There's no place like home!

I recently had the opportunity to go back home where it all began for me, and I didn’t even need to click my red sequined heels together to get there.

This writing journey I’m on brought me full circle back to the starting line, the Alma Reaves-Woods Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Or as it was known when I was nine years old, The Watts Branch Library.

The Watts Branch Library was the closest library to the Jordan Downs Housing Projects where I was born. That first library library card opened up a whole new world for me, one I could travel to in books where I couldn’t travel to in person, read about people, places and things that a child of the inner city would not have been exposed to otherwise.

This library is where my reading life was born, and my love of reading is what led me to become a writer.

Through the Perform at LAPL program, I got the chance to speak about my novel SEEDS OF DECEPTION and the untold history that underlies it all.

When I first got the gig, I felt like I’d sold the movie rights to my novel. That’s how thrilled I was. I didn’t care if ANYone showed up, I would just talk to myself. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see some faces I didn’t know as well as some I did. I even raffled off a free copy to Valerie, a regular attendee at the library. I didn’t have permission to post Valerie’s picture, but a few of my classmates and a former teacher stayed afterwards for a “class” pic.

I want to thank all who came out to support, but most of all I’d like to thank the Los Angeles Public Library system. Where would I be without them?