Tracy L. Darity
Tracy Darity is a native of St. Petersburg, Florida. She is the mother of three daughters, Morgan, Jasmin, and Shaunte. After 20+ years working in corporate as a Client Relationship Manager she is now a full-time freelance content writer and author.
As a child, she had a creative imagination and a love for reading. In her early teens, she began writing short stories as a hobby. It was not until she attended the 1997 Essence Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, that she decided she wanted to fulfill her dream of becoming a novelist. The words of Tavis Smiley inspired her. During his speech at one of the forums she jotted down this message, "We all have a God-given talent but if you don't have the desire to define, develop, and deliver your talent, you will always be in the audience and never on stage."
Tracy returned home from the festival energized and began penning her first novel. Although the manuscript was completed in late 1998, she became discouraged after receiving rejection letter after rejection letter from the publishing industry. She shelved her manuscript but now and then she would pull it out and do minor rewrites. The desire to have her work published still simmered deep inside. In 2004 the flame inside of her reignited and she decided to pursue self-publishing. As time passed she began to feel discouraged again but refused to give up. She did research, talked with other self-published authors, and continued to believe that her dream would one day become a reality. Today she is working on her fourth book, "When Sunday Comes...Will I Still Believe God," her first non-fiction work.
“I can't swim in a sea of mediocrity and pretend I'm not drowning.”
“They drove back to her house in silence. Terrance pulled the car into the driveway and turned off the engine. Turning toward her, he said, “Khadejah, I really like you a lot and I don’t want to hurt you. But I’m not a virgin and I like to have sex. If we’re going to keep seeing each other, you’ve got to make a decision, because if I can’t get it from you I’ll get it from someone else.” He looked her straight in her tear-filled eyes. “I need to know whether to get a room for after the concert. Let me know tomorrow.” He reached over and opened her door. Khadejah didn’t say a word. She got out of the car and went into the house.Terrance sat there for a few minutes wondering if he was being fair. She had to know that he was having sex. Damn, I should feel honored that she’s still a virgin, he thought. Shit, I’ll just have my cake and eat it, too.Ten minutes later, Terrance was knocking on Adrienne’s door. “Hey, can I come in?”
“Baby, God ain't gonna bless you with another woman's husband, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
“Finally, her father spoke. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t understand how this could have happened. She’s only fifteen; I didn’t even know she was sexually active.” Mallory’s father, normally in control, was on the verge of tears. He refused to look at his daughter, his little girl. As much as he had preached abstinence to her, he still kept a watchful eye over her, yet here they were, facing the unthinkable. He wanted to know when this happened, and with whom—but those questions would have to wait.”