1: What is the most productive
time of the day for you to write?
The most productive time for me
is late at night. Since I’m not a morning person, late at night means after 2
a.m. However, if I’ve had a night at the club, getting anything creative written
doesn’t really work. What I can do is go over my stuff and do editing and
copy-editing because that process is rote and can be done with a bit of a buzz.
2: Do you start your projects
writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?
I take notes in a note pad I keep
in my pocket as ideas come to mind. I only take notes on paper. I do all actual
writing and editing on the computer. It is easier to move things around and
make corrections that way. I also occasionally e-mail myself ideas and move
them to a folder for future reference.
3: What do you draw inspiration
from?
I draw a lot of inspiration from
observing things going on around me. A lot of what I write is on issues of
multiculturalism and racism. Since I live in the south, there is no shortage of
observations when it comes to those subjects.
4: Do you set goals for yourself
when you sit down to write such as word count?
No. I often sit down wanting to
write so many words or pages, but I refuse to force pages out when they may not
be going in the right direction. I would rather work an idea or part over in my
head and get a general direction I want to go in instead of writing a bunch of
pages that don’t fit or have to be deleted later. I feel that if it isn’t
working then don’t work on it that day. If it begins to flow then put as much
time into it as you feel comfortable in doing.
5: Are you a published or a self
published author and how do you come up with your cover art?
My original stance was to find a
traditional brick and mortar publisher. After two years of having my first
novel sit on the shelf (figuratively) and my second to begin to do the same, I
decided I’d rather self-publish and get it out there for others to see.
Ironically as I have gotten to know other self-published authors and had
conversations with people in general, I’ve learned that self-publishing is
probably the next big thing. I’ve been told that the next big author will
probably be discovered online.
Unfortunately I’m barely living
check to check, so paying for cover art isn’t possible. My covers might be
simple and not exactly the images that I had in mind, but they serve their
purpose. I have to sit down with Photoshop and try to bring the right images
together. If you self-publish on Kindle, they also have some cover creation
tools. The cover of my second novel shows five masks, each with a simple on the
forehead of the mask. These masks and symbols link to characters in the novel.
6: What drives you to choose the
career of being a writer?
This has always been my dream. I
have poetry that I wrote when I was five years old. There has never been a
question that this is my chosen path. It was only a matter of deciding what I
wanted to write about and sitting down and doing so to get it started. As far
as making it a career, I hope that comes to fruition one day. It would truly be
a gift to give up my day job and do this for a living.
7: Do you own an ebook reading
device?
I do not, but I have downloaded a
few for PC just to see if I formatted my novels correctly for their devices. I
have noticed that my sales on electronic devices far surpass my print sales,
but I guess I’m a little more traditional. I need to have a print copy in my
hands. I can’t see reading a novel on a phone, but I could see reading it on a
tablet. Of course, if I owned a Kindle, I might have a completely different
view on this.
8: Who are some of your favorite
authors and What are you reading now?
My favorite authors are Toni
Morrison and Gloria Naylor. Currently I am not reading anything. I am working
on my next project and I don’t want to have something I’m reading to start
influencing what I am writing. I’d hate to inadvertently pick up on someone
else’s work and pull it into mine. So when I am working on a project, I don’t
read anything else. Well, that was my stance when I wrote the first two novels
anyway. I now have a comfort level with the direction that I am going to
believe that I could take breaks and read other things.
9: What do you think of book
trailers and do you have any plans to have any?
I do not currently have any book
trailers, nor have I actually seen anybody’s book trailers. I don’t plan on
creating one, but I am open to it.
10: How did you come up with the
title of your latest book?
My novels are not sequels or
prequels, but they are within the same universe. The first novel gave a
sorority a small part. When I finished it, the second novel screamed to be
about that sorority. The title of my second novel is ‘Onyx and Eggshell.’ Onyx
and eggshell are the colors of the sorority that the second novel is written
around.
11: What are you working on now
that you can talk about?
The third novel will deal with
subjects along the same lines of the first two. I plan to have it mostly set in
a restaurant bar. I’d like to have it out in the next few months but haven’t
sat down to really put major work into it.
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