My name is Steve Hyppolite, author of A Warrior's Passage and I am a fairly new member to the Black Science Fiction Society. My journey started when I wanted my peers to condition themselves to open a book and realize that we too can be heroes and villains in-between the pages of fiction with characters that we could relate to. I took the independent route, so that I could retain the rights to my story and if God is willing and my novel somehow evolves from a literary piece (book) to a visual piece (movie) I would make sure that the diverse characters in my novel will maintain there authenticity.
The only draw-back to going the independent/self-published route, is I had to pay for all the promotions myself. The present economic climate was a strain on my finances, but I carefully pushed on. I mainly promoted my novel in my home town of Miami, Fl. I was sorely disappointed as the reception to my debut barely made a wave in my peers inability to enhance their literacy with a story that includes them. I wanted to get my novel in as many hands as possible. I got a small glimmer of light at the beginning of this week in the form of a link on my computer. In the description was African American and Sci-Fi, so I clicked it and I was led to a website of a fellow Sci-Fi enthusiast, Wendy Raven McNair.
Wendy led me in the right direction when she gave me the link to this website. I was in immediate awe as I was greeted with so many open hands, in the form of welcomes instead of clinched fists. The wealth of knowledge and the comradery that continues to cascade from this rhelm, shows we can do Sci-Fi our way. I was giving a bit of homage to Doing Our own Thang created by Milton Davis. Maybe I haven't seen everything yet, but from what I've experienced so far, we can be self-sufficient here in reaching all our goals. We have authors, artists, poets and even people that lead by example like Malcolm Dylan Petteway, who took it upon himself to get some light on his fellow member's books at the Amazon Rage Book store and The Excerpts group created by D K Gaston that allowed me the opportunity to share chapter 8 of my novel with you all. These are efforts that should be applauded.
In closing, what I've learned so far along the way is that you can't limit your self. I put most of my resources into getting my peers to pick-up a book, but word of mouth got out to a certain group and they picked-up quite a few copies of my novel. Their book club was from a neighboring county (Broward). Their book club was called the Tiara Book Club and they enjoyed my novel so much that they contacted me and invited me to one of their homes for dinner and to speak about my novel. They were a group that I neglected to advertise to, but they showed me love. I've included a picture of some of the members in the Tiara Book Club.
The dinner ended with them wanting to know when will I have another novel for them to pick-up. It's good to have others enjoying my novel, but my initial goal in getting more literacy in my community is still a priority. I really hope I can be as positive and influential to you all as you've all been to me. The administors for this site should be commended for a job well done. I'm glad to be a part of this galaxy.
Sincerely,
Steve
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