On The Flip Side

Nikkea Smithers

Book Excerpt: On The Flip Side by Nikkea Smithers

Prologue

After finally being cleared for visiting, I waited in the lobby of the Richmond City Jail. The seats were as hard as they could be in the waiting area while the air was stale with a contrite odor.

Sunday was the busiest visiting day of the week as many people were off work and reserved that day to visit their loved ones. I had taken a seat next to a young mother who was trying to calm her wailing child. The child was colicky and the young girl had no idea what to do. The young girl couldn't have been older than sixteen. Her huge gold earrings made her earlobes hang so low that I was concerned that her earlobe would split. Her hair was slicked back into a ponytail. I imagined that she was there to visit the father of her child. He had to have been older as we were not in a juvenile facility.

I turned my attention to the clock that hung on the wall. The circular item loudly ticked away at every second that passed. Tick, tick, tick, was the noise that filled in the only silent moments between the screaming child's wails. I couldn't wait to be out of there but there was something that I had to do.

"Taylor!" My name was called after about an hour of waiting. I got up and made my way to the small oblong room. Thick glas.s made a partition between the visitors and parties that they were visiting.

I almost didn't notice her sitting there. She had on standard issued clothes, her hair was scattered over her head wildly and then matted in some places. Her eyes were surrounded by dark circles that drooped into her cheeks. I could tell that she had not slept in the short time that she had been there. Her empty eyes stared back at me. Her face was badly bruised and while the marks were at least a day old, they still boasted dark black and blue marks.

I picked up the orange phone extension that clung to the wall so that I could speak with her. My heart cried out to her. "I never thought I would see you like this, how are you holding up?"

I didn't really know what to say. I hadn't been in that type of situation before. I felt bad for her. This was not the woman who had wowed me when we first met. She seemed so strong then, but looking at her now, well, she appeared weak. As if her soul was broken she looked back at me with hurt eyes. I wanted more than anything to break her out of the place that she was being confined in, but the sheriff that stood behind both us made sure that would not be the case. How the hell did we get here? I pondered that question as I waited for her to respond to my previous question.

On The Flip Side by Nikkea Smithers
Website: www.nikkeasmithers.com
ISBN-10: 0977938751 | ISBN-13: 978-0977938759

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A Woman Scorned

Ericka Williams

Meet our featured author Ericka Williams
Ericka Williams is a determined business woman and author. She never takes no for an answer. When she sets her mind on a goal, she doesn't stop until it is reached.  She attended Howard University and graduated from Rutgers University. She is currently a teacher. Ericka has always had a yearning for knowledge, expression, and creativity. She is the author of three books the Essence Magazine bestseller “All That Glitters”, and the sequel “Shining Star”, as well as the forthcoming release A Woman Scorned.

Ella: Ericka, introduce us to your book, A Woman Scorned.
Ericka: A Woman Scorned is about pain. It is about death. It is about love and revenge. When someone you love hurts you, your pain often times turns to anger and feelings of betrayal. That rage can turn into violence. Crimes of passion are real and have happened since the beginning of time. A Woman Scorned shows what happens when a woman's broken heart turns her into a predator. It makes her hate instead of love.

I feel most readers will relate to this book, A Woman Scorned, because it’s about redemption and consequences. It points out how we can not use excuses for our wrongdoings nor dodge retribution. We all have irrationally thoughts from time to time, but we can turn ourselves around. It brings attention to the fact that self-love is necessary and essential to our sanity.  It also brings home the truth—you must pay for your actions one way or another. The primary thing I hope all readers will take away from reading A Woman Scorned is that loving YOU, even when no one else does, is crucial in living the best life.

Q: Tell us a little about your main characters. Who was your favorite? Why?
Ericka: Brielle was the main character. She was my favorite because she wanted to be a better person. She had aspirations for her life. She didn’t relish in being destructive the way her cousin Janay did.

Brielle had been molested, abused, and mistreated from a child. She yearns for the love she never felt from anyone. She never found love in the right places, until Dante rescued her and married her. She thought she was safe in his love, until two miscarriages and one affair too many, made her snap. The faith that she puts into her husband, is the very faith she should have found in herself.  When he disappoints her, she wants nothing but to see him in pain.
      
Brielle not only exacts revenge on her husband for his grimy living, but she gets to “do it for the Ladies” as well, by making a few more men accountable for their actions. Until she meets Darren and Shawn; both men are falling for her. Brielle cannot see beyond her past to give them an honest chance at loving her sincerely. One prevails as the victor, while the other is another victim of A Woman Scorned.
      
While Brielle is unleashing her “fury” on men, there are two women, her cousin Janay, and her husband’s pregnant lover, who may be the ones to bring her down and stop her reign of terror on the opposite sex.
(ISBN-10: 1934230715 or ISBN-13:9781934239718)
 

Q: Are your characters from the portrayal of real people?
Ericka: Yes, real people who react to life’s drama in a negative way. We have all made bad choices in responding to wrongs we feel have been inflicted upon us. This book takes a poignant look at the repercussions of letting one’s rage get out of control.

Q: What issues in today's society have you addressed in the book?
Ericka: Infidelity, Domestic Violence, Molestation, Murder, and Revenge.

Q. What impact will this book have on the community?
Ericka: It deals with an emotion that many understand, revenge, giving the community a glimpse inside the mind and heart of a damaged individual; showing how revenge is not profitable.

I want people who read this book to accept that they are not a product of their circumstances and that anyone can change. Also, that your past does not have to dictate your future.

Q: What was the most powerful chapter or scene in the book for you?
Ericka: One powerful scene is a scene where Brielle meets with her father on his death bed after five years of no contact with him.

Q: Share with us your latest news, awards or upcoming book releases.
Ericka: My next book will be The Clique in 2010.

Q: Ericka, how many readers contact you online?
Ericka: At my email address: erickawilliamsinfo@yahoo.com or by visiting my website at: www.erickaw.com 
 

A Woman Scorned by Ericka Williams
ISBN-10: 1934230715

Visit www.lifechangingbooks.net to pre-order today!

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http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Scorned-Ericka-Williams/dp/1934230715

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Even Sinners Have Souls Too

Michel Moore

Even Sinners Have Souls Too
Introduction by National Best selling author, K'Wan, with four stories by Darrell King and Essence Magazine bestselling authors, Michel Moore, Tysha and Victor L. Martin.  

Meet author and editor E.N. Joy
E.N. Joy is the author of Me, Myself and Him, which was her debut work into the Christian Fiction genre.  Formerly a secular author writing under the names Joylynn M. Jossel and JOY, this author has fully dedicated her writing to Christ. She is currently working on the “New Day Divas” series as well as completing the “Sinners Series” project.
 
 

Intimate Conversation with Ella Curry of EDC Creations

Joylynnjossell

Ella: Introduce us to the book, Even Sinners Have Souls TOO.
E.N. Joy:  Even Sinners Have Souls TOO is book two from the “Sinners Series”.  As editor and publisher of this project, it was my goal to share with the reading audience well written and compelling stories by some of the industry’s most respected and authority authors in the Urban Lit genre. 
 

Ella: Why was it important to produce this work today?
E.N. Joy: Books and authors of books that are categorized as urban, erotic, street, ghetto, gangster, Hip-Hop fiction, or whatever else they are being labeled, are taking hard hits in the industry, especially by these so-called “literary writers”.  Why is it that whenever black people bring the life they live front and center and turn it into art, society goes crazy?  Are we that afraid and offended of the ghetto and the projects to the point where we ridicule those who talk about it? Is growing up in the hood that taboo?

E.N. Joy: Despite popular belief, everything that comes from the ghetto isn’t all bad. There are some good products of the ghetto.  It produces great individuals, some even authors. But because of the type of genre that these authors choose to pen, they are stigmatized and rumored unable to create literature without glorifying a trigger happy, drug dealing thug, or a burgundy micro braid wearing, gum poppin’, promiscuous gold digger, or a television stealing crack head (in addition to at least two curse words per paragraph).
 

Ella: Will this book change how Urban Lit is protrayed as a industry?
E.N. Joy: There is a huge misconception that authors who write Urban Lit, referred to as Street Lit by many, can’t pen a decent story that doesn’t include foul language and explicit sex scenes.  These authors are even often accused of glorifying street life. The “Sinners Series” forces critics and skeptics alike to take a different stand when they read the storylines contained in the “Sinners Series.” 

Ella: What are some unique aspects of the Sinners Series? What stands out the most?
E.N. Joy: Even Sinners Have Souls Too offers more of Urban Lit's finest take a walk on the other side in book two, Even Sinners Have Souls Too, of the three book Sinners Series. Darrell King and Essence Best-Selling authors, Victor L. Martin, Tysha and Michel Moore bring you four smashing tales, but not before National Best-Selling author, K'Wan, hits you with the powerful introduction, "Oh Sinner Man."

E.N. Joy: The authors bring to life the same raw and gritty characters found in some of their other works. There are the dope boys, the hood rats, the promiscuity, homosexuality, the gang bangers, abuse, drugs, alcohol, etc...; all the things that exist in real life on the streets. But what makes these tales so phenomenal and unique is that in the midst of it all, just like in real life on the streets, there is also, God, prayer, and sometimes a praying grandmother. What pleased me the most about each and every story is that they never, for one moment, lost their authenticity.  The authors still walked away from this project with their street credit, so to speak.
 

Ella: What impact with the Sinners Series have on the community?
E.N. Joy: The “Sinners Series” is going to shatter the myth about urban and street literature and its authors once and for all. This project is not so that authors have to defend their work, or even compromise it. The purpose is to show that they are multi-talented with a natural gift to pen what flows through their spirit and not just what’s selling, and at the same time to add a creative twist on their already original writing styles.  In doing so, we pray that readers will be touched and moved by every single character; every single story…that they won’t be the same person as they were before reading these works.
 

Website: www.enjoywrites.com

ISBN-10: 0970672659  | ISBN-13: 978-0970672650

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http://www.amazon.com/Even-Sinners-Have-Souls-Too/dp/0970672659/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

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One of the hardest lessons that I've learned - and still reminding myself of - is that I'm worth it.

It's been on my heart and mind to sit down and talk with my aunt. I love my aunt, even in the midst of her flaws. After all, who am I to judge. Yet, it saddens me that at her age (she's edging closer to 50) somewhere deep down she doesn't feel like she is worth it. Granted, it's not my job to "fix it," but Lord knows I wish I could. I wish I could open her eyes to a lot of things about her self worth. Ironically, some of it is partly what she has inspired on me or shown me.

My own lessons of self worth developed before I had my daughter. I attracted quasi-decent guys; meaning I always looked at their social status, figured in how they would "complete" me (sorta speak) while carrying the "independent woman" sign with the disclaimer "I just want someone to love and be loved in return." Just when I had over extended myself by doing everything for them but jump through a hoop of fire baring a neon sign that says "pick me! I'm the one.." a disconnect would occur. Most of the time I was glutton for punishment and kept trying to force a connection when it was obvious it wasn't even a dial tone on the line.

Since becoming a mom it just seems like the wool has been pulled off my eyes and I see a lot of BS that floats around when it comes to people and relationships. I'm not claiming expert status. Far from that, but just the basic level of obvious bull - who really has time for that? Not I. Still what would it take for my aunt and so many other grown women to see the obvious and not accept it?

I wanna talk now, but things are hot....tense. She won't listen. I need a time to catch her off gaurd. So she has nowhere to hide to and no choice but to listen. Yes, it's time for the aunt to listen to the niece for a change.

All this over a man, that isn't trustworthy and has caused more harm to the FAMILY than good.

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Drunk 27 Years

Book Intro- Drunk for 27 Years: A Story of Victory - Her Choice to Live and Not Die
by author Cynthia Banks

The road of Priscilla’s life was paved by the people that made choices for her.  Through heartache, pain, trauma and tragedy, Priscilla’s experiences became stepping stones that forced her to make a choice that ultimately changed the outcome of her life.

Drunk for 27 Years, the compelling true story of Priscilla Gibson, mother of singer, actor and model Tyrese Gibson, suffered 27 years with alcoholicism. The book reveals the unconditional love that her children had for their mother, who despite all they had experienced remained just the strength she needed to make it through.

Suffering abuse at the hands of an alcoholic mother, Priscilla began drinking at a very young age, and continued into her adult years.  Many factors manipulated the course of Priscilla’s life, causing her to make one bad choice after another until she finally made the choice to live and not die.

PROLOGUE

“What is wrong with you?” he cried out with tears streaming down his face. “Why do you think I’ve been calling you Mommy Dearest ever since I was a little boy?  It’s because you drink just like that lady in the movie, and you act like her too!  Why can’t you stop drinking?” 

“I don’t know how to stop!” I said putting my head down on the table and crying. “I’m scared!”

“You’re scared? Mama, you’ve scared us to death for years, wondering where you were, not knowing if you were dead or alive. What did you think could happen to you living in these streets?” Junior said before crying out with loud sobs.

“I’m going to stop drinking, I promise. I’m going to stop drinking!  I don’t want to be like my mother,” I cried out loudly. I put my head down on the table and began to pray silently, ‘God in Heaven, please hear my cry. I am an alcoholic and I have become just like my mother. If you deliver me from this alcoholic disease I promise I won’t ever take another drink for the rest of my life.  I want to live and not die’  

Reviews for book Drunk for 27 Years: A Story of Victory - Her Choice to Live and Not Die

Very heartfelt, impressive, sad yet up lifting!  A Great story of survival!
-Lela Reed, Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL mom

Wow! This is an inspiring book.  It’s straight to the point on how things really were and it’s very honest.  The book touched me and told me things about my mother that I never knew.  My mother had a lot of issues that she covered up with alcohol - something that a lot of people do because they can’t express their feelings.  It’s really, really a good movie…I mean book!  I couldn’t put it down.  The book goes into depth, telling a story that kept unfolding, a story that unfolded as I read it and as I lived it.  I experienced several emotions while reading, I got upset, then mad, then sad, then happy.  God is a forgiving God.  I’m proud of my mother for having a relationship with Him and making the right choice.
-Salandra, Priscilla’s Daughter

Growing up was hell!  My mother was drunk all the time, so the streets raised us.  The older we got the more distant we became with our mother.  She never really got to know any of us, but we loved her any way and we loved her unconditionally.   We survived all that hell and managed to come out of it pretty decent human beings.  I thank God for remembering the Gibson family.
-Tyrone, Priscilla’s son

Life with my mother as an alcoholic was very emotionally draining and tough.  You never knew if she was going to have a bad day or a good day.  Her day started with alcohol – everyday!  Because of that my relationship with my mother was strained and distant.  As a child regardless of what card life deals you, you always have to try to respect and acknowledge your parents.  I never disrespected my mother during her illness, which caused a lot of pain.  As a result of being a child of an alcoholic it caused me to make better choices in my life, especially never to drink.  I went the opposite direction.  I’m proud of my mother for taking the steps to recover from her addiction.  I love her dearly.
-Shonte, Priscilla’s Daughter

I have known my Mother-In-Law, Priscilla for almost 6 years and I know that all the words in this book are true.  I was not there for all the 27 years, but 6 years of it I was there and the stories were true.  Priscilla has come a long way.  Even though the book is going to be out for the world to read, seeing it in person is beyond words – she really was drunk all day, everyday.  When Priscilla started writing the book, I was there to see her write the first page.  She didn’t even know if it was going to be a book, she was just writing out her thoughts.  I remember her asking me if I thought it would be a good book and I told her it would be a wonderful book.  This is her victory over alcohol and life to her being restored; and God’s victory of another one of His children being saved.
-William, Priscilla’s Son-In-Law

Drunk, for 27 Years: A Story of Victory - Her Choice to Live and Not Die
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1438993137/ref=dp_proddesc_1?ie=UTF8&n=283155
ISBN-10: 1438993137 ;  ISBN-13: 978-1438993133

Download Your Copy and Read it Today!
ISBN#: 9781438993157 (ebook download)
http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=62988

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Author Dwight Fryer

Fryer shares from his twenty-five years of business experience in leadership, technology, finance, accounting, marketing and publishing. He has written two critically acclaimed novels. The Legend of Quito Road and The Knees of Gullah Island. Dwight speaks about life, healthcare, business, leadership, history, literature, community and storytelling. The University of Memphis teaches The Legend of Quito Road in its Masters of Fine Arts Program in the English Department.

Dwight Fryer has inspired audiences at universities, corporations, schools, faith communities and nonprofit organizations. His passion is to help people do all they can to succeed and use his experiences to inspire others.

Fryer was diagnosed with cancer two days after a 1998 layoff. In 2001, the disease meningococcal meningitis took his youngest daughter’s life. He works as an advocate for immunization against bacterial meningitis with the National Meningitis Association. He survived a wreck caused by a driver under the influence.

Contact him today for details on how he can share at your next event via email at  author@dwightfryer.com. Website: http://www.dwightfryer.com

 
Q: What inspired you to write these stories?
My first novel was inspired by a economics paper I wrote in graduate school about a drug dealer, his massive initial economic success, and the life prison terms he eventually received for his risk taking schemes in the drug trade. When I began to research this story for the novel form, I felt a need to go to the root of the problem, illegal whiskey.

The Legend of Quito Road called to me early in the mornings of most days until I finally obeyed and wrote the book. The Knees of Gullah Island shares the family history and readers learn what happened to Gillam Hale. He was Son Erby’s grandpa by his second family after his first was taken and sold away.

I wish the modern reader knew more about their origins. This would help us unlock some of the mystery of who we are and who our children can become.

Q: What issues in today's society have you addressed in your books?
Both of my books speak to the modern reader in numerous ways. In The Legend of Quito Road, the theme is “the worst things wrong with most of us were planted by those who love us the best.” Isn’t that how our bad habits are passed on to us? We know that is how we get many of the great things we have learned, but, too often, we overlook the traits our forebears pass on that should not be present in our lives. I want readers to examine how they live and ask why is this what I view as right.

In the second novel, The Knees of Gullah Island, I advise readers to be careful of money.  Money quite often catches people up, so the wisdom Scripture that I use here is 1 Timothy 6:10; and to paraphrase it, it says that the love of money is the root of all evil, and those that find themselves in pursuit of it get caught in all types of snares. We find here that Gillam Hale, the main character of this story, loved money. We are forced to recognize that white people, and black people, and any other color people that own people love money more than they do mankind, more than even themselves. Because of the money that can be made in something as illicit as slavery, we often forget that people are people, and that they have rights concerns. All persons have a rich story of their own to tell, and it should not be involving some other person controlling them. So this book talks about that love of money.

Gillam Hale also was from a religious family, a good person; but he got so caught up in the love of money, and when things went bad for him, Gillam Hale did not pray.  So bent knees do straight and crooked deeds, and what is slavery but one of the most crooked deed that all the crooked deeds that mankind can do. We are still having slavery stories today? Wasn’t Jaycee Dugard a slave for the past eighteen years?

I want us to look at these historic tales and see how the themes reverberate in our modern lives. Slavery, love, treachery, hatred, trickery, humor, great soul food, church history, drug use and sales, Southern history, domestic violence, disparities within the criminal justice system, legal rights of children born without the blessing of marriage, and illicit sexual conduct are just a few of the topics covered.

Q: Thousands of books are published each year. What sets your books apart from other in your genre?
I am producing quality stories suitable for young and old to read. These books have great wisdom lessons and are filled with startling story lines and unforgettable characters. A major university has taught my work in their Masters of Fine Arts program in the English Department. That is rare air for any writer in any genre.

Contact author Dwight Fryer today for details on how he can share at your next event via email at author@dwightfryer.com.  Website: http://www.dwightfryer.com

The Legend of Quito Road by Dwight Fryer
ISBN-13: 9781583147061  |  ISBN: 1583147063
Pick up a copy at Barnes and Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Legend-of-Quito-Road/Dwight-Fryer/e/9781583147061/?itm=1

The Knees of Gullah Island by Dwight Fryer
ISBN: 0373831196  |  ISBN-13: 9780373831197
Pick up a copy at Barnes and Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Knees-of-Gullah-Island/Dwight-Fryer/e/9780373831197

Both books are filled with rich historical details and spiritual truths that are applicable to the modern reader.

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Color Me Jazzmyne by Marian L. Thomas

I would like to introduce you to a fantastic new book, Color Me Jazzmyne. Readers of Color Me Jazzmyne have been captivated by the depth of the emotional journey that the book takes them on. It digs deep into what it takes for women to embrace who they are no matter what size, color, educational background or social status. Sisters will learn to love themselves despite what society says or the voices that surround them!

Marian L. Thomas is native of Chicago but currently resides in Atlanta.She first awakened her desire to write while in her second year of high school. She majored in Journalism but received her Bachelor of Art degree in Business Communication, graduating Magna Cum Laude. 2009 the dream of becoming a published author was realized when she was able to debut her first title Color Me Jazzmyne. She is a wife and supporter of victims of abuse and was recently featured in the Atlanta Skirt! Magazine as one of Atlanta's 9to5 Women in the Media Industry.

Motivation Behind Color Me Jazzmyne
Color Me Jazzmyne addresses a major issue in our society today..."Rape is often the "hush" word in our lives. It's the thing that we prefer to put into the closet of other skeltons that we pray no one has the key to.

Child abuse often occurs at a young age and more than often it is done by someone that is very close---a family member or friend of the family.  It's a difficult thing to get over, it's even more difficult to explain.

According to one statistic.... one out of every six women will be raped over their lifetime and 73% of all rape victims know their assailants.  In fact, studies have shown that 60% of all sexual assaults are not reported. I hope that women who read this book and have gone through something similar will find the courage to reach out and talk to someone about it."

Color Me Jazzmyne Book Excerpt
Read Chapters 1-3 and give us your opinion.
http://www.freado.com/book/4169/Color-Me-Jazzmyne

Intimate Conversation with author Marian L. Thomas

Ella: What impact do you want your book, Color Me Jazzmyne, to make on readers?
Marian: "I hope that women who read this book and have lived the life of Naya Mona in some form or fashion will find the voice, strength and motivation to push past the pain and live."

Ella: Why do you write?
Marian: For me, writing is more of a release from the reflection of the world around us. It is a way to express the obvious using tones that soothe,excite, uplift and allow the reader to step out of their comfort level.  That is my goal when writing. That is what drives me to create characters such as Naya Mona.

Ella: Are your characters, in Color Me Jazzmyne, a portrayal of real people?
Marian: Reality is always a part of us and as such what we read must adhere to some form of it in order to make it so that one can relate to the story that is being told. Naya is clearly a reflection of the many women that I have met over the years and the struggles that they have gone through. I do not remove myself from that reflection. Misty represents all the so-called friends that revolve in and out of our lives and Chris is what I term the 'life-time' type of husband. He represents the compassion and love that we as women need, want and deserve.

Contact Marian Online
Email: larrita@lbpublishingco.com
Website: http://www.marianlthomas.com
Author's Blog: http://findingmycolorwithmlt.blogspot.com

Pickup Your Copy Today!
ISBN-10: 0615270670; ISBN-13: 978-0615270678

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Buying Time Available Now!

Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young
Genre: Legal Thriller; Mystery; Suspense

“Pamela Samuels Young takes her place among the top tier of legal thriller writers with her latest, Buying Time.” —Sheldon Siegel, Bestselling Author

“Pamela’s message is real — not contrived. She’s a living testimonial to how the ‘can do’ attitude will win out over the ‘I can’t.’ What’s more, she’s entertaining, amusing and fun to listen to.” —Mike Rounds, Former President, L.A. Chapter National Speakers Association

Book Introduction

Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when he's about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems.

In Waverly's new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But there's a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollars—including a hefty broker's fee for himself—in exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath.

The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer who's bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverly's clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Erickson—who has some skeletons of his own to hide—are unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.

****************

Prologue of Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young

Veronika Myers tried to convince them, but no one would listen. Her suspicions, they said, were simply a byproduct of her grief.

Each time she broached the subject with her brother, Jason, he walked out of the room. Darlene, her best friend, suggested a girls’ night out with some heavy drinking. Aunt Flo urged her to spend more time in prayer.

Veronika knew she was wasting her time with this woman, too, but couldn’t help herself.

“My mother was murdered,” Veronika told the funeral home attendant. “But nobody believes it.”

The plump redhead with too much eye shadow glanced down at the papers on her desk, then looked up. “It says here that your mother died in the hospital. From brain cancer.”

“That’s not true,” Veronika snapped, her response a little too sharp and a tad too loud.

Yes, her mother had brain cancer, but she wasn’t on her deathbed. Not yet. They had just spent a long afternoon together, laughing and talking and watching All My Children. Veronika could not, and would not accept that the most important person in her life had suddenly died. She knew what everyone else refused to believe. Her mother had been murdered.

“Did they conduct an autopsy?” the woman asked.

Veronika sighed and looked away. There had been no autopsy because everyone dismissed her as a grief-stricken lunatic. When she reported the murder to the police, a disinterested cop dutifully took her statement, but she could tell that nothing would come of it. Without any solid evidence, she was wasting everyone’s time, including her own.

“No,” Veronika said. “There wasn’t an autopsy.”

The funeral home attendant smiled sympathetically.

Veronika let out a long, exasperated breath, overwhelmed by the futility of what she was trying to prove. “Never mind,” she said. “What else do you need me to sign?”

Later that night, Veronika lay in bed, drained from another marathon crying session. She rummaged through the nightstand, retrieved a bottle of sleeping pills and popped two into her mouth. She tried to swallow them dry, but her throat was too sore from all the crying.

Tears pooled in her eyes as she headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. “Don’t worry, Mama,” Veronika sniffed. “I won’t let them get away with it.”

Just as she reached the end of the hallway, a heavy gloved hand clamped down hard across her mouth as her arms were pinned behind her back. Panic instantly hurled her into action. Veronika tried to scream, but the big hand reduced her shriek to a mere muffle. She frantically kicked and wrestled and twisted her body, but her attacker’s grip would not yield.

When she felt her body being lifted off the ground and carried back down the hallway, she realized there were two of them and her terror level intensified. But so did her survival instinct. She continued to wildly swing her legs backward and forward, up and down, right and left, eventually striking what felt like a leg, then a stomach.

As they crossed the threshold of her bedroom, she heard a loud, painful moan that told her she had likely connected with the groin of one of her assailants.

“Cut it out!” said a husky, male voice. “Grab her legs!” he ordered his partner. “Hurry up!”

The men dumped her face down onto the bed, her arms still restrained behind her back. The big hand slipped from her mouth and Veronika’s first cry escaped, but was quickly muted when a much heavier hand gripped the back of her neck and pressed her face into the comforter.

Fearing her attackers were going to rape, then kill her, Veronika defiantly arched her back and tried to roll her body into a tight ball. At only 130 pounds, she was no physical match for her assailants. They easily overpowered her, forcing her back into a prone position. As one man sat on her upper legs, strapping her left arm to her side, the other man bent her right arm at the elbow and guided her hand up toward her forehead.

During the deepest period of her grief, Veronika had longed to join her mother. But now that she was face-to-face with the possibility of death, she fought valiantly for life.

That changed, however, the second Veronika felt something cold and hard connect with her right temple. She stiffened as one of the men grabbed her fingers and wrapped them around the butt of a gun. At that precise instant, Veronika knew with certainty that her suspicions were indeed fact. Her mother had been murdered and now the same killers had come to silence her before she could expose the truth. And just like her mother’s death, her own murder would go undetected, dismissed as the suicide of a grieving daughter. A conclusion no one would question.

As the man placed his hand on top of hers and prepared to pull the trigger, a miraculous, power-infused sensation snuffed out what was left of Veronika’s fear, causing her body to go limp. The heavy pounding of her heart slowed and she felt light enough to float away.

Completely relaxed now, Veronika closed her eyes, said a short prayer, and waited for a glorious reunion with her mother.

###

Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young
ISBN-10: 098156271X  | ISBN-13: 978-0981562711

Pick up a Copy Today at Amazon
http://tinyurl.com/buyingtimeamazon

Pick up a Copy Today at Barnes and Noble
http://tinyurl.com/buyingtimebnonline

Meet the Author
Pamela Samuels Young is the Essence bestselling author of Murder on the Down Low, In Firm Pursuit, Every Reasonable Doubt and the newly released Buying Time.  The former journalist and Compton native is the fiction writing expert for BizyMoms.com and is on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.Pamela served as legal consultant to the Showtime television series Soul Food.  She is a frequent speaker on the topics of writing and self-empowerment. View her books here: http://www.pamelasamuels-young.com

Bookclubs, select one of Pamela’s novels for your book club meeting and she will join you in person, via webcam or via speaker phone. Read more book excerpts here: http://www.pamelasamuels-young.com/books/index.html
To schedule a visit with Pamela, email her at author@pamelasamuelsyoung.com

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Pat G'orge-Walker on Gospel Interviews with Larry W. Robinson

Pat G'orge-Walker, author of "SOMEBODY'S SINNING IN MY BED" shares with Larry W. Robinson, host of http://www.gospelinterviews.com the journey to publication for her latest book. Pat G’Orge-Walker delivers a wickedly funny, uplifting novel of love and betrayal…good karma and bad karma…sin and redemption

“SOMEBODY’S SINNING IN MY BED” by Pat G'Orge Walker
ISBN-10: 0758235402 | ISBN-13: 9780758235404
Available wherever books are sold

Pat G’Orge-Walker delivers a wickedly funny, uplifting novel of love and betrayal…good karma and bad karma…sin and redemption

Chyna and her sister Janelle are always moments away from a catfight. They love each other, but Janelle has never forgiven her sister for swiping her first love, Cordell. That was ages ago, and now Chyna is showing off as the First Lady of New Hope Assembly, a church that’s caught between the old ways of Holiness and new ways of serving its community. New Hope’s leader, Reverend Grayson Young, is also caught…in the infamous Sweet Bush lounge, an establishment well-known for adult pleasures.

With the church congregation running wild in the aftermath of her husband’s scandalous behavior, Chyna turns to her sister Janelle for guidance. But if Chyna thinks she’s getting sympathy from Janelle, she’d better think again, because Janelle’s got her own crisis. And when Cordell suddenly comes back into the sisters’ lives, what follows are squabbling, chaos, and surprises that show just how hard the road to salvation really is…

Somebody's Sinning in My Bed by Pat G'Orge-Walker
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Release September 2009
ISBN-13: 9780758235404

Books by author Pat G'Orge-Walker

Buy the books online here:
Black Expressions
Barnes and Noble
Borders
Amazon.com

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"Author Pat G'Orge-Walker is a comic genius! She's woven a brilliant netting of both comical and loving characters that will cause readers to 'spill their guts' with 'out loud' laughter."

-Dawn Carter, Fox Pictures Diversity, Executive Producer, Contradictions of the Heart, Donlyn Pictures

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