Six(!) days until day one of the 6th and grand finale year of The Write Women Book Fest!!!  Last week was another hard one for federal workers in the DMV area along with other ongoing challenges, making it tough for a lot of people to prioritize joy. This coming weekend TWWBF2025 intends to celebrate and support talented authors, poets, creatives, and publishing industry professionals and their work, readers and literacy advocates while we also celebrate everything positive that this event has contributed to our community since 2019. [a two-image collage: right side - two posters atop the closed lid of a baby grand piano; both with "The Write Women Book Fest, 100+ authors Golden Angel, Eden Appiah-Kubi, Courtney Duke Foster, Jeaniene Frost, Maria Vale, Erin Wright, EC Poetry & Prose, July 19th QR Code thewritewomenbookfest.org, Use code FESTNEWS25 for 30% off!"; left side - an incomplete poster with "The Write Women Book Fest" and a blank sheet of paper with a g...

The wait is over for fans of Sylvia Day and for specific fans of her Crossfire series.    [cover art of a woman standing with her back to a man who is embracing her waist with one hand while she reaches back to cup his cheek; "New York Times Bestselling Author Sylvia Day, Ireland, A Crossroads Novel"]  Ireland (Crossroads #1) by Sylvia Day, author & publisher  contemporary romance fiction  April 2025    Before this current wave of erotic and dark romance authors, there were these notable past and current talents: Zane, Cecilia Tan, Susan Johnson (now writing as C.C. Gibbs), Robin Schone, Thea Devine, and Sylvia Day. Crossfire fans, it's time to celebrate the launch of this related Crossroads series with its steamy, angst-drenched first entry of Ireland and Ronan's adversarial courtship. Ireland ends on a cliffhanger and Illusion, book 2, is scheduled for an April 2026 release, leaving plenty of time to read the original series, an enjoyable task th...

Educator, poet, short story author, mindfulness guide and now the moniker of memoirist has been added to the long list of creative accomplishments earned by Poet Laureate of The Write Women Book Fest Aressa V. Williams.  She was born and raised in the vibrant community of Washington, D.C.'s Northeast neighborhood of Deanwood. Her Memoir evokes the nostalgia, challenges, victories, heartaches and joys of her life that connect with readers across generations and locations.    [photo credit: H.L. Brooks; image: two paperback ARCs of In Deanwood, A Memoir by Aressa Verdell Williams arranged on a tabletop; cover art of a sepia toned two-story colonial house with four columns - two on each side of the front door]  The ebook is currently available with print copies coming soon! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-deanwood-aressa-verdell-williams/1147594007   Just under 3 weeks before day one of The Write Women Book Fest and we've finished decorating t-shirts for our aw...

Finally made it over to  Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the Bowie Town Center to  see the display of books by some of the authors participating in The Write Women Book Fest!   https://www.thewritewomenbookfest.org/#/   [endcap display with The Write Women Book Fest 2025 poster at the top; books by participating authors arranged beside and under it: Fake Flame, Results Will Vary, That ___ She He___*, Trading Places, Ruins and Redemption, ReInception, Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death, When She's on Top, Sleuths of Bears, Through Her Eyes, Protecting Paige, Love Reinvented, Too Dangerous to Love; Never, Now or Later; A Fire at Romanticon, Darcy's Gallant Gambit, The Adventures of Janie & Juliet, The Lord of Freedom: The Bell Tolling (Book One), An Exaltation of Larks, Macy the Mermaid]  No One Is Self-Made: Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life  by Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon  non-fiction  HarperCollins/William Morrow/DeySt, Feb...

The grieving process in fact and fiction  [2 books arranged next to each other: left - Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title by Leslie Gray Streeter; right - The Martian Contingency (Lady Astronaut #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal]    Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title by Leslie Gray Streeter  non-fiction memoir  Little, Brown and Company, May 2020  In eighteen chapters with titles from lyrics of popular television show theme songs and other cultural references, this author offers readers candid emotional details about her experiences in coping with the sudden death of her spouse. Grief as a form of emotional schizophrenia.  Her insightful revelations are poignant and funny in unexpected ways. Connections between family by blood, by choice, neighbors and extended community create an engagi...

Recent obvious failures and spectacular successes in book fests combined with an actual near collision (my fault) in the grocery store with the incomparable founder of the successful-for-decades BARR - Black Authors & Readers Rock - Conference* who's also the author of Plan It! The Complete Resource Guide for Authors, Book Clubs & Literary Event Planners inspired me to write this FlashbackFriday post.  [photo of two Black women standing next to each other with their arms around each other's shoulders: Cardyn Brooks on the right; Sharon Lucas on the left]  [title page for workbook "How to Plan an Event That "Wows" Workbook By Sharon Lucas" with a photo of the author then "An Addendum to Plan It! The Complete Resource Guide for Authors, Book Clubs & Literary Event Planners"]  In 2017 P.G. Parks & Recreation hosted a community event (overall theme has escaped my Swiss cheese memory) at the Wayne K. Curry Sports and Learning Complex. Sh...