Punctuality Problem? Problem.

Habitual punctuality is a condition that I am clearly in the minority with. I will readily admit that I am very meticulous when it comes to my time; and this is only because I understand that time is the one commodity that you CAN NOT GET BACK!

In my line of work, meetings are a necessity. It's just what we do.  But more often than not (90% of the time), I find myself waiting for people who are running late for appointments that they themselves have set the date and time for and I just don't understand it.

For the doctors' offices that set appointments and then leave you sitting in the lobby for an hour past your appointment time, why not just give your clients a window of say 9-5 and take them on a first come first serve basis? After all, if they are late or miss an appointment you don't hold them up on charging that cancellation fee!

And for the the wedding parties that leave their guests sitting for hours waiting for the wedding ceremony or reception to start...don't even get me started on that.

Then there are the people that you have to tell that everything starts 2 hours earlier than it actually starts just so they'll make it somewhere near the "on time" mark; and we all know people like that.

Ergo, I present this post to let those who think it's cool to be "fashionably" late for everything that its very irritating to say the least and here's why:

1. It displays a lack of professionalism.

In my managerial capacity, I have had a total of 5 people show up late for job interviews. Can you guess what happened to those 5 individuals? Their resumes were thrown in the garbage and they were politely thanked for their time and told that they would not be considered for the job due to their lack of professionalism with being unable to show up to their INTERVIEW on time. 

Seriously, how do you show up late for a job interview and still expect to get hired? Who does that? 

If you are meeting with someone in a business capacity for the first time, your first impression is usually going to be the lasting one. Showing up on time says, "I'm ready to work!" or "I'm ready to get the job done!" Whereas showing up late says that you really don't take anything seriously.

2. It's rude.

Being late is rude, flat out. We all understand that sometimes things happen that can prevent one from being on time, but this should be the exception and not the rule.

When you make a habit of being late, it tells the person that is left waiting for you that you don't respect them or their time.  It's also a non-verbal statement that they are on your dime and whatever it is that has to be done can wait until you feel like showing up.

Did you really mean it that way? Probably not, but if you really cared enough to say otherwise you have would have planned better to account for unforeseen circumstances, traffic and whatever else you could blame your tardiness on.

Being on time is not a race thing and it's not a gender thing.  It's a respect thing. If making time deadlines isn't your thing and you're dealing with people who hold that in high regard then it's up to you to figure out a system that won't have people wanting to bite your head off when you finally do show up. 

As for me, if you decide to show up late, and more than 15 minutes late at that...don't be surprised if I'm gone when you get there.  Just saying...time is money. #keepitmoving

Ok, I'm done ranting now. As you were! :-) 

Visit me at www.black-smithenterprises.com for books and movies or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/janayablack.

Self-Publishing Lessons Learned

Since self-publishing my first book in 2004 I have learned A LOT.   Some of those lessons were nice cushy lessons that didn't cost me anything but time, while others were a serious pain in the pocketbook. Pocketbook...who says that? Anyway, I digress.

While publishing a book isn't rocket-science, it is still a very time-consuming and sometimes intimidating process. Since I have been blessed with a wonderful network of very knowledgeable people who were willing to take the time to share pivotal information with me, I have decided to share few key things I've learned with you.

1. Learn your craft.

Just because you like to read doesn't automatically make you a good writer. Not everyone was born to be a writer.  As astonishing as that revelation is, it's true. Not everyone is gifted with a firm grasp of how to articulate the written word, so therefore it is imperative to study the craft and learn your strengths and weaknesses. This goes for the gifted, as well as those who were destined to work a little harder at it. Things like knowing how to put sentences together, formulate a storyline, use proper tense and punctuation are all very important things to know if you plan to write a book.

2. Finish the book.

Finishing your book is the most important part of any book project, because lets face it: If you don't have a finished book to sell, then you're pretty much wasting your time, as well as everyone else's.  Writing a book is more than a notion, and it takes time, dedication and discipline to do. So before you start going around telling your friends, family and everyone else who will listen that you're publishing a book, get the book finished first.

3. Get your book edited.

After I finished my first book I was so excited about the fact that I had finally finished it, all I wanted to do was to get it out for the world to see. I wasn't working with a lot of money at the time, so I figured I would cut corners by editing the book myself and then have some of my friends take a second glance at it for me.  WRONG ANSWER! 

After releasing the first run of my book, which was chocked full of typo's, grammatical and punctuation errors, I was forced to endure the humiliation of receiving reviews that pegged my work as having the potential of being a great story if it didn't have so many editing mishaps as a distraction for the reader to overcome. 

As a writer, it's always a bad idea to try to edit your own work simply because you're not going to catch all of your own mistakes because your brain is only going to see what you "meant" to write. And as far as having your friends do "glance overs" for you, they may not understand the written word as well as you think they do.

So after you finally finish your manuscript, make it a point to find and hire a good editor who understands your vision for your story and has a proven track record with respect to editing.  This is not something that should ever be compromised. This is your work, so be prepared to invest in it. Your readers deserve it.

4. Pick a great cover. 

The cover of your book is your reader's first introduction to your book. For the hundreds, thousands or even millions of people that you want to buy your book, you have to give them a reason to pick it up in the first place. This too was a lesson that I had to learn the hard way.

The cover for my first book, The Breaking Point, was symbolic for me. I wanted it to be metaphoric for the story's subject matter, so it was a picture of shattered glass with a knife behind it with red undertones. It was very cerebral and thought-provoking in my mind, so when a marketing expert told me that I needed to change my cover to be more appealing I was thoroughly offended.

Old Cover

So, I ignored her advice because after all what did she know? My cover was special and I felt that what was in between the front and back cover was much more important that what was on the outside. I was so confident that my readers would just get it, because after all...in my mind, I was a great writer.  As a result I spent a lot more time explaining myself, and my story, to potential readers than I did selling books.

Needless to say, a year later I took her up on her advice and, lo-and-behold, my book started selling itself because people would just walk by and pick it up to look at the cover and would then flip it over to read the back. The new cover gave me what the marketing expert referred to as "shelf appeal".

Revised Cover

 When designing your cover, don't plan to be cheap. Do your research and honestly ask yourself if this wasn't your book, would you pick it up off the shelf?

5. Know your market.

When selling anything, it's always important to know who you are selling to. It's a simple matter of the timeless principal of "supply and demand". If you study, learn and understand who is demanding your product and how to effectively supply that demand, then you will be successful in your endeavors. If you don't, you won't. It's that simple.

Marketing your book effectively takes imagination, drive and commitment.  Imagination to come up with creative ways to make and keep your book relative to your audience; drive to push yourself to find and keep up with the latest and most effective marketing tactics and to educate yourself on all aspects of the craft; and the commitment to see it through to reach and exceed your goals.

In the grand scheme of things, these five principals are the meat and potatoes of the self-publishing journey. If you are able to diligently and aggressively approach them the rest will be a piece of cake!

Check out the Prison Chronicles Series on Kindle or paperback!

Visit us at www.black-smithenteprises.com or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/janayablack.

Till Death...Do Us Part is now available for rent on Amazon!

Show Review: Single Ladies

I'm sure by now we have all bore witness to VH1's newest show Single Ladies starring Stacy Dash, according to it's 1.8 million viewers for the past 2 episodes, and formulated some sort of opinion as to whether or not this show will sink or swim. As for me, I've held off for two weeks and now I'm going to go ahead and jump right in.

First, I am going to lead off with the positive: I love LisaRaye. I think I'm a little biased because I met her and found her to be a very classy woman, with a great head on her shoulders. Stacey Dash is the perfect eye-candy because, lets face it, the woman is gorgeous and apparently doesn't have the ability to age, and I also have to give it up to the producers of the show for putting together an incredibly beautiful cast. 

Now that we've gotten the formalities out of the way...

Single Ladies is basically a 2011 version of Girlfriends that is set in Atlanta and explores all of the same scenarios: a core group of female friends in a big city who are trying to find or keep "the one".  Not only has this show premise been done to death, the acting on this show is un-good. Yes, I meant to say that...un-good. 

While I understand that this production is providing work for black actors, as a viewer I still want to be entertained; and when I say entertained I mean I want to get lost in the story because the actors have pulled me into it and I am able to experience it to the point that I get irritated when the commercials interrupt. With this show it was quite to the contrary in the way that I actually welcomed the commercials as a distraction from the flaccid delivery of the main characters. 

The celebrity cameos are cool, the colorful backdrops are definitely a plus, but all the set dressing in the world can't overshadow bad acting.

There's still a lot of season left and I personally think they can pull it off. As with Girlfriends, in which the acting was also not that great when the show first started, I have high hopes for Single Ladies. I think the show definitely has potential and I am willing to hang in there for at least a few more episodes to cheer them on.  

 Here's to keeping hope alive Single Ladies!

Visit me at www.black-smithenterprises.com or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/janayablack.

Movie Review: Jumping the Broom

Ok, I finally went to see Jumping the Broom today and I have to say that it was a very pleasant "me time" outing.

This movie was produced by T.D. Jakes and starred Paula Patton, Laz Alonzo, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Mike Epps and a host of others, in a story about two star-crossed lovers who, despite their vastly different backgrounds, just want to get married.

While the premise of this film is nothing we haven't seen before, the way in which the story was played out brought a bit of freshness to the whole scenario. A beautiful privileged young woman meets the handsome young man of her dreams that she has been praying to God for, and he not only has the debonaire looks and brains to match, but he is also the sensitive caring type who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps and has a lil something, something of his own to make a girl feel financially secure.

Enter the families and cue the drama.

The wedding is set, the families meet and fur begins that fly. Through it all, the audience sees how fragile relationships can be and why it's important for couples to learn how to cleave to one another and not allow outside influences to come in between them; be it the question of being good enough, a mother's inability to let go of her son or earth-shattering family secrets. 

Paula Patton and Laz Alonzo had great chemistry as the leading couple Sabrina and Jason; Angela Bassett was her typical amazing self as Sabrina's mother; Loretta Devine was the perfect overbearing mother; Mike Epps was Mike Epps playing somebody else; Tasha Smith was cool (P.S. it was really nice to see her in a movie where she was playing the typical A.B.W.); and Lil Romeo was...lets just say he's allllll grown up now and looking GOOD. 

So all in all I gave Jumping the Broom a solid B+. It's a great date movie and I'm always a big fan of movies that are positive and uplifting. This is a good film to support at the theater so that we can see more like it in the future.

Sidebar:

Saw a trailer for a movie called Courageous that is about men being better fathers to their children and I was very touched by that 60 second presentation. So much so that I was moved to tears. I think every man in the world should go see this movie just to support the message that fatherhood is more than a title. So please be on the look out for the new movie Courageous that comes out in September.

Visit me at www.black-smithenterprises.com or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/janayablack. 

Till Death...Do Us Part now available for rental or purchase on Amazon!

Reality Check: Grown-up Kids

While I consider myself to be a person who advocates for your people, today I got a staggering reality check when I visited with some students at a local high school in my area.

As I sat down to engage these young men and women in conversation about their lives, how certain outside factors affect them, and how they view things, I quickly came to realization that while these kids are much smarter than we give them credit for, they are pretty much grown and it's not because they want to be; it's because they don't have a choice! They are basically raising themselves.

I mean some of the stories I heard really touched my heart. Many of them spoke of situations taking place in their lives that people in their 30's have never had to deal with and then they have to turn around and deal with trying to finish school and all the drama that comes with that: peer pressure, jealously, trying fitting in, questioning their sexuality and the list goes on. And the saddest part about it all was that 90% of them voiced the fact that all they really wanted in the midst of it all was someone to they could talk to about the things they were experiencing and guidance about how to deal with it all.

It's a given that parents have to work in order to provide for their families, and we all know that every household is not a two parent household. But the reality of the situation is that your kids did not ask to be here. You brought them into this world so it is up to you to take care of them, and it takes more than just feeding and clothing to raise a child. Just like you when you were young, your child wants to know that you love and care about them.

As a parent, I recognize the fact that my teenage child is not going to tell me everything even though I feel that we have a very good relationship, but that still doesn't stop me from asking questions. I ask my kids how their day at school was, I watch their body language when they come in from school to see if anything seems to be bothering them, and my husband and I regularly check the school's online system to make sure that all homework is being turned in and the work is getting done in class.

Is that inconvenient? Yes! But guess what? That's called being a parent! It's a shame that some parents don't feel compelled to take a more active role in their childrens' lives and then they wonder why they are out in the streets acting crazy. They are trying to get your attention!

How does your child get suspended for five days and you don't know anything about it? Why is your child flunking every class and yet you've never been to a parent-teacher conference? How does that happen?

People, we need to re-evaluate our priorities. What do we have to look forward to with a generation of kids raised by television? We all know that's not anything that we should willingly look forward to. Now is the time to labor and invest in the future of your kids, because if you don't...rest assured you will pay for it in heartache later.

Book Review: Beautiful Rage: The Break of Dawn

Check out the book review author Monique Mensah wrote for my book Beautiful Rage: The Break of Dawn:

Beautiful Rage: The Break of Dawn is a twisted tale of maniacal revenge. The third installment in the Prison Chronicles series explores the tragic, but triumphant tale of Dawn Langston. Reporter, Vanessa Jackson, gives Dawn the rare opportunity to tell her side of the story, granting her the gift of redemption and giving her a voice she otherwise may have never been afforded.

When Dawn’s sister is kidnapped and brutally murdered by a heartless and narcissistic drug dealer, Dawn becomes obsessed with redemption. Following the adage, “Revenge is a dish better served cold,” she sets out to execute a convoluted, diabolical plan to make her sister’s killer pay with more than just his life. Keeping her plan a secret is a hefty duty that becomes even more complicated when the detective who worked her sister’s case becomes a love interest and a dangerous distraction. Dawn is continuously faced with the task of setting her morals and personal life aside in order to wreak havoc on the one man that took the most important person from her life and tore her family to pieces.

With Beautiful Rage: The Break of Dawn, author Janaya Black plunges readers into the dark and sinister mind of a woman gone mad with rage. There is no time to catch your breath as each scene is depicted with a straight forward and no nonsense illustration that keeps you turning the pages until the inevitable is finally revealed. In engaging myself in this quick and entertaining read, I found that I was questioning my own morals and feeling a tinge of guilt for rooting Dawn on during her sadistic conquest. We would all like to believe that we wouldn’t do something as heinous as taking the law into our own hands, but there is a thin line between raging anger and insanity.

This book will leave you with the question, “What would you do avenge the death of the person you love the most?” This book is not for the faint of heart as I found some parts a little difficult to swallow. But I was just too enthralled to turn away. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, hard-hitting adrenaline rush, you’ve found it with Beautiful Rage: The Break of Dawn. Check it out, but only if you think you can handle it.


This review was provided by:
Monique D. Mensah
Author of INSIDE RAIN and WHO IS HE TO YOU

Wake Up Call

When I saw this video a lot of different things went through my mind all at the same time.

First I was angry and then I was livid because once again the people who are supposed to represent us in office have failed miserably.  Then after I reminded myself that I didn't actually vote for governor this time around, so I in essence in directly contributed to Synder being in office, I felt silly.  After that passed, I was sad because I realized that at the end of the day all of these things must come to pass whether we like it or not. Why? Because God said it would and He can do anything but lie.

Over the course of the past few months I have been studying the book of Revelation and Isaiah and everything that we could ever want to know about what's going on right now and why it's happening is right there in black and white. And the tripped out part is that the worst is still yet to come.

Nevertheless, we should not be discouraged because if we know Christ as our personal savior we don't have to fear what is coming.  Yet we are still told that if we resist the devil he will flee and in the midst of what seems to be hopeless situations, it is our responsibility to still do what we're supposed to do. Despite Synder's proven disregard for the wants and needs of the constituents, in favor of his rich friends, this is still a democracy, and history has shown that when people unite together for a mighty cause then the powers-that-be have no choice but to listen.

So, I for one will be writing some letters and making a conscious effort to be more astute when it comes to political matters instead of turning an apathetic eye. Even though I honestly don't believe that the system works for the "common man", the fact still remains that if I don't at least make an attempt to do something about it then far be it for me to sit back and complain. What will you do?