Mar 29

My Husband’s Girlfriend

By The Rax Files No Comments

A celibate husband and wife are the two most dangerous people on earth . . .Neil and Anya Meadows are stuck in a sexless marriage. Anya suffers from a hormonal disorder that leaves her with no sex drive at all, while Neil has a voracious sexual appetite. After one unfulfilling encounter too many, they make a deal: Neil will be allowed to have a mistress, but only for oral sex and only twice a month. And he’s forbidden to fall in love with her.Things don’t exactly work out as planned. Neil and his mistress Danielle have a child together, and all of them—Anya, Neil, Danielle, the new baby, and Neil and Anya’s daughter—decide to live together as Houston’s most complicated blended family. The tension builds as each is forced to make difficult choices, as well as to come to terms with the past—and the future.Fast-paced, provocative, and sexy, My Husband’s Girlfriend explores issues of morality, emotional ties, family, love, and monogamy, and is an eye-opening novel about the complexity of modern love.

Read an excerptBuy the book

REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly

“Rax manages the fallout…with insight, zip and wit, and airs multiple conflicts within black middle-class life in compelling detail.”

DisilgoldSoul Magazine
One of the most provocative, entrancing and insatiable naughty novels of the year has arrived. Cydney Rax is on her way to being a serial bestseller as the author of the reigning book, “My Daughter’s Boyfriend.”

Ann Brown of RAWSISTAZ.com
Cydney Rax has opened Pandora’s box…My Husband’s Girlfriend is an explosive story about the sanctity of marriage, infidelity and the other woman; it will evoke lively discussions.

Marissa Monteilh, author of Make Me Hot

“My Husband’s Girlfriend is a heartfelt special delivery of faith and doing the right thing. Rax has penned a moving, poignant example of the true measure of a woman.”

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT MY HUSBAND’S GIRLFRIEND

  • This novel is my favorite. I love the story, the characters, the writing style, and the emotional depth.
  • I received criticism regarding the storyline. Some said it was so implausible. But when I began receiving emails from readers who were in that situation, or know people who were going through the things my characters went through, it confirmed that people go through all kinds of situations behind the scenes. That just because a reader hasn’t heard of a scenario before, doesn’t mean it’s not happening to someone else in real life.
  • This is the book that male readers respond to the most. As a matter of fact, they confessed that many married men would love to have a wife who doesn’t mind if the hubby has a girlfriend.
  • People write and say “Why don’t you turn this into a movie?” Oh okay, sure thing. Right away. No prob!
  • The sequel to this novel will be released in summer 2010. Can’t wait!
Mar 29

My Best Friend and My Man

By The Rax Files No Comments

MY BEST FRIEND AND MY MAN
My Best Friend and My Man is endorsed by
The things women will do–to men and to each other–in search of loveVeron Darcey is a twentysomething African American woman who wants it all: a successful career, an upwardly mobile life, and a loving, attentive man. But the last few men Veron has been with have either added her to their five-woman rotation or relegated her to the dreaded “just friends” zone.After one particularly bad date, Veron caves in and asks her best friend, Demetria Sparks, to share her secrets. Demetria is a gorgeous woman who has something special–men line up to paint her toenails and lavish her with Caribbean cruises and diamond rings. Demetria tries to give Veron a mind-and-body makeover, but sweet Veron struggles with being aggressive. And when Demetria demonstrates her method on Veron’s dream guy, Seaphes, his lack of interest provokes her to pull out all the stops–and forces Veron into a fierce competition between mentor and student. With pressure (and sexual tension) mounting, Veron begins to wonder if changing herself is a mistake. But is it too late to back off her new game now that she’s gotten a juicy taste of just what she’s capable of?
REVIEWS
“Whatever’s in the water in Houston, Cydney Rax should drink eight glasses a day.” —Patrik Henry Bass, Senior Editor, Essence Magazine
My Best Friend and My Man glows with sexuality, warmth and drama! Cydney Rax has done it again! —T. Styles, Essence Magazine bestselling author of A Hustler’s Son and Black and Ugly
I really enjoyed My Best Friend and My Man. There are some parts where Cydney has you laughing out loud and others where you want to reach in and throttle the characters. Cydney has another hit on her hands! —Desiree Day, author of Crazy Love and One G-String Short of Crazy
Smart, sexy and wickedly funny! Once again, Cydney Rax displays her keen ability to weave a story of romance and mayhem with characters that you’ll both love…and love to hate.–Nancey Flowers, Essence Magazine bestselling author of No Strings Attached
Mar 29

Gearing Up for My Fourth Novel

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It’s almost April 2009. Life has been so very busy, so utterly dramatic, that sometimes I can’t even believe half the things that happen. New prez. Changed economy. New ways of using the Internet. New job responsibilities. Oh, and a new book!! Wow, about ten years ago I remember feeling anxious about getting into the publishing industry. I wanted to be a novelist. Wanted to do what the other writers were doing. Back then you’d walk into the library or the bookstore and would find stories by Sandra Kitt, Bebe Moore Campbell, Connie Briscoe, Omar Tyree, Sheneska Jackson, E. Lynn Harris, and Marita Golden. Back then the idea of books by and about black people seemed so pure. Pure in that it was like a brand new thing. At least that’s how it felt to me. Back then was different, way different, than now. We only had a few shelves of books, and we were so happy to be able to read those books. Now we have rows and rows, entire sections, in the bookstore and the library. And there’s no way on earth anybody can read every book written by African American authors. Not anymore. Too many books. And not enough time.

So, the fact that I have a new novel coming out this summer, is amazing. It’s like my dream is still in motion. And that is a wonderful feeling.

My Sister’s Ex will be released on Tuesday, August 4th (Barack Obama’s birthday). The story of two siblings who must sort out raw feelings over a two-timing Casanova named Jeffrey Williams. Some elements of this novel may be considered classic Rax, but there’s still something different about it. This time around, I got to explore family dynamics in a way that I haven’t done before. Family drama is real. Family drama can be scary, frustrating. Emotional. Life-changing.

So make sure and mark the date on your calendar. Add My Sister’s Ex to your wish list. Read the novel. And, if you’re a brave soul, let me know if you have your own personal testimony about a sister and an ex-boyfriend.

Jan 06

Book Titles

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Just popping in early Sunday morning to break out a discussion regarding titling books. As you know my book titles are:

My Daughter’s Boyfriend
My Husband’s Girlfriend
My Best Friend and My Man

Now, cutting to the chase: some readers LOVE my titles, think that they are catchy and are intrigued enough to put the books on their shopping list, etc. Others, as I am starting to find out, are wondering what the heck is going on and why do I name my books in this manner, yada yada.

One lady wrote me and said that the titles don’t leave room for imagination and am I going to consider changing how I do things.

Which brings me to this — titles sell books. An author or a publisher is trying his or her best to choose a title that will immediately click with a potential reader. You want your titles to stand out. You want it to perfectly convey the gist of your story. I am 100% aware that my books reach a certain target market so, of course, there will be readers that automatically pass up my books because they may be turned off by the content, titles, etc. And that’s fine. I don’t believe there is any book that every single person on earth is going to want to read. Not even Harry Potter and these sell millions (yet I’ve never read an HP book).

So I know my audience. And it is true that it takes several books before your readers find you. It takes years to build an audience. And usually the way to do that is by carving out a niche in the literary world — a niche that identifies you as an author. Carl Weber, Kimberla Lawson Roby, Zane, Noire, Shannon Holmes, Victoria Christoper Murray, and countless others (well maybe not countless) but lots of authors have successfully managed this. I think it is too risky to write 7 books and all of them are drastically different from one another. You’re dividing up your audience when you do that. So long story short, in order to build your career, in the beginning you’re looking for consistency so people can know who you are, what you write.

A little history – when I was unpublished and first wrote My Daughter’s Boyfriend, I had no idea that anyone would want to publish the book. It wasn’t like I purposely said “I’m going to write lots of books that start with the word MY”. That wasn’t the case. I knew that MDB was a catchy title from the jump. The agent loved it and so did my publisher. And that is the reason I got my foot in the publishing door in the first place.

My second title My Husband’s Girlfriend was actually created by my then editor. So I didn’t name the book. My title was The Arrangement. But she actually started this trend for my books and I am grateful. It works! My books consistently sell. No, maybe not 100,000 per title but I have sold 100,000 copies collectively (or at least 100,000 are in print). The point is the publisher knows how to market my books. They know what they are doing and I am glad about that.

Now, at this point I have no idea what a 7th or 8th title would be. Not there yet. Hope to be there, but we’ll see. I love writing books, love meeting fans, love it when people email me and say how much they enjoyed my books, how they are addictive, and how they connected to the story. These are the people that inspire me. I write for them. The ones that get it. Now, for the ones who don’t, I’m sorry that they read the books and take it so seriously. They act like the characters existed in real life (LOL) and have a major attitude. But that’s fine because my books are very emotional. You’re going to feel pissed off when you read my books. And that is an amazing feat to me — to take unreal people, fictional situations — and cause readers to experience a myriad of strong, (STRONG) emotions, that sometimes sends them over the edge. Whew! Scary!

And the title, the cover, the storyline are what makes a reader pick up my book in the first place.

The next novel My Best Friend and My Man, same thing. You kinda sense what the book is about, but it won’t be 100% predictable. (Hope not anyway, that would be scary too).

I’m currently reading a book called Why Black Men Love White Women. Hey, I love the darned title. It drew me in. And the book is fascinating and not what you think, it has surprises. The title is catchy. Some will write it off immediately without having read one word. Their loss. Take a chance though. Pick up a book with a title that makes you upset. You might be pleasantly surprised!

Signing off now…to finish reading a book with a controversial title.

Dec 10

Trapped in Blogger Hell

By The Rax Files No Comments

I am so excited because I haven’t blogged in a year and the reason why is so silly it is embarrassing. Since Google took over Blogger, it confused me something terrible. And I never could remember my password — until just now. Yayyyyyyyyy! So I haven’t nothing special to talk about. Just excited that I cracked the code and got through.

While I’m here I want to mention that my third novel MY BEST FRIEND AND MY MAN will be released on June 3, 2008 in trade paperback. It is another taboo relationship novel that deals with men’s and women’s issues. I like the book and pray that you do as well. Here’s a link:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Best-Friend-Man-Novel/dp/0307393771/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197286758&sr=8-1

Pre-sales book orders by bookstores are good and that is exciting to me. I was told by my agent that it takes several books before you can build an audience, before readers find out who you are. Thankfully, I am not sick of the writing business or anything like that and I still have a strong desire to write books, be published, connect with readers, all that.

Please let me know what you’ve been up to. Oh, before I forget, join me on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/cydneyrax). I have been having a good (and interesting) time on this site too.

Take care.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas (it feels good to say that), and Happy New Year.

Nov 26

Ignorant Readers / “Reviewers”

By The Rax Files No Comments

Woo, I hope I do stir up some discussion for what I’m about to drop in this post. One thing I do not like or understand is so-called ‘reviewers’ who really aren’t reviewers because they haven’t even read the book or seen the movie but yet have opinion. STOP! Stop it now. It is sooo annoying for people to blast a book they’ve never ever read, or don’t plan to read yet they can voice their viewpoints?? WTF? Reviews should be done by people that have read the entire book. Not by someone that figures upfront it won’t be worth their time. If it’s not, get to stepping and let a true reader do his or her thing.
Another thing, please do not post every single plot twist in a review. WHY?? LOL. When you do that, you take away their desire to read a book or see or movie. Why should they at that point? They already know everything that’s going to happen. The suspense has been removed. Ugh!
So do us authors a favor. Don’t past judgement on things you don’t know about it. Don’t post reviews on what you’ve heard someone else say. Do read the whole book not just the first chapter and give it a rating. You aren’t really qualified to post a rating based on a chapter. And if you don’t like something, that’s fine, but never tell someone ‘don’t waste your money.’ That’s an ignorant statement. Why? Because why would you care what other people do with their money. It’s not yours. You don’t have the right. I know that is a statement that some people tend to put in their comments, but it is totally irrelevant and unnecessary. 🙂
Okay, I’m about to get off my soapbox. Right now I’m reading Hood Rat by K’wan, my introduction to this author’s work. I’m also working on my third book titled How To Be His Number One. And thanks to each of you that do read my books and have listed them as favorites. Thank God someone out there is feeling me!!! 🙂
Take care,
CR

Mar 26

MySpace.com

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I don’t know much about MySpace.com, but I just wanted to send a shout out to those folks that set up shop on that website — and who have also mentioned My Daughter’s Boyfriend as a book they’ve read and/or recommend. I really LOVE seeing my mentioned book on these personal sites, but I have no way to thank the people unless I join/sign up/create an account, and that’s not about to happen. LOL. Sooooooooo thanks for making me smile. My readers always sprinkle some sunshine my way. Kisses to ya!! —cydney rax