Last week, I opened the January 2012 catalog of Black Expressions Book Club, www.blackexpressions.com , the premier direct-to-consumer book club featuring African American authors and books featuring African Americans.  (Black Expressions also won "Book Club of the Year" in the 2011 African American Literary Awards.)

My second novel, Land Mines, is one of the featured selections--and in a special hardcover edition!

I've known it was coming since this summer when Black Expression's wonderful editor-in-chief, Carol Mackey, contacted me, but to see how wonderfully she displayed and described the book is truly another dream come true.

It reads, "Sheilah Vance's warm, wise, comforting book is not only a great story, it's also a valuable manual for healing."

I couldn't have written it better myself! (See the description of the book below.)

And, Land Mines is listed as one of the Editor's Picks, right up there with books by NY Times bestselling authors T. D. Jakes, Condolezza Rice, Brenda Jackson, Allison Hobbs!

Last month, I was overjoyed because my first novel, Chasing the 400, which has been featured in Black Expressions since May 2011, was again in the Top 20 Bestsellers.

Just to have one of my books listed was a dream come true. To have two is the best way to start the New Year.

And, I'm thrilled that P. J. McCalla's second published novel, Cousin Myrtle, is also featured in January's Black Expression Book Club, also in a special hardcover edition.

McCalla has written fourteen novels over her lifetime, but she only became published two years ago, in her early 80s, when The Elevator Group published her first novel, Heads Deacon Tails Devil.

Black Expressions offers many different programs where you can order the books at no-cost to low cost.  So, if you're not a member, sign up!  If you are, please select our books this month!

Both books are also featured in Book of the Month Club.

Please read more about both books below.

 

Carolyn James is a writer, so it's natural that when her 11-year marriage to a doctor suddenly ends (with him in the arms of his yoga teacher, and Carolyn left raising their kids on her own), she turns to a "divorce journal" to try to figure things out. This absorbing, affirming and absolutely unique novel offers readers a peek into Carolyn's private journal to see how her no-holds-barred honesty, her faith in God and her use of self-help books (real ones, and she names names!) help her navigate the land mines of divorced life with children, rebuild her life and recover her self-esteem over three tumultuous years. Sheilah Vance's warm, wise, comforting book is not only a great story, it's also a valuable manual for healing.

Wealthy entrepreneur Sam Sharpe, still spry in his 80s and married to the beautiful, much younger Jessie, is not as wise or shrewd in matters of family and relationships as he's been in the business arena. So he seems like an easy mark for his cousin Myrtle, who's lived her whole life as a freeloading parasite, getting kicked out of one home after another. When Cousin Myrtle moves in, Jessie starts to realize how much she resembles the old schemer-and how much she's grown to love and respect her husband. But she's going to have to get trusting old Sam to wake up and confront his cousin's conniving ways. And to do that, she's going to have to get her mind off the handsome young man who's just moved to town!

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about these books and will look them up in Black Expressions Book Club.

As we start this new year, know that dreams do come true!

Be encouraged!