Sheer Good Fortune with Toni Morrison in Radar Magazine

Hey all, my article about my voyage to Virginia Tech where I met and interviewed Toni Morrison and met Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni, was published in Radar Magazine in December 2012. As you may remember, I took the voyage with my literary sisters, Joneia P. Brown and Kimeko Farrar. If you'd like to read the entire magazine online, check it out at Radar Magazines.

For all you that would like to read just my article, here it is. Hope you enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday w/ Linky

Toni Morrison at the interview session at the Sheer Good Fortune event

Maya Angelou at the reception for the Sheer Good Fortune event.

The drill field at Virginia Tech

We are sitting on the steps outside Burruss Auditorium at Virginia Tech, taking in the view of the drill field in the above photo.
Three ladies from Alabama as we called ourselves that day.
Poet Kimeko Farrar, Joneia P. Brown and myself, Lena Sledge

Don't forget to add your Wordless Wednesday photo to the Linky below so we can check it out!

My Sheer Good Fortune with Toni Morrison

This past week has been extraordinary. It took several days for me to come down off my adrenaline high. I left Alabama headed to Virginia Tech with two of my girlfriends on October 14, 2012. We drove to Blacksburg, Virginia in foggy, rainy, gloomy weather Sunday night. It took us a little over eight hours to make arrive to our destination. We arrived tired, but too anxious to sleep. We only had two hours to get prepared before the press conference anyway, so I decided to get dressed and go over my interview questions for Toni Morrison.

We arrived fairly early and secured front row seats. The room was intimate, maybe with thirty people eventually being in the room. There was of course other press and media outlets there, but not as many as I expected or felt should have been there for such an auspicious occasion. They wheeled Dr. Morrison in and she looked vibrant and cheerful. After a few reporters asked questions, I knew if I wanted to ask my own, I would need to just jump in there and so I went for it. I asked about seven questions. My girlfriends were with me and they were able to ask her each a question as well. After the conference, they quickly wheeled Dr. Morrison away. I went and introduced myself to Nikki Giovanni thinking she probably didn't remember me. Surprisingly she did. She said, "I know who you are." Then she gave me a hug. I introduced my friends and we all took pictures.

Angela Davis, Maya Angelou and Sonia Sanchez

After Ms. Giovanni left, a documentary producer approached us about being in a documentary honoring Nikki Giovanni. We graciously accepted. We were led to this private library where camera and video had been set up, along with TV monitors. The monitors allowed us to see how we looked while we were being filmed. The three of us were interviewed individually, I went last. I honestly can't tell you what I said during my interview, I was so nervous. I don't even remember the questions the interviewer asked me. It was a surreal experience. I am truly grateful for the opportunity and as soon as the documentary becomes available, you know I'll post it any and everywhere.

Next we were invited to the reception the following day before the actual Sheer Good Fortune event. This is where it really gets good because I left Alabama having no expectation other than to get to the press conference and to attend the event. But so far I was able to get to the press conference and have my friends experience it with me. Not only that, but then be asked to participate in a documentary for Nikki Giovanni and then invited to the reception was a blessing. Every step of the way, things kept getting better and better.

Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou holding hands while
a tribute was being song to them

So we arrive at the reception, early as usual. We get so close that we are standing in front of the microphone where the presenters would speak. We see the attendees arriving and they are coming down the stairs in small groups. I glance up towards the stairs and nudge my friend, Joneia P. Brown. "It is Angela Davis and Sonia Sanchez." I repeat it again as if I need to hear it for myself to ring true. At this point, I'm giddy. We wanted to leave our spots and go over to both ladies, but our spots were too damn good and we hadn't seen Maya Angelou yet. A few moments later, Toni Morrison arrives and she is wheeled directly in front of us. Angela Davis and Sonia Sanchez go to her and they take pictures. Joneia sits on the floor in front of them and starts to take photos, the media is snapping away and recording and it's all pure magic. Then shortly thereafter, Maya Angelou is wheeled in next to Toni Morrison. Time basically stopped for me, I'm literally standing five feet directly in front of Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. Everything becomes a blur at this moment. I'm trying to digest it and I think my cup is so full from delight, I can't process what's happening. After the reception, I am able to speak with Angela Davis and Sonia Sanchez. They are truly gracious and kind women. We were able to meet several Pulitzer Prize winners, Poet Laureates and distinguished authors and professors. I can't wait to tell you about all the talented gifted and extraordinary men and women we met while at the event. I indeed experienced sheer good fortune.

I have to personally thank Ms. Nikki Giovanni for being so gracious and  generous in accommodating our presence. The event was beyond spectacular and most people tasked with putting on such a splendid affair would be short or slightly stressed, but she never once appeared that way and was very kind to us every step of the way.

There is lots more to tell you and I'll give you all the details in the next post.

Poet and Blogger Kimeko Farrar, Television Producer and Speaker Joneia P. Brown , Nikki Giovanni and me :) Lena Sledge taken right after the press conference.

Next up....How I Made it to the VIP Room and the Actual Sheer Good Fortune Celebration. Stay Tuned.

Sheer Good Fortune with Toni Morrison...I'm Going!

Remember when I said I'd explain later why I was rereading all of Toni Morrison's books? Well, I'm headed to the Sheer Good Fortune celebration at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA on October 16, 2012. I'm overjoyed. I cried, I did a happy dance, I clapped like a two year old at a birthday party. I did it all! But wait...there's more. This event is being hosted by none other than Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. Yes, reread that again, while I have a praise dance moment.












There are three people in this world that I've always wanted to meet, Oprah, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. I had four which included Nikki Giovanni, but I've met her several times since then, so that dream has come to fruition. But being able to see two more amazing women I admire is overwhelming to say the least. Let's just pray Oprah makes a surprise appearance. That would definitely be a cause for an additional praise dance at the event.

For all of you that may not know, Toni Morrison is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Among Morrison’s best-known novels are “The Bluest Eye,” “Sula,” “Song of Solomon,” and “Beloved.” She won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1993 and in 1988, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for “Beloved,” which was adapted into a film starring Oprah Winfrey in 1998. In 2006, a survey of writers and literary critics by The New York Times ranked “Beloved” as the best work of American fiction for the past 25 years.

(clockwise) Joanne Gabbin, Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou

I was fortunate enough to get extra tickets and I'm taking nine of my beautiful girlfriends. So we are going on a girls road trip, some are driving and others are flying in. And we are going to have ourselves a grand time. I will also be able to ask Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni and professor Joanne Gabbin some questions, along with the other media. So what I want you all to do is post questions in the comment section that you think I should ask. I'll admit, I'm extremely nervous and I don't want to forget to ask something I'll later wish I had.

Of course, I'll report back on how the event went. Of which I'm sure I'll have all great things to share. What are the odds of ever seeing these three women in the same room at a public event again? I'm still in shock. Wish me luck! I'm just praying I don't get tongue tied.

Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop. Since the theme is stuck in a good book, I'll share what book I'm currently stuck happily reading. I'm currently reading Home by Toni Morrison. I've always enjoyed reading Toni Morrison's novels and this one is no exception. My goal is to reread all of her books within the next couple of weeks, I'll explain why in an upcoming post. But this is a worthy reading challenge and I'm up for the task. So in honor of my being stuck in Toni Morrison books, I'm participating in Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop.

Rules:
Fill out the rafflecopter form. All options on the rafflecopter are optional.
Giveaway is open to U.S. residents and international participants.

Up for grabs:
(1) $10 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of a Toni Morrison book OR up to $10 in purchases from The Book Depository.

Don't forget to hop on over to the over 120 other blogs participating in this hop. Click HERE for a list of the other blogs are scroll down to the bottom for a complete list. Special thank you to Stuck in Books and I Am a Reader, Not a Writer, for hosting this hop.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Armchair BEA: Introductions First!

I was hoping to attend Book Expo America this year, but unfortunately I wasn't able to make it. But for the last several years I have participated in Armchair BEA, a virtual conference for book bloggers who can’t attend Book Expo America being held in New York this week. 


Every day this week, I’ll post according to the daily themes given by Armchair BEA. Bloggers will then visit each other's blog and comment, which by the way, is an excellent way to network. I met most of the bloggers I know through Armchair BEA. So make sure and stop by the Armchair BEA and participate by visiting the list of blogs participating that are listed on the linky at the Armchair BEA website. Introduce yourself at each blog and leave a nice comment. Perhaps, they will reciprocate and come visit your blog as well.

Everyday this week, there is a new theme for bloggers to post according to. Today’s theme is “Introductions First!” Participants were given a list of 10 questions and asked to answer 5 of them, so that we can all get to know each other a little better. So here’s the five I chose to answer. 

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself? How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?

I'm Lena Sledge, author, writer, publicist, speaker and of course....blogger. I'm the publicist for the Alabama Writers' Conclave, one of the oldest writers' organization in continuous existence in the United States. I wrote a short story collection titled, If I Had My Way. It was released in February of 2012. It has done well. I'm very proud of my work and it was great to have my blogger friends discuss my book on their blogs and leave Amazon and Barnes and Noble reviews. I've also had my work in several anthologies. I started blogging because I wanted to share writing resources with newly published authors like myself. But I initially started blogging about books that I had read from my personal home library and from there my blog took on a life of its own. I hope to have my blog become a site for writers to find resources that may help them find what they need within the literary world and to share great books and bookish news for my book lovers and readers.

2. What book am I currently reading?

"Home" by Toni Morrison.

3. What is my favorite feature on my blog?
My favorite feature is Author Interviews, Giveaways and Writing and Blogging Resources.

4. My favorite post that I would want everyone to read?
It would be three posts actually, Top 25 Blogs for Writers, Armchair BEA (Building and Nurturing Relationships and Top 20 Sites for Free eBooks.

5. If I could eat dinner with any author or character who would it be?
In my fantasy, I'd have a luncheon with Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Nikki Giovanni.

Feel free to participate and answer my five questions in comments or direct me to your blog post discussing your five questions for Armchair BEA.

Tomorrow's theme is Giveaways and if you've visited my site before, you'll know I LOVE giveaways! Matter of fact, I'm running one now for a $25 Amazon Gift Card or up to $25 in book purchases from the Book Depository. So scroll down to enter or click My Favorite Reads Giveaway.

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to meeting and networking with you all. Happy BEA!

Writing Habits of 21 Famous Authors

I think every writer tries at some point to establish a writing habit. But establishing a good habit of any kind can be quite challenging. Let's first go over what a habit is.

A habit is a pattern of behavior acquired through repetition. Now sometimes we associate habit with bad behaviors that we are trying to stop, but as a writer we need to cultivate healthy habits to help us accomplish our writing goals.

Establishing a good habit means being consistent in your writing goals. By doing so you can be more productive in your writing and more successful in your endeavors.

My writing habits include, writing while the children are at school and writing first thing in the morning. I don't accept phone calls before 3pm if at all possible, unless they are scheduled. I also stop writing at 3pm to make time for my family as they come home from school and work. On the weekends, my schedule is the opposite. I also don't write with the television on. Television is a major distraction for me. I also invested in a dvr so I wouldn't be tempted to turn on the television, that way my favorite shows are recorded and I haven't missed anything.

A habit I'm trying to cultivate is to write without constantly double checking myself. I try not to do a lot of editing until I'm done with at least a chapter. But I'm still working on fighting the urge to edit during the writing process.

Here are some writing habits and writing advice of 21 famous authors. Tell me what you think and if you have any writing habits of your own. Remember what works for one person may not work for another. There isn't a right or wrong way if it's works. Just try to be consistent and productive in your writing.

Happy Writing!

Toni Morrison

"Writing before dawn began as a necessity–I had small children when I first began to write and I needed to use the time before they said, Mama–and that was always around five in the morning. Many years later, after I stopped working at Random House, I just stayed at home for a couple of years. I discovered things about myself I had never thought about before. At first I didn’t know when I wanted to eat, because I had always eaten when it was lunchtime or dinnertime or breakfast time. Work and the children had driven all of my habits… I didn’t know the weekday sounds of my own house; it all made me feel a little giddy. I was involved in writing Beloved at that time–this was in 1983–and eventually I realized that I was clearer-headed, more confident and generally more intelligent in the morning. The habit of getting up early, which I had formed when the children were young, now became my choice. I am not very bright or very witty or very inventive after the sun goes down." For more about this interview visit Linda Sands.


William Faulkner

"The writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed-love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice."

Maya Angelou
Angelou has used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She wakes at five in the morning and checks into a hotel room, where the staff has been instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She writes on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and leaves by the early afternoon. She averages 10–12 pages of material a day, which she edits down to three or four pages in the evening. Angelou goes through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she has said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang." She places herself back in the time she is writing about, even traumatic experiences like her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou has stated that she plays cards in order to get that place of enchantment, in order to access her memories more effectively. She has stated, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I’m in it—ha! It’s so delicious!" She does not find the process cathartic; rather, she has found relief in "telling the truth".

Octavia E. Butler
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice. Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don't have it, it doesn't matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent. Never let pride or laziness prevent you from learning, improving your work, changing its direction when necessary. Persistence is essential to any writer -- the persistence to finish your work, to keep writing in spite of rejection, to keep reading, studying, submitting work for sale. But stubbornness, the refusal to change unproductive behavior or to revise unsalable work can be lethal to your writing hopes. Finally, don't worry about imagination. You have all the imagination you need, and all the reading, journal writing, and learning you will be doing will stimulate it. Play with your ideas. Have fun with them. Don't worry about being silly or outrageous or wrong. So much of writing is fun. It's first letting your interests and your imagination take you anywhere at all. Once you're able to do that, you'll have more ideas than you can use. Then the real work of fashioning them into a story begins. Stay with it. Persist. Read my book review of Kindred by Ms. Butler.

J.K. Rowling 
J.K. Rowling would dash to the nearest cafe and write like mad when her daughter Jessica fell asleep. "What you write becomes who you are…so make sure you love what you write! The writing of Harry Potter has been inextricably linked with my life for seventeen years, and saying goodbye has been just as tough as I always knew it would be. If you tackle a novel or nonfiction book, you’ll be living and breathing it for years. If you’re haven’t started writing your book with love and passion, you may be struggling to write for years."


Johnny D. Boggs
"It's called a mortgage. That may come across as flippant, but it's true. I write for a living. No trust fund. No retirement. No steady paycheck. I approach writing like a job. Shower. Go to work in the morning, knock off, if I'm lucky, at late afternoon."

Truman Capote
"I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I'm laying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch with a cigarette and coffee handy. I've got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tead to sherry to martinis. No, I don't use a typewriter. Not in the beginning. I write my first version in longhand. Then I do a complete revision, also in longhand."

Terry McMillan
"As a single mother who had to work full-time. Ms. McMillan rose at 5:00 A.M. every morning and spent two hours working on her novel. Then, she would pack up her small son and drop him off at day care on the way to work. McMillan typed and printed her drafts at work during her lunch hour. Fortunately, her coworkers and supervisors were supportive of her effort.

Francine Prose
"Fortunately, or unfortunately, we live in a strange apartment with one twenty-foot-high window facing a brick wall, about a foot and a half away. Not much of a view. So when I'm at my desk I feel like I can work undistracted. I might as well be in the country. Writing while facing a wall, incidentally, seems to me the perfect metaphor for being a writer."

Donna Hill
"When we as writers read good work it can only enhance, stimulate and encourage us in our own solitary endeavors. After reading a good book I feel charged and want to up my writing level. Do I? Hmmmm, only a reader will know for sure, but I certainly hope so. Although my motto is “A writer writes” my other one is, “Any writer worth a damn reads.” Check out my interview with bestselling author Donna Hill.

Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway famously said he wrote 500 words a day, mostly in the mornings, to avoid the heat. Though a prolific writer, he also knew when to stop. He claimed he quit each day in the middle of a sentence. Hemingway wrote, “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”

Flannery O'Connor

In, The Habits of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor, she explains,"I'm a full-time believer in writing habits...You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows away...Of course you have to make your habits in this conform to what you can do. I write only about two hours every day because that’s all the energy I have, but I don’t let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place.” Flannery O'Connor had lupus, extraneous activity was draining during the end of her life. She sat facing the blank surface of her wood dresser, which provided no distractions.


Nikki Giovanni
In a recent interview I did with Ms. Giovanni, she said, "you have the internet, you can do a lot on your own, you can blog, you can set up publishing in a way that was a lot easier than when we were coming up. I would say if you’re interested in writing, you should write." Ms. Giovanni also stated in an essay with Harper Collins, "it's always a bit intimidating to try to tell how I write since I, like most writers, I think, am not at all sure that I do what I do in the way that I think I do it. In other words, I was always told not to look a gift horse in the mouth....I would hope each and every woman who ever thought she wanted to write would at least give it a try."


R.A. Salvatore
"Remember when you were in the second grade and you wrote something you thought ws the best thing you ever written? Then it came back from the teacher covered in red marks, destroying you. That's what being a writer is, every single day. Particularly with the Internet and the loudmouths it inspires, a writer will hear constanly how much he/she sucks. And the bigger you get, the worst it will be. So if you don't believe in yourself, you'll be another of those writers who walks around with his head down, thoroughly depressed. I know a lot of writers, but I know very, very, few happy writers."


Victoria Christopher Murray

In my recent interview with Ms. Christopher Murray, she said, "I have this relationship with food and shelter and so I write. No really, writing is my job. So just like anyone else who has to go to work to survive, I write. I just happen to have a job that I love."


Thomas Clayton Wolfe

I use a typewriter. I set myself a quota — ten pages a day, triple-spaced, which means about eighteen hundred words. If I can finish that in three hours, then I’m through for the day. I just close up the lunch box and go home — that’s the way I think of it anyway. If it takes me twelve hours, that’s too bad, I’ve got to do it.” Thomas Clayton Wolfe, wrote while leaning over a refrigerator because he was so tall, six feet six inches tall to be exact.

Mary Higgins Clark

"I know too many people who've spent months working over the first chapters of their projected novels. That's wrong. Get it down. Bumble it through. Tell the story. When you have fifty or 100 pages typed, you've got something to work with."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
In order to manage fluctuations of intellectual dry spells with that of an abundance of creativity, Emerson kept a journal. Every day he collected even the smallest thought, idea, or dream that crossed his mind. This enabled Emerson to better organize his thoughts when they flowed freely and to spur new ideas when he hit a dry spell. Writing helped Emerson make sense of the world. He would revisit the ideas he had recorded and add to them as he gained new insights.

E. Lynn Harris

Perseverance: Harris attempted suicide in 1990 after a long slide into severe depression and alcoholism left him isolated from work and most friends, broke, and facing eviction. He entered therapy, quit drinking, and began living with friends when he began writing Invisible Life. "The journal that I've been keeping is a way for me to deal with my reassurances of depression," Mr. Harris, said. "I began writing at 33. I wrote out of trying to work some things out in my own life. It was a story that hadn't been told. I feel like in any kind of special novel writing, you have to tell a story that is purely your own, that no one else can write but you. I went into writing this novel with a quiet confidence. If no one else wanted to read it, that was OK." You can read my author and book highlight of his last literary work, No One in the World,, that Mr. Harris co-wrote with R.M. Johnson.

Vladimir Nabokov

"My schedule is flexible, but I am rather particular about my instruments: lined Bristol cards and well sharpened, not too hard, pencils capped with erasers.” Vladimir was an avid user of index cards. Most of his novels were written on 3x5 inch filing cards that were copied, expanded, rearranged and paper clipped and then stored in slender boxes.

Richard Wright
In the biography, Richard Wright: The Life and Times, the author says, Wright got up early, she says, around 6 A.M. – sometimes earlier at the height of summer. Clutching his lined, yellow legal pad, a fountain pen, and a bottle of ink, he walked to nearby Fort Greene Park. He climbed to the top of the hill, where he sat on a bench, looking down on the brownstones and, in the distance, the ragged tenement houses by the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and filled page after page with his scrawling handwriting.

Don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what your writing habits are or what you thought of some of the writing habits of these 21 famous authors.

In My Mailbox Monday

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

It's Monday. The weekend flew by so quickly. But I had a nice smooth weekend. My youngest and I spent some time at the library. She found some great books, and I bought some great books from the library store. Win-win.

So here's what I have today:


Bought from Amazon.com in Paperback

Sisters and Lovers by Connie Briscoe

For Kindle on iPad.

Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food

Craving God: A 21 Day Devotional Challenge Guide. (Free on Kindle)

Bought from Library:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

For Whom the Bells Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

A Day Late and a Dollar Short by Terry McMillan

How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan

What books have you recently received? 

And where did you get them?

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Also, don't forget to enter the Read Banned Books Week Giveaway and Hop. I am giving away six (6) gifts for six (6) different winners. And the contest is open internationally as well. Click on the photo below for more info on how to enter my giveaway or just scroll down to the previous post.

Blessings!