of the Satrii.  Oops.  It's fixed now.   I apologize for that err.

Two:  What would be a blog from me if I didn't give you an update of everything else too!  I started reading through a hard copy of book three for The Shadow Dragon and I did not hate chapter one!  YEAH!!!  Also, looking at the word counts for Book 3 and 4, I just might end up making it all book three.  I don't want to have to add information just to hit a word count because I think that the readers will notice and that will not make me or my readers happy.  However, I'm not anywhere near ready to hand them off to my editors so, we'll have to wait and see.  I've also been writing more on Story 15 - my attempt at a third person book (cringing).  I'm going to have to print off a copy to see if I can make sense of it and get my brain to see it properly.  I do like the story though, so I won't scrap it.   I've also been writing more on the Story 14 too.  I've also been trying to stay on top of my Facebook page (Click here) giving it more than just an update to my blog.

Less than six weeks!

In less than 6weeks Heart of the Emperor will be released.   I thought I'd share the blurb that will be used in the long description.  Hope it intrigues you:

The betrayal of Commander Emma Matix cost her everything. Now she’s in a predicament where she must trust a Kamtra man that is rumored to rip people apart with his bare hands. She has stared into his metallic orange eyes and knows that he is quite capable of killing anyone that stands in his way. She knows he loathes the human race. So why did he save her in the first place? Was it to strip her of her identity, torture her, use her against the human race? Or did he keep her alive simply to prove to all what he is actually capable of? There is always an ulterior motive to kindness. Perhaps if she can figure out what his is, she will be able to survive.

Inspiration from Imagine Dragons

I was working on The Shadow Dragon series and couldn't stop crying during this scene I was writing, which of course makes it harder to write. This particular scene came to life while I was listening "Demons" by Imagine Dragons. Sure hope I can convey the emotion that my characters feel in that scene. Right now I think you all would have laughed at my tears if you read it. In my defense, there is something about selfless sacrifice that gets me every time.  The forth book is currently just over 32,000 words (it isn't finished and I haven't re-read it yet).  The third book is 48,000 words and is waiting for me to go over the revision I made to the printed manuscript.  Both books are moving along.  Just thought I'd give you an update.  Oh and here's the song in case you wanted to listen to it:

A birthday surprise!

I love birthdays.  To me it his not about getting older, it's about, well, everything else.  Birthdays always energize me.  Today is my birthday and I am extra excited because I've finally done something I've wanted to do since I started writing.  I have made Taken (book 1 and 2) into one book.  I remember how hard the decision was to make the story two books.  Most of this decision was inexperience (obviously).  I was impatient - I couldn't wait to publish it.  So since I had the first half of the story finished, and was still working on the second half, I decided to go ahead and publish.  Although, I must say people have loved it as two books (it is still my biggest seller), plus I wouldn't have two amazing covers, and I think I would have had a harder time with subtitling it.  Oh the nightmare of coming up with a new title if I didn't subtitle it ("Taken" is a popular title).  I cringe at the thought.

I wanted to do this a long time ago.  My biggest setback was I didn't know what to do with the cover.  Did I use the first one, the second one, the back from the paperback...?  I tried putting both covers on the one cover, you know one cover on one half, the other cover on the other half with a sold or blurred line running between the two.  I didn't like that at all - not vertically, not horizontally, not slanted.  This was so frustrating.  A few days ago as I was attempting to make myself like the half&half cover (because I wanted to have this out on my birthday) when another idea occurred to me.  I merged them.  Yea, yea, I know, it's still half&half.  (I'm sticking my tongue out in a child-like manner.) But now it flows together.  Two books as one!  If you're familiar with the story then you understand the importance.

I don't know if it will be at Barnes&Nobles, Apple, or Kobo today, but it is at Smashwords (selling for $4.99)!  I know you're probably sick of seeing me write how much I love Smashwords.   But I am not going to stop.  I just love what Mark Coker has done.   He had a dream and now he's helping other people achieve theirs.  If I don't support that, then why am I writing at all?   Life is about dreams: yours and mine.  It's passion that makes us love our lives - no matter what else is going on.

What better present for me than to do this!  So today I give you the story, that allowed me to realize my passion, in one book!