Talk:Barbara Neely

Discussion
Testing, is this the discussion page SFSU students are going to be using? -Lperdomo — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lgperdomo  • contribs) 23:22, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, if you mean a discussion about the author. Viriditas (talk) 02:51, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Awards
Hey, STSU project partners, whoever is in charge of the awards section of our article, I found a good source that makes some more notes on awards that Neely has won.

"In 1992, Neely published her first mystery novel, Blanche on the Lam, which was widely heralded by critics. Barbara Neely won several awards such as the "Go On Girl!" Award from the Black Women's Book Club for the best debut novel, the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the Macavity award for Best First Mystery Novel. Over the course of the next eight years, Barbara Neely wrote three more mystery novels featuring Blanche White." I got this from http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/neelyBarbara.php so it seems like a good source to use! --Lgperdomo (talk) 16:38, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Expansion
Not sure if this is the right place to post this since I don't see anyone else response...But I'll post it here any way and move it if I have to later. I took a look at the William Attaway page, and I think that we can definitely take some valuable ideas from what that group is doing. From what I've been reading regarding Barbara Neely, this lady was/is super involved in political movements and social-justice movements and I think if we can just have a few more categories under our page we can address a lot more interesting facts about this woman's life. So have like, "Growing up" "Career (and talk about all of her changes in career)" "Family" "Political involvement". We could add more, those are just the ones that I'm thinking of off the top of my head. I know that it may make our article look a little long, but there's so much to say about this woman I think it's definitely plausible. Also, I finished adding little paragraphs about the books, just because most of them don't have an actual article yet. Please let me know where else I can help at this point! Again, sorry if I posted this in the wrong place! --Lgperdomo (talk) 16:38, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I took a look at Dagoberto Gilb's Wikipedia page and I noticed how their Selected Works was laid out. I really liked how they used bullet points to lay out his selected works, awards, and books section. I think that it makes it look organized and simple. I could possibly suggest that his background or biography could be more elaborated with details and maybe even add a Style section to his page. Hope I helped! Corissac (talk) 02:39, 2 November 2011 (UTC)Corissac

I looked at both Rebecca Harding Davis and William Attaway's page. I really like all the information the William Attaway's page the group seems to have a lot of the information down however I think it would flow better if they switched the family and personal life with literacy and career. Also, it would look better if they added more information on the top just to grab more attention from the readers. For the Rebecca HArding Davis, I like how the group is handling the information and how they decorated the page by adding visuals. In my group, I think as some of my group members have said add more sections like the "family" one is a good one. We have her early life but not her present life... she's not dead so we should incorporate where she is now. Also, it would help our page if we had visuals other than her picture. Lastly, we can add more to the box where her information is to be more attracting to the reader. Hope this helps! (User talk:lindammunoz) Lindammunoz (talk) 05:28, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

I looked at William Attaway's page and thought it was a good start. I think it was interesting that they included the major influences on him when he was younger which could be useful to include in our early life/bio section. They're information seemed very focused and to the point which i think is really important. However, I think that the way we broke our page up into more sections makes it a lot easier for us to have various sections of focused information that gives our article a much more finished feel. (Katebelknap (talk) 06:54, 8 November 2011 (UTC))

Ok for the second round of looking at other groups pages I focused on Davis page. I'm particularly interested in the way they're treating their "Major Works" section. I think we need to break up "Publishing career" because half of what is included in that would be better suited under the Major Works section. For Publishing Career maybe we could focus on any difficulties Neely might have had in getting her work published either because of the content, because she was a woman, or because she was African american. I would like to make this change, but I don't want to step on any toes, so let me know what you guys think! --Lgperdomo (talk) 08:04, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

I looked at the Rebecca Harding Davis page. I liked the way they broke up her biography and how they did the "personal and family life" section. I also thought that it was good how they had a whole section on her works and an analysis of "Life on the Iron Mills", however I did mention that they focused too much on that particular piece and that maybe they should do more research on her other works since she did have an extensive collection of short stories, books, and some essays. As for ours, I wish there was more stuff out there on Barbara Neely that wasn't so repetitive. Andreanamv (talk) 7:07am, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Works
I've added a cleanup tag to the "Works" section. On Wikipedia, we generally discriminate between appendices such as a "Bibliography" or list of works and a section about their "Works" or publishing career. Obviously, there is some ambiguity over their use as either a major section or as an appendix, but GA and FA articles often use works as a major subject heading and bibliography as an appendix, although this can vary widely. Viriditas (talk) 06:44, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Moved works to talk page
I've moved this information to the talk page. This particular article is about Barbara Neely, and should focus more on her publishing career, her literary style, and touch briefly on the critical reception of her work. If anything, the material below could be merged into new stub articles on her novels. Viriditas (talk) 07:04, 28 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Removed material

Blanche on the Lam opens with Blanche standing in front of a judge, pleading her case over some bad checks. Barely listening to Blanche's request, the judge sentences her to thirty days in jail. In the midst of some courthouse confusion Blanche escapes and seeks refuge at a home of a wealthy family for whom she was scheduled to work as a housecleaner. On the job, she joins the family and retreats to the countryside expecting a simple life, but instead finds herself in the middle of a mysterious mess of murder and deception."

In Barbara Neely's second novel, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, we again journey with Blanche White through her investigations of a puzzling murder. In this novel Blanche embarks on a ten-day excursion to Amber Cove, a wealthy and exclusive black settlement in the state of Maine. Upon her arrival, she discovers that her dark skin and occupation as a domestic worker are objects of scorn in the predominately light skinned upper class community. Blanche enters the community shortly after the somewhat suspicious death of Faith Brown, a woman known to have been blackmailing several residents in the town. Blanche takes it upon herself to investigate the murder."

In the third novel, Blanch Cleans Up, Blanch “takes a job as a cook for a local political family as a favor for a friend. She sees a wife's fragile sorrow, a son's estrangement, and a father's unending desire to become the next governor. A string of deaths in the neighborhood all seem to lead back to the family's house. Blanche goes on to resolve what turns out to be several murders connected to sex, disgrace, and heartbreak. All of this is done while she is raising her teenage niece and nephew as her own, and trying to keep their hopes and futures safe.”

In the fourth novel, Blanch Passes Go, Blanch has retired from housekeeping work. “In this story, Blanche's mission is deeply personal as she seeks vengeance from David Palmer, the white man who raped her eight years prior. Using a friend's catering business and a network of informants, Blanche slowly uncovers the history of her rapist, as well as the truth behind the unsolved murder of a young white woman. The novel displays Blanche at her most vulnerable: confronting a horrifying memory and reconciling her past while trying to maintain her life as a strong, independent Black woman.”

Suggestions
You definitely need to rewrite the article to eliminate typos, clumsy sentences, etc. I'm surprised the "detective" narrative doesn't play a more prominent role in your "Literary Style" section. Also, might be good to add a section on "Themes." Again, take a look at good model pages like this one on Stephen Crane. Can you dig up anymore information about sales? or about legacy/reception of her work? Profhanley (talk) 17:07, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

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