formerlybostonchile

Wunmi looked in on her mother and her two sister in laws, Bukky, the wife of her older brother and Kike. They smiled at her briefly and concentrated on their task at hand. She greeted her mother. “Pele Wunmi. How was church?” “It was good mommy.” “I thank God for Sunday because that's the only time we see you in this house.” “Yes ma.”  She said. Wunmi could see from the look on her mother's face, and the subdued way her sisters in law had greeted her, that her mother was on the war path again. She wondered briefly what they had done to her mother this time. She thought that her mom was just too hard on her brothers' wives, after all they were someone's daughters as well. Ironically, she didn't like it when her youngest sister Feyisayo was mistreated by her mother in law. African women. A bundle of contradictions. Wunmi stayed in the kitchen briefly, hoping that her presence would lessen the tension somewhat. But, after a while, she couldn't

So, as you my faithful reader (s?) may know, I have been struggling with  editing my second novel tentatively titled Cheat Reflex. I have stared at my screen for the past ten minutes, in between visits to facebook, SDK, and LIB. Still no idea what to write next so without further ado, here is an excerpt. Wunmi 2005 The first service at Salt of the Earth ministries was on fire that Sunday. God was present and Wunmi could feel His Holy Spirit moving. The pastor's message was on point as usual and she felt as if he had stolen her journal and was using her secret musings to preach. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand.” The pastor’s voice was clear and sure. She did a quick scan of her section. Pastor Ejiro hated distractions, and Wunmi took her job as an usher seriously. She did not tolerate talking, crying babies, aimless walking abou

But who is counting? Sorry I vanished. I have no excuse. I am going to be changing the name of the blog soon, because I am moving back to Boston in July. I am very excited. I hope this excitement translates to a stronger commitment to writing. We shall see... Meanwhile, I am still editing! Pretending to edit. Ok, no longer editing or even writing. Just keeping it real.

I adored me some Miguel. I fell in love with him on Feb 14. I was in Starbucks, they were offering a free download of his song " Adorn " , I took it. All of my non-secular music listening friends, you can skip this post. I don't want to offend. But have patience for a minute, and see if you like where I am going with this first. Anyway, I played that song out, over and over and over again. I played it in my car, I had to hear it before I went for my workout. I played it while I was writing. I was that obsessed with it. I thought it was all so romantic, I wanted someone to adorn me with love too. On Feb 16, I woke up with fragment of a song running through my head: “Your love for me is forever, your love for me is forever.” It was the bridge from Fred Hammond's song "No Greater Love." I started thinking about God's love. Unconditional. Irrevocable. Merciful. Forgiving. Eternal. He said so Himself through Paul in Romans 8:35-39: Can an

This time the movie, not the song or the outfits. I have loved this movie since I first watched it more than a decade ago. I watched it again this past Thursday when Tunde Kelani released Ó Le Kú part 2 on YouTube as a Valentine's day gift to his fans. I think I have watched this movie at least three times, and each time i have been captivated by Ajani's and Asake's love story.  I love the detail and authenticity of the movie set. Lastly, the Yoruba language  and culture is showcased in all its glory. It's an awesome movie from an awesome director. If you haven't had the opportunity to watch it, please do. This last viewing though, I found myself paying closer attention to the supporting characters,  in particular, Asake's father. For example, Asake's father was vehemently against her marriage to Ajani until she completed her university education, and he did everything that he could to prevent their union from happening. At first viewings, I thought

Last time I discussed my writing, I was moaning about how overwhelmed I felt about editing. Well, this past week I stopped whining and consulted my expert researcher Ms/Mr Google - s/he is an hermaphrodite- and discovered a nifty book called Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. This book is so on fire that it impacted my writing before I even received it. How do I mean? Well, I read an excerpt of the first chapter online and realized what was wrong with my own first chapter right away. In a word -well several words- I was explaining too much and not letting the characters live. I was giving all kinds of background and history and what not. A whole lot of info that had me saying in my nephew's voice: "who cares?" I guess the avid reader in me knew the problem all along, but the writer in me resisted deleting a single word. I mean those words were agonized over and carefully chosen by committee. I was loathe to let even one of them go. But I

Haven't really been writing much, despite my resolution and despite my desires. I did finally read all the way through my first draft of The Cheat Reflex (tentative title). It wasn't as cringe inducing as I thought it was. It is ironic to me that the first few sections which I had already edited and had worked on for several months before the challenge were actually worse than the unedited words that I wrote during the NaNoWriMo challenge. Those latter words felt more ... livelier. I guess because those words were coming straight out, and had eluded the great internal editor! I don't know. Anyway, the hard work is now ahead of me. Of course I am trying to avoid it by reading about the process instead of being about the process. Sigh. Meanwhile, I have to get my act together. My thought life is neglected, I really have to work hard this year on destroying my addiction to the gossip blogs. I have too little time and I must be very stingy with it. But, it's hard th

I have been trying to keep to my goals for the new year. As far as exercising and looking better and loving my hair by taking better care of it, i am good. As far as writing and blogging and non emotional eating, am not. I keep making excuses and finding reasons not to get on the ball. I need deliverance. This week I started a couch to 5K training program. I did my second little jog yesterday despite the bitter cold. I bundled up like I was going to be in subzero weather. I had on three sweatshirts, two tshirts, my hat, my hoodie, two pair of sweatpants, two socks, gloves. lol. i hate cold! and it is cold up in these mountains. But it's beautiful to exercise up here, and it's challenging to go up and down the little hills so I am not complaining. I love going uphill, and I love coming downhill as the sun is rising over the city. So pretty. Keep trying to capture it but it is hard to snap a pix when you are trying to walk/jog as fast as you possibly can.

I can't believe my last post was in November. Despite my good intentions, December was a wasteland in terms of my writing and life goals. I moved to my new apartment, came down with the flu or rather an influenza like illness, and have just been so blah. The cold weather is not helping either. I really cannot stand the cold, it tends to sap my energy. As always, I have a few goals for the new year. I already feel all kinds of stressed because it is already Janaury 4th and I haven't made any moves. I did do one half hearted workout the other day but it was bitter cold. I could actually feel the cold going through my hoodie, my t-shirt, my skin, my bones and grabbing my heart and lungs and squeezing them to death.  I scurried back home and vowed to buy some winter gear. Total mileage 1.6 miles. Yeah pitiful. My goals this year are simple: 1. Get with God and just delight myself in Him. Ps 37:5. I want to be serious about my walk with God this year. I promised myself last