Amani na Mapenzi: Love & Peace

July 17th, 2010 | Category: Articles | Leave a comment

From: Amani na Mapenzi: Love & Peace Volume Two – The Poetry & Essays of a’Kihoro, 2009

We talked in lyrical circles

Meeting for the first time

Exhibiting intuitive shyness

Exploring the mechanics of our minds

Sensing the freshness sought by both

Needing the assurance of love

A spark to light the fire

Dwelling in the unknown you

Encouraged by careful listening

Minds adding their own bit of spice

Images dancing in our heads

Visions of moments we will share

Far beyond the horizon’s line

Hoping we together find

As sparks begin to flicker the fire

Dwelling in the unknown you

It glowed

A bond developed over time

Connected we were near and far

Until off in the horizon

A distant wind began to blow

Gusting into missing each other

Muting the light begun in circles

Diminishing the sense of desire

That once was a lover’s fire

Dwelling in the unknown you

© January 26, 2008, Sharon Moore Stenhouse, All Rights Reserved

July 12th, 2010 | Category: Poetry, Thoughts | Leave a comment

What began a few years ago in 1998 as a bi-monthly paper based newsletter for faith-based organizations has grown up to embrace today’s technology. As one of the contributing writers, Holly ‘Hunnie’ Parker stated on Facebook…“An awesome chance to check out a lot of talent, awesome eZine.” I couldn’t agree with her more. A reader, Erwin Scofield, wrote on the Fan page… “Just wanted to stop by to say that this evolution of The Village Griot was definately worth the wait. An AWESOME Job, I tell you!!!! Sharon, You and your team are amazing.”

Without the love and support of contributors -who by the way look for no compensation, just exposure- I am humbled by the votes of acceptance this first ‘out of the box’ issue has received.

Published quarterly for now, The Village Griot eZine can only soar higher. Anyone interested in becoming a contributing writer of poetry, articles, essays, how to’s, tech advice and storytelling will be considered. Visit www.thevillagegriot.com to download the Guidelines for Contributing Writers and to join the email notification list.

In the meantime you can read, browse and print from right here. Thank you for your support.

© Sharon Moore Stenhouse  –All Rights Reserved–

April 2nd, 2010 | Tags: Life, Poetry, Spirit | Category: Articles, Poetry | Leave a comment

I have carried the idea of writing a novel around in my head for years. In fact, about six years ago I developed an outline for the story, characters and location. During a workshop with the Black Writers’ Guild of Maryland,  I was honored to read a preview of the work and reviewed the beginnings with a professor of writing from the University of Maryland. The professor’s advice was to keep thinking and writing along the path I was taking, and I would have a brilliant book. She suggested a series of books on novel writing and reminded me to stay true to the characters and settings.

Writing a novel has proven to be an arduous task, especially for me the perfectionist. My thought was not only to tell a story but also, to teach something in the process. For me the teaching would have to be from both a spiritual level, as well as a bit of history. The concept is a historical fiction, which means research.

My house, if it could talk, would tell you that I’ve neglected everything except my day job and my newsletter “The Village Griot”(which is now an electronic magazine) to finish this work. Last night I experienced great joy when I actually completed the story. Now I can begin editing, although I’ve edited continuously while writing. Doing so did slow down my thought process…that’s the perfectionist in me.

The title I originally wanted to use was unacceptable to me because there were already two books in print with the same title. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t use that particular title, I just decided I needed my title to stand out; to peak the prospective reader’s interest. Halfway through the writing process I found my title.

The research took me to various places imaginatively, on the Internet, and physically in a search through time. The novel’s back-story takes the reader to 1893. My research also brought to light actual historical events and places that I have woven into the story.

I guess you want to know about the book. The official title is “JuWasha’s Shroud.” The story begins in 1960s Baltimore and travels back in time to New Orleans, then to the Northern Neck of Virginia and ends in the town of Lively, Virginia. The story is totally fiction… well almost.

As for the teaching, the book will contain photos, charts, maps and an appendix with my historical research.

Look forward to a pre-sale promotion at the end of summer, and publishing in October. My prayer is that the novel will be ready for an upcoming book festival in Richmond, VA on November 13.  Stay tuned.

Oh, and from time to time I will blog on the progress. If you’re on Facebook look me up and become a FAN of The Village Griot.

Amani na Mapenzi: Love & Peace

© 2010 Sharon Moore Stenhouse  –All Rights Reserved–

March 28th, 2010 | Tags: Life, Spirit, Thoughts | Category: Articles, Prayer | Leave a comment

Besides working a full-time job, publishing two new books and in the final stages of finishing my first novel, for more than two years now I have published an email subscription newsletter titled The Village Griot. Actually, the newsletter was established in 1998 as a bi-monthly print publication with a customizable masthead targeted to churches and faith-based organizations. After about three years, the print newsletter was put to rest. My daughter, who lives on the west coast, kept asking me to send copies of back issues to share with her friends, and when the those were exhausted she begged me to resurrect it again. At the time I believed The Griot -as we affectionately called it- had lived out its usefulness. However, in 2008 the email version was born and very well received by the subscribers.

The Village Griot is about to take a leap of faith into a higher phase of technology. April 2010 marks the debut of the first issue of a new electronic magazine (eZine).

With this media The Village Griot will appear online in a format that allows the reader to flip through the pages just as though they are holding the magazine in their hands while utilizing the latest advances in notebooks, hand held and mobile devices. The eZine will have more articles, book reviews, stories, poetry, features, events, puzzles (crossword, word find, or hidden word), and from time to time audio and video content right on the page. Advertisement will be kept to a minimum.

The Village Griot eZine is published quarterly as follows:

• January/February/March
• April/May/June (Debut Issue)
• July/August/September
• October/November/December

You are welcome to visit www.thevillagegriot.com where you can view the test sample, and encourage your friends to do the same. If you are on Facebook you can also click a button to Become a Fan.

The eZine will be available to readers who are not Facebook users via email subscription with a link to the new publication format or simply by visiting www.thevillagegriot.com. The debut issue scheduled for April promises to be exciting and very interesting with lots to read.

Instructions for browsing the eZine will be available on the screen. Here are some of the features:

• View the eZine in full screen
• Flip the pages and zoom in on articles
• Click through the links to take you to other sites or send an email
• Print individual pages for easier reading

Contributing writers are needed. If you have the gift of writing and love to share, your talent is welcomed. Make sure you are subscribed for both The Village Griot and as a Contributing Writer. Following the debut, each issue is theme based and contributors will receive the upcoming theme six weeks before the deadline.

Mission:

As an electronic magazine, The Village Griot gives new and seasoned authors (published and unpublished), poets, essayists, bloggers, storytellers, artists and entertainers a platform to test their writing, share ideas, skills, techniques and technologies while enhancing both talent and work. Spiritually, we seek to uplift and edify through love, peace and respect for the community. The Guidelines for Contributing Writers which includes submission deadlines is provided online via the web site.

Email Sharon Moore Stenhouse with your name, writing genre and a short bio. In an effort to maintain the spiritual integrity of The Village Griot, I(we) reserve the right to reject a request to contribute.

© 2010 -All Rights Reserved

March 1st, 2010 | Tags: Poetry | Category: Articles, Faith Walk | Leave a comment