Latest / DA CREW Podcast / #44 of 100 authors to watch movement by Aspiring Authors Magazine & AAALAC 5-6-25

Transcript

#44 of 100 authors to watch movement by Aspiring Authors Magazine & AAALAC 5-6-25 · DA CREW Podcast

0:58
Speaker 1: Gentlemen, has your attention please? The show starts is like
1:10
Speaker 1: pay seven six five three shoot one go.
1:27
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome welcome Welcome. I tell
1:31
Speaker 2: you I am excited to be back in the building.
1:34
Speaker 2: I'm excited to be back in the building. I get
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Speaker 2: another opportunity, y'all to share another author, a part of
1:42
Speaker 2: the one hundred author movement.
1:44
Speaker 3: So welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.
1:47
Speaker 2: For those that do not know who I am, I
1:50
Speaker 2: am the visionary of the Crew podcast, Aspiring Office Magazine,
1:55
Speaker 2: and aa LAC, which is the African American Author Literacy
2:00
Speaker 2: Awareness campaign and Chasing Your Dream Book Tour. I tell
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Speaker 2: you I get excited when I get a chance to
2:06
Speaker 2: share amazing individuals, creative individuals that's making a that they
2:13
Speaker 2: creating and leaving a legacy and making a way for
2:16
Speaker 2: others to come after them. I tell you it is
2:20
Speaker 2: nothing like being able to create a path for someone else.
2:24
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna move out the way and allow this
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Speaker 2: amazing individual to come up and share a little bit
2:32
Speaker 2: about herself. I could begin to tell you a little
2:36
Speaker 2: about her, but I promise you I probably would leave
2:39
Speaker 2: out a whole lot because she definitely does a lot.
2:43
Speaker 2: She has a hand in a lot, not saying that
2:46
Speaker 2: she's all over the place. She just does a lot
2:50
Speaker 2: because she just have that many gifts and talents.
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Speaker 3: You know.
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Speaker 2: The word tells us that he will make room for
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Speaker 2: your gift and your talents. He will put you in
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Speaker 2: front of great people. And that's definitely what he has done.
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Speaker 2: He has definitely allowed me to come across some great
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Speaker 2: people and the one tonight, y'all.
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Speaker 3: Outside of being an author.
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Speaker 1: She is a.
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Speaker 2: Social worker, she's a podcast host, she is a international speaker,
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Speaker 2: a renowned writer. I tell you she is a best
3:35
Speaker 2: selling I don't know him many times because she has
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Speaker 2: not only did solo projects, she's also been a part
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Speaker 2: of collaborations. And I tell you everything that this young
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Speaker 2: lady touch always prosper. So I'm just so glad to
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Speaker 2: be in her miss to be a part of the
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Speaker 2: things that she do. I'm almoving that the way and
4:03
Speaker 2: allow her to introduce herself.
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Speaker 3: Come on to the stage. I am black man, I'm fine.
4:12
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me on here. It's
4:15
Speaker 3: been a while since we did an interview together. But
4:18
Speaker 3: just to hear what you have said about me, I
4:21
Speaker 3: want to be like you. So you're saying you want
4:23
Speaker 3: them to be like me. I want to be like
4:24
Speaker 3: you because you have your hands and everything, and I
4:27
Speaker 3: have watched you blossom into a wonderful woman. And I'm
4:33
Speaker 3: going back to the day that you asked me to
4:35
Speaker 3: be a podcast host and I said, no, I can't
4:39
Speaker 3: do that. Nobody wants to hear what I have to say,
4:41
Speaker 3: so our pass and you convict me to come in.
4:43
Speaker 3: And I'm enjoying this journey and watching others flourish and
4:48
Speaker 3: tell their stories because their stories are so impactful, and
4:53
Speaker 3: it leads to other conversations and it brings listeners to
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Speaker 3: the forefront to say that I have something to say
5:01
Speaker 3: and I need to say this and get it off
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Speaker 3: my chest. So I thank you for this platform to
5:07
Speaker 3: be able to let me go out and speak with people.
5:12
Speaker 3: And it's just been I'm not even to say awesome ride.
5:14
Speaker 3: It's an awesome journey that I'm on and as long
5:18
Speaker 3: as you're having, as long as I'll be here. So
5:21
Speaker 3: it's just been wonderful. Wow.
5:26
Speaker 2: So a little bit about Black Diwmond. For those that
5:32
Speaker 2: may not know who you are, I know there are
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Speaker 2: so many facets about you. Let's talk about you being
5:43
Speaker 2: a best selling author.
5:48
Speaker 3: I still have a problem with that word author, even
5:52
Speaker 3: though I know I use it in my title, and
5:54
Speaker 3: I only use it in my title because there's someone
5:56
Speaker 3: with a similar name who's a writer, so I just
5:59
Speaker 3: put that in front of it. I don't really call
6:02
Speaker 3: myself an author. I say, somebody like Maya Angelo is
6:05
Speaker 3: an author. You know, I'm nowhere near that. I just
6:09
Speaker 3: write and whatever comes to my mind I write. I
6:13
Speaker 3: could sit on the bus and there could be something
6:16
Speaker 3: going on by the time I get off the bus.
6:18
Speaker 3: It's a story that I've already written. So it just
6:20
Speaker 3: comes to me in that way, and excuse me. And
6:24
Speaker 3: I just continue to write, and I'll write and write
6:27
Speaker 3: and write, and part of that way, I'll discover something
6:30
Speaker 3: else in that and I'll make it out of the
6:32
Speaker 3: second part. So sometimes it takes me a while to
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Speaker 3: write my books and publish them, and I've been working
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Speaker 3: on them for years. Is because it's more than one
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Speaker 3: at a time that I'm doing. Because it happens to split,
6:43
Speaker 3: and that's what happened with The Stacey of Journey split
6:52
Speaker 3: into four books, and they were released within the same year,
6:55
Speaker 3: several months behind each other. So writing, I'm not going
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Speaker 3: to say it comes easy, but I enjoyed when it does.
7:02
Speaker 3: And I love to experience what I write because I
7:05
Speaker 3: love to get into my characters to see what's going
7:08
Speaker 3: on with them in order for me to present them
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Speaker 3: to you. I don't want to write something and I
7:14
Speaker 3: have no knowledge of it, or it's just fluff, or
7:18
Speaker 3: it's just to write a book. I really get involved
7:21
Speaker 3: with my characters. I believe every book that I've written,
7:25
Speaker 3: not just the co authored books, many of them touched
7:29
Speaker 3: very close to home. The first one was in my
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Speaker 3: mother's house, and of course that was about the things
7:34
Speaker 3: that occurred in my mother's house as I was growing up,
7:37
Speaker 3: and that was pertaining to me. My experience is as
7:40
Speaker 3: far as what I was going through. I know some
7:43
Speaker 3: people say, you know, you don't talk about what happens
7:45
Speaker 3: in your mother's house, But think about it this way.
7:48
Speaker 3: If you have a child living in a home with
7:52
Speaker 3: some adults and others who are in the home, and
7:55
Speaker 3: that child is made uncomfortable, I'll say it that way
8:00
Speaker 3: because I don't like using a certain word. She has
8:03
Speaker 3: no one to talk to, to tell because the story
8:06
Speaker 3: is said, you don't say what goes on in your house.
8:10
Speaker 3: So you look at your neighbor on the left, and
8:12
Speaker 3: you look to your neighbor on the right. What's going
8:16
Speaker 3: on in that house with that little girl or that
8:17
Speaker 3: little boy. Is it something going on At the time
8:21
Speaker 3: that I was tampered with, I'll say it that way.
8:25
Speaker 3: I didn't tell anybody. I was threatened if I did,
8:31
Speaker 3: so I kept it to myself. I was in my
8:33
Speaker 3: forties when I finally said something about it, and the
8:37
Speaker 3: individuals that I told about it, they cried, and I
8:40
Speaker 3: told them it was nothing that you could do because
8:42
Speaker 3: you were a child too. But I've always grown up,
8:46
Speaker 3: you know. I know I could have told my mom,
8:47
Speaker 3: but that was the threat that if I told my
8:49
Speaker 3: mom that then they would kill my mother. So I
8:52
Speaker 3: just never said anything. And even though this person passed
8:55
Speaker 3: when I was eighteen, I just started living life to
8:57
Speaker 3: the best way that I could and just trying to
8:59
Speaker 3: put it behind me. But it's so in the forefront
9:03
Speaker 3: now that in my mother's house should not just be
9:07
Speaker 3: in my mother's house. Speak to your kids, Try to
9:11
Speaker 3: get them to talk about the things that are happening.
9:14
Speaker 3: You don't want them to go Forty some years later,
9:18
Speaker 3: and they have to keep living it and not being
9:20
Speaker 3: able to tell anybody about it. From that, I felt
9:25
Speaker 3: as though that I wanted to protect every child that
9:28
Speaker 3: came in my family no matter what. I wanted to
9:31
Speaker 3: just be there. I didn't want people around them, I
9:34
Speaker 3: didn't want them to go near certain people. I just
9:37
Speaker 3: felt uncomfortable for them. But nobody knew what I was
9:40
Speaker 3: going through. So it came to the point where I
9:44
Speaker 3: was parenting these children and I wind up being there,
9:49
Speaker 3: I guess, sir, good parent, adopting them, being a forced
9:53
Speaker 3: to kid parent, resource parent, custody and guardianship. And now
9:59
Speaker 3: the less you and I spoke, I only had twelve
10:03
Speaker 3: and you're my bonus, so they's thirteen, but now I
10:06
Speaker 3: have two more. So now I am I'm parenting fifteen children.
10:11
Speaker 3: I know that I must be crazy because the youngest
10:13
Speaker 3: twenty is two and she's a handful. But now I
10:16
Speaker 3: have fifteen children that I'm parenting. I keep saying no more,
10:19
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna do anymore, but that's just who I am.
10:23
Speaker 3: So I am doing this parenting children for a little
10:29
Speaker 3: over forty five years, and it may sound cruel to
10:33
Speaker 3: some other people, and I come face to face with
10:35
Speaker 3: him with my own children. I didn't want any children.
10:38
Speaker 3: I wanted to go to college. I wanted to go
10:40
Speaker 3: to Howard University. I wanted to study more. I wanted
10:45
Speaker 3: to be an international judge. But he said, no, you're
10:49
Speaker 3: going to go down this path. I'm going to put
10:51
Speaker 3: you through this because I need to pull you through that.
10:55
Speaker 3: So wherever he sends me, I'm going to go because
10:57
Speaker 3: he hasn't been wrong yet and I know not to
11:01
Speaker 3: question him, but I do have some questions, and that
11:04
Speaker 3: might get me into trouble just saying I have some questions,
11:06
Speaker 3: but I just need answers to certain things. I'm okay
11:10
Speaker 3: with that now. Before I was a little upset. Yes,
11:13
Speaker 3: I'm gonna admit it. I was upset because I was
11:16
Speaker 3: saying why me, and I had to turn around and
11:18
Speaker 3: look and say, well, why not you? Because it was
11:21
Speaker 3: a lotto I would say, well why me? No, I wouldn't. Well,
11:25
Speaker 3: I hte the lottle with what I have now, and
11:28
Speaker 3: that's God as my favor. So I pushed through. I've
11:33
Speaker 3: written other books since then. I co authored books with
11:39
Speaker 3: one producer here, and included in one of those books
11:43
Speaker 3: is my Mother. She she's one hundred now, but she
11:47
Speaker 3: was I believe ninety seven when she did her part
11:51
Speaker 3: in the book, and that book is just made me
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Speaker 3: so proud that I was able to share a moment
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Speaker 3: with my mom and to be able to do something
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Speaker 3: with her, and just to let her know that life
12:02
Speaker 3: doesn't stop because you're aging, and she had a lot
12:05
Speaker 3: to say. Even when the book was done, she still
12:07
Speaker 3: had a lot to say, and to this day, she
12:09
Speaker 3: still has a lot to say. So I take it
12:12
Speaker 3: with the grain of salt, because I'm learning a lot
12:15
Speaker 3: and I'm picking up a lot, you know. And as
12:18
Speaker 3: a child, I should be ashamed to say this, but
12:22
Speaker 3: there's a story behind it. When you're growing up, you
12:24
Speaker 3: want to be like all your other friends. You want
12:27
Speaker 3: to have the things that they have, You want to
12:28
Speaker 3: do the things that they can do. But because my
12:30
Speaker 3: mother is old enough to be my grandmother, she raised
12:35
Speaker 3: me that way, so I didn't have access to certain things.
12:40
Speaker 3: And with her sisters and my aunts, I listened to
12:43
Speaker 3: the way that they told me I should be. And
12:46
Speaker 3: that's just the way that I grew up. And I
12:49
Speaker 3: still wanted to get my hair permed like everybody else,
12:51
Speaker 3: and didn't have that straightening comeway. It was catching the
12:53
Speaker 3: back of your kitchen and stuff like that. I didn't
12:57
Speaker 3: want that. I want to wear everybody else wanted. I
12:59
Speaker 3: wanted to close that they was wearing the fashions and
13:01
Speaker 3: stuff that they was wearing. But I was kept as
13:03
Speaker 3: a little girl, and it was nothing wrong with that.
13:06
Speaker 3: But as I grew up and I wrote my book
13:09
Speaker 3: in my mother's house, I realized that I had the
13:12
Speaker 3: best of both worlds. I have a woman who's old
13:16
Speaker 3: enough to be my grandmother. She's my mother. She's also
13:18
Speaker 3: my best friend. And I didn't realize that until I
13:22
Speaker 3: became an adult. When I see an adult, a traditional adult,
13:24
Speaker 3: not somebody that's twenty one to thirty I'm talking about.
13:27
Speaker 3: I was in my forties when I realized that this
13:30
Speaker 3: should come a lot sooner. So I enjoyed writing that book.
13:33
Speaker 3: Others did not like some of the things that was
13:35
Speaker 3: in that book, but I had to do that for me.
13:38
Speaker 3: It was for me. It was the reputed and I
13:40
Speaker 3: only did that wrote that book was because I didn't
13:43
Speaker 3: think I was going to survive. And I believe I
13:46
Speaker 3: had mentioned this story before, but so I'll make it short.
13:48
Speaker 3: Where my hip was put out on me and my
13:50
Speaker 3: husband and my children, and I felt this asdult if
13:53
Speaker 3: we didn't make it and my children did, and if
13:56
Speaker 3: I ever had grandchildren, I wanted them to know about me,
13:58
Speaker 3: because I'm the only person that and tell them about me.
14:01
Speaker 3: So that's the reason why that book was written, and
14:04
Speaker 3: it was just published just so I could give it
14:05
Speaker 3: to them. But I didn't know it was going to
14:07
Speaker 3: take off, and it did, and I was happy with it,
14:10
Speaker 3: but I moved on. Some people may say you got
14:12
Speaker 3: the writing bug, but I wouldn't call it writing that.
14:15
Speaker 3: I would say that it was me moving from one
14:20
Speaker 3: category to the next, from one part of my life
14:23
Speaker 3: to the next. And that's where the Journeys of Stacy
14:27
Speaker 3: f came in, and that was writing children's books from
14:30
Speaker 3: Foster k and the Doctrin Because many people say that
14:33
Speaker 3: I want to be a foster parent, I want to
14:35
Speaker 3: adopt a child, and they're hearing from other people, Oh,
14:39
Speaker 3: how easy it is, and all you have to do
14:41
Speaker 3: is this, and all you have to do. So I
14:42
Speaker 3: wrote a book that made it easy and generic for
14:45
Speaker 3: anyone who was thinking about being a forster parent, which
14:49
Speaker 3: I hope people are opening up their homes to force
14:53
Speaker 3: the children in a way that they need to be forced,
14:57
Speaker 3: and to show your love towards these children because they're
15:01
Speaker 3: going through a hard time right now. They're all traumatic
15:04
Speaker 3: because their home was disrupted, they were separated from their homes.
15:08
Speaker 3: So I did different parts of the book. She named
15:11
Speaker 3: me Stacy. That's when she first came into care, A
15:13
Speaker 3: temporary home for Stacey. That's when the homes are supposed
15:17
Speaker 3: to be temporary. But sometimes children come into forster Kia
15:21
Speaker 3: as newborns and they don't leave and tell their age,
15:23
Speaker 3: tell at twenty one, and that's a hard journey for
15:26
Speaker 3: a child to take. But then I did Stacy f
15:30
Speaker 3: my forever mommy when she was adopted, and she found
15:34
Speaker 3: a forever mommy. So wherever you're at, whatever stage you're
15:38
Speaker 3: in in the process of being a foster parent or
15:40
Speaker 3: an adoptive parent, you can pick up any one of
15:43
Speaker 3: those books and you can do that with the child
15:46
Speaker 3: that's coming into your home. Because a lot of children
15:48
Speaker 3: are coming to your home and they go to your
15:49
Speaker 3: relatives children there's still a little stay in office because
15:52
Speaker 3: they don't know what's going on. And for social workers.
15:55
Speaker 3: The coloring book, the Stacey f coloring book. That book
15:58
Speaker 3: should be used well, I would hope that you would
16:01
Speaker 3: use it when you're engaging these children once they're separated
16:04
Speaker 3: from their home, because then you can talk to them
16:06
Speaker 3: about the things that Stacey was doing. And this is
16:10
Speaker 3: how you can get a lot of information from them,
16:12
Speaker 3: because they may be able to tell you while they're coloring,
16:15
Speaker 3: maybe Grandma at the ice cream pollo. They may say
16:17
Speaker 3: that they live close to one and then that's your
16:19
Speaker 3: you to say, well, how far away did grandma leave?
16:22
Speaker 3: And what's your grandmother's name. You can start to engage
16:24
Speaker 3: the children to get that information because they're in a
16:27
Speaker 3: starting to loosen up. So I did that book for everyone,
16:31
Speaker 3: but I mostly did it for the children that are
16:34
Speaker 3: in care so they can understand the journey because it
16:37
Speaker 3: could be could be very scary going to somebody else's home.
16:41
Speaker 3: Just imagine the police knocking on your door saying come
16:44
Speaker 3: with me, and you're going. You're saying why they're telling you,
16:48
Speaker 3: you'll know when you get there, and then you're sitting
16:51
Speaker 3: in a room with people that you don't know, but
16:53
Speaker 3: then you have to sleep. You can be an adult,
16:56
Speaker 3: you can be a child. First thing, you're gonna do
16:58
Speaker 3: is grab your pocket book and hold it close. You
17:01
Speaker 3: were to wear whatever belongs you have. A lot of
17:02
Speaker 3: these children come in and they're taken out of their
17:05
Speaker 3: homes with whatever they have, and it's usually whatever's on
17:07
Speaker 3: their back. So I decided I wanted to understand that
17:13
Speaker 3: a little bit more so. I did a trash bag
17:15
Speaker 3: challenge years ago to where I walked the streets with
17:17
Speaker 3: a orphic sized garbage bag until it became one of
17:21
Speaker 3: those big construction bags. And that particular game that I
17:25
Speaker 3: had the construction bag, I had to go into court
17:27
Speaker 3: and I said, oh, I'm going into court with this bag,
17:30
Speaker 3: and I did. And I went into court with the
17:32
Speaker 3: bag and my coworker walked in front of me and
17:35
Speaker 3: she showed up ID and she walked through. He didn't
17:38
Speaker 3: check her bag, so I figured, well, I got my
17:40
Speaker 3: ID too. I walked in and he said, ma'am, I
17:42
Speaker 3: have to check your bag. And I turned and I said, well,
17:44
Speaker 3: I showed you my ID. He said, but I still
17:46
Speaker 3: have to check your bag. I said, but you let
17:48
Speaker 3: my colleague go in and she went in with her
17:50
Speaker 3: bag and she also had her ID. What is the
17:54
Speaker 3: difference between my bag and her bag is? It because
17:56
Speaker 3: hers is Gucci and Minds is Glad. That shouldn't make
17:59
Speaker 3: a different. But because I was at work, I didn't
18:00
Speaker 3: want to make a big thing of it, so I
18:02
Speaker 3: went on through. But at the end of the day,
18:03
Speaker 3: I walked back over to the officer and I explained
18:06
Speaker 3: to him what I was doing and why I had
18:07
Speaker 3: that big size bag, and he thanked me. He thanked
18:11
Speaker 3: me for letting him know what I was doing and
18:13
Speaker 3: why I was doing it. And I think that game
18:16
Speaker 3: a different perspective on people because I could have also
18:19
Speaker 3: been a homeless person. I didn't have to necessarily take
18:22
Speaker 3: a role as a child coming into forceter kire and
18:25
Speaker 3: going into court with the work. So I'm hoping that
18:29
Speaker 3: things have changed in the courthouse when you see people
18:32
Speaker 3: coming in because with all people and we all have
18:36
Speaker 3: different reasons for coming into court, So I would hope
18:39
Speaker 3: to continue to respect people as they go through that journey.
18:43
Speaker 3: But again with me, different things happen. Like I said,
18:46
Speaker 3: it's just like the flow of the wind. Something will
18:50
Speaker 3: change me in a minute and I will do something different.
18:55
Speaker 3: I've written a book with actress comedian Kim Cole's and
19:00
Speaker 3: in the beginning I didn't know what to share because
19:03
Speaker 3: so much has happened, and I it's been such a
19:11
Speaker 3: long time ago. I'm trying to remember the chapter I'm
19:14
Speaker 3: looking at the pillow. It's a triumph. And I spoke
19:18
Speaker 3: a lot about my husband in that book, and I
19:21
Speaker 3: spoke about how he was missing for three weeks before
19:27
Speaker 3: anybody told me that everybody was in the morgue. So
19:31
Speaker 3: I wrote that in that book, and it's called Open
19:34
Speaker 3: Your Gifts, Volume two, And it was very hard to
19:42
Speaker 3: write because I still don't know what happened to him.
19:45
Speaker 3: I was told men stories, but the story that got
19:47
Speaker 3: me the most was when they told me that he
19:49
Speaker 3: died of a heart attack running for a bus. Now,
19:52
Speaker 3: if you had just told me he died of a
19:53
Speaker 3: heart attack, I could have bought that. But the minute
19:56
Speaker 3: they told me he was running for the bus, I said, no,
19:58
Speaker 3: something's not right. Don't know how many times I've walked
20:01
Speaker 3: to the bust up with my husband and that bus
20:03
Speaker 3: was coming in. I'm running and he doesn't want to
20:05
Speaker 3: run because he want to stop and smoking cigarette. I
20:07
Speaker 3: don't know many times we got into arguments because we
20:09
Speaker 3: missed the bus because he wanted to smoke a cigarette.
20:11
Speaker 3: So for them to tell me that he was running
20:13
Speaker 3: for a bus, he wasn't running for a bus. Something
20:16
Speaker 3: else happened. So I asked him to do an autopsy,
20:20
Speaker 3: and they said they can only do a parture what
20:22
Speaker 3: autopsic because of his age. Automatically I thought foul play.
20:27
Speaker 3: But I didn't want to go down that road. What
20:28
Speaker 3: I want to do do was to see my husband's body.
20:30
Speaker 3: And they took me down and when I got to
20:34
Speaker 3: the door where he was laying at, I didn't have
20:36
Speaker 3: to go any further. I knew by the top of
20:38
Speaker 3: his head that was him. I walked around his body
20:42
Speaker 3: and I just looked to them and I hiok my head,
20:44
Speaker 3: and I looked up and said, thank you Jesus. People
20:47
Speaker 3: may think him saying thank you Jesus, not because he
20:49
Speaker 3: was dead. I'm saying thank you Jesus because he was
20:51
Speaker 3: here in this place for three weeks and you preserved
20:54
Speaker 3: his body so I can present them to his children,
20:57
Speaker 3: because he could have been in any other shape, form
20:59
Speaker 3: of faces. But I needed for his children to see
21:02
Speaker 3: him one more time and away it looks like he's sleep.
21:07
Speaker 3: So we buried him. And the after burying him, I said,
21:10
Speaker 3: I can't live in this house anymore, so we wanted
21:12
Speaker 3: to move, so we were packing to move, but they
21:15
Speaker 3: didn't take long for something else to occur. Life happened.
21:22
Speaker 3: We witnessed the murder and we had to run and
21:25
Speaker 3: we had to leave everything behind again. So this is
21:27
Speaker 3: what the second or third time we had to leave
21:32
Speaker 3: everything behind. So we was homeless quite quite a few times.
21:35
Speaker 3: And they got us out of there. They put us
21:38
Speaker 3: in on a location. We were with the Witness Protection
21:41
Speaker 3: program and we needed some about things that at this time.
21:44
Speaker 3: It was me and I had five of the children
21:47
Speaker 3: living with me at the time, so they allowed myself
21:52
Speaker 3: and my oldest son and a relative to go back
21:55
Speaker 3: to the house to get some things. But we weren't alone.
21:58
Speaker 3: They had you were thinking swat the whey that they
22:01
Speaker 3: was coming out of the cars and surrounding it. The
22:03
Speaker 3: neighbors thought they were shooting a movie. We just didn't
22:05
Speaker 3: say anything. But when I got in the house, I
22:09
Speaker 3: started to go up the steps and I saw the thermostat.
22:12
Speaker 3: It was on the old fashioned round thermostats that you
22:15
Speaker 3: can turn, and I saw something blue flickering from it,
22:19
Speaker 3: and I said, that's all. It's never done that before.
22:22
Speaker 3: So I stepped down a step and I happened to
22:23
Speaker 3: look at the back window. The back window from the
22:26
Speaker 3: kitchen was broken. There was a two by four pushed
22:29
Speaker 3: through the back window on the stove. The gas was lit,
22:34
Speaker 3: and what was going on was that the mercury inside
22:38
Speaker 3: of the thermostat, if it had reached a certain level
22:41
Speaker 3: of the house, would have blew up. So I had
22:42
Speaker 3: to yell everybody, get out of the house, get out
22:45
Speaker 3: of the house, get out of us. And we weren't
22:46
Speaker 3: running out of that house. You should have saw it,
22:49
Speaker 3: all of us trying to get out that front door.
22:52
Speaker 3: We really didn't get anything out of the house. So
22:54
Speaker 3: I lost everything, everything that I had for my marriage,
22:57
Speaker 3: all the kids, things I just walked away to. So
23:01
Speaker 3: we got in the car, shaking and everything, and they
23:03
Speaker 3: took us back to our location and they told us
23:06
Speaker 3: that we had to go back to court, but they
23:07
Speaker 3: said that they would let us know whether they're going
23:11
Speaker 3: to move us out of the state and change our
23:14
Speaker 3: names or where it's caught. The decision is going to baseball.
23:19
Speaker 3: I said, well, it's my mom's birthday and I would
23:21
Speaker 3: like to see it one last time. They said, we
23:23
Speaker 3: can't do that. I said, I'm not leaving here without
23:28
Speaker 3: seeing my mother one last time. I said, they just
23:30
Speaker 3: don't know what's going on. I just need to see
23:32
Speaker 3: my mother. So they make that happen where we were
23:35
Speaker 3: able to go, but we couldn't stay long. But some
23:37
Speaker 3: people in the family knew what was happening because I
23:40
Speaker 3: saw people crying as they approached us, and know like
23:42
Speaker 3: I said that we were okay and walk away, and
23:45
Speaker 3: we left. We went to court and we found out
23:48
Speaker 3: that the person who committed the crime was served for
23:53
Speaker 3: day and we were free, but we weren't really free.
23:58
Speaker 3: The children was, but I would see because I still
24:02
Speaker 3: look over my shoulders. I just don't know who to trust.
24:09
Speaker 3: I'm getting there, though it's a lot better than it
24:11
Speaker 3: used to be. You know, I just wouldn't say anything
24:14
Speaker 3: to anybody, But now it's I don't have to look
24:17
Speaker 3: over my shoulders as much. But there are times where
24:20
Speaker 3: I'll scan a room before I go in to see
24:22
Speaker 3: who's in there. Most of the time, the host know
24:26
Speaker 3: who I am and know my journey. So if I
24:28
Speaker 3: have to leave, it's because I'm uncomfortable because somebody came
24:30
Speaker 3: in and I just wasn't comfortable around them, so I
24:32
Speaker 3: would leave and they're respectful of that, and I appreciate that.
24:40
Speaker 3: So I moved the one. And as I said, with
24:45
Speaker 3: all that time I took on with children, I had
24:48
Speaker 3: to fight systems to get these children my relatives. They
24:53
Speaker 3: were going to be adopted by a non relative, and
24:56
Speaker 3: the system would not acknowledge that I exist. They had
25:01
Speaker 3: no idea what I had went through, but they would
25:03
Speaker 3: not acknowledge that I exist. So they were going to
25:06
Speaker 3: let my niece be adopted by someone, but that it
25:09
Speaker 3: wasn't a relative. So the social worker in me decided
25:14
Speaker 3: to make a phone call to the court to stop
25:17
Speaker 3: the adoption. That worker told me I couldn't, but I
25:20
Speaker 3: was able to. And the strange thing about this is
25:22
Speaker 3: that there was another sibling that my niece had, which
25:27
Speaker 3: is my nephew. They never knew each other exists. She
25:30
Speaker 3: never let them visit. She told him he was the
25:32
Speaker 3: only child and told him that his mother had passed.
25:35
Speaker 3: So when I got him, as well as getting her,
25:38
Speaker 3: I had to let him know that your mother's alive.
25:41
Speaker 3: She did not pass. I said, as a matter of fact,
25:43
Speaker 3: your mother's getting me to give birth to another child.
25:45
Speaker 3: So she's very much so alive, and that child I
25:48
Speaker 3: have him too. That mother had fourteen children and I
25:52
Speaker 3: took five of and I love her the pieces, but
25:56
Speaker 3: I had to make a deal with her. And to
25:58
Speaker 3: some they may say it's not right, and they may
26:03
Speaker 3: say that a social worker can't do this, But she's
26:04
Speaker 3: my sister in law, so I can say do whatever
26:06
Speaker 3: I want. I wasn't a social work in that role.
26:09
Speaker 3: I told her that I would only take her fourteenth child,
26:14
Speaker 3: that she did not raise the rest if she does attomulation,
26:18
Speaker 3: because enough was all I have it. So that was done,
26:26
Speaker 3: and I think to save her life. I think she
26:29
Speaker 3: needed that done. I don't regret it at all. I
26:33
Speaker 3: didn't make a decision for her. I made a life
26:36
Speaker 3: alteration for her as well as for her children, because
26:41
Speaker 3: they would have been placed all over the place and
26:43
Speaker 3: I have been together and not know that I already
26:46
Speaker 3: had their older siblings, so that made it a little
26:49
Speaker 3: easier for me to bring them here. So wow, those
26:58
Speaker 3: children started ask questions and they want to know why
27:02
Speaker 3: they were enforced k and why I was adopted, and
27:05
Speaker 3: they didn't know at ten years old. I felt as
27:07
Speaker 3: though he should have known at least, so I explained
27:10
Speaker 3: it to him and he said that I asked him
27:12
Speaker 3: and saying okay, and he said he was, but I
27:13
Speaker 3: wasn't okay with the story, so I didn't think that
27:15
Speaker 3: he was. But I noticed that his sister was there,
27:18
Speaker 3: and I said, she's gonna probably ask me the same story.
27:20
Speaker 3: So that's when I developed a series of children's books
27:23
Speaker 3: on forster k and adoption. But since then I moved
27:26
Speaker 3: on and I did thirteen to eighty Prospect Avenue, not
27:32
Speaker 3: anothering Bronx tail. And that story came about because of
27:36
Speaker 3: my relatives, whether they believe it or not, they grew
27:40
Speaker 3: up at that address in the Bronx, New York, at
27:42
Speaker 3: thirteen eight Prospect Avenue, and they would always sit back
27:46
Speaker 3: and talk about all the fun things they did, the stories,
27:49
Speaker 3: the places they've been. And I wasn't born there, but
27:52
Speaker 3: the boy I wish I was, because it sounded like
27:54
Speaker 3: it was so much fun running outside and playing Scully
27:58
Speaker 3: on the street. To leave me your front open, where
28:00
Speaker 3: everybody gonna walk through there talking to the gentleman on
28:03
Speaker 3: the corner. You ain't got to worry about your kid
28:05
Speaker 3: talking to an adult, because all he was doing was
28:07
Speaker 3: giving you knowledge and free soda pops. Those were kind
28:11
Speaker 3: of things that they was doing, and I marveled at it,
28:13
Speaker 3: you know, saying, Wow, I really wish that I was there.
28:15
Speaker 3: You guys sound like you had a lot of fun.
28:16
Speaker 3: To what I did was I took that address and
28:20
Speaker 3: every place that they mentioned, I made it my own.
28:23
Speaker 3: So I was there, but at a different time. So
28:27
Speaker 3: I did the book trailer along with that, and we
28:29
Speaker 3: were supposed to do a movie, but COVID hit so
28:32
Speaker 3: we had to stop. So we just have the book
28:33
Speaker 3: trailer out. Am I gonna go back at it? I
28:36
Speaker 3: don't know. Several of asked me to continue with thirteen
28:40
Speaker 3: eighty prospect out, but there's a character in there that
28:43
Speaker 3: I would just like to ring her neck. So I
28:45
Speaker 3: need to save her. I need to save her life
28:48
Speaker 3: because I'm quite sure that other people in the book
28:49
Speaker 3: want to do the same thing. So I'm not sure
28:52
Speaker 3: where I'm gonna go with that book. But that moved
28:55
Speaker 3: me all and to a place that I didn't think
28:58
Speaker 3: that I would go at all. My kids even ask me, maut,
29:02
Speaker 3: what possessed you to write this type of book? I said,
29:04
Speaker 3: I don't know. And that book, which is a book
29:08
Speaker 3: that just came out, and it is called The Habitual Liar,
29:13
Speaker 3: and it is not mistakenly written. It spelled just like
29:16
Speaker 3: you see it. This book took me five years to write.
29:23
Speaker 3: I had to go into therapy to write that book
29:28
Speaker 3: because of the things that the character was doing. I
29:30
Speaker 3: was putting myself in situations of this character. And if
29:34
Speaker 3: I didn't have a therapist, I would have lost myself.
29:37
Speaker 3: Five years in therapy. I'm not ashamed to say it.
29:40
Speaker 3: Five years in therapy to do this book. There's a
29:43
Speaker 3: character in this book. Oh my gosh, I haven't even
29:50
Speaker 3: read the book. I just wrote it. And that's one
29:52
Speaker 3: thing about me. I never read my books. I'll write them,
29:55
Speaker 3: I'll send them to the editor, we'll do our changes
29:57
Speaker 3: and went to out there out But I can tell
29:59
Speaker 3: you about the chapters. I can tell you because I've
30:02
Speaker 3: studied them so long and hard, each chapter that I've written.
30:06
Speaker 3: But there's a chapter in this book that's just going
30:08
Speaker 3: to have some of you on the edge of your seat.
30:10
Speaker 3: And now I usually tell people, if their purchase from me,
30:14
Speaker 3: I need to see your ID because you should be
30:15
Speaker 3: over twenty one to buy this book, because I don't
30:20
Speaker 3: think that anybody under twenty one should be reading. But
30:23
Speaker 3: I can't stop from reading it. But when my daughter
30:26
Speaker 3: read it, she put the manuscript down. She said, Ma,
30:28
Speaker 3: you're not gonna do it that. I said, yeah, I am.
30:30
Speaker 3: She said, why are you doing a book like that?
30:32
Speaker 3: I said, because it needs to be done. You really
30:36
Speaker 3: can't judge a book by its cover. Yes, the title
30:40
Speaker 3: is the habitual liar. This thing's going on, this book
30:45
Speaker 3: that I believe a lot of people can resonate with,
30:48
Speaker 3: even myself. Well, I've been through some of the stuff
30:50
Speaker 3: that I allowed myself to go in order to finish
30:55
Speaker 3: this book, and when I look back at it, I
31:00
Speaker 3: wouldn't have had it any other way. The journey was
31:02
Speaker 3: something I'm gonna tell you that I almost lost myself
31:04
Speaker 3: in there, but it was well worth it for it
31:08
Speaker 3: to go out to help the people that I designated
31:12
Speaker 3: it for. And I don't want to give that away
31:14
Speaker 3: because i'd rather for you to read the book to
31:18
Speaker 3: let me know that you're right. It does resonate to
31:21
Speaker 3: and I know a couple of people like this or
31:24
Speaker 3: either maybe it's yourself. But what we did was we
31:28
Speaker 3: did a follow up with the book, and I have
31:30
Speaker 3: somebody called doctor Carolyn Stevens, who was fantastic helping me
31:35
Speaker 3: with that book. But we did this workbook and this
31:40
Speaker 3: is the follow up on it, and it's called Cracks
31:42
Speaker 3: in the Surface, Strengths in the Core, Not Easily Broken.
31:45
Speaker 3: It's a workbook. It's a simple workbook, and we have
31:48
Speaker 3: a panel of individuals and the work this book deals
31:57
Speaker 3: with trauma, it deals with men to health, it deals
32:01
Speaker 3: with disruptions and lines. It deals with so many different
32:06
Speaker 3: aspects that these individuals are doing the work we've had.
32:12
Speaker 3: We had our first meeting and I thought it was powerful.
32:16
Speaker 3: We had a session and then looking forward to the
32:19
Speaker 3: next one, and I believe some of them said, well, wow,
32:23
Speaker 3: I got this book and I got to do the work.
32:29
Speaker 3: They're enjoying to do the work, and I'm doing it
32:31
Speaker 3: and following them along with. So what I'm asking others is,
32:33
Speaker 3: if you want to follow our journey, although you're not
32:36
Speaker 3: a panelist, I would suggest you hit the book. She
32:44
Speaker 3: is the thirst that's on the call books. Because I'm
32:47
Speaker 3: under a social worker. Social worker. This social worker doesn't
32:49
Speaker 3: do therapy. I can give you those aspects of it,
32:52
Speaker 3: but she's fantastic and she will be able to do
32:55
Speaker 3: that with you. So if there's a listener or a
32:57
Speaker 3: viewer that's running into some challenges, we encourage you put
33:04
Speaker 3: it in the chat if you need for her to
33:06
Speaker 3: contact you, if you need the one on one with
33:08
Speaker 3: her will she will welcome you. But you can follow
33:12
Speaker 3: us along in the book. Because I'm very proud of
33:15
Speaker 3: the book. It does follow the character of the habitual life.
33:21
Speaker 3: So one of the things that I'm sorry because I'm
33:26
Speaker 3: very proud of one of the things that is coming
33:31
Speaker 3: out of this book is we're doing a conference next
33:37
Speaker 3: year and we're doing a retreat next year. So I'm
33:44
Speaker 3: loving every bit of this book. We're gonna be touching
33:47
Speaker 3: on a lot of things at this conference. We're working
33:51
Speaker 3: on a commercial. We have the panelists that we'll be
33:54
Speaker 3: working on it with us. So there's so many things
33:57
Speaker 3: that's coming out about this these two books that I'm
34:01
Speaker 3: already on book number three. Now, some may ask, what
34:04
Speaker 3: about book number two. Well, I'm going to give you
34:07
Speaker 3: this little hint about book number two. There is no
34:12
Speaker 3: book number two, but there is a book number three.
34:14
Speaker 3: And I know somebody may be saying, well, how is
34:16
Speaker 3: that possible. Well, I'm going to tell you how it
34:18
Speaker 3: was possible. You alreadys Store The Habitual Live, which is
34:21
Speaker 3: book number one. Don't quite have the title yet for
34:27
Speaker 3: book number three, but it's in the works. But number
34:31
Speaker 3: two is not book number two. It's called Thing two
34:36
Speaker 3: and it's going to surprise you because it scared me
34:41
Speaker 3: when I saw what I wanted to do with it. So, yes,
34:44
Speaker 3: I'm still in therapy because this character of mine is
34:47
Speaker 3: keeping me there. Some it asks is that character you Well,
34:52
Speaker 3: for those who know me, what I would say and
34:54
Speaker 3: suggest is for you to read the book and then
34:59
Speaker 3: you do determine whether that character is me or not.
35:02
Speaker 3: I'm saying you really have to know me to know
35:04
Speaker 3: whether that character is me. So, like I said, this
35:11
Speaker 3: has been a wonderful journey. I have spoken to so
35:14
Speaker 3: many other authors. I have spoken to so many other
35:19
Speaker 3: individuals who are going through things. I have been on
35:24
Speaker 3: this journey with the Crew podcast for three years and
35:32
Speaker 3: I'm just shaking my head, like three years we're going on.
35:36
Speaker 3: We're going almost at the halfway mark of going into
35:39
Speaker 3: four years, and that's unbelievable. For me. It is I
35:42
Speaker 3: don't think it is for the producer, but for me,
35:48
Speaker 3: going into four years on a podcast, it really tells
35:53
Speaker 3: you something and I just really wouldn't have it any
35:57
Speaker 3: other way being a podcaster. I guess that's the way
36:01
Speaker 3: they say it does open doors for I don't take
36:12
Speaker 3: this podcast or the books, and this is just me
36:16
Speaker 3: talking for myself. I am not speaking for any other
36:19
Speaker 3: host on the podcast or the producer or is it
36:23
Speaker 3: coming from the Show's coming from me, Black Diamond. I
36:27
Speaker 3: don't use it for profit. I use it to get
36:31
Speaker 3: the message across to some people and hopefully you to
36:35
Speaker 3: write people. Now, I do have another story that's coming out,
36:39
Speaker 3: but it's gonna shake this earth when it does. I
36:43
Speaker 3: always have little secrets here in there, things that's coming,
36:48
Speaker 3: and I can't wait for this to come. And it's
36:50
Speaker 3: in due time, and I'm carrying it like it's a
36:55
Speaker 3: baby because it has to be, because with this project
37:00
Speaker 3: that I'm going to be working on, I can't afford
37:04
Speaker 3: to make a mistake because people's lives are intopreney with that.
37:08
Speaker 3: So I'm taking it grain by grain with it, and
37:11
Speaker 3: I'm being very careful and I'm looking at every aspect
37:15
Speaker 3: of it. Now. I had been asked to speak on
37:18
Speaker 3: a certain subject, but I told them that I couldn't
37:20
Speaker 3: do it right now, and they want me to do
37:23
Speaker 3: it right now, but they respect why I can't do
37:26
Speaker 3: it right now. So I said that I will do it,
37:31
Speaker 3: but I can't do it now. So I'm working with
37:33
Speaker 3: them on a timeline and when I should be available
37:35
Speaker 3: to do it. And I'm excited. I'm excited about it,
37:40
Speaker 3: and just for them to ask me to do it,
37:50
Speaker 3: it makes me understand that somebody was listening. Somebody was listening,
37:56
Speaker 3: and I'm hoping I'm the voice for many. I'm not
38:00
Speaker 3: trying to be Mother Teresa. Anybody else is just that. Again,
38:02
Speaker 3: it's things that I've experienced, so I can talk about
38:05
Speaker 3: the things that I experience and others have as well.
38:09
Speaker 3: But I think I might have the upper hand in
38:13
Speaker 3: this situation, and that's because of the roles that I play.
38:18
Speaker 3: When I say play, it's not a game, it's just
38:19
Speaker 3: the roles that were handed to me. So now I
38:22
Speaker 3: see why I should not have went to Howard University
38:26
Speaker 3: because what has happened to cause an individual to ask
38:30
Speaker 3: me to speak on that platform. I don't think God
38:34
Speaker 3: would have thought anybody else could have done it, so
38:37
Speaker 3: he chose me to do it. And in due time,
38:40
Speaker 3: it will be done. When he says that, I'm ready
38:43
Speaker 3: to go and do it, That's why I'm going to
38:44
Speaker 3: do it. So I know right now he's not pushing
38:47
Speaker 3: for me to do it because he doesn't want a
38:49
Speaker 3: mistake with this, because he wants once it's said and done,
38:54
Speaker 3: that it's over and it will be taken care of.
38:58
Speaker 3: But he needs somebody to get out there and do
39:01
Speaker 3: the work. Now, I didn't volunteer myself, but I'm up
39:04
Speaker 3: for the challenge. So I'm going to enjoy knowing that
39:11
Speaker 3: He's chosen me to do this particular thing. You know
39:17
Speaker 3: what it's like to have somebody believe in you, To
39:22
Speaker 3: know that he believes in me that much to put
39:27
Speaker 3: this in my hands. I don't have to look at
39:32
Speaker 3: a dollar bill to say, in God, we trust, because
39:35
Speaker 3: I trust you all the way. Nobody has to put
39:39
Speaker 3: it on a stamp in the back of something green
39:41
Speaker 3: and say in God, we trust. I already trusted him
39:43
Speaker 3: before I even knew what the dollar bill was. So
39:48
Speaker 3: there are some projects that I'm working on. It's a
39:50
Speaker 3: project that I had oh maybe about ten years ago,
39:54
Speaker 3: and it's a television series that we're also working on,
40:00
Speaker 3: and I'm hoping that that's going to be out by
40:01
Speaker 3: the end of twenty twenty six, maybe early twenty twenty seven,
40:07
Speaker 3: but there's a lot of work to go into that.
40:10
Speaker 3: So the pilot has already been done and hasn't been
40:13
Speaker 3: Realnich yet. We're just gonna be tweaking it and we're
40:16
Speaker 3: trying to find a location. I found one, but I
40:19
Speaker 3: don't know where they're going to actually allow me to
40:21
Speaker 3: use that space, so we're still looking for other places.
40:24
Speaker 3: But I'm very happy and proud of the pilot with it,
40:27
Speaker 3: and I'm surprised somebody else didn't think about doing this
40:30
Speaker 3: project on television. And the more I look at it
40:33
Speaker 3: and the more I think about the characters, the more
40:36
Speaker 3: I enjoy what it's going to be about. Now, there
40:40
Speaker 3: will be auditions because we do need people to play
40:43
Speaker 3: the roles of those characters. But I'm gonna be honest.
40:46
Speaker 3: I will not be there at the audition because some
40:48
Speaker 3: people I may know, and I don't think that would
40:50
Speaker 3: be fair to them or to other people for me
40:53
Speaker 3: to be there and to say yes or no. So
40:57
Speaker 3: we will post when those auditions will come up, and
40:59
Speaker 3: we'll try to make it convenient for people to be
41:02
Speaker 3: able to get there and to do it. And again,
41:07
Speaker 3: doctor Carolyn Stevens is working with me on that project
41:11
Speaker 3: as well. I first met her as a mathic, I
41:16
Speaker 3: interviewed her and we could have continued to talk forever
41:21
Speaker 3: and now we do. Now we do behind the scenes
41:24
Speaker 3: we talk because it's just so much planning into every
41:26
Speaker 3: little aspect of everything that we do, and we're taking
41:32
Speaker 3: it step by step. She has a wonderful team behind her,
41:38
Speaker 3: and I've developed well some sort of a team on
41:41
Speaker 3: the other side that I can go to if I
41:45
Speaker 3: need it. Now, anybody knows me, you know. I usually
41:48
Speaker 3: like doing things by myself. I've learned a lot through
41:52
Speaker 3: being on a podcast and with the young ladies that's
41:55
Speaker 3: on the podcast that you can't do everything by yourself,
41:58
Speaker 3: and you cannot have everything done in the way that
42:01
Speaker 3: you expect it to be done because you won't never
42:05
Speaker 3: learn from it. If you're expecting it to be done
42:07
Speaker 3: and it's going to be done, you won't learn. So
42:09
Speaker 3: I've been learning on this journey as well. But one
42:13
Speaker 3: of the things I do need to learn how to
42:15
Speaker 3: do is to slow down. I've told other people to
42:19
Speaker 3: slow down, take care of yourself, slow down, take care
42:21
Speaker 3: of yourself. I need to be one of those people.
42:24
Speaker 3: I need to listen to myself and I need to
42:26
Speaker 3: slow down, and I need to take care of myself now.
42:30
Speaker 3: I do remember there was a time that I was
42:34
Speaker 3: afraid that if I slowed down, then somebody else will
42:36
Speaker 3: be there to take my place. But we're in different
42:40
Speaker 3: places in our life right now, so the people don't
42:48
Speaker 3: know exactly what I'm doing. I'm a person that likes
42:51
Speaker 3: to share information and share knowledge, but once I get
42:55
Speaker 3: myself going, I'm just like a locomotive. I just keep
42:59
Speaker 3: going and going and going on. Maybe they ever read baddity,
43:02
Speaker 3: but I enjoy everything that I have been doing, and
43:06
Speaker 3: some of my children help me along the way. I
43:07
Speaker 3: don't mention them question. Once they see this, they'll say,
43:10
Speaker 3: you didn't even say anything about your kids. I do.
43:13
Speaker 3: They do support me. They do help me in certain
43:17
Speaker 3: areas of what I need to have done. And I
43:22
Speaker 3: see me getting ready to slow down. And I also
43:25
Speaker 3: see and I'm very proud to say that I'm gonna
43:27
Speaker 3: be retiring soon. I didn't think those words will come
43:30
Speaker 3: in my mouth, but I'm setting up a date to
43:33
Speaker 3: actually retire from a lot, because I want to watch
43:39
Speaker 3: my grandchildren live. I want to see them live life.
43:44
Speaker 3: And the only way I can do that is to
43:46
Speaker 3: sit back and watch them live. And there's one more
43:49
Speaker 3: person that I am enjoying watching him live. Like he
43:55
Speaker 3: was in the airport today on his way to see
43:59
Speaker 3: me and my mother. And while he was in the airport,
44:02
Speaker 3: you would have thought he was a kid in the
44:03
Speaker 3: candy store. He kept saying, do you see the airplane
44:07
Speaker 3: take off? Do you see the airplane takeoff? And I'm
44:11
Speaker 3: just watching a face and it's like a little boyfriend's
44:14
Speaker 3: face prstal the plane. He said, did you see that go?
44:20
Speaker 3: Another one is coming in. That's my older brother who
44:25
Speaker 3: was looking at that. And I'm not ashamed to say
44:29
Speaker 3: that he was incarcerated for almost thirty years. And for
44:32
Speaker 3: him to tell me that he sees that airplane. I'm
44:35
Speaker 3: watching his eyes light up as he's watching it. And
44:38
Speaker 3: I was watching it. I hope you don't hear me,
44:42
Speaker 3: but I wasn't watching the airplane. I was watching him
44:44
Speaker 3: watch the airplane take off coming in and take off
44:48
Speaker 3: going out. He just arrived here maybe about an hour ago.
44:51
Speaker 3: And that's what he was talking about, was the airplane, airplane,
44:54
Speaker 3: and he's been on the plane before, but it's been
44:56
Speaker 3: a while and he's talking about in the car. Now.
45:00
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna get into that mess with him with
45:02
Speaker 3: that car. Because this brother was supposed to go to
45:04
Speaker 3: the Bronx where we were living in Queens and we
45:07
Speaker 3: wind up in Connecticut. And I told him, I said
45:11
Speaker 3: we always He said, we're in the Bronx. Said, oh, no,
45:13
Speaker 3: we're not. He says, we are in the Bronx. I said,
45:17
Speaker 3: I bet you one hundred bucks that we're not in
45:18
Speaker 3: the Bronx. He says, you can't tell me. I've been
45:21
Speaker 3: driving before he was born. Now, mind you, he's only
45:23
Speaker 3: four years older than me. I don't know what do
45:25
Speaker 3: you think he was driving before I was born? But
45:27
Speaker 3: it wasn't It wasn't an actual car. He might have
45:29
Speaker 3: been one of those little red cars with the little
45:31
Speaker 3: brown wheels that we all had growing up. I told him,
45:35
Speaker 3: I said, you nobody know we're not in the Bronx.
45:37
Speaker 3: Two things, the grass is never that green in the Bronx.
45:43
Speaker 3: And those two mounties sitting up there across that little
45:45
Speaker 3: short bridge. So if you don't turn us around and
45:49
Speaker 3: get us out of here, I'm gonna have a fit.
45:53
Speaker 3: Do you know this fool turned around on the bridge.
45:57
Speaker 3: All I did was say, Lord, take me now, because
46:00
Speaker 3: I know that was gonna come after us. I'm like,
46:01
Speaker 3: you don't turn on a bridge, not one of those
46:04
Speaker 3: bridges you can just walk across. There in lot of
46:06
Speaker 3: costa going if they're going across. But this brother mine
46:09
Speaker 3: turned around on the bridge and I just said take
46:11
Speaker 3: me home. He said no. We told mommy we was
46:14
Speaker 3: going to the Bronx. We left Connecticut and we wound
46:19
Speaker 3: up in Manhattan. How that happened, I don't know. So
46:25
Speaker 3: I've been everywhere that day. I was in Connecticut, I
46:27
Speaker 3: was in Queens, never made it to the Bronx, was
46:30
Speaker 3: in Manhattan, and we was in Jersey and I'm looking
46:34
Speaker 3: at him. I was so disgusted with him. At that point.
46:38
Speaker 3: We didn't have no more money for the bridge, for
46:40
Speaker 3: the pat phone, We had no money to eat, and
46:43
Speaker 3: I was often. We had one of those actual folding
46:48
Speaker 3: cell phones, you know, those big ones, and we had
46:53
Speaker 3: beepers that wasn't gonna help or nothing. We didn't have charges,
46:58
Speaker 3: so we were in the jam. He got me home
47:02
Speaker 3: and I walked up them steps. My mother asked me,
47:05
Speaker 3: did you see your aunt? I said, ax him house
47:07
Speaker 3: so mad, I said, ax him, and she knew we
47:10
Speaker 3: never made it. I guess you thought we were joy right,
47:12
Speaker 3: I said, Speedy Gunzalace over there said he knew how
47:14
Speaker 3: to get to the Bronx. So you would have thought
47:19
Speaker 3: after thirty years, I would have learned a lesson. So
47:22
Speaker 3: I went to Atlanta to visit him a couple of
47:25
Speaker 3: months ago, and I was going to a book event
47:29
Speaker 3: there and then Dreddie Raceway and he said he would
47:33
Speaker 3: drive me. And I thought my nephew was gonna drive me.
47:35
Speaker 3: He said he would drive me. I looked over at him,
47:37
Speaker 3: I said, ah, I said no, baby, I said, my
47:40
Speaker 3: last ride with you wasn't a good one. He got
47:44
Speaker 3: in this truck of his. The truck is older than
47:46
Speaker 3: both of us put together. And I don't even know
47:50
Speaker 3: what kind of seatbelter had, but I was holding on
47:54
Speaker 3: and it was one of those friends samp with trucks.
47:56
Speaker 3: That's the kind of truck that he was in. And
47:57
Speaker 3: it was white, so you could notice the thing. He
48:01
Speaker 3: made it to where he had to go, but I
48:03
Speaker 3: was shaking all the way. I was like, man, I'm
48:04
Speaker 3: in a state that I don't know too much about.
48:08
Speaker 3: He barely knows about this state. I said, I know
48:10
Speaker 3: my phone is and pull over to go to the bathroom.
48:16
Speaker 3: I got on warm clothes. I'm good, so he can
48:18
Speaker 3: get lost. All he went, and I had a couple
48:20
Speaker 3: of dollars in my pocket too. I was good. I said,
48:23
Speaker 3: he get lost if you want to. I said, my
48:24
Speaker 3: flight goes back in a couple of days, and I'm good.
48:26
Speaker 3: I'll go for wherever. But he made it. I was
48:31
Speaker 3: proud of it. I want to tell him that, but
48:32
Speaker 3: I was proud of him. He made it to the
48:34
Speaker 3: loan driver. Still. Wow, So i'm those thirty das. I've
48:47
Speaker 3: been driving all that time, and you have give me
48:50
Speaker 3: the keys to your car, not my car. I don't
48:52
Speaker 3: let nobody drive my car. I'll drive there, but you're
48:56
Speaker 3: not driving. He goes back into I've been driving before
49:00
Speaker 3: for you were born. I really want to see your
49:04
Speaker 3: birth certificate because you act like you are that much
49:07
Speaker 3: older than me.
49:08
Speaker 1: Wow.
49:09
Speaker 3: But I told him, I said, you know what will
49:12
Speaker 3: never be the same age. Wow. So you got that one.
49:17
Speaker 3: But that's my story and this is who I am black.
49:21
Speaker 3: But you definitely have shared a lot.
49:24
Speaker 2: I definitely you've given us a lot to look forward to,
49:29
Speaker 2: to to hold on to.
49:32
Speaker 3: I mean, you dropped a lot.
49:34
Speaker 2: So I definitely want you to now share with the
49:38
Speaker 2: listeners how they can stay in contact with you and
49:42
Speaker 2: support some of these amazing things that you're doing, Like
49:47
Speaker 2: you want people to be able to follow you and
49:50
Speaker 2: support some of these things.
49:57
Speaker 3: It's under author black b l a q u E
50:01
Speaker 3: Diamond dot com. So if you go in in now
50:04
Speaker 3: and may say reconstruction or you might see some old things,
50:07
Speaker 3: but we're rebuilding that for a new brand that I'm
50:10
Speaker 3: coming up with. And one of the things I didn't
50:12
Speaker 3: mention was I do have a candle line as well.
50:16
Speaker 3: One of them called them. I do have the Forever Candle,
50:20
Speaker 3: and that Forever Candle is for National Force to Care Month,
50:24
Speaker 3: So any of the proceeds goes to National Force to
50:30
Speaker 3: Care to get duffel bags and sweetcases for children in
50:34
Speaker 3: Force the Care. So we always pick out an organization
50:37
Speaker 3: and we just surprised at me just knock on the
50:38
Speaker 3: door and say here you go, so nobody never know
50:41
Speaker 3: who's gonna be. And now I have the Habitual Liar
50:44
Speaker 3: candle that is out so that should be im Robin
50:47
Speaker 3: at my house today and I can't wait for it
50:50
Speaker 3: to come. So those are some of the things. But
50:53
Speaker 3: I am on off of black Diamond dot com. You
50:57
Speaker 3: can reach me Diamond five seven at yahoo dot com.
51:07
Speaker 3: I'm on Facebook under author bludges By, letting people know
51:10
Speaker 3: that it will be closing to be dealing with all
51:13
Speaker 3: those pages and do this, do this, do this. Look,
51:18
Speaker 3: I'm sixty years old. I can't keep doing this. Give
51:21
Speaker 3: me one page and I'm good them other ones. I
51:24
Speaker 3: can't do it anymore. It's too much to keep in
51:26
Speaker 3: track with everybody. You can see me on YouTube, and
51:31
Speaker 3: you'll probably see me on YouTube with the crew. I
51:33
Speaker 3: do have my own YouTube channel, but heck if I
51:37
Speaker 3: not to use it Twitter, heck if I not to
51:40
Speaker 3: use it, I think I know the handles, I don't
51:42
Speaker 3: remember them. I will post them on my Facebook page.
51:48
Speaker 3: And I think that's one of my best friends is Facebook,
51:50
Speaker 3: because I definitely not use that and I don't normally
51:54
Speaker 3: give up my number, but I'll give you a number
51:56
Speaker 3: you can catch me at, and that's four four three
52:00
Speaker 3: five zero three three zero five five. Again that's four
52:04
Speaker 3: four three five zero three and the last four numbers
52:08
Speaker 3: if you can remember it, it's called doll out. See
52:12
Speaker 3: that's old phones when you have the numbers and everything
52:15
Speaker 3: the letters there. That's what we did as kids, teaching
52:19
Speaker 3: our children how to use the phone by coming up
52:21
Speaker 3: with something cute so they can remember it. But it
52:23
Speaker 3: is four four three five zero three three zero five
52:27
Speaker 3: five three zero five five spells out doll. So you
52:30
Speaker 3: can reach me any one of those ways, or you
52:32
Speaker 3: can reach me through the Crew podcast with the producer
52:37
Speaker 3: Queen Angela Thomas Smith. She knows how to get in
52:41
Speaker 3: contact with me. So we're hoping that you see us
52:44
Speaker 3: on the sixteenth of this month. We're going to be
52:46
Speaker 3: doing Cracks in the surface, Strengths in the core not
52:49
Speaker 3: easily broken with the next panel. If you haven't gotten
52:52
Speaker 3: your book, please go to Amazon to get your book
52:56
Speaker 3: and to join us. You would only be behind one
52:58
Speaker 3: chapter session rather and I can take you through. It's
53:02
Speaker 3: an easy session. And some of them already received other
53:06
Speaker 3: little gifts that I had sent them to help them
53:08
Speaker 3: on this journey, and they said they received it and
53:12
Speaker 3: they received the gift. So I'm very proud of them
53:15
Speaker 3: for joining me on this journey. Is it is, It's
53:19
Speaker 3: more than where I thought it would be, and I'm
53:22
Speaker 3: very proud of it. But had it not been for
53:24
Speaker 3: me being on this podcast, I would have probably never
53:27
Speaker 3: thought about doing something outside on and I'm back in Dermatologists,
53:35
Speaker 3: so this is where I'm at and this is what
53:38
Speaker 3: I'm doing. So I'm just really happy, really proud, and
53:43
Speaker 3: I don't know what else that I could say, but
53:45
Speaker 3: thank you all for those who follow, those who listen,
53:49
Speaker 3: and those who are part of this podcast, all my
53:54
Speaker 3: sister podcasters, and I understand we're gonna be having some
53:57
Speaker 3: brothers along with us, So I thank you all and
54:00
Speaker 3: appreciate you all. Well.
54:04
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for sharing on tonight, and
54:07
Speaker 2: I want to thank everyone that has shared in on tonight.
54:12
Speaker 2: Please make sure that you follow, support and share this
54:18
Speaker 2: out so that.
54:18
Speaker 3: You can stay connected to author Black Diamond.
54:22
Speaker 2: She says she's not an author, but she's an author
54:24
Speaker 2: because if we have a story to telling us writing
54:26
Speaker 2: and it's putting it out there, that's what authorship is
54:29
Speaker 2: all about.
54:30
Speaker 3: So definitely she's.
54:31
Speaker 2: Definitely doing that and giving others an opportunity to do
54:34
Speaker 2: that too. I definitely love what she's doing with this panel.
54:38
Speaker 2: Definitely need it so I encourage you guys to support it,
54:43
Speaker 2: to get involved.
54:45
Speaker 3: Get the book.
54:46
Speaker 2: If you've not purchased, habitual liar, go over and get it.
54:51
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, get you an autograph copy. I like
54:54
Speaker 2: getting the autograph copies from the authors. When you support
54:58
Speaker 2: the authors, that's when the authors really win.
55:01
Speaker 3: So support the author.
55:02
Speaker 2: She is one of the authors, a part of the
55:05
Speaker 2: one hundred Authors Movement, so definitely you're gonna see her
55:10
Speaker 2: around her and the rest of the authors. Y'all, we're
55:13
Speaker 2: out here being the change that we desire to see,
55:16
Speaker 2: and we're doing it through the four seas. That's connecting, collaborating, creating,
55:20
Speaker 2: in community building. And if you're looking for a supportive
55:24
Speaker 2: family of authors, we're right over here, one hundred Author Movement.
55:29
Speaker 2: I am the visionary Queen Angela. If you need a home,
55:32
Speaker 2: we're gonna leave the light on for you. I tell
55:36
Speaker 2: you I have enjoyed you on tonight, author of Black Diamond.
55:39
Speaker 2: I hope that you have a great rest of your evening,
55:43
Speaker 2: and I look forward to seeing you on this journey
55:46
Speaker 2: out here in these streets in person. I like to
55:49
Speaker 2: see these authors in person. I like to come from behind.
55:53
Speaker 3: The streets, so see you soon.
55:56
Speaker 2: Love you, be blessed, and thank you having, and in
56:00
Speaker 2: thank you guys for tuning in.
56:02
Speaker 3: I'll have a great night. Mm hmm