The place where money rules the days, lies rule your life and sex rules your nights…

Sometimes it’s okay to toot your own horn, but it is always good to toot someone else’s horn. Today I’m horn-tooting for Valerie Joyner and her debate novel, Hollyhood—which lands in bookstores TODAY.

This is a good example for holding on to the seeds of your dream until they come to harvest. I’ve known Valerie for quiet sometime now, and it seems as long as I’ve known her, she was working on this book. So when I finally read a copy of the manuscript in 2005, I was blown away. The characters are so real—I was completely drawn into the story. At the time, because of the all the roadblocks she kept running into, Valerie was thinking of self-publishing. But she held on and held out until her deal came along with HarperCollins.

Hollyhood is the story of Hollywood producer Tyrone Hart, who came from the streets of D.C. and “clawed his way” to the world of the rich and famous. But life at the top is not easy for Tyrone. He has to deal with his girlfriend who is pressing him to get married, though she is creeping. And then there’s the drama between the stars of the sitcom. From the first page, you’re drawn into the lives of the characters because they seem so real.

Valerie Joyner (photo by Mary A. Brown)

Actress, producer and activist Rosie Perez, describes Hollyhood as, “A daring, realistic and unapologetic depiction of how it is to be black in ‘La-La’ Land.” According to Devon Shepard, writer and producer for shows such as Weeds and Everybody Hates Chris, “Valerie Joyner takes you into the world of being a sitcom writer with an unforgiving honesty and truth filled memorable characters. I dig it!” “In Hollyhood, Valerie Joyner delivers all the juice that’s fit to print,” according to Cori Murray, Entertainment Director of Essence.

Check out the Hollyhood book trailer. Then while you’re out for lunch stop at the bookstore and buy a copy of Hollyhood. If you prefer to have your books delivered to your door, click on over to Amazon (also available for Kindle) or Barnes & Noble.

I started this blog months ago, and then I didn’t have the time to update it because my classes began. But finally, the semester has come to an end—though I still owe one paper which I’ll do this week. Those are books that were assigned reading during the 15 week semester—notice there are 15 books. This only represents two of my classes. The third class was fiction writing.

So I’m starting this again. I hope to keep this site updated from now on. It began is a photoblog, but I decided to set up one in connection with my photography business instead. This blog will now become my “anything goes” blog. We’ll see how it grows and evolves.