I call my blog "In Abundance" because here, I will take a healthy approach to helping you and me grow as we discover ways to be and live better. Let's explore how to live our best lives.
I spent about ten years touring the country as an author. Initially, I was self-published and early in my career I was picked up by Random House Publishing. It was an exciting time. People were hungry for fiction by African-American writers and I was fortunate enough to be in the crop of authors who were apart of a new renaissance in literature. At the time nothing else seemed more important than being apart of that movement.
After I had my first daughter, Alyvia Rae, I decided that I needed to take a break from traveling, and promoting my books and promoting myself. It wasn't an easy decision to make. And if I can be completely honest, some part of the decision was forced upon me. The industry had changed. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say anymore. And I wasn't going to sell out and write what was selling well, porn in books, street crimes, and books that demean the church. (Not that I have a problem with people who do, I just knew none of the genres was right for me.) I wasn't happy with all the choices I had made. As a woman married to her career, I wasn't sure if I wanted to have children, wasn't sure if I wanted to get married. I was so involved in racing from city to city promoting my books and attempting to keep my books on the Essence Bestselling list, or any bestselling list, that I forgot about all of the thing that were really important to me before I ever wrote my first book.
Alyvia as a baby. I was in love with her from the moment I knew that she had been conceived.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a wife and have three children. I have always loved giving back and dreamed about creating a place where people could grow mentally, spiritually and physically. At the time I figured it would be a building in a neighborhood that lacked resources, where people could go and hear lectures, find books, get massages, learn to meditate.
Today, that place exists on the computer and each person who contributes a positive blog, vlog, chat discussion, website, video that helps their neighbor is doing exactly what I desired to do all those years back. My goal with my blog is that I will make a contribution that will help improve someone's life, or that will help them renew their perspective, and at the very least that will inspire them to want to be a better version of themselves. Come back often and check out my blog and my site. Write me and let me know your thoughts. Let's grow together!
John 10:10 (KJV)
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.