JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Allysha Hamber, editor of Unloveable Bitch: A Hoe is Born
(CreateSpace)
Meet Dream, a young, bright eyed girl growing up in the slums of St. Louis. Unlike most girls in her neighborhood, Dream has the luxury of growing up with something most of her friends don’t have, a father. But when tragedy strikes her life at the age of eight, Dream’s perfect world comes crashing down around her.
Soon, she finds herself thrown into a life of horror and pain. Forced from the only home she’s ever known, she learns the hard way that the only thing she has of value is her body and the only way she can survive is to use it. With a vicous pimp on her heels and no where to run, Dream is forced to adapt to a life on the streets in one of the worlds most dangerous cities.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Unlovable Bitch?
Allysha Hamber: Unlovable Bitch was the hardest book I’ve written to date because it’s personal. The first six chapters are my life as a child and my own personal trials and tribulations. I wanted to reach women and young girls all over in a way that they could understand. I wanted to let them know they were not alone…
JP: What sets Unlovable Bitch apart from other novels in its genre?
AH: It’s real. It’s spoken from my heart and from my own experiences. I couldn’t bring the real and raw emotion if I hadn’t gone through it. That’s what makes it connect to the readers the raw emotions.
JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Unlovable Bitch getting out to the public?
AH: I push it and try to advertise alot on my own. I’m a firm believer in “you get out what you put in.” So whether it’s mass emails or airtime on the radio, I do whatever I can to get my book out there.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Unlovable Bitch?
AH: I really don’t have a specific writing process. It comes to me in spurts. When it flows, it flows and I take full advantage of it. When it’s not there, I don’t try to force it because it won’t be genuine. I just go with the flow.
It took me about a month to write Unlovable Bitch once I started and that was because it was inside me for so long. It was yearning to come out.
JP: What’s next for Allysha Hamber?
AH: Unlovable Part II and Mika Avenue. My clothing line, PHEM is schdule for release Spring of 2010, and I’m setting my sights on screen writing The NorthSide Clit into a movie.
More about Allysha Hamber:
Allysha began her writing career behind the walls of a Federal Prison. It was inside the solitude of the institution, that Allysha began sharing her past of emotional, physical and sexual abuse with the women of the institution. It was her fellow inmates that both encouraged and inspired Allysha to share her testimony with the world through writing.
Allysha began writing plays of both raw and uncut abuse stories for her fellow inmates to perform. The reviews were so intense and demanding, in 2002, the Camp Administrator authorized Allysha and an inmate production crew to perform a play for the Warden, staff and their families and outside guests, the first in the facility’s history.
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Great interview! I like to read books where life experiences that were not so good can be used to help others not feel like their alone in their plight.
Allysha,
If you are reading this, thank you for participating in what I have going on…my giveaway. I really am all for camaraderie in this industry which I have found is like the music industry because some will leave you to fend for yourself. Point blank, some folks just won’t help others. But it is not worth being discouraged by that because everyone has their heyday.
Releasing your past into writing can certainly be a healing process. The title alone gives you insight into how raw and real the story is. Congratulations on your book.
Books like making songs can make it be your own self-help when you write or sing about life experiences it helps you to get to the other level, and when you write self stories and others read it helps them to understand we all have problems some just greater then others…