Delta Sigma Theta's Red Carpet Event Showcased Local Authors

What makes two women – total strangers – hug each other in a busy mall or airport, just because they recognize the red triangular lapel pin trimmed in gold that one or both of them wears? Because they are Deltas.

“That’s what sisterhood is all about,” explained local author Linda Moyé as she addressed attendees of the fourth annual Red Carpet Showcase hosted by The Prince William County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. last Saturday in Manassas Park.

Moyé is the author of four poetry books and editor of “Delta Girls: Stories of Sisterhood,” personal stories written by 39 members of her sorority. She published her first novel, “The Pledge – Life is Eternal and So Is Love,” and is currently working on a second novel.

Moyé was one of nine authors, an artist and a musician featured in the Dec. 7 showcase at Cougar Elementary School in Manassas Park. The sorority hosts the free event each year to encourage literacy and to offer exposure to the arts for the whole community, according to event chair Melissa Davis. The sorority also sells poinsettias to raise funds for the Martin Luther King Day Celebration (scheduled for Jan. 20, 2014 at 11 a.m. at the Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge – snow date Jan. 25 at 11 a.m.).

A highlight of the showcase was vivacious Victoria Christopher Murray, also a Delta and one of the country’s top African American contemporary authors, who splits her time between Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

Murray, who found eleven-year-old author and MLK essay winner Candace Todd (“To Live a Dream”) a hard act to follow, noted, especially for Todd, that she herself received encouragement as a young writer from one of her teachers in elementary school.

Murray self-published her first novel, “Temptation,” in 1997; Time Warner bought it and sold 9,000 copies in six months. Sixteen years and 20 books later, she is currently with Simon and Schuster and has more than a million copies of her novels in print, including a Christian fiction series for teens, “The Divine Divas.”

Murray engaged the audience with a short, cliff-hanging excerpt from her latest novel, “Never Say Never,” a 9/11 inspired story about a widow who struggles with her broken heart and the love she feels for her best friend’s husband.

Other authors featured in the showcase included two children’s book authors, Angela Harris (“Mommy What's a CEO?”) and Tasha Fuller (“It's Bath Time Baby”); inspirational writer Deborah Tompkins Johnson, who interviewed 12 role models for her book, "How Did They Do That – Career Highlights, Triumphs & Challenges"; and West Point graduate and military fiction novelist Terron Sims (“The Honor Series”).

Artist Eric Suggs, Jr., of Art Way Alliance, a professional comic book designer and cartoonist, shared his work, and musician Jamé Jackson performed "Summertime" from Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess, and "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson on piano.