Entering 2024 with a boat load of Courage

by Diana McCollum

 

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything…” Vincent Van Goh

 

For her Christmas present this year I took my youngest daughter to see the Vincent Van Goh Immersive art show in Sacramento, CA.

Neither one of us knew a whole lot about Vincent Van Goh, other than we liked his art work and of course, that he had cut off his ear while in a depressive state.

 

He had the ‘courage’ to try many types of paintings. From his famous ‘Starry Night’ painted during one of his stays at the mental institution, to the numerous sunflower paintings. 

 

Author FineShine Deposit photo

Vincent created 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings. The majority of these were done during the last ten years of his life. He completed a painting around every 36 hours. He died at 37 years from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

 

A sad end to a great painter.

 

This quote resonates with me, “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything…” Vincent Van Goh.

 

My daughter has found the courage to volunteer for the disaster relief and rescue of animals. She begins training soon. This is on top of being a wife, mother and full time job. She has the courage to give back and help.

 

Her family lost everything in the Camp Fire that raged through Paradise, CA, 5 years ago. So many people stepped up to help her family and others who suffered from the devastating fire.  A kennels took in her dog and cared for her for over a month for free till my daughter and her husband found a house to rent.

 

I know it takes courage on her part to be able to do this with out triggering feelings about their loss. I’m so very proud of her.

 

My Goal word for the year will be ‘courage’. The courage to try new things, courage to meet my writing goals, courage to speak up and help right wrongs. And maybe even courage to declutter my house and my life.

 

Do you have a goal that can be represented by one word?

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why I Prefer The Traditional Publishing Route

I have listened to several authors wondering about traditional vs self-publication. I have done both, and for me, there is no question. I prefer traditional. Not just because of the advance, which is admittedly a nice deal. If you self publish, the writing in only step one. Either you perform every additional detail yourself, or you project manage people you hire, and pay, yourself to do those details. Or you can engage with someone calling themselves a publisher and pay them the big bucks to get things done.  Doing things yourself is the only low cost option, but it does require the kind of person who loves managing a bunch of tasks.  

I have never been a controlling person (unless you talk to my daughter). I hate the tiny details, so to me, taking the slow but steady option of having a publisher take control from me once the writing is done is basically a godsend.  

Some observations on how fiction and non-fiction is treated by publishers.

Editing is very different. In both fiction and non-fiction, the editor choses to buy the rights to publish your book largely based on your writing voice and your knowledge of the subject. But in fiction, my editors were always ready to suggest changes, sometimes down to individual paragraphs or even sentences. Lots of changes, all the while telling me my work only needed a “light edit”. I’d really hate to see a heavy edit. 

Some writers worry that a traditional publisher might want them to change their work into something they don't want.  In my experience the editor's only make suggestions, and when I look, they make sense and end up making the story better.  With Courage, for example, the editor suggested I change the last few chapters. Mind you, she did not tell me what to change things too, just stating that she found the ending confusing.

Frankly, she was right. My ending kind of confused me too. Fortunately, months had passed since I first wrote the manuscript, and I was able to look at it through new eyes and see an alternative. If you have ever read Courage, well, just trust me, the published ending beats the original one hands down. There was a chase through an abandoned warehouse while being pursued by a group of thieves and a SWAT team lead by Mr. Cho who had only pretended to be a parole officer, the better to conduct a sting on the criminals and handle his confidential informant, the heroes’ older brother. Like I said, confusing. I really bless the editor for suggesting that be changed.

ALSO - if you are, or know of a teacher, let them know ASAP that WNDB (We Need Diverse Books) is currently doing a back-to-school giveaway. Winning classrooms and organizations will receive one set of books, and Courage is one of the books in the Elementary School / Middle Grade / YA Bundle. They can find more information, and enter to win, at http://ow.ly/tmOG50KcFW4, The giveaway deadline is only a few days away.  

This year, my first non-fiction middle grade book, Unlawful Orders, has been traveling the long and winding road toward traditional publication, a journey that will end when it hits bookshelves in October.  With non-fiction, I think my editor assumed I really was subject matter expert, or an all-knowing wizard. She suggested so few changes I was amazed, mostly only grammar and misspellings. In fact, she let stand something I expected her to change. I used it as much for shock value as anything else and was so confused when she let it slide that I wrote to ask if she was really going to leave that in. I couldn’t believe they were willing leave something so inflammatory on the pages. Since I never really expected that to hit the final version, I ended up editing it out myself. (And no, I won’t tell you what it was.) The fact-checkers did come after me on a few things. Fortunately, most of the time I was a able to tell them, “I know things are different here in the twenty-first century, but back in the 1940’s…” and then point them to references they had missed. That always felt good. Maybe I deserve those wizard robes!

That is an area where traditional publishing makes me happier than self-publishing. Yes, the traditional route takes longer, but they also add value extras like fact-checkers that act like goalkeepers to ensure the information on the pages is accurate. They also handled the book illustrations. In addition to finding the right cover artists, I discovered that my publisher employs people whose job descriptions involve getting permissions to use the dozens of photographs included in the book. No wondering if I can or cannot include the great pictures we chose together.  Plus, the publisher hired someone to format the chapter notes and bibliography once I demonstrated my utter helplessness in that area. They made a good book so much better.

People talk about how little the publishers do for marketing, but that’s not always true. My publisher interviewed me for a group of librarians, the interview is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hlLlI3Y4PA  

In April they had me on an online School Library Journal panel to discuss the book with librarians. They also arranged to send me to the National Council of Teacher’s of English Homecoming conference in July, the first in-person event the organization has held since Covid descended on us. There was no stipend or honorarium, but the company did pay my transportation and lodging.  I had an audience of educators that I hope I thrilled with my talk. They did line up for me to autograph their ARCs, and many stayed to chat with me, a true ego boost.

As an unanticipated plus to the visit, the NCTE Homecoming event was held in Louisville, Kentucky, close enough to my home in Chicago, Illinois for me to drive instead of fly. After everything I have been seeing about airports and flying these days, it was not a difficult decision, although the hours long drive down highway 65 was no picnic. But as I headed south of Indianapolis, I found the name of a town that somehow seemed familiar. Seymour. I wracked my brain trying to figure out why that word kept rolling around inside my head, then suddenly it hit me. Seymour, Indiana was the location of Freeman Field air base during World War II. That is where the unlawful and illegal orders were given to the characters in my newest book.

 

I literally felt like a fangirl. Even though the airfield itself is long gone, I had to leave the highway and enter the town. It was almost a pilgrimage to a place I had not even known existed only a few years earlier. The location where a hundred Tuskegee Airmen took a stand against discrimination in the military and said no to an illegal order. They were willing to risk their lives by that act of mutiny a decade before Rosa Parks refused the order to give up her seat on a bus.

PS, Seymour also happens to be John Cougar Mellencamp's hometown, so I got one extra treat during that detour.

 

Fiction Vs NonFiction

 

At the end of this month, I will be participating on a panel of authors from Scholastic discussing the value of non-fiction, titled: Three Reasons Kids Need to Read More Non-Fiction. During this discussion, I will talk about my debut historical biography, Unlawful Orders.  Preparing for this has set me thinking about my most recent books, some of their differences and similarities, and why both fiction and non fiction are valuable.  I'm putting down some of the things I have come up with for both genres.   

Fiction helps young readers learn empathy for others. Empathy enables building social connections that can prevent bullying, help children make friends, and ready them to receive help from others. Non-fiction helps nurture a young person’s “insatiable curiosity,” a term that had to be invented to describe the way the very young ask a thousand questions a day. Okay, maybe the number is really closer to a hundred, but you get the picture. They wake up each day with a desire to know more, and good non-fiction can be a fertilizer to keep their blossoming curiosity to from withering as they grow older. In the words of Albert Einstein: 

“I have no special talent – I am only passionately curious.”

I have entered both worlds in my writing career. A few years ago I penned Courage, middle grade fiction written to encourage empathy by immersing them in the lives of kids coping with a variety of issues. Among them are a child dealing with the recent death of a parent from cancer, and one who is just trying to live a normal life despite having sickle cell anemia, a chronic and sometimes debilitating illness. One child is homeless and friendless, another is feels he has to be an overachiever to meet the expectations of his adopted parents. Yet another kid is best friends with the daughter of the Chicago policeman who sent her father to prison. All these young people come together in a story about finding the strength to forgive and grant others second chances. I wrote Courage as a modern day version of the prodigal son story, in hopes it would entertain young people, and at the same time encourage readers to forgive others who have hurt them.

Unlawful Orders, my upcoming nonfiction book (Oct 2022), shares the true story of a family that deserves to be everyone’s role model. I love superhero stories, and tales of wonder-kids who save their dystopian world. But there is something extra in a stories about real human beings in real locations handling real events. And the Williams family saved lives and changed all our futures in more ways than one.

The book centers around one member of the family, James Buchanan WIlliams, “JB” who grew up in a small town attending a one-room schoolhouse - taught by his mother. She was the first African American to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico. How the school’s English department building eventually came to be named after her is a story all its own.

From there the story takes readers on a journey through the history of the twentieth century, with bits of engineering, aerodynamics, psychology, and medical science thrown in. After growing up on the family farm, JB went off to fight for his country during World War II. He and a hundred other Tuskegee Airmen staged what came to be known as the Freeman Field mutiny, an act of disobedience against a superior officer’s order that could have cost him his life, but that preserved his dignity.

After the war, JB headed back to college to obtain both an MD degree and a Master of Science in surgery, before moving to Chicago. The book tells how he became the chief of surgery in a major hospital while working to expand healthcare for the poor across the United States. His efforts included a trip to Washington DC and to lobby President John F. Kennedy for an end of discrimination in medical schools and hospitals.
He also lived long enough to accept a special invitation to attend President Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Dr. Williams and his two brothers not only worked to advance the field of medicine, they raised families whose members continue to excel in the fields of healthcare and of education to this day.

If you are interested, the webinar panel discussion will take place on Wednesday, April 27th at 2:00pm EST. I do not have access information yet, but I should have that soon and will update this post. I will also update my website with the information once I have it. 

Distress vs Eustress

 

If you saw the Loki series, you swatched stress change from distress to eustress in the final minutes of episode six. The title character sat in a room, alone, copletely quiet. We watched his face, saw the thoughts runing through his head before he ererged, an entirely different person. 

It happens to real life people all the time. Contemplation in the quiet solitude of our own minds results in change. Periods of quiet contemplation have never been more important than today, because at no time in human history has humanity felt the impact of change more. 

Think about it. Generations ago, life was utterly predictable and time pretty much stood still. Generation followed generation along identical lives, their paths determined by where they were born, their gender, and who their parents were. Parents, children and grandchildren, life remained the same and highly predictable (even when it wasn’t enjoyable) day after day, from birth to death.

 

Change brings stress. That may sound awful, but remember, stress is not always a bad thing. When we consider change as a threat, it can lead to distress, when we feel the demands of our environment are too taxing. Distress defines an overwhelming feeling that impairs our ability to function.

 
But sometimes stress provides a motive to engage in action. Eustress describes positive, motivating stress that can enhance life. When we welcome change, it can be invigorating.

 
Change is natural. Eustress is a choice for dealing with the stresses associated with change.

In the 21st century, change is a daily activity and our lives are no longer defined by the circumstances of our births. Noise surrounds us, the press of news, social media,(no those two are not interchangeable), conversation. All this separates people from the moments of quiet, solitary self-contemplation that helps them channel eustress and positive actions.

 
In the old days of unchanging monotony, stories - myths, legends, fables and fairy tales - were all about plot and situations meant to entertain people. Farmer Jack could change his destiny by planting a few beans and climbing a beanstalk into the sky. Characters traversed physical plots with little or no character development.

 
As a 21st century storyteller, I feel an obligation to show my readers the changes my characters go through. I concentrate on my character’s emotional arcs, on the story. Today, it takes more to break through the noise bombarding readers. Plot, the efforts characters make to overcome a problem, entertain people. Story, a character moving through an emotional arc, both entertains people and helps teach what it means to be human.

 

That’s why my writing always begins with a character and their flaw. Before I wrote the first word of Courage (2019 from Harper Children’s) I knew T’Shawn’s fears about being emotionally hurt by his prodigal son brother was his flaw. 

T'Shawn's emotional arc involved a struggle to regain the ability to trust. He moves back and forth between distress and eustress on the pages, taking readers along with him. 

Philosophers have long said that human beings are the only living creatures that can change themselves by doing absolutely nothing, at least, outwardly. So my job was to let readers in on my heroes inner actions and thought processes.  Although young T'Shawn never actually sits alone in a room using only his brain, he fulfills my goals for him. He both entertains readers and teaches them more about themselves.

I hope I contribute to someone learning how to handle change better.

Courage is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Barbara-Binns/dp/0062561650

 

There's Nothing New Under The Sun

 

I have heard authors lament again and again. They were working on a project until they saw or read a story with a nearly identical plot. That leaves them feeling that what they are working on is redundant, even useless. Many end up tossing their work in progress and beginning something else, all because they saw something similar.

 

Well, a few weeks ago I saw something similar. I watched the Disney Pixar animated film, Onward. I had never seen the story before, but I practically wrote it.

At least I felt like I did.

As the movie unfolded, I felt like I was watching an animated version of my 2019 novel, Courage. Fortunately, I could not have tossed my words even if I wanted to. And really, I’d never want to. What I can do is enjoy the similarities in character, plot and theme. Loving mother dealing with two sons who don’t understand how badly they need to reconnect to each other. And a dead father who’s loss makes both boys sad and desperate.

There are also differences. The younger brother in Courage has a talent for swimming and diving that his older brother admires. In Onward, the younger brother discovers he has a talent for magic, which makes his older brother wildly enthused for him. Onward has a Manticore, Courage a younger sister. Both are a little scary, and a lot of fun. Courage has a parole officer keeping an eye on the elder brother. Onward uses a centaur police officer. Thank heavens I abandoned the subplot of having the parole officer fall for my heroes' mother. With the centaur trotting around romancing the boy's mother in Onward, that would have been one coincidence too many.

Both the movie and book have the same core, brotherhood at its worst, and at it’s finest. I am really thankful Onward did not come first. Otherwise I might have ignored the advice I give to others in a similar situation and tossed that manuscript. And that would have been a shame. Both stories deserve to exist and can be loved by any siblings who have ever lost a father and nearly lost each other.

There is no such thing as one and only one way to solve a problem or tell a story. Why else is there an endless stream of versions of Cinderella? Nothing an author can write is really unique. Just because your theme has been used once, or twice, or a thousand times doesn’t mean there isn’t room for your Voice to tell that story one more time.

"Super" Heroes

By Courtney Pierce

Superheroes are real, but in my books, they’re not swinging from spiderwebs, crushing meteors in space, or using laser beams to control the atmosphere. I leave those kinds of characters to authors who write Young Adult and Fantasy. 

My heroes are everyday people who merely overcome adversity to reach a goal. Sometimes the journey is peppered with a little magical realism or unintentional humor, but the protagonist always crosses the finish line ahead of the pack.

Earthly feats of heroism in others inspire us to be better stewards of ourselves, such as learning how to love again after betrayal, self-sacrifice to help others, beating a potentially fatal illness, or settling the score from a past conflict. These may seem like pedestrian problems, but my characters can be so obsessive-compulsive about overcoming them that they don’t always know how far along in their journey they are.

In my first trilogy, Stitches, Brushes, and Riffs, a baby boomer couple undertakes a worldwide quest to unlock the meaning of a magical artifact. Every clue pushes them forward to the goal to learn the secret to immortality. And when they unlock the truth, they can make a choice: do they want to become immortal at the end of their mortal lives? It takes an around-the-world adventureꟷwith the FBI in pursuitꟷto discover their internal truth.

In my second trilogy about the Dushane Sisters, The Executrix, Indigo Lake, and Indigo Legacy, the story is a two-fold quest: emotional closure of a husband’s hit-and-run murder and the truth about a found manuscript for a familial murder mystery. My character of Olivia Novack and her two middle-age sisters take a wild path to find answers that is both personal and often hilarious. But it's their sibling bond that makes all three of them superheroes. Yep. They'd step in front of traffic to save each other, and then bicker about which make of car was most lethal.

In my new book-in-process, Big Sky Talk, my hero has quite a bit to tackle when the sheriff comes knocking on her door. Judith Cenderon's moving boxes aren't even unpacked before her life becomes a collision of the past, present, and future. Add in a little magic of Salish Native-American folklore, things get supremely interesting when her dead dad comes calling in the form of a reincarnated bear.

Hero quests are fun to write. Their momentum keeps readers turning the pages. And I get to sprinkle in a few of my own truths into the prose, while my characters go through multiple hoops to discover their own. But not all heroes are towers of impenetrable strength. No matter the genre, the protagonists have a chink in the armor where an arrow can get through to their heart. It can be a physical vulnerability, such as blindness or chronic pain, or it can be an emotional trauma buried deep in their psyche, such as the loss of a husband or child, a lover's betrayal, or conflicts with familial relationships. A character’s bugaboos keep us rooting for the win, but we revel in their pain.

I love to push my heroes to accomplish feats they’d never thought possible, both emotionally and physically. They dig deep for courage to face their fears or react with instinct when pushed. Just when they want to curl up in a ball of defeat, something happens to rise them to their feet.  Without question, my heroes would step in front of bullet to save a sister, lift a car to free an accident victim, or run like the wind if their lives were on the line.

And that’s the keyꟷsurvival. Heroes value life above all else, both their own and the lives of the ones they love. Bad guys don’t stand a chance with these amazing characters. For all their flaws, readers love our heroes for what they can accomplish under duress. We want them on our side, by our side, and their spirits filling our insides. They inspire us.

None of my protagonists are truly “super”heroes, though. They make a difference by never giving up, even if it means skirting the law by doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. Recognition isn’t their goal, but quests for adventure ring our heroes' chimes. Sometimes it’s magical. Other times, it’s heartwarming and poignant. 

Oh...and did I point our that all of my heroes are over the age of fifty? Whoever said that us older set can't save the day too? Yes, we are heroes by experience and wacky wisdom, but we might require at least a couple of bounds to scale the building and a double dose of BioFreeze the next morning.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Audiobook now Available!

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and

windtreepress.com 

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Available Now!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, available now. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will family intrigue get in the way? Ride along for the wild trip that starts in a New York auction house and peaks in a mansion on Boston's Beacon Hill. 

The Dushane sisters finally get to the truth about their mother.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

2019 Wisconsin RWA Conference

Hi everyone! 

I am Young Adult and Middle Grade author Barbara Binns, writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. As my tagline says, I write Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  

This month, I want to talk about my trip to a writer's conference and the current issues with RWA, diversity and the Ritas/Golden Heart.

I spent the first weekend of April in Milwaukee, at the 2019 Wisconsin RWA Write Touch writer’s conference.  I began by attending the writer's intensive, a Friday session presented by Lisa Cron (http://wiredforstory.com/) on what readers really want. I don't know how she found the energy and stamina to lead us through an entire day.

Lisa talked with us about the importance of story to humanity. Storytelling is a part of every culture around the world. Story, she said, is the difference between what a character is willing to say out loud, and what they are really thinking about things they don’t say. As humans, we come to story with a question, what will this story teach that will help me survive. We want clues that will help us in both the physical world, and the social world, the land of interacting with other people. We search story for clues that will help us see ourselves and live our lives successfully.

Listening to that made me consider the lack of discussion about the RWA’s recent revelations about continuing problems in the Rita contest. When I arrived at the conference, I expected to hear gossip  on the subject. Mostly I heard loud, resounding silence. If attendees did talk about #RitasSoWhite, no one did so when I was around. Note, I saw only two other African American attendees and they were only signed up for the intensive. Once that ended, I found myself the only black person in the room. I can't help wondering if that was behind some of the silence on the subject. The one exception came during the final keynote address of the conference.

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, (https://writershelpingwriters.net) authors of the Emotional Thesauraus and a variety of companion books for writers. They discussed Emotional Wounds, the kinds authors inflict on our fictional creations. One kind of emotional wound they discussed with us is caused by a person being faced by an ongoing detrimental situation. Authors of color in the RWA have faced problematic ongoing situations for years. If this were characters in a romance story, the authors would be seeking ways to heal their emotional wounds.

The conference's keynote speaker Maya Rodale (http://www.mayarodale.com/) showed us the "formula" for romance novels. We all laughed at the reminder that too many outside the industry looked down on the romance genre and say the authors merely follow a formula, and therefore less than "real writers."

At the end of the final day, Maya gave a keynote address, that reminded us that we romance authors have superpowers. Other authors, largely male, of other genres may put our product down or claim romance authors don't really know how to write well. Those belittleing words get white RWA authors up in arms.

Unfortunately, when you exchange race for gender, too many are silent when romance writers of color, especially black authors, are downrated or ignored in the Golden Heart and Rita contests, the major awards for romance writers. When the issue is race instead of gender, numerous white RWA authors have said their African American counterparts couldn't cut it in the Ritas because they can’t write. Or maybe its because their black characters "aren't realistic." I have rarely seen assertions like those challenged by their fellow white RWA members, no matter what the statistics collected by the RWA organization say. The numbers are just a bleak for LGBT authors.

Maya Rodale reminded those present of the contract authors make with readers: to give them a chance to see themselves in a romance. We should use our power to ensure there is romance for everyone. That includes those who don't usually get to triumph in real life. People of color, the disabled, and those identifying as LGBT deserve to see themselves on the page, experiencing joy and getting a happily ever after.

It's not just about everyone rushing to write those characters their books. Especially if those characters is not authentic to them. Maya said, if authors do one thing, it is to read more books written by these authors. Read them with an open mind and see what the Ritas have been missing. Let yourself get swept up in stories about people who are different from you, and then, tell your friends about them. Then, everyone wins.

Here are some black romance authors you might want to try, in addition to the supreme Beverly Jenkins:

• Alyssa Cole -  Be Not Afraid, a  Revolutionary War novella 
• Farrah Rochon; if you like football players, try Field of Pleasure
• Rebel Miller writes about a futuristic dystopia in Awakening
• Piper Huguley wrote  A Virtuous Ruby – the first in an inspirational series set in the early 20th century.
• Kiru Taye - Keeping Secrets  features an amnesiac falling in love with the woman he married in name only
• Christiana Harrell wrote Cream, the Lammy nominated story of an androgynous young woman in search of her true self
• Kianna Alexander - This Tender Melody – He’s taken her spot at the helm of her family’s software company, and she’s not happy about it. Also, he’s a musician.
• Kayla Perrin (one of my personal favorite authors) - One Night in Paris, about an older woman who accepts a younger man’s proposal to travel with him to France. 
• Brenda Jackson - Bane – He’s a Navy SEAL with a ranch and a cowboy hat to go with it. She’s a chemist who needs his protection. 
• Rochelle Alers - No Compromise – The director of a program for battered women finds herself in danger. Her new Army boyfriend is out to fix it.

This is only a tiny list of everything that is available. Let's do what we can to spread more love and joy in the world.  We can play a part in making the world a better place and expanding the boundaries of Romancelandia by seeking out a a wider variety of romance authors to read.

My book Courage (https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Barbara-Binns/dp/0062561650) played the "one of these things is not like the others" game at the conference bookstore. Several hotel guests bought copies of the book with the black boy on the cover and asked me to sign. One conference attendee also purchased a copy.

See, there is something for every reader.

Best books I read in 2018

Hi everyone! 

I am Young Adult and Middle Grade author Barbara Binns, writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. As my tagline says, I write Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  

For the start of 2019, I am supposed to be blogging about my best reads of 2018.  That's really difficult.

First, you have to know that being a writer means I have less time for reading than I used to. Half of that is research material. I have a “to be read” fiction pile taller than I am. That means there are a lot of bestsellers I never finish because…well, they didn’t hold onto me and I have no time to stick to a book that doesn't.

Also, I write YA and Middle Grade books, books for the younger kids. So you probably think that’s also what she reads. Wrong answer. Which should be anticipated after I tell you my favorite Christmas movie of all time is Die Hard. I admit it, I’m not ashamed. Other genre-istas may give you their romance selections. I like a little murder and mayhem in my reading material. So here I give you the top adult, teen and children's books I read during 2018.

I place The Reckoning by John Grisham as number one from my 2018 adult reads. Grisham, known for meticulous legal thrillers, serves up one that does not lead down the expected path of heroic lawyers saving their innocent client. In fact, we know from chapter 1 that their client is guilty. There are romantic elements involved throughout the book, but it’s actually a murder mystery where the real question is "Why did he do it?"

The answer is embedded in the backstory, rural life in the south in the forties, racial tensions, and World War II. The author carefully holds back on revealing the past until I literally begged for a backstory dump. When he finally switched to the past I hung on every word. He took me through a love story, the Bataan death march, a mental asylum, and an execution. There were heroes and villains, and a romance, as one young man finds his soulmate engaged to another and chooses to throw his hat in the ring anyway and try for happiness.

I loved the romance, hated the war, and finally understood the hero, loved by the whole town, who felt killing the preacher was his duty. I found fulfillment in understanding the family and story set in the racially charged deep south in the late forties. There are layers of love and lust, heroism, and racial prejudice. In the end, nothing was what I thought it was, and things did not get tied up in a neat bow. I can’t tell much more in case you do read it. (If you already have, I would love to hear your take.)

I place Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi as number one from my 2018 YA reads. I know it's really a 2017 book, but I am behind in my reading. It's also a dark, magic-filled quest. High fantasy is not my usual genre, that's why, in spite of the hype, the fast pace kept me going. Zélie, a maji marked by her white hair, and Amari daughter of the cruel king who wanted to destroy magic and killed Zélie's mother, become allies in an attempt to restore magic to the land. They are pursued by Amari's brother Inan who wants to stop them and prove himself to his father.

Yes, this story does have a romance.

After years of reading about vampires and ghosts of European legends, I loved the West-African inspired fantasy elements. I begged for girls to succeed in restoring magic to the land.  I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the sequel – Children of Virtue and Vengeance due out in March.

Obviously, my own novel, Courage, released in 2018, is my favorite children's read.  Yes, this is extremely blatant self-promotion, but every time I open the covers I find myself marveling that I actually wrote those words.

No, there is no murder or mayhem here, and no actual romance although close friendships are formed. But kids love it. I've begun visiting schools, and find the children I read are fascinated by the characters I've created. I already have additional visits scheduled for February and March. So yes, Courage has to be on my top list of 2018 books I have read.

Heroes and Heartbreak

by Madelle Morgan

 As I do every year on September 11, I think about true life heroes.

On this day seventeen years ago, one of the worst tragedies of the twenty-first century unfolded.

The sacrifices of so many courageous men and women on that terrible day are not forgotten. We owe them gratitude that we can only repay by striving to live up to their high standard of selflessness and courage.

The Oxford dictionary defines “hero” as:

1. A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

2. The chief male character in a book, play, or film, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize.

The first definition relates to a person in real life. The second relates to the fictional hero in a novel. A romance author is in a unique position to merge the two definitions of hero in her characters.

Fictional Heroes as Role Models

We authors can give our fictional characters courage and other noble qualities, thereby reinforcing in stories the high standard of behavior to which we can all aspire.

Our fictional heroes are often flawed and wounded, just like real people. In our stories, love heals the wounded hero. The romance describes the hero’s path to healing and happiness. Romance novels thus resonate with and inspire many readers, giving hope that they too can similarly deserve and achieve healing and happiness.

Real Life Heroes

We all have heroes in our lives. Members of the military, first responders—firefighters, emergency medical teams, police officers—and others in service to the rest of us are heroes. In fact I dedicated my most recent novel to them. (The dog in that book is a hero too!)

But heroes have many other professions and roles in our lives. Heroes come in all sizes, ages, shapes and genders:

• Caregivers.
• Teachers who guide us to be our best selves.
• Scientists who discover cures for deadly diseases.
• Volunteers in our communities.
• People who stand up to bullies.
• People who devote their lives and resources to helping the less fortunate, animals, or other good causes.

You can add to this partial list the heroes in your life.

Each person can step forward and make a difference.

In fact, every ordinary person who makes the world a better place is a hero. A person doesn’t have to win the admiration of thousands in order to be a hero. Unsung heroes may never win awards or be officially recognized for their efforts. It does not diminish their personal achievements.

Please take a moment to honor the heroes who gave their lives on September 11, 2001 while attempting to save others.

Madelle

Connect with Madelle on her website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Wattpad

Madelle writes romance set in Canada. Find all her books on Amazon.com. 

Have Courage, everyone

Hi everyone! 

I am YA, and now MG author Barbara Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  The release date for my newest book, Courage, is fast approaching - July 29 from Harper Collins.


This post is about the Courage saga, my debut novel being released in a matter of weeks and geared for those most demanding of readers, young readers.

Not that you can't read it too, and enjoy peering into the wayback machine to your own childhoods. But no one is pickier than young readers. Adult readers will often forgive authors a lot. We know we keep reading, even past the occasional slow spot, plot hole, character inconsistency or other minor imperfections, geographic inaccuracies and improbable motivations.

Kids will drop a story the first time it bores them. Taking the reader out of the story is a huge fear for those of us who write for younger readers, because if we lose them we know we will never get them back. That's listed as one reason why many adults have gone back to reading YA. They are not looking for simple stories, they are looking for stories that move and make sense on every page. That's also true for middle grade books, MG. We have to be more entertaining than alternatives like video games, social media, and even real life play!

It all made writing Courage, my debut middle grade novel, an exacting event. I've written adult romance. I've written YA. Writing Courage was harder, because it had to all the characterization and plot of a novel intended for adult audiences, and more. Holding the attention of these most demanding of readers puts an extra burden on craft.

I'm a plotter, not a pantser, but I always begin a new novel by developing the characters. I struggle to create full-featured characters that readers will follow anywhere.  Once I have that, its safe to develop a plot for them to traverse. I know that no matter what danger or trouble they get into, readers will come along and enjoy the ride. I do make things harrowing, the young people in this story face everything from a near death experience to problems with police, to diving off the edge of a springboard into open air.

They also face a host of family issues.

Courage is a modern day retelling of the parable of the prodigal son. One child leaves home and wastes his life, in this case, ending with prison time. His younger brother, the main character, T'Shawn, remains at home. When his older brother returns home a frightening stranger, T'Shawn stands prepared to do whatever he must to protect his widowed mother and younger sister.

Everyone in this story needs courage. The courage to forgive, courage to try again, and courage to deal with the police, an all too common phenomenon that people of color, and even children, have to face on in today's world. They become every man and woman, with age and race taking second place to their humanity. One character lives with a debilitating disease, another with homelessness. Yet another is willing to do anything, break any rule, to hold onto the love of an adoptive parent.

Technically, Courage is not a romance. It's a story of friendship, and family love. In the end, (sorry for the spoiler) love and faith wins out. T'Shawn finds the strength and courage to dive off the springboard into the pool, and to deal with his fear of letting himself love his brother again.

Speaking of love, even at thirteen, T'Shawn manages to find himself in a relationship triangle between Carmela, the police detective's daughter, and Linda, Carmela's best friend and the daughter of a man in prison. You see, I believe that even stories of friendship and family should hand readers happily ever afters.

The city of Chicago provides the perfect backdrop for this story. Courage highlights the vibrant south side. Locations including the University of Chicago to the lakefront are featured on the pages. Readers see the city through the eyes of children from various ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds.  Forget what you think you know about Chicago, pick up Courage, and get a good look at the real deal.

I invite you to take a look at one of the reviews of Courage  where Kirkus calls Courage - " a multifaceted look at the urban experience." - https://bit.ly/2KY7QK6

Author Barbara Binns was a Golden Heart finalist in 2010 with her adult interracial romance, Damaged Goods. Her first YA novel, Pull was published by Westside Books in 2010. Since then she has gone on to write several YA novels, and her short stories are regularly published in the Arlington Almanac. She lives in the Chicago area, and is both a cancer survivor and an adoptive parent. She is also a member of Kid Lit Nation, http://kidlitnation.com an organization working to help more authors and illustrators of color break into publishing.

Website - http://babinns.com
twitter - http://twitter.com/barbarabinns
facebook - http://facebook.com/allthecolorsoflove

Courage is her debut middle grade novel.
Hardcover $16.99 ISBN - 978-0062561657



Available from Amazon - https://amzn.to/2N6GMFT

Harper Collins - https://bit.ly/2u7ogWG
Barnes & Noble -  https://bit.ly/2u9CiHF

RITAs So White

Hi everyone! I am YA, and now MG author Barbara Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.  My newest book, Courage, is middle grade fiction that will be coming out this summer from Harper Collins.


If you care about romance (and I bet you do, that’s why you love reading this blog) you know that it's a billion-dollar industry that outperforms all other book genres. It's also an industry plagued by an inclusion problem.

Especially when it comes to books by black authors.

The RITA Award, the top honor for romance writers, is presented by RWA, the Romance Writers of America. After announcing yet another slate of finalists for the 2018 RITA with a disappointing lack of diversity, the  RWA issued a statement admitting the organization has a problem with diversity. In its 36 year history, the nearly all white RITA contest judges have somehow never considered a book by a black author  worthy of a RITA. Click HERE to read the RWA Board’s statement.

In 2017, Bea and Leah Koch authored a report on diversity in the romance genre. The Koch’s run The Ripped Bodice (http://www.therippedbodicela.com/), a romance bookstore in Culver City, LA. They found that fewer books by authors of color were published by the leading romance presses in 2017 compared to the previous year, despite an increase in the numbers of romance books published. Few of those authors of color (AOC) were African American.  Click here for a PDF copy of the report.  The Koch's noted that, “Clearly there is plenty of room to pull up more chairs as long as the people sitting in those chairs are white.” And now both Kimani Press, Harlequin's African American line, and Crimson Romance, a Simon & Schuster line featuring a larger than average percentage of AOC among it's authors, are closing.

Riptide is a New Jersey-based publisher (noted on the report as having 4.8% of their books written by AOC in 2017). Queer romance writer Cole McCade, once one of those authors, described Riptide as “at all levels hostile to me as a person of color”. Click here to read details of his experience,  including an email from Riptide editor Sarah Lyons stating: “We don’t mind POC But I will warn you – and you have NO idea how much I hate having to say this – we won’t put them on the cover, because we like the book to, you know, sell.”

Riptide has since accepted Lyons’s resignation. Which does nothing to change the overall attitude.

Take a look at your own recent reads. Do any of them have a black hero or heroine? Were any written by a black author? People like Brenda Jackson, Rochelle Ayers, Alyssa Cole, Piper Huguley, Farrah Rochon, and Rebel Miller. 

Black romance authors write historical fiction, contemporary, dystopia, suspense, paranormal, LGBT, and sci-fi romance. They write about cowboys, gangsters, billionaires and preachers. They write about black love and interracial, multicultural love. They write romance that is inspirational, or clean or sizzling with sexuality. They write long novels and short novellas.

If none of these books or authors are on your shelves or TBR lists, maybe that’s why even bestselling black authors get little respect from romance publishers or RITA judges who have never felt the urge to open one and discover that love is love, no matter the outer wrapper.

We black authors also write YA. 

My own experience comes from the publication of my first novel, Pull, a YA romance. My publisher daringly placed my African American lead on the cover. Shortly after publication, I attended a romance book fair in Milwaukee where I was the only author of color and one of only a few YA romance authors. Meaning my book was one of the few that young people had to chose from. On two occasions, white teens came and looked at my book. They picked it up, read the back cover (the publisher had an enticing blurb there) and even opened the first chapter. And, if I do say so myself, I had a great opening hook, a reach out and grab the reader first page. Those kids went off to get their parents and drag them back to buy the book. The white parents took one look at me and the book cover, and took their kids away. One even told their child in so many words, “This book is not for you,” without ever looking beyond the black boy on the cover. Before reading a single word, they decided the book was untouchable.

I can’t help wondering how many RITA judges have that same attitude. Do the words on the page written by a black author have to be twice as good as others to get past that initial prejudice? I left RWA a few years ago because I saw the signs and signals and grew tired of being quietly excluded. (And because I primarily write YA, and have now slipped into Middle Grade with my newest book, Courage) I am now part of SCBWI - Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

The children’s book industry has been addressing the inclusion issue for several years, thanks to the work of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp) to document and track diversity and inclusion, childrens book publisher Lee and Low (https://www.leeandlow.com/), WeNeedDiverseBooks (https://diversebooks.org/) and similar initiatives that keep the issue in the forefront. As a result, SCBWI is well into the process of addressing them with initiatives at both the individual chapter and national levels. I'm proud to say the Illinois chapter, which I belong to, is at the forefront of the diversity and inclusion efforts.

All is not lost in RWA land. In a few weeks, I will be at the 2018 Spring Fling conference (http://chicagospringfling.com/) in Oak Brook, Illinois. This writer’s conference, given by the Chicago North chapter of RWA, has brought in the incomparable Beverly Jenkins, a historical fiction author with over thirty novels published, to be one of their featured speakers. Ms. Jenkins may never have won a RITA, but over her stellar career she has been a bestseller and won numerous awards, including the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award.

Later this year I will be speaking at Romance Slam Jam Booklovers Convention (https://rsjconvention.com/) for black readers and authors. It’s a place where no one will wonder if a black author really knows how to write well, or chose to move to a different table when one sits among them.

I’m human. I like being welcomed.




One more thing:

My next book, Courage will be released at the end of July by Harper Children's. And they dared put a black child on the cover. Its written for young people in 3rd to 7th grade.  If you want to give the young people the gift of inclusion, take this book about six children of various backgrounds and races as they explore friendship and empathy, and what it means to display true courage. (And, they will also learn a little about diving.) You can let Harper Collins know publishing diverse books is important by preordering Courage at
https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Barbara-Binns/dp/0062561650