AngelaBenson.com

Guess what?  I’m coming to a blog near you on my first ever Blog Tour!  I look forward to making new friends and seeing old ones.  If you’re in the area, stop by and visit with us. 

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Drum roll, please!  Here is the list of 22 contest winners!  Congratulations to each of you!

I’ll be contacting each winner via e-mail over the weekend to determine which prize you win and where I should send it. 

Do forgive the delay in posting the winners. Life happened to me last week and I had to take care of some family business. Thanks for understanding.  - Angela

The winners are:

1. Ann Blake
2. Kay
3. Stephanie
4. Laura K
5. bebemiqui
6. barbara duncan
7. kristie
8. Lisa
9. Deborah
10. PatriciaW
11. Veronica Johnson
12. Sigrun
13. Christy H.
14. Joni
15. Lainie
16. Margie Rogers
17. hank
18. Amanda
19. L Nuchell
20. Sheila True
21. G. Tibbs (Gabrielle) 
22. Wanda Butler

The prizes are:

• $25 Amazon.com gift certificates (2)
• autographed copy of The Amen Sisters (10) 
• seat in my tele-seminar, Write that Book (10)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. Don’t be discouraged if you entered and didn’t win. I’ll be announcing a new contest in the next few days so look out for it.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

As you can tell, I’ve been doing some work around the place.  Well, not me, but some folks that I’ve hired to help me with my promotion efforts. The new face of the blog and the new web site are courtesy of Kings Highway Web Design. I found them through the team at Black Christian Book Promo, who have been helping me to promote The Amen Sisters.  BCBP did a couple of great e-blasts for me (here and here) and a press release (here).  A big shout-out also  to theGrits.com for the work they did in helping me plan my overall pubicity program and sort out my blog and web site content.

The site is still in a work-in-progress.  For example, you may find the same content on different pages. I’ll take care of that as I update all the links in the blog to reflect the new site.  Please be patient with me as I get this done.

Since you always give me good help when I ask for it, I’d like to know what you think of the new look.  If you find any problems, please let me know.  If there’s something you especially like, let me know that as well.  If don’t find something, you’d like to see, let me know that as well.  I can’t promise I’ll add it, but I’ll certainly consider it.

One more thing: You’ll notice that I now have multiple URLs that you can use to find me on the web:

First, there was www.bensonink.com - Think of it as BensonInk.  I thought I was being pretty clever when I thought it up.  Benson for my name and Ink because I’m a writer.  This link takes you directly to the blog.

Then came www.angelabenson.com -  Sometimes cute doesn’t cut it.  It much better to be clear.  So I have AngelaBenson.com.  This link also takes you directly to the blog.

The newest addition to the lineup is www.theamensisters.com - Okay, this is for The Amen Sisters.  This link takes you to my new home page. You’ll find a link there to the blog and on the blog you’ll find a link to the new home page.

Given those three addresses, anybody looking for me or my books should be able to find me. 

That’s it.  Let me know what you think.

Have a blessed week!

Brenda, on September 7, you posted a comment to my “Helping a Friend through the Trauma of an Abusive Church” article.  You asked for my help, but you did not provide an e-mail address so that I could contact you.  If you still want help, please email me.  Just use the e-mail link to the right under my picture.

I hope I hear from you.

Angela

You have to watch this show!  Now I’m only on my first episode but I can tell this one is a winner!  

It’s a family drama playing on ABC Family.  The central characters are an African-American family.  You’ll have to check your cable guide for channel number and day.  You can find out more about the show here: http://a51.abcfamily.go.com/shows/lincolnheights/

Here’s how the show is described in wikipedia:

Lincoln Heights is an American drama television series about a cop’s family who moves back to his old neighborhood of Lincoln Heights to start a new life and to help his old neighborhood. It’s a dangerous place to raise a family, and through the many trials the family goes through they soon learn that settling in is not as easy as it seems. While the dad struggles to cope with everyday life as a street cop, the kids try to fit in at their new schools and with their new neighbors.

I like that wikipedia doesn’t mention the AA factor; maybe it shows that it doesn’t matter. 

Check out the show and let me know what you think.  The second season starts here in about eight minutes.  I guess I’ll have to go to the itunes store and download the first season.  You get the pilot episode for free and the others are $1.99.

I’m so excited! I can’t believe I missed an entire season! 

The SORMAG Online Conference is now going on!  This is a great online conference for writers and readers.  It’s the perfect opportunity for you to meet authors, editors, agents and others in the publishing business. 

The conference started on August 26th and ends on September 1st.  The goods news is that the conference is free!  You have the wonderfully giving LaShaunda Hoffman, who’s provided this fantastic opportunity for a few years now, to thank. Kudos, LaShaunda! Your good work has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. 

So head on over to http://sormag.blogspot.com/ and join in the fun.  The conference is hosted in a blog format so even though you’ll be joining late, you won’t have missed a thing! 

Oh, yeah, you can see the full conference agenda here: http://sormag.blogspot.com/2007/07/online-conference-august-26-sept-1st.html

Last, not but least, be sure to click on one of those “Make a Donation” buttons and support the conference effort. 

Enjoy!

If anyone tells you’re they’re fun, don’t believe them! 

I bet you’ve guessed that I’m on deadline. What I bet you don’t know is that I’m always on deadline.  Something is always due, and if you’re a teacher or a working mother or a writer with a full-time job or just a very busy person, I’m sure you understand.  To keep my sanity, I maintain a calendar in Outlook to manage my deadlines.  I’m due date driven so seeing that task list helps keep me focused.

I read something on Tyler Perry’s web page (by the way, House of Payne was kicking this week) that’s been sticking with me as I work through all my task list.  It’s something we all know, but it’s nice to be reminded.  Here it is for you to ponder:

. . .we as human beings almost always sabotage our own success.

There are many reasons why we do this but the main reason that I used to do it and so many of us still do it is because we don’t feel that we deserve good things to happen to us. Be it because of what we were told as children or what someone may have done to us, even as of late. . .

. . .if you are the type of person that gets close but never makes it in, what that tells me is that you have the faith to get to the door, but not enough to open it. There are different levels of faith. One can take you to the door. Then you need faith to open it. A lot of times fear will keep you from opening it, because a lot of us are afraid of change.  Then you need faith to go through the door. This is the biggest part because it means you have to conquer the unknown. This kind of faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Let’s walk through the door, y’all.

Okay, it’s time. . .

I gotta get this off my chest first: Tyler, get rid of the laugh tracks. They drive me CRAZY!

Okay, now I feel better.

About the show. . .I don’t think it’s great, but neither do I think it’s as bad as other people say it is. I used to be a big-time sitcom watcher, but nowaways House of Payne is the only one I watch. I record the shows each week and watch them before the week ends so I’ve seen every episode.

As with all new sitcoms, I think these actors have to get comfortable in their roles. I’m beginning to see that growth in these actors. Some of the acting makes me cringe, but I did a lot of cringing in the early days of “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties” and a whole bunch of other sitcoms. The actors will be better.

I think what will help them get better is better storylines. The good news is that the storylines are getting better, but Tyler is going to continue to be challenged to keep it comedy when the topics being covered are far from funny. Maybe he should give up the laugh track and just tell the story. I think the laughs would still be there but they would come out of the situations. I mean, a crackhead wife and mother is not exactly a laughing matter, but sometimes you have laugh to keep from crying. I encourage Tyler to trust us, his audience, a bit more. He doesn’t have to try so hard to make us laugh. Just give us an honest portrayal of ourselves up there on the screen and we’ll laugh. I guarantee it.

I didn’t realize Tyler was getting a lot of flack because two of his lead characters (Ella and Curtis) are overweight by more than a few pounds. This surprised me. Apparently, some consider the “fat” female a negative portrayal of black womanhood. Even though Tyler sent out a letter defending his actors, he did add a slim Hispanic female to the cast. I wonder how many letters he’s going to get about that. Anyway, you can read the “Overweight and on TV” letter on his web site at TylerPerry.com Use the right arrow to scroll to the letter. It’s dated 6/18/07. I have to give him props for it. What do you think?

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When I was with my friends the other week, we watched the movie, Stomp the Yard. (Thanks to Cassandra, who always brings the goodies). Anyway, I’d seen this movie advertised and it never appealed to me. But this turned out to be a verygood movie. I watched it twice. And I had the nerve to make folks be quiet so they wouldn’t miss some important lines!

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For the last six weeks or so, I’ve been involved in the painful process of finding a car. My mind has been filled (to overflowing) with questions: used or new? lease or buy? sedan or SUV? msrp or invoice? Okay, the answer to that last question was easy — invoice! Actually, since we’re in the model year closeout period, “under invoice” is a good deal.

After all the dilberations, I’ve finally settled on a car. I drove it home last night and I go back today to sign all the papers. The good news is that now I can focus on something else as this car thing has completely consumed me. I won’t even talk about how much money I’ve had to spend to rental cars. Let’s just say that National is probably going to send me a holiday card.

Now summer fun can begin. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to put about 2000 miles on the new baby.

Speaking of babies. My new book is due September 1 which means things are going to get tight as the deadline draws closer. The good news is that I’m on track to finish in time.

Back to the car. You know, I did all the reasearch (Edmunds, CarsDirect, and the especially informative, leaseguide) and contacted a variety of dealers for quotes. Guess what? I ended up with what I wanted–my best offer came from a local dealership withou that much haggling. Yes, God takes care of the everyday things like cars as well and He knows more about cars than I do.

You gotta count those blessings!

Have a great week!