Willa Caldwell jumps in and out of her volatile and sometimes violent marriage seemingly unaware of the affects her actions have on daughter Jade. Lonely and insecure, Jade often falls prey to those eager to take advantage of her desperate need for love and acceptance. And both she and Willa endure heartache at the hands of those who claim to love them most. As a young adult Jade decides to leave her hometown of Gary, IN, as well as the pain of her past to start anew in sunny California. Sadly, things dont go as hoped and shes left wondering if shell ever experience real love or if it will always be . . . Imagined Love. Diamonds debut novel will leave you thirsty for more. Wanda B. Campbell, best selling author of Illusions This book is one you will fall in love with . . . Dot Magazine I truly enjoyed reading Imagined Love! Turning Pages Book Club Five stars! OOSA Book Club
DIANE D In The Headlines is the 2nd book of the DIANE D Series. It involves headline and article scandals, sniper shootings, highway shootings, drunk driving arrests, weapons possession charges, fist fights, attacks, highway car chasings, motorcycle chasings, paralyzes, miscarriages, abortions, mental illness, split personality disorders, eerie spirit possessions and superhuman strength. It also involves Diane D and her deranged and dangerous cousin Dana, of DANGEROUS DANA A Suspense Thriller, being tossed and thrown behind bars together! Diane D and her cousin Dana are in jail for illegal weapons possession charges. Their lawyer is on the phone talking to Diane D. While he is talking to Diane D, he overhears Dana in the background hollering, cursing and swearing about him calling him every name in the book after he fails to get them bail! After the lawyer overhears Dana belittling him, he turns to Diane D and Dana’s family and threatens to quit and walk out on their case telling Diane D‘s family that he will represent Diane D, but not Dana! Diane D and Dana’s Grandfather Mike will not hear of it! He has a fit and tells the lawyer to either represent both Diane D and Dana or represent none of them! This story also involves a newspaper reporter and Dana getting into a heated argument and physical altercation outside a Banquet Hall over what the newspaper reporter threatened to write about Diane D! This story also involves three female police officers being beat up, attacked and injured on two separate occasions by Dana. Dana is soon tossed and thrown behind bars again for assaulting the female police officers. All three female officers are forced to quit and resign from the police force because of the injuries they suffered. This story also involves the Dianettes rivalry against another well-known female pop group. In one incident, the Dianettes’ attack and go against the other well-known female pop group who wanted to perform and collaborate on stage with them and Diane D. The Dianettes will not hear of it! They later speed in their van and chase the other well-known female singing group’s limousine down the highway all the way to the airport! When the Dianettes’ van and well-known female group’s limousine reach the airport terminal, the Dianettes come out their van, run to the limousine and start to pull the other well-known female pop group out of the limousine and attack them right at the airport! All six of the Dianettes are then tossed and thrown right in jail over the beat down for assaulting the other female pop group! The other female pop group had to be hospitalized which causes them to miss their flight to Paris. This story also involves the newspaper reporter's apparent suicide. This story also involves two male hospital employees who work the night shift. One night during the night shift, the two male hospital employees are working inside a dimly lit isolated clinic hallway as they eavesdrop outside one of the closed clinic room doors secretly listening on Diane D’s private conversation while Diane D is alone inside the clinic room talking on the telephone. The two male hospital employees hear Diane D about to leave the room. They quietly back up and quietly race back down the other end of the hallway! As the two male hospital employees hide round the corner, they hear Diane D leaving the room. They accidentally make a loud noise and fear that the loud noise has attracted Diane D’s attention! They run down the stairs into the lower level of the clinic area. They then hide and bend behind some boxes inside another dimly lit isolated hallway. As they hide behind the boxes and carts, they see Diane D in the distance coming from around the corner. They secretly watch Diane D from the distance. They see her strange eerie behavior as she looks around the dimly lit hallway. They then see her go from closed locked clinic room door to closed locked clinic room door trying to open each door as if looking for someone. They then witness Diane D do something so strange and so frightening that they become shocked and frozen in fear! They frighteningly have their backs leaned against the wall with their mouths and eyes wide open not able to move! Diane D then goes into a storage room. While she is inside the storage room, the two male hospital employees manage to break loose from their fear! They quickly sneak away and frighteningly run down the hallway! They then turn around the corner and race towards the stairwell! They reach the stairwell door and run into the stairwell! Once inside the stairwell, they run right back up the stairs, not looking back! This story also involves Diane D’s eerie and frightening performance in Germany which causes several thousand spectators in a German park to scream and run in fear! This story also involves, the Dianettes’ back stage attack on another well-known female singer who wanted to perform and collaborate on stage with them and Diane D at a shopping mall. Again, the Dianettes will not hear of it! They later chase down the well-known female singer and her husband behind the shopping mall inside the parking lot. They catch up to the well-known female singer and her husband and knock them down to the ground! They then attack the well-known female singer and her husband! All six of the Dianettes are then tossed and thrown behind bars again over the beat down. The well-known female singer and her husband both had to be hospitalized which causes the well-known female singer’s upcoming concert in New York to be canceled! This story also involves, the Dianettes’ attack on two well-known Latin female duo who tried to perform and collaborate with them and Diane D. Again, the Dianettes will not hear of it! They later chase down the well-known Latin female duo outside a police station!
Cultural criticism and pop culture history intertwine in this important book, which dissects how hip hop has sidelined Black women's identity and emotional well-being. A “ride-or-die chick” is a woman who holds down her family and community. She’s your girl that you can call up in the middle of the night to bail you out of jail, and you know she’ll show up and won’t ask any questions. Her ride-or-die trope becomes a problem when she does it indiscriminately. She does anything for her family, friends, and significant other, even at the cost of her own well-being. “No” is not in her vocabulary. Her self-worth is connected to how much labor she can provide for others. She goes above and beyond for everyone in every aspect of her life—work, family, church, even if it’s not reciprocated, and doesn’t require it to be because she’s a “strong Black woman” and everyone’s favorite ride-or-die chick. To her, love should be earned, and there’s no limit to what she’ll do for it. In this book, author, adjunct professor of sociology, and former therapist Shanita Hubbard disrupts the ride-or-die complex and argues that this way of life has left Black women exhausted, overworked, overlooked, and feeling depleted. She suggests that Black women are susceptible to this mentality because it’s normalized in our culture. It rings loud in your favorite hip-hop songs, and it even shows up in the most important relationship you will ever have—the one with yourself. Compassionate, candid, hard-hitting, and 100 percent unapologetic, Ride or Die melds Hubbard’s entertaining conversations with her Black girlfriends and her personal experiences as a redeemed ride-or-die chick and a former “captain of the build-a-brother team” to fervently dismantle cultural norms that require Black women to take care of everyone but themselves. Ride or Die urges you to expel the myth that your self-worth is connected to how much labor you provide others and guides you toward healing. Using hip hop as a backdrop to explore norms that are harmful to Black women, Hubbard shows the ways you may be unknowingly perpetuating this harm within your relationships. This book is an urgent call for you to pull the plug on the ride-or-die chick.
This book is about a family that goes through some What if situations that will change their lives forever. Its no main characters in this novel because everybody has a What if situation to go through. Someone gets shot, someone gets involved in a serious relationship, and someone finds God even when they werent looking for him and someone gets pregnant without sleeping with a man. Its gonna be some serious situations that the average person who has God in their lives wouldnt want to read this because of the explicit content in this book, but we all were born in sin and aint nothing new under the sun. So give it a chance because it could be somebody you know, what if it was you!
They said there would be no secrets between them. And there weren't. She just didn't tell Michael her lover's name. It wasn't important anyway, not now, because after today, she would never see Justin again. Justin was preoccupied with Mariah as they stepped outside so he didn't notice the gray BMW parked across the street. He should have been paying attention, but he wasn't. All he could think about was Mariah. She loved him, and he knew it. She just didn't want to admit it, but he knew it. The CD by Darnerien was one clue. The fact that she didn't keep any photos of Michael on her desk was another. Oh yeah, Justin was full of himself. He thought he had Mariah pegged, but what he didn't know was that she kept Michael's picture closer than her desk. In fact, she wore his picture in a locket that she wore around her neck. Michael was the closest to her heart. Closest to the warmest part of her body that left her moist at night when she lay in bed alone thinking about him long after he had gone. Yes, Mariah was fortunate. She was loved by two men.
Tears have never healed a wound...neither has a glock...but it will sure make you feel better... Chase Campbell, a respected fiction writer is done with dating. The thought of jumping back into the dating world made her nauseous. She has decided to focus solely on her career and push herself to new limits in business. Theodore Scott, an established journalist is what dreams are made of. Tall, dark and handsome the type of man every woman wants but isn't blessed to have. The man who has set his sights on Chase. A chance encounter and Chase cannot resist. The dating God's were finally smiling down at her. She had found her one, everything in her body told her so. They laughed and talked for hours under moonlit stars. Made passionate love by candlelight. Everything was perfect, until the day it wasn't. One moment in time, one missed call, one cancelled date, one awful secret, one body in the morgue. Chase comes to realize the dating God's aren't smiling down on her after all, they are laughing at her expense. Unfortunately the joke was on them, because that was the last time any laughter was paid at Chase's expense.
Stories and "True Facts" about growing up Southern in the good old days. More than a dozen southern authors contribute warm, nostalgic stories and fun trivia about "the era before shopping malls, Disney, and Wal-Mart." Includes the authors' favorite nostalgic recipes.
Even the worst of us have a story to tell and a rationalization to share. The problem is that the "best of us" have already judged them unworthy. Many plays for student actors shy away from serious subjects. Even so, today's world is a serious place, and young people are facing some of the biggest challenges of their lives-gangs, drugs, bullying, broken homes, violence in the street. Seeking to address these topics, playwright Samuel Williams presents When Men Don't Cry and Other Plays for Teens, the last in his four-book series of plays. Powerful and relevant, these short dramatic works offer insight, understanding, and social commentary for today's youths, their teachers, and their families. Educational as well as entertaining, these plays shine a light on a troubled and often misunderstood generation. Acted out on stage or read aloud in a group setting, Williams' easy-to-read tales look past teens' tattoos, piercings, gang colors, and sagging pants to find their humanity. Ideal for schools and church groups, parents, and teens, When Men Don't Cry and Other Plays for Teens explores a litany of experiences and seeks to positively change the fundamental way that people see today's youth and family dynamics.
On January 30, 2005, the small, quiet communities surrounding Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee awaken to the gruesome double murders of a drug dealer and a respected businesswoman. With no apparent motive or connection between the two victims, the only hope the police have is an anonymous tip pointing to local guides Todd and Sam Baskin, whose prior criminal history makes them fast and easy targets for suspicion. Veteran Judge Jim Gordon presides over the sensational trial and watches as the state endeavors to turn one brother against the other, determined to seek the death penalty. While the evidence looks convincing, the judge can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right. When the truth finally rears its head after ten long years, the retired Gordon faces a decision: to keep the secret and preserve his distinguished track record or own up to the mistake of a lifetime.
