When and why did you begin writing?

My writing career began late in life… I was in my thirties… but it began because of the silly notion I had that since it was so easy to read, writing had to be a snap! Do I need to tell you how misguided that notion was?

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

It took a while for me to consider myself a real writer. I guess each person has their own authentication process, that light bulb moment, when the realization hits home that they can actually stomp with the big dogs. I’m still obtaining my pedigree, but it’s a satisfying moment when a dream is validated… especially for the writer.

Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?

I didn’t make a choice. I simply wrote what I liked and let the chips land where they may.

As a Black writer, I’m often pigeonholed into Urban genre, but I simply consider myself a fiction writer.

There may be something out there more genre-specific for my classification, but I’m still looking to find it. The journey for this ‘self-discovery’ is like my path is a runway and it’s time for me to take off.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer and how does that affect your writing?

I’m a part time writer and I think it simply affects my output in the oddest way. What I find is that I’ve used up all of my creative energy by the time I knock off work. Writing isn’t casual. It’s not a lover you touch in the morning and then just walk away! Writing is a relationship that requires full concentration, joyful playing and intimate eye-play! (Okay. Maybe that was too far with that analogy, but you know what I’m saying!)

Do you have a special time to write, or how is your day structured to accommodate your writing?

I write when I can. I write darker at night but get great volume in the mornings! Crazy but true. My night writing tends to be more somber, more purposeful, as if the moonlight is shining something deeper into my pen. My mornings…. Okay. I have this theory that I write in my dreams and in the morning it all pours out, raw and uncut, if I get out of the way and let the story take over.

How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?

I’ve grown a great deal since I started my journey. My first novel, I wrote on pure adrenaline and word love. Nothing mattered but the story and the telling. But something inside me knew that there was more, knew that there were still mountains of knowledge that needed to be climbed and that ascent to the mountaintop has been the key to my evolution. I’m still climbing.

I’ve completed 4 novels so far: Come Get Some, The Badness, Take Two and Pass, and my latest, Feel The Fire.

Do you work to an outline or plot sketch, or do you prefer to let a general idea guide your writing?

I’ve tried an outline before and, as a guide, it had its place….for a while! But I kept going off the rails, zigged when I should have zagged, took a left instead of a right, and eventually I kept going. Different writers have different methodologies but for me, I prefer to let the story take me where it wants to go. I’ll follow. The story knows.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Believe in your talent. In the end, that is what will carry you. And remember… only YOU can write your story. Only you.

Can you share with readers a little bit about your latest book?

Feel The Fire is a story of two men, one black, one white, and parallels each man’s journey through the changing faces of racism, from Jim Crow to current times.

What made you decide to sit down and actually start writing this book?

Sign of the times.

With the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement – a youthful movement – it got me to thinking about the differences between activism of yesterday and today’s social climate.

This curiosity lead to research and I discovered really interesting stories, personal stories resonated in a very unique way with me. It’s an interesting dynamic to observe; the generational views of racism and how to deal with it.

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