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Mahogany Anais
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mahoganyanais
Post Number: 233
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 09:46 am: | 
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...for the books!
I just picked them up today. I really should check my p.o. box more often than I do.
Thanks again! |
Mahogany Anais
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mahoganyanais
Post Number: 235
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 01:56 pm: |
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Kola:
I started reading Flesh and the Devil, and my immediate impression is that the Story of Creation is perfect as a "bedtime" story for one's lover. (I can think of one lucky gent in particular who will need to send you a "thank-you" note!)
And further into the book, I love this line: "I heard a moan that only a black woman can make. Tear-sugared and caterpillar velvet like a note she meant to sing, but choked on."
Savoring,
Mah |
kola@aalbc.com
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 681
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 01, 2005 - 01:52 am: |
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Great Mahogany!!!
So glad you're reading it!! Can't wait to read your review, sis.
So excited.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2590
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 08:42 am: |
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I'm finish "Flesh and the devil" too.
And it's been a joy!
You could write ANYTHING (e.g., sex, drama, tragedy, comedy, fantasy, etc.) Kola! 
Honestly. If you haven't already done so, you should write screenplays. Even if you just did them on spec', you should do it.
Cause your stuff is GOOD (least that's what Thomas told me...Hehe!)! |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 765
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 12:39 pm: |
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Thanks, ABM.
The book I'm writing now---"The Sexy Part of the Bible"---is sooooooo hard to write, because I don't have all the fantasy/historical stuff to fall back on (my forte').
This book is steeped in REALITY and it's set in drizzly 2005 New York City and it's about a Black American woman who's being blackmailed by another black woman. She's a movie critic and has to go to Greece, Africa and the Carribean for a series of film festivals.
I don't want to tell what the book's REALLY about---but it's so much harder writing just STRAIGHT reality.
Remember that I wrote a book called "Virgins In the Beehive"? Well that book--I feel--is a classic. It's about 3 Black American girls who start their own religion after the state of Texas puts their mother to death. But no one will touch it. It's such a wonderful book, but the controversies in the story.
My BEST book---"The White Man's Mother"---(which doesn't have a white female character) is probably going to be rejected on basis that it's too "controversial" as well (Our savior Jesus Christ is a character in the book and he's fucking the shit out of the leading lady and getting her stoned and saving her soul). But BLACKS would looooooove reading this book. It's so good. MY ABSOLUTE BEST. It started as a brilliant short story for "The Paris Review"---but after my editor left the magazine, the board decided my story was "too racy" for "Paris Review".
I would love to write screenplays, but no one offers me any opportunities. In every way, because of my "beliefs"---they try to shut me out and I don't have an agent.
I fired the Jewish guy.
The deal with Warner Books isn't a "go" because I can't write the WHITE BREAD shit they want. They want to turn me into an exotic Z.Z. Packer or Alice Walker.
My work is more profane and I'm like a "rapper" in many ways---the anger and sweeping poetry and the attitude. I feel that's what makes my books special. I'm really an ARTIST---in every way. I have a point of view and something to say.
They can see that I'm very talented, but I frighten them.
Hopefully, the NEW VIDEO and my memoirs "Diary of a Lost Girl" will make some kind of commotion.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 766
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 12:42 pm: |
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One last note.
People don't understand that someone as "controversial" and "opinionated" as me.....HAS TO BE A STAR....just to get published.
It pains me that my critics don't see that. That I really have no choice than to PANDER to other elements in order to not be swept away and dismissed.
I'm certain that the NEW VIDEO will make me "more" of what I was trying to avoid----a glamorexic PIN UP. But at least I'm smart.
If only I had some kind of "education".
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 767
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 12:48 pm: |
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OH.....And of course the JESUS in my book is "black" with long dreadlocks. He's got a long chocolate dick with a pink head on it.
See...that's the kind of stuff that keeps me out.
But how can I not write about the characters who COME TO ME.
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Mahoganyanais
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mahoganyanais
Post Number: 334
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 10:48 pm: |
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Kola: If only I had some kind of "education".
Mah: Kola, I truly hope this doesn't continue to be a hindrance to you.
Have you read Mat Johnson's books? I'm pretty sure he has a college degree, but he had a kick-ass quote in some magazine a while back (Honey, before it folded, maybe? Essence?). Anyway, he was talking about all these degreed sistahgirls deciding they want to write books, but, (I'm paraphrasing), "Their degrees aren't for majoring in English."
I hear your frustrations about how you are regarded in "the industry", but from where I'm sitting--which admittedly, is not behind an editor's or publisher's desk--your talent and experience give you your VOICE. And that is to be commended.
For what it's worth.
But...speaking of Education, I got this little note last nigt from an indie filmmaker friend of mine:
"BTW, I was at your Alma Mater last weekend with GIRLFRIEND and her pals. Guess who we went to see? Ousmane Sembene - live and direct! I met the man, shook his hand, gave him his props, speaking in my horrible French, which he thankfully understood (he doesn't speak English). It was a reception for him, after which Moolaade was screened. He took the stage afterwards, with his interpreter, and answered several questions from the large audience. It was cool. For a man in his 80s, he looks and sounds pretty damn good! I found out that he is teaching a class there - I think some kind of retrospective on his films."
If I could, I would sprout wings and FLY to New Haven to see him. But alas... |
jackie
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 10:55 pm: |
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I met Mat Johnson last year at Hurston/Wright...I didn't take his workshop though. He's very witty and a genuinely nice guy.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 772
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 12:36 am: |
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Mat Johnson used to post on this board REGULARLY
and he still reads them I'm sure.
Yes, he is a nice guy-----although he probably doesn't like Kola Boof----because I TRICKED him once.
I'm such a bitch.
Won't get into that.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 773
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 12:36 am: |
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Mat Johnson loves Cynique.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 774
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 12:38 am: |
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GOD, I love Sembene. I always wanted to be his wife.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2600
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 02:41 am: |
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Mah,
Here’s one of my favorite (of MANY) lines in “Flesh and the devil”: “Even fat a$$ CYNIQUE who’s dark brown and ain’t got no man--she let everybody know the baby’s daddy was high yellow...”
HAHA!
Kola’s book “Flesh and the devil”: $30.
Bookmark used while reading “Flesh’”: $2.
The thought of Kola intentionally using her book to score payback against an intellectual rival: PRICELESS.
Kola,
You are some diabolically clever chick. Honestly, the Democrats should hire you to help defy the GOP’s propaganda behemoth.
Btw: Does your “CYNIQUE” even KNOW who her baby daddy IS? ‘Cause, well, we know how much she likes to drinks then ‘cat around’.
HAHA! |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 776
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 04:36 am: |
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ABM,
WHY did you pay $30 for my book? Was that shipping on Amazon.Com or something???? What happened?
_____________________
Anyway.....you have NO IDEA.....how much joy you are bringing me by talking about my book. I'm so stoked that you actually read it and that you really, REALLY liked it. I'm so thrilled.
I'm having writer's block right now---and your praise is helping me to break out of it.
I truly believe that you would love reading the "autobiographical" NILE RIVER WOMAN---my poetry collection which pretty much documents my 20's.......and my most literary book, "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin" (short stories). In many ways, that's my favorite of the published books.
Stephen Elliott (Happy Baby), the one who hired me to replace Z.Z. Packer, says that I "write like a singer"---and that's always been my favorite compliment, because the reason I write poetry...is because I can't sing. And in a way....all of my writing is poetry.
___________________
Study Questions---
ABM...did you "get it" that Rosaria was really the "Black woman" in the story and that RooAmber was really the "White woman"? I took the modern day "Black Man leaving Black Wife for White Mistress" and I INVERTED the two arch types----if people pay close attention to how Rosaria is "written", she's the typical Black woman's reaction to being left.....and RooAmber lives in the typical "dream state" of the ENTITLED white woman.
So desperately, I want Black American women to begin to feel that "entitlement". They do not---otherwise, they would be more interested in being happy and they would DEMAND it.
One thing I don't like about Black American women......is that they really don't care about other black women. If one of them is happy with a guy or has some attention...she could give a shit about the rest. They really are not "sisterly"----and they hide behind religion too much as well. They let the religion make them into cowards and weaklings---waiting on Jesus while life passes them by. SO...I didn't want RooAmber to be like that. I wanted her to be more like a White woman. Expecting life to serve her.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 777
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 04:44 am: |
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And what about the AFTERWORD, ABM?
What did you think about that?
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2606
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 05:00 am: |
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Kola,
The price of the book was just a number I threw out. Truth is I don’t recall exactly how much I paid for your book.
The pleasure of reading your book has been all mine. I'm quite taken aback by the energy, cunning and joy within your writing.
It's just so...FREE...it makes me want to be FREE too.
BELIEVE me! If my compliments in anyway help fuel your creative fire, I’m honored...and anxiously await what comes of it.
I’ll read all of your works within the year. Because you’ve helped me to purge a malaise I’ve been mired within for some time.
And, yes, your work is blissfully poetic. As I read, I imagine an assortment of musically stylings wafting in the background.
I admit I did not fully view Rosaria and RooAmber as you intended. Perhaps I got lost amongst all the hallucinations, skin darkening, etc. Though, what you say better explains to me your conclusion.
And I haven’t yet read the Afterword. I’ll give you my opinion as soon as I do. |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 793
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2005 - 11:43 am: |
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ABM:
As I read, I imagine an assortment of musically stylings wafting in the background.
________
Yes, ABM.
You're such a Spirit Absorber!!!!
You remember the 1960's Dionne Warwick songs with Bacharach/David?? The Bossa Nova???
That's ALWAYS present in "Flesh and the Devil". I love that kind of music and am always inspired Warwicks 60's classics.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2614
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 09, 2005 - 09:54 am: |
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Kola,
Kola: “You're such a Spirit Absorber!!!!”
ABM: Thanks…I think(?). I hope that’s not the same as being called a blood-sucking leech. HAHA!
Seriously. I too am a HUGE fan of the Bacharach/Warwick collaborations.
The relative I mentioned a year ago Charles Stepney was such a admirer of their’s he covered many of their songs on several of the albums he arranged/produced with The Dells, Ramsey Lewis, Minnie Riperton.
The “Mother Nature’s Son” album Charles produced for Lewis does things with Bacharach’s (and the Beetle’s) music that are positively transcendent. |
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