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New Year

I just got back to the West Coast last night, and I’m spending time in opening the holiday cards that came While I was away. I love the picture and the update cards the best. The holidays are a time when you can catch up with friends and family that you haven’t seen in a while, so I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to update me on their life and to actually mail me a card. I did get a few e-cards, but call me old-fashioned. They are just not the same. What do you think? I also came to the conclusion that mainly women send cards. Of about the 100 that I received, only one came from a male. Interesting. I took the last two weeks of the year to rest and do absolutely nothing. When I left here, I had every intention of writing the last two weeks of the year away. But thankfully, my family didn’t let me do that. Instead they kept me occupied, sometimes occupied doing nothing, for most of the time I was gone. The end result is that I am refreshed, rejuvenated and ready ...
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What are friends for?

So, you get a call, a request, an email from a friend. When you need money, what do you do? Do you repeatedly depend on friends to solve your cash flow problems if you have them? Or do you find other ways to meet your fiscal needs. This is a dilemma. I'm not talking about the type of crisis where you need some money to pay the rent, buy the groceries, feed the kids, but the type of crisis where its just not clear. And if you find yourself there, do you find yourself there over and over again? Let’s say, I have a legal problem. I need a lawyer. How do I get the money together to pay the lawyer’s retainer. And let’s say I've been here before. You know what I would do? I’d save it. Maybe ten bucks a week if that was all I had and just wait until I knew could pay. It might take a long time, but that’s what I would do. Is this where you are? But now, let’s say I couldn’t save it. Then what? Would you try to sell something? Anything? Drum up some business if you are a f...
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Texas (!) Book Festival

I had the honor of speaking about my latest book at the Texas Book Festival this past weekend. I went down on Saturday support another author presenting on a panel and her room was full. I noticed immediately that my kids and I were about the only African Americans in the room. The capitol was packed with throngs of people and one glance at the list of authors let you know that the organizers of doing something right. The list was a veritable who's who of the book world, studded the names of the Literati. But as I walked through the festival and around the Capitol grounds, it became obvious that something was missing. Regular folk. Now, Texas is what, 60% minority? But the Book Festival was probably 96% white. It looked more like the Austin Book Festival than the Texas book Festival. Very few authors, very few participants (at least those that I could recognize) were Asian, African American or Hispanic. They did have a Hispanic program somewhere off to the side, I'm told. I kn...
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