I was first published by Genesis Press in 2000 with my romance, Best of Friends. As a new writer I was told that you were supposed to pick one genre and stick with it. It was what publishing houses and readers wanted and expected. It supposedly helped build your name and add to your readers...  Continue Reading

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I can’t believe it’s been eight years since I attended my first Slam Jam. It was in Dallas in March and I was thrilled to be in a warm climate after spending nearly six months in the cold and snow of Chicago. Emma, the organizers and the authors couldn’t have been more welcoming – which added an additional layer of warmth. I knew from the very first night, this was going to be something special. It was great to meet the authors and people whom I’d met online.

Friday night was all about performances. Several men from the Dallas area acted out scenes from some of the most popular romances with some of the attendees. I will never forget the authors’ thrilled responses to see their words come to life. There were lots of games, prizes and surprises. The meeting room was later transformed for a screening of the BET film, Hidden Blessings by Jacquelin Thomas. It was like Friday night at the movies complete with movie popcorn, candy and soda. Local poets put on an open mic performance of their work. No one was ready to go to bed and authors and their readers sat up talking well into the night.

I think my favorite memory is of the Saturday luncheon. It was “all about love”...and romance. It wasn’t planned, but the authors seemed to sense the love in the room and proceeded to spread themselves among the readers so that each table had at least one author. There was lots of conversation and laughter.

Unsung Heroes

I'm looking for articles to place in the Romance Slam Jam Newsletter. This is our newsletter. For us by us. Let's talk Black Romance! Send your articles, events, interviews, memory book entries on!  The newsletter goes out on the 15th of each month and submissions must be in by the 10th of the month for inclusion in the following newsletter.

 deatri@romanceslamjam.org

My first Slam Jam was in 2002 (North Carolina) when I decided to take the plunge and discover what was so exciting about this Reader/Writer Conference. Slam Jam changed my life. I decided to enter the Heart and Soul Contest for aspiring authors and low and behold on the afternoon of the Friday Luncheon, I discovered I was a finalist. On the night of the Emma Awards, I won!

Five books later (book #5 is due out in August), I still see that night as the night that give me the chance to become a published author. A year later in 2003, I sold my three chapters to Arabesque, was given until November 2004 to finish the book for a November 2005 release. CAPTURE THE SUNRISE in the SLOW MOTION volume was that first book.
However, Slam Jam, to me, is more that just the conference that changed my life. I finally got the opportunity to me authors and fellow readers who I’d chatted with on the internet from the remoteness of my island home. No longer were my friends just the words sent from a computer far away. I could now touch and hugs these warm friendly individuals. I remember my heart beating on the plane ride. The conference would start the day after I arrived and I was being invited to stay the night with Jacqueline Thomas. That night was the start of a chapter in my life that today still continued.

I’ve been to two Slam Jam since then. New York in 2004 and Shreveport in 2006. In Shreveport I won the Emma Award for Favorite New Author. The trophy has taken its honored position on a bookshelf just above my bookshelf…

Like all those who have signed up for Slam Jam 2008, I am counting the days until April. It’s been a special Slam Jam for me, since I’ll be celebrating my birthday on the 2nd May. I couldn’t want a better birthday present!

Wayne Jordan
http://waynejordan.com

This will be my first time attending the Romance Slam Jam as well as my first time in Chicago, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Over the years since publishing my first novel, ZON, I have come across so many readers and authors who just raved about this conference. Not being a romance author per se, I initially considered the conference 'out of bounds.' But, I have learned! As many of my readers have so often pointed out, my writings, HNIC, a murder mystery, and my latest, Next Lifetime, another real-to-life novel with a science-fiction twist, are steeped in romance, using it as the fuel to power the story along.

I look forward to meeting and mingling with all of you in Chicago.

Gregory K. Morris
http://www.gregorykmorris.com/