BRENDA JACKSON HONORED DURING NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

AUTHOR PHILANTHROPIST BRENDA JACKSON HONORED DURING NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Jackson Uses Her Success As Published Author To Benefit Florida Memorial University

 

(Jacksonville, Florida—March 19, 2012)  New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Brenda Jackson will be honored during the Founder’s Day Presentation at Florida Memorial University this month for her continuous financial support throughout the years.  Florida Memorial University is a private university, South Florida’s only Historically Black University and the third oldest institution of higher learning in the state of Florida.

 

The Founders Day Convocation is an annual tribute to the university’s luminary pioneers and historic achievements.  This privileged recognition of Jackson is timely in light of the fact that the month of March is National Women’s History Month and carries the 2012 theme, Women’s Education-Women’s Empowerment.  Jackson will be included among other distinguished guests honored at the event.

 

Jackson readily acknowledges the importance of education, the financial needs of Black institutions and selected FMU as the beneficiary of the fruits of her labor and success. Currently under contract with Harlequin, one of the nation’s leading publishers of books for women, Jackson has written over 80 novels with more than 3 million copies in print. 

 

To date she has donated over $100,000 to the university as the direct result of her success as a best-selling author.  In 2011, Jackson produced, directed and fully financed a feature film from one of her series romance novels,

Truly Everlasting—The Movie and was the first Black author in her genre to achieve this accomplishment. FMU was the recipient of a $20,000 donation as a result of ticket sales to the public for the red carpet debut of this movie alone, which attracted over 2000 fans from all over the country.  The university is scheduled to receive another substantial donation that resulted from sales of the DVD during Black History Month.

 

“I remember as a little girl how my grandmother and other members of the Baptist community used to bake pies and sell them to raise money for FMU. My grandmother was a giving soul who believed in education.  I am just continuing the work that she and so many others like her started”, says Jackson.

The decision to independently produce and direct Truly Everlasting—The Movie was driven in part by Jackson’s desire to create a movie that remained true to her storyline after a 2002 made-for-television movie by a major network for one of her other novels left her readers disheartened. 

 

Truly Everlasting is a short story written by Jackson in 1998 and re-released as a stand-alone edition to compliment the release of the movie to DVD. It is currently one of 20 novels in the Madaris Family series, a sequence of romance stories dealing with family saga and filled with passion, great plots, strong, believable characters and beautiful endings.

 

Jackson’s movie closely follows her book bringing Felicia Madaris face-to-face with her childhood rival-turned-family-friend, Trask Maxwell, a three-time Heisman trophy winner. Felicia and Trask play a cat-and-mouse game of eluding love, knowing within their hearts they have strong feelings for each other.  When Felicia finds herself needing an important favor that will please her son, she reluctantly has to turn to Trask to help her, which inevitably put her in a vulnerable position to succumb to the love she has hidden for so long.

Referred to as the “Diva of Romance”, Jackson’s professional writing career began in 1994. Throughout her career she has been on the receiving end of several prestigious awards and is recognized as a trailblazer being the first Black author to have a book published under the Harlequin/Silhouette Desire line and the first Black romance author to make the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists for the series romance genre.

 

Jackson has two new books scheduled to hit the shelves and can be purchased wherever books are sold.  They include the hugely anticipated novel in the Westmorland series, Feeling the Heat (April, 2012) and Courting Justice (June, 2012) a story in the captivating Madaris Family series.

Readers wanting to purchase Truly Everlasting—The Movie (DVD) book and soundtrack CD can visit www.TrulyEverlasting.com and also learn about the cast, view the trailer and sample the soundtrack.  To read more about Brenda Jackson and her upcoming releases, visitwww.BrendaJackson.net