Vixen Chronicles

Every time I talk with Book clubs, I get asked if any of the things in my books are from life.  The answer is a definitive no…and yes. This question made me chuckle when I was writing Nina Foxx books, but as Cynnamon Foster, it makes me guffaw with laughter, because what they are really asking is if my sex life is as filled with adventure as Desiree’s or Seria’s.  Let me just say, I am wonderfully happy in that area, but no, I don’t write from my life, at least not in that sense. I actually do a lot of research—but not the way you might think.  The publisher supplied me with animated visual aids (very, very funny!).  I also read a lot of titles in the genre as well as watch a lot of late night Showtime. In Southern Comfort, my characters are frolicking in Texas, but in Eastern Spice (release date May 3, Ellora’s Cave), they embark on a far flung adventure briefly lading in Tokyo, and they in Bangalore, India. I started writing Eastern Spice befo...

Yup, I had a book deadline, and my time in the hospital, combined with my usual procrastination (including writing this blog) has left me seriously in danger of being late with this book.  I want to get it done before I get the revision letter for the last one, but that is terribly overdue now, too.  I was expecting them in December, so I could get them any minute. I really can’t afford to be late as I have a Nina Foxx deadline about 4 weeks after this one is done. I know I shouldn’t complain as some writers have no deadlines at all, other than those they impose on themselves.  The book I’m working on is third in a series for Cynnamon Foster.  These are harder to write than anything Nina Foxx has worked on, for some reason.  I don’t know if its because they all take place in a foreign local and I can’t just take a walk or look out the window to orient the characters and instead have to rely on memory or photos I have taken, or if they are taking a long time ...

So NBA all Star weekend is Black Thanksgiving, or least it is according to David Aldridge in an article he wrote for CNN. Well, thanks for letting me know. You see, I was busy celebrating Thanksgiving with the rest of America, I missed the turkey and dressing I apparently am supposed to be having in March. I took offense to this article. Many of the statements made in the article had me cussing at my desk. Had the article been written by a white columnist, I'm sure it would have never made its way onto CNN's homepage. The author was black, and because of that, it seems like he was given a pass to freely use the N-word (metaphorically) to describe people he obviously doesn't know, or perhaps he was just being allowed to do some shuffling and jiving to appease a larger audience. Just say, "Yassuh, boss" and get it over with. I'm sure that there is a subset of folks who wait, with bated breath, for NBA ALL Star weekend. Like he said in the article, they c...

I had a reunion with my literary life this weekend. I haven't promoted a book In awhile, mainly because I haven't written one in a minute. I went back to San Antonio to kick off the promotions for my new book, Southern Comfort. When I lived there, I wasn't sure I liked the city. As my plane flew over the town, I took in its brownness and for a minute, I missed the sandy beaches of southern california that I've come to love. In 24 short hours I discovered that I could love the grime and romance of the RiverWalk, too. My boo Surprised me and met me there for no other reason than he could; he flew from the other side of the country to give me support, to laugh at my goofiness, to take pictures and to share a glass or two of good wine with some of our friends. He has been so much a part of my literary life from the beginning; as an early reader of all my work, one that always told the real deal about what he thought, then as a fellow book club member and now as some...

Now that episode one of Closer to Crazy has been up for about a week, I wanted to give a little background for those who keep sending me questions. First, yes, this series does begin where my book, Just Short of Crazy leaves off. I don’t want to spoil the book for those of you who haven’t read it yet. When I wrote the book, I didn’t expect people to fall in love with my bad girl, Ayzah Brown, but that is what happened. I got tons of inquiries from folks wanting to know what happened to her after the book ended. At first, I kept saying, the book ended, nothing happened to her. As it turned out, Ayzah wasn’t done yet and she started to talk to me from beyond the page. That’s how Closer to Crazy was born. In my mind, it is an ongoing web soap opera, similar to what Tom Joyner does for “Its Your World”. After the first few episodes, my plan is to ask you what you think should happen, then go back to the drawing board. A few of you want to know who the player’s are, so over the next...