JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Keith Kareem Williams, author of Tourniquet
(Self-Published)
Tourniquet is about a young couple, Angela and Gavin, who have very different home lives. They are both trying to navigate through very different but equally difficult, circumstances.
Gavin finds himself completely alone after his father’s death, and Angela is forced to be the woman of the house while battling an abusive step-father because her mother’s job keeps her away from home.
Gavin and Angela are also misfits that don’t fit in with most people their age, but somehow, they’ve found a deep connection to each other.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write Tourniquet?
Keith Kareem Williams: Angela and her mother, Josephine, first appeared as side-characters in my novel War Angel. Their story was so powerful that I felt the need to revisit it to write about what their life had become, years after the tragic events that took place in that book. I’ve known so many women that have experienced what Angela goes through that I felt compelled to tell the story.
JP: What sets Tourniquet apart from other books in the same genre?
KKW: Although Tourniquet is a novella that is connected to my War Angel novel, it stands alone as its own entity and tells a complete story. One thing I’ve always avoided in my books is leaving a reader with an unsatisfied feeling once they read the last page of anything I write. No one wants to finish a meal and still feel hungry.
JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that led to Tourniquet getting out to the public?
KKW: I’ve always believed that the first and most important step in marketing my novels is actually writing a great story. A pretty book cover and unrelenting push to the readers would all be for naught if I don’t provide a well-written, compelling story.
To me, everything I write serves as a resume. You never know where a reader will first discover your work, so I pour the same passion into everything I pen, whether it’s a short story for an anthology, a blog post, an article, essay, full-length novel, novella or screenplay.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take you to start and finish Tourniquet?
KKW: I write everything by hand first, old school pen and paper. The words flow better for me that way. (The keyboard feels too cold and mechanical.) I scribble notes in the margins and occasionally illustrate thoughts with sketches. I keep a different notebook for every story I’m working on with important dialogue, plot twists and detailed scenes written down.
I really don’t write in a linear fashion in terms of the actual timeline of events. There are times when I’ve written the ending of a book before I even figured out the beginning. The time it takes me varies, anywhere from two months to a year. Some books flow freely, and others I have to mine from the depths of my mind.
JP: What’s next for Keith Kareem Williams?
KKW: I’ve recently released a collaboration with Keith Gaston, a gritty crime-noire novel titled Blood & Vengeance which is now available on Amazon for Kindle and in paperback. I am also currently finishing up the final book of my War Angel Trilogy, War Angel III: Catalina which will be available very soon.
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“I would really like to thank everyone who has shown so much support for my work. Writing full-time along with being a single dad can be extremely difficult at times and without my readers, I couldn’t do it. For many of the folks who read my books, the relationships have grown beyond the typical author/reader relationship in that they genuinely want success for me because they believe in their hearts that I deserve it. They are the ones responsible for the recognition that I’m finally starting to receive.” ~ Keith Kareem Williams
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