Diversity Matters

Getting time to get solitude has been nothing less than challenging, but I'm finding the time to make it work in between everything else I have to do. We are a busy family with busy schedules but somehow I make it work. I will find a way to get my work done just as long as I can put a smile on family's face and show them I'm here for them. So I've decided just to take my stolen moments and get out as much as I can until I get interrupted. An update on my manuscript, John told me on Friday that an editor from a publishing company ( I can't publically say the names now) is going to take Black Girl Magic into an acquisition meeting next week.  An acquisitions meeting is where editors work as a part of a publishing team to acquire manuscripts. During this meeting, the editor who liked my book will pitch it the other editors hoping they too want to acquire my work which in turn will lead to an offer from them to me. I'm trying not to think about this. As thi

This was the last photo I took. I was so swamped at Thanksgiving I didn't take a single pic. And I'm not even sure if I got dressed for real.  I need to be alone. I'm convinced. I need a day to sit with myself and my thoughts and no other obligations so I can get my thoughts out. My Black Friday plan to work on my thesis because, why not? It was my day off. Instead, I had to host Thanksgiving at my house because my mom wasn't feeling well. Therefore, I spent that Friday trying to recover. I'm so glad my best friend dropped by. She forced me to finish my website . And I must say, I am very proud of myself. I did enough to show the world: Meet Stephanie Jones. The worst part about not actually writing is that I have all of the ideas in my head. I now know exactly what I want to do. I have a plan I've thought about and talked through that forward where I'm planning to discuss how my students, teaching and my daughters were the catalysts for my creativ

Photo: Courtesy of Facebook There are no words that can describe what happened on Thursday, November 15, 2018. Well, actually there are words. Most of which contain expletives. I cannot believe that less than five inches of snow shut New Jersey down. We get snow every year. We're not new to this. And yet, on Thursday as the snow began to fall around 2 in the afternoon, my husband, brother and myself, headed to Newark International Airport on what is usually a 15- 20-minute drive turned into a four-hour trek, where we never drove our car more than ten miles per hour. A few things happened on our journey to and while at the airport: We missed our flight.  I was able to change my flight to a later flight.  We made it to the offsite parking spot two hours before our flight was scheduled to take off.  From the Parking Place, it then took us an hour and fifteen minutes to travel what usually takes seven to eight minutes.  Once we got through security we had an hour to catch

Maybe the hardest part of this process is behind me. Maybe. Or it could be that I'm just over this one very big hurdle. Either way. I'm one step closer to the finish line. And it just so happens that I have two different end goal. The first one is to finish out this semester and earn my Masters degree. The second is to sell my book to a publishing company. It would be really cool if by graduation in May my novel, Misunderstood has already been sold to a publishing company and the announcement has been made in the Rights Report (a place where publishing companies announce newly acquired book deals weekly.) Talk about a full circle moment. I'm going to put it all the way out there in the universe my making this declaration. By the time I walk across the stage in May to earn my diploma, I will have sold my book-- which was started during my time as a graduate student. Okay, so this week was pretty stressful but I made it though. After reading through 328 double-spaced page

It's safe to say I don't know what I'm doing. Well maybe I do know, but I'm overwhelmed. I can't seem to find the time to get it all done. I thought I was ahead of the game when I submitted my work to my agent ( I am very aware of every time I say this. I feel like I sound self- important. However, I do have an agent.) Anyway, I sent my work to my agent and I thought, "Whew, glad that's off my plate." via GIPHY Now, didn't think that I was done with my revisions. However, I also didn't think he'd read and respond and critique my new work within a week. He gave me more notes and now I have to go back through my manuscript from the beginning and read it like a reader and a copy editor simultaneously. The problem is where do I get more hours in a day. I haven't had a moment to breathe, let alone think about all that I have to do. My youngest daughter was sick that threw me off my game. Add that to their grueling cheer schedule of pra

I cannot tell you how relieved I was when I was able to hit the send button on the email to my agent, John. Glad that was off my plate. Finally, I've got time to play with filters on Snapchat. Okay so, here's a story about what happens when you don't listen to everything you've been taught since the age of five. Haste makes waste. Now, unfortunately, in my haste, I deleted the revised version of my manuscript and sent the wrong document to my agent. Luckily, I backed up my work because I originally deleted what I thought was "old version" of my novel. All I can say is my Dropbox saved me. Now that that's off of my plate what's next? Well, my Afterword or my Foreword is next. I'm ready to start brainstorming and actually putting my ideas on paper. I'm ready to do some self-reflecting and pour onto the pages why I wrote this book. Why does the story of my fictional character  Mya Andrews matter to be and in the grand scheme of young adul