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Los Angeles, CA -- Apr 23, 2007 -- /prbuzz/ -- Today, the prestigious Cush City of Houston, Texas, one of the nation’s largest book sales and distribution companies, announced the finalists for its annual “2007 Best New Author Award.” Included was Martha Tucker, wife of the late Mayor Walter Tucker of Compton, CA for her novel, The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires. She was the only nominee from California.

While the novel took ten years to write, it wasted no time in pulling in high praises. Paul G. McDonald, Global Business Incubation (GBI) founder, Chief Research Officer, Urban Futurist and recent National History Maker said, “It’s the best novel by an African American since Devil in a Blue Dress. She created a whole new genre—the Urban Social Mystery.” Dr. Maxine Thompson, author, No Pockets in the Shroud and literary agent, made a similar comment. “The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires is a fresh look at urban blight and plight, a fast-paced suspense novel perched to become a 21st Century Classic.”

Tucker says she wanted to make sense of her life as a mayor’s wife in Compton. “So I just wrote an entertaining novel sprinkled with social commentary. I interpreted my twelve years of experience the way I saw it. I wanted to freeze the African American political climate of the early 80’s for historians and our progeny to look at a hundred years from now.”

She says that the nomination and participating in its process were both an honor and a challenge. The final stage requires an essay that tells why she became a writer. “I wanted to create a character that would be an example for African American women to believe they can do whatever they set their minds to do. Indigo Tate, the main character, though flawed, is extraordinary. She loves, laughs, and is severely damaged, but she has one female quality that saves her children, the city and her life.

Tucker wrote Indigo to be as resilient as Celie in the Color Purple, Scarlett from Gone With the Wind. She will be remembered long after the last page is read. Most of the novel’s readers agree on two things: the book is a page-turner and Indigo is a real heroine.

Presently, Tucker’s calendar is full of speaking engagements that illuminate the theme of her novel. “Division within the Black race has no place in healing lives. Women demanding their self-respect is only true sign of progress.”

The novel can be purchased at the following locations: Eso Won Bookstore, Los Angeles;
Zahara's Bookstore, Inglewood; Amazon.com; Barnes & Noble, and author’s website:
www.urbanclassicbooks.com

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