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A Q&A With Cavis Adams, Author of "Granddaddy"

MarketingNewAuthors.com (MANA) welcomes Cavis Adams to the MANA Family. A Minneapolis firefighter and medical interpreter, Adams has released his first book titled, Granddaddy.

The story details the dashed hopes of a young African American couple from the South who move to Minneapolis. After experiencing disillusionment up North, and their son, who experiences a “spiritual rebirth” after visiting his grandfather in Birmingham, Alabama. His grandfather is granted a lifetime of memories after fearing he would forever be a mere memory himself.

MANA asked Mr. Adams questions about his book, what inspired it, and the advice he would give to new writers.

MANA: Briefly describe to readers what Granddaddy is all about.
Cavis Adams (CA): Granddaddy is a story about a young “Negro” couple who leaves the South during racial unrest and hostility (during the onset or blooming of the Civil Rights era). The couple goes North, like so many blacks of that era, in hopes of escaping the hardship and hostility and to search for a better quality of life in the form of job opportunities. The couple becomes disillusioned after discovering that the North has its own branding of hardship, and life in the city is affecting them and their Northern-born son in negative ways.

The decision is made to send the child back down South to spend part of the summer with his grandfather—a sharecropper, very humble and dated in material progress, but without limit in life and lessons. The child has a real “spiritual rebirth” here in this enriching bosom of nature and fundamental values.

Even as the child has grown from this experience; for both parent and child alike there are lessons to be learned. Problems do surface, but the deepest solutions can be rediscovered through traditional roots. Above all this, there is the miracle of Granddaddy himself, who is granted a lifetime of memories with his grandson, even after fearing he would forever be a mere memory himself. The moral of the story could be said to look to traditional values and morals as a source of deep-rooted solutions to the increasingly superficial problems that come with modernity.

LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT FROM GRANDDADDY 

3 Tips On Revising Your Work Before Unleashing It To The World!


NOTE: This is a reprint from The MANA Sunset Newsletter of October 2015. The article is helpful for all writers, but especially those participating in National Novel Writer's Month

by Holly Taylor
Editor
The MANA Sunset Newsletter

Dear Readers, 

This month I offer you practical wisdom for revising. I remain fixated with this topic because it’s my biggest struggle as a writer. The other day I had a friend read through a story I’d just written. I was shocked with myself for how defensive I became as the friend offered me his insights into making the story better. We share common interests in literature and writing style--needless to say, I was astonished at my own deference. 

Don’t guard your words like a protective mother. Heed the advice of what others tell you and take your writing to the next level. Don’t be blinded by illusions of grandeur. Remain humble abour your writing. Keep yourself open and your mind willing to bend. However, keep your readership in mind. 

Need a New Cookbook? This One Comes With Recipes for Life

Need a new recipe with a pinch of wisdom and a dash of humor? Then check of Recipes for Life: A Back to Basics Cook and Life Skills Book by Cindy Nicholls.

Recipes for Life: A Back to Basics Cook and Life Skills Book is not just another cookbook. This book not only has recipes but also adds a measure of motivation and encouragement on every page. 

While Recipes for Life: A Back to Basics Cook and Life Skills Book provides "physical food" for its readers, it also has "positive inner food for thought and guidelines to help feed-stimulate the body, mind and spirit," according to Ms. Nicholls.

If you like to collect recipes, this book won't disappoint. The book has many components, including: 

• Basic recipes that help readers to cook and eat healthier
• The "
how to" of buying, storing, and cooking foods

• Basic kitchen tools to use
• Food safety rules 

Recipes range from hot chicken dip and hummus appetizers; to cheesy garlic bread, to Portuguese Soup. Ms. Nicholls describes the second part of this book as having "Spiritual-inner food ideas for healthier thoughts, less stress, and positive growth. 

Book For Higher Education English Course Provides Writing Strategies For Student Success


Dr. Erin Laverick’s book, Learning to Write for Academic Success in Undergraduate and Graduate Schools, provides a roadmap for students to follow to achieve success in higher education English courses. 

English language instructors will find the textbook user-friendly in regards to planning their daily lessons because it includes useful activities that can easily be completed in a traditional fifty-minute class period. 

This book helps students to write a wide range of writing assignments, from article reviews and literature reviews to annotated bibliographies, and argumentative research papers.

“Using the writing process and the graphic organizers provided in the textbook, students are taken step-by-step through the process of writing different genres of essays,” Dr. Laverick says. “With a heavy research component, reading strategies are also included, so students can best learn how to read academic writing and implement it into their research writing."

5 Research Tips For Authors

If you’ve started writing your book, you may already have the title, plot, characters, and chapter outlines. However, there’s one more thing that you will need to do during the writing process, and that’s research.  

Research is necessary if you want an authentic and well-written book. Nothing is worse than having your readers tell you that your book contains incorrect facts, dates, and other information.  

A good book has three-dimensional, believable characters, conflict, a climax, and a resolution to the conflict. Research will help you fulfill these and other elements needed to develop a successful page-turner.

So, what exactly should you research? Where do you find information? Here are 5 tips to help you get started:  

What's Your Genre?

If you have always dreamed of being a writer, you can live your dreams by writing and self-publishing your book. The first thing that you need to do is to know your genre. A genre is the class or category of written works, of which the most popular include science fiction, romance, and mystery and suspense.
The one rule of writing is that you should write what you know. If you have a specific genre that you read, such as women’s fiction or legal thrillers, chances are this is what you will want to write about. Review your interests and the type of books that you read before deciding on your genre. 
Since there are many different genres available in both fiction and non-fiction, have a plan of what it will be about and the genre it will fill. If you are not sure of your book’s genre, take a trip to your local bookstore, find the books that you like to read and see in what genre the store places the books.