Celebrating World Book Day - My Book Promo Video

So I just found out that today was World Book Day. So how do we celebrate?

By sharing this video which was made by Lowla Dee, a writer of short stories on www.LowlaDee.com. She used the news promo which you may have seen on some sites. What do you think? Can you spot the typo?

Full Book Trailer coming soon!





To continue the celebration, remember to buy a book today, read one, give one as a gift, donate to your nearest library, hug a writer/ author/ blogger/ yourself.

Have fun. Next post coming shortly.

Debate Tuesday - Bloody or Fcuk?

Which is worse?

Yes it is still Tuesday here, I know it's Wednesday in some other places. If it is, bear with me.

So to the topic. I'm referring to the curse words used very frequently by a few people to express displeasure. And I've decided to break it down to sex and violence. Sex = Fuck and Violence = Bloody.

Now my grouse isn't why why people use these curse words in the first place -  personally I try not curse, though I don't mind terribly if those around me do - but why the violent curse is more acceptable than the sexy one.

I mean come on. During the Oscars on Sunday night, one of the winners used the F-word in her thank you speech and that was quickly blanked out. However, one other guy, I can't remember the specific person, used the B-word, and that got a pass.

As Atala said in agreeing with my peeve, there's another way to look at it. One of the curse words gives rise to life (and pleasure if I might add), while the other one takes away life (or causes pain and distress). So why is it the latter that is allowed on family TV and on prime time?

In my opinion, either you ban all the words considered bad (by everybody including me - and I really hate bloody), or you let them all through.

What say ye?

ps, you may be interested in this bloggers argument in terms of how sex and violence are portrayed in shows. One show that I cannot bear for combining the two is True Blood. Why did they have to spoil sex with all that blood? It's even in their title, urghhh...

Online and Long Distance - Real Love Story

So this is my story.

I met Atala on a message board in 2007. He was an anonymous commenter, just like I was. I was more open so most regular commenters knew I was from Asaba, and that I lived in Edinburgh. He was this aloof guy, very very private. I was impressed by his intelligence, and how helpful he generally was to the members of the board, old and new. With time, we began to exchange banters on the site, and I found out that he was also based in the UK. He was a volunteer on the site, and when I also joined the team, we got a chance to work together, and I was further bowled over.

I'm a firm believer in going for what I want and when I became single later that year, I reached out to him with a personal message to wish him Happy Christmas. He replied that he had recently moved to the US, and my heart sank. I didn't believe in long distance relationships, especially with someone I hadn't met first. So I tried to put him out of my mind and look out for other options.

I went to Nigeria for Easter, and organised a meet-up with fellow message board members. The pictures of the party were circulated on the forum, and a few days later, I got a message from Atala. He said he knew I would be deluged with admirers and just wanted to get in line. That was such a corny line, but it got me. Still, I took about a week or so to think about it. I liked him, but he still lived in the US while I was in the UK. Anyway, I told him to send in his application, and that started a witty introduction.

A Rollercoaster Ride - Real Love Story

By Naija Mum in London

Dare I say that this story reminded me of Efe and Kevwe of A Love Rekindled? I'm more convinced that love is real, and my stories really happened to some people. Read on...and if you're the first to comment, you get the COMPLETE A Love Rekindled EBook.

____

I like using analogies whenever I tell a story and this time will be no different.

I choose to compare my love journey – with my hubby, YL – to a rollercoaster. If you have ever been on a roller coaster ride (or seen one at an amusement park); you will know that this ride is full of twists and turns – there is THE CAUTIOUS SLOW START, followed by THE EXCITING BUILD UP (as one approaches a scary height or twist), then comes THE SICKENING DROP and then THE REASSURING STEADY COAST as the ride approaches THE WELCOME FINISH!

The Cautious Slow Start:

The first time I met YL, I was in my second year at UNIBEN. I walked into the lecture room and noticed him straightaway - because he was quite tall and handsome. I later found out that he was a friend of a friend (SO). SO was my classmate in UNIBEN and we had been friends from secondary school days.

Well, YL said that it was love at first sight for him. However, it was not the same for me. This was because I had a boyfriend at that time. Even though that relationship was already on its last legs, I still did not consider a relationship with YL because I felt he was too worldly wise and I wasn’t too sure of his intentions. I really was wary of guys in general!

I was also reluctant to go out with YL because I was concerned about gaining a ‘bad reputation’ on campus. You see, in those days, we were quite a close knit community on campus – everyone knew your business and I really did not want to be seen as jumping from one relationship to another!

Well, after a lot of ‘chasing’ – involving lots of suya, cakes, night strolls and restraurant visits - and positive feedback about YL from my good friend, SO grew to become a good (platonic) friend. In fact his gentle, supportive nature meant I began looking forward to seeing him instead of my feckless boyfriend. When I eventually I split up with my then boyfriend - a year after I first met YL, we became an item.

A Love That Changed My Life - Real Love Story

This story is from Rita of ERO Inspirations. One of the things that was confirmed for me as this month progressed was that as we're different, so are our stories. But no matter the story, love is real, love is for everybody. Age ain't nothing but a number, and neither distance nor money is a barrier to love.

Do you consider yourself hard hearted? Love will find you. Think it's too late to get that Tall, Dark and Handsome? He's right there. In this story we find that even when you have a history that makes people turn up their noses, there is forgiveness and someone for you. Enjoy!

When he asked me if what he heard from “The Scandal” was true, I denied vehemently. He was nothing more than a classmate to me, so I felt there was no point in opening up to him. He took my words, and defended me anytime people made mention of “The Scandal”.

He was a great friend. He was the “middle-man” trying to help mend my relationship broken by “The Scandal”, so we met often. He was very easy to talk to. I told him things about me (except the truth about “The Scandal”). He was not judgmental. With time I began to like him, for he is very easy to love. After a while I realized we had become very close. We had shared secrets, pains, joys, and used our strengths to help each other in our weaknesses. I had started feeling something for him but was haunted by the secret I kept from him. I decided to tell him the truth about “The Scandal”. I knew the truth could make us separate, but I could not go on with the lies and deception. For his openness and love, he deserved to know the truth.

He was far away and we communicated via phone at specific times. When I could not take the guilt of my lies anymore, I quickly seized the opportunity when he called me to break the news.
“Remember ‘The Scandal’ and those things you heard about me?” I started, “they actually happened. I am sorry I lied to you and I am sorry I have kept this a secret from you for over a year!”

A Love Rekindled - Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

My book made it to the second round!

LOL...sorry for the break in transmission of love stories, but hey, A Love Rekindled is a love story too.

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is a contest for writers and self-published authors in two broad categories, General fiction and Young Adult, with 5000 entries for each. I am so pleased that A Love Rekindled beat out the rest to emerge one of the 1,000 that have been selected.

The Award includes a round-trip all expenses paid to New York, a Prize worth $15,000 as an advance to a book deal with Penguin, and publicity through Amazon when the book is released.

This is the second round (where Amazon editors reviewed 300 word pitches), and by March 22nd, we'll find out if A Love Rekindled made it into the Quarter Finals (where Amazon top customer reviewers rate 5,000 word excerpts).

To all those who made it, Congratulations! This is so exciting. My heart is racing, but I'm taking deep breaths. Below is the pitch, I hope the excerpt does a good job too!

Between Nigeria and Singapore - Real Love Story

This story is by Le Dynamic Professeur and his sweetheart, and fiancee. They decided to do a unique, his and hers point of view interview-style narration of their real love story.

Like the tale of Durban who wished for a bird in a city where there were only wild birds; but as fate would have it, a bird from the West flew across oceans to find Durban in the East. Since then, the sun has never stopped rising in the East. So goes our love story. You know when God writes your love story; all you are is a piece of character bonding with other characters to form a fairytale of a life time. Welcome to a story you’d live to remember. Our names are Moyosore & Mayowa.

Moyosore: I met Blessing in a very unusual way. I was studying for my Masters degree in one Singapore’s finest Universities in the year 2007. All that I had on my mind was to complete the degree and go for my PhD as soon as possible. I didn’t really have many distractions then safe for soccer which I played twice a week. I had just suffered some knocks from a relationship that never happened with another lady so I was not interested in another heart break. I was very vision oriented and passionate about my studies.

Mayowa: Moyosore came into my life at a time when I least expected. With the dream of becoming a medical doctor, I had made up my mind never to allow any distractions especially in the area of relationships. I had just finished my Cambridge A’levels around mid 2007 and was waiting on my call up to start medicine at the University of Lagos. Because I had so much time on my hands, I decided to try one of the social networking sites – hi5.com. That was where my flight to the east to meet Durban began.

Moyosore: I was living with a few close church brothers then. We were very much into each other. They were people I had so much respect for because I saw them as my blood brothers. One of them, let’s call Him, Bro K, met Mayowa on hi5.com. He would always tell us about Mayowa and how they’re getting to know each other and becoming awesome friends. Because of the time difference between Nigeria and Singapore, Bro K was always up as early as 6am in the morning to chat with Mayowa and some other of his friends in Nigeria. One faithful day, on my way to school, I met Bro K chatting with Mayowa online and He decided to introduce us to each other and we exchanged contacts.

Mayowa: When Bro K introduced Moyosore to me, he didn’t sound too interested in becoming friends. Guess because he was on his way to school. He was in a rush and just said Hello, ‘how are you?’ and ‘bye’ not long after. I was a little disappointed. Some weeks after, Bro K asked if I would like to speak to Moyo again. Reluctantly I agreed. Somehow, we ended up talking at length.

Moyosore: We began developing friendship, talking about our goals and aspirations. I found out she wanted to be a medical doctor because she of her passion for people. I told her about my vision and passion for people too and how I would like to be professor and inspire people all over the world. Being me, I was very passionate about my vision to inspire people that it seem that was the only thing I had to talk about.

Mayowa: I was almost put off by how much his vision had consumed him but thank God I endured a little more. One day, we just hit it off, this time not on the course of visions and aspirations but on tales of our pasts. That was when I saw the interesting side of Moyosore. His openness and sincerity were the first things that opened my heart to him. We started to find our feet in the friendship and enjoying each other’s company. We continued chatting everyday for several hours.

Moyosore: Sometimes, I miss my morning classes because I was chatting with her. The daily routine became something I could not do without. I enjoyed every beat of it. We were so interested in getting to know each other more that in months, we had become best friends. We talked about everything! Most importantly, we shared God’s word daily, and chose a day of the week to fast and pray. I would share revelations I’d gotten from my quiet time with her on a daily basis. No doubt, that strengthened our relationship. Not long after, I perceived she was the one for me but I didn’t know how to present it to her since I hadn’t seen her before. It was a strange feeling but I knew it was real. It was a rare affection but it was unarguable!

Mayowa: The feeling was mutual but I didn’t want to give in. I was adept on getting to 400L medicine before starting any relationship. Moyosore confessed his love for me January, the following year. I acted as if I felt nothing because I was just about to enter into the university then and I felt a relationship at that time would be a huge distraction. Somehow we both carried our parents (on both sides) along. We told them how we met and our parents counselled us, albeit very carefully and prayerfully too.

Moyosore: Everything became clearer when my Dad called me one day and said, “Moyosore, that lady you’ve always been talking about, I perceive within my spirit, she is right for you. Make it work”. To my greatest amazement, that was the first time I ever had my Dad talked about a lady to me. He was always an advocate of platonic friendship and would often say, “Don’t be in a hurry, enjoy the friendship”. Moreso, for a lady he hadn’t seen and all he knew about her was all I told him, I was stunned. After that I summoned the courage to let her know how I was feeling. I poured out my heart to her entirely, telling her I have never felt that way before about anyone.

Mayowa: Somehow, I took courage to pray about it; albeit reluctantly at first. A time came when I felt I got a conviction within me that God is in it and I should go ahead. I called Moyo on 14th March, 2008 to tell Him. That was how our relationship started. Till then, we still hadn’t seen each other. Through every challenge, hurdle, temptations and anxiety, God was there. He assured us He would see us through. On July 23rd, 2010, we finally met for the first time. I must say, I have no regret whatsoever. I always tell him, I love him plenty plenty. LOL

Moyosore: If you ask me, I’d tell you she is the best! From the beginning till now, its evident God orchestrated it. I have no regrets whatsoever. I can’t wait to take Mayowa to the altar. She is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I believe I am the most privileged of men to have such a jewel as my own. I will never trade that for anything in the world. I love her so much.

There goes our love story. It sure doesn’t and wouldn’t end there. See you on our wedding day!

__________________

The first picture is from Google images search, and not of the real persons. Thanks for reading.

I fell so deeply in love - Real Love Story

Binyerem Ukonu of Ink Upon my Paper is a writer and published author. For today however, he'll be sharing about his recent (December 2010) marriage and the story behind it. Can money buy you love? Read on...

Ok! She is going to kill me at this one, but I must say this. When I met my wife, I did not know she was my wife, because she was so small and innocent. Her cousin was my friend, and I had gone for a street carnival along his street. He made sure I was there, after series of calls from him. Finally, I decided to go for the party with two friends of mine. It was towards the end of December, 2007, and it was in Owerri. It was meant to be the end of year party for their neighbourhood. It was fun to have gone. We had comedians of all sorts, and dancers, even those that danced with their belly on the bare floor.

I stood with my friend – her cousin, I remember, under a whistling pine tree, close to a yellow bus. It was in front of their house. He told me that his cousin – a girl – had just visited them from Lagos. He said that she was around for his sister’s wedding. It was even then that I knew that my friends sister was about to wed. She was in the navy, I remember. So, he called his cousin out and introduced her to me as Adaobi. She smiled all through our chatter. She was innocent indeed. I promised to see her the next day, but never did. I saw her again after three years, and it was then that she became my girlfriend. I had gone to Bonny Island, and she was still in Lagos, working with a bank.

I fell so deeply in love with her. Something had changed in her. She was now more mature, and spoke like a career woman. And nothing puts me on a high more than that. We promised not to let anyone know we had something together, and we kept our promise to each other. The day I proposed to her, we were hanging out with a few friends, and I looked at her and couldn’t resist it. I immediately pulled out my phone from my pocket, and composed the four word question; WILL YOU MARRY ME? I had only ten thousand naira in my bank account when I sent that sms. People that want to get married always keep good money in the bank. I waited, and finally, I my phone rang, at first. It was YES. I immediately ordered for more drinks, but no one knew why. I guess I am one of those that proposed without a ring.

We wedded three months after the proposal, on the 29th day of December, 2010. I dated Adaobi for eleven months. Our wedding was grand, and I can not remember who I invited that couldn’t make it. Even amongst writers, I had Ebenezer Alamie, Chizitere Ojiaka and Onyeka Nwelue. I overheard my best man telling someone that what he loved most about this couple (us) was the love that dwelt between them (us). To make things more beautiful, she understands the point that I am a writer. Not all partners do. I never believed in the myth surrounding 14th February, but I’ll celebrate this year’s valentine. As this season of love comes and passes by, I’m glad I’ve achieved a book, and a wife.

One Queen for every kingdom - Real Love Story

By ChiChi of From Now Till I do

The introduction

Afam and I met back in 2007, where we were both volunteers at a Youth Conference. My mum, also a youth worker, actually introduced us and at the time I remember us being very polite about the whole thing and were like 'hi - hi'.

Four months later we were both going to the National Conference and Afam’s original transport plans didn't go as planned. Through no fault of his own he missed his lift to Wales and I ended up driving us both down to the conference. It was during those two hours, while my sister slept in the passenger seat that we got a chance to talk and realised that we had quite a lot in common.

Living in different towns we communicated regularly by telephone and email. We would talk for hours about anything and everything and he made me laugh. I enjoyed his company.

We were both at a stage in our lives where dating was not an option. We didn’t want to be in relationships which didn’t have a purpose, so very early on in the relationship we laid our cards out on the table. This was key because we didn’t want to waste each other’s time.

It was on a cold Saturday night back in October 2007 where Afam told me that he cared about me a lot and believed God was calling us to develop a relationship that would eventually lead to marriage. That November I came down to see him for his birthday and we had our first proper date together.

Journey to the altar

The following year, after a fun filled family Christmas, Afam took me away for some one on one time. He booked us a table at a beautiful Thai Restaurant by the river and then proceeded to give the most romantic proposal.

'Darling, I have always known that there's one woman for every man, one Queen for every kingdom. From the moment you stole my heart, I have waited for this moment to say these words. I love you, I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?'

My words back were 'yes, yes I will, you know I will'.

It was great end to 2008.

Now will you help me write my future? Real Love Story

So you might have been wondering who N from the last post was. It's The Wordsmythe. She has her blog HERE, and is also a writer, and aspiring author. She is blogging every week this year, so make sure to follow her. Read on...

It was Sunday the 16th of February 2003, two days after Valentine’s Day. Another Valentine’s Day which had come and gone with no significant other for me! That was about to change!

The pastor asked us to pair up, share a prayer point each and pray for one another. For some strange reason and in quick time, everyone around me was partnered up leaving me to wander around the aisle looking for some other hapless soul.

It turned out that everyone in the auditorium had a partner except for me so the pastor asked me to be a third wheel to whichever pair would let me. I looked around noticed this tall, dark and handsome guy (I mean that literally) grinning like the cat who got all the cream. I’d never seen this guy in church before so I thought he might be visiting. He and his partner beckoned me over and we prayed for each other having shared our requests.

After the service, I got talking with the guy. It turned out he’d been attending the church for a while. We exchanged e-mail address and promised to stay in touch. I also asked him to give a friend a ride when he told me where he lived.

For the next two weeks we communicated by email, getting to know each other. As I read his emails, he struck me as the type of man I’d been praying about for a husband. He seemed caring, generous, kind and chivalrous. He cared deeply about his family and seemed loyal to his friends. I could tell he was a conscientious worker as well.

Our first telephone conversation lasted about four hours, going on into the early hours of the morning. Needless to say, neither of us was very productive at work that day. A month to the day we met, again after a church service, he handed me a tatty little exercise book. It was his maths book from primary school. In it, he’d written a note which read;

This is my past. Now will you help me write my future?