What happens when suspense novelist Chandra Adams goes one on one with the acclaimed author of the Vampire Huntress Legend Series, Leslie Banks? You might get to enjoy a treat like this from the LA Black Book Expo, part of the North Bay Media Review/Empire Beat Magazine combo. Take care!

From the ‘reach out and touch’ department…….

The past couple of weeks have been busy with another successful writers workshop at AC Bilbrew Library in L.A., maintaining a mobile bookstore here in my new location of Northern California, and now that I’m done with book events for the rest of the year, I have time to finish my first novel which should be completed hopefully at the end of December.

For those of you who may not know it, I have made the move up to Vallejo and although the city is under a microscope due to a historic ruling, I’m enjoying my time here and from the change of pace that is Los Angeles. Chandra’s blog, Sweet Home Vallejo can fill you in on what’s going on in the city better than I can. Besides, I enjoy reading it anyway and maybe if I’m nice, she’ll let me write a couple of pieces.

Empire Beat Magazine has published a cute article about the L.A. Black Book Expo on their site in their Reviews section you can find (through some hard work) on their site. As far as the other projects, the only site neglected has been – you guessed it – Authors N Focus. Needless to say, despite the inactivity with interviews, I’ve been working on links for the Resource page and have found through my research on the publishing industry and their nemesis, Amazon.com, that digital readers are here to stay. I don’t have time to go into all the details right now but it is assured the Kindle, Reader, Nook and Knack (not a real device, just made that one up) are going to remain in our public consciousness for a long time to come. I’ll add that this opens up a new realm of possibilities for aspiring and new authors if they look at the signs. Obviously, Amazon’s on fire right now with not only the Kindle, but their entire website. So it’s worth taking a look at their model and witness how they are head and shoulders above their competition right now. Again, I don’t have time to go into details and offer my opinions about them, rest assured the time will come and since I’m pursuing my dream of opening a ‘brick and mortar’ shop in the near future, it’s best to express my concerns as a rookie in the bookseller game.

So there’s a lot happening with me, and more will be revealed as time goes on. Take care.

Here's the video of what happened back in July. Enjoy!

Here are a couple of new videos I created from pictures shot at the Black Writers On Tour and Leimert Park Book Fair. It's part of the Community Book Festivals series I'm creating for this and other sites to help get the word out.

Let me know what you think!

Back by popular demand!

I'm making a second trip to AC Bilbrew Library on Saturday, October 24 beginning at 2:00 PM. I'll have copies of The Voices of South Central with me.

Even if you've attended in the past, trust me, this will be a different workshop because there is a lot of ground to cover including what I've found out about certain trends of the publishing and bookstore business. It's not just the Kindle...or Reader...or that other nasty digital reading device a major chain is coming up with for 2010!

Oh yeah, lots to cover so please come on down and find out how to better market your manuscript, publishing options and how to get started on your latest masterpiece!

It's on this Saturday at the AC Bilbrew Library, 150 E. El Segundo Blvd, L.A. CA 90061 (one block East of El Segundo/Main, near the 110 Freeway).

See you then! Come early.