The outline is done. Yes!
There are 48 chapters.
Still need to work on the sermons for the revival.
I'm ready. I think...
One preacher, a few members, some hard hearts, stubborn minds, and strong wills; what does God have in store for all these people?
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Monday, October 29, 2018
Settings...
Here are the settings:
Redeemed for Service
Baptist Church
This is the main setting.
Most of the story happens here.
They are hosting their fall revival for the whole week. It’s a spirit-filled, exciting, and busy
church.
Miss Hattie’s Soul
Food Place
This is a restaurant that is down the street from Redeemed
for Service Baptist Church. It is a
popular place for church folk as well as people in the community. It’s always packed on Sundays.
Alexander, Maddocha
This is the city that is the backdrop of the story. It is an upscale city that is very religious
and a great place for people ages 45 and under.
Characters...
Here are the characters:
Rev. Abel Darden, IV
He is the main male character. His is the preacher who comes to Redeemed for
Service Baptist Church to preach their week long revival. He is a caring man who is good friend to
those in his life, and he gives sound advice.
Cornelia Nixon
She is the main female character. She is part of the first family at Redeemed
for Service Baptist Church. She is a sweet
nurturing person who smiles a lot and is very helpful.
Annabel Stolkes
She is one of the antagonists in the story. She is a member of Redeemed for Service
Baptist Church. She is opinionated and
set in her ways. She is a great cook,
but refuses to share her recipes which were passed down to her from her
grandmother and great aunt.
Layla Green
She is Annabel Stolkes granddaughter. She is a member of Redeemed for Service
Baptist Church. She is a friendly,
talkative, fun-loving young lady who is the life of the party.
Maizy Bernal
She is another one of the antagonists in the story. She is a member of Redeemed for Service
Baptist Church. She is stern and
strict. She’s hard on her children,
especially the granddaughter who is living with her. She doesn’t really smile.
Sebrina Nixon
She is Cornelia’s sister.
She is a member of Redeemed for Service Baptist Church. She is fun-loving, laughs a lot, and speaks
to everyone.
LaShawnda Nixon
She is Cornelia’s sister.
She is a member of Redeemed for Service Baptist Church. She is fun, loves life, and is friendly, at
times, too friendly, especially with men.
Victoria Nixon
She is Cornelia’s sister.
She is a member of Redeemed for Service Baptist Church. She is stand-offish, reserved, and comes
across mean, but isn’t. She just has
issues opening up to people and trusting them.
Mother Leonora
Nixon-Caldwell
She is Cornelia’s mother.
She is the first lady of Redeemed for Service Baptist Church. She is soft-spoken, sweet, but has a mean
streak that you don’t want to experience.
She is a great pray warrior and cook.
Pastor Henry T.
Caldwell
He is Cornelia’s stepfather.
He is the pastor of Redeemed for Service Baptist Church. He is an excellent teacher, good preacher,
concerned about others, and compassionate.
Miss Hattie Oliver
She is the owner of Miss Hattie’s Soul Food Place. She has the persona of a sweet grandmother,
even though she doesn’t have any children.
She is patient, generous (to a fault), and loves to talk.
Rev. Omry Quarles
He is an associate minister at Redeemed for Service Baptist
Church. He is calm, cool, and
collected. He thinks his hip, but he’s
not. He gets on people’s nerves more
than he realizes trying to be cool.
Deacon Courtland
Brigham
He is a deacon at Redeemed for Service Baptist Church. He is sweet, caring, loves to hug, and always
telling jokes.
Donovan Downing
He is Rev. Darden’s best friend and cousin. He is charming flirtatious, loves women. He’s still a virgin, but he talks a lot of
trash as if he isn’t a virgin.
Alicia Powell
She is Maizy Bernal’s granddaughter. She is an extrovert who likes to cook, crack
jokes, can be too forward when meeting new people.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
The Distinguished Man
Annabel Stolkes
walked by the distinguished man in the grocery store. He smiled at her. she smiled back at him. She would’ve stayed in the aisle to try to
talk to him, but she didn’t have time.
she had to get her groceries and go.
She had to make 6 pies for the usher board dinner on Sunday. Why she had waited until Thursday to pick up
what she needed was a mystery to her.
she hadn’t really wanted to make the pies, but Deborah Knight had
worried her last nerve, begging for the pies.
It wasn’t until Deborah agree to pay for the pies that Annabel agreed to
make the pies. Deborah had finally given
her the money after Wednesday Bible Study, giving Annabel only three days to
make the pies. She could only two pies
at a time, so, it was going to take awhile to get all 6 pies made. She had a mind to call the worrisome woman
and tell her she wasn’t going to make the pies, but Deborah had already told
folk at the church about the pies, so folk were walking up to Annabel asking
about the pies.
Annabel shook her
head as she pushed her cart down the aisle.
She wasn’t in the mood to make the pies.
She was tempted to put the pie making off until Saturday, but that would
be a problem because her granddaughter had plans to use the house for
something. She wasn’t sure what was
going on, but she had told her granddaughter that the pies would be finished by
Friday night. So, she had to keep her
word.
She turned down
the cookie aisle. She needed a pick me
up to get her blood sugar right. She had
no energy, plus she was tired. She
hadn’t slept well last night. She kept
dreaming about wringing Deborah’s neck about getting her the money at the last
minute. She felt a bump on her
basket. She looked up and the
distinguished man had his hand on her basket.
She must have almost bumped him.
He smiled at her. she just stared
at him. Every inch of his body exuded
excellence. He had on a gray pinstriped three-piece
suit. Annabel loved seeing men in
three-piece suits. Men weren’t wearing
as much as they used to do back in the day.
She looked down at his shoes, they were gray Stacy Adams, shined to a
tee, looking brand new. She let her eyes
wander the length of his body, taking a moment to take each part in as she
thought about the things she could do to that part of his body. She paused when she reached his lips. She wondered what it would be like to kiss
them. As she let her eyes move up to his
eyes, she caught him staring at her just as hard as she was staring at
him. They both blinked their eyes. Her dark brown skin turned deep purple. He smiled at her, showing a full mouth of
teeth to her. they look just as good as
the rest of him did. She shook her head
to knock herself out of her daydream.
She had lost her mind, ogling some stranger in the grocery store. She was going to get herself in trouble. She maneuvered her basket around the gorgeous
man and went on her way. She didn’t even
get the cookies she wanted.
She let the man
leave her mind as she pushed the cart towards the dairy department. She needed to get some milk and eggs for her
pies. As she thought about the work she
had to do, she grunted. She kept trying
to figure out why she hadn’t called Deborah back and told her that she couldn’t
make the pies in such a short time.
Deborah and the other members would be upset, but they’d get over
it. There was no need to make such a big
fuss over her pies. She giggled. She was lying to herself. Her pies were world-class, and she knew.
She looked at all
the items in the basket, checking to see what all was on her list. Sugar.
Cornmeal. Flour. Salt. Vinegar. Vanilla Extract. Powdered sugar. She just needed the margarine and milk. She muttered a curse word, then looked
around. No one heard. Deacon Browder had asked her to make a
coconut chess pie. She was going to have
to go back to the baking aisle to get some coconut. She had the chocolate to make her chocolate
pie. She still needed the lemons for her
lemon chess pie. She also had the pecans
to make her pecan chess pie. She
smiled. Her grandmother had given her
that pecan chess pie recipe. She had
gotten the others from her grandmother’s sister. All the recipes her grandmother and great
aunt had given to her were her treasures.
Folks had been asking for her recipes for years, but she never gave them
out.
She grabbed the
milk from the refrigerator. She walked a
few of steps to where the margarine was.
She grabbed her favorite brand, and then turn her basket to head back in
the direction she had just came from.
She needed to go back to the baking aisle. She walked slowly. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see the distinguished
man again or not. He had her heart palpitating
and her mind wondering. She didn’t need
any distractions, especially not a man who probably had all kinds of women chasing
after him. She wanted a man in her life,
but not one like him. He had to be a lady’s
man, as smooth as his interaction was with him.
She was all fluster, but he was cool, calm, and collected. Ain’t no man that smooth unless he’s a player
or Mack. She didn’t have time for
either. All she needed was a scandal at
the church.
She shook her
head. She looked up and she was in the
baking aisle. She walked down the aisle
to find the coconut. She grabbed it
quickly and moved down the aisle to go to the produce department. She needed to get the lemons and some salad
items. Her granddaughter asked her to
get some items. She shook her head
again. Her granddaughter would tease her
furiously if she knew about the distinguished man. That’s all Annabel needed, her granddaughter
making ignant remarks to her about her love life. She laughed.
She heard a deep
voice say. “You have a sweet laugh.”
She gulped and
turned to see who was talking to her. it
was the distinguished man. She blushed.
“Are you following
me around the store?”
She smiled. She just stared at him. He flashed his teeth at her. they stood in front of the tomatoes staring
at each other.
A lady said,
“Excuse me.”
Annabel blinked
and moved out of the way. She took the
opportunity to also walk away from the man.
She hoped he wouldn’t follow her follow, but he did. They ended up in front of the lemons. She shook her head. He smiled at her.
He walked close to
her and grabbed her hand. He thrusted a
piece of paper in her hands. He smiled,
squeezed her hand, then walked away.
She watched him
walk away. Each stride he took moved him
further away from her. each stride made
her mind wander into a lustful place that she knew it had no business going to. She watched him until he was out of sight. She clutched her imaginary pearls, blew a
long breath, and then looked down at her hand.
The paper he slipped in her hand was crumbled. She smoothed it out and looked at it. It was a folded-up business card. There was a number and a note written on the
blank side of the card.
“Call me,
Love. 555-2381.”
She had to lean on
the basket, so she wouldn’t fall. She
just stood by the lemons smiling for a few minutes.
Emelina Buffington
Emelina Buffington
sat on her favorite bench on the campus of Dansbury University. It was a nice spring day, and she had about
15 minutes before her next class. She
was only 5 minutes from the Arts building, so she had plenty of time to bask in
the sunlight and think about her art project.
She thought, “Who
assigns a research paper in an art class?”
Her thoughts wandered
as she thought about which artist she wanted to write her paper about. there were some suggestions from the
professor, but none of them were black.
She wanted to write about a black artist.
She thought, “She
can’t tell me who my influences were.
Only I know who my influences were.
I mean… the nerve.”
She furled her
brow, making the mean face she was known for.
A dark-skinned guy walked up to her.
“Did someone make
you mad, because you look very upset?”
She looked up at
him. “Yes, a professor.”
He stood to her
left, blocking the sunlight from hitting her.
she made a face. He smiled at
her.
“Could you move
over a little? You’re blocking the sun.”
He moved to her
right side. She smiled.
He said, “What did
your professor do?”
She shook her
head. “Her job, so to speak. She assigned us a research paper for my
painting class. Not even sure why we
need to write a paper for a painting class.”
He sat down. “Why is that upsetting? I’m sure you’ve written research paper for
other classes, right?”
She laughed. “Yes, but she gave us a list of painters to
write about and none of them inspired or captivated me. I know who they are, but they weren’t my main
inspiration to be a painter.”
He placed his book
bag on the ground. “Did you ask her
could you pick your own painter?”
“Not really. I heard she was hard to deal with when wanted
to do your own thing. I don’t know if I
want to deal with her. I could just pick
one of the people she suggested, but… It’s just a grade.”
He said, “How much
is it worth?”
She said, “Twenty
percent.”
He blew a sharp
breath. “That’s a large percentage. Will you do your best work on the paper if
it’s not someone you’re interested in?”
“I don’t
know. I’m just frustrated. She’s a great professor, but, she’s a hard
professor to talk to. I’m just
frustrated at this point.”
He leaned back on
the bench. “When is the paper due?”
“In two weeks.”
He looked into her
eyes. They were light brown, sparkling,
and mesmerizing. She blinked and looked
down at the ground. She couldn’t take
him staring into her eyes. It was as if
he was peering directly into her soul.
She looked back up at him. He was
staring into another direction. She was
happy.
She said, “Do you
always stare at people like that?”
He looked back at
her. “No, I just wanted to look into
your eyes. They’re pretty. I could just get lost in them.”
She giggled. “So, now you’re hitting on me.”
He smiled. “No, just telling the truth.”
She rolled her
eyes. He smiled. They were quiet for a few minutes.
Emelina said,
“I’ve never seen you here before. do you
go to school here?”
“Yes, I’m not
usually on this side of campus. Most of
my classes are in V. John McGee Hall.
I’m over here today to meet with my group from one of my class.”
She tilted her
head to the side. “V. John McGee
Hall. That’s the building that has all
the religious classes, isn’t it?”
He smiled. “Yes.
Most people don’t even know that building exists. How do you know about it?”
“I like going to
the prayer garden next to it. It’s a
very serene place. I like to sketch the
flowers that are in the garden, too.”"
He looked at the
sketch book that was in her hands. “Can
I see some of your work?”
She clutched her
sketchbook tightly. “No. I don’t like showing people my sketches. They’re personal to me. I’m not a good sketch artist. I’m a better painter.”
He nodded. “Okay.
That’s alright. Maybe one of
these days, you’ll let me take a look at them.”
She furled her
eyebrows. “What makes you think I’ll let
you look at them later? Matter of fact,
what makes you think we’ll see each other later?”
He smiled. “I have faith that it’ll happen again.”
She rolled her
neck. “Oh Lawd. Are you serious?”
They both
laughed. She looked down at her watch.
“Good grief. I’m late! I gotta go.”
She stood up
quickly. Omry stood up, too.
She grabbed her
bag and stuff. “Look, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.”
He started walking
to catch up with her. “Wait. Slow down for a second. Let me carry your books for you. I can walk you to class.”
She stopped
walking and looked at him. “I don’t have
time for this. I have one minute to make
it to class. I’m going to be late. The professor hates it when we’re late. I don’t need to get on her bad side if I want
to ask her to do an artist of my choice.”
He reached for her
bag. “It’s okay. We’ll get you there.”
She handed him her
bag slowly. “Alright. Come on.
I can’t have you slowing me down.”
He barely had time
to adjust her bag on his arm. He
stumbled a little trying to maneuver with both bags on his arms.
“Maybe this was a
bad idea. That girl can move. What is her name?”
He grunted as he
ran to catch up with her. When he caught
her, she was going through the door. He
had to grab the door and open it for himself.
When he finally got into the door, she was standing in the foyer of the
building patting her feet with her arms crossed. She had a mean look on her face.
“See, I’m going to
be really late waiting on you. You slow
as molasses. Good grief. Give me my stuff.”
He panted. “Girl, I’m trying to carry all this
stuff. You hard on a brother.”
She rolled her
eyes. “Well, the brother needs to get
the molasses out your you know what. I
mean come on. Are you going to walk me
the rest of the way or what?”
He gasped in
between laughs. “Let’s go. You sure you don’t want me to carry your
books for you.”
She grunted. “Negro please. Let’s go.”
She took off
towards the steps. He ran behind her to
keep up. He was having a hard time. she was three steps quicker than him. He watched the curves of her slender body
move with simplicity, as if she ran all the time. each swing of her legs made his temperature
rise. She looked good in her skirt and
light blouse. He worked his way up the
steps, but he finally had to stop. He
was done.
He yelled. “You gotta slow down, girl. You’re gonna kill me.”
She stopped and
turned and looked at him. “You can’t be
for real.”
She walked down a
few steps toward him. “Look, I can’t
wait on you. I’ll see you later.”
As she turned to
walk away, he said, “Wait. What’s your
name and phone number?”
She rolled her
eyes. “Emelina Buffington. 555-9081.”
He smiled as she
turned to walk away. “I’ll call you later.”
“Alright. Bye!”
She disappeared up
the stairs.
Wrote A Couple of Short Stories
I wrote a couple of short stories about how two of the characters meet their significant others. May do more later.
Enjoy them...
Emelina Buffington
The Distinguished Man
Enjoy them...
Emelina Buffington
The Distinguished Man
Finally Finished Character Sketches
I finally finished my character sketches. It was going slowly, but it's done.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Character Sketches
I've started working on the character sketches. They're some interesting people. Some of them have some scandalous things going on in their lives.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Redeemed for Christ Revival Flyers
Here are the flyers for Redeemed for Christ Revival Flyers. Thinking about doing them over again.
I like this one. It's very limited, though.
This is the one I really like.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
NaNoWriMo 2018
I tried to write this novel for NaNo2008, but I was
unsuccessful. I’m attempting to do it this
year.
Here is a brief
synopsis...
It is a story about love, forgiveness, change, restoration, and preaching. A well-known evangelist comes to town to preach a revival at a local church, and the preacher will preach sermons that change minds and hearts, even the heart of one of the most stubborn men in the church... That Single Preacher.
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