hey everyone thanks for joining us for another segment of today's community spotlight where we put the spotlight on all things positive in the community today we're putting the focus on literature and i guess today is the talented author director playwri activist welcome to today's committee spotlight welcome how you doing good thank you thank you for joining this so let's start by letting the viewers out there who don't know about you know a little bit about your background tell them who you are where you're from and how you came to be in the bay area i love to do that hello i'm d v d i can also be known as crystal i live here in the bay area and i've been the bay area let's just say over twenty five years i came here around about san jose fairfield area i'm from i'm from a military family so we got to travel for you know my during my formative years so now i'm here in the bay area berkeley pacifically and i've been here i live with i've raised my family here they met a fact they've gone to berkeley hi i live here with my husband i work here also in the bay area and all that has brought me to this and then i and then i had to the credit to air force i mean a regular particular fort so where to some of the places that i traveled growing up i know one of the benefits of being in the military as a child you get to see different parts of the world  viewers about some of the more interesting places well you know i was born in charleston south carolina and i was there long enough to be born i've only been there one time since i was born there i went there a plane of the layover a quick layover so i didn't get to see where i was born and then from charleston we took off in which to germany and we spent about three years and my family spent about three years in germany and three of my brothers were born there ok and then when we came back from germany we went to florida ohio and then new jersey i lived in new jersey and then from new jersey went to hawaii oh my and we got to spin four beautiful california my dad was stationed at travis air force base from and then he when he retired from the military we just moved right off base into fairfield so my high school years were there in  mean i was a business major so i was i'm really good at county and fine and say and i'm also an instructor and i teach computer software training so i have a strong strong  background and then but all this time i love to read and i love there's i have some favorites out there i don't want to say me names right now because i normally forget someone but i love to read and so dropped a few names just off the top of the head that crime story and i know you have some literature that's kind of crime drama but let's start with your first book you said your first book was written and that was two thousand and ten and know that to be your book my first book is  let me call it a beautiful book a celebration of black history month and that's a specialty to type book i spent it started with just taking some pictures i celebrate black history month with fashion and so a coworker of mine came up to me said you know can i take pictures because she she admired my you know i fit so we took pictures every day i took a different picture and then she has really good talents in photography so when i turn around to look at all the pictures you know they struck me as a you know really due to for pictures i mean i remove myself as that as a model of them because really beautiful pictures i see them all going to with all these pictures and so they kind of came to me you know what i'm writing a book and that's how it started and there you have it so a book can start from ticket an idea to something you know i like to say that but out live the authors i like books by surnow her and james baldwin these are those works have outlived them so you can take an idea and turn it into a book and that's what you did with the beautiful but people talk about writing books and this book she wrote this how she celebrates black history and it might not seem like the typical way to celebrate black history but it's the way she did it she takes pictures and dresses herself and every single day of black history month and looks forward to it and thought it was something the share and share with the world there you have it so the first celebration of black history month that's how she does it in fashion and period pictures a story artwork poll is the kind of book that when you pick it up the next time you'll see something different because i put a lot of energy and then it's kind of book that gives you courage because you know i'm telling the world that i'm beautiful and this is a good thing because it's something that i'll never go out of style of you know maybe i'll tell people that we're the most studied people in the world right the african american study more people anywhere than any other people in the world so again like i was saying but still out live you this is a book that anyone can relate to over time to find out one hundred years from now when someone celebrating you know you can look at it you can enjoy as a picture book but most you know a lot of people love to read and even though i did write a story behind it that started my whole literary work so my solved and so there is this detective who you know wants to solve these cases but then he's he was coming up against a lot of robots so that was the idea that's how i got started and so  get out there and then so i turned around and said ok amor you know write a book behind that and that's how it starts so it's a book about a detective but this detective is the part of a strong dynamic group which i call the band of brothers and the band of brothers when you get to know the characters in the books they're stronger dynamic they're there they're they're bigger than life i made this i started that book out to be started out that way you know i put a lot of suspense in there it's a page turner so you meet so fascinated by the book in my opinion are the characters so so let's just talk about that so so we say it's a crime drama is a crime drama and i right thing but he comes up against blocks that happens in the real world so we don't want to give the readers the viewers going all of the starring storylines and every did as well but for yourself but just tell us a little bit about some of the other characters you touched on a group of them the band of brothers yes what's fascinating about the book are the characters and yes i'll just say the band of brothers because yes i want you to read the book to find out about them but we go out we have a good i wrote are good guys in there and our bad guys and  story in there there's a message in there and then there's a solution and then it's there i don't want of course you know read the book but i don't want to it's a surprise about all that i wrote into the story  a subplot going on is a lot going on sounds like a very intriguing book about how many pages physic a so that's a little under two hundred pages of a crime drama so this is coal black  started but my goal is to write a trilogy you know ok and that's what cold black is part of a trilogy so co plaque is the first book and the trial is just the first of three if you're black do you have to read code red if you read code red did you have to read code green and we'll get on to those later but i want her to tell you a little bit more about coal black and where she took it from there earlier told her she's an art there not just an art there but an actress and a director and a playwright and some of those tasks came to life in and cold black so just really quickly tell us a little bit more about work o plactic your artistic career and then we'll go on to your other literary works  all it introduces the story the introduces the characters and so it's a page turner and then it as an inner deuce is the plot of the story which is  me was well once you do code black as a play and with me if you get to know me all you do is say something if i think it's a good idea i'm going to do it make it so cold black yes it's a book one of the trilogy so the coal black story turned her encourage her to become a playwright and it became a stage play it was put on a play and now surveil a boy also on d v d it opened another doors for her she also acted in play i know she says artist the leading lady in the play i did and so from writing she became a playwright and an actress so that's how that book inspired now we said this was a trilogy so tell us a little bit about your book that ok so we don't know well code black is going to lead you into the book two of the trilogy which is called code red by the bay as a place where the all these residents live now could be a place like the city you live in or a city you heard about in the things things that go on in this city  the when i when you read the back of it it's it's the kind of city where the city officials are just as crooked as the criminals however the city or the people who want to take over silverstone bay by any means necessary necessary well they have to come up against the band of brothers and so after you read code black and see what happens well that's going to introduce you to code red silverstone big story which it can be picks up from there is a continuation of nickname the jewel by the bay has a lot of similarities to the location where where and now and we know that there are some good guys and some bad guys and cold black and love story and cold black and and cold black the good guys try out and there was a love story now a cold read it's a little bit more spicy so it's definitely for mature audiences only this is not a teenage readers and it's a continuation and i'm cold black so just tell me before we go on does the good guy try amp and code red well jesse you know what i like about reading a book and well what i've seen is that they have what you call cl someone want to take over silverstone bad and as it sounds like you relate to them in either one way or the other you'll relate to them by liking them you relate to them by hating them one way or the other you know they're going to make you feel something and this one's also a crime drama but it's a bit of a cliffhanger it's going to leave you wanting more it's going to entice every year the reader to look forward to what comes next i break old black i've read code there's only one book left i know it's gotta be titled that's the title of it cold green bay story the third in the trilogy and this is your newest release project so tell us about this came out just came out just published tell us about won't tell i don't want to spoil it for you so you have to read it to see what happens but a good book in a trilogy leaves you wanting more so if you've read cold blackening you or saw the play and you read code red you're to be looking forward to code green so you can read them individually or collectively get them individually or as s s thank you very much for sharing your literary work so tell but tell us what's in the future bay trilogy i will i want you to become a fan and based on your love for what my work i want to continue to bring you some more little books for entertaining ok you know i  i feel that you're going to want more and then i want to give that to you so i sincerely hope that you will acquire my my trilogy and enjoy them in believe me i've got more for you so there you have  she's not done writing she's given us a beautiful but her book aspire by how she celebrates black history month she's given you coal black a silver sun story a book that was spurred of an idea that her husband put out there for her she turned it into a story from the response she got from that she turned it into a play a stage play and then the sequel to that cold spiced up a little bit more and left you hanging wanting more and cold green and she's planning to write more i want to thank you very much but before you go i want you to tell our readers how can they find more of your books and keep up with you find out where you're going to be in the future well i you can get my books on amazon dot com amazon and i do have my own website a celebration of black history month dot com i have my email address  tweet down you know there are so many different social and then writes works out there you can choose which ones you want but just to recap where you can find her work she's d d d and on facebook a beautiful book a celebration of black history dot com it's our things positive in a community and today it's all about literature and i want to thank you dee dee dee for being our guest any last words you want to give our guest about you things that they may not notice any interesting fact well you know i thank book and i actually said that my turn to shine but i actually had the opportunity to model one of my model and a beautiful book and i was inspired just because i was on to  because a working so closely with her i was inspired to write and authors you know but working next to somebody who writes so much she was writing her second story and i have been telling my second my first story for decades and i was like she's not just going to keep writing books around me and i just talk about them and so i initiated my writing career just by being associated with harris i have to say thank you to dean for her i gave her an acknowledgement outside of my family is only person i inspired by you to for you to learn something from them or for you to teach something for them and sometimes those worlds go backwards and forwards so that's what today's community spotlight is all about putting the focus on things that are positive in a community again i'm your host this miss