When I Grow Up...

What are some of the best tips you’ve taken on board from other writers whose work you love? Name the writers and their book that inspired you, and how did it do so? 

I’m so thrilled to answer this question. I used to read People Magazine a lot, had a subscription and everything. There was a book section there, where they reviewed books. Being written up in that section has been way up there on my bucket list, or maybe wildest dream list, right alongside being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, since the first word I ever put on paper. When it happens, there will be a party and this question will be answered, because I think about it often. 

If you had asked me this question ten years ago, you’d have gotten a completely different answer than today. Ten years ago, I would have told you, proudly and without reservation, that Stephen King was my biggest inspiration. I am one of the SK faithful. I have every book, including the good—The Stand, It, Insomnia. And the bad—The Dome (still mad about that one). But the reason Stephen King continues to keep me firmly locked in a chokehold is his ability to build the best characters.

I don’t mean to imply that his characters are good people, a lot are literal monsters, but good or evil, they are fully formed and as real as you or me.  So much so that when you close that book, they don’t go away, ever. I can still find myself missing those kids from the Barrens and wonder what they’re up to—spoiler alert, nothing. They don’t exist, but they do in my mind as well as many other’s I would guess. Forty years later and we’re still revisiting that story and finding ways to expand on it as evidenced by the success of Welcome to Derry. As a writer, it’s hard not to be inspired by that. 

But as much as I love to read Stephen King, I’ve realized as I’ve started my own writing journey, Stephen King didn’t inspire me to write. He inspired my love of reading. I was learning, though I didn’t know it, how to build a world, how to build a character, how a story should feel, with every word I read. But I never even considered the idea that I could become a writer, until I read a book called Mama by Terri McMillan. 

It was the first novel I had ever read that was written by a black woman. And she was writing about people that looked like me. People who came from circumstances like mine. I understood the language. Loved the open exploration of black family drama that we didn’t talk about in front of company. That one book led me to find other black authors that I didn’t even know existed, like Bebe Moore Campbell, Eric Jerome Dickey and Walter Mosley, to name a few. Reading those authors opened up a world of possibility for me. 

It was while reading the words of these authors that I had the very first inkling that I might be able to write a book. So, when Eric Jerome Dickey came to my local bookstore, I went to my first book signing. Soon after, I put my very own words down on paper. The result, my first three novels, Fat Chance, Chasing Navah, and Maria’s Song. 

Regardless of where my writing career takes me, I’ll always love those three books most of all, because they are a direct representation of the inspiration that led me to the thing I love. Writing.