
relentless aaronAuthor Gets Removed from
National Book Club Conference

by Taylor Nix
August 2008


When Relentless Aaron, the prominent and acclaimed author of more than 10 books, entered the NBCC (National Book Club Conference) in Atlanta, Georgia, he didn't know his presence would inspire chastising and a discourteous removal.

According to Relentless Aaron, on Friday, August 1, 2008 he caught a last minute glimpse of the literary studded event. "I thought it would be a great opportunity to do what I do just about everywhere else in the country, and that is to meet people and market some of my three dozen books," Aaron says. Familiar faces in attendance included: Terry McMillian, Omar Tyree, Richard Jeanty and Troy Johnson (AALBC.com)—who introduced Aaron to the coordinator of the event: Curtis Bunn.

In the dinning area of the lavish event is where he was introduced to Bunn, they shake hands and he says to Aaron, "Let me talk to you for a minute. I don't appreciate you coming in here without first speaking with me." Aaron feels like he's just been reprimanded and Bunn continues, "Well, it's alright. Make yourself at home. Enjoy."

Aaron stuck on stupid now by the flow of conversation, returns with, "Well, thanks. I'm not really eating, just playing fly-on-the-wall."

In the common area is where Aaron heads and proceeds to setup his laptop with a PowerPoint Presentation. "I figure this is the best place to be seen, to offer up books to new readers." The crowd starts to pour in and Aaron does what he's best at: mingling amongst the people. Other unnamed authors are spotted and they too seemed to have just "shown up" to benefit from the undertaking. Books are signed and before he knows it, with little to no effort, Aaron's already sold several books.

He proceeds to set up his camera to start interviewing authors and readers. "[It's] something that I do all the time as the programmer for some 50 Internet broadcast channels." Within roughly 2 hours, a woman approaches Aaron, and asks if he is a part of the book event. "I didn't quite know how to answer that, but I simply told her the truth, that I spoke with Curtis earlier and that he said it was okay to be here."

Here is where the story takes a twist.

Five minutes after Aaron's exchange with the woman, who identified her self as Curtis's fiancé, hotel security shows up and notifies Aaron that he has to pack up and leave the hotel room.

And it doesn't end there, "The next morning, I text Curtis," Aaron says.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

RELENTLESS AARON: "Make yourself at home you said. Enjoy you told me. And then, when I do what you say, you call the cops."

CURTIS BUNN: "And my fiancé called the cops. But I'm not mad at her for doing so. You were wrong."

RELENTLESS AARON: "Cowards. Both of you."

CURTIS BUNN: "Kiss my a**."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

We contacted Mr. Curtis Bunn for his side of the story and here is what he said:

"He [Relentless Aaron] was removed from the National Book Club Conference because he was not a part of the event. I spent 11 months planning the conference, and authors either contacted me about participating or received invitations from me about participation. Additionally, there were 26 authors who paid a fee as a vendor to be a part of the NBCC.

This guy shows up because he hears about the event and assumes it is okay for him to proceed as if he is a part of the occasion. He was not. Worse, I was told he was there not only pushing his work, but denigrating a fellow author who was an official part of the conference. Not cool, or professional.

Bottom line, we have to stop with this notion of trying to get over. This is a professional organization and it is run professionally, and so the proper protocol was needed to participate. Period. Nothing against him; I don't know the guy. But we as black people have to set new standards on how we function. Crashing someone's event is not the route to a better way. And he was not the only author who just showed up and tried to be a part of the event. They [the other authors] were discharged from the event, too, and with much less the drama he tried to create."


Taylor Nix is a writer and photographer for the Urban Book Source. Questions, comments and concerns can be sent to: taylor@urbanbooksource.com


Comments page 8 of 8:
Click Here to Add a Comment
Marivic :
Posted 1366 days ago
Cute! Love the blazer! And at least my<a href="http://elcrxsbig.com"> liltte</a> boy isn't fussy over what he wears yet. My 3 year old misses on the hand...well let's not discuss what she will and won't wear and in which combinations! It is painful! Bless the boys for their simplicity and laid back style!
Iraida :
Posted 1367 days ago
Adorable and so typical liltte boy! As a Mom of 3 son's I know what you mean, it is a girls world most of the time. Just look at a store and the girls dept is 3 times the size of the boys dept. I am glad you posted this liltte cutie, well done, Kathysue http://fgoyeoylact.com [url=http://izgudmbs.com]izgudmbs[/url] [link=http://fwwuwa.com]fwwuwa[/link]
Alexitow :
Posted 1367 days ago
Great work BPT! We will definitely use some of your great ideas.In Ohio we have 14 out of 18 <a href="http://lkukinjf.com">revttsenra eipes</a> signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 3067; Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown helped to introduce similar legislation in the Senate.Next weekend we will be attending two events in our community to collect signatures for the petition.I will be interviewed by a local TV affiliate in mid June and I plan to discuss BCD 2020.
Aleyna :
Posted 1369 days ago
Ann! Imagine my surprise when golgoing my name (yes, I confess) upon coming across your blog post! Wow. I am so surprised! And I feel it would completely disappoint you were we ever to meet in person. But maybe not. Note, though, that I do not work *at* the Star Tribune; I'm merely a stringer reviewer, as are all the others. However, I do occasionally frequent Open Book, and since you were lucky enough (!) to get an internship at Milkweed, perhaps I will see you there yet this summer! Still, I would hate to disappoint you the reality never quite lives up to the hype. Thanks for the kudos, you made my day, and good luck with your reading, writing and interning!
Ivan :
Posted 1666 days ago
Very informative arlcite. I recently started my own small, home-based business, and after reading I'm going to look further into utilizing LinkedIn. I've also found that Twitter and Facebook profiles are great ways to promote my business, as well as reach my target audience more directly. Thank you for sharing! http://slbvbup.com [url=http://sojplzaz.com]sojplzaz[/url] [link=http://mpjtgntgkt.com]mpjtgntgkt[/link]
Raj :
Posted 1667 days ago
Park your car in the garage, if I've rmbemeered correctly (It might be Saints row 2 I'm thinking of) You have a garage where you can park and retrieve cars at will.
Relentless Also :
Posted 3373 days ago
Good to see both the LOVE & the HATE. I LOVE it all. This Bourgie event and it's organizers should be branded with a red-hot iron for how they treated Relentless. He did what he does. If they welcomed him, they probably KNEW how he gets it poppin. He was dead RIGHT for his actions. Key word HIS actions. (The Relentless Hustle)
And Bunns? He was DEAD right for his actions: HATER! And that's JUST what haters do. Effin HATE. Urban Fiction LIVES!
 




THE URBAN BOOK SOURCE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY COMMENTS THAT ARE POSTED. IF A COMMENT IS DEFAMATORY, PLEASE CONTACT US AND APPROPRIATE ACTION WILL BE TAKEN.



 

ABOUT US:
Company Info
Privacy Policy
Disclaimer
Advertise
Resources

Contributors
Faq
WRITE-UPS:
Features

Interviews
Editorials
Reviews
Columns
Archives
MEDIA:
Video
Gallery
Audio
Store

COMMUNITY:
Message Board
Contests
Giveaways
PUBLIC RELATIONS:
Get Featured. Be Heard.
Submit Your Book
Review For Us
Book Checklist
Join Mailing List
Send Your Feedback
Contact Us
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Myspace
Facebook
Twitter
Blackplanet
YouTube

© 2005 - 2013 by The Urban Book Source, LLC
http://theubs.com/articles/features/relentlessnbcc.php
theubs.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-43
27706
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:HV5CSP4IHL7UTMXTZ2HUDAEGDTQ7GK3P
<urn:uuid:9cf1cc08-2037-418b-b5a4-ad545e4922c8>
2018-10-19T03:31:29Z
107.180.20.89
application/xhtml+xml
sha1:YBB7URJ34PTWGFOTNIRKWFPGV5EGGI3C
<urn:uuid:e61d3b4e-9797-4a78-94e9-15517320d094>
http://theubs.com/articles/features/relentlessnbcc.php
response
<urn:uuid:d48662ac-1b34-4e26-ad9b-d2b05d280d3b>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-43
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2018
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-168-124-187.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/