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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Charazz, author of Redrum

February 28, 2009 Joey Pinkney 1 Comment

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Charazz, author of Redrum

Mike and Daquan are cousins by blood, but become brothers by circumstance. In a New York minute, Mike is exposed to the death of his uncle Will at an early age. That same death equally affects Daquan, whose father (Mike’s uncle) was snatched away without warning. Daquan and Mike take to naturally take to hustling in the streets of Jamaica Queens in their late teens.

Their crew is rounded out by Sean and Kevin. The four teenagers find a dead spot on 118th and begin to turn it into an empire. The only problem is that they are cutting into the profits of the nearby drug gang known as the Young Gunz. Fronted by drug lord BK, Mike and his crew are hungry to make it happen. With BK as their supplier, they have the materials and the clout to take over the block. Things are moving, and money is being made hand over fist.

In a game of kill or be killed, eat or be eaten…can they survive the game long enough to get out of it? Or will they live up to the saying, “Live by the gun, die by the gun?”

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Redrum?

Charazz: Being incarcerated for many years, I began to see myself as a liability to my family. I wanted to do something I felt would benefit them financially as well as make them proud in spite of my incarceration. I remember one day while in the “box” another inmate had written a book, and I told him I wish I could do that. He said “you can”. From there, I felt my story of my life should be told.

JP: What sets Redrum apart from other novels in its genre?

C: Redrum is a fiction novel based on real facts and events from my life! I’m telling a story from personal knowledge, not research or second hand. It’s raw and gritty. It’s the realest you’ll get to being indicted. (Ha ha.)

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Redrum getting out to the public?

C: The key to my success lies in strong family support and my belief in a higher being other than myself. It was the commitment, the trust and the dedication of a woman named Michelle Lee York who believed that Redrum was a story that should not be kept a secret. She worked by my side to see how Redrum could be published while being incarcerated,and connected with C & B Book distribution which has provided the exposure I need in becoming a successful author.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Redrum?

C: Well let me say I have no formal writing training or education in becoming an author. Everything I taught myself through countless hours in the library doing research on perfecting my skills. There are two ways I begin the process. One is being with a basic outline of my thoughts, then plugging in ideas as they come to mind. Second is just simple free-flow. I like to think it’s like a movie in my mind and scenes is created as the day goes by. Remember, I have a lot time to think about all kinds of stuff behind these concrete walls.

JP: What’sÂ next for Charazz?

C: Man, I’m just going to keep writing and the hope to be able to interact with my readers soon. Coming out in late January is the release of my second novel Caught In The Game. I am working on a third, but I would like to finish that upon release.

Joey “Thank You” for this opportunity and I’m glad you enjoyed reading Redrum. As my skills improve, I promise to keep my readers coming back for more! Get your copy of Caught In The Game now!

Charazz York, born and raised in South Jamaica, Queens. He found his hidden talent to write a story while he serves timeÂ in a New York Correctional facility. Redrum isÂ his first self-published fiction novel, soon to be released is his second “CaughtÂ Up In The Game.”

Charazz is a certified Braille transcriber from the Library of Congress. He is a facilitator of Vassar College program called ” Bridging The Gap” at Otisville Correctional and a board member of the Glam4Life organization which is a community outreach program for minorities suffering from mental illness and suicide prevention San Diego, CA. Charazz also holds a associate degree in business.

Charazz welcomes letters from his readers. Â Letters can be sent to:

Charazz York 94A5091
Box 8
Otisville, NY 10963

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Patricia Neely-Dorsey, author of Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia

February 22, 2009 Joey Pinkney 4 Comments

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Patricia Neely-Dorsey, author of Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia
(GrantHouse Publishers)

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia?

Patricia Neely-Dorsey: I didn’t really intentionally try to come up with an idea for a book or intentionally try to write a book. It all sort of just fell/landed in my lap. I woke up on Valentine’s Day February 2007 with a poem dancing around in my head. I quickly got up and scribbled it down. The rest, as they say, is history. After that day, poems just started pouring out. They just keep coming and coming day after day. In about two months, I had well over 200 poems. A friend of mine was very instrumental, and I guess you would say inspirational in encouraging me to publish them in book form.

JP: What sets Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia apart from other collections of poetry?

PND: I think that all poetry is very unique and individual like a fingerprint because of where it comes from. Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia is a collection that essentially chronicles my whole life up until this present time. The book includes poems about things that happened to my parents before I was born, my early childhood growing up in Mississippi, my college years in Boston, meeting my husband on a blind date, love, marriage, my son, and thoughts about mid-life…where I am now ( the Fabulous Forties). Specifically, it is my life in poems. Generally, it is a true celebration of the south and things southern. One reader called it a “love letter to the South”

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia getting out to the public?

PND: I always rely on what I call Patricia’s P-Attitudes: Positivity – staying positive, believing in the dream, believing in myself and the book. Perseverance – never giving up. Persistence – being relentless and never taking no as a final answer. The forth one which was something I have had to really work on and learn is Patience, but it pays off in the end. The answer or outcome that you seek may take a minute! You just have to hold on. These P-Attitudes translate, of course, to every area of life.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia?

PND: That’s funny. I don’t really have a process. I just write the poems down as they come. That can be at any time and any place (very often in my car). The entire process from writing my first poem (Feb 2007) to the actual publication of the book (Feb 2008) took exactly one year. The actual publication process which included the submission of the poems, editing, proofing, cover design, and all that took less than two months. The poems was submitted the first week of January 2008 , all of the appropriate changes and additions were done and the book arrived at my door February 22, 2008

JP: What’s next for Patricia Neely-Dorsey?

PND: To infinity and beyond! (LOL) Well, I’m hoping that this book will have widespread, mass appeal and be wonderfully successful. I have enough poems for several books, so those are certainly down the line. My publisher would like for me to do an illustrated children’s book with age-appropriate selections from Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia. That is definitely a possibility in the near future.

www.myspace.com/patricianeelydorsey

http://www.patricianeelydorsey.webs.com/

Excellent printing brochures available at PsPrint

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Holliday Vann, author of When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland

February 16, 2009 Joey Pinkney 3 Comments

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Holliday Vann, author of When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland
(Outskirts Press)

When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland is a fast-paced tale of sinsuality committed in the backyards of C-Town (Cleveland, OH). Odessah Johnson, the heroine of the story is a young and sometimes dumb 23-year-old mother of three. She is mostly bored with living an impoverished lifestyle. When the unexpected happens, Odessah finds that she has all the backing she needs to lure excitement into her life-and the city of Cleveland.

With the problems that plague Clevelanders in the background, the book will surprise the typical john who is expecting just sex. The true entree may be the dinner, arts & culture, or the wickedly good social commentary.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write When Sexy Came Back to Cleveland?

Holliday Vann: “Sexy Black” was initially written as a short story of erotica called Applesauce. Odessah comes home from her cleaning job at one of the ho’ & mo’tels in Big Dirty Cleveland. After not being able to reach her boyfriend Nougat, she arrives to a dark apartment and romantic candles glowing from room to room. She believes the gesture is for her.

With mouth agape and fingers pressed lightly against her chest, she turns to mush-like applesauce. I submitted Applesauce to Zane to be included in an anthology. So . . . if . . . they don’t write . . . or call? Yeah, that means it was rejected. First, I felt sorry for me. Then I felt sorry for Odessah-and others like her-not living, but merely existing in “da Land.” That’s when I decided to tell her whole story. The reader who likes food as much as sex will enjoy sampling my descriptions.

JP: Why did you choose to write this novel in diary style?

HV: Diary format? What diary format? That’s a misconception. It’s written in the third-person, and the omniscient narrator often speaks directly to the reader. So hardly… The date stamp is there to add to the setting. I wanted to conjure up atmospherics-the sounds that add to the reality of a scene-and to further enhance a sense of urgency to a story that’s already written in a style that makes it consumable within a matter of hours.

Won’t you always remember where you were on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008? Same thing but conversely. Odessah’s story is a colorful illustration of how it takes no time at all to ruin a life.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to When Sexy Came Back to Cleveland getting out to the public?

HV: I am uncomfortable calling my efforts in getting When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland out to the public a success. I’m not there yet. There is so much more to do. Perseverance will be key. But as far as getting it published? If it hadn’t been this book, it would have been another. Probably should have been another book. I was very angry when I wrote Sexy Black.

But all anyone needs to know is that I love to write. I was meant to write. This is not a hobby… I love struggling with the words and their positioning to express a thing in just the right way and sometimes in a way that is uniquely my own. I always aspire to write lines and unveil revelations that give people chills-in a good way-like a singer’s voice when truly blessed. LOL. Whether I am successful at that is for others to say.

JP: Many people would like to clump this novel into the Urban Lit genre. How would you classify this book?

HV: I classify this book as “comical erotica with a social conscience.” What’s that? Well, the sex provides much of the levity in this story. But the novel deals with serious issues: poverty; racism; narcissism and self-hate; inequality in healthcare; government decisions ruining livelihoods; motherless and fatherless children-with parents; how no life should be in vain; and can love really conquer all?

The novel is funny, providing a cultural adventure when the Blackberries clash and “interact” with businessmen from China, Ghana, France, Russia, and Italy. Readers might be shocked to learn that the artists, writers, cultural events, and charitable projects mentioned in the book are real. Just Google them.

I tried to incorporate literary technique, which is mostly missing from most Urban Lit. I like using personification. I believe that every object, human or not, has life: “The day was several shades of gray depending upon where the eye wandered, and the streets were wet. But in a lower part of the sky, where the sun was yawning, the clouds were pink, lavender, and slow in moving into darkness.” I am so glad that I didn’t give up after the first chapter of Wuthering Heights.

Metaphors are fun, too: “Nougat’s car was a garbage bag short of being a rolling trash can.” I use similes, repetition, foreshadowing, fragments, vary sentence length, etc., not by accident, but with intention-just as the great Maya Angelou does. Her mind is amazing.

JP: What’s next for Holliday Vann?

HV: I’m working on the anti- or non-sequel to When Sexy Came Black to Cleveland, which is still available on Amazon.com. Buy it today! I keep some of the elements from Sexy Black. But with a new heroine, I take the storyline into some strange, new, but appealing directions. It’s half-finished. Thanks, Joey!

http://wwww.myspace.com/hollidayvann

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