From Berkley with Love, Contributors Speak About their letters

We recorded the West coast members of the GTM Sisterhood Network joining us for the reading and book signing at Rebecca's Books in Berkeley. This is Opal Adisa Palmer. Others will be posted in the coming weeks.

GTM Adopted as Text by another college professor

We’ve just learned that Professor Carmen McNeil, M.A. recently assigned “Go, Tell Michelle” to her students in a Psychology of Women course, for extra credit. Professor McNeil teaches at Diablo Valley College (DVC) in Pleasant Hill, California. Professor McNeil attended the reading and book signing at Rebecca’s on September 11^th and we had the pleasure to meet her to speak to her briefly about use of GTM in her class. La Rhonda Crosby-Johnson just contacted us to inform us that Professor McNeil will be teaching Psychology of African Americans in the Spring 2010 semester and will adopt “Go, Tell Michelle” as a required text!

I just checked Amazon.com books and find that we are ranked 26,684 in books and that we are ranked 11^th in Best sellers in Letters & Correspondence , 70^th in Best sellers in Criminology and 82^nd in Best sellers in African American Studies! Again, we see the depth and substance of this book in recognized on many levels.

(photo: GTM contributor, Jackie Frazier and friends at Rebecca's Books)

California Book Club Summit

And then, as if the GTM reading and signing at Rebecca's wasn't enough excitement, the next day we spoke at the breakfast meeting of the California Book Club Summit. We were joined by Opal Adisa Palmer, arabella grayson and Andrea Barnwell. This is the inaugural year for the California Summit as well as our first time attending a conference where the majority of the authors were fiction writers. What a treat to see and hear one of my favorite authors, J. California Cooper! It was so interesting to hear writers like Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant describe how they "tag-team" write their novels, and how authors like Tina McElroy Ansa, ReShonda Tate Billingsly, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes get their inspiration. Not surprisingly, these authors are having a very difficult time because of the impact that our economic crisis has had on the publishing industry. All those who love to read, please buy a book and encourage friends to support Black authors.

There was an especially moving tribute to the late author E. Lynn Harris by several of his closest friends and admirers . Special acknowledgment to Rev. Barnes, who also spoke during the breakfast on Saturday. He provided support and prayer at a time when it was most needed.

The woman, who gave birth to the idea of the California Book Club Summit and certainly experienced all the labor pains to make it a reality is Sigrid Williams. The Summit was such a great conference and we enjoyed it enormously. Thank you Sigrid for inviting us to participate in the Summit. We look forward to next year!

(photo: sitting - Opal, Andrea and arabella; standing - Barbara, Sigrid and Peggy)

A Message to Mrs. Obama from Berkeley With Love

On September 11, 2009, Rebecca's Book Store in Berkeley, California hosted the GTM Sisterhood Network for a reading and book signing. An over-flow audience sent this message about Go, Tell Michelle to Mrs. Obama. Send us your comments about this book (uqi@buffalo.edu ) and we'll post them on this blog.

GTM Members Respond!

We received the following messages from La Rhonda

and Dera and share them with our readers. Thanks for the feedback, ladies!

Peggy and Barbara,By now you

are safe and sound back at home after a tiring, but I'm sure a fulfilling literary weekend. Friday night was such a blessing, such a

monumental occasion. I kept seeing the

pictures and hearing about all the fun you all

were having on the East Coast with GTM and consider it an honor that you brought some of that joy and enthusiasm to share with the West Coast sisters. I am still on a high and everyone is talking about what a

great

presentation and good time they had. I cannot thank you enough. I just sent the pictures from the event; hope they came through.

Love and Blessings,
Dera Williams

Greetings Peggy and Barbara,

As the Dells said, "Oh What A Night"!!!!! Thank you again so much for including my letter to Michelle in the award-winning anthology, "Go, Tell Michelle" and for making Friday night such a wonderful time for all. My guests

are still talking about it. The Bay Area has to do it again, so

I will be on the lookout for more opportunities. Continued success.

P.S. I'm already looking for my outfit for our meeting at The White House with Michelle (smile).

Peace & Power, La Rhonda Crosby-Johnson