life of a street dancer

No one saw it coming. I woke up and it was the first thing I saw. I just kept saying, “What? What?” It took me a while to process it. I have nothing but respect for Chadwick Boseman. His grace and class especially with what he was going through. It's just amazing. I remember when Black Panther came out and just the excitement. We were getting a Marvel movie for the culture. Do you know how deep that is? Like I never thought I would see it. I took myself to the cinema because everyone was being long and the guy at the cinema upgraded my ticket for free and gave me free snacks. I remember he said, “Sis, you're gonna love it.” And I did. It was everything I wanted and more. Then the fact it's one of the top 10 highest  grossing movies EVER. We all wanted it to win an Oscar. On some level we knew it wouldn't  - come on we know how the Oscar's role but it should have. My 30th birthday was a Black Panther theme and it was the best party.  When the film came out, I read th

Where is the year going? I know 2020 is on a maaaaaaad one but it literally is my birthday next week and I'm just like huh? Weren't we just put in lockdown? It feels weird celebrating a birthday in these circumstances. I'm the Queen of just being extra around this time but I just feel like blah. The world is so weird right now. I am currently sitting on my laptop, sweating like a crazy girl (it's 32 degrees) and trying to finish work so I can watch Black is King.  I have been BUSY. Now I'm always busy but this has been on another scale. Literally drowning in work. I'm so pleased that The Diverse Book Awards longlist is done!!!! I can't even believe we found the time to read all those books. Oh the relief is just on another level. It was a tough week getting everything together so we can drop the longlist today. Then a publisher had to pull out one of the kids books but the press release had already gone out. Le stress! The reactions to the longlist has been

Hey all! How weird is this year? First of all I can't even believe it's going to be JULY! My birthday is in a month and I don't even understand how it has come around so fast. I am literally like where can I even go on my birthday?? Can I have a launch party in September? I have no clue. One part of me wants to plan stuff and the other part is like just chill. This weekend would have been my epic summer weekend at British Summer Time Fest. All cancelled. YALC got booked for that. Cancelled. I've been doing various interviews about Black people in publishing. I really pray that these conversations aren't in vain and we see some real change for once. I'm tired from having these same conversations and I hope the narrative changes quickly. I have been seeing some dumb things. Someone posted 45 books to help children understand Black Lives Matter and put a book about a Chinese character. Another said white authors here to help Black authors. Oh don't worry I

Those are the word George Floyd said when a policeman put his full weight on his neck. I'm sure you've seen the images, the video and the words 'I can't breathe' and it makes me feel physically sick. I cried for a full day after reading his story. This is not my usual blog post but I express myself best through words and need to get this out. My Twitter is split in half. It's either Black Lives Matter or Hey let's talk about publishing and right now the publishing side is the least of my concerns. I was actually getting pissed off at the lack of authors, agents and publishers saying nothing about what's happening but I had to remind myself that this is the same industry that only publishes 1% of books with someone of colour as a lead. Who use the #weneeddiversebooks and don't publish or hire ethnic people. Explains everything right? I also don't need a thread on books by black authors unless it is about race. Black authors you should

Sooo how are we all doing? I legit don't even know what week of lockdown this is, I just know that I am over it. I didn't even realise that I just miss working in different environments that is not my house. I'm pretty good at self-motivating myself but for the past few days I've just had this what is the point attitude. The problem is I run quite a few companies so as much as I want to live in lazy town I can't! The good news is the Government have issued a small companies loan that we should be able to get. That will be a massive help seeing as bookshops are still closed. I feel so bad for those who have books that had to be pushed back or published via ebook first. It's not ideal but I love when people still push on ahead. And we've come out of the peak! Hopefully everyone can be that little bit more patient so we don't get a second peak. My book cover is now out! Isn't she pretty? I just wanted pure fire and I got it! Ale Artigas is my amazi

We are on week 2 of lockdown in London. Hoping everyone is doing okay! I work remotely so not much has changed for me. Walking down the road is a trip. It's literally a ghost town and finding toilet roll and pasta is like stumbling across a pot of gold. I miss seeing my mates, church and driving! I literally volunteer to go to the shops just so I can drive! The lockdown had to happen though. When I was driving to the shop I could see bare people in the park just laying down, sunbathing and me and everyone in the cars were just staring at them like wtf?! But despite all the crap the lockdown has made me very appreciative of my health, my family, that I have a garden to all least go for run in without people breathing on me. I am bored enough that I'm messing about with filters on Instagram. My uncle and cousins have natural blue eyes so it's defo my mum that ruined the gene. The publishing world is slowly closing down and loads of books are being delayed. We haven'