Zane's Blog

New York Times Bestselling Author ZANE and Sister 2 Sister Magazine's Publisher JAMIE FOSTER BROWN Cordially Invite You To "AN OPPORTUNITY TO LINE YOUR POCKETS WITH GOLD AND LOOK GOOD AT THE SAME TIME" Does the state of today's economy have you singing the blues? Do you feel like sometimes it would be easier to simply give up? Take charge of your life. Let us show you a new outlook on your potential. Every day is a gift and a chance for a new beginning. Come and begin to reinvent yourself with Jamie and Zane, for the only limitations exist in one's mind. If you live in the DC/MD/VA Area and want to become recession-proof in the middle of a recession, all that we ask for is an hour of your time. In one hour, we can show you how to increase your earning potential and become empowered. We will also show you how to live a healthier lifestyle. Join us on Wednesday, July 15, 2009, at 7:00 PM sharp. We will be meeting on the lower level of THE ECLIPSE located at 2820 Bladensburg Road, NE, Washington, D.C. www.theeclipsedc.com. Refreshments will be served, complimentary copies of Sister 2 Sister Magazine will be on hand, and Zane will do a book signing following the presentation. Come find out what has two powerful business women so excited that they feel an obligation to uplift others as they uplift themselves. We look forward to networking with all of you. Even if you cannot attend, please join our email list to learn about future meetings, events, and opportunities by sending a blank email to JamieandZane-subscribe@topica.com.

If you live in the DC/MD/VA area, want to be able to show people how to lose 2-3 dress sizes in 10 minutes and want to make a lot of extra income, email me at Zaneopp@gmail.com. I will eventually be able to offer this same opportunity to others but first, I need you to be able to attend a meeting next week in the DC area. If I did not think it was worth your time, I certainly would not be sending out this email, nor would I be a distributor of these products myself--but I am. Blessings Zane

As of Monday, tomorrow, Planet Zane will be moving to Planetzane.org. Eventually, Planetzane.net will redirect to the new site. In the meantime, I need everyone to please go to www.planetzane.org and join the site. We had to rush this process because of the impending shut down of the Ning site within hours. Many of the features are giving error messages right now but they will be corrected within the next 48-72 hours. You can search all the members by going to SEARCH and then clicking on SEARCH without changing the parameters. We apologize for this move but the new site has a lot of great features including multiple chat rooms. Once you create or join a club, a chat room for the club will automatically show up under CHAT and MY CLUB ROOMS. Thanks for your patience and if you have any questions, please the CONTACT US link at the bottom of the page and send us an email. Blessings, Zane

10,000 Good Black Men It is a new year and I am sick and tired of my sisters dealing with men who do not appreciate them; myself included. Thus, I am on a quest. I am looking for 10,000 good black men to showcase on my new dating web site, Blackgentlemen.com, which will launch on Valentine's Day. Last year I had my official CLAIM YOUR PUSSY BACK DAY. Now I am having my official CLAIM YOUR DIGNITY BACK DAY on February 14th, 2009. I no longer want to see my beautiful sisters-of all races-struggling to find a decent man. To assist you in the process, I plan to hand select the men who will initially grace the profile pages of Blackgentlemen.com. For more than a decade, I have answered advice mail from women and men who are looking for a real relationship; one free of drama and bullshit. So I want sincere men, men who really are searching for a good woman to settle down with. Not the type of men who are looking for online booty calls or to see how many women they can bed down within a given year. Let me break down what a real man is for you all. A real man is not controlled by his dick but his mind. A real man not only respects women but also respects himself. A real man sees the true beauty in a woman, even if she does not look like a movie star or model. A real man is confident but not arrogant. A real man is compassionate to the plight of others. A real man does not spend a lot of time harping on what he does not want, but instead on what he desires. A real man takes care of himself financially and does not expect a woman to wear the pants in the household. A real man has ambitions and goals in life, and has a plan to achieve them. A real man can appreciate the differences in people, instead of fearing and passing judgment on that which he does not understand. A real man is not one who has had sex with a thousand different women but one who can make love to the same woman a thousand different ways. In order to find these 10,000 good black men, I have set up a special email address for submissions. That's right. I said submissions. I am not going to allow any random man onto my site. You must submit a photo and not any photo either. A professional looking photo, preferably with a shirt and tie on. No cell phone camera pictures of your chest taken in the bathroom mirror. No pictures of you laying half-naked on the bed, with a bunch of clutter around you at that. No pictures of you and your boys at a club holding forties and posing in front of a spray painted backdrop of a Lexus. None of that. You might think that I am tripping but I am only getting started. In addition, you must submit an essay of at least 200 words, telling me what kind of man you are and what type of woman you are looking for. It must be grammatically correct. Feel free to use your spell check or ask a friend to assist you but I will be looking for typos. For the past several months, I have been perusing and even joined a few other dating web sites, which shall remain nameless. I did that in anticipation of opening my own site and have learned the things that I do and do not want on Blackgentlemen.com. A lot of the profiles are not only uninteresting but some are downright insulting. Not only the male profiles but many of the women as well. Let me say this. You can be the finest thing on the face of the earth-in your own mind-but that does not mean that everyone will want you. A dating web site is not meant only for you to select the people you would like to get to know better but they have to select you as well. Some people seem to lose sight of that fact. Now I am going to keep the faith that I can actually find 10,000 good black men in a little over a month. It will be a daunting task because let's face it, there are a lot of pit bulls hopping in and out of beds Nationwide. There is not a prerequisite for a man to be overly attractive but he must have that swagger about him that women find appealing. I am searching for men of all ages, sizes, builds, heights, occupations, and from all over. They must be over the age of eighteen. So men, if you feel you have what it takes to receive a complimentary three-month membership to Blackgentlemen.com, send your photo and essay to goodmen@blackgentlemen.com. If any of you women have brothers, cousins, fathers, sons, coworkers, etc., that you feel are good men who just need to find a good woman, feel free to entice them to submit their information. All of this might sound crazy but I am serious. I refuse to start a dating web site and have women on there trying to select from the bottom of the dog pound. That is not fair and, like I said, I have endured that experience myself on other sites. I want the real deal. Are you it? Blessings, Zane

Zane's Sex Chronicles: The Season Finale Everyone has been so excited about the show that I dreaded even sending out this email but, at the same time, I cannot wait to hear the reactions to tonight's episode entitled "The Seduction." Yes, you read it right. It has been 12 weeks and just like The Wire, Oz, True Blood, 24, Prison Break, and CSI, Zane's Sex Chronicles-Season One, has come to an end. I hope that you will all tune in, no matter where you are, since many of you are traveling. The show airs tonight at 12:30 am EST right after Forrest Gump. Talk about going from innocent and virginal to freaky deaky-LOL The shows will repeat at some point and there are four feature films based off the show that will start showing in early January. I want everyone who has been watching the show this season to tell me what you think. Either hit me up on MySpace at www.myspace.com/zaneland or email me at zane@eroticanoir.com or come and visit me and 4,000 of the freakiest people you have ever seen in your entire life on PlanetZane.net. Terrell Carter and Trae Ireland, who portray Jamal and John on the show, have now joined Planet Zane as well. It would mean the world to the cast and me if you could log on to Planet Zane and tell each one of them what you think about their characters. Thanks so much for all of the love, the support, the dedicated viewing and for spreading the word about "Zane's Sex Chronicles" on Cinemax. This has been a ground-breaking experience and I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to take my writing, and in truth my life, to television. We will see you next season but meanwhile, make sure you purchase the DVD set of Season One upon its release. Blessings, Zane

I wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I cannot believe that Christmas is less than a week away. Where did the time go? I hope you all have special plans with your loved ones. Thanks for all of the love shown to me throughout the years. Since Wednesday, nearly 1,500 more people have joined PlanetZane.net and let's just say, that HAPPY PEOPLE has taken on an entire new meaning in our camp-LOL I wanted to remind everyone to watch tonight's episode of "Zane's Sex Chronicles" on Cinemax. Tonight we are following Denzel Washington's fine ass in "American Gangster" so we will not be airing until 1 am EST. That means you can club an hour longer or set your TIVO or get your freak on and have an extra hour to get ready for the heat, the drama, and yes, the sex. Tonight's episode is entitled "The Voyeur" about a young woman who becomes fascinated with a neighbor after watching him blow out many backs through her telescope. I wanted to share something that I wrote this morning about writing. I hope you are feeling what I am saying and hope to see you on Planet Zane one day soon. Blessings, Zane I am constantly receiving daily emails from people who want to become writers and ask for my guidance on how to start. That is a very vague question and my response is generally the same. The only way to become a writer is to sit down and do it. Writing is a solitary process and no two people have the same exact journey on their path to achieving their dreams. Writing should be about passion, the love of the craft, and the love of reading. It amazes when I hear that some writers do not read. Stephen King touched upon that in his book "On Writing." If you never read, how do you know what good writing is comprised of? My love of reading started very young and has never wavered. That is why I love publishing just as much, if not more, than writing. What writing should not be about is financial gain. Most writers will never become rich not when it comes to money but they can become rich when it comes to self-fulfillment. Like musicians, painters, poets, and everyone else creative, the majority of them never achieve wealth from doing what they love to do but it is still worth it. So for those of you counting royalty checks before you even finish your first manuscript or trying to figure out how big of an advance a publisher might give you, odds are that you will not succeed in this business. There are definitely ways to benefit from other writers. One way is to share concepts, ideas, and to support the efforts of one another. The second you start comparing yourself to another, or believing that you are better than another, that is when you are setting yourself up for a rude awakening. The fact of the matter is that it is not up to you to determine how good you are. Ultimately it will be up to the people presented with your work readers. People have different preferences and your style of writing may or may not be one of them. I have never proclaimed that my writing was for everybody. In fact, I know it is not. But I do have my readership and I have never shoved a book in someone's hand or begged them to purchase a book. They have made a choice to read my work, just like the thousands of open-minded people who have decided to join PlanetZane.net since its launch less than ten days ago. When I write, I do not think about what people expect from me as a writer. I write today for the same reasons that I wrote twelve years ago three years before I even put out a book. I write because I love it. I go into a zone with just me, my characters, and my imagination and I self-entertain. It is a blessing that others are entertained by my writing as well, but even though I have sold millions of books, some people are still proclaiming that it is all a fluke. Their measure of my talent is meaningless and no matter how many bad articles or blogs, it has not had a negative effect on my success. In fact, I would argue that it has helped it. Controversy sells so I am actually grateful for the naysayers who spew negativity about me. It makes them look silly and they do not even realize it. It also makes people wonder what kind of writing could spark such hostility. For the other writers who claim that my works are trash, all I can say is this: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. I am so excited to be alive in this day and time, where the opportunities for writers of color are better than ever. I am so pleased to see so many people working together to achieve their dreams. That is one of the reasons why I started the online social network for writers at www.readers.ning.com. So that writers-both published and unpublished-can vibe together and work together to make sure that the literary industry does not die. I have no ill-feelings toward ANY author and if someone implies that, believe that it is some one-sided imaginary drama. There are those that I do not have dealings with, because nothing positive can come from the experience but I have nothing against them and wish them the best with their careers. I am not in competition with anyone because I do not consider my path to be like anyone else's. I am not one to follow in someone's footsteps but to make my own path and leave a trail. There are no big I's and little U's in this business. If I was all about me, I would not be publishing 36-60 books yearly by other authors. I would be chilling in my house writing day and night instead of going into an office and shuffling through thousands of submissions yearly and acquiring books. I would be working on a book right now instead typing this in hopes of encouraging those who seek to become published authors. I even had one woman email me on MySpace to try to squash some beef. Not only did I not know about the beef, I had never even heard of her. People have tried to use some delusional animosity between me and them to forward their careers. It has yet to work, nor will it ever work. I encourage all of you not to allow any negativity into your personal space. I live my life both public and private that way. I only engage in dialogue with positive, proactive, and encouraging people. You should do the same. It is so easy to ignore people, especially if their only way to reach out to you is via the Internet. A lot of people get caught up in drama with people over the computer. Honestly, it is so easy to press the delete button or sign off and do something productive. Time waits for no one and the same time and energy people spend on nonsense and negativity can be better utilized trying to accomplish something. I cannot count the number of people that I have witnessed shoot themselves in the foot in this business. I feel sorry for them but no one can control the choices of another. So to those of you who want to become writers, listen up. The only limitations that exist in life are in your mind that goes for your aspirations to become a published author and anything else. No one can tell me that I cannot achieve anything that is humanly possible. No one can tell me that I should not be doing what I love doing. Ultimately, talent will only take you so far. A lot of it is fate, timing, and determination. Completing a manuscript is often the easiest part, for once your work is put into print, then you have to transform from being a writer to an author. A writer sits in front of a computer or a writing tablet and lets his or her words flow. An author has to convince people to purchase their books, based upon the impression that they have something to say. That should be done by being humble, being approachable, and being sincere. It is not done by talking negatively about other authors, or by acting like you are better than others. It is not done by blaming someone else for your lack of success. Why would you even want to insinuate that another human being could have that type of control over your life? When you do a book signing, if someone wants to take photos, do it. If someone shows up with a shopping bag full of books and does not even purchase one that day, sign all of them. If there are five hundred people in line and your signing ends up running an hour overtime, spend a moment with every single person in that line. Why? Because you should appreciate the fact that they even came to your signing, that they even read your work, and that they think enough of you to want to speak with you or get your autograph. An author communicates with their readers on a daily basis. I will not lie. It is not always easy to check the email boxes on Eroticanoir.com, PlanetZane.net, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, AOL, Simon and Schuster, Gmail, Black Planet, and Readers.ning.com. There are days that I have received up to 8,000 emails in a single day no joke. But you know what? I love and appreciate each and every one of them because it means that someone was thinking of me enough to reach out to me. The thousands of advice emails that I receive monthly are especially important to me. To realize that the people who reach out to me are in some of the darkest and most depressing stages of their life and trust my opinion enough to ask for it is overwhelming. I feel their pain, I understand their situations, and the confusion and lack of communication when it comes to relationships is one of the main reasons why I chose to follow the path that I did. Just make sure that whatever you write about comes from the heart. A great place to start when it comes to writing is with a person, a place, or an event that has had a lasting effect on you. Whether that be a parent who was not there for you or was your pillar of strength, a childhood experience that caused you great joy or pain, a past lover who left a lasting impression on you, a grandparent who meant the world to you but has passed on, or a traumatic experience that you have never gotten over. My books are really not about sex at all, despite what people think. Neither is my Cinemax series, which, by the way, has had excellent ratings every single week. My writing is about life. My characters are real to me and they are all different. I wish that it were possible to have a "family reunion" and break bread with Zoe and Jason from Addicted, Rayne and Yardley from Afterburn, Jonquinette from Nervous, Bryce, Harmony and Lucky from Shame on it All, and Harmony and Geren from The Heat Seekers. Then Chico and Tomalis from Skyscraper can fall into the party late, right before Robier from Love is Never Painless arrives with his new wife. Writing should be about fun. It should be about self-discovery and the pursuit of happiness. In fact, that is what life should be about. So my biggest suggestion is to not take things so seriously. Ultimately what is for you will be for you and it is up to a higher power the only true power to determine what life has in store for all of us. Grab a glass of wine, water, or coffee, get comfortable at your desk or with your laptop on your bed, and escape. That is the greatest pleasure when it comes to writing; being in your zone. Blessings, Zane

PlanetZane.net has been open officially for one week now. All I can say is OFF THE CHAIN! If you are not among the thousands of people who have already joined and started vibing, you are truly missing out. It has exceeded my expectations and, if anyone knows anything about me, I think big so this is really something. I have always known that my fan base was comprised of sexually open, uninhibited people but I had no idea that by launching my dream site, things would go so well. When I started Eroticanoir.com a decade ago, it was my intention to have a place for erotica readers, writers and poets to converge and enjoy one another. However, a sister was a little overwhelmed trying to keep up with posting submissions. Now, people are posting their own but that is not all. The forum, the chat room, the blogs, and the groups are the hottest on the Internet. Some of the most recent forum discussions include: Sex in Public, Women Who Taste Their Own Juices, If It's Not Big, Does That Mean He Can Work It, When Your Lover Is Married and Sex While Driving. Some of the most recent blog posts include: This is How You Pussy Whip a Man, Imagine Me Inside of You, A Storm is Cumming, Slippery When Wet...Very Wet, and I Have to Have Him. There are nearly 50 groups formed already, including: The Brothers and Sisters of APF, Sex Addicts Online, Women Who Love Women, The Ultimate Oxymoron?...The Christian Freak, Fantasies and Fetishes, The Cougar Lounge, Tight Cherries, and The Sensuality Seekers, as well as local groups for various cities including Miami, Atlanta, DC, NYC and LA. The cast of "Zane's Sex Chronicles" is active on the site as well. Ezra "Buddha" Masters posted a great blog explaining his role on the show as Hunter and Maya Gilbert posted a great blog expressing her feelings about portraying Lyric. There are also several video clips from the show, for those of you who have not been able to catch an episode. All of this is to say that, I love and appreciate you all and I hope that those of you who have not joined--which is a ton of people on my list I might add-LOL--we would love for you to join us. Where are all the peeps from the AA Sexuality Group that I moderate? The tens of thousands who have been on my personal email list for a decade? My 30,000 MySpace friends? My 400,000 Black Planet friends? The millions of people who watch my cable series? Come on now. Show a sister some love so I can chill on Planet Zane and not have to run around to 10 different email boxes daily. Believe it or not, I get back to people like lightning on Planet Zane. It has made my life so much easier. The chat room is active 24/7 LITERALLY and you can even invite people to privately chat. If you are looking for a place free of judgement, free of people trying to tell others what to do, and a place where you can talk about any and everything with people who totally get it, we look forward to seeing you on PLANETZANE.NET. Please also continue to spread the word. Do not forget to tune into Episode 11 this Friday on Cinemax. The episode is entitled "The Voyeur" and you do not want to miss it. It is HOT! Also, please remember that you can purchase all of the books that I have written and published on www.zanestore.com I hope that everyone is getting ready for the holidays. I have yet to go shopping but I will play catch up at the last minute. See you on Planet Zane! Blessings, Zane

I am proud to announce the grand opening of Planetzane.net, where you can openly communicate about love, sex, and relationships. You can also vibe with the case of my Cinemax show "Zane's Sex Chronicles." If you are an erotic poet or writer, this is the place for you. If you want to join Sex Addicts Online, or any of the other groups, feel free to do you. The conversation on PlanetZane.net is for the grown and sexy. Conversations regarding threesomes, sex toys, and everything else under the sun are the norm. Hope to see you on PlanetZane.net. Blessings, Zane

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT!! Zane's Sex Chronicles premieres tonight - Friday, October 10 at midnight ET - with a special one-hour episode, followed by all-new half-hour episodes debuting on subsequent Fridays through December. It's going to be HOT, so don't miss it. Let the sexual revolution begin! Thanks for all your love and support, ZANE

Hello BP Family, Join me tonight for a conversation about my new Cinemax series and anything else you want to ask me about what's going on with me. The chat starts at 6PM. BP tells me that they are going to open up the room around (http://www.blackplanet.com/chat/chatroom.html?room_name=Zane) 5:30 so get your questions in so we can start on time. LOL See you there! Zane