Special Announcement: Real Men Write

On June 8, 2013 the Motown Writer’s Network along with Scribblers, Screamers, and other Wordslingers Magazine will conduct its regular monthly meeting around the theme, “Real Men Write”.

“Real Men Write”, is an effort to introduce more people to the contributions African American men have made to the literary community.

The June meeting will feature approximately six African American male authors who will talk about their books, give insight into the reasons they started writing, and actively reach out to young people in the community with the hope of encouraging them to follow in their footsteps.

Barnes and Noble Café at Wayne State Campus on Warren and Cass will be the site for this great event. It will start promptly at 10 a.m. If you have a young man in your life that you want to expose to the literary arts, bring him on this day! This will be every young man’s opportunity to see and talk to some real men about what they love…Writing.  For more information, check out the link to the PSA here: http://www.sswmagazine.com/

Please spread the word! Use hashtag #RMW when mentioning this event on your Twitter or Facebook. Scribblers, Screamers, and other Wordslingers Magazine and the Motown Writers Network are looking forward to seeing you!!!!

-Kelly Greene

Motown Writers Network

The 2012 Essence of Motown Literary Jam and Conference Top Vendor Award!

Literary Voice is proud to be a part of the Essence of Motown Literary Jam and Conference!  Our Authors will be on hand to sell and sign copies of their work!  Most importantly, We will be there to meet you! although our authors have been to prior Essence of Motown Literary Jam and Conferences, this will be our first as Literary Voice.  To honor this occasion, Literary Voice will present the first Annual Essence of Motown Top Vendor Award sponsored by Literary Voice!  This Award will be given to the top vendor based on a combined vote and point system.  The scoring will be as follows:

• Literary Voice will judge each vendor table on Appearance. Giving each vendor up to a maximum of 25 pts.
• Literary Voice will judge each vendor on Buzz. We will see which table gets the most attention. Awarding up to 25 pts.
• There will also be a secret ballot by the public! The vendor with the most votes will get 25 pts.

The Vendor with the most points will win the Essence of Motown Top Vendor Award for the 2012 conference! So get your table and get ready for fun!  The winner will be announced at the conference @ 2pm November 10th. May the best vendor win!!!!

Kelly Greene

Literary Voice

Good Blogging

I had the honor of speaking at our last Motown Writer’s Network Meetup on the subject of Blogging.  I love talking about Blogging!  Blogging is the perfect combination of entertainment, literature, and journalism.  That loud groan you hear off in the distance, is the disdain of professional journalists with my mention of Blogging and journalism in the same sentence.

Many journalists resent bloggers.  Journalists spend years in college studying Journalism and Media Arts.  They feel Bloggers haven’t earned the knowledge necessary to write a proper article.  One journalist went as far as to say that “Bloggers do no more than sit at a computer in their underwear spewing incoherent opinions”.  If I were in my underwear, I thank God I am in decent enough shape that I won’t look so bad.  I understand however, Print journalism is dying.  Newspapers are shedding jobs and the years spent honing their craft seem to be in vain.  A gifted writer with access to the internet can command a nice initial following.   Good Blogging however, gives one a sustained following.  I will give you 3 sure-fire tips to Good Blogging.

1)  Do the Research!  It is important that you research your topics.  Even if you are doing book reviews, you want to look up the author’s bio and or other works by that author.  Not only does research give you excellent material for your Blog, It shows your readers that you are knowledgeable about your subject.  Keeping a file on your computer with your research in it is extremely helpful and time-saving!

2) Keep slang to a minimum and avoid swear words!  This is the biggest issue people have with Bloggers.  Your blog has to look professional and easy to comprehend.  I have a book that I refer to and has helped me a lot! That book is called “My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? : How to Speak and Write It Right” by Caroline Taggart and J.A. Wines.  However, if  your target audience likes swear words, then fire away.  Just take note that you audience will be severely limited.

3) Be open minded and reflect that in your writing.  Readers love blogs that can pose both sides of an argument.  Even if you are doing a book review and you hate the book, try to find at least one thing you like about it. This helps you avoid what one of my friends refer to as being “Preachy”.  Flexibility will help you get more readers faster than being inflexible or polarizing.

These are the three main points that have helped me in building Hollaifyouhearme.com into a well respected and often read blog.  In fact, I am a current member of the Detroit Chapter of National Association of Black Journalists and have opened their eyes to the power of a good blog!  I haven’t won over everybody but I hope that with great blogs from great bloggers, it can be done.  On behalf of the Motown Writers Network, I wish you all… Good Blogging!

-Kelly Greene

Hollaifyouhearme.com

Man Oh Man

June was Men’s month here at Motown Writer’s Network.  So I decided to do something different.  Instead of writing about a male author or group, I decided to write about men period.  In between my writer’s block and usual Motor City mayhem,  I made some observations.  I was not disappointed! Even helped myself in the process.

While researching a male character, I looked for examples of the classic male antagonist.  Womanizer, violent, Larry Fishburn as Ike Turner, real low lifes!  Then I tried to see what made these guys appealing.  Their charismatic smile, rippling muscles, almond colored eyes perfectly encasing a pure demon.  I found a lot of these type of guys in romance novels read mostly by women.  Also, these guys are all over daytime television.  When Father’s Day rolled around, I realized that I was looking in the wrong place.  Women were putting their no-good baby daddies and ex-husbands on blast all over Facebook! I soon had more material than I knew what to do with.  That age old question of life imitating art or vice versa rang through my mind.

For every bad boy that I read about, I knew 3 or 4 women that would love him.  The more I made my way around town, the more women I saw enjoying their bad boys.  They don’t open the door for a lady any more and call her a bitch sometimes out in public but they get the ladies.  The good guy is punished for their polish.  So I envision my antagonist will have some fans no matter how awful I make him.  Todd Manning was so horrible and compelling in “One Life to Life”  that his character was added to “General Hospital”.  Instant ratings booster!

Good guys don’t always finish last.  You need them.  In my search for the perfect antagonist, I have found some well written male protagonists.  They were far and few between but they were there.  While the thuggish, brutal, and immoral male figure steals the show with his swagger, the good guy works chapter after chapter to prove himself.  The female lead often begins the book with the antagonist in order to show the progression of her coming to her senses.  June was a good month for me and I believe I have found my Antagonist! Ladies imitate art, find your good guy! Even if you have to go through the progressions.  It will keep you from posting Facebook hostilities on Father’s Day.

-Kelly Greene

The Ebook Lady

Tough economic times have not diminished the spirits of Detroit’s authors and Sylvia Hubbard  is tops among them.  She has self published 29 books and shows no signs of letting up.  Another amazing fact is that she was one of the first in Detroit to use the Ebook format.

The word “Ebook” is short for Electronic Book and it is a fairly new term.  There was a time where the mere thought of reading a book electronically was something out of “Star Trek”.  Although she was once laughed at and called “The Crazy Ebook Lady”, Sylvia has brought us light years into the future.  Through her workshops, She is more than willing to share this knowledge with virgin and experienced authors alike.  As an emerging author myself, I jumped at the next chance to attend one of her workshops.  I was not disappointed.

It was an unseasonably warm day in Detroit.  Any other time I would be out enjoying the sun and letting the Fugees radiate from the speakers in my jeep.  Today, I would be putting those plans on hold in favor of a first-rate education in Ebooks by the master herself! Tech Town in Detroit would be the site of that education and like a professor at an Ivy league school, she taught in great detail.  Everything from which file to write your book in; to marketing and selling your book online!  No need to deal will large publishing houses, no need to sacrifice trees to make paper.  Your readers can get your work instantaneous to their device of choice in two clicks!  You can get paid just as fast!  Nice!!  The Ebook Lady was definitely giving all who attended valuable information.  As an added bonus, the break turned into an impromptu networking session.  Sylvia Hubbard’s Ebook workshop is a must attend for any aspiring or seasoned writer.

If you are a poet, you must get in touch with her immediately and ask her about her next Ebook workshop!  I know all poets have volumes of  their unpublished work stored away.  Ebooks are an easy way to get you work published and in the hands of readers worldwide!  Not to mention establishing yourself and making money in the process!  How can you pass that up?  So don’t!  Contact Sylvia Hubbard A.K.A the Ebook Lady here at the Motown Writers Network.  Your literary future is now and she is ready to guide you!

-Kelly Greene

Motown Writers Network

MIND ON MONEY: Who Moved My Cheese? via @holla_KGreene #mwn

        Greetings Readers!  My name is Kelly Greene.  I am a former autoworker from Detroit Michigan.  Why former? I look too young to retire.  Did I hit the Lottery?  Did I find the key to financial bliss?  The answer to both questions is no.  The truth is I lost my job due the economy as well as thousands of others in America.  The funny thing about it, I should have been prepared.  Had I took one book seriously, I just might have been.

      About 12 years ago, I was given a book by my girlfriend.  The book was called “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson.  I read it and cast it to the side as a decent read.  I couldn’t take it seriously.  I was working at American Axle and making good money or “Getting that Cheese” as we say in the hood.  “Cheese” was plentiful then.  I worked 50-60 hrs a week for an automobile company and automobiles are  one of the top 5 inventions of all time.  The world was not going to replace the automobile anytime soon. I was certain that I would have a job for life or at least 30 yrs. I was wrong.  I didn’t factor in that where they made the parts or the automobiles themselves were subject to change.  American Axle moved my Cheese to Mexico 10 yrs after I read that book!  Spencer Johnson was right!  We have to be ready and expect change in both our professional and private lives.