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just entered the twittersphere.
oH that’s a good one.
gonna try to post like my status message on facebook and expand my reach.
wish me luck.
just a short note. nothing complicated.
always easy.
Please take a moment and check out my feature in the FrontPage magazine about the hardest working person in the world – the single mother.
This week was my reality week when it came to relationships. As you know, I have a new take on life and with that new life, I’ve become much clearer in my wants and needs out of men. I really couldn’t explain why it’s gotten me a clearer explaination on everything, but I like it.
Me and a girlfriend start discussing a new life outlook and she says, you know Syl, all those freaky books you read will make guys think you’re like that.
I tell her my usual, “I’m just bad on paper so I can be good in life,” bit.
“Yeah, but I got friends who’ve read Mistaken Identity. They think you’re like that and they’re connecting. Like Mistaken Identity. My cousin thinks you wrote her life story almost. And I still can’t believe that is real.”
Next day after that conversation, I get a email from my assistant and author, Monica Marie Jones.
Her email says:
A Real Life Mistaken Identity!
http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2009/05/woman-gives-birth-to-twins-wit-001903.php
I couldn’t believe it! I couldnt’ believe that reality was upstaging my story, Mistaken Identity. Matter of fact, I might have to write a sequel or coinciding story to give it a new twist.
Reality is always better than fiction.
Whoever said this was preaching the truth and the fact that this really happened and the doctor broke down how it happened was just amazing in itself that my imagination could have spoken this man’s exact words in my book, Mistaken Identity.
Research can really make or break a story and in this regards, my research for this book was on point. The condition for this pregnancy is called hetero-paternal superfecundation. If you can’t say that three times real fast, then just say, bi-parental. Although I’m kinda wondering wouldn’t you want to call it bi-paternal since this couldn’t happen in mother’s. Well, if there’s an egg donation to another female who carries, but the DNA would still be of the original mother, not broken in half. Oh. That sounds like more research. Fun Time begins! (Yes, I do not get out much).
For any of you that have read Mistaken Identity and not been a believer about the “twist” now I can say, Nah! Nah! Nah!
LOL.
Man! That was a day.
If you haven’t gotten a copy of the book, you can pick it up at Amazon!
You’ll love it!
Tanner’s Devil is due to be released in October 2009. Here is a wonderful first chapter that I hope will interested you into either:
1. Ordering a pre-order
2. Subscribing immediately for more news to come
3. Watch the video for the book as well
4. Forward this link to five friends immediately
5. All of The Above!
(Answer: 5)
tannersdevil cover
Tanner’s Devil © 2006 Sylvia M. Hubbard
For information address:
Sylvia Hubbard
PO Box 27310, Detroit, MI 48227
Visit her website at:
http://SylviaHubbard.com
sylviahubbard1@yahoo.com
words count: 103,892
Tanner’s Devil
By
Sylvia Hubbard
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tanner’s struggling trying to get away from the gritty streets of Detroit she was born and raised on. With a pimp as an ex-boyfriend, who’s constantly trying to get her back in the business and back in his arms, Tanner knows she’s got to better her situation immensely and get out the city all together because Donetello just doesn’t want to let go. Yet, with less than twenty-four hours to raise a large amount of money, Tanner knows she has to either work her ass off literally or give up her dream and return to Donetello’s eagerly waiting arms for security and peace of mind.
Devlin Sanchez has waited his whole life for this one moment. He’s saved himself for only the woman he would be with forever – his wife, but when he catches his bride in the arms of his best man and brother, he’s driven to circumstances that leave him unexpectedly
wanting more of what he should have never had – Tanner.
Author’s note:
First and foremost I want to thank all of you for purchasing a copy of my work. Whether paper or electronic, you are supporting a very hard working writer who has dreamed since she was twelve to be a bestselling author. Slowly but surely, as you enjoy yourself reading this work, I hope you see that I deserve the honor.
I would like to explain a little bit about how Tanner’s Devil came to be. I asked some devoted readers to give me a character as a challenge. She presented Tanner. I then asked another, totally different, reader (who was also a writer struggling with a writer’s block) tossed out Devlin (Unfortunately, she was a historical writer and after she sent me “devlin” I reminded her I was a contemporary writer.) She emailed me and said, “You’ll work it out, Sylvia, LOL.” My challenge to both of them was to bring the characters into a contemporary believable story. Hence Tanner’s Devil and two very unforgettable characters that you will love because I fell in love with them as well.
You, the reader, should also note that Tanner’s Devil was a live story. This means that as I was writing this story, my devoted readers had a chance to read the story live. LIVE! That means every day I posted a part – instead of chapters – in the life of Tanner and Devil that my readers had an opportunity to comment on and enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing. What you’re reading is, of course, an edited version of the book (some versions edited better than before depending on when you purchased the book, LOL). It was a whirlwind process, but very fun. But the foundation story is still there and not much has been added to the storyline other than I took out Tanner’s brother and I went into a lot more detail about how Tanner handled the situation with Devlin’s mother. Oh yeah, I also added extra scenes between Devlin and Donetello interacting.
In final, I would like to thank each and every reader all over the world that has supported me in my writing endeavor from the beginning. I loved all the threatening emails too that often told me that they were flying to Detroit to hurt me if I didn’t get busy finishing up the story. I want to thank the city of Detroit that has given me a diverse culture and active imagination. I want to thank RSW and Essentially Women for all the support that they have given, Trista Russell and Zane, plus all the other people who have assisted me in getting where I am today. I especially want to thank Wendi @ Red Rose Publishing who believed in me and choose this story to debut me with her wonderful company!
Now that I’ve said all that, I want you to do a favor for me. Yes, you, reader, I’m speaking to you. And then I will ask you – after you come back to my website at http://SylviaHubbard.com or go to Amazon.com (depending when you bought this book) to post a review – to tell five people to buy this book. Do this for me and you’ll be helping my dreams of being a successful writer. You’ll be helping me accomplish my dreams.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Your Author,
Sylvia Hubbard
Chapter One
“Nine thousand!” Pari had cried when Tanner gave her the news about finishing off her education. “Dollars?”
Pari felt terrible for her friend and couldn’t believe nine thousand was keeping her from getting her degree. Nine thousand needed by tomorrow afternoon. Pari was barely making ends meet, and Tanner was so caught up with two internships, working a steady job, going to school to keep her 4.0 G.P.A., and paying bills that were not hers accrued by her now dead crack-addicted mother. Even the little hustle Tanner opted to do every once in a while for the pimp, Donetello, didn’t really make ends meet around Tanner’s life with the cost of school, books and payments she needed to make on everything else.
The pounding on the door in the middle of the night made Pari sprint from her bed barely dressed without checking to see who it was. Her room was closest to the front of their upper two-family apartment on the Westside of Detroit. Sadly, she was use to these knocks in the middle of the night.
“Get out of the fucking way!” a deep voice boomed as he helped someone smaller into the room.
“Lay her on the couch!” Pari ordered and then ran to the back of the flat to knock on her roommate’s door. “Tanner! Tanner! You got a client.”
Several locks clicked before the door opened, and Tanner, a thirty-year-old light coffee-skinned woman with all-seeing eyes came out. Her corn-rolled hair was wrapped in a black silk scarf, and it didn’t look like she had been asleep.
Pari followed Tanner in the front room where a skinny, black crack-head gasped for air. It was a knife wound to the right side. There was thick red blood oozing from the woman’s side and she seemed to have lost a lot of blood because she was very weak.
Pare followed Tanner in the front room where a skinny, black crack-head gasped for air. A knife wound in her right side trickled thick and red blood. Her weakness indicated that she’d lost a lot of blood.
Pari didn’t know much medicinal information, but these knife wounds were familiar to her eyes because they often ended at Tanner’s doorway. Tanner cleaned and dressed the wound with the expertise of an emergency doctor.
She pulled medical supplies out of a large leather bag she usually kept secreted away in the apartment. Most times the supplies were stolen in payment for services rendered. Tanner never questioned how the medical sundries were obtained, but as expensive as some of the supplies, prescribed antibiotics, pills and salves that were given to her, they had to have been gotten through illegal means.
The big man, who brought the woman in, paced back and forth a few feet away from where Tanner worked. When he lit up a cigarette, Tanner barked, “Put that shit out!”
He did, and, when it was all over, Tanner stood and looked at the large, burly man. “Who told you about me?”
“Donetello. He said to bring the bitch here. He lost his cool when the bitch only pulled in about twenty bucks tonight.”
“What the fuck does he expect? It feels like ten below outside!” Tanner sneered.
The man looked past Tanner at the crack-head, who had fallen asleep.
“Will she make it?”
“Yes, but tell your boss she’s out of commission. She probably won’t be working much because the wound needs time to heel and this weather is too dangerous for her to even be outside. The wind chill factor outside feels like five below. I gave her some antibiotics, but if she works for the next couple of days, she’ll tear her stitches.”
“No can do. Donetello’s got a private party tonight, and she’s on the list of entertainment. His other girls are off on other things.”
“Then he shouldn’t have lost his temper,” Tanner spat, wiping the rest of the blood off her hands.
“Donetello said if she’s out of commission, he knows you know someone who can take her place.” The large man winked at Pari, who gasped at the thought of doing what he implied.
“Go in your room, Pari,” Tanner ordered.
Pari protested, “I’m not—”
Tanner turned sharply and screamed, “Go in your mother-fucking room NOW!”
Pari gave her roommate a hurt expression, but understood Tanner knew more about what was really going on than she did, so she enclosed herself in her room, pressing her ear against the door to listen.
Tanner must have known this and ordered the large man to step outside to speak on the steps.
Damn! Tanner, what are you going to do?
A few minutes later, Pari heard a lot of movement as Tanner and the man entered. Another door closed, and then it grew quiet. When Pari’s ear hurt like hell pressed up against the door, she gave up and just went to the front room. There was no one there.
Tanner had left along with the large man and the injured woman on the couch. On the tabletop lay a note from Tanner saying simply: “I’ll be back.”
* * *
Without much time to change, Tanner just found a summer dress, but it was cold and January. In Detroit, outside was no joke in the middle of the night. The long black ankle-length coat and knee-high black boots adequately kept her warm. There had been no snow, but the wind chill could freeze a sistah where she stood.
Jamroque had convinced her on the steps of what should be done. Nina, the whore Tanner had stitched up, was due to be at a motel for some rich cat who had called on the fly in less than thirty minutes. Donetello must have assumed he hadn’t injured Nina seriously. With so much confidence in Tanner’s medicinal skills, he most likely thought she could cover up what his short temper had made him do. Which was why he told Jamroque to just get Tanner to patch Nina up before she was to be shipped over to this john.
“It’s a new bit,” Jamroque explained. “Donetello will send her over there like this if he has to. And it looks like you know him well enough to know I ain’t lying.”
Why did Tanner give in? Because Jamroque looked like if he returned empty handed it was going to kill him to tell that asshole Donetello that Nina wasn’t going to have to work this John.
“Most likely he don’t want nothing but a few licks and a touch. Donetello said he requested and paid well for a clean girl. And right now, Nina’s ‘bout the only clean one he can guarantee ‘cause she just had a baby and a full check-up.”
“How much?”
Jamroque looked uncomfortable at Tanner’s direct question. If Tanner was a whore, then Jamroque could impose that it was none of her business, but he was unfamiliar with dealing with a woman who he had no control over. He needed her and he didn’t like being put in that position. “You know I don’t know Donetello’s accounting shit. All I know is that he’ll be willing to pay nicely if you can find someone who can take Nina’s place.”
Tanner saw the roll of money Jamroque had pulled out from Donetello had given Jamroque, which had been given as an enticement. Donetello knew Tanner wouldn’t be able to resist. Her gut felt like she had swallowed bad milk because all that money was just an enticement from Dontello. He knew Tanner needed some money bad and he knew how he could make her get back into the life of prostitution.
“The john ain’t a regular and he’s checked out real good so all you gotta do is fifteen to thirty minutes tops,” Jamroque said as Tanner agreed to take Nina’s place.
“So why is the john paying so much?”
“Don said he probably got some fetish and shit, but the john said there would be no entry, and if there is, you just make a little extra.”
“S and M?”
“No. The john just said he wants a chick that’s clean and will give him oral. Most likely he wants some weird, freaky oral action.”
Her back was against the wall, and now, as Jamroque finished dropping Nina off at her home, Tanner tried her best not to show her fear as she fingered the roll of money in her pocket. Just this once. Just this once and then that’s it. You’ll pay for school till the end of the term and then you’ll be finished.
The roll in her pocket didn’t come close to the nine thousand she needed by three p.m. tomorrow in the school’s business office, but it was five thousand. Two to stitch up Nina and three to entice. Enough for over half of what she needed. There was no doubt in her mind, Donetello had a nice stash in his pocket as well from this deal.
The other four she needed would have to come from this john unless Donetello was still in a bad mood and would send some more her way by morning, but she doubted it. This was a rare exception, and if he did send anything, it wouldn’t be enough.
Even if she stayed up all night, she knew the most she would get were small things. It was rare she let people know about her medical skills. And she knew if she continued this she had a good chance of not getting her medical degree. Unfortunately, she had to do what she had to do in order to get the money she needed, and Donetello required someone that could fix his girls up without tracing it back to him.
Without another word, Jamroque drove her to the motel on the east side of Detroit and passed her a cell phone. “He’s in room two-forty. I’ll be out here waiting. That asshole tries something you don’t like just chirp me and I’m coming in.”
And probably not in a good mood. Tanner pulled down the mirror to look into her slanted chocolate-brown eyes. Long light brown lashes that matched her almost red-brown hair and coloring made her soft, almond-colored skin attractive.
She knew she didn’t break mirrors and was often complimented when she decided to comb her hair, but of late she could care less about her appearance.
Reaching in her coat pocket, she pulled out eyeliner. After applying some, she found gloss to bring out the sensual thickness of her lips and then popped a breath mint in her mouth. Hopefully the bath she’d taken before going to bed would be enough to suffice.
Jamroque also handed her some condoms and winked at her for luck after telling her the room number.
She snatched the condoms away and got out of the car.
Tanner walked up the stairs to the room two-forty. The door opened. The creepy squeal of it increased the bad feeling in her stomach. The light in the bathroom and a candle on the table by the bed lit the room.
“Put your coat on the chair,” a deep voice ordered from behind her as soon as she closed the door.
Gasping, she turned and glared up at the man, but found she had to careen her head way up. SEVEN FUCKING FEET?
No, not exactly! He had to be a good six and a half, though, because her spine killed her to look up that high. He was big like a linebacker with light skin and wore a cap, so she couldn’t determine if he was white with a tan or a black guy that was really light-skinned. He had medium dark pink lips and a slightly pinched nose, but even these features made it difficult to determine his race with that damn black cap on his head.
He wore a black wife beater and tight blue jeans that definitely showed he didn’t miss one hour of weight training. His biceps looked about as thick as her thigh, and Tanner gulped as she wanted to desperately push the chirp button on the phone, which she clutched in her coat pocket.
Play it cool, dummy! She ordered herself.
At five feet three, Tanner was usually never attracted to men over six feet, but this big-ass man was…awesome? Could she really say that?
“Why are you hiding behind the door?” she questioned.
“I told him I wanted a woman who didn’t ask any questions,” the man said sharply, locking the hotel door.
She took off her coat, but kept the cell phone and condoms in her hand behind her.
He moved up to her with a suspicious look in his eyes. She couldn’t tell the color of them, because of the cap, but they were well defined.
Her neck hurt from looking up at him. This man’s shoulder width was twice the size of her full frame. Did he eat iron for breakfast? Stepping back, she gasped as he stepped up to her again, increasing his closeness this time and making her very uncomfortable.
So consumed with looking in his face, she flinched nervously as his hands came to her waist. Tanner didn’t move much less breathe as he felt the front, back, and sides of her. This was no caress; he was frisking her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, confused, feeling the strangest tingles move up her legs, and an arousing sensation tickle her below her belly.
He had knelt to inspect both thighs. Her question made him stop what he was doing, leaving his large hand high on her right thigh in the front and back. “What did I tell you about talking?”
Tanner bit the sarcastic remark back and just waited while he moved to the other thigh all the way down to her ankle and then stood back up–closer.
This time Tanner didn’t bother to look up in his face and she wasn’t about to step back because she had a feeling he wanted to make her feel uncomfortable.
“Take off your clothes.”
Would that mean this cornbread-fed giant would take off his too? And if he did, would he look just as magnificent without his clothes as he did with them?
Using this opportunity to move away from him and catch her breath, she walked over to the bed to place the cell phone and condoms there. He hadn’t followed her, and Tanner looked down at the candle to gather her thoughts. He’s just some weird perve john, probably from the boondocks of Michigan, trying to get a taste of city life before he goes back to Pinkie, Michigan.
That had been a running joke when she had been out in the life doing this all the time. Pinkie, Michigan was actually nowhere, but it was a terminology used occasionally to say that since Michigan was shaped by a glove this was where this john was from–where no one black in their right mind would be, so they came down here to Detroit to taste life by requesting a black girl to their room.
Concentrating on the candlelight, she pushed off the peach summer dress over her boots along with her underwear and kicked them off.
She started to unzip her boots, but he barked, “Leave ‘em.”
His hands came behind her and firmly gripped her waist. “Lay on the bed on your stomach,” he ordered.
She did as she was told and forced her rapidly beating heart to relax.
Usually she wasn’t so jumpy, and sex had never really been like, ‘oh yeah, say my name.’ She had personal lovers–Donetello being one of her past lovers, but Tanner had always done it just for the money or what she could get out of it.
Knowing she could get her own without a man by becoming a nurse practitioner, she’d decided to do just that. In four years, she’d scored high on her M-CATS and was now hours away from completing Wayne State Medical School to finish off her education. Her prior medical knowledge from her mother, Sissy, had given her a lot of things too.
Sissy Tanner was a street doctor. She’d read the medical books and was not only making her money running the streets, but fixing up whores and hustlers who couldn’t leave a paper trail.
She even gave birth to Tanner at home and took her to the hospital after it was all over–three years later. Sissy had never given Tanner a real name and most people called her Sissy’s daughter, so, when faced with actually naming her daughter, Sissy told the hospital to name the child Tanner Tanner. It was a stupid joke on Tanner, but she dealt with it.
Tanner was a quick learner, though. Sissy only liked to say things once. On top of that, Sissy taught Tanner everything she knew. Sissy hated hospitals and she knew there would be times when she would need medical attention.
Tanner wanted to change her path in life. Knowing that her mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother had come from medicinal knowledge without a degree made her want to go legit. She wanted to get her nurse-practitioner degree and really help people without the worry of authorities taking it all away.
So sacrificing one night to a stranger to get where she wanted to be would be well worth it. It wasn’t as if this was Tanner’s first time. Her mother had been a whore when she wasn’t pulling enough money in, and Tanner had followed in her footsteps by the time she was twelve and fully developed. But at thirty, and to Donetello’s disappointment—who also use to be her pimp—Tanner had gotten out of whoring.
Going through and getting certified medically was Tanner’s dream and tonight she was only four thousand dollars away from it. Now she would just see how much she could get out of this weirdo and never have to step foot in the arena of selling her body ever again.
The most arousing scent hit her nose, and Tanner only needed her peripheral vision to see he was standing behind her about a foot from the bed, removing his clothes.
Knowing she was splayed open for him, freshly cut and washed from her evening’s bath, Tanner’s body became aroused. Something her body had not done in a very long while to the scent of a man. Why should this simple john do this, and how the hell had he managed to smell like dark roasted hazelnuts and sweet mangoes. Was it cologne? It had to be. This couldn’t be his natural scent.
She was strangely tempted to turn around and bury her face in his groin just to find out. Her mouth salivated at the thought of knowing he was paying for her to taste.
Concentrat,e dummy! This is just a job!
“Entry is extra,” she said abruptly, keeping her eyes straight and not looking at him.
“Are you trying to read my mind?”
Why did that sound like a wicked thing to do? Licking her lips, she said, “Did I?”
He sighed as if bored. “How much?”
“Five hundred.” She had deliberately called off a high figure. This usually deterred a guy.
After a second, she thought for sure he was going to forgo it until he dropped five bills on the bed.
“Anything else so we can get this talking shit out the way?”
What is his aversion to a woman’s voice? she wondered. “That depends on what you desire, mistah. You’ve already paid for touching, licking and normal entry. If you’re paying, we’re playing.”
There was no sound behind her, and Tanner strained to hear where he was. Suddenly his warm hands gripped her thighs and moved slowly up her butt over her back and to her shoulders.
She hadn’t even felt his big body get on the bed. It was like he was frisking her again, but he was taking his time as he moved back down her body before coming back up to her shoulders. This time she felt his body lie on top of hers and Tanner forced herself to take long deep breaths to not become affected by his touch.
“How much will it cost to get your silence? I don’t want a peep, moan, or whimper.” His fingers entwined aggressively in her hair, unloosing it from her braided ponytail she had just swept it in.
Yes, he was angry about something, but not angry enough to hurt her–just enough to make her apprehensive. Tanner closed her eyes to concentrate.
“Two thousand,” she said in an unsteady breath. He was affecting her in more ways than physically. There was just something about him that she couldn’t explain.
He moved away slightly, and Tanner saw about two grand get tossed on the pile at the corner of the bed. “Is that enough?” he asked, coming back to lie on top of her and speaking right by her ear. His breath made the hair on her nape stand up and goose bumps come to her arms.
She only nodded, and he chuckled sensuously.
Tanner felt him move away again not believing how he carefully made sure his weight didn’t bother her. Was he used to women being afraid of his size?
“Turn over,” he ordered.
She obeyed and gasped as there was no denying his nakedness nor that she could safely say this man had not one inch of fat on his entire body.
Her gaze traveled down his body, visually caressing the tightness of his frame. His manhood had yet to rise, but flaccid she guessed it was eight now and would grow to three more magnificent inches when hardened. He was cut and naturally darkened from base to tip.
He still had yet to take off the cap, and she almost reached up to knock it off just so she could get a good look at him. Quelling this urge, she told herself that this was his dime and his opportunity to be curious, not hers. Keep your eyes on the prize, Tanner.
This gorgeous man seemed furious, yet his touch was gentle as he palmed her neck and then descended to her breast. There was a look of pain and hurt on his face, but as the nipple hardened from his ministration, he seemed in awe of it. He quickly hid his wonderment as if he didn’t want her to know his emotions.
He moved to the side, and with one palm, stroked down her belly, but stopped at the soft hairs covering her pubis. With a delicate touch, sShe watched as he weaved his fingers studying the hairs parting between his fingers with a delicate touch. He seemed to marvel at the feel of it, and, with his other hand, he parted her thighs wider.
Tanner closed her eyes to stop herself from becoming enthralled by him. Pushing her emotional wall down again, she tried not to care what he did.
His fingers slid down over her clitoris and spread her feminine lips to rest in the softness of her womanhood. She winced as he inserted a finger inside her mild moistness. Immediately, he removed his hand.
Opening her eyes, she saw him frown down at her. Frowning back, she wondered why he was suddenly peeved at her when she was obeying him by just lying there and not saying a thing.
He placed his finger back inside her, and she winced once again. She’d become even drier than before.
“Do you require lubricant?” he suddenly asked.
Tanner blushed at his consideration, and he chuckled as her wetness surrounded his finger. Tanner crimsoned two shades of dark red all over her light-coffee skin, but was glad he might be able to see just a little flush on her face nothing else. Yet he seemed so aware of her body that she was sure he’d immediately picked up on how his words had affected her.
A bravura smile came to his lips to prove her point and took her breath away. “I do prefer when your body talks, woman.”
She suppressed a giggle and rolled her eyes heavenwards as his finger moved deeper inside her, making her even more aroused.
He began to increase his stroke, but Tanner knew her stimulation would go away if he went too quickly, so she reached down and slowed his movements and grinded her hips against his hand to demonstrate how to properly arouse her. He was a fast learner–too fast–and concentrated on watching her body movements to determine how tender, fast or hard he should go. When she moved his hand to manipulate her clitoris, it was so hard not to scream in ecstasy as he learned how to manipulate her body and bring her to orgasm.
She thrashed and arched so hard her toes numbed, but it was all worth it; Tanner hadn’t climaxed like that in so long that her body convulsed even afterwards in shock. Blissful tears streamed from her eyes as she almost chewed her bottom lip raw, trying not to make any noise during the earth-shattering pinnacle.
When she was able to think straight again, she looked at him. He still watched her curiously.
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Great tips to make your blog stand out and keep readers coming back.
People are always asking me how to get more viewers to their websites and what do they write about. I’m always asked as to how I come up with the ideas that I do come up with.
Here are some tips to help you out coming up with great posts for your blog.
1. Bring the funny.
Humor has a way to draw people and join people from all over. Even if you have a serious subject, find inspiration and keep it light so that it’s not always so serious.
My mother says if you have weathered the storm and can talk about, then you can smile about just surviving.
2. Explore What if’s and Extremes in your post.
Going to the far extremes of your own mind and then write about it. Create an alternate past or future.
Giving your readers the outrageous of yourself often can endear your readers to you and make them loyal readers to “what else you’re going to say.”
Don’t have that.
Find others who are and talk about what they are talking about.
Read a book that was too extreme? (And there are lots of those.)
Talk about that.
If you aren’t doing the what if’s or extremes, someone else is and you can talk about that.
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If you have to go into lots of details, double space your paragraphs so everything doesn’t look like a big pile of words. Reading on a screen can be a little bit more difficult than reading a paper and causes certain stress on the eyes. Break up sentences into double spaces and use bold to emphasize topics. Please use simple fonts like Times New Roman or Arial. Don’t use a lot of italics. Use pictures to break up the reading and to also emphasize.
4. Tagging – use it!
Tagging your posts helps search engines place you where you want to be scene. But please place tags where they are supposed to be. For a moment there people were going around putting my name in tags to increase chances of people looking for me to come to their blogs. It was annoying because Google would alert me all the time that someone was talking about me and I’d come to a post about great ways to increase your income through blogging. There was no mention of me in the whole article except for the tag. GRRRRRrrrrr…. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one upset that was falsely dragged somewhere.
If your blog is about your kids, put children in your tags or tweens if you have that age range. Heck, shoot for teenagers. I’ve been doing a Romance on a budget series on my How to Love a black woman blog. I included finances in my tags.
5. Give it away
Everyone likes the free. You’re lying to yourself if you say you don’t like free things. Giving something away on your blog is a great way to garner new readers and a way to get your usuals to talk about you elsewhere. (Just asked them to share the link with others.)
6. Add Mystery
They don’t call me the cliffhanger queen for nothing.
I often write live mystery suspense stories and always leave the post at a devastating cliffhanger to draw my readers to come back the next day. These usually are weeks and weeks of hair pulling, but creative one-day events are often on the Internet and you can creatively draw your readers to guess until the cows come home but please make sure you satisfy their curiosity.
7. Respond to current news.
Local, national or international news will always happen. You’ll never run out of things to talk about and you can find ways to have it relate to what your platform is about.
8. Bring Sexy Back
There’s no way not to put it. *(Yes, that’s a double negative.)
SEX Sells. It’s always going to happen and there’s no way to get around it.
Whether its good sex or bad sex, don’t be afraid to talk about it on your platform.
Even if you’re practicing celibacy, you can speak about that and how hard the temptation is for you.
9. Demonstrate Extraordinary skill
If you have them, talk about them.
If you don’t, talk about others.
It’s an easy concept. People are mesmerized by the extraordinary. Keep them mesmerized and speak about it.
Know something that you think other people can’t do? Write a manual or instructions on it.
I decided to write a simple manual on my blog at How to Love a Black woman on how to give a woman a proper massage.
After a horrendous break up, I did a 7 day instruction guide on how to break up and be happy.
People love instructions and they like to learn things. Help humanity and use your blog to teach.
10. Find a gimmick
Whether you twist the idea of another idea and make it your own or you create a new thing to do. Make a statement. Stand for something and then record your doing it.
Want to save the wild cats in your urban area?
Have a penny drive. Ask your readers to send pennies to your local human society in an envelope.
Want to donate your hair to charity?
Take pictures of your hair getting cut and post it on the site. Upload the video to Youtube and then show it.
Show that your can do more than just preach from your “pulpit.” Your actions really do speak louder than words.
The most important thing I can tell you to do when blogging is to enjoy yourself. Once you see that this is a great way of getting the word out about you and your platform, you’ll see that you can come up with a lot of ideas to blog about.
Have too much to blog about? Use the post options to change the dates instead of popping out five or five posts a day.
Don’t have enough to speak about. Expound upon a subject you spoke briefly about in the past.
Trust me, there’s always something to say and talk about!
Armando Bellini becomes lost at sea. A horrible storm tears his yacht to shreds and he’s saved by a beautiful stowaway, Faith, who has many secrets. He tries to deny his attraction to this quick thinking fox. Chapter 1
Faith carefully attended the bruise on her leg. If she wore a long skirt it would hide the swelling on her leg. From the vent in the bathroom, she could hear him talking to that stupid poodle of his.
Her eyes fluttered to hold back the tears that wanted to fall.
‘No sense of crying. Toughen up, Faye,’ she heard the shadow in her brain sneer.
Since she was a little girl, living out on the streets with Shadow, she learned the mean things in life would happen to her and there was nothing else to do about it.
‘You gotta fight for it.”
Unfortunately, there hadn’t been a fighting bone in Faith’s body ever.
Biting her lip to push back the painful sob that wanted to be released. Physical pain was becoming more and more accepting in her life.
She looked out the bathroom window down in the far corner of the backyard where that cursed doghouse was – A stupid doghouse that took him a whole year to build.
What an idiot! Who took a whole year to build a doghouse for a lap poodle? It wasn’t even that big!
The only good thing it represented was the happy days. The days when James had a job, they lived in the suburb in a beautiful home and she loved him, despite his occasionally weekend drunkenness.
As time went by the drinking became worse, then it turned into drugs – First uppers, then downers and finally heroin. He lost his job, lost all their assets and ended up homeless.
Faith had to get three jobs to support them. In the mornings, she worked as a home nurse for an old woman with diabetes, in the afternoon she worked fours hours as a telemarketer for a carpet cleaning company and at night she was a waitress at a restaurant in the St. Royal Hotel in downtown Chicago.
Limping over to the full-length mirror, she opened her robe and looked at the black and blue marks on her light brown skin. If she had been dark as her adopted sister, Glenda, the bruises would not show so bright, but at least the new bruises on Faith didn’t show as much and since she had good strong bones, James never broke any – at least not yet. The beatings were getting worse. This time he had slammed her against the wall because she had forgotten to open the beer before serving him.
If she wore the proper clothes, she figured she could cover up the visible bruises and deal with the rest when they decided to show up. She had always hated her skin. Not only was it light. From what she knew about her birth father, he was white and her mother was black.
It wasn’t because she had met them, but because she remembered when she was ten and they had picked her up for picking pockets at Hart Plaza in Downtown Detroit, some man was saying how they pulled her file form long ago.
“It says right here her daddy was white and her crack whore mother was black.”
Faith had tried to get her hands on that file, but had been unsuccessful and when asked about it later, no one knew anything.
There were assets to Faith’s body she liked. She had been skinny all her life, and fortunately had not gained any weight like Glenda, yet Glenda had gotten all the attention from their adoptive parents. Faith wasn’t bitter about that because by then, she was used to being ignored. Glenda had been already adopted when this family had taken Faith in. Spoiled to the bone, Glenda didn’t need beauty to get her way. She had cunning skills and devious styles to get what she wanted.
Faith just had her own street smarts and the experience of staying out of the way of others who really didn’t want her around.
Twelve years, Faith had tried to make the best of things for herself, but whenever she made decisions for herself they usually turned out to be screwed up. The only things she had ever found herself good at was living on the streets, being a Girl Scout and excelling in her education. During her last year of high school, she met and married James Calsey, five years her senior the summer right after high school.
While James worked to become the best salesperson for a corporate company, she attended community college to receive her Liberal Arts Associates. She had a good eye for art and was going to transfer to Wayne State University to study Art Appreciation, but things began to go very wrong early in their marriage and she gave up her educational plans to support her husband. Yet, it seemed the more she supported him the more hateful he became. Soon after the drug abuse, the beatings started soon after.
Telling would mean leaving and leaving would mean she’d be alone. Though James was the worst person she could ever imagine staying with, he made her feel like she was important in this world and Faith knew she was not confident enough to be out there all by herself anymore.
“I love you too. I love you too,” she heard James coddling the poodle through the vent.
She flinched as the hate built up in her gut even more over that poodle.
He had gotten that stupid poodle from a bet and had spent her money re-building that stupid dog house when they had to move here to this two bedroom ranch style home in Detroit’s crappy Westside. Even after they moved, he made sure that dog lived in the lap of luxury by making sure the dog house was placed in a specific location of the backyard and that the dog had the very best food and toys.
“Faith, get your ass down here and get me another beer,” James growled.
A shudder passed through her as she closed the robe, hiding the perfect house glass figure underneath it and went to get her husband a beer.
The Other Side of Love Chapter 1 (c) 2007 Sylvia Hubbard
Here’s a current update of the live story that’s taking place.
Before I do that I’d like to thank all the office pools that are indulging on their “work time” to sneak a read.
I hope you don’t get in trouble, but to be honest deep down inside me, it makes me really evilly happy to know you’re doing something bad to read me.
Kind of like good-wrong sex. (yeah I know that’s an oxymoron, but if you’ve ever had it, you’ll know.)
I also want to thank the other readers, who are blabbering all about me in yahoogroups, other reading forums and all the boards out there. Plus, offline you’ve been encouraging people to go to Amazon and purchase my books. THAT MAKES ME REALLY REALLY HAPPY.
If you’re a new reader, you should know I would love nothing better than to write ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT. Unfortunately, in order to do that, I have to work.
During the new story, I work a 40 hour day shift benefit job for the City of Detroit. Answering phones, taking care of problems and writing reports. I’m one of the top call leaders in the room so I do my job.
But my brain is so complex that I need to multi-task in order to do a good job.
While I’m being a wonderful customer service specialist, I write a live story for you (and me too because I’m having so much fun with Colin and making you really hate Synthia.)
I call this my benefit job because that’s exactly what it is. The job pays for my benefits that I need.
Nothing extra.
My book sells help me to get the extra stuff. Time off to concerntrate on more stories, market and publish more, and so forth and so on.
That’s where you come in. During this free story, if you really like what you’re reading, I encourage your donations , buy books or encourage others to buy books. You can even buy some for them as gifts.
Moving on….
This portion of the live story contains lots of background. I tried to make sure my flashbacks didn’t get in the way of the present story, but I knew you all needed to understand what was going .
If you’re just joining us (or you’ve been a really great fan of the literary work and will send this over to a bunch of readers and bookclub members) here’s the linkage for the beginning of the story.
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/02/little-bit-of-sin-wont-hurt-synopsis.html
Chapter Updates from 1 to 3
http://sylviahubbard.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/a-little-bit-of-sin-weekly-update-chapters-1-thru-3/
Chapter Updates from 4 to 6
http://sylviahubbard.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/a-little-bit-of-sin-weekly-update-chapter-4-thru-6/
Chapter Updates 7 thru 12
http://sylviahubbard.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/a-little-bit-of-sin-live-story-weekly-update-chapters-7-thru-12/
Chapter 13
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-whole-chapter-13.html
Chapter 14.1
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-14.html
Chapter 14.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-142.html
Chapter 14.3
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-143.html
Chapter 15
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-151.html
Chapter 15.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-152.html
Chapter 16.1
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-wont-hurt-chapter-161.html
Chapter 16.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-162.html
Chapter 17
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-171.html
Chapter 17.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-172.html
Chapter 18.1
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-181.html
Chapter 18.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-182.html
Chapter 19
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/04/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-191.html
Chapter 20.1
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/04/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-201.html
Chapter 20.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/04/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-202.html
Chapter 21.1
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/04/littlie-bit-of-sin-chapter-211.html
Chapter 21.2
http://sylviahubbard.blogspot.com/2009/04/little-bit-of-sin-chapter-21.html
Don’t forget to comment and react!
I’m pretty proud of myself and my 13 year old daughter, Makaila.
Together, we put together this trailer. Now I’m not boasting that it’s so perfect you wouldn’t want to see another trailer EVER, but I think together we did a pretty good job.
When she’s not getting on my second to last nerve, she’s pretty okay. Her website is: http://makaila2224.com
If it’s not posted below, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbgnZBsnYe4&feature=channel# to take a look at it and favorite it, then I would love for you to send this to others! Thanks
Don’t forget to:
A: Comment
B: Send to Other
C: Put this book on your TBR list!
