Split Your Heart, Not Your Tongue

It's been over a year since I actually posted a blog. I've been writing (and taking up voice lessons again) so I haven't completely abandoned my art but I haven't been as motivated either. This is for a number of reasons but there is one reason I want to talk about in particular. I've been having internal issues about my past work I created. I still love it just as much as I did when I created it and I don't want to change a thing (major things) about it because it was work that I believed in and felt at the time. There's just something I need to address before I can go back to promoting and creating art freely: the race of the characters in my book series . I've been asked by several people in the past why my characters are not primarily black being that I am a Black woman who grew up in an all Black neighborhood and only know the Black experience. It's a question I expected and will continue to expect as long as I decide to share my book series w...

"22 is like the worst idea that I've ever had. There's too much pain, it's too much freedom what should I do with this? It's not the way you plan it, but how you make it happen!" "Encouragement gets old," those are the words that came out of my mouth around 9:50 this morning. Do you want to know why I uttered those pessimistic words? Simply because it's true. If you haven't noticed I'm not in a very encouraging mood today and I honestly haven't been for a while. After Australia, Dubai, and Italy, life came down a lot...more like crashed and burned because fantasy life was over. I don't want to encourage anyone today, that's what my previous posts are for, instead I want to be honest about how much life sucks and it's more than okay to admit that at times. I've always joked that the title of Paramore's song "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic" is the best way to describe my personality. I...