Nigerian Love - Romantic names in local languages

I got this email from one of my new readers and I wanted to share with you guys so you can also add your perspective. Now this post is not about inter-cultural relationships or the people in the email in particular, I just want us to share our experiences about Nigerian love and romance. How do we keep our relationships fresh and fun?

Hi Myne! I ran across your very interesting site as I was attempting to find a romantic name or phrase for my new friend, (insert igbo male name here). He is Nigerian... but I am already smitten. We both ... agreed to keep our courtship fresh and fun. i know nothing about African men...what offends them, their culture. Could u help me understand the culture a little better please?! Thanks in Advance...

House of Silk - A new Sherlock Holmes novel by Anthony Horowitz

I've always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and devoured all the books I could find growing up. Some were scary, some were blander, but in all, the Holmes was thrilling, his eye for obervation, how he could join the dots, it almost seemed psychic :) I like to think some of it rubbed off on me and will usually joke that I have ESP, Atala calls it jumology, most things don't get past me, lol. Back to Sherlock Holmes, this new novel is not by Arthur Conan Doyle, the original author and creator of that classic detective. I still think I'll go for it...

What about you?

Signed, Hopelessly in Love - Lauri Kubuitsile (Guest Author)

Hi Everyone, my guest today is a writer I admire a lot. I found Lauri's blog, Thoughts from Botswana, sometime last year and have followed her since. I knew Lauri was a talented writer from her blog, and knowing she had 13 novels published was an encouragement and a challenge. Now I've read some of her short stories and a couple of her romance novels, it's confirmed. I'm in love! :)

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Lauri Kubuitsile

1. I’m a naturalised citizen of Botswana; I was born in the USA. Botswana doesn’t allow dual citizenship so I renounced my American citizenship more than 10 years ago.

NaNoWrimo 2011

"At midnight on November 1, armed only with their wits, the vague outline of a story, and a ridiculous deadline, more than 250,000 people around the world will set out to become novelists. Why? Because November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, the world’s largest writing challenge and nonprofit literary crusade. Participants pledge to write 50,000 words in a month, starting from scratch and reaching “The End” by November 30." Nanowrimo 2011 Press Release

Yes, I have signed up again this year, and hope to finish the first round editing for A Fiery Love and also have the draft of a new book cranked out this November. I know I'm going to need lots of coffee, caramel ice-cream, and newly discovered yogurt smoothies to get through this. The other thing that keeps me going is your awesome support. Thank you all. I look forward to the coming week and to November. Mwah!

Top Posts Giveaway - And the Winner is...

The picture is a screenshot of my stats page with the top posts all time. In a previous post, I listed the top ten posts on this blog (All Time) and asked readers to guess the top 5. A $25 Amazon gift card, and my two books free for those in Nigeria, were up for grabs. Well the following people attempted it and I was surprised at how close they came. The winner is Naija4Life with four correct guesses. Congrats and do send me your email address and how you'll like to receive your prize at myne@ mynewhitman.com. And this is Naija4Life's guess.

How to support your Birthday author

A friend on FB made that picture as a birthday card for me. Afronuts also gave me a Photoshop makeover. Thanks also to Harry and Mike for the shout outs. For those wondering what gift to give, follow these links or go to your nearest book retailer, online or in stores. :)

ALR - (US, Canada or UK)
AHTM - (US, Canada or UK)
Complete distribution in Nigeria

Teralyn of A Writer's Journey recently listed ways to support your favorite authors, and I knew this was especially important for me as an independent author who does not have the weight of a big-name publisher behind me. I always smile, part happiness and part disbelief, when I receive my sales reports. Who are all these people buying these books, and how did they hear? For sure, I wouldn't be where I am today - bestselling author, public speaker, budding publisher - if many of you had not done the following;

Announcing a new online Nigerian News Aggregator

Zoomheader.com is a new online nigerian news aggregator website for Nigerians both home and abroad. It has a user-friendly interface that will make it easy for readers to find out the latest headlines from top Nigerian sites.

These sites include, 234Next, Sahara Reporters, Vanguard, PM News, Linda Ikeji, Guardian, Compass, TheNET, Bellanaija, Information Nigeria, Kick Off, Celebregion, Leadership, CP-Africa, National Daily, Nollywood, Zazugist, and of course Myne Whitman Writes :), among others.

Stand a chance to win Love at Dawn by Lara Daniels

Romance Writers of West Africa (RWOWA) is a group dedicated to the growth of African romantic fiction worldwide and I am one of the founding members, YAY! We have set up our website, and will be rewarding our subscribers each month with a book from the published members. For October, the group will be giving away a free copy of Lara Daniels, “Love at Dawn. How to enter:
- Subscribe to RWOWA. The email form is on the right lower corner of the website.**

- Follow @RWOWA on twitter

- Like the RWOWA page on Facebook.

Birthday in pictures - A Surprise Helicopter Ride

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes on my last post. I was blown away by those who actually called, and everyone that sent text messages or email, I appreciate you all.

To be honest, my head is still buzzing from the events of the past two days and I can't coordinate my thoughts. Below are the pictures from the surprise that Atala gave me on Tuesday - a helicopter ride! It was an amazing experience and one I'll treasure for a long time. Enjoy...

How to find out what your blog readers want

As a blogger trying to stay on top of my game, one thing I do is look through my blog stats. They give me an idea about what my audience likes, what brings new readers etc. I have a free account with Statcounter.com that gives some pretty robust figures.

Also, the local blogger stats also tells me where most of my traffic come from (Google and Blogger) as well as what they're searching for (Myne Whitman and Relationship questions). These stats help me decide which of my blog ideas to turn to posts and which to postpone, or simply discuss with friends and family.