JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Kiexizia Rodriguez-Green, author of BEautiful
(Lulu)
Tierra Rodriquez is a talented and successful business woman. She has to make her professional dreams come true, in spite of running from a painful past. In walks the handsome, smooth-talking client Malcolm Turner set on sweeping her off her feet, no matter the cost. When her best friend Aquarian shows up at her door after the death of a loved one and says it was that loved one’s dying wish that he reconnect with Tierra, life gets a little out of hand.
As she tries her hand at love with Malcolm, Aquarian is hit by a dunk driver. Malcolm isn’t happy about all time she’s spending at his bed side. When past secrets are revealed, her estranged mother shows up to help her get her life back together. Unexplained emotions begin to stir within her, leaving her confused and out of control for the first time in her life. Will the hours she’s been racking up on the therapist sofa rid her of her memories, or will her past continue to be the blinders that keeps her in the dark at the cost of all she has before her?
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write BEautiful?
Kiexizia Rodriguez-Green: BEautiful is the result of my attempt to write my story. In the end, my life was too emotional, and this is the result of what my heart lead me to write…
JP: What sets BEautiful apart from other novels in its genre?
KRG: I think this book is set apart from the others because it’s not set in one genre. It has a little of several genres. There’s no sex nor violence. People think, “Oh my God, there’s no sex scenes! I don’t know if I’ll like it.” Once they read it, they find they love it! It leaves them on edge wanting to know what happens next.
JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to BEautiful getting out to the public?
KRG: When I wrote this book, I really had no idea of what I was doing, what to do once it was complete, anything! I basically took the advice of a friend who had just published a book herself and went from there. I told people, my church, my job, my school and online. I told everyone I knew and met. It actually kind of made me come out of my shell a bit.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish BEautiful?
KRG: As a single mother, before anything else, my writing process is limited to when I have free time: after work, after dinner and after putting kids to sleep. That leaves little time to create, so I bring my notebook with me everywhere I go just in case a plot comes to me. I jot a lot of stuff down on the fly. BEautiful took about two years to complete. It started off as a totally different book, then evolved into the novel it is today.
Question 5: What’s next for Kiexizia Rodriguez-Green?
KRG: Currently, I am overdue for my own time table for the sequel to BEautiful, entitled Loves Seduction. There are three more sequels planned, all ending with a final book combining all the characters again. Each sequel will take on the life of and introduce you more intimatly with characters introduced in BEutiful.
I am also currently cast in several plays locally. I continue to do book and music reviews for AAMBC.com and Fuze Magazine. I also promote for local venues that expose new and inide artist to the New England market through a montly venue called Organix Soul.
http://www.lulu.com/mistiger
http://www.myspace.com/mistiger
www.youtube.com/kiexiza
mistiger02@yahoo.com
kiexizarodriquez@yahoo.com
413-886-7803
BEautiful was nominated for best new book in 2008, and Kiexizia Rodriguez-Green is nominated for Best New Author for 2008 with AAMBC (African Americans on the Move Book Club).
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Hope to meet her in person and someday read this book. It is shocking to have no sex or violence in a book, but this is also inspirational for our younger generation to read!
thanks Adrienna, It was my main goal. I really wanted to make this book one that was inspirational and that all could read. I know that most books have cursing and sex and all that, and my next one included a little bit, but i wanted to show that a book could be good without all that and still get a great message across. Please let me know when you get it and what you think of it.
KIE
This is one aspect that I like about the “5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…” author interview series. There is so much diversity in what the different authors are able to achieve, how they come about writing, and what means they take to communicate to their readers.
I was reading an article in a STL paper about Best Selling author Keisha Ervin. One of the things that stood out to me was the fact that her agent felt that she could get Ervin in more places if she cut down on the profanity.
Just food for thought: If leaving out the cursing doesn’t take away the integrity of your story, you might want to leave them out to gain a larger readership through being able to make business deals.