AFRICAN AMERICAN MYSTERY WRITERS

Ask most fans of mystery novels to name a black mystery writer and chances are the first name mentioned would be Walter Mosley.  Ask fans to name two more black mystery writers and you might be met with dead silence.  Perhaps many of their names aren’t known, but black mystery writers and the stories they tell date back to the early 20th Century.

Writer, Paula L. Woods, in an article written for The New Crisis magazine, (September/October 2001 edition) noted that the earliest mystery fiction written by an African American didn’t appear in book form, but in “colored” periodicals and newspapers.  As early as 1900, a journalists named Pauline Hopkins wrote the short stories, “The Mystery Within Us” and “Talma Gordon”, which appeared in issues of the Colored American Magazine.  A writer named John E. Bruce had his mystery “The Black Sleuth” serialized in the 1907-1908 McGirt’s Reader.

It wasn’t until 1926 that the first mystery novel by a black author was published.  A Jamaican writer named W. Adolphe Roberts wrote a book titled The Haunting Hand.  However, none of the characters in Roberts’ book were black.  Because of this it took nearly three quarters of a century for The Haunting Hand to be recognized as the first published mystery novel written by a black writer.

According to Woods, it wasn’t unusual in the 1920s for black characters to be absent from the mystery genre, even from those books written by black authors.  It took twelve years before a published mystery novel, written by an African American author actually featured Black characters.  The year was 1932 and the book was The Conjure Man, written by Rudolph Fisher, who was a physician and a personality of the Harlem Renaissance.  The Conjure Man featured Dr. John Archer, a physician sleuth, and his sidekick, Perry Dart, a NYPD detective.

Since then, besides Mosley, there have been many other African American mystery writers, past and present, all of whom continue to entertain readers—writers such as Chester Himes, Anthony Heywood, Gary Phillips, Elizabeth Taylor Bland, Chassie West, Valerie Wilson Wesley, and yours truly, the creators of the Grandmothers, Incorporated cozy mystery series, L. Barnett Evans and C.V. Rhodes to name only a few.

BLOG NEGLECT GUILT

Okay, Okay, we're guilty of blog neglect and we know it!

For the past year we've been busy finishing our latest Grandmothers, Incorporated adventure, Whose Knife is it Anyway? That's why we haven't been keeping up with our blog.  That's our story and we're sticking to it!  So here's the blurb for our ladies' latest escapade:

WHOSE KNIFE IS IT ANYWAY?

THAT'S WHAT BEA, HATTIE AND CONNIE WANT TO KNOW AS THE AMATEUR SLEUTHS BECOME EMBROILED IN A CASE OF "REAL" MURDER THIS TIME.

WHEN THE LADIES OF GRANDMOTHERS, INCORPORATED ARE TRAPPED IN THE WOODS WITH A GROUP OF FEUDING CHURCH LADIES, THEY WONDER IS A KILLER LURKING IN THEIR MIDST?

IT'S ANOTHER ROUND OF BELLY LAUGHS AS THE LADIES EMBARK ON A DESPERATE SEARCH TO DISCOVER WHOSE KNIFE IS IT ANYWAY?

Readers can find Whose Knife is it Anyway in Ebook format at the Barnes and Noble and Kobo book sites.  We'll keep readers informed when it appears on other sites.  

With the new year, we've made a commitment to do better when it comes to keeping  up with our blog.  We thank you for taking the time to view Mini Musings.

YOU MAKE ME SICK!!!!

Hello people, this is Bea Bell writing to you this month and I’m going to get serious.  I’ m not a cussing woman, but there’s something happening in this country that’s got me mad as hell!

I’m a woman in her sixties and, thank goodness, I’m in pretty good health.  I’m lucky enough to still enjoy the privilege of being covered by my late husband’s health insurance and it’s a really good policy, but like so many others, it doesn’t cover everything.  Recently, I had toenail fungus, which is nothing fatal and, according to my podiatrist, fairly common.  From what I understand it can be caused by something as normal as wearing closed-toe shoes, or getting an unsanitary pedicure.  People who suffer from diabetes or HIV often have it too.

The results of toe fungus can be pretty unsightly.  The toenail gets thick and changes color.  I know vanity is a sin, but I’ve got to admit I didn’t like what I saw.  I wanted my pretty, pick toenails back so I could wear my sandals in the summer.  So when the foot doctor told me about a new medicine that was on the market more effective than any he’d seen, I couldn’t get to the pharmacy quick enough to purchase my prescription.  I was more than ready to cover the deductible so that I could take the miracle cure home and start my treatments.

My first surprise was when the pharmacist informed me that my insurance wouldn’t cover the medication.  Taking a deep breath, I resolved that I was going to have this medication whether it was covered or not.  How much could it cost?  $50, $100?  Maybe a little more, but I had to have my pink toes back!  I swallowed and the conversation went something like this:

“Okay, how much is it?”

“Eleven hundred dollars.”

I was certain that I hadn’t heard him right.  “Did you say $11.00?

“Eleven hundred dollars.” 

The pharmacist didn’t crack a smile, although I was sure she was joking. 

“Eleven hundred dollars?”  I croaked.  She nodded, and I laughed and laughed and laughed. 

The price of that medicine was the best joke I’d heard in a long time.  My prescription was for a foot cream, not some life saving remedy!  What could possibly be in the stuff that would make it cost so much?  Once I recovered from my fit of laughter, and told her to keep the medicine, I walked away from that counter thinking that for some people the price of medication isn’t a joke.

There are plenty of folks out there who need life saving medicines that are as ridiculously expensive as that foot cream.  The prices that pharmaceutical companies are charging for these and other medications is nothing but highway robbery.  People are put in jail for stealing much less! 

I’ve worked in city government, so I’m pretty aware of some of the tactics of politicians.   Since the federal government lets these companies get away with it, my best guess is that members of Congress, the pharmaceutical and insurance industries are in cahoots in this travesty.  They’re stealing from the people of the United States of America as surely as though they hit us over the head and picked our pockets.  I’ve heard that in Canada and other foreign companies the same medicines cost much less.  What’s the excuse for that?  Tell me we’re not being robbed!

It’s time for the American people to rise up, take Congress to task and let them know we’re sick of it.  We should tell Congress, we’re sick of this b*ll sh*t and we’re not going to take it anymore.”  For the pharmaceutical companies, I only have four words for them:  You make me sick!

STRANGE PRIORITIES

     I paid a visit to a friend, an old lady who recently turned 95 years old.  She said to me, "Connie, I never thought I would end up like this."  She lives in a nursing home.  I'm Connie Palmer and I have know Miss Lydia since I was a little girl.  She and her husband never had children and since I found out she was in a facility, I make it my business to check on her.

     When she first went to the nursing home, it was clean, comfortable and full of seemingly caring and competent people.  I later learned that new management took over.  They began to cut corners on patient care.  They laid off aides and nurses and removed some of the management staff.  In other words, they made big changes for the worse.

     The makeup of the aide staff seemed to change every week.  The low morale meant that they constantly argued among themselves, often in the halls where the patients could hear.  The food was inedible.  There were shortages of gowns and towels, and medical equipment was so inadequate that patients who needed special help waited for hours.

     On that particular day, I found Miss Lydia in her room crying softly as she sat in her wheel chair.  By this time, she had grown feeble and requirement assistance for most of her needs.  The next day, I made new arrangements for Miss Lydia.

     I know you're asking what this has got to do with me, the reader.  Just this:  the cost-cutting decisions of that facility were made on a profit basis.  I directed my anger from the aides to administrators and government regulators.  The aides were expected to give basic care--duties that were often distasteful to them and demeaning to the patients--for paltry pay.  No wonder staff turn-over  was mind boggling.

     We say we respect our elders, just as we give lip service to the preciousness of our children.  Yet, workers who care for both children and the elderly are sadly underpaid.

     I enjoy a good burger as much as the next person, but if i were going to fight for anyone's pay to be raised, it wouldn't be for fast food workers, but for those workers who take care of our most precious resources, our children and the elderly.  Let's get our priorities straight.

IT'S BEEN A GREAT YEAR!

Hi Folks!  Season's Greetings from all of us--Bea, Hattie, Connie and Miss Fanny.  The year 2014 has been a fantastic one for our creators, L. Barnett Evans and C.V. Rhodes.

It started with the release of our latest adventure, There's Something Wrong with Miss Zelda. Then there was the play that they wrote titled, Stake Out, that featured Hattie and Miss Fanny doing their thing.  It was produced at the 2014 Indy Fringe Theatre Festival and the play turned out to be one of the top 10 grossing plays in the festival.  Not to shabby, huh?

This year Evans and Rhodes have had the privilege of being invited to speak to numerous book clubs.  They've participated in several book festivals, all the while working on the upcoming book that will feature our next adventure.  It's called, Whose Knife Is It Anyway? 

Yes, the ladies have done well by us in 2014.  Many of our accomplishments have been chronicled right here on our blog.  You never know what we'll do next, so be sure to keep reading!

We're looking forward to new adventures and new experiences in 2015.  We hope you'll join us and continue to enjoy us!

MORE ADVENTURES AHEAD!!

Time is passing faster than a speeding car, and my girls and I are steadily busy.  I'm happy to announce that I--Bea Bell--am working on getting my private detective license, and I'm strutting around here as proud as a peacock.  I can't wait!

Last month, Miss Fanny told you about the case that Hattie was working on in the new play, Stake Out.  It's coming to the Indy Fringe Theatre Festival in August.  Stake Out was written by our creators, Evans and Rhodes, and I hear it's funny.  Shoot, I've got to give Hattie credit for her ingenuity when it comes to drumming up business for us.  I don't care what Miss Fanny says!

Let me tell you what else has been brewing out there in detective land.  Connie, Hattie and I have been invited on a retreat at a conference center, located somewhere out in the woods, with some women we don't particularly like.  Lord knows there will be fireworks between us, but the purpose of the time we'll be spending together is to end the conflicts.  We'll see what happens with us stuck out in the middle of nowhere.  All kinds of mayhem and murder could occur.  That's what happens on TV and in the movies.

Evans and Rhodes are calling our next adventure Whose Knife is it Anyway?   Who knows, I might be able to put my considerable skills to work once again, but this time as a card carrying "real" private detective.  Stay tuned.