Yesterday I was driving home from work and took a route, I usually don’t take. Usually I drive across the bridge home, it adds about ten minutes to my commute, but it is more scenic and allows me to unwind and shake off the work day by the time I get home.
However, yesterday it was raining buckets and the bridge is shaky at best during rain and wind storms. So, in pouring rain, I took the interstate, which is bridge free. About, ten minutes into my commute, I had a life altering occurrence. One car ahead of me in a downpour, I saw a semi truck hydroplane, cross the median and hit a street light. As if in slow motion, I saw the street light come down in front of me, there was nowhere for me to go but straight ahead. Another truck was going around me to the left, a line of cars were behind me and cars were to the right of me. So I prayed and drove forth over the street light, I could hear aluminum and glass crunch beneath my tires, but I drove on to the next exit and pulled over.
I was thanking God and shaking like a leaf. I pulled into a gas station, sat still for a minute while praying and catching my breath, then I called my husband. Of course, at that point tears started flowing. I was so grateful and shaken. Because I knew that God had given me literally wrapped his arms around me and saved me from what could have been not just life-changing but life ending.
After talking to my husband, I calmed down, thanked God and headed on my way home. All I could think of was how short and blessed life is and how things and situations can change on a dime.
The night before I had, had the same kind of epiphany. While sitting in a church meeting that was going very well and with one question the entire tone and agenda changed. I left that meeting shaken in much the same way I had in the near accident. Understanding ,that God was talking plainly and clearly talking to me and that I had better wake up and listen.
I have been chronically tired for a long time, but I force myself to plunge on and I have hit a wall. Most of last year I spend vast amounts of time trying to help this one and fix that one and do this and do that and I woke up in a New Year realizing I hadn’t really helped or fixed anyone or anything; just did a bunch of enabling and overdoing; because for the most part, nothing had changed and I knew I had to change me, reprioritize, make my health, my spirit and my very soul my priorities.
So mostly I have to say henceforth, I am going to have to listen when God speaks…because he always does and when we don’t listen he speaks louder, yesterday in traffic, he screamed in my ear and I heard HIM...
www.angeliamenchan.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
WHAT KIND OF WRITER-WOMAN, THIS?
Recently I was asked, ‘What kind of writer do you wish to be, Mrs. Menchan?”
My answer was pretty simple, “I am the writer I wish to be, one who writes stories that people want to read, talk about, that has a message but is fun with unexpectedness.”
The asker was a bit puzzled by my answer and said as much. Told me the expected me to say, ‘Popular author.’ ‘Best-selling author’ et al.
I smiled and understood, because most writers if they are honest, will admit to having sat and thought of selling hundreds of thousands of books and having to do nothing more strenuous than write the next book. But most real and realistic writers will also tell you that they knew going in that the potential for that to happen was pretty slim. It is much like dreams of being LeBron James if you play basketball, or JayZ if you are a rapper. It happens, but it doesn’t happen to many and will cause you much pain and anxiety if that is all you have.
For me writing is a way to release those stories that are out there,and in me, about ordinary people who usually have extraordinary things occur in their lives. Most of us do you know! There are so many nuances to living and they all make for good, even great stories if the time is taken to tell them.
A couple of years ago I was at a book signing in my home town and one of the women who had been my friend since childhood, told me she was literally astonished that so many scenarios went on in my head and made it to paper. In that same place, some of the readers were trying to figure out if they knew the players in the books. My answer is of course they do and they don’t. I try to write about the realest people I can with the realest issues. My goal is also to write {talk} about them in ways that isn’t necessarily salacious or shocking for the sake of being salacious or shocking. Because it is easy to throw in lots of graphic sex or violence and hope it’s enough to make the reader stay tuned. But, it’s something else again to make the reader go, ‘Dang, I would have never thought of it in that way or to feel the love of the characters without ever hearing them moan or groan or know the size of their umm body parts.
I recall sitting at another book discussion almost four years ago and one of the women said, “I don’t really know what Malcolm Black looks like.” Before I could say anything, several others responded by saying, “I do” or “Girl, I have a picture of him in my mind, my heart.” Still, another described her idea of how he looked. My heart exploded with pleasure because that is what I love. For these fictionalized characters to resonate with the readers, for them to ‘see’ them.
When writing Zen Cooper, Woman-Child, Ghetto-Genius, I had no idea where I was going. The first few lines came straight from my life. The conversation that took place in the class room came from my life when I was in sixth grade. But after that the characters added themselves. The mother Frieda was like no one I really know. Crazy Charlie was a microcosm of so many vets I had seen wandering the streets in my youth. And I filled in their lives with people who had as much color and flavor as they did and who could stand alone telling their own stories.
That is why I write to fill pages with people we know, think we know, never met, might get to know and mostly because writing is that place where it is all me…just me and we all need that…I think.
Be BLESSED!
angelia
My answer was pretty simple, “I am the writer I wish to be, one who writes stories that people want to read, talk about, that has a message but is fun with unexpectedness.”
The asker was a bit puzzled by my answer and said as much. Told me the expected me to say, ‘Popular author.’ ‘Best-selling author’ et al.
I smiled and understood, because most writers if they are honest, will admit to having sat and thought of selling hundreds of thousands of books and having to do nothing more strenuous than write the next book. But most real and realistic writers will also tell you that they knew going in that the potential for that to happen was pretty slim. It is much like dreams of being LeBron James if you play basketball, or JayZ if you are a rapper. It happens, but it doesn’t happen to many and will cause you much pain and anxiety if that is all you have.
For me writing is a way to release those stories that are out there,and in me, about ordinary people who usually have extraordinary things occur in their lives. Most of us do you know! There are so many nuances to living and they all make for good, even great stories if the time is taken to tell them.
A couple of years ago I was at a book signing in my home town and one of the women who had been my friend since childhood, told me she was literally astonished that so many scenarios went on in my head and made it to paper. In that same place, some of the readers were trying to figure out if they knew the players in the books. My answer is of course they do and they don’t. I try to write about the realest people I can with the realest issues. My goal is also to write {talk} about them in ways that isn’t necessarily salacious or shocking for the sake of being salacious or shocking. Because it is easy to throw in lots of graphic sex or violence and hope it’s enough to make the reader stay tuned. But, it’s something else again to make the reader go, ‘Dang, I would have never thought of it in that way or to feel the love of the characters without ever hearing them moan or groan or know the size of their umm body parts.
I recall sitting at another book discussion almost four years ago and one of the women said, “I don’t really know what Malcolm Black looks like.” Before I could say anything, several others responded by saying, “I do” or “Girl, I have a picture of him in my mind, my heart.” Still, another described her idea of how he looked. My heart exploded with pleasure because that is what I love. For these fictionalized characters to resonate with the readers, for them to ‘see’ them.
When writing Zen Cooper, Woman-Child, Ghetto-Genius, I had no idea where I was going. The first few lines came straight from my life. The conversation that took place in the class room came from my life when I was in sixth grade. But after that the characters added themselves. The mother Frieda was like no one I really know. Crazy Charlie was a microcosm of so many vets I had seen wandering the streets in my youth. And I filled in their lives with people who had as much color and flavor as they did and who could stand alone telling their own stories.
That is why I write to fill pages with people we know, think we know, never met, might get to know and mostly because writing is that place where it is all me…just me and we all need that…I think.
Be BLESSED!
angelia
Friday, January 7, 2011
SHELIA GOSS' WHEN LOVE DECEIVES BLOG TOUR
Real Signs of Falling in Love By Guest Blogger Shelia M Goss
As a reader and writer of romance, I love the scenes when the characters realize they are actually in love with the other character. They try to reject the idea of love, but underneath all the denials, love is there. In my new book Delilah, the main character Delilah has delusions of love and is deceived by the love she has for Samson.
Here are a few signs of when a person may be falling in love:
1. You can’t stop thinking about him or her.
He/She crosses your mind throughout the day no matter what you’re doing. They are a part of your thoughts whether you’re sleeping or awake. No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop thinking about them.
2. You get butterflies every time you hear his/her name.
You haven’t felt this way since your first love. The strange feeling leaves you feeling a little fluttery. It’s a feeling that comes over you every time you hear their name.
3. You see yourself dating him/her exclusively.
You’re at a point you want to commit You’re willing to take a chance in an exclusive relationship.
4. You walk around with a silly grin on your face.
Your friends and family comment that you have this goofy smile on your face–for no apparent reason. You try to curb your enthusiasm about your new love interest, but it’s unavoidable.
5. You hear a love song on the radio and it reminds you of your man/woman.
Every slow jam that comes on the radio reminds you of how you feel about your man/woman. You download old school slow jams to your mp3 player.
Love is a beautiful thing; especially when it’s reciprocated.
Shelia M. Goss is the Dallas Morning News and Essence Magazine Best-Selling author of My Invisible Husband, Roses are Thorns, Paige’s Web, Double Platinum, His Invisible Wife, Hollywood Deception, Savannah's Curse (March 2011) and the teen series The Lip Gloss Chronicles. Delilah is her tenth novel and first Christian fiction novel. To learn more, visit her website: www.sheliagoss.com, www.twitter.com/sheliamgoss or www.facebook.com/sheliagoss.
More about Delilah:
Behind every successful man is a good woman. The downfall of a good man is a woman up to no good.
Thirty and fine, Samson Judges is preacher of the Peaceful Rest Missionary Baptist Church . He’s beloved by his congregation, but temptation is about to strike in the form of divalicious beauty Delilah, and only the Good Lord knows if Samson will be able to keep his head on straight with her. Especially considering he’s about to be married to Julia Rivers. Julia helped shape Samson into the man he is, but Delilah wants to knock him down. He doesn’t know she’s been hired to distract him by real estate developer William Trusts, who wants to acquire the land where Samson’s church stands.... Samson feels like his relationship with God puts him above it all, but his weakness for Delilah may just cause him to lose everything. ~ Black Expressions Book Club
DELILAH is in stores everywhere or at an online retailer such as:
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1601628854?tag=officiwebsi03-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1601628854&adid=19YJPN9NQBAAXDJN59CQ&
Barnes and Noble http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Delilah/Shelia-M-Goss/e/9781601628855/?itm=1&USRI=delilah+shelia+goss
Borders
BlackExpressions.com (HARD COVER ONLY)
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
FIRST REVIEW FOR ZEN COOPER!
Title: Zen Cooper Woman-Child Ghetto-Genius by Angelia Vernon Menchan
APOOO: 5
Amazon: 5
Heading: Wise Beyond Her Years
Zen Cooper is the exceptionally smart, 14 year-old main character in Zen Cooper Woman-Child Ghetto-Genius by Angelia Vernon Menchan. This fast-paced story tells of a child who had no choice but to grow up faster than she should in order to live the life given to her. She does not know who her father is and her mother, Freida Cooper, is too busy trying to find herself to give Zen what she needs. Zen goes through town with great confidence and is not afraid to speak her mind to anyone.
From time-to-time Zen confides her thoughts and plans for her future to Charlie, a war veteran. She also shares with him the suspicions she has about her mother’s lover, Alice. Something was drawing Zen and Charlie together. He calls her “Warrior Woman” and she calls him her “Soul Daddy.” One of them is keeping a secret and it is killing them to keep it. While Zen attempts to reconnect with the grandmother she never knew, all that she does know is fraying at the edges. What will finally happen to Zen Cooper? Will she ever get the chance to be a child without all the adult baggage?
Mrs. Menchan wrote this book using her heart and her soul. She put a piece of herself into Zen. When I got to the last page I was sad, not because of the ending but because the story ended. I wanted a bit more. For some reason, I had a strong need to know if everyone who had their issues, that was affecting them and the others around them, finally got their life together. I recommend everyone to read Zen Cooper Woman-Child Ghetto-Genius for a lesson on how to love unconditionally, even the crazy people in life.
Jennifer Coissiere
APOOO BookClub
APOOO: 5
Amazon: 5
Heading: Wise Beyond Her Years
Zen Cooper is the exceptionally smart, 14 year-old main character in Zen Cooper Woman-Child Ghetto-Genius by Angelia Vernon Menchan. This fast-paced story tells of a child who had no choice but to grow up faster than she should in order to live the life given to her. She does not know who her father is and her mother, Freida Cooper, is too busy trying to find herself to give Zen what she needs. Zen goes through town with great confidence and is not afraid to speak her mind to anyone.
From time-to-time Zen confides her thoughts and plans for her future to Charlie, a war veteran. She also shares with him the suspicions she has about her mother’s lover, Alice. Something was drawing Zen and Charlie together. He calls her “Warrior Woman” and she calls him her “Soul Daddy.” One of them is keeping a secret and it is killing them to keep it. While Zen attempts to reconnect with the grandmother she never knew, all that she does know is fraying at the edges. What will finally happen to Zen Cooper? Will she ever get the chance to be a child without all the adult baggage?
Mrs. Menchan wrote this book using her heart and her soul. She put a piece of herself into Zen. When I got to the last page I was sad, not because of the ending but because the story ended. I wanted a bit more. For some reason, I had a strong need to know if everyone who had their issues, that was affecting them and the others around them, finally got their life together. I recommend everyone to read Zen Cooper Woman-Child Ghetto-Genius for a lesson on how to love unconditionally, even the crazy people in life.
Jennifer Coissiere
APOOO BookClub
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