“And, now, for our greatest achievement of the year,” Damon paused dramatically. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Please give a round of applause to Carmen.” Everyone cheered as she stepped in front of the team. It was clear she was beloved by everyone. Well, almost everyone. “For the twelfth consecutive month, this branch of Middle of Nowhere turned in the highest revenue ever.” Everyone clapped louder. “All thanks to your brilliant manager, Carmen.” Excuse me, I thought. All thanks to the team that worked here, right? She might have been the first one in and the last one out, but Carmen didn’t work on her own. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
If you’ve been here for a while, you might know by now that I take most of my writing inspiration from songs. I’ve talked about how all my story ideas come from songs, and I even have the #FlashFriday thing, which is solely based on music. What you might not know is that I rely on songs to solve plot problems, as well. Let me walk you through some practical examples. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
Last week, I filled out an interview with Harry and Alana from Welcome to New York to be featured in a blog promo. I had so much fun doing it that I ended up interviewing Pete and Becky from Once in a Lifetime, too. And, then, I thought it would be fun to answer the same questions myself! Find the results below. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
“An emancipatory Black fantastic requires interrupting the dark fantastic cycle in order to create new paradigms. It requires mentoring diverse talent, actively acquiring new stories, and then moving toward culturally sustaining visions of editorship, marketing, reviewing, librarianship, book retailing, and literacy education. It requires publishing, Hollywood, education, libraries, and merchandising to acknowledge the ways that they have been complicit in reproducing the known world for every generation in the stories that we tell our children, teens, and young adults.But, ultimately, emancipating the dark fantastic requires decolonizing our fantasies and our dreams.” I think this quote perfectly summarizes what the problem is—and how to solve it. Or, at least, how to start trying to solve it. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.