Straight from a Diva's Heart: Volume Two!

It has been a year since I published my little poetry book, Straight from a Diva's Heart: Volume One. It landed on the shortlist for Read Freely Best Indie Book 2017 and started 2018 on the Amazon Bestsellers list! Celebrate with me, as I prepare to release Volume Two! It is available for pre-order here! Join us for the online launch party this Saturday, January 27th at 7:00 p.m., hosted by Hope-in-Christ Book Club here! 


Hope to see you there! 
Blessings, Michelle



Michelle Lynn Stephens is a poet and #1 Bestselling Author with Brown Girls Books. She has a heart for helping others through her writing, and assisting others in sharing their vision with the world. Visit anytime at http://www.michellelynnstephens.com.


ALSO FROM MICHELLE

Bestselling Anthology

Debut Novella
Straight from a Diva's Heart: Volume One






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Diva Love: Patricia A. Saunders

Creative Expressions Literary Services is pleased to announce Virtual Book Tour for There Is Sunshine After The Rain : Making It Through Life’s Struggles by Patricia A Saunders. The tour will run January 21-27, 2018.
Name: Patricia A. Saunders
Book Title: There Is Sunshine After The Rain : Making It Through Life’s Struggles
Release Date: December 20, 2017
Publisher: Book Baby
Genre: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 205
ASIN: B078J836Q3



What inspires you to write?
I always wrote to express myself as a child. Once my mother passed with Alzheimer’s I felt that I needed to have my legacy in my words.

Name three people who inspire you and explain why.
My mother, Rev. Betty L. Saunders, who lost her mother at the age 8 and accomplished so much against the odds, Oprah Winfrey who was raped as a child and overcame obstacles to be a mogul today, and Maya Angelou, my favorite author who had many passions that all came through her words.

How many books have you published to date?
7. Compilations and anthologies included.

Who has been your biggest supporter in your writing career?
My sister circle is a group of women who will  come to events, help set up, man my tables so I can attend workshops, and who hug me to celebrate each hurdle.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
I recently experienced it and I went back to my roots literally. I flew back to Connecticut to be around friends, family and I attempted to visit my mother’s gravesite. I came back to California on fire to finish my book and let the words flow with candles, music and wine.
Out of the books you have published, which is your favorite
and why?
My latest because I put it all out there so a reader understands who I am and what inspires me.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I have been a poet since I was a child and became a writer when I looked at the journal I kept to get through the grief in 2008. I started researching and the doors started opening.
If you could have been the original author of any book, what
would it have been and why?
I wish I could have been the author of Fifty Shades of Grey who also was self published. It took off and men and women gravitated to the behavior that made her a best seller.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Never give up on writing. Read books to stay creative. Encourage yourself.

Who is your favorite author? Why?
Maya Angelou wrote poetry, cookbooks and was a storyteller. Growing up in a town where the majority didn’t look like me, I didn’t feel I was beautiful. So, reading her words made me appreciate myself. It is my wish that my words will have the same affect one day.

Do you have any other talents besides writing?
I sing, cook, sew and love to decorate.

 How does it make you feel when a reader tells you that they
enjoyed reading your book?
Humbled.

What is your goal as an author?
To touch one person that reads my words and says it was their situation, it was what they were thinking, or they know they came through the storm, too.

What inspired you to write your latest book?
Doing an inventory over my life when I reached 50, why I made the choices in relationships, listening to other men and women on how they handle circumstances, and then embracing the faith that brought me through.


About the Author


Self Published Author, Patricia A. Saunders was born and raised in Connecticut before relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area nearly 24 years ago. She received her Master’s in Management from the University of Phoenix in 2011. After the passing of her mother who had Alzheimer’s, Patricia decided that all the words that she kept to herself were to be released.

Saunders has released her fifth book an autobiography memoir infused with poetry (December 2017)  with BookBaby Publishing called There Is Sunshine After The Rain : Making It Through Life’s Struggles. The book will take the reader on a journey of a young child influences that shape her decisions as an adult. It is a must read that covers being raped multiple times,  a family that protects her,  how she wanted to die after the passing of her mother , and the people who would not give up on her!

Her work has been featured on a Coast to Coast Book Tour at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Toronto Word On The Street, Sacramento Black Book Fair, Tucson Book Festival, Miami International Festival of Books and AARP Life@50+ Spring Convention. Also on In the Company of Poet, Women Owned Business Club Magazine, and Alysha Live! Radio Show and Coach Deb Bailey Secret of Success Talk Radio. She performs locally at spoken word events and Capital Jazz SuperCruise Open Mic with Grammy Award Winner Eric Roberson.

She is a monthly blogger of her own blog Blessed & Curvy who covers today’s hot topics.

She released her first self published book Through the Fire (March 2012) which covered emotions from situations, circumstances, and life lessons that have influenced her over her lifetime. On a mission to complete a book a year in case she inherits the ugly disease she released her second book Loving Me (2013) and third Let It Rain (2014) which is also self published and covers various topics from love, grief, self image, self esteem, bullying, and discovery of self love .Her fourth book (2016) This Too Shall Pass was released by AuthorHouse Publishing and readers have given it a five star rating.

In her spare time, Patricia enjoys writing poetry, traveling, spending time with family and wine tasting.

Synopsis:


Sitting there with the pieces of your life around you, there seemed to be a pattern. There was faith, love, deceit, lust, and loss—in that order. You didn’t think you were deserving of love. That is why everything was being taken from you, and you were ready to give up on life.
Through your poetry, faith, and learning from your past, you can rewrite the story. It was after coming through all the experiences and being stronger, you realized there is always a new chapter.

The book will take you on the journey of a young girl growing up in Connecticut, who had to take some stumbles along the way to come into her own and realize instead of tearing herself down for the decisions she made, there is a lesson. Love is greater than anyone can imagine and can warm you like the sunshine after the rain.

You went from the beginning, the journey, the test, and the testimony to say, “There Is Sunshine after the Rain.”


Social Media Links:
Facebook: @ blessedpoetpat
Twitter: @ blessedpoetpat
Instagram:@blessedpoetpat
Pinterest: @blessedpoetpat


Purchase Links:



Click Here To Follow The Tour



I truly hope you have enjoyed today's guest. Also, please feel free to check out my  upcoming release, Straight from a Diva's Heart: Volume Two, available for 
pre-order here!


See you next time!






Michelle Lynn Stephens is a poet and #1 Bestselling Author with Brown Girls Books. She has a heart for sharing the work of others and assisting them in sharing their vision with the world. Visit anytime at http://www.michellelynnstephens.com.

MORE FROM MICHELLE





Bestselling Anthology
Debut Novella
Straight from a Diva's Heart
Volume One


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Reminisce 2017: A Diva's Year-in-Review

2017 has been truly been one for the books! It has been full of blessing and favor for my own work and I have had the honor of showing Diva Love to some wonderful best-selling and award-winning authors and poets. It has been a absolute delight to showcase the work of my fellow writers. I would like to thank them for coming through! If you missed any of their features, please feel free to scroll back through my previous posts and read all about them.

 Here's a Diva Love Flashback!






I was also delighted to celebrate various milestones in my writing journey. This year marked the fifth anniversary of my debut novel, The Divorcee Chronicles: Diary of a Divorcee Diva, and the first anniversary of my wonderful collaboration with the ladies of Brown Girls Books, Single Mama Dating Drama, which made us #1 National Bestselling Authors. I also released Volume One of my poetry book, Straight from a Diva's Heart, which was voted as a Read Freely Top 100 Best Indie Book of 2017 out of over two thousand submissions!



Unfortunately, I also lost my stepdad this year, as well as commemorated my father's 20th death anniversary, but I find comfort in knowing they were instrumental in encouraging me to spread my wings artistically and would be both proud.

I truly hope you enjoyed this look back on my journey. I wish you happy holidays and look forward to seeing you again next year. More writer features and new projects will be awaiting you.



 Until then, peace, love and blessings, Straight from a Diva's Heart! 








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Diva Love: Welcome Back, Tracee Lydia Garner!

Creative Expressions Literary Services is pleased to announce Virtual Book Tour for Fatal Opposition by Tracee Lydia Garner. The tour will run November 27-December 8, 2017.
Author Name: Tracee Lydia Garner
Book Title: Fatal Opposition
Book Release Date: November 27, 2017
Genre: Multicultural, Inspirational, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Today, I am pleased to welcome back, Tracee Lydia Garner! Please enjoy this delightful interview.
Have you always wanted to be an author?  

I had no idea stories were in me at all. The start of my journey starts with depression, flunking out of school, specifically community college math for liberal arts and an awful English teacher I did not like at all. In my college days, I just wasn't convinced I was going to make it and I remember one late night surfing on the computer, feeling down and I asked God for "something else". I wasn’t very specific, but I was crying and just calling out to him to help me improve my grades or give me a good job without a degree. He delivered as He always does. I saw a contest hosted by a large publishing house and my dramatic crying and tears actually dried up as I tried to read the details about entering it. I would enter and later win the grand prize and that launched my writing career and changed my life. Everything in life improved, my grades, my outlook and I had a true passion and calling, and I wrote that story (Family Affairs) faster than I wrote anything so I could meet the deadline and submit it. It was an awesome time. Before that, writing NEVER really occurred to me as something I would do. I had wonderful High School English teachers that said I wrote good essays but publication and multiple stories, no idea.


Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?  

I think the biggest influences on my writing are my parents, in a very (later discovered) kind of way. My Mom left Georgia recruited by the government when she was 17, and moved to Virginia. My dad left college and came up here to be with her and while I didn't realize the love story I had right here, I now am in awe of the love they shared. My father died in 2011 but they had forty long years together and were high school sweethearts. As a child, you see your parents show affection and all you think is “Ewe, gross. Don't embarrass me.” But till this day, my BFF still gushes and reminds me about my parents kissing and showing affection in front of us and mentions how this impacted her because she didn’t have it in her own home life. I recall how I used to feel about those PDA's prior to growing up. With actual writing and reading, Debbie Macomber was the first to really turn me on to romance. I LOVED her stories and later of course, popular authors like Sandra Brown, Barbara Delinsky and Brenda Jackson. Currently some of my favorites include Irene Hannon, Julie Lessman and Donna Hill but I read MANY new authors all the time some I've never heard about or read before.

Can you tell us what a typical writing day for you is like? 

I actually work in health and human service full time - so my writing life really only happens on the evenings and weekends. Writing my stories is almost a part of my mental health regimen and escape. As a Peer Counselor in my day job, the tragedies and atrocities people I see face are so real and even hurtful. I need escape. But I do try to get some writing in on my lunch break and sneak in a little time here and there. I do just about everything myself including arranging my own interviews and doing my own PR. I thank goodness for e-mail because it lets me get a lot done including when it's time to upload my book and get all the production stuff done. I try to write as much as I can because time is so short, and I have my own self-imposed deadlines that I try to meet, and I try to arrange an event, signing, book event, or attend/teach at a writing conference workshop about 3 Saturdays out of the month so I have at least one Saturday to rest/write/plan and sleep in. But I go to a lot of conferences. I also teach at the community college 3 times a year - each time is an 8- week Write the Novel class and 3 times a year, on one Saturday, from 9 - 1:00 I do a Self-Publishing Boot Camp, also at the community college. My writing has launched my platform for speaking and teaching and I wouldn't have those other outlets or streams of income if not for the books.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to a budding writer?

The best piece of advice is twofold - If you write a book -really take time to sit down and plan (and I'm not talking about planning or plotting the book (because I'm a “Pantser”), but I'm talking about planning your writer life). Those that write one book never think that they have books 2 nor 5 more books in them. Believe me when I say you will have another book in you. So with that said, you should WAIT until 2 and 3 are done before you release number one.

This is advice I wish I would have gotten and the advice to gain clarity, let go of things and to write faster, AND to wait to release - I couldn't wait with the contest, obviously but I could have really focused and done more to keep the books coming. You'll fizzle out, life will happen, family will throw a monkey wrench, but sitting down and planning things out will first give you peace of mind and free your brain of clutter but also help you gain clarity sooner. I didn’t plan anything when I started, and I didn’t seek any real counsel. Now I’m a planning fool. My plans have plans. So, at the end of each year, I either revamp my plan, tweak it and I note what did and did not work or what excites me so I can keep doing something or cut something out and it simply makes me feel so good and at peace. Stopping for a minute and just breathing to really think out what it all means is key. I will also say that I give myself a pass. I’ve been in publishing a VERY LONG time and I won the contest at 23 and the book came out when I was 24. I’m now 40 so I realize that some of the planning I’ve learned has come with age.

As a writing teacher you meet many writers. What advice could you give aspiring writers on how to select an instructor or class?

Look for teachers that have some publishing credits. I think that it is difficult, because there are many GOOD instructors teaching that aren’t published. I think that they can still tell you how to do it, provide valuable instruction, but I believe they can be that much more helpful and forthcoming if they have had their work published a time or two.


It’s not just about story formatting and having great characters, it’s about the publishing game and how have you fared in it and that is so valuable to students, it goes beyond teaching skill and gets to the meat of how have you faired in the world of publishing. As a budding writer, I found people who went through the entire journey, that were much more helpful than someone who just told me about the story structure and format. I would and wanted to know, about the entire experience.

What are some of the reasons why talented writers don’t succeed in publishing?

I think that there is saturation.


I hate to say that because that’s like saying if it’s so saturated why don’t you stop writing and of course I won’t. But it’s hard to see one small fish when the area is full of fish. This is going to probably cause some controversy and maybe I can say this because I write slow, but I would be willing to have a limit on books.
Isn’t that kind of sad? Let’s say at book 30 every writer has to take a five-year hiatus. Almost like seats in a public office. But this would give editors time to discover new talent, and you better believe I’d be (and any other writer) writing my butt off in that five-year “vacation”. But that will never happen, that’s too restricting and I digress.



So, saturation in the markets, they sometimes may lack development of the skill and notice the difference between skill and talent. I believe that EVERYONE has talent and that it really can be cultivated. I really and truly prayed for my writing when I thought I would flunk out of college and God supplied. Yes, I loved writing articles, commentaries, loved talking but that didn’t mean it could translate into good writing and story-telling. If you really want something, talent or not, you can LEARN to do it and master it. Just go ask Tiger Woods.

What techniques do you use when you hit a rough patch in your writing?


When I hit a rough patch, I believe that the issues are about fear of failure or success and
they are more about personal issues rather than the story itself. I once feared characters

would not do well when I was taking a new direction with my writing and so I wrote a
letter from the characters point of view to myself and they kind of allayed my fears or
just confirmed them. Confirming them isn’t terrible, but it lets you know that these are
the issues and you have to try to move on. Put all those cards on the table, both good and
bad when you hit a rough patch.


I also hate rewriting, but I have done it before. Sometimes you’ve got to open a new,

blank document and just start over again. I’m always surprised about how similar what I
wrote, reflects in the new stuff but it’s still a rewrite even if there are similarities. You
can’t write the exact same thing and that’s a plus, but you can write, new, fresher stuff.
About the Author

Tracee Lydia Garner is a bestselling, award-winning author who writes stories full of complex heros and heroines, relationships and families that experience tough but realistic life challenges in their quest for love. Born and raised in a suburb of the DC metro area, Tracee works in health and human service by day, has a degree in Communication and is a speaker and advocate for people with disabilities. Find Tracee on the web at www.Teegarner.com, or connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

 About The Book


Synopsis

More than anything, she wants to be a part of something that feels right....

Cashell Bruer has lived a sheltered life. When she meets handsome NFL rookie James Parker on her birthday, she's smitten. With him, she can truly begin to live. But will he want her when he discovers she has a heart condition? Not to mention her new job involves polishing his bad boy image!

He longs to make his adoptive family and his team proud, while making peace with his past…
James Parker has it all, a family who chose him, and a coveted spot on an NFL team. When lovely, spirited Cashell keeps turning up in his life, he wonders if she's the one to share it all. But what if her only interest in him is status? And even worse, what if his search for his real family ends up putting her in danger?

Social Links

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Thanks for stopping by!

 Michelle


Michelle Lynn Stephens is an Indie Poet and #1 Bestselling Author with Brown Girls Books. She has a heart for helping others and assisting them in sharing their vision with the world. Visit anytime at http://www.michellelynnstephens.com.


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Support an Indie Poet!




I was honored to have my poetry book shortlisted for the Read Freely Best Indie Books of 2017. Straight from a Diva's Heart  was selected from thousands of submissions to sit among the Top 100 nominations!

You can help me make the final cut. Just cast your vote below! Voting ends tonight.


 
Get your copy here!
 
 
 

Thank you,

Straight from a Diva's Heart!


Michelle Lynn Stephens is an Indie Poet and #1 Bestselling Author with Brown Girls Books. She has a heart for helping others and assisting them in sharing their vision with the world. Visit anytime at http://www.michellelynnstephens.com.


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