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Effects generational racism discussion June 20th on BAN Radio

Join Black Authors Network host Ella Curry and author Carleen Brice on BAN Radio, June 20 for lively discussion about her new book Children of the Waters.

Black Authors Network Talk Show
Saturday Night, June 20, 2009 at 8-10pm EST
Live Chat: www.blogtalkradio.com/Black-Author-Network
Fans call into at: (646) 200-0402
Gifts given out to live callers and registered BTR chatters.

Book Discussion and Live Reading from Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice

The author of the #1 Denver Post bestseller and Essence Book Club Pick Orange Mint and Honey explores the connection between love and race, and what it really means to be a family. Children of the Waters (ISBN: 978-0345499073) is a story about two long lost half-sisters, one white and one black, who find each other possibly with the help of their grandmother’s ghost.

"In Children of the Waters, Carleen Brice highlights the effects of America's complicated relationship with race and identity on three generations of two families in a clear and insightful depiction of what it means to be American at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Brice knows how far we have come and how far there is left to go, and in Children of the Waters she deflty lays it all out for the reader to see." - Matthew Aaron Goodman, author of Hold Love Strong

What are some of the topics addressed in Children of the Waters?

--- Paths toward love, healing, and true reconciliation
--- Feeling secure in your own identity
--- Surviving a messy divorce
--- Raising teenage sons
--- Effects generational racism
--- Handling of Lupus
--- Hidden secrets and adoption
--- Embracing a bi-racial heritage
--- The importance of sisterhood


EXCERPT: PROLOGUE

Time was short. Maxine Kuepper was starting to say things she didn’t mean. Yesterday, she told her granddaughter to Move my dish, when she wanted to ask her to bend her leg. Trish stared, stumped and afraid, yet all Maxine could do was yell the word “dish” over and over knowing that she wasn’t making any sense.

Cell by cell, bone by bone, Maxine was floating away. She didn’t know if it was the cancer or the medication that made her say such things. She was wearing a patch that released heavy doses of relief into her bloodstream, and still the littlest weight on her, like a sheet or the cotton nightgowns they dressed her in, hurt. The nurse promised that when the time came Maxine wouldn’t have any pain. “We’ll snow you out,” the nurse assured her. “Don’t worry.”

Maxine would die the way her daughter did: like a mermaid swimming at the bottom of an ocean of drugs. It was small comfort after all these years to believe that Jocelyn hadn’t been in any pain when she died. Jocelyn. Such a cultivated name for a daughter who would not be tamed.

They were coming for her, Jocelyn and John, her husband, both dead. She dreamed of them so much now that sometimes she could swear they were really here in this room, whispering their secrets to her. They were coming for her. If they weren’t already here, she knew they were just over the other side waiting. And even though she was only sixty years old and her granddaughter Trish was only seventeen, she was ready to join them. But she had one last thing she had to do. She had secrets of her own to tell.

She looked at the Polaroid picture she’d kept hidden for thirteen years. Not even John knew she had proof of this moment. There was Jocelyn, blond and movie-star gorgeous even after just giving birth, holding the baby, only hours old with a cap of thick dark hair. And Trish, smiling wide, skin, teeth and hair white as cream, on the hospital bed next to them. Both girls marked with a stain that couldn’t be washed away.

Maxine wished she had done things differently. But wishes are for the living. She sighed and pain rippled through her as her lungs pushed up against the battlefield of her ribs and the space where her left breast used to be. She raised the pen with the same amount of exertion that it used to take to lift a gallon of milk and began to write.

The nurse said don’t worry. But how could she not? What would they think of her? Would they hate her or would they be glad to know the truth? Probably both. But she would do this one last thing for them. She would make things right. As soon as Trish came home, Maxine would give her the letter.

I should have told you this a long time ago, she wrote to her granddaughter, putting everything that was in her battered heart onto the page so that when the time came cowardice wouldn’t seal her lips. Each word, a lifetime.

Just as she finished, she heard the front door open and close. Or she thought she did. Lately it was hard to tell what sounds were real and what sounds were memories sweeping over her like ocean waves. But if it was Trish coming in, Maxine knew she did not have the strength to see the look on her granddaughter’s face after she read this letter. She didn’t have the strength to answer the question she knew would come no matter how hard she tried to explain: How could you?

She opened the box, put the letter and photo inside, and replaced the lid. After she was gone, Trish would find everything she needed to know. When Maxine was buried, her lies would be unearthed. It wouldn’t be long now. She was sipping life from a glass that was neither half empty, nor half full, a glass emptying so rapidly she could see it in the eyes of the hospice nurses and the few friends who came to visit her at home.

The bedroom door opened, and Trish poked her head in. “Nana, you awake?”

Maxine nodded, thinking For now, and, Please God let them forgive me.

Carleen Brice
Author of Children of the Waters, June 2009
www.carleenbrice.com



Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Children-Waters-Novel-Carleen-Brice/dp/0345499077

Borders
http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0345499077

Barnes and Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Children-of-the-Waters/Carleen-Brice/e/9780345499073

IndieBound
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780345499073




FEATURED BOOK CLUB OF THE MONTH

Featured Book Release Spotlight: No Matter What! by Lisa Nichols

From bestselling author and motivational speaker Lisa Nichols comes a unique and powerful inspirational program that will both move you and empower you to realize your dreams. Millions are trying to live by The Secret's Law of Attraction, but the truth is it won't work unless you flex your all-important "bounce-back" muscles, which give you the ability to successfully navigate life's speed bumps.

By developing and toning her own bounce-back muscles at critical points in her life, Lisa found the power to become her authentic self and achieve everything she dared to hope for. Now, in NO MATTER WHAT, she offers a groundbreaking program that outlines these 9 Steps or "muscles", which include among others your Confidence, Faith-in-Myself, Honesty Out Loud and Forgiveness muscles, and explains how anyone can use them to achieve happiness and off-the-charts success.

Please share your news, events and book reviews. We welcome promotional material. However, this is a network community for book lovers. Read at least 5 posts per week and add your comments or opinions to other posts.

SLS Paradigm Shift: Moving Literature Upward

Check out our guest bloggers each day! The guest bloggers for the SLS Paradigm Shift are all authors who have a mission in life. Read More