L.A. Blues is Maxine Thompson’s masterpiece. Told in first person by main character, “Z” short for Zipporah Saldono, you were witness to life in the mean streets of modern day Los Angeles with its overwhelming serving of gangs and drugs and, of course, a corrupt police department. You couldn’t help but root for “Z” with the opening scene, a young lady trying to move past her generational curse by bettering herself but is almost raped in an environment that had claimed her family, although she’s rescued by a passerby who becomes a pivotal person in her life years later.

As an abandoned and orphaned child, she wants to do better…she wants to make something of her life and reunite with her younger siblings–with her father having been killed for protecting her, her mother in prison for supposedly killing the man who killed Z’s father, and her brother, a notorius drug dealer in prison. But the life of a cop may not be the best coping mechanism as Z is reminded on too many occasions of what her life was like growing up as she hauls in drug dealers, gang bangers, and the other elements of the streets. And then she finds herself a target, the reason not immediately apparent but is somehow connected with the slaying of her partner.

There are so many elements to Z that most people can identify with. I was drawn to her resolve to fight when she was thrown off the force and had taken to the bottle to relieve the stress. Having her foster mother in her life was was a healing force and through all of her struggles it appears Z found what looks like real love.

This is a gripping tale that is so vivid it almost feels as if you’re living it. I was there every moment with Z, trying to protect her from the rapists, shielding her from the volley of bullets that ended her partner’s life, pulling her up from her drunken stupor to breathe life into her again…admonishing her not to give up and let Romero have a chance, to embrace her mother…especially when she learns the truth of her imprisonment, and being the best friend she could to Chica and Haviland. EXCELLENT READ!!’

Book Reviewer: Suzetta Perkins, Bestselling Author, Look for Upcoming Release, Betrayed. It’s a pageturner and a tearjerker.

http://www.suzettaperkins.com

Book: LA Blues
Book Reviewer: Francine Craft

I’ve greatly admired many of Dr. Thompson’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, but this time with her L.A. Blues which tells the story of Z Saldano who rose from harsh beginnings to become an L.A. cop, then to temporarily fail due to alcoholism and the death of her beloved partner. But Z is a survivor and she becomes a private investigator. While I found the entire book fascinating with no dead spots, it really kicked in for me with her entry into the shadowy world of investigation. I compliment Maxine on her masterly handling of what quickly became a nasty situation, with Z’s life in danger. I intended to read slowly because I so admire this woman’s writing, but that wasn’t possible. I wanted to know what happens next in a hurry.

The characters in L.A. Blues are deftly defined, and I identified with them. They’re all part of the multicultural stew we live in today and will be living in in the future. There are several scenes I will always remember. One is when Z, steeped in alcohol, is cavorting in bed with a lover she doesn’t really like, but who knows how to get it on. The turnon of their actions, then the very touching part of a man she really admires knocking on her door just to see if she’s all right brings a remarkable pathos into the story. This kind of depiction happens in Blues.The ending satisfied me as much as any book I’ve read. The lady is good, no doubt about it.

What I wish for Z and the people she knows: sequels, a series, and just maybe Tyler Perry to take a peek and fall in love the way I did.

Francine Craft, Bestselling Author, Book Reviewer: Francine Craft
http://www.francinecraft.com

So many people will write a book without proper editing. The book often has poor structure, no plot or the pacing is off. Some books do not have dialogue (when it is needed), low word count, poor title choices, etc… (Believe me the list can go on.)

Well, if you fall into any of these categories, this workshop will serve as an excellent tool to help you with your literary work. Literary agent Dr. Maxine Thompson from Los Angeles CA, is also a National Best Selling Author, Editor and hosts her own international radio show “Artist First”.

In addition, she has worked with literary greats Carl Weber (New York Times Best Selling Author), Rosalyn McMillan, Vickie Stringer, Sheila Goss, Michelle McGriff and myself (Roslyn Hamilton) to name a few.

Please join us as we share industry secrets in which we will provide you with information on structuring, dialogue, prologues, epilogues and so forth. <p>
You will need to be present in front of your computer for this exciting webinar. You will receive a link for the webinar after you register.

So please get your notepad & pen because tonight we are literally yours~

http://authorsworkshop2011.eventbrite.com

9780982740323_CVR

Blog: How to Use Book Unveilings to Launch your Book.

 Yesterday, I witnessed with my own eyes the power of having a good network of friends. The author, Van T. Womack, is a very personable massage therapist.  His debut book, The Miraculous Power of Massage: The Handbook of Self-Repair, had over 50 people in attendance, and several more promised to give other book  parties. Not only did he do massages for those in attendance, he sold almost that many books within 3 hours.

Tips:

1. Before your book comes out, tell all your friends and enlist their aid.
2. Write a list of your friends as you build your list.
3. Ask your friends to give a party and invite their friends.
4. Have their friends you don’t know give you a book party.
5. Tell them to spread the word. Nothing sells like word-of-mouth.

Books are available nationwide. Books also available at Amazon, Kindle, and Barnes and Nobles.

Title: Fabulous Faces
Subtitle: From Motivation to Transformation through Facial Plastic Surgery
Author: Peter A. Adamson, M.D
Publisher: Osler Wood Enterprises
Release Date: 2011
ISBN-10: 978-0-9865742-0-7
Format Reviewed: Hard Back
Hard back: 266 pages
Language: English
Genre: Face-Surgery-Popular Works, Plastic surgery
Reviewer: Dr. Maxine Thompson
Email: maxtho@aol.com
http://www.maxinethompsonbooks.com
http://www.maxinethompson.com

Book Review:

Fabulous Faces: From Motivation to Transformation through Facial Plastic Surgery
By Peter A. Adamson, M.D.
Reviewed by Dr. Maxine Thompson

Do beautiful people have an easier time navigating the vicissitudes of life? Does how a person look on the outside, affect how he/she feels on the inside? Are people more comfortable with who they are when they get plastic surgery? These are just some of the questions posed in Dr. Adamson’s book, Fabulous Faces: From Motivation to Transformation through Facial Plastic Surgery.
In Fabulous Faces, you will find out not only what facial plastic surgery is, but why people opt to get augmentations/changes done in the firstplace.
The truth of the matter is that studies show that good looking people have an easier time in life, when it comes to getting jobs, getting married, and achieving success.
Although we say people are judged by how they are on the inside, the truth is, people make first judgments about you by how you look.
So who gets plastic surgery? Contrary to belief, plastic surgery is no longer just a luxury of the rich and famous.
Dr. Adamson sites example after example of ordinary people who felt they didn’t look normal. Sometimes, these flaws came from accidents, such as broken noses, but sometimes the patients felt they were born plain. Because their physical shortcomings were perceived as abnormalities in their mind, it shaped their entire way of relating to others throughout their lives.
However, after plastic surgery, the patients felt normal and, that transformation in itself, boosted their self-confidence and self esteem. Clearly, looking better made a person perform better and gave them more self-fulfillment.
Dr. Adamson’s book is an eye opener for the public. Another myth he debunks is that mainly women get plastic surgery. He showed cases where men have opted for plastic surgery. Ageism is alive and well, and many men, as well as women, in business, have to compete with younger colleagues.
With the coming of age of the Baby boomers, whose generation defined perpetual youth, we will probably see even more plastic surgery in the years to come. This is the first time in history that people have an option to look better, if they feel mother nature didn’t give grace them with good looks.
Fabulous Faces is a recommended read for those who want to enhance how they look, or for people growing older, who want to compete in a younger global society.
This book will help you understand plastic surgery is more than just a physical alteration, but often a change of a person’s outlook, heart, and spirit.

Happy Independence Day!

I really feel this day is more than just the declaring of our freedom as a nation. I feel it is a symbolic day for writers. We now have more choices than ever to publish our work and find our readership.  It reminds me of something Chris Rock said on an Oprah show.“Having options is true wealth.”

Well, then, writers, we are now wealthy. Look at our options to publish on Kindle, Nook, (Barnes and Noble), Smashwords, scribd, Createspace, Lulu.

Black Butterfly News:

is about to change. Check out the book trailer http://alturl.com/x8rn7

How can one choice impact so many lives? http://alturl.com/aaav3

My book LA Blues  was chosen as one of the top 2 picks by book Reviewer Fran Lewis! Please pick up a copy. Check out Fran Lewis’s review. http://ning.it/lOgEyb

Join my blog tour with bestselling author, Shelia Goss, http://alturl.com/xxyrs

Get a sneak peek. Check out reading from my novel, LA Blues by Dr. Michelle McGriff http://alturl.com/r73m6

Check out Black Butterfly Presents: The Miraculous Power of Massage by Van T. Womack.

Would you like a massage? http://alturl.com/o3zpq<p>

Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. . .
According to the Bible when Eve took the fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, she did so believing it was a good thing to do. Eve had no way of knowing the consequences of her choice would have such far reaching effects. Nor did she know that the guilt and shame of her decision would fall on the shoulders of the Eves throughout history.
So it is with Zipporah Saldano, the heroine of Maxine Thompson’s latest novel “L.A. Blues.” “Z” (short for Zipporah) had no way of knowing the far reaching consequences of her decision to make a single phone call. There was no way for her to know that doing what she believed was the right thing to do would cause the amount of devastation and destruction to the lives of the people she loved so much. She had no way of imagining that this one single action would change her life and the lives of others forever. She had no idea she would carry the guilt and shame of that decision for years to come.
I found the title L.A. Blues could refer to the fact that Z made the decision to put on the blue uniform when she became an officer on one of the best known notoriously corrupt police forces in the nation, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
Or, the blues could refer to how Z was feeling because of the downward spiral her life was becoming. Z suffered from alcoholism, the murder of her police partner, a divorce, bad relationships, fired from her police position, homelessness, the cold blooded murder of her nephew, and much more, which is more than enough to cause anyone the blues.

However, Z does not stay blue. L.A. Blues shows how Z struggles to overcome her losses and decides to fight for her life and the lives of others around her. And in doing so, Z discovers that she has become the target of corrupt police officers on the LAPD.
I really enjoyed how Maxine Thompson showed how Z overcame most of her problems, and was able to believe and trust again and find a new love. However, like all life, once we solve one set of problems, a whole new set of issues arise. So it is with Z.

I am looking forward to book 2 to see how Z handles the problem that presented itself at the end of L.A. Blues. I recommend this book to readers who love a mystery, yet a story with social consciousness. This book shows you that you can over come your problems. I give the book 5 stars.

Anna Lisa Rogers

Never let your life stand in the way of your success. Never feel that where you live or the hand life dealt you would hamper your success. Meet Zipporah “Z” Soldano, a young, tenacious, bright young lady who gets caught in the middle of a difficult situation that could have cost her more than just her life. Approached by a gang who had anything but good intensions, she is rescued and saved by Romero, a student in community college, studying criminal law, and from then on, things seem to appear to change for the better. But, will they?
From the author of Hostage of Lies and The Ebony Tree comes a brand new novel, LA Blues, where hope and survival are paramount and one young woman will learn many hard lessons in life before realizing you can be anything you want and much more if you grab for success and never let others bring you down. Once again, author Maxine Thompson, pens a novel so profound, poignant and significant that reviewers and authors will be talking about this novel for a very long time.

As Zipporah succeeds in becoming a cop, she learns the true meaning of partnership and respect. But, a domestic violence incident would change her world as she goes to the scene not fully aware of what she is doing and the end result is tragic. Her partner goes down, the children that are involved cannot be placed as the end result. Hard on herself and blaming herself for her partner’s death, she turns to alcohol as her solace. But, how far can she go as an officer if her senses are dulled and her mind is not clear? What will happen to all that she attained and will she turn to her foster mother once again for help or will she like so many others give up on herself? The scene plays out and the end result is tragic as our leading lady, Z, loses more than just a friend. What happens to the children should never happen to any. Placing them in the system is where you don’t want kids to wind up.
But, things got even worse as she winds up in the hospital, the review board terminates her and she ends up doing the one thing that got her in trouble to start with: Drinking herself into oblivion until she literally sank to the bottom of the ocean and now it is time to rise above, stand tall and get it together? But, will she finally see past the liquor bottle and look into the mirror and see who and what she really is and that is not what she is looking at now?

Sometimes you have to sink below sea level in order to rise about the ocean waves. As Z enters rehab and faces her own demons, she meets Haviland, a former movie star, and their friendship begins but in a guarded way. Haviland needs and wanted Z to find her birth mother and understand why her adopted mother bad mouthed her and why her adopted father said she was cut out of the will. With Z’s help, things changed, she finds her real mother, inherits quite a bit but does not get the will revoked, but there is still much more. As Z gets becomes a Private Investigator, Shirley takes her in and she tries to once again to save Shirley and Daddy Chill from a divorce. Friends resurface and old wounds come alive as Z tries to patch up her life, deal with her friend’s marriage, stay sober and find her own place in this world.

Tragedy hits and one young NBA hopeful pays the price. Racial tensions rise. Fear is instilled in many kids. Walking the streets and going to school proves dangerous. The pieces of her family seem to be falling apart. Z needs to find her inner strength to fight against her own personal demons and keep the bottle out of reach. Joining AA was a start and listening to the words of the Pastor during the funeral services telling those present to fight back and take control of their community and not be victims. As the words of the Pastor fills the church another voice is heard loud and clear that of Dr. Maxine Thompson who shares a special poem with the congregation and the words I would like to share with her readers:
“To acts of senseless violence and rage?
When will we learn to love and not hate
To cherish and not exterminate
Let’s wake up before it’s too late
And we lose our entire future Black race.”

Then Z reconnects with her birth mother, locates Mayhem, her older brother, and the pieces seem to fall into place. But, who can she trust as someone is following her and wants her out of the way? But why? Hooking up with Romero and allowing herself to open up leads to other fears and doubts at the end. Remembering her past in order to move ahead with the present, Z needs to come full circle with the truth about her father’s death ad the memories flood back and she remembers the event that changes everything and caused her family to fall apart. What really happened when a man named Strange was beating her mother? How did this man and her father wind up dead? Who was really to blame and who covered up the crime?

Remembering the safety deposit key her partner gave her before he was killed, she locates the bank and what she finds would rock the inner core of her family, the police department and other officials too. What are they trying to hide? Just how far does this corruption go? Who would be the next victim when the information on the CD he left her is revealed?

As the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place and the death tolls still rising, can she stop this before another member of her family is killed? Mexicans pitted against Latinos and Blacks. Racial strife instigated just to keep everyone off track. Corruption everywhere: Whom can she trust? What about Romero? What is his real agenda?

An ending jam packed with the unexpected, twists and definitely loose ends that will keep you on edge until the very end and knowing that the story has more to go and that Z’s work has just begun. Once again author Maxine Thompson hands the reader a plot so filled with real life characters, true to life situations faced by kids dealing with Crips, Bloods, gang violence, racial tensions, street wars, child and spousal abuse and much more. One family that just wants to rise above and not be beaten down but stand tall and unite to find a better way. Z’s faith was drawn from her foster mother, Shirley, and her love for her family never giving up on them.
Meet Z, Shirley, the unpredictable Chica, Haviland, Romero, and the rest of her family as you hear their voices, listen to their words, and follow their stories in this outstanding novel. One woman named Shirley who impacted so many lives. Will they stay above the waves in the ocean? Will Z come out on top or will those following her silence her once and for all? LA Blues: read the novel, take the journey along with Z as she tells you her story.

This book gets FIVE WHITE BALLOONS: Dedicated to those who have lost children in these senseless wars: Mothers for Murdered Children.” Let’s stop the Pain!

The Ebony Tree
Author: Dr. Maxine Thompson
Reviewed by Fran Lewis

The trunk of a tree is its foundation holding it tightly in position keeping it in the ground and safe from toppling over. Each branch or limb supported by the trunk and sporting its own leaves and flowers making the tree unique in its own right. But, when a limb falls off, the foundation wavers and the tree begins to deteriorate and its complexion changes as the tree I no longer the same leaving a definite void of emptiness where the limb had once been. Fragile, filled with leaves that can crumble at the slightest touch this once stalwart tree is no longer able to protect its limbs and the foundation it stands on.
Families are held together by their own foundation. Parents provide or are supposed to provide the same support or foundation as the trunk of the tree for their children. Each parent providing a different support or foundation for their children hoping to given them the needed strength to keep them strong and the foundation from falling down. But, like the ground that settles or a volcano that is about to erupt or a tsunami waiting to unleash its terrifying wrath and destruction secrets, lies and hidden truths can cause the same or even more irreparable damage to a family’s foundation.

Steel vaults are airtight and their contents safely protected. Families remaining stalwart in their beliefs and relationships fragile although having weathered many turbulent storms and times often keep their secrets locked safely away from the eyes and ears of others.

Let’s take a trip back in time to the 1950’s when many African American women were raising their families, struggling with prejudices, hardships in a world that dealt many of them a bad hand and hear their words, listen to their voices and understand their plight. Meet Imani a twenty-five year old journalist wanting to create a family documentary and learn more about her heritage. But, her mother Jewel would reveal just so much and her tightly lidded secrets, sacrifices, lies and deceits would not all come out. It is rare that a novel is so riveting, so poignant and grips the reader’s heart and soul as The Ebony Tree by author Maxine Thompson.

Struggling to make a better life for her children and family, wanting to get things done, Jewel Shepherd related the plight of an African American women, in her own words, expressing her true feelings about her spouse, children, family and friends, but even more her cries for help, frustrations and just making ends meet in this explosive and outstanding novel. Let’s meet the Hightower and Shepherd families. Let’s see what happens to their trunks and how their foundations fair.

We begin with Jewel, her five children plus her husband, Solly, who reminds the reader of the grasshopper who never stored food for the winter. Jewel, smart, resourceful and enterprising in her own right, worked hard to keep food on the table, her children clothed and her head above water. But that was not easy with a husband that drank and often wandered.

Mothers of boys treated them differently than they did girls. Girls were considered inferior and often given the tasks and jobs that sons were not. As you meet the many different branches and family members you will understand this even more. Jewel wanted more for herself and her children. Downtrodden and often beaten in her own mind, she took it out on others and felt lost within in her life.

Independent African American women did not exist back then and most did not have the wherewithal to fight and rise above life’s circumstances and forge ahead. Jewel was different. She was a pioneer in her own right and definitely her own person. Jewel did not conform to the ways of others, nor have time to listen to idle gossip or deal with the ridiculous ways of others. Proud and filled with pride she never imposed herself or asked anything from others. She was a stand-alone woman accepting she but never her plight. Wanting more for her children she was strong, arrogant, and definitely motivated.

Filled with discord and family strife, Jewel’s life was filled with many children as her mother’s was but was missing that special love or hug a mother gives her child and one that each one savors. With a family blind her husband’s failings and five children and soon have another on the way, what secrets did Imani hope to uncover and what would the end result be?

Imagine living in a place that smelled from smoke and the air filled with rubber and sulfur. Imagine feeling abandoned as a child when your mother leaves and then returns out of nowhere. How do you react? When your questions are not answered and the reasons for things happen are kept locked inside the other person, do you think that you will not turn out the same?

Mama Lovey was Jewel’s maternal grandmother and she lived with her when her mother left home. Learning about slavery, fighting for freedom and her true parentage unlocked a family secret that would stay with Jewel forever. A Hightower secret. Lovey had her own mind and direction in life. She picked out her own husband and planned her own destiny. Her family owned land and could afford to care for it and never worried about being enslaved. They lived as free men and woman. Her own mother, Luralee hoped for more but had to settle for less. Jewel never felt content and never felt part of any branch of her family. When her children would grow and you hear their stories you will learn that much of what she endured was replayed in different ways through her children.
Turn down the sound of the television. Close your eyes and hear the voices of each character and member of this family. Listen to the stories, understand their own private yearnings and get to know Midge, Paige, Cake Sandwich, Judge and the many members of her family.

As the story continues to unfold the children get older, Midge takes on the role of parent to Jewel’s children and things get more difficult for all of them. Jewel’s life changes even more with Paige’s birth a child so different from the rest just wanting to fit in an be accepted by others. Prankster, tenacious and definitely resourceful she finds herself the brunt of many family differences, scolding’s and at times isolations.

Jewel decided to rise above what others expected and wanted for her. Family situations become difficult. Truths behind many incidents unfold as Imani learns something of her mother’s past but definitely not all. Replete in history, traditions and bringing to light many real life issues, once again author Maxine Thompson delivers a storyline that keeps the reader glued to the printed page throughout this novel. Characters that make you cry, proud and hopeful in a novel spanning four generations of women in the same family and whose roots were about to crumble but one whose foundation would not falter. Jewel, her children, her life, the branches that kept her tree standing, her face to the sun and uplifted her spirits with hope, this is one must read novel.

Listen to Solly’s story, hear about his childhood, his life before Jewel, listen to the final chapters when all the secrets, lies, betrayals and much more are revealed to the reader. Take a journey back and time and meet Jewel and you too will root for her and pray for her as one woman sends a message to all black mothers and woman today: you can rise above anything in life if you do not give up on who you are and yourself. Based on her own family author Maxine Thompson relates to the reader a fictionalized story of her family’s past. What happens to each of her children and Jewel you need to learn for yourself? What Imani learns and still needs to hear remains in Jewel’s private vault. Secrets, some are better kept as secrets.

Fran Lewis: Reviewer

Happy Mother’s Day!

My mother, Artie Mae Vann, to whom I dedicated and wrote my first novel, The Ebony Tree, died on 12-1-1993. At the time, I felt like my heart had been ripped out my chest without anesthesia, and, metaphorically, it had been. For you see, my mother was the heartbeat of our large family of nine.

Now, with over 17 years passage since her death, I have more insight into what losing your mother means. Time has healed the wound, but, I always feel the ache, this loss, on Mother’s Day. I also feel it at any other momentous time, such as Brianna, my oldest granddaughter’s upcoming high school graduation this week.

Nonetheless, I try to celebrate the good things my mother left me. I know she handed down good traditions such as family dinners that I’ve been able to use, but many, I had to start on my own, such as coaching with scholarship writing letters, or book writing.

This reminds me of something else though. My mother actually wrote letters to her relatives and to me throughout her entire life. I’m going to start back using this lost art–letter writing, too, instead of keeping in touch through phone, email and Facebook. (Recently, my daughter, Tamaira, re-read a letter I wrote to her for her 32nd birthday when she was starting Nursing school, as a second degree. Now, as a registered nurse, she asked for another letter for her 35th birthday, which is coming up May 21st.)

But on a deeper level, I’ve garnered another meaning from losing my mother. Since my mother’s death, my world and my life as I knew it, took on a different shape. No longer did I have an unconditional listener, supporter, and loving presence. I’ve had to learn to live in a world where I have had (willing or not) to become the oldest living generation. I’m the symbolic “MaDear” now.

I guess I’ve just had to (wo)man up. When I think back to how protected and safe I felt when my mother was alive, I feel like I was spoiled with love. I realize my mother fulfilled her duty. That’s a mother’s job–to always make you think everything is going to be all right.

To this day, I still miss my mother, but her words and spirit remain with me.

I can still smell the Juicy Fruit gum she kept in one of her 50-year-old dresser drawers, which all her grandchildren would go in search of. They called her “Gum-Gum.” My mother was a baker of homemade cakes. And she could fry chicken like none other. The typical 40’s and 50’s housewife mother/wife, (although she did work for about 25 years outside the home,) my mother knew how to love.

Since then, I have become a grandmother and mother to adult children, and I see motherhood in a different light. It has a different rhythm and shape to it. Each generation is faced with different challenges.

I am one of the baby boomers in a second late-life business so I’m very different than my mother was, and that is all right. Also, I am currently a caregiver of my husband who has dementia and Huntington’s Chorea, so I have to be honest. I’m not the open door, call-anytime-of-the-night-mother, like my mother was. But when I talk, I make it count and mean something.

Being a mother is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had. Looking back, I was not perfect. I was often impatient. I felt driven to create this new world for women, as a working mother/social worker. I was sailing in previously un-navigated territory as the first generation female in my family to have a demanding career. But somehow, I made time for religion, bible study, home cooked meals, baseball, basketball, football games, school plays, sports, cheer leading, the library, vacations, etc., etc. and so to that end, I gave a lot of quality time. It paid off. My adult children are all faring well, in spite of the economy.

The lesson I learned from my mother, who, during my childhood, did day work scrubbing floors for white women, was this. Although we live in an uncertain world filled with danger, as mothers, we are the ones who tell our children everything is going to be all right.

So Happy Mother’s day to all mothers, be you birth, adoptive or foster mothers, and grandmothers. Although we aren’t perfect, let’s try to be present and loving. Let’s make our children entrusted in our care feel safe and that everything is going to be all right.