"The Education of Nia Simone Bijou" E-Initial from Penguin Books and Eric Jerome Dickey

Honestly, I think that Eric Jerome Dickey is the only author I read who can embarrass me, thrill me, educate me and entertain me all at the same time.

Confession:  I had to give up reading his books a few years ago because I enjoyed them too much.  And, then, I accepted that life is short - you gotta get your pleasure where you can.

And he can bring pleasure to the page like no one else.  Who needs "Fifty Shades?"  I've got EJD and he's much more literary and relate-able for me!

Last week, I was looking for something to read and I thought, "It's about time for Eric Jerome Dickey to have a new book."  Bam.  There it was.  An "e-initial" (okay, didn't even know what this was) of "The Education of Nia Simone Bijou" which is the prequel to his soon-to-be-released novel, "Decadence."

Downloaded it for 1.99.  Yep.  One dollar and ninety-nine cents and read it last Friday night.

Talk about a walk down memory lane.  I had to stop a couple of times to think about how naive I was. 

And "the best is yet to come."  

"Decadence" hits bookstores on April 23, 2013!

 Synopsis:

From her first days at Virginia’s Hampton University, impressionable, creative Nia falls smitten with Chris Eidos Alleyne, an athlete and a scholar.

“Love is sweet nothings and beautiful promises,” Nia writes in her journal. What her girlfriends know, and her mother doesn’t, is that Chris’s expression of love is deeply physical. Wielding powerful charisma, Chris soon has Nia abandoning innocence for experience.

Believing that Chris will reward her sacrifices with lifelong commitment, Nia thrills to her newfound pleasures. She knows in her heart that each act of intimacy draws them ever closer. But when the Big Man on Campus learns to take what is freely given, without regard to love, Nia finds herself newly enrolled in Heartbreak 101.

The Education of Nia Simone Bijou is a rousing tale of youthful passion, once kindled, never extinguished.  *(from Penguin Books) 


Download "The Education of Nia Simone Bijou" today at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

DON'T MISS IT! THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2013 - "15TH ANNUAL MADAM C.J. WALKER BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY RECOGNITION AWARDS

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., (Oakland/Bay Area Chapter) presents the 15th Annual Madam C.J. Walker Business and Community Recognition Awards


Friday, March 22, 2013
S.F. Marriott Marquis Hotel
55 Fourth Street
San Francisco, CA  



Click here to Purchase Tickets

For further information, call CDA Consulting Group, 510-653-4085

"POWERFUL WOMEN OF THE BAY 2013" - HELD ON MARCH 14 AT THE BEAUTIFUL SCOTT'S IN OAKLAND'S JACK LONDON SQUARE

Photos by AUINTARD HENDERSON (c) (all rights reserved)

A CDA Consulting Group Presentation.  510-653-4085

SAN DIEGO JAZZ FESTIVAL - MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

CHARLIE WILSON, KEM, BRIAN MCKNIGHT, LEDISI AND MANY MORE.  CHECK OUT THE LINEUP:

http://www.sandiegojazzfest.com/lineup

PAYNE PEST MANAGEMENT
SAN DIEGO JAZZ FESTIVAL

LA COSTA RESORT & SPA
2100 COSTA DEL MAR RD
CARLSBAD, CA 92009

EVENT PHONE: 602-244-8444

HELP FIND MISSING NOLA SCHOOLTEACHER TERRILYNN MONNETTE

New Orleans police and family members are frantically searching for an elementary school teacher who has been missing since last Saturday.


Twenty-six-year-old  Terrilynn Monnette was last seen with friends at a bar in the Lakeview section of the Crescent City  last Friday evening. She left the bar around 4 o’clock Saturday morning with a male acquaintance,  reported ABC’s  New Orleans affiliate WGNO, telling her friends that she was going to take a nap in her car before driving home because she’d had a few drinks.

Madam C.J. Walker Business and Community Recognition Awards, Friday, March 22, 2013, San Francisco

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., (Oakland/Bay Area Chapter) presents the 15th Annual Madam C.J. Walker Business and Community Recognition Awards


Friday, March 22, 2013
S.F. Marriott Marquis Hotel
55 Fourth Street
San Francisco, CA  

Keynote Speaker:  Sophia A. Nelson, Esq., author, Noted Columnist and Political Pundit

Mistress of Ceremonies:  Renel Brooks Moon, Public Address Announcer for the S.F. Giants

For further information, call CDA Consulting Group, 510-653-4085

Presented by:

www.onehundredblackwomen.com


Click here to Purchase Tickets

The Rise and Fall of Jesse Jackson Jr.

I don't condone trickery, lying, stealing, or misleading and abusing public trust and funds in any form.

However, there is something much deeper surrounding the recent fall from grace of former Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.

Oh, sure, it's easy enough to make jokes about the outrageous ways in which he spent the public's money:  a Michael Jackson fedora here, an elk head there, a mink cape or two.  But, for me, what his careless, wreckless and illegal behavior points to is something much more complex.  Mental illness.

There are those who say they believe that his admission of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder was simply another ruse to avoid prosecution.  I don't believe that.  I believe that he truly is a sick man.  The role his wife played either willingly or unwilling is a little more complicated to explain.  But that's not really for me or any of us to explain.  That's why we allow the judicial system to run its course.

I do know that the real victims here, besides his constituents, are the couple's children who face the possibility that both their parents could be incarcerated and they are now the subject of public ridicule.  The children did nothing wrong.

Let's talk about children for a minute.  It is my honest opinion that the sons of famous and prominent fathers should not be named "Junior." 

Time and again, I have seen where paying honor to a famous father by way of naming a male child "Jr." has been more of a curse than a blessing.  Of course, that's not always the case.  But it sure doesn't make it easy for any junior to follow in senior's footsteps when the shoes are pretty big to fill.

I'm not a doctor, but I do understand that one of the more common traits of bipolar disorder is excessive spending and illusions of grandeur.  There's no arguing that Jesse Jr. had a serious spending problem (obviously for things he didn't need) and saw himself as above being caught.  I don't necessarily take that to mean that he was arrogant.  I believe that there is some underlying reason that he made these terrible choices.

The fact that the morning he entered his plea, he said to a reporter, that he "had a beer that morning, but had never been more clear in his thinking" says a lot.

Dude - you had a beer?  Weren't you just get released from a medical facility for treatment with medication which more than likely means you shouldn't be consuming alcohol?

If any good comes from this entire mess - and it is a mess (I was one of those people who a decade ago believed that Jesse Jr. might actually be the first African American president), it will be that Mr. Jackson Jr. will get the medical help he desperately needs and after serving his time will be given the benefit of the doubt, and can reclaim his life at some future point.

Remember, "He who is without sin. . .cast the first stone."