What The EFF?

What The EFF?

LiNCOLN PARK  //  LiNCOLN PARK is a Contemporary Novelist whose fecund fables and prolific parables of modern episodes are heralded by a colossal and mounting faction of fervent, mainstream literati. As she frequently administers a more severe and disquieting pen than her contemporary literary counterparts, 4465 PReSS has taken unique initiative and placed the standard seal of PARENTAL ADVISORY on the front and back covers of all LiNCOLN PARK-penned books.

Filed under

flashbacks

See all posts on posterous with this tag ยป
 
Dec 2 / 2:16pm

From my OLD BLOG - Sun, 26 Mar 2006 - WAXING FUCKED UP

Sun, 26 Mar 2006

WAXING FUCKED UP
Tonight, I was writing and put on some ERIKA BADU. Took me straight back to Brooklyn. You know, I wrote my first book 15 years ago. No major publishers would look at AFRoPuLP (or anything that even resembled Street-Lit,back then.) The vanity publishers at that time were extortionists, as well.

Anyhow, I was content to just toss my manuscript in the trash and call it a day. Right then, my friend, Lula Strickland, sent me to her girlfriend, Leothy Owens. Leothy had a bookstore called NKIRU BOOKS. (She also had one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen!) She read my book and raved! She told me, among other things, that I was a very, very good writer. In fact, she was the first person to ever tell me anything like that.

I started hanging out in her store anytime I was in Brooklyn. We got along really well. When she finished reading my book galleys, she insisted that her friend, Marie Brown, read the book, as well. Marie was a black literary agent. I was so excited! Leothy said that Marie would love it!

Three or four months after I sent the manuscript to Marie Brown, I got a rejection letter from one of her assistants. The letter said that Marie was too swamped with manuscripts to concern herself with mine. I was devistated! Basically, because they took four months to tell me they had no time for me! They didn't even say idf the book was good, or junk, or anything!

At that point, my self-esteem hit the ground. If BLACK literary agents didn't have time for me, I just KNEW there was no hope for me as a novelist! I packed my manuscript in a box and it sat in my closet for 15 years.

Lo-and-behold -- 15 years later, African-American fiction is breaking away with unbelieveable speed and strength!

... but here's the fucked up part. I had plans to go and thank Leothy for her words to me -- on my next trip home to NYC. On the Internet tonight, I learned that Leothy Owens died in 1992; one year after we met! I am devistated! They say her store is now owned by rappers Mos Def and Talib Kweli; and has been expanded into a cultural center.

I would just like to say that Leothy Owens was one of the kindest, warmest souls I have ever met. Thanks to her words to me, I am here in the writers' blogisphere today. Damn. I just can't believe it.
Filed under  //  blog   flashbacks  

Comments (0)