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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Marilynn Griffith, editor of SistahFaith

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Marilynn Griffith, editor of SistahFaith
(Howard Books/Simon and Schuster)

SistahFaith is about healing. It’s about women–holy women, smart women, women in leadership–lifting their skirts and showing their scars. It’s about nodding slowly to the woman who comes in church with a black eye and a skirt that’s too tight and whispering to her that it will be all right, telling her you know because you were her once and God made it all right for you.

It’s about keeping it holy and keeping it real. It’s about testimony.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write SistahFaith?

Marrilynn Griffith: As for the idea, I didn’t come up with it. Not really. It was 2004, and God was doing something. It was a healing season. I had a blog and a friend of mine, Claudia Mair Burney, had one too. She was bleeding over there, saying things that women weren’t supposed to say out loud.

I wept in front of my laptop and whispered, “Me too.” By phone, another friend, Dr. Gail Hayes, was getting to the root in her way. “Why do you say that? What happened to you?,” she’d say now and then. It was a year of testimony, a time of truth. I went and spoke a lot that year.

Often, women in fine suits and long skirts would whisper into the folds of my clothes, “Me too. That happened to me too.” I began to see that there was a secret sistahood, a sistahood of shame that had to be broken, to be turned into something bright and beautiful. So I didn’t come up with it, not really. God did.

JP: What sets SistahFaith apart from others in its genre?

MG: There are many wonderful story collections that minister to women, but this time we wanted to get REAL about the thing. There are stories from celebrities like Bunny DeBarge and well-known authors like Sharon Ewell Foster.

But it wasn’t about a who’s who, it was about coming together and testifying of what God has brought us through so other women can know that they don’t have to be ashamed. God’s grace is shameless!

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to SistahFaith getting out to the public?

MG: We’re doing a lot of online promotions, including the blog tour with TyWebbin Creations that you’re participating in. The book is the title of the month in our SistahFaith Book Club on our Ning community as well.

We’ll be doing face-to-face events as well like the Garments of Praise conference in Fayetteville, NC, March 26-29 (http://ladylifers.com/Page_2.html). Churches, book clubs, prison ministries, women shelters…all types of organizations will be using this book to bring hope, healing and restoration to women.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish SistahFaith?

MG: This book took a lot of time. First there was the living all of us had to do to get to the place to be able to say the types of things we had to say in these stories while still being uplifting and encouraging.

Then there was the writing, the selections, the ups and downs… Truly it’s been a journey. The whole thing started about six years ago.

JP: What’s next for Marilynn Griffith?

MG: Thanks for asking! I have a novella in A Million Blessings, an anthology with Angela Benson and Tia McCollors, that releases later this month. After that? I’ll be working on whatever God says is next. Thanks so much for having me.

http://www.marilynngriffith.com/
http://www.myspace.com/marilynngriffith
Facebook: marilynngriffith or SistahFaith
http://www.sistahfaith.ning.com/

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Congratulations Shani Fenderson! Winner of Begonia Brown by Julia Press Simmons

How did she win? She was one of the first ten people to comment on “5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Julia Press Simmons, author of Begonia Brown: A Philadelphia Story”. Shani’s name was randomly drawn for the book giveaway hosted by JoeyPinkney.com’s Joey Pinkney and QueenMidasBooks.com’s Julia Press Simmons.

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Rachel Berry, author of Family Pictures

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
Rachel Berry, author of Family Pictures
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With..
(LuLu.com)

Family pictures is the family saga about two women with too many secrets, and the up and down relationships with the people they call family.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Family Pictures?

Rachel Berry: I got the idea after observing family photos. We all have them, smiling faces of gathered loved ones. But in every picture, in every family, each person is dealing with challenges and celebrations, stories the eye can’t see. Secrets and life lessons are internal to all families. That’s what this story is about. Everyday people.

JP: Many times, the person we portray ourselves to be is truly different from the person we truly are. What interesting situation has a reader relayed to you due to reading Family Pictures?

RB: I had a reader tell me that after buying the book for her sister to read, her sister revealed to her about being sexually abused. She felt open to talk about it after reading the book. The reader said she was astonished. After knowing her sister all her life, she had no idea that had happened.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Family Pictures getting out to the public?

RB: Determination. I had a story I wanted to be told. Perseverance and patience also are tools. It takes a lot to self-publish. I didn’t want a book that looked like an amateur had put it together. Also research. You have got to know as much about the business and literary world as much as possible. Research is an ongoing venture.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Family Pictures?

RB: I write as much as I can whenever I can. I carry a notebook and tape-recorder with me. I write in my head at night and jot it down in the morning. I write in my head as I drive and write it down when I get to work.

I have full plate, so I don’t get to write as much as I’d like to. I wrote this book ten years ago. It took me about a year. I had at least fifteen drafts before I said, “It’s a wrap.”

JP: What’s next for Rachel Berry?

RB: More books. I plan to release a YA novella I wrote before Family Pictures this summer entitled A Slip In The Right Direction and Between The Tears And The Laughter this winter. My works in progress include another chapbook of poetry, my first novel series Mixed Blessings, and hopefully next year a spoken-word CD.

*Family Pictures made the EDC Creations list for best books of 2009

rachelwrites2@yahoo.com
http://www.rachelberry.webs.com/
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lady-Serenity
http://www.twitter.com/wordfairy
http://www.blackpearlsunited.org/

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P.S.S. Rachel Berry has provided a copy of Family Pictures to JoeyPinkney.com to give to the winner of the book giveaway. Berry is also an advertiser with JoeyPinkney.com.

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