Once upon a time . . . in The Land.

A Personal Invitation

My name is Holliday Vann, author of When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland.  If you like er0t!c@, I invite you to enjoy it with a little comedy and a side of social commentary. Please feel free to read Inside the Pages on Amazon.com for your appetizer.  You can purchase the book there as well.

While my novel shares some of the themes of urban/street lit, it is not that at all.  If read with an open mind and an understanding that this story is not typical in style or content to urban/street lit, the reader will find several pleasant surprises:

1. The novel is more literary in style (i.e. use of metaphor, simile, foreshadowing, etc.).
2. The novel offers a peek into other cultures–and their social issues.
3. The novel does not glamorize the criminal lifestyle.
4. And, the author can actually write (even better these days)!

Oh, and here’s another bonus:  It’s not just er0t!c@.

It’s Comical Er0t!c@ with a Social Conscience! 

By the end of this story, you will have visited China, Ghana, France, Russia, and Italy. Got baggage?  Too many kids, tired of being impoverished, tired of racism, classism, and salivatin’ to indulge in some escapism?  Pack yours and prepare to laugh as you go . . . between the sheets of When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland, available on Amazon.com.

“The $uicide attempt, like the rest of Dessah’s life, hadn’t worked out. She had awakened the next morning groggy as hell and merely rested. Wasn’t any need to tell anybody what she’d done. The outcome hadn’t been what she wanted, but it was what she got. The next day, all she remembered feeling was stupid.”   —Holliday Vann, When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland

About the Book

Comical Erotica with a Social Conscience

I debated a long time whether I would ever peddle my wares on Blackbiter.com because my opinions can sometimes be stronger than thrice-brewed black coffee. Some people just can’t handle the bite.  Then I decided, what the heck!  In the infamous words of a fellow native Southerner, Paula Deen, I realized: I is what I is. Whatever that is.  Sooo, that being said and because a good book never gets old, I would love to introduce you to When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland, a novel.

When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland is not your granny’s cup of tea.  Or coffee.  It was written during the Street Lit boom.  It was my attempt to show that Urban Lit could be more than just Street Lit.  It could be literature.  It was written at a time when Zane was looking for short stories of er0t!c@.  After my submission failed to entice Zane (or her people) in any way, I turned Applesauce, a short tale of er0t!c@, into When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland, and then I self-published it.

• The first thing I realized AFTER publishing the book was that I hated the title.  It should have been more universal, something a reader would not have a problem rolling off their tongue to a wider audience.  Something lovely, a thing of beauty.

• The second thing I realized AFTER publishing the book was that I really should have rejected the cover when it came out blurry.  But being naive, I thought the “blurriness” gave it mystery.  WTF?

• The third thing I realized AFTER publishing the book was that there is a fine line between er0t!c@ and straight-up p-p-p0rrrn.  There are passages in the book that are raw enough to ooze blood.  Sometimes I cringe.  But mostly I just laugh because it’s funny . . . and because I can’t believe that I wrote a book that I, my Victorian self, am too much of a prude to enjoy.  The irony!

• The fourth thing I realized AFTER publishing the book was that I wouldn’t want my mother or my father to read the book.  But as life would have it, they’ve gone to be with the Lord, so to speak.  At least, I know for a fact that my mother has. (She giggles.) Would you believe that I actually thought I was safe from them, from my parents’ rebuke.  Oh no, I dreamt a dream.  The dream was simply this: a picture of my immediate family smiling (dead ma and dead pa included) with a sunny shade of lemon yellow teeth.  Yellow teeth, for those of you who are not connoisseurs of dream interpretations, are the ultimate symbol of shame.  Yep, from the grave my parents chastised me, row after row, with toothy grins as sepia as papyrus scrolls.

If your appetite is whet–and I know it is–please feel free to purchase a copy of the novel on Amazon.com.  

“The boys didn’t say a word. They stared at their mother, through to the back of her eyes, looking for her, unable to find her. It was frustrating for them seeing her familiar face and her familiar smile, and how odd it was feeling she was gone.” —Holliday Vann, When Sexy came Black to Cleveland

About the Author

Just a girl in curls

Holliday Vann graduated from The Ohio State University and Miami University located in Ohio.  She loves high-heel strappy sandals, peaches, wine, Wuthering Heights, the book—most versions of the movie, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and angry poetry.  Since adolescence, she has been in love with reading, writing, and with words.  When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland was written at first as an experiment, a short tale of er0t!c@.  She begs of you, “Forgive the metaphors about food,” as she loves to eat.  The author resides in a pseudo-suburb of Cleveland with her family.  This is her first novel.