Lakisha, the Author

Blog Tour … Queen’s Checkmate by Kierra Petty

Born and raised in Carson, California (Del Amo) a city in Southern California, Kierra Petty has had aspirations of becoming an entertainment magnate since was eight years old. In 2007 she received 1st place for Friar’s Charitable foundation’s Martin Roth Student Screenwriting award, where she completed her 1st feature length script at the age of 16. This blossoming film maker made a splash as a songwriter jumping on hook after hook, while attending Savannah State University. Within a year of graduating Georgia State University with a B.A. in film & Video Production, She has since release A Queen’ s Checkmate 1&2.

Queen’s Checkmate

Blurb:

Pain and tragedy never came in a more beautiful shell. A Queen’s Checkmate is the story of Amira, a girl becoming a woman, jaded by the disappointment of being failed by those around her.

After the simultaneous death of her twin brother and loss of her own innocence, she is trained to be a beast, hungry for revenge. Yet, as she grows so does her thirst for blood. Unfortunately her burgeoning feelings of love and lust ultimately derail her mission.

Will she find the satisfaction she wanted in the form of payback, ultimately making the biggest power move of checkmate or will she find that there is no satisfaction after revenge.

Queen’s Checkmate 2

Blurb:

Jump back into the story of Amira, as she tries to free herself from her own mistakes. Having attempted to gain her own revenge, she finds herself fighting for her life and waiting for the men in her life to come save her. Disgusted and feeling betrayed, Bri$$ wants no part of Amira and battles with whether she’s worth the trouble. After an intimate run in with a past flame, will Bri$$ find it in his heart to save the woman he thought he loved, or will he let the Queen meet her demise?

Purchase Links :

Queen’s Checkmate :

http://www.amazon.com/Queens-Checkmate-Kierra-Petty-ebook/dp/B00I1JP1VU/

Queen’s Checkmate 2:

http://www.amazon.com/Queens-Checkmate-2-Kierra-Petty-ebook/dp/B00L9NYIT6/

Fact about Queen’s Checkmate :

A Queen’s Checkmate 1 was written when Kierra was 15 years old. A teacher allowed her to spend her year as a Teacher’s Assistant, writing the novel instead.

Contact Kierra Petty:

pettythoughts90@gmail.com

Facebook :

https://www.facebook.com/kierra.petty

Instagram: @sleepless_in_atl

https://twitter.com/sleepless_inATL

Youtube: Kierra Petty

Facebook Group :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/343212795832727/

Author Page on Facebook :

https://www.facebook.com/authorkierrapetty?ref=bookmarks

Daily Devotional – 10/8/14 “You’re usable! “

While at work this morning, sitting at my desk, working I noticed something on my glasses. Now, let me point out; I’d been sitting at my desk for over 30 minutes with my glasses on and hadn’t noticed a thing on them. So, I take them off to clean them and it wouldn’t come off. It literally took me, no lie, almost 20 minutes to clean this sticky mess off of my glasses which left some sort of residue (and I’ve still yet to know where it came from) but oh get this … there’s a lesson or at least a devotional in it. Yep! Because even though it left a blemish on my glasses, they are still usable. You missed that? Let me say it like this. Although whatever it was that caused a mark on my glasses, I can still see through them which makes them usable. Still don’t get it. Let me try it this way. Even though you’ve been hurt and man may have left you battered and bruised, you are still usable to God. Even though you’ve been cast down by the hands of folk who said you wouldn’t be nothing but another statistic, God cleaned you up and used your battle scars to tell your story and now your testimony is allowing you to testify to thousands. Yea, I know you thought that blemish on your skin would cause you to be put in the junk pile but baby God said the junk pile is where He finds His jewels (Yeen know?) You thought that scar would make you ugly, no child, that scar was to make you usable.

Even for you, that person who may have attempted suicide before and you may have to look at the scars every now and then. Don’t look at them as a mistake you made, once upon a time yet look at them as a manifestation of God’s healing that has now taken place in your life and the fact that you made it through. I said this the other day and it’s still true … You can be at the pits of hell and God can snatch you back (and use you) but it’s all dependent on your prayers and the purpose He has on your life – Ask Jonah! (For Jonah 2:2 says, “I called out to the LORD from the midst of affliction directed at me, and he answered me. From the depths of death I cried out for help; and you heard my cry.”) It’s not about the scars you have on your body that makes you usable but it’s your belief, it’s your heart, it’s your faith, it’s your dependability, it’s your hope in yourself … Your scars don’t matter, that blemish don’t matter and that bruise don’t matter because you’re still usable if you allow yourself to be used. Look around, God uses regular folk every day to do His will. He uses me and I was a nobody who He called on one day and I answered, He made me somebody; I was filthy and He cleaned me up; I was torn and He repaired every part of me; I was hurt and He healed me; I was battered and bruised yet He filled this clay jar with His anointing oil and my life has never been the same! It doesn’t matter what folk say, it doesn’t matter how they look at you, it doesn’t even matter what they call you; God still deems you usable. Your scars are just battle wounds to let folk know you’ve been in the war yet you survive which makes you victorious.

Daily Devotional – 10/7/14 “Same enemy, same tricks!”

Why are you still falling for the same old tricks from the same old enemy? You knew when you got that text that said “hey boo” it was a set up but you replied anyway and now you’re crying because they won’t reply back. When that credit card application came in the mail saying you had been preapproved, you knew better than to open it yet you did and applied and now you’re crying about being in debt. That car note was too high when you signed for but you were too busy listening to your friend telling you to get the white one like her and now every month you want to act like God caused this storm. Ok, so you got a new boo and she got you dressing differently and going out more and your boys are all talking about you but you can care less; you like her. Your mom said, she was ok but told you to watch her because there was something about her but you aren’t listening because you’re grown and your nose is wide open. She’s changed a few things about you and now she’s even gotten you missing church. It started off one Sunday a month but now it’s two and before long you’ve gotten away from church all together and now your mood is bad, your attitude sucks and you can’t figure out why your boys stop calling. Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because you fell for the same trick from the same enemy. Girl, how many times will you continue to fall for the enemy’s trick of love when you know good and well it ain’t nothing but lust? Love doesn’t hurt. Love doesn’t cause scars. Love doesn’t leave bruises and love doesn’t have you lying. And stop using the excuse of daddy didn’t love you because daddy wasn’t around cause baby God is the best Father you’ll ever find and He’ll give you love, I’m talking about that type of love that has no boundaries, no conditions and no limits. The type of love that’ll make you love yourself enough that will the time is right, it’ll allow you to be loved by someone else.

See, this is why 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Please understand, sober doesn’t mean you’ve been drinking but sober here means serious in demeanor. Simply stating be serious so that you can be alert and watchful of your surroundings and see what’s going on so that you can “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. (1 Peter 5:9)” This is what I want you to get, the enemy doesn’t change the tricks he uses, he doesn’t change the plays of his games, he doesn’t even change the uniforms of his players; all he does is change the players. It’s us who doesn’t change because we fall for anything. We continue to allow the past to haunt us, we continue to allow generational curses to curse us, we continue to allow hurt from years ago to hurt us, we continue to allow ex everything to cause strife in new relationships, we let friends cause mess in our homes, single friends to break up our marriages and old church members to still cause hell in the church they haven’t been members at in 10 years … same enemy, same tricks! When will we stand against this? When will we resist the enemy and cause him to flee? When will we kick him out of our home? When will we snatch our stuff back? When will we take our joy back? You’re constantly stressing walking around the enemy in your home crying while he or she is smiling talking on the phone you’re paying for, eating the food you’re paying for, using the electricity you’re paying for while you’re working every day. Get tired enough and do something! It’s the same tricks and the same enemy so you should know the plays by now to beat him. At least try …

Daily Devotional – 10/6/14 “Let’s do better!”

Why do you feel the need to prove to folk that you are fine yet you won’t prove to God that you are faithful? I’ll wait …

Its mind boggling how we, as people, spend our time trying to prove our happiness to people yet we won’t spend any time building our hope in God but we claim to believe in Him. I mean, we spend so much time posting statuses and pictures trying to provide evidence of our happiness to the world but behind closed doors we’re drinking tears for water. Yes, I get it. You have to put up the front to the world that everything is ok but it doesn’t cost anything to keep it real. When will we stop conforming to this world? I just don’t get how we have gotten so caught up on pleasing each other. Church has become about entertaining and not about edifying and we don’t exhort or encourage anymore yet we’ll come to find out the latest gossip. It used to be, you could come to church to get help when you needed it but now your business makes it there before you do. We don’t even build up the pastor and his wife anymore but we will be quick to pass on a rumor about them. When did church conform to the world because I missed that memo? When will we get ourselves together? 1 Peter 1:13-16 says, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

All I am asking is when will we fill the worship places like we do the clubs? When will we get back to praying on the altar like it was meant? When will we start back fearing God like we do man? Is He not still the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the giver and taker of life, the creator of all things, the author and finisher of our faith, healer, restorer, enemy deal breaker, negotiator, chain breaker, yoke destroyer, addiction taste taker, sleep aid, midnight company keeper, tear wiper, blood pressure adjuster and heart fixer? Grandma tells me He is amazing grace. Momma tells me He is a mind regulator. Husband tells me He is arthritis pain soother. Sister says He is a pain reliever. Friends say He is like fire down in your bones. And my nephew says He is just good! When did we stop trusting Him? God is waiting on us to get ourselves together yet we may not have the time we think we have to do it. It’s time out for playing church the same way it is with playing house. It’s time for us to get every aspect of our lives together because the enemy is busy at trying to destroy God’s people and he is succeeding because there are too many of God’s people lacking at our job. We’ve got to do better. Bible study, Sunday school and Worship Service … We’ve got to do better God’s people. Yes, I know you think watching it at home is good but the bible says in Hebrews 10:19-20 that Jesus paid the cost for us to enter the Holy Place through His flesh when He died on Calvary and Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We’ve got to do better. Let’s do better! Stop trying to prove your faithfulness to man and start with the Man who proves His to you every day!

Daily Devotional – 10/3/14 “Your spiritual mug shot!”

I wonder how some of our mug shots would look if God arrested us for some of the mess we did. No, I’m not talking about this worldly crap we get ourselves into but I’m talking about the Christian stuff we do. Oh, you don’t. Well I wonder, sir pastor, how your mug shot would look if God sent folk in to arrest you for aggravated assault with a weapon (the bible) on Sunday morning when you stand there delivering His word from your flesh intentionally causing bodily harm to His people? I wonder how your mug shot would look, oh deacon, if you got arrested for disorderly conduct for not carrying yourself like you pray about on Sunday morning. I wonder, oh usher, how your mug shot would look if God charged you for being mean on your doorpost instead of helping like you should. What if God charged you, oh choir member, for simple assault, for the intentional harm you thought about doing to the other choir member who sung your “song.” Oh minister of music, what would you look like on your mug shot if God arrested you every time you got mad at pastor for service being long, the song not being song right or the musicians for not doing their part? Oh good pew member, what would your mug shot look like for the numerous charges you would have like loitering because you usually don’t work but you’re always there and inciting a riot because again you don’t work but you cause the most noise.

I just wonder. Please understand, I am in no way perfect because I too have faults that could get me a spiritual mug shot, I’ve failed more times than I can count and I’ve made my share of mistakes but I’m yet learning but get this when I accepted the calling of God, I accepted the calling of God with my whole heart! Will I make some mistakes, yes but I fear God and everything that comes along with Him and I dare not play with this thang. There is no way I will teach God’s word and play with it, I can’t. This is why James 3:1 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Yes, I’ve been in the church all of my life but it wasn’t until recently that I stopped running from what God had for me. Am I a work in progress? Of course and I’d be lying if I said anything differently but while I’m being worked on pardon my dust. I’m still open for business, so just walk around the construction cones. But get this … When you learn better you do better. Don’t, as Christians, keep using the same old excuse; God knows my heart because baby, you’ve been using that excuse for the last 18 years; it ain’t fixed yet? At some point you should have learned something by now or at least your heart should be fixed. Let us all do better. We can, I know it! If we take it an hour at a time, it’ll eventually turn into a day which will then turn into a month and then before you know it, the old things you used to do you won’t even do it or them anymore. Then you won’t even need a spiritual mug shot! Ha! Won’t He do it?