Chandra Sparks Splond Kicks Off BPL Local Authors Online Reading Challenge

Chandra Sparks Splond kicked off the BPL Local Authors Online Reading Challenge.

As a service for those stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic,the Birmingham Public Library is launching the BPL Local Authors Online Reading Challenge featuring past participants of the BPL Local Authors Expo.

The campaign kicks off today with Chandra Sparks Splond, an award-winning Birmingham-based author, editor and blogger. Black Pearls Magazine honored Splond as a Legends & Leaders for her award-winning blog, Book of Splond, which helps African-American women balance faith, family and fiction.

See video link to Splond reading a portion of her book Spin It Like That by clicking here https://youtu.be/tbDRNwUFnVo 

Other authors who have participated in past BPL Local Authors Expo are invited to send video links of them reading a portion of one or more of their books.

BPL will feature the authors on the BPL website, www.cobpl.org, BPL Facebook (www.Facebook.com/BirminghamPublicLibrary) and BPL Twitter (www.twitter.com/BPL)

Interested authors should send the following to BPL Public Relations Director Roy Williams to his email roy.williams@cobpl.org:

* Author name and year they participated in the Local Authors Expo 

* Video link to a reading of his/her book

* Brief description of the book

* Brief author bio

* Link to author website or link to where people can buy the book 

* Head shot photo 

Below is an introduction to the first Local Author, Chandra Sparks Splond. 

Chandra Sparks Splond is a Birmingham-based editor, speaker and award-winning author and blogger. She is a 2019 recipient of the Learning for Life award presented by the Orlean Beeson School of Education at Samford University.

In addition to having published several No. 1 Amazon bestselling books, Splond’s young adult novel Make It Work was named Alabama's Great Read 2017.  Spin It Like That” was chosen as a Popular Paperback for Young Adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and The Pledge was a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.

Black Pearls Magazine honored Splond as a Legends & Leaders for her award-winning blog, Book of Splond, which helps African-American women balance faith, family and fiction. Splond is the owner of West End Publishing, LLC. Her editing clients have included several New York Times, USA Today and Essence bestselling authors.

In addition to working for Kensington Publishing as the consulting editor for Arabesque romance, Splond has also done work for Random House, Moody Publishers, Kimani Press (formerly known as BET Books), Hyperion, Good Housekeeping and several others.

Splond graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa with a degree in journalism and has a master’s degree in instructional design and technology from Samford University. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She resides in Birmingham, Ala. with her family.

 About the Book “Spin It Like That”:

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Richardson has a love for music. When she gets on the turntables, her gift for spinning and rhyming earn her admiration and respect. She's also talented academically, but her parents disapprove of their daughter's hobby, hoping it's a phase she's going through. Still, Jasmine finds it hard to deny the joy and freedom she feels when she's playing music that makes people smile and dance.

After a local contest, Jasmine attracts the interest of some music-industry honchos. Then the attitudes of the people around her seem to change and she's forced to face some tough situations. Suddenly it becomes harder for her to tell who's really happy for her and who's totally a fake. But when the music is in your heart, and your talent shines bright, sometimes all you can do is…spin it like that.

 Spin It Like That” is available on Amazon.com or on Splond's website, www.chandrasparkssplond.com