A Brownstone in Brooklyn: PRISM OF THE SIXTIES AND A REFLECTION OF THE “ SOMETIMES RIOTOUS 21st Century”!

     

  I am watching CNN these days and I am transported back in time to the sixties…1968!   In my minds’ eye, I am walking down Gates Avenue and I am staring at fire eating buildings, smoke bellowing, human bodies sprawled in the streets and the acrid smell of burning buildings permeating. I smell the smoke in my nostrils as I walk down Gates Avenue toward Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

      Am I dreaming?

      Is this real as I listen to commentators Don Lemons, Anderson Cooper, Rachael Meadow, Al Sharpton? I remember a younger Al Sharpton, a little heavier, but with the same voice resonates the call for peace. Sharpton is still calling for peace as he did in the sixties.

        Names change and new names are added to the list of Black males and females killed by the police. I still hear in my mind: “Power to The People” with a raised right arm with a clinched fist.

In the 21^st Century, “Burn Baby Burn” is replaced by “Black Lives MATTER.”

          In the 21^st Century we are living through rhetoric that is nasty, divisive and results in acts of violence. In the sixties we faced similar situations with racially charged language and Intentional acts of violence.

            After fifty years we are still battling the same negative circumstances. Time it seems has not healed these festering racial sores. Now, the wounds are bleeding and Black men yelling: “I can’t Breathe.” Racial confrontations still emit a foul stench of ugly and life-threatening behavior.

            Twenty years ago, I published my first novel, A Brownstone in Brooklyn, about the “Turbulent Sixties.” I am re-reading the novel and preparing for the upcoming twenty-year anniversary of the books’ publication.

            When I reached page fifty-six, I stopped in my tracks! I was reading about what was happening in the middle of the sixties, but coming alive, again in the nightly cable news alerts.

Now, I want you to meet and experience three characters, Hiram Henry Mario and Andy. Hiram Henry and Mario are inside the steel fence, helping shutdown the City College of New York, in an anti-Vietnam War and anti-racial protest. Henry is speaking to the crowd and Mario is a supporter inside with the protesters. Andy is outside barricade talking to his friends.

From A Brownstone in Brooklyn, page 56,

CCNY Campus Shutdown!

            While Mario and Andy were talking, one of the leaders, Henry, who helped the radicals take over the CCNY campus, speaks to the crowd.

            Andy reached through the fence and gives Mario, a close friend, a black-power handshake. They both turned to listen to Henry.

“Brothers are you with us?”

Andy didn’t respond, but waited a moment, “We’re fighting the battle out here.” Andy spoke up so Henry could hear him.

Mario moved inside the barricade toward Finley Hall. A group of students were listening to Henry’s voice. Mario spoke to Andy.

            “You know we made our demands many months ago and there wasn’t a peep heard from the administration. We, we took over the campus. We did it because we were ignored! Guess what, we got their attention.”

            “We, Black and Puerto Ricans, were noticed as a result of our taking over the campus in a non-violent way. Dr. King was right, when you demonstrate peacefully your opponent can’t handle it. In my eyes, it was good this happened, maybe not the rioting, burning and looting, but this is the result of frustration of being held down for so long.”

            Mario, left the crowd, listening to Henry and came over to the fence closer to Andy. Andy was preparing to leave the campus for Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.

            “Mario, in Bed-Stuy something is brewing, I can feel it,” Andy moved closer to the iron gate, “if something isn’t done soon, my neighborhood will explode.”

            “Hey, the south Bronx isn’t far behind. It’s just a sign of these times. People are afraid of change and when it happens there will be violence. Emotions are frozen in anger mode and can’t be changed.”

            “Yeah, I hope these changes we’re fighting for today will make Black people, White people and Brown people, in the future, learn from these mistakes so this will never happen again.”

                                                        ************************

            If I could talk to these characters in 2021, I would tell them that people never learn from the past and as the saying goes: History repeats itself!

            In the turbulence of the 21^st Century, we are facing situations that are eerily similar to events from the sixties. It is frightening and scary at the same time.

            Yet, at the end of A Brownstone in Brooklyn we see hope. Maybe, just maybe, that hope can translate to today!

        The 20^th Anniversary Edition of A Brownstone in Brooklyn will be published through IngramSpark. The pre-sale starts Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021 and the publication date is Tuesday, August 17, 2021. Jeff Hayes a cover artist tweaked the cover of the anniversary edition.  I really love the new cover!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Brownstone in Brooklyn 20th Anniversary Edition going into Pre-Sale!

    

  Friends, some great news! The 20^th Anniversary Edition of A Brownstone in Brooklyn will be published through IngramSpark. The pre-sale starts Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021 and the publication date is Tuesday, August 17, 2021. Jeff Hayes a cover artist tweaked the cover of the anniversary edition.  I really love the new cover!

      A Brownstone in Brooklyn was published September 2001, a few days before 911 in New York, and never had a chance to get traction.  Yet it has sold steadily and gained in popularity. It is in the Atlanta Public Library, Dekalb Public Library, Chicago Public Library and many other library systems across the country. In 2018, it was on the shelves of Barnes & Nobles stores as well as many independent book stores. It was also on the bookshelves of Borders before the chain closed.

      Before the Pandemic, I had a July 2021 date scheduled for an event at Brooklyn Borough Hall in Brooklyn, New York to celebrate the Anniversary. I worked a year on the event, but Covid-19 destroyed that effort. It seems like something is always getting in the way of pushing A Brownstone in Brooklyn to the next level. I am hopeful of celebrating with some of you, in Brooklyn in 2022, the success of this book that was celebrated by the national renowned author Terry Kay:  "This is a bold, heart-felt work, certainly worthy of those who are fortunate enough to discover it in their quest for both interest and pleasure in their reading."
 
     Terry Kay recently published the novel, The Valley of Light. His first novel, "The Year the Lights Came on", was published in 1976. He also wrote "To Dance With the White Dog" and "Taking Lottie Home".  Kay has agreed to write the television screenplay and co-produce an adaptation of "The Valley Of Light" for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Two other Kay novels----"To Dance With the White Dog" and "The Runaway"----have been Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

    From A Brownstone in Brooklyn, the Character Sister Love was on the B52 Bus heading to work when she saw kids playing on the Gates Avenue sidewalk. She thinks about how life shifts on a dime:   "The most special times in a person's life are not meant to last forever. They're like bubbles rising from a plastic ring dipped into a soapy solution. The soap bubbles rise, with the sun flashing brilliant colors, then bursts into a showery memory mist.” 

    Hopefully, A Brownstone in Brooklyn will get that long anticipated recognition on its 20^th Anniversary!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Brownstone in Brooklyn Garners a Five-Star Review on Amazon!

           

Kristen Kearns Jordan is a New York City Educator writing a book on an incident from the Civil Rights movement during the sixties. She read A Brownstone in Brooklyn and left  a Five-Star Review on Amazon.

        A Brownstone in Brooklyn Synopsis: A Brownstone in Brooklyn chronicles the life-altering events that shape the future of Andy Michael Pilgrim, a young man growing up in the turbulent sixties.

Kristin Kearns Jordan

 

5.0 out of 5 stars :Sometimes fiction tells a deeper truth

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

I read A Brownstone in Brooklyn because I have a deep interest in the Civil Rights Movement. I have read a good deal of nonfiction on the experiences of young people who participated, but I learned more from this fictional account than I have from the historical texts. Getting to be inside of college senior Andy Pilgrim's mind - and the minds and hearts of those dear to him - allowed me to understand through a story pulled from the mind of a creative author who lived in Bed Stuy at the time. It is an exciting account with plot twists and turns, and a cast of characters that make me so grateful for all of our parents and grandparents who have fought for us. Much like the period in the book, we are at a time ripe with opportunity to advance a more just society. And so many of the issues that Andy faced as a young man are still present for young people today. I can't wait to read the next two in the trilogy!

 

Purchase: Ebook, Audio Book or Paperback:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZW98S4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

 

 

Stormy Winds introduced on Amazon’s New Storytelling Platform: Kindle Vella!

     

Amazon introduced a new storytelling option: Kindle Vella. With Kindle Vella, U.S. based authors can publish serialized stories, one short episode at a time. It is available to readers in the Kindle iOS app and on Amazon.com.

     Here are the first seven episodes of Stormy Winds by Julius Thompson. Please comment and vote (FAVES) for Stormy Winds.

     Stormy Winds Synopsis:

      Stormy Winds explores Justin Camp’s perseverance or eventual surrender over destructive  themes and events in his life. Julius Thompson is a huge William Shakespeare fan. Stormy Winds is Mr. Thompson’s Macbeth. It is dark and moody, but very entertaining with a vital message about overcoming or possible surrender to life’s varied problems.

Please click to read Stormy Winds on Kindle Vella:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/product/B0982NP3CJ

Stormy Winds Book Trailer:

https://youtu.be/3pSUdwKOqP0

 

Thompson on…My final “Goodbye Borders” after being absent ten years!

Thompson on…My final “Goodbye Borders” after being absent ten years!

        When the unexpected announcement blared across the national news outlets that the bookstore chain Borders was seeking liquidation and closed all its stores a few years ago, the moan among authors was deafening.
         The company closed 399 stores which meant that over three-hundred outlets for author’s books was unavailable after July 2011. Now, ten years later there are fewer bookstores for authors to have the experience of a live in-store book event.

         I just saw in Linkedin about a Mom/Pop independent bookstore closing their doors after years of serving their Texas community.
         Sure, there are “Virtual Book Tours”, but nothing beats standing in a store and a reader comes to your table and picks up a copy of your novel. It creates a warm feeling that cannot be duplicated. The only feeling better is to present on CSPAN’s Book TV.
       In the current days of Covid-19, and a pandemic, hopefully subsiding, in the land, you cannot stage live events and even traditional book festivals went virtual in 2020.

        The AJC-Decatur Book Festival will have a one-day affair in the first Saturday in October at the First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., without the street fair. This is a comeback and I hope next year we see the full event.

       When we are back to normal, book events will again populate the calendars of Independent bookstores like Eagle Eye in Decatur, Georgia or Little Shop of Stories in Decatur or maybe an enterprising manager of a Barnes & Nobles will give another young author a chance at an in-store event.
    It was very, very sad news when Borders closed. Another casualty in the long drawn-out decline of the paperback/hardcover book formats.
       I remember when I was marketing my first two novels, A Brownstone in Brooklyn and Philly Style and Philly Profile, the venues for new authors was nil. Today, it is even hard for unknown authors to get any kind of book event at major venues.
       From experience, I can tell up and coming authors the road is hard,but can be vanquished. For years I tried in vain to get book signings in bookstores to prove to the reading public that I was a legitimate author. I walked into many bookstores and got a resounding “No!”
        I went to the Stonecrest Mall Borders in Lithonia, Georgia, without much confidence in getting a chance at a book signing. I met the store manager and told him I was a local author and teacher at a Dekalb County High School: Redan High. He was very gracious and loved the idea of a local teacher getting a chance at a book signing.
        While he was talking it was surreal, but when he walked me over to the community relations manager: I had my first major book signing. The glass ceiling was broken.
         At the book signing, I sold more than fifteen copies of Brownstone and Philly Style on that Saturday afternoon and gave out tons of marketing material. This was my first major exposure and it was a huge success!
        That was a signature moment, in my current career as an author, and when I applied for other events this was on the resume. That one moment in time propelled me into speaking opportunities at other major chain outlets (Barnes & Nobles, Books-a-Million) and eventually gigs as a presenter speaking at the AJC-Decatur Book Festival in the Atlanta area, The Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, Virginia, Buffalo Book Fair in upstate New York, the New York City Book Festival in Manhattan, Baltimore Book Festival in Maryland and other major events.
       Now, in 2021, I wonder where the road would have taken me if it was not for a manager at a Borders store that gave an unknown author a chance to showcase his novels.
Goodbye Borders you will be missed!       

 

Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist by Julius Thompson

     

 Jump Starting Your Inner Novelist is a concise manual that provides inspiration, motivation and practical tools for crafting award-winning novels.

Musings, Thoughts and Goals for the Budding Author from

 Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist!

After teaching Creative Writing and Publishing at Evening at Emory University Writer’s Studio for nine years and writing four published novels, including a national gold medal winner in the fiction genre, I decided to record my thoughts and ideas about creating successful novels and weave them into a practical guide for writers.

During my years at Evening at Emory, I helped students fine-tune their skills concerning all stages of the writing process: from first draft to the day of publication. This guide, co-authored by my friend and editor, Dennis De Rose, will provide you with a set of tools to help you address issues such as developing captivating scenes, creating vivid descriptive specific details, living in the setting, editing and grammar and other crucial elements to help you write a potentially successful novel. 

Dwayne Morris: A Former Evening at Emory Student’s Perspective 

"When I sat in a big, chilly classroom and heard this powerfully-built, swift talking man say that in four months, I will have written a novel, I thought, he’s crazy. I'd been nibbling around, working with disjointed stories, random scenes, and one-dimensional characters for years and was lucky to cobble together a 4,000-word short story. I'd have to see it to believe it, a complete novel in four months.

Four months later, another student and I were laying out dozens of finished chapters on tables in that same refrigerated classroom. While doing this, that same swift-talking man, Julius Thompson, chuckled as he snapped photos of his graduates, each one beaming over their first completed novels. Seeing is believing." 

—D.A. Morris

Purchase Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist:

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/julius-thompson/jumpstarting-your-inner-novelist/ebook/product-rkjp6d.html?page=1&pageSize=4