Great Celeb Interview- oh, and my manuscript

Current mood: satisfied

I just came in from an exhausting but wonderful interview– all day.

I LOVE interviewing people! I really do, because I am naturally curious. So, I can’t tell you who the celeb was just yet, because it’s a part of a future project. I will say though that it was an enlightening and moving conversation.

We really are only battling the demons we create. Take responsibility people!!

Inside (my head) joke: “Can I have a rib? Just one rib?!”

ALSO- I worked on this shoot with my peeps Kristal, Ham, and T’Rah: 3 of my favoritest people on the planet.

It’s funny because the celeb on the shoot shared the same insecurity that many blackfolks do about skin color. For those non-afros in cyber space, many black people really do believe that only lighter berries give beautiful juice. So the person expressed a fear of the makeup artist making her look like a “milk dud”– cause she was brown but didn’t want brown makeup! For a second, I was back in 6th grade with Yulissa singing Ugly Young Thing to me because I was the darkest person in the class, and Black is Beautiful skipped our generation!

As a probable “milk dud” it took about 15 minutes before I remembered that I am now an adult, a beautiful black woman, and it’s all good. I love my skin– and whatever you look like, vanilla to cocoa– love yours!

90% of other people’s opinions of you are based on their own insecurities. Her comment, including one about “face masks,” threatened to obliterate the words of someone I love telling me how especially pretty he felt I looked today. Don’t forget– we get to choose who to listen to.

“I call you sun cause you shine like one….”

So, in other news, I received my novel manuscript back from my editor to make corrections and WOW I am very impressed and proud of myself. I never printed out the 458 pages of DARE that I wrote, so to receive this huge stack of paper that I WROTE via DHL is sheer lunar madness. My editor Abby Zidle is the BOMB and I am ready to dig into her comments. I LOVE writing. We decided to push the book back to December when I will be the ONLY African American book being released by Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster. That’s what’s up.

It’s official people, I AM A WRITER! Yay!! I feel so legit, y’all….

Did I ever tell you that someone, without ever reading a word that I wrote, hated on me by recommending that my agent find a ghost writer? Can I tell you what vindication it was when my agent told me that I was one of the best young writers she’s read? And this person was a “friend.” Be aware of whom you allow into your cypher, ok? And it’s ok if people don’t believe in you. You’ll just have to believe in you twice as much.

xoxox