Tayari's Blog: September 2009
September 29, 2009
If You Keep A Journal, Let Me Know
I am going to start keeping a journal. I used to journal from the time I was in my early teens until I was about twenty-nine, but then I stopped. Why? Because I started publishing.
One day, I should post about all the bad habits that come about as a result of publishing. (Would that be too negative?)
I think that my journal was a casualty of the "Published Author" mentality that every word I put down must be for public consumption. Who had time to scribble privately in a spiral notebook when there were novel to work on, essays to outline, blog entries to compose, etc.? I had forgotten the free-writing pleasure of working my random thoughts out of the page. Journaling, for me, went out the window along with pointless travel and reading just for the hell of it. (Post on this last thing will be coming soon.)
Do you journal? What do you journal in? When I was in high school, I used an ordinary spiral notebook so that no one would be interested in it. (I have since revisited those pages. For such a pleasant looking child, I was filled with rage. Go figure.) In college I moved up to cloth-covered blank books that I bought at the bookstore with the money my parents put on account for my textbooks. (Fancy. $7 each!) Now I am not sure what to use. Do I want to be easy breezy with the $2 Staples special? I don't want to be pretentious with leather bound, acid free-- like I am writing with one-eye toward preservation in the Schomburg!
I want this journal to feel like a sweet, comfortable room.
Your thoughts? Your suggestions? I found the journal pictured here on flickr. Apparently, the owner made it for herself. That seems like a special idea, but I have no idea where to start...
Posted at 07:08 AM | ![[comments]](http://www.tayarijones.com/images/comments.gif){kind=small}
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September 28, 2009
Monday Morning Links
September 26, 2009
Six Degrees of Denene Milner
This is a little bit of randomness, but here goes: I was watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta yesterday. (Consider it research; after all, my book are all set in the A.) Anyway, if you follow the show you will know that Nene has written a book with the help of a ghost writer, Denene Milner. (My favorite moment in the last episode was when Nene's friends consoled her by saying "Don't worry about them, girl. You're writing a book!")
Ms. Milner, it seems, is the hardest working woman in the business! I first heard her name years ago when she along with her husband, Nick Chiles, wrote a book called What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know About Sex. And then remember when her husband wrote that famous anti-street-lit article, "Their Eyes Were Reading Smut."
And what about The Sistah's Rules-- it was supposed to be that black woman's guide to catching a man. I didn't read it but if I recall the message was that playing hard-to-get was a luxury sisters cannot afford. (Remember that drama surrounding that?)
She also wrote the book based on the movie, "Dreamgirls"? It's tricky, but Milner's book is not to be confused with Mary Wilson's book Dreamgirl (no 's') on which the Broadway show was based.
And here is her biggest title: the Steve Harvey mega-hit Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.
It seems that Denene Milner is the writing equivalent of a character actor. You may not remember her name, but you have seen her work.
(Look at all the listings she has on amazon.)
Posted at 07:32 PM | Comments (2)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
September 24, 2009
Bound For Brazil
I know I am running myself ragged, but I have just received an invitation travel to Brazil in order to participate in the The Recife Bienal do Livro 2009 and to give a lecture at Pernambuco Academy of Letters.
Thirteen hours is a long time to travel for a five-day visit-- I am praying to the airline upgrade gods-- but I've always wanted to see Brazil!
Jet Lag Links
September 22, 2009
Back Home!
Hi Everybody! I am back home from my European vacation. I am still 
trying to get my thoughts together about the voyage. I can say this-- a cruise ship would be a great place to set a novel. There is just so much going on. The workers on the boat are from all over the world and I couldn't help but wonder what brought them to work on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Apparently, they are only allowed to go home after a ten-month stint on the boat. At the breakfast buffet, there is a man from the Philippines who greets everyone with "Happy! Happy!". Before you touch any food, he sprays your hands with Purell: "Washy! Washy!" If I were to write a novel about a cruise ship, that guy would be the narrator. (I know he MUST get tired of that gig! He's like Tattoo from Fantasy Island.)
Then again, having just finished THE SILVER GIRL, I am eager to get started on a new project. It's like being on the rebound after a romantic break-up. Everything I see looks like a potential new love.
I'll post photos, etc. soon. I've got to go now and get myself together. Pablo Medina and Hache Carillo are reading at Rutgers-Newark tonight. Although I am on leave this term, I am going to attend the event. It's free and open to the public, in case you happen to be in the area.
Posted at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
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September 11, 2009
Hitting the High Seas!
You'll see that I posted a lot of links below. This is because I am going on vacation today. No blogging, no tweeting, no nothing. It's time for me to unplug and get in the moment. I'm going on a cruise to the Mediterranean- flying to Barcelona then boarding the boat to Rome, Florence, Naples, Malta, and Cannes. I'll be away ten days.
It's a big deal for me. Although I travel a lot, I hardly ever vacation. I'm taking just a little carry-on suitcase-- it's time to give the fashion-diva aspect of my life a rest, too. ATT has made it easy to leave the blackberry behind-- $2.49 a minute! So I will just be sort of free and floaty.
I'll meet you here when I get home.
Love,
Tayari
Posted at 09:03 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
8 Years Later Links
"Ignore it."
Posted at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
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September 09, 2009
Interesting Developments
I'm not a Tyler Perry fan, but Shalema McGhee is. Shalema, who blogs at Truself, did some more digging on the For Colored Girls situation and found some interesting facts. Here's what she discovered:
I am not exactly sure of the significance of these details, but they are really interesting. I am glad to know that Nzingah Stewart hasn't been totally hijacked. What I would really love is for someone who knows the ins and outs of film making to tell us exactly what is going on! (What I would really really love is an inside scoop from somebody working on this particular project.... know anybody?)
And if Shalema's name sounds familiar, it may be because she did a guest post on this blog a couple years ago. Check her out.
Posted at 06:00 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
Current Events
September 07, 2009
Labor Day Links
September 06, 2009
The Rainbow is Not Enuf
Everyone is going crazy because Tyler Perry is going to write and direct the film adaptation of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf." I'll admit to clutching my pearls along with everyone else. I'm late putting this post up because I really don't know what to say. I don't like Perry's work. I find Madea offensive. I also feel that his gender politics are a disaster. And he's corny.
"For Colored Girls..." is sacred ground for me. I remember that I was about ten years old and my mother went to see it. My mom wasn't a person to go out much; this is probably why I remember it. She said it was "powerful." I snuck and read the book but I didn't get it, but I remembered that it moved my un-moveable mother.
Later, as a student at Spelman College, I read the text and I got it, or I thought I got it. (I mean at 18, what did I know about "Someone Almost Walked Off Wid Alla My Stuff."? Still, Toussaint Jones stole my heart, only for Beau Willie Brown to stomp it at the end.) At 38, I more than understand the lives that Ntozage Shange was bad enough to commit to writing. (And let me tell you, alla my stuff has almost gotten away from me, more than once.)
As a writer, I understand, too, what Ntozake Shange went through to tell those truths. If you thought that backlash against The Color Purple was bad, imagine that times 50. Ntozake Shange was called all kinds of man-hater and accused of being a pawn of the white man in a diabolical plot to destroy the black race. As you can see from her beautiful novels, Ntozake Shange is a community-loving woman. To be accused of being its enemy was a crushing blow. (And when you think of the black women writers who have been accused of high treason-- Ntozake Shange, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Gayl Jones, Michelle Wallace-- where are they now?)
While I was looking for more information on this Tyler Perry story, I found this interview with Nzingah Stewart, a young sister filmmaker. In 2007, she did a Q&A with Clutch:
Clutch: What projects are you currently working on?
Nzingha: Finishing up a video for Jill Scott and preparing to shoot my first feature film an adaptation of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide: When The Rainbow Is Enuf, starring Angela Bassett, Alicia Keys and Sanaa Lathan.
It seems that Hollywood is walking off wid alla our stuff.
(Photos: Orginal Broadway poster, Ntozake Shange, Tyler Perry, Nzingah Stewart, "Madea")
Posted at 08:27 AM | Comments (5)
Category:
Current Events
September 04, 2009
You're Invited To The Launch Party
It's time to celebrate another year of great southern writing. Join us at Idlewild Books in Union Square (NYC). I'll read my very short story, "Some Thing Blue" and then we'll get our wine and cheese on!
Tuesday, September 8, at 7pm.
Posted at 08:26 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
September 02, 2009
Shall We Go To The Theatre?
This is a great theatre season in NYC. Sarah Schulman has steered me to a bumper crop of new plays written by writers of color. If you are in NYC, please go out to support at least one of these events. (Full disclosure: I am only just now taking my trifling self to see Ruined, so I'm not judging. I'm merely urging.)
Here's what's coming up.
By Tarell Alvin McCraney. Public Theatre 10/21-12/13
Another Reason To Write
This is DailyLit Forums' question of the week:
Along the lines of life imitating art/art imitating life, which book(s) seem to resemble your life?
A simple question but it left me stumped. Alice Walker famously said that Their Eyes Were Watching God was the first book she ever read that featured a brown-skinned heroine. Walker is talking about the thrilling shock of recognition that comes about when you read about a character who looks like you. I think it's time to take it to the next level. I want to read a novel about a character that lives like me.
It's time to write it.
