The January Girl

One secret too many. One love too far.

Men couldn't help but be drawn to her exquisite beauty and incomparable grace. But Thandy knew Dr. Jackson Gabrielle was different the minute they met. And indeed, Jack knew that this enchanting creature was meant for him, despite the fact that he was already married.

Thandy and Jack's decade-long affiar might have been continued indefinitely, the hard-working attorney and the high-profile surgeon scraping together moments for each other out of their crazed schedules, if Thandy hadn't learned from Jack's bitter wife that he had taken up with yet another woman. Thandy moves on, leaving Jack in Atlanta for a big job in Chicago. Jack, used to getting everything he has ever wanted with ease, is forced to figure out what it takes to hold on to something he loves. And Thandy, having fought her whole life for everything she has achieved, realizes the true measure of her strength. But fate intervenes and sets into motion a series of events leading to a shocking climax that forever changes everything.

Praise for The January Girl

"Goldie is quite the storyteller…I guarantee you'll fall in love with Goldie's compelling love story." – Carol Mackey, Editor-in-Chief, Black Expressions Book Club

"Ms. Taylor's profound execution of the use of metaphors and similes blew me away! [She] took me way back to my Grandmother's days. I read and enjoyed January Girl [that] I looked Goldie Taylor up to see her other works. I'm an avid book reader and if I see Goldie Taylor again, I won't hesitate to purchase her works." – Consumer Review, Amazon.com

"This book was awesome. I cried so hard in certain parts and laughed till I cried in others. It pissed me off and made me mad enough to fight too. This book was so good my husband even read it!" – Member Review, Black Expressions

Although she grew up in horrific conditions that led to her fleeing home as a teen, Thandy Malone worked hard to obtain an education. When she got pregnant, Thandy was fortunate that a kind older man took her in and married her. However, he failed to inform her how he made his money until he was arrested for drug trafficking. He went to prison while Thandy and her daughter survived the streets.

Thandy picks herself up and becomes a successful asset acquisition attorney in Atlanta where she meets wealthy, married with children Dr. Jackson Gabrielle. They have an affair, but she feels uncomfortable being the other woman especially when he has two preadolescent sons at home and he keeps putting off the divorce blaming external circumstances though a decade has past since they first met. Thandy leaves Atlanta for Chicago as she believes he now has a third woman while spoiled Jack, used to always getting his way, follows the woman he loves.

This is an interesting character study that looks deep into what motivates the other woman. Thandy has a great career, a wonderful daughter, and being pretty with a charming personality could have any male, but why she chooses to be with Jack is beyond my comprehension. Jack is a liar, a double cheater (wife and lover), and an abusive manipulator with no redeeming personality trait. Still in spite of his being a louse loser outside of the operating room, THE JANUARY GIRL is a fascinating contemporary story. – Harriet Klausner

In My Father's House

The fictional autobiography of Gillespie Noble marks the evolution of race, gender and politics in the Deep South. This legal thriller takes place alternatively in Civil Rights-era Elberton, Georgia and present day Atlanta. Told in first-person, stream of consciousness narration, the characters and historical events are spun from fictionalized composites.

How far would a father go to protect his child? Would he confess to a crime he did not commit? Would he abandon his wife and six other children to save one? Would this colored man risk his own lynching in Civil Rights-era Georgia for the murder of a white child? Will his unthinkable sacrifice save his daughter and ultimately win his own freedom?

From the moment Trey Crim is shot to death in the family barn, 8-year-old Gilly is condemned to a life of second chances. Lauded on by her father, 25 years later Gilly is a powerful defense attorney at the top of her game-sworn to keep the family secret. A series of life changing events, including the execution of her brother J.B., awakens Gilly’s distrust for the justice system she serves and herself. She reluctantly sheds a life of running from the truth surrounding her father’s imprisonment.

Using the Deep South as her backdrop, award-winning journalist Goldie Taylor paints a riveting picture of Southern politics, culture and society. The result is a moving eulogy to the "other Georgia."

Praise for In My Father's House

"In her focus on the love between adult children and parents and on interracial love and rape, in her skillful release of a series of family revelations, and in her nimble movement through the strata of contemporary African-American life...The author articulates the most damaging effects—a preference for fantasy over reality and a need to push others away—persuasively and without fanfare." – Kirkus Discoveries

"I'm reading a wonderful new book by Goldie Taylor. It's called In My Father's House." – Dr. Maya Angelou (Interview with Atlanta Journal Constitution 8/05/05)

Coming Soon: Come Sunday - Excerpt From Chapter One

He took his time. There what’nt no need in rushing now. He beat me until he was sure I would surrender everything, that all the fight had been kicked out of me, until I was convinced there what’nt no God.

He traced his fingers down my spine to the small of my back; that gentle touch lovers do when they want to stay with you a little while longer. I felt his satisfaction with the way I shivered, the tremor in my bones, the uncertainty of my breaths. Marvin Gaye was on the radio singing something about morning dew and throwing away his pride.

“Just relax,” he whispered, pressing the meat of his palm into my back, forcing my belly firmly against the floor.

As he worked his way through me, I clamped my teeth together and swallowed my screams until my chest felt like was going to explode. When I couldn’t hold it anymore, the dam broke and my mouth flew open. The sound of my own cries roared in my ears.

He grabbed me by the hair and snatched my head backwards, towards him. So hard, I could feel the strands snapping at the root, so close that I could feel his breath in my ear. I tried to concentrate on the baby, my mind chasing through the pages of the life I wanted her to have. I hoped against hope, that somehow someway, he’d remember we were his and decide to turn us a-loose. It was then that I started to plead.

“Victor,” I said softly. “Please, let me go.”

I knew he wouldn’t. I knew I was going to die.

My feeble voice came to him gently falling in his ears like dew takes to blades of grass. He flipped me over. Sweat rolled off his chin and dripped onto my face.

My right cheek was burning now, the gash pulsing and filling with salty sweat. His heart thumped against my breasts. I could feel the tickle of his smooth chest hairs. My eyes were dry now. What’nt no need in crying, I figured. Bracing myself, I licked the blood from my lips and stole a look at the baby out the corner of my eye. She was still swaddled in the soiled floral print sheet I’d taken from Leila’s house.

“Her name is Victoria, baby. I named her after you.”

I felt him pause as if studying what I’d said. There was an opening here, I thought, a chance he would let us go. If not me, then the baby. I started to raise myself up from the carpet.

“Please don’t do this,” I said.

I reached out for the baby. “She’s going to need me,” I said.

But his mind was made up. I had to die. His decision needed to be worked out. That’s when I saw it.

“No!”

The knife ripped into my shoulder. There was so much blood. I threw my arms around my head and folded myself up.

“Please! Baby, please!"

And then he stopped. I lay there soaked in blood, unable to move. He paced the room talking to the bloody walls. I waited to die.

Praise for Goldie Taylor

"She's found her voice as a writer and can move people with words." – Don Logan, Chairman Time Warner Media (retired)

"Goldie Taylor is the fresh, new voice we've been waiting for. Her writing is smart, sexy, hip and mature…just like her." – Sylvester Monroe, Senior Editor, Ebony

"Damn!" – Lyle Harris, Editorial Board, Atlanta Journal Constitution