with Adrianne Byrd
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Adrianne Byrd (a.k.a.
De'nesha Diamond)
National Best-selling author Adrianne Byrd has always
preferred to live within the realms of her imagination where
all the men are gorgeous and the women are worth whatever
trouble they manage to get into. As an army brat, she
traveled throughout Europe and learned to appreciate and
value different cultures. Now she calls Georgia home.
Looking back, Adrianne believes her passion for writing
began at the ripe old age of thirteen. It was also the age
when she was introduced to romance novels by a most unlikely
source: her fifteen-year old brother. The book was probably
given to keep her out her brother’s hair, but it was a gift
that changed her life. In books, Adrianne found a way
out of her awkward teenage years and into a world of
fictional friends that would stay with her for a lifetime.
It wasn’t long before her imagination took flight and she
was writing her own love stories. Within a year, she
completed her first book, which she vowed would never see
the light of day.
Writing remained a hobby until 1994 when a co-worker
approached her with an article on Romance Writers of
America. Who knew there was an organization of women just
like her? By 1996 she sold her first novel, Defenseless,
to Kensington Publishing and has written numerous titles
since then. In 2006 Adrianne along with fellow writer
Niobia Bryant penned her first Urban Novel, Desperate
Hoodwives, writing as De'nesha Diamond. The book was
released in January 2008 from Simon and Schuster.
Ms. Byrd has been featured in many national publications,
including Today’s Black Woman, Upscale, and Heart and Soul.
She has also won local awards for screenwriting. For the
future, she looks forward to continue creating characters
that make people smile, laugh, and fall in love.
Read a full excerpt of
Desperate Hoodwives:
Click Here
Watch The Trailer for Desperate
Hoodwives:
Click Here
Author's Official
Sites:
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Author's Myspace Pages: Site
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Author's Blog Page:
http://www.adriannebyrd.net/blog
Author's Yahoo Groups:
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Contact The Author:
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Urban Reviews: Tell our
readers about Desperate Hood Wives.
Adrianne Byrd: Desperate Hoodwives is
about the lives of four women living in an Atlanta housing
projects called Bentley Manor. The story is narrated through
two older women, Miz Cleo and Miz Osceola who have lived in
the housing projects for close to forty years. They sort of
sit out on their stoop and and marvel over the more things
change, the more they stay the same. For many of the women,
they view the community's iron gates as a cage and each of
them are desperate to get out by any means possible.
Urban Reviews: Can you explain to our readers how
this collaboration with Niobia Bryant came about?
Adrianne Byrd: The collaboration actually came
about accidentally. Niobia and I knew each other through the
romance writing community and we would talk all the time about
the business and market. Well, in 2005 I'd gone to visit my
sister in California. My brother-in-law was a fan of the show
Desperate Housewives (Eva Longoria) so I'd sat down and
watched the show with him. Needless to say I found nothing
desperate about a bunch of bored rich, white suburban
housewives. I told my experience to Niobia and said that
someone should do a book about real desperation that goes on
the hood. She responded with 'Yeah, we could call it
Desperate Hoodwives'. We laughed, but the title stuck.
Urban Reviews: Please share your literary journey
up until this point.
Adrianne Byrd: Well, I've been a published
author for close to 12 years. I have close to thirty romance
titles under my belt and counting. When people ask how I got
started, I tend to clam up-only because it seems like I was
always writing, journaling or just doodling. I was quite happy
with it just being a hobby when someone I worked with
approached me with an article from Romance Writers of America.
I found that they met each month around the corner from job
and decided what the heck. Something about sitting next to
people getting paid for what you do crystallized my dreams for
me. I really had that moment of 'heck, if they can do it, so
can I.' A writer colleague convince me to try Contemporary
Romances because Kensington Publishing was starting up a AA
line. I did and sold my first novel Defenseless within
18 months. I've been writing them ever since.
Urban Reviews: You also have another upcoming
romance novel called Two Grooms and a Wedding. Can you tell us
a little more about this?
Adrianne Byrd: Two Grooms and a Wedding
is a romantic comedy (which I tend to love) about Isabella
Kane, the daughter of a prominent senator who has
inadvertently gotten engaged to two men. One that is a
political match in heaven, or so her father believes, and one
of her heart. This sort of decision would normally be an easy
one, but Isabella has some backbone issues and it leads to two
men showing up at one Wedding.
Urban Reviews: Do you have any other upcoming
projects?
Adrianne Byrd: 2008-is a busy year for me. My
release schedule is as follows:
January - Desperate Hoodwives - my first voyage
into Street Lit as De’nesha Diamond. Trust when I say you
won’t be able to this book down once you get started.
March - Two Grooms And A Wedding -a Kimani
Romance - introducing you the fine men of Kappa Psi Kappa.
April - the release of my first novel Defenseless
hit the shelves with a stunning new cover.
May - Controversy - Kimani Arabesque - this is
book three in the Adams series. First two books are Measure of
a Man and When You Were Mine - if you haven’t read
those, buy them now because when book 3 hits, readers scramble
around trying to find the beginning of the series only to
discover everyone has snatched them up.
July - the re-release of my 2nd novel Forget Me Not
- upgraded with a spicy new cover.
August - a double whammy - Shameless Hoodwives
(book 2 of the Bentley Manor tale) hits shelves - a book hot
enough to burn your hands while you turn the pages AND my
first continuity book Her Lover’s Legacy with Kimani
Romance hits. This will be the first book with the wonderful
Braddock family. Book 2 will be written by the very sweet and
talent Robyn Amos. Book 3 features the highly prolific author
A. C. Arthur, and then finally book 4 by USA bestselling
author Brenda Jackson.
September - my first voyage into YA with Chasing
Romeo - A BFF (best friends forever) series - a gripping
tale for the young ladies that asks the question: "How far
would you go for the perfect guy?"
December - the re-release of my 3rd novel I Promise
and you guessed it...a shiny new cover!
Urban Reviews: What is one of the biggest lessons
that you've learned about the book industry?
Adrianne Byrd: It's fickle and capricious.
Urban Reviews: Do you have any favorite authors or
books?
Adrianne Byrd: Tons of them and for different
reasons. But some are: Tananarive Due, Victoria Christopher
Murray, J. K. Rowlings, Michael Connelly, Richard North
Patterson and a new one, Risque.
Urban Reviews: Name one thing that the world does
not know about Adrianne Byrd-the person?
Adrianne Byrd: I absolutely can't think of a
single thing.
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Read our review of Desperate Hoodwives in the
AA Fiction section.
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