Do You Want a Wife or a Guard Dog?

“My wife honors me as king of my house and head of my tribe, submitting to me and every way. But I love her like Christ loves the church and in that way we’re submissive one to another in love. You see, people look at Ephesians 5:21-33 and get it all twisted; reading and adopting some verses and completely ignoring others. Some men emphasize the “obey” portion of wedding vows and completely ignore the cherishing, nurturing, and protective manner in which we must love our wives. But do you want a wife or a guard dog? Give me a wife and let’s read Ephesians the 5^th chapter in its entirety; with the first verse telling us to imitate God and the following verses telling us how that’s done.” – Selvin Young (from the upcoming Omar Jones Trilogy)

#jamesfantbooks.com

Joe Suarez - "An Ode for Orchids"

Hello. My name is Joe Suarez. I want to talk to you about this beautiful young lady that I know named Dawn Williams.  I take care of her lawn.  I even trim her bushes from time to time.  It’s nothing like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.  But anyway, like I said, Dawn is beautiful in every way. I’m attracted to her.  I think she feels the same way about me because she tried to seduce me today.

There's one big problem, though.  Dawn is a kept woman.  And her keeper is this guy named Corey Mack, a big time drug dealer from Greenville.  She lied to me; gave me this story about her husband being away on business. She says he's never home. He neglects her.  But I’m not stupid. At least I don’t think that I am.  I want Dawn to be my woman. But who am I kidding? I cut grass for a living and Corey Mack is a kingpin. I could never compete with that.  So I have to get Dawn Williams out of my head.  But that's hard to do when I think about her day and night.

Hear more from Joe Suarez and the rest of the crew in the upcoming novel titled “An Ode for Orchards” which will be released July 2012.                        

#www.jamesfantbooks.com

Excerpt from “An Ode for Orchids” – Chapter One

“What is it that every girl has that every guy wants?” Cicely asked her three cousins, Karen, Brook and Dawn.

They all playfully shrugged. Then Cicely twisted her hips around and wagged her backside to reveal the answer.

“You are so nasty,” Karen said to her.

“But it is so true,” Cicely replied. “It’s like my momma always said, ‘You have to use what you’ve got to get what you want from a man.’ ”

Of course her mother never really said those words to her directly. Surely that is not something a mother would tell her 12-year-old daughter. Besides, how many 12-year-old girls would know the meaning of that phrase if they happened to hear it?

It was the beginning of June. The sun was sitting colonially in the center of a cloudless sky, pitilessly showering the girls with piercing rays of radiation as they walked up Big Cagle Street toward the basketball courts. The heat enveloped them. So much so, that sweat started to accumulate on Cicely’s top lip. She quickly wiped it away; for she also remembered overhearing her mother say, “Never let them see you sweat.”

“My feet are hurting,” Dawn complained. She was not a big fan of walking. Every now and again, she would stop and rub the arches of her feet, which were throbbing as well as itching.

“You shouldn’t have worn those jelly shoes,” Cicely said to Dawn with disapproval. “Jelly shoes are so middle school.”

“But I am in middle school,” Dawn replied, matter-of-factly. “And why are we out here in this heat anyway?”

“It’s not that hot to me,” Karen responded as she skipped up the sidewalk. “I love being out in the sun.”

“You should love being out in the sun, as pale as you are,” Cicely replied, quite annoyed at Karen’s joviality. “And why are you skipping. Stop skipping! You’re 12 years old!”

“Why are you so snappy all of a sudden?” Brook asked. “First it was Dawn’s jellies and then it was Karen’s skipping.”

But Cicely gave no response. She became quite serious in fact. And as the girls cleared the mesh of great oaks and bushes and the basketball courts became visible, they knew why Cicely’s demeanor had changed.

Boys.

The basketball court was full of boys.

High school boys.

Experienced boys.

It was the beginning of the summer and Cicely Shaw had arrived. There was no time to waste.

***

An Ode for Orchids is a story about four young women and the challenges that they face, such as making bad choices in men, dealing with infidelity, struggling with promiscuity, and dealing with rejection. But perhaps the most daunting challenge is dealing with the animosity that one woman can have for another woman. Time will reveal whether or not each of them will be strong enough to face the challenges that life will offer them.

The Grudge Holds You

I wrote Close the Door for two reasons which are really the only two reasons that I write anything; for entertainment and edification. The story is entertaining, starting off with the fast and powerful line: “I hit him as soon as he stepped out the door.” It’s also entertaining to see the tension between two friends who may or may not take their relationship to the next level. Then there’s the amusing yet poignant tombstone epitaph, the one that everyone laughs at when they read it. But the story is also edifying because the reader can see, albeit through a fictitious account, the effects of holding a grudge for too long. The grudge actually holds you, keeping you stuck in the past while everyone else is have fun and finding love. So check out Close the Door, and be entertained and edified.

Midnight Writing

It’s one o’clock in the morning. The house is quiet. Well the house isn’t completely quiet. It’s never completely quiet. There’s always a hum, or a noise in the background that prevents total quietness. Don’t quite know why that is.
But anyway. Where was I? Yes. It’s one o’clock in the morning; the hour of the third-shift worker, the party person, and the insomniac. I am none of those things. I am up because I’m writing. I could write earlier and indeed I do the majority of my writing in the early evening. But every now and again, I stay up late and let my fingers tap the keyboard at will. I like to see what I come up with in the haze of sleepiness. Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I’m pleasantly surprised by what I wrote.

Writing in the middle of the night is challenging and rewarding.  It’s challenging because I’m sleepy. I’m not thinking as clearly as I would at eight pm. But then it’s rewarding because I really have no inhibitions. My mind is more alert at eight pm and it guards what I write to a greater extent. There are some words, phrases, plot twists, and endings that my mind would definitely tell me to avoid if I’m writing earlier in the evening. After midnight, I write with my heart primarily and include every intimate detail of my experiences and thoughts. I usually come up with something pretty cool. Or I end up writing something really crazy, get a real good kick out of it, and file it away in a folder named DO NOT USE.

I do have a job to go to in the morning so I must lay it down. Sometime tomorrow, I’ll review what I wrote in the wee hours of the morning. Then I’ll see if it’s something great, something scary, or something that will give me a really good laugh.