This may not be quite how Brother Richie got famous but I’ll sure settle for the recent turns of event.
Starting with – have to pinch myself – fantabulously phenomenal, brilliant novelist cum savvy publisher Shelley Halima giving the novel Black & Single Blues at home at Indie Gypsy Press. Which, by the by, happens to have the number two title on Kindle/Amazon.com, Liz DeJesus’ Morgan, right along side Ann Rice. Just signed the contract, so, Indie Gypsy ought to be making an announcement sometime soon. Meanwhile, feel absolutely free to go to indiegypsy.com, look me up on the authors page (scroll all the way down to the new kid on the block) and, while you’re at it, check out the rest of the site. My favorite (well, aside from lookin’ at myself) is the merch section. Shelley and the girls got a tee-shirt, right? Pretty in pink with this hot fox wearing glasses and reads, “Sexy Nerds are quite cerebral. Not only can we stimulate your mind, we can f*ck your brains out.” Sure works for me – any day out of the week, twice on Sunday. Black & Single Blues is scheduled to be out just in time for you to miss getting it for your friends as a Christmas gift, but, what the hell, you can get it as – depending when it actually drops – a Black Folk Month gift for yourself. It’s reader-friendly (don’t take my word, check with the audience that kept it alive as a series at Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder for a year and half, after which the publisher commissioned a sequel) tale of two independently strong-willed but nonetheless love-struck individuals trying to fit in one relationship. Good luck with that, right? Shelley’s convinced it’ll move on the market and, after listening to her, so am I. After all, recession or no recession, it’s two things black women is gon’ do. One, they gon’ get they hair done regular at the beauty shop. Two, they gon’ buy romantic novels. They gon’ be especially interested in one written from a man’s perspective. So, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, there should be a fair wind comin’ up over the horizon. Or somethin’ like that.
Sing Blues, Thank You (Independent Filmmaker Project) is producer-director-screenwriter Brenda Bell Brown’s indie short, presently in post production, starring Masanari Kawahara (the man is so subtly emotive, completely convincing, his chops have chops) with my girl Pearll Warren in a role as well. It’s a fascinating flick about a fella who comes home to keep a date with destiny. Blink and you’ll miss me on-screen. However. The singer performing Rev. Gary Davis’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” as Kawahara descends the escalator at the airport? You guessed it, that’s me! So, I get to make my film debut and be on the soundtrack at the same time. No autographs, please.
This blog pretty much started with me chronicling the process of putting together a project called Angels Don’t Really Fly (BeatBad Records-EP) by Dwight Hobbes & The All-Star Hired Guns featuring Alicia Wiley. Which only now is wrapping up out at Winterland Studios. I planned to wait until it was mastered (late August) to look at whether to put it on hold and get on to other things or go on to the next step, which would be packaging it for release. Turns out the music had a mind of its own. I put “Lady Midnight” and “End It All Over Again” up on CD Baby as rough mixes and the bad boys have actually generated some response, particularly at Reverb Nation. Nothing to stop the presses about but nonetheless encouraging. Haven’t made up mind. We’ll have to see.
So. I’m pretty much adopting a don’t just do something, stand there frame of mind. Unless fans start beating down the door (yeah, hold your breath), Angels may just wait while the singles see if they can’t pick up some more steam. Meanwhile there’s work to be done with assignments for Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.
Otherwise hurry up and wait for early 2015 to get here with Indie Gypsy Press publishing Black & Single Blues.
Comment