Wagadu

We live in a diverse world, a world of different landscapes, climates and cultures. Although the internet and our various modes of transportation has made this world ’smaller’ to us than to our ancestors, there is still an abundance of diversity among us. What I consider a daily routine may serve as a fascinating representation of my values, concerns and expectations in my life.

Drifting throughout this diversity are images in fiction and non-fiction that rightly or wrongly influence our perception of others and ourselves. These images suggest to us overtly or covertly what we may or may not be capable of or what we can or cannot be.  I’ll give a couple of real life examples. I grew up with two male cousins, cousins I consider brothers. Both were talented artists; they would spend hours drawing pictures from comic books and other sources. As we grew older one of my cousins abandoned his artistic ambitions while the other continued. One day, as young men, he showed me his latest images and a question popped in my head. I looked at him and asked him: Why aren’t your superheroes black?

I’ve seen this same condition among other artists and creators of color. The answer is simple; we duplicate what we see. We also tend to accept what we see. Although I’ve heard many artists, especially musicians, argue against it, what we create influences what people think of others and themselves. This is why I believe it is important to show ethnicity in Speculative Fiction. While it’s easy for some to see astronauts and imagine themselves as one, for others the connection can’t be made unless they see themselves in that position. It is also important that readers see others in all walks of life, not just stereotypes. Giving readers a well rounded view of society opens the mind and lowers the barriers that stereotypes raise.

I could go on at length on this subject but I must give room for  my fellow bloggers to share their view as well.  Check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:Winston Blakely, Artist/Writer– is a Fine Arts/Comic Book artist, having a career spanning 20 years, whose achievements have included working for Valiant Comics and Rich Buckler’s Visage Studios. He is also the creator of Little Miss Strange, the world’s first black alien sorceress and the all- genre anthology entitled – Immortal Fantasy.  Both graphic albums are available at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other online book store outlets. Visit him:   http://blakelyworks.blogspot.com/ or http://blakelyworkstudio.weebly.com/
L. M. Davis, Author–began her love affair with fantasy in the second grade.  Her first novel, Interlopers: A Shifters Novel, was released in 2010, and the follow-up Posers:  A Shifters Novel will be released this spring.  For more information visit her bloghttp://shiftersseries.wordpress.com/ or her website www.shiftersnovelseries.com.Milton Davis, Author – Milton Davis is owner/publisher of MVmedia, LLC . As an author he specializes in science fiction and fantasy and is the author of Meji Book One, Meji Book Two and Changa’s Safari. Visit him: www.mvmediaatl.com andwww.wagadu.ning.com.Margaret Fieland, Author– lives  and writes in the suburbs west of Boston, MA
with her partner and five dogs. She is one of the Poetic Muselings. Their poetry anthology, Lifelines http://tinyurl.com/LifelinesPoetry/ is available from Amazon.com  Her book, “Relocated,” will be available from MuseItUp Publishing in July, 2012. The Angry Little Boy,” will be published by 4RV publishing in early 2013.  You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com. Valjeanne Jeffers, Author – is an editor and the author of the SF/fantasy novels: Immortal, Immortal II: The Time of Legend and Immortal III: Stealer of Souls. Her fourth and fifth novels: Immortal IV: Collision of Worlds and The Switch: Clockwork will be released this spring. Visit her at: http://valjeanne.wordpress.com and http://qandvaffordableediting.blogspot.com/ Thaddeus Howze, Author– is a veteran of the Information Technology and Communications industry with over twenty-six years of experience. His expertise is in re-engineering IT environments using process-oriented management techniques. In English, that means he studies the needs of his clients and configures their offices to optimize the use of information technology in their environment. Visit him: http://ebonstorm.wordpress.com or  http://ebonstorm.weebly.comAlicia McCalla, Author—writes for both young adults and adults with her brand of multicultural science fiction, urban fantasy, and futurism. Her debut novel, Breaking Free will be available February 1, 2012. The Breaking Free theme song created by Asante McCalla is available for immediate download on itunes and Amazon. Visit her at: www.aliciamccalla.comCarole McDonnell, Author–She writes Christian, speculative fiction, and multicultural stories. Her first novel is Wind Follower. Her short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and have been collected in an ebook, Spirit Fruit: Collected Speculative Fiction.  Visit Carole: http://carolemcdonnell.blogspot.com/ or http://writersofcolorblogtour.blogspot.com/Balogun Ojetade, Author—of the bestselling “Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within” (non-fiction), “Moses: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman” (Steampunk) and the feature film, “A Single Link”. Visit him: http://chroniclesofharriet.wordpress.com/

Rasheedah Phillips, Author–is the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair in Philly. She plans to debut her first spec/sci-fic novel Recurrence Plot in Spring 2012. You may catch her ruminating from time to time on her blog, AstroMythoLosophy.com.Nicole Sconiers, Author-is also a screenwriter living in the sunny jungle of L.A. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and she recently published Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage. Visit her:http://nicolesconiers.com/index.html Jarvis Sheffield, M.Ed. is owner & operator of TheDigitalBrothers.com, BlackScienceFictionSociety.com & BlackCommunityEntertainment.com. Visit him:  http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2stjwb1h216fd

Sword and Soul | Comments (6)

Saddle up and get ready to ride with the Savaad brothers on a tour of America as it might have looked in a crazed reflection from the twin funhouse mirrors of magic and alternate history.

Fantastic America, as I like to call it, is an as-yet undeclared sub-genre of fantasy, “pioneered” (pun intended) by the efforts of Orson Scott Card through his Alvin Maker stories. Milton J.Davis adds a little more “soul” to the genre (yes, intentional again) with his latest literary effort, the first book in what promises to be a trilogy concerning the adventures of the Savaad brothers, the scholarly Samoht, the roguish Vel, and their stolid, stoic senior sibling Naheem, as they deal with present problems and perils from the past that threaten their future and that of their loved ones and clan in a mythical magical version of the great western continent that has very little in common, including the faces and traces of the races that dwell there, with the United States of America of our world and its northern and southern neighbours.

The thumbnail synopsis is that Samoht and Vel are forced to go on a journey of discovery to The Motherland, this world’s African continent where their people originated. The reasons for their expedition-under-duress are both political but in different ways. Samoht did a little tomb-raiding, seeking a valuable artifact in the sacred ruins of an enemy nation while Vel made the mistake of killing the husband of the woman he had been seducing and now the family of the deceased want his head and/or other body parts as part of their blood-price.

Elder brother Naheem, as head of the clan, has to deal with both these situations and figures the best way to achieve a more-or-less peaceful resolution, is to pack off his brothers out of the country while he deals with the messes they’ve made. What none of the brothers suspect is that what first seems to be a simple solution to keep a simmering political pot from boiling over has grave consequences for their clan’s view of their own cultural history and their view of the world as the Savaads learn of the “debt” their clan owes for its place and power in the western world.

Davis, the author of several other novels available at the Wagadu website (http://wagadu.ning.com/), “the home of soul-and-sorcery” as the site’s creators and administrators proclaim with pride, presents his tale of Fantastic America in a simple, spare storytelling style reminiscent of Hemingway. It may seem like a quick and easy read, but there is much to think about in these pages and it is time well spent in the discovery.

You can find  A Debt to Pay here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M7MLPM/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=0ZCZHGYKZS0E7B8E0A7E&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939031&pf_rd_i=507846

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This is the second week of our Black Speculative Fiction discussion and this topic is more general. The question of the week is, “Why I love _____.” As you can see, I took a little creative license in my response. I write Sword and Soul, which is essentially heroic fantasy based on African culture, mythology, and traditions. But my love of Sword and Soul emerged from Sword and Sorcery and my love of history.

I discovered sword and sorcery through comics. I wasn’t a big comic book fan. The only book I followed regularly was Thor. It wasn’t a storyline reason; I just liked seeing Thor hit his enemies with Mjolnir, his powerful hammer. My cousin, the real comic book fan, introduced me the Marvel’s Conan series. I was immediately hooked. Here was a book that seemed to incorporate ancient history into an exciting fictional setting. At the time I had no idea Robert E. Howard wrote short stories. I actually discovered Michael Moorcock’s Elric first, then read John Norman’s Tarl Cabot adventures. Unlike many of my friends I suffered no ostracism for my ‘nerdiness.’ Most of my friends loved comics and books as much as I did.

For a time I drifted away from fiction. There was nothing fresh going on and I tired of the same old Eurocentric tales. I returned to my history reading, but this time it was African history. It was time I knew just as much about Africa as I knew I about Europe. It was during this enlightenment that I rediscovered fiction. I found a book titled Segu in the African history section. To my pleasant surprise it turned out to be a historical fiction novel about the Bambara city of Segu. It proved to me that a fictional story could be written based on African history and culture and set me on the path to Sword and Soul.

Sword and Soul allows me to combine my two great loves, history and fiction. With it I can use the foundation of African culture to create new worlds, people and creatures, just as Robert E. Howard used European history to create the wolds of Conan, King Kull, Brak Mak Morn and Solomon Kane. While I do write other forms of speculative fiction, Sword and Soul is my first and best love. Like most speculative fiction genres black people have been poorly represented. Recent trends in mainstream publishing has seen a significant change, but I think Sword and Soul has taken our history and culture and lifted it to the level it deserves. And it will continue to rise if I have anything to do with it.

Check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:Winston Blakely, Artist/Writer– is a Fine Arts/Comic Book artist, having a career spanning 20 years, whose achievements have included working for Valiant Comics and Rich Buckler’s Visage Studios. He is also the creator of Little Miss Strange, the world’s first black alien sorceress and the all- genre anthology entitled – Immortal Fantasy.  Both graphic albums are available at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other online book store outlets. Visit him:   http://blakelyworks.blogspot.com/ or http://blakelyworkstudio.weebly.com/

L. M. Davis, Author–began her love affair with fantasy in the second grade.  Her first novel, Interlopers: A Shifters Novel, was released in 2010, and the follow-up Posers:  A Shifters Novel will be released this spring.  For more information visit her bloghttp://shiftersseries.wordpress.com/ or her website www.shiftersnovelseries.com.Margaret Fieland, Author– lives  and writes in the suburbs west of Boston, MA
with her partner and five dogs. She is one of the Poetic Muselings. Their poetry anthology, Lifelines http://tinyurl.com/LifelinesPoetry/ is available from Amazon.com  Her book, “Relocated,” will be available from MuseItUp Publishing in July, 2012. The Angry Little Boy,” will be published by 4RV publishing in early 2013.  You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com. Valjeanne Jeffers, Author – is an editor and the author of the SF/fantasy novels: Immortal, Immortal II: The Time of Legend and Immortal III: Stealer of Souls. Her fourth and fifth novels: Immortal IV: Collision of Worlds and The Switch: Clockwork will be released this spring. Visit her at: http://valjeanne.wordpress.com and http://qandvaffordableediting.blogspot.com/ Thaddeus Howze, Author– is a veteran of the Information Technology and Communications industry with over twenty-six years of experience. His expertise is in re-engineering IT environments using process-oriented management techniques. In English, that means he studies the needs of his clients and configures their offices to optimize the use of information technology in their environment. Visit him: http://ebonstorm.wordpress.com or  http://ebonstorm.weebly.comAlicia McCalla, Author—writes for both young adults and adults with her brand of multicultural science fiction, urban fantasy, and futurism. Her debut novel, Breaking Free will be available February 1, 2012. The Breaking Free theme song created by Asante McCalla is available for immediate download on itunes and Amazon. Visit her at: www.aliciamccalla.comCarole McDonnell, Author–She writes Christian, speculative fiction, and multicultural stories. Her first novel is Wind Follower. Her short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and have been collected in an ebook, Spirit Fruit: Collected Speculative Fiction.  Visit Carole: http://carolemcdonnell.blogspot.com/ or http://writersofcolorblogtour.blogspot.com/Balogun Ojetade, Author—of the bestselling “Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within” (non-fiction), “Moses: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman” (Steampunk) and the feature film, “A Single Link”. Visit him: http://chroniclesofharriet.wordpress.com/

Rasheedah Phillips, Author–is the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair in Philly. She plans to debut her first spec/sci-fic novel Recurrence Plot in Spring 2012. You may catch her ruminating from time to time on her blog, AstroMythoLosophy.com.Nicole Sconiers, Author-is also a screenwriter living in the sunny jungle of L.A. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and she recently published Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage. Visit her:http://nicolesconiers.com/index.html Jarvis Sheffield, M.Ed. is owner & operator of TheDigitalBrothers.com, BlackScienceFictionSociety.com & BlackCommunityEntertainment.com. Visit him:  http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2stjwb1h216fd

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For the next month I’m participating in a discussion with my fellow writers on the state of black speculative fiction. It’s a subject near and dear to my heart since I’m such a writer. At the end of my blog will be a list of  participating writers. Be sure you click on the links to view their opinions as well. There will be giveaways at the end of the discussion. My contribution with be a signed copy of each of my books. I hope you follow this interesting and possibly enlightening discussion.

So what is the state of black science fiction? In my humble opinion it’s encouraging. I’m an old school science fiction and fantasy fan. I cut my teeth on authors such as Herbert, Asimov, Clarke, Henlien, and Bradbury. On the fantasy end I read Howard, Moorcock, Farmer, and Norton. I was so fascinated by these stories that the lack of black faces didn’t register. I also grew up in a time when we were barely present in contemporary literature unless it involved racism, so the absence of of us in science fiction was something I accepted, for better or for worse. The point of change came when I read the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories. You see, I was introduced to Conan through the Marvel comic series. The racial inequalities obvious in Howard’s prose were not present in the comics. The more I read the original prose the more uncomfortable I became. At that point I began to seek out science fiction and fantasy by black writers. My search turned up very few. I first discovered Samuel Delany, which I realized I’d read earlier but didn’t know he was black. I discovered Steve Barnes next and then Octavia Butler. By this time I was attempting to write my own science fiction and fantasy.

But that’s enough history. What about today? Nnedi Okorafor won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. N.K. Jemisin’s The 100,000 Kingdoms is considered one of the best fantasy releases in 2011. And David Anthony Durham’s Acacia won the John C. Campbell Award.  So we’ve made significant progress. But what really makes me excited about the state of black science fiction is the independent publishing movement. While I admire the progress being made by my mainstream publishing friends, the most interesting books I’ve read in the past few years have been in the independent publishing realm. Free of the restrictions imposed by editors and publishers trying to appeal to a mass market, these writers are producing books that reflect the Black experience and presents us in a more positive light. Many people complain about the lack of black readers of science fiction and fantasy. Some of that is due to the lack of books that appeal directly to us. You can give all kinds of explanations for this but the simple reason is that we like to see us in books.  Independent writers are filling the niche and they are doing it quite well.

So that’s my take. What’s yours? Feel free to chime in. That’s what this is all about. Once we’re done we hope you’ll be just excited as we are about black speculative fiction. Be sure to check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:

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2012 is here. Another year has passed and I can say it was a good year for Sword and Soul. In August I released Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology to good attention and great reviews. It’s been my best selling book in since released, a positive sign that Sword and Soul is making its mark. With the great stories by all the writers, excellent interior artwork by the various artists and the outstanding cover art by Natiq Jalil, Griots stands as a significant addition to the Sword and Sorcery genre in general and Sword and Soul in particular. If I sound proud it’s because I am. I’m proud of everyone that contributed from every aspect.

But what about the rest of the year? Well, I released three books last year; Changa’s Safari I, Griots and A Debt to Pay, bringing my total to five published novels. I also began selling e-books, which have fast become a significant part of my book sales. Although I’m happy for the sales, I’m also concerned. Selling e-books means lower profits, so volume is very important. Because what I write is a genre within a genre, getting high volume sales is a challenge. But a challenge it is and intend to solve it.

So what’s up for next year? I have four major projects in line. I hope I’m able to accomplish them. If so I’ll reach my ten books in five years a year early. If not I’ll have room to spare. This year will be the first time I publish books by other authors; who and when I’ll talk about later. And I promise to be more consistent with my blogs…and my book reviews…and my artist shoutouts…a whole lot of stuff. Sword and Soul is coming on strong in 2012. I hope you stay with us for the ride.

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I was made aware of Paul Davey while perusing the random art section of Blacksuperhero.com. A fellow member posted a stunning piece of work by him and I immediately sought him out. I found him at his Deviantart page, http://mattahan.deviantart.com/. His gallery stunned me with his beautiful work and I immediately knew I was going to commission him for work. At the time I was working on the background work for an upcoming YA novel, Amber, and thought Paul would be the perfect person to bring my African American heroine to life.  An that he did!

Paul is a young artist residing in Jamaica. His artwork is very popular online; do a search and you’ll find it populating sites all over the world. He has a contrasting style I’m my opinion, his warm colors and youthful images suggest youth but the expressions on the faces of his subjects hint at a worldliness beyond their presumed ages. It’s an interesting blend that makes his world easy to engage and hard to look away from. I always find myself wondering what the character is thinking. His work is so intriguing to me that one of his images, Betta Listen, has inspired me to write a story based on it. I’ll post it soon.

Dossouye by Paul Davey

Fortunately I’m not the only person that has utilized Paul’s talents for Sword and Soul imagery. My fellow publisher, Uraeus, has also commissioned him to create a series of wonderful images of Charles R. Saunders’s warrior woman Dossouye. Again his blend of youthfulness and seriousness stands out in his work.

Paul also contributed two images to Griots. He is the artist for Valjeanne Jeffer’s story Awakening and Phenderson D. Clark’s story, Skin Magic. Please visit his site to get a real feel of this young man’s incredible talent. You can be sure you’ll see more of his work representing Sword and Soul. Here’s his link again just in case you missed it the first time:

http://mattahan.deviantart.com/

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Fourteen writers. Fourteen artists. One unforgettable anthology. These are the words I use to describe Griots (pronouned GREE-ohs), the first (but not the last) Sword and Soul anthology. It’s a book thirty years in the making, a spark that was lit when Charles R. Saunders first put pen to paper to write Imaro. Finally there is a book that can be referred to as an example of what Sword and Soul is and could be.

The idea for an anthology emerged not long after I completed my first novels. As I began to network in cyberspace I came across other writers who were very interested in African based fantasy. Some had even written stories that I considered Sword and Soul, only to have them rejected for various reasons.  I was very interested in how other writers would meld the wealth of African culture, tradition and history into the sword and sorcery genre. So about a year ago I contacted Charles and said ‘Let’s do an anthology.’ We wrote up a submission guideline and sent it out. Initially the reaction was sparse, not because of interest but because many writers were intimidated by the task. Some writers weren’t confident they could to the genre justice because of their limited knowledge of African history and culture; others felt they weren’t allowed to because of their non-African roots. But we assured some and comforted others that we weren’t looking for historical expertise nor were we looking to exclude. We wanted and encouraged different interpretations and visions.

And then there were the artists. As most of you know I love illustration. One of the things lacking with Sword and Soul is the visual interpretation of the genre. Sword and Sorcery is filled with various images inspired by countless novels. Do a search for the genre and you’ll be inundated by images, the most outstanding those of Frazetta and Boris. I know I shouldn’t expect the same for Sword and Soul, a subgenre that is still in its infancy. So I wanted to encourage such work. So in addition to the stories we would include illustrations inspired by the stories. Just as with the writers, many of the artists had such images in their portfolios while others had to struggle to create a suitable image. All were excited by the challenge; for many it was the first time they’d been asked to create a fantasy image based on African culture.

After a year of selecting, editing and creating we introduced Griots on August 20th at Onyx Con. The response was enthusiastic, and it has remained so since the introduction. I’m not going to list the stories and artists here; Charles has done an excellent job which you can read on his current blot, The Griots are Here! (http://www.charlessaunderswriter.com/). I hope you enjoy Griots just as much as Charles and I enjoyed making it. You can purchase it at my site, http://www.mvmediaatl.com/;  as well as Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Griots-Anthology-Milton-J-Davis/dp/0980084288) Be sure to let us know what you think. Sword and Soul Forever!

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When I decided to plunge into writing I pursued every venue I possibly could in order to learn more about the industry and the art of writing. I joined a myriad of organizations and listed others I wished to join once I could afford the membership fees. I attended meetings, eager to learn more about my new passion.

As my decision to self publish became firmer I began to see these efforts in a different light. I grew impatient with agents that gave me a list of requirements for them to consider looking at my manuscripts. Most of the requirements had nothing to do with the quality of my writing; they seemed petty. I was personally offended that someone would take my hard work and put it in the ’slush’ pile.  I also began to notice a certain dynamic within these groups. There were the mainstream published writers and the self published writers. Although the writers seemed to get along fine, those who ran the organizations made it clear through either attitude or action that the self published writer was considered less than his/her peers. I could join these organizations but it was clear that my efforts would not be supported because of my ’status.’

And then there were the larger writer organizations that required you to be published before you could gain membership. Membership opened you to all the benefits of these organizations, which include professional support and awards recognizing your accomplishments in the field.

So the dilemma was obvious. If I fully committed myself to independent writing these organizations and clubs would become a thing of the past. I could give up a chance at any support from them, any consideration of any of the awards they bestow or any opportunities created by receiving said awards.

I made the commitment to independent writing because none of the above things meant much to me. I want to write my books and I hope people will like to read them. Honors, accolades and recognition are great, but I’m not willing to conform to the requirements of writing ’system.’  So it would be just me and the readers. The writing industry has changed tremendously since those days when I first began. At some point there will be organizations that acknowledge independent writers beyond sales figures. Even some of the organizations I was once associated with will begin to recognize that independent writers can be talented writers, too. If so, that will be great. Until then it’s business as usual. I’m cleaning house and moving in a direction that’s best for me, and it’s all good.

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