Pamela Samuels Young

Murder on the Down Low opens at the funeral of Maya Washington.  Mourning are her close knit girlfriends.  Maya died of AIDS infected by her down low fiancé, Eugene Nelson.  Her cousin Special Moore full of vengeful grief makes a scene vowing to make Eugene pay.  Among this circle of girlfriends are two attorneys and a detective each with their own work place challenges.  Special with the group’s help persuades Maya’s mother to bring a wrongful death action against Eugene.  Meanwhile a serial killer is targeting down low professional African American men.  Special in her uncontrollable grief mounts a campaign of harassment stalking Eugene.  The wrongful death suit takes a turn for the worst when Special is charged as the suspected serial killer against a mountain of circumstantial evidence.  Attorney Vernetta Henderson takes the lead as the girlfriends set out to prove Special’s innocence.

Anyone who enjoys the company of sophisticated ladies will love Vernetta Henderson and her crowd.  Pamela Samuels Young sketches various recognizable female personalities and their friendships while painting a faithful portrayal of the men who love them.  The author has mastered the fictional technique of raising the stakes with unexpected plot twist and turns.  In this moral story of tolerance and understanding a seemingly unrelated series of events keeps the reader wondering on the edge of their seat while the author mixes up a mystery package tying it all together in a neat little bow like denouement.

Young self-published her first novel Every Reasonable Doubt establishing her own imprint.  She told me she self-published her first novel hoping to be picked up by a major publishing house. Three block buster Essence Best Sellers later, that is no longer of interest.  Who needs the powerhouse publisher or agent?  Certainly not this author, Pamela Samuels Young is proving to be a self-publishing force.

Editors, publishers, and agents, the industry shakers and movers, the gate keepers sometime get it wrong ignoring certain talent and marketability as often the case with African American fiction writers who resort to self-publishing.  We saw it with Omar Tyree, E. Lynn Harris, Mary Morrison and others time and again.  Young is the latest in a long line of African American writers going against established industry trends.  Thanks to the Internet writers like Pamela Samuels Young rise to success no longer limited by the subjective taste of a small few.

The GOP vs. Organized Labor: Swinging Back

The recent events in Madison Wisconsin may indicate the pendulum is swinging back. Support for organized labor and union membership has been on the decline for the past 30 years since Ronald Reagan busted PATCO, and States enactment of right to work laws. At the same time a shrinking middle class and stagnant wages with concentrated wealth held by a few is a reminder of the 19th Century robber barons. It’s all beginning to add up on the average household budget, and the public is finally beginning to realize who’s to blame. One wonders whether they will say “enough” and answer the call to solidarity.

The Governors attempt to label public employees as another privileged special interest illustrates yet again Republican artful efforts at distorting the truth and spreading misinformation. Despite union concessions on wages and benefits Wisconsin Governor Scott demands State employees surrender all collective bargaining rights except on wages. The Tea Party believing the country has been hijacked were shouting to take back the country have unwittingly become the Koch Brother puppets. Their concern should be in replacing the jobs shipped abroad. The country hasn’t gone anywhere. The same can’t be said of jobs.

Public employees did not cause budgetary distress yet they bear the burden of sacrifice while the wealthy and their corporate interest benefit  with tax cuts. Since George Bush’s stolen election this strategy of misinformation has conned middle class America. Sucker punched the battered American worker has been knocked down but not out. Now will he get up and come back swinging?