Anondra “Kat” Williams of Sippin On Ink talked to a group of black lesbian writers about the growing popularity of lesbian literature. The participants in the discussion were S. Renee Bess, Cheril N Clarke, C.D. Kirven and Tawanna Sullivan (ahem, moi). Check out the interview: Publishing ABC’s.
What I’m Reading
Stopped in a small bookstore to do a little browsing and picked up The Cross Of Redemption: Uncollected Writings of James Baldwin. I am really having a ball reading this–both what he says and how he says it. His style of writing makes the little gray cells happy. It’s interesting to see recognizable quotes in context of the entire essay/speech.
Also, I gave Leonid McGill, Walter Mosley‘s new detective, a try. I devoured The Long Fall and promptly snatched up Known To Evil. Leonid is a PI who used to do just about anything for a price, so his clients weren’t rarely on the right side of the law–and innocent people often found their lives thrown into disarray (if not worse). He is trying to “do right” now, but the past haunts his dreams and his old underworld “friends” just aren’t ready to let him go. Add his tumultuous homelife into the equation and it’s a wonder that Leonid hasn’t completely self-destructed.
Walter Mosley talks about The Long Fall and Leonid:
Hmmm
“But unlike some writers, like P.D. James or Elizabeth George, who outline and work from their outlines, I find that I can’t do that. And I have to write to see where the story’s going. And sometimes I just write myself into a dead end. And sometimes that’s 200 pages into the book and I have to just weep and bid it goodbye and start over again.”
—Sara Paretsky, author of the V. I. Warshawski mystery series
Tawanna Sullivan 