Category Archives: african american book

07-01-08 Marks the Release of FeMALE TRAITS II by Lurea C. McFadden for Bruce Publishing

I had the pleasure of reading Ms. McFadden’s first installment of this enchanting,yet twisted saga. I did a review of the book in January ’08 and posted on my book reviewer page on C&B Books Distribution, Amazon.com and later on this website.

female traits book cover

I loved the book because it was a very intriguing. If you’ve never had the experience of reading FeMALE TRAITS, you need to get that done before diving into the sequel. I’m not saying that the sequel won’t be able to stand on it’s own. I’m saying that you have to know where Grace came from to know where Grace is going.

Author Lurea C. McFadden was kind enough to give me the inside scoop on the 07-01-08 release date for FeMALE TRAITS II. (And word on the streets is that yours truly was quoted on the back. But you didn’t hear that from me…)

Bruce Publishing Presents …

female traits ii book cover

Drama and nothing else!!!!

ANNOUNCING THE RELEASE OF THE SEQUEL, FeMALE TRAITS II AVAILABLE ONLINE TODAY AND IN BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE JULY 1 – ASK FOR IT!!!!!!!!

LOSING HER MAN, PREGNANT AND NOT SURE OF THE PATERNITY OF HE UNBORN CHILD, GRACE TRUFANT IS UP TO HER TRICKS AND BACK AGAIN!!! ADD TO THAT ANOTHER SISTER WITH FeMALE TRAITS, FELICIA HUBERT, AND THE TRAITS FLY WILD ONCE AGAIN!!!!!!!

ISBN 9780975546420

Three upcoming interviews: Erick S Gray, Gar Ford and Conrad Glover

I had the pleasure of interviewing three great authors who have written three very different urban fiction books.

Erick S Gary has been on the scene since the early 2000s with Money Power Respect, Ghetto Heaven, Flexin & Sexin: Sexy Street Tales Volume 1 (Sexy Street Tales) (Sexy Street Tales), Nasty Girls: An Urban Novel, Booty Call: Who Would You Call?, Booty Call *69 and It’s Like Candy: An Urban Novel. His latest offering Crave All Lose All follows the hard hitting trend that his fans have come to enjoy.

Relative newcomer Gary Ford took Milwaukee by storm with his debut novel Give Me Mine. We get to speak about his recently released autobiography Touched and the impact Give Me Mine still has two years after being released.

Many know Conrad Glover for his work in the movie industry with straight to video releases Bottom Out, Woods of Evil, Maya’s Soul and Street Revenge. I get to speak with him about his urban fiction debut King of Stowevillage as well as future projects in film and literature.

I’m in the process of transcribing the interviews. You’ll be the first to know when the interviews are posted on UrbanBookSource.com.

Stay tuned.

The other side of Vickie Stringer, CEO of Triple Crown Publications

Jonathan Cunningham wrote an interesting article about the (disputed) queen of Urban Lit, Vickie Stringer a couple of years ago. (via jewel’s vox blog)

I enjoyed this article because it got past the glitz and glamour of the drugs to jail to top of the urban lit industry, international publisher, rags to riches story that everyone pumps.

Don’t get me wrong, it covered that ground as a prelude to the Vickie before that time.

Did you know:

  • She wouldn’t curse as child. (Way different from now)
  • She used to carry a bible in her backpack everyday.
  • She went to college and never went to a single class because she fell in love with a drug dealer.
  • She’s from Detroit? (I thought she was from Ohio…)

On the flipside, her life makes for a good story but not a good experience. A lot of time stories like these makes people believe you have to have a terrible life to be validated in the Urban Lit industry.

I would go as far as to say that Urban Fiction is like that rap game: you have to be hood to be good.

In that regard, Ms. Stringer is like my boy O’Shea Jackson. Who? Oh, my bad… Ice Cube. He had both parents, grew up in a middle class household, gang free, blah blah blah… But look at him now. One of the kinds of gangster rap. Go figure.

I digress. It’s good to know that Vickie Stringer is human like the rest of us and has turned lemons to a big tall glass of million dollar lemonade.